Courier 1361

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Monday 4 December 2017 Issue 1361 Free

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Science Alexandra Sadler turns to Science to prove that animals do feel pain Page 28

Travel Where to find the best winter sports experience in the UK Page 16

TV Grace Dean looks into the real value of charity shows Page 29 The independent voice of Newcastle students

Est 1948

Uni caps international students' work hours 20 hours a week limit for students with Tier 4 visas Deborah Akun

Alex Turner, NUBC’s president, said: “The calendar is a fantastic way to fundraise for the club and raise awareness for our charity. It really unites everyone and breaks down any barriers that might exist at the beginning of the new year.

“Our charity this year is Mind, the mental health charity. They do great work in the North East and mental health is an aspect of both sporting and university life that deserves more recognition, something we are keen to play a major part in.”

Last year’s calendar raised over £800, and the total has topped £1,000 in the past.

The new calendars can be pre-ordered from NUBC’s website, and for a £2 delivery charged will be sent out as soon as they are ready.

Newcastle University has recently discussed changing its policy regarding employment stipulations for international students holding a Tier 4 visa.

This new restriction will allow Tier 4 visa students to undertake one contracted part-time job with the University only.

Before this decision was discussed at a recent Education Executive Meeting, Tier 4 visa students had a permit to undertake up to 20 hours of paid employment per week; this could be spread across multiple jobs. These included jobs which are administered and remunerated via a claims form rather than a formal contract.

Timur (Computing Science PGR School Rep) and Olga (Architecture PGT School Rep) who were both present at the Education Executive Meeting expressed their concern about these employment stipulations that will be restricting international students. They both pointed out that “This has the potential to both restrict their opportunities for paid work compared to UK and EU students. And for those wishing to gain experience in teaching or demonstrating, make it more likely that they will need to undertake unpaid work to do so.”

Rowan South, the Students' Union Education Officer also expressed his concern about the implications that this might have on current and future international students. “Our students are clearly not happy with this decision so I will do everything I can to bring about a resolution”, he said.

If the decision had to be taken to further steps, these students, who are a significant percentage in the overall number of students at the University, could feel in a disadvantaged position compared to their fellow students from the UK and EU countries.

According to the University's figures and financial information, 2,228 undergraduate overseas students studied in

Image: Tufnell Photography, @benedict_tufnell

Boat Club go Blue Starkers for charity NUBC reveals pictures to launch new naked calendar Mark Sleightholm The cold weather hasn’t stopped Newcastle University Boat Club from getting their kit off for their 2018 naked calendars. This annual tradition raises money for the club and for charity, and gives another view of one of the Univeristy’s most successful clubs.

The club have produced a men’s and a women’s calendar, with each costing £10. Each year the club donates 10% of the money raised to charity, with mental health charity Mind their chosen part-

ner for this year. The rest of the money goes towards funding NUBC’s activities, with rowing equipment notoriously expensive.

In particular, money raised through sales of the calendars supports NUBC’s beginners programme, which introduces new rowers to the sport. The club is one of the largest in the AU, and contributed more BUCS points to Newcastle’s 2016-17 total than any other sport apart bar fencing.

£800

raised by NUBC last year, 10% of which went to Brocklehurst Neurosurgical Fund

Newcastle University in the academic year 2016/2017. In addition, 4766 were postgraduate international students.

Questions remain whether the University’s recent decision may have an impact on the number of international students that will choose Newcastle for the next academic year.

“Our student are clearly not happy with this decision, so I will do everything I can to bring about a resolution" Rowan South, NUSU Education Officer

A Newcastle University spokesperson said: “The University has a duty to protect the Tier 4 (general) students it employs.

“UK Visas and Immigration has very strict rules about the hours they can work and the consequences for anyone breaching these terms by working more than their permitted hours could be very severe.

“This means we have had to change the way we engage Tier 4 (general) students in work to prevent any accidental breaches occurring. Tier 4 (general) students can still be engaged in Teaching & Demonstrating roles, through Jobs On Campus or under a formal contract of employment but may no longer hold multiple positions. This is for their protection and so that Newcastle University meets its obligations as a Visa Sponsor.

“The changes have been discussed with Newcastle University Students’ Union. If students have any questions they can email studentemployment. tier4general@ncl.ac.uk or they should speak to their School or Institute manager.”

South also added that he will be speaking directly to the University for more information and further clarification about the issue. He hopes to find a compromise for the international students that do not want to lose the right to undertake the employment they wish to during their time at the University.

Inside today >>>

Crocodile care

Democratic decay

Back to black

Battle of the Sexes

Fight Night reviewed

Biology students travel to Costa Rica to investigate effects of environmental change on crocodiles News, page 4

Fred Hunt and Rory Cameron respond to the restrictions placed

by Turkey on LGBTQI events Comment, page 6

Chris Wilkinson delve into the student-friendliness of turning to black-coloured clothes Fashion, page 12

Sexism takes to centre court in this blockbuster about one of the most famous moments in tennis history Film, page 18

We provide our take on the mayhem in the Venue as ten massive bouts were fought and controversy was aplenty Sport, page 35

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thecourier The Courier is a weekly newspaper produced by students, for students. It’s never too late to get involved in the paper, whether you’re a writer, illustrator or photographer. Just visit thecourieronline.co.uk/about for more information.

Editor James Sproston Deputy Editor Alex Hendley Online Editor Jared Moore Copy Editor Laura Staniforth Current Affairs Editor Sunil Nambiar News Editors Valentina Egorova, Hanson Jones, Louise Hall, Laura Higgins and Isabel Sykes Comment Editors Jamie Cameron, Caitlin Disken and Alexandra Sadler Life & Style Editor Izzi Watkins Lifestyle Editors Sophie Henderson, Jaymelouise Hudspith, Lauren Sneath and Victoria Young Fashion Editors Chloe Bland, Sophie Schneider and Zofia Zwieglinska Beauty Editors Laura Greatrex, Lois Johnston and Susanne Norris Travel Editors Charlotte Hill and Talia Gillin Culture Editors Zoë Godden and Errol Kerr Arts Editors Scarlett Rowland and Carys Thomas Music Editors Toby Bryant, Charlie Isaacs and Ally Wilson TV Editors Jacob Clarke, Joel Leaver and Alex Moore Film Editors Helena Buchanan, Daniel Haygarth and Christopher Wilkinson Gaming Editors Gerry Hart, Georgina Howlett and Richard Liddle Science Editors Jack Coles, Christopher Little and Ciara Ritson-Courtney Sports Editors Tom Shrimplin, Courtney Strait and Mark Sleightholm The Courier NUSU King’s Walk Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8QB Tel: 0191 239 3940 The Courier is printed by: Print and Digital Associates, Fernleigh House, 10 Uttoxeter Road, Derby, Derbyshire, United Kingdom, DE3 0DA. Established in 1948, the Courier is the fully independent student newspaper of the Students’ Union at Newcastle University. The Courier is published weekly during term time, and is free of charge.

The design, text, photographs and graphics are copyright of the Courier and its individual contributors. No parts of this newspaper may be reproduced without the prior permission of the Editor. Any views expressed in this newspaper’s opinion pieces are those of the individual writing, and not of the Courier, the Students’ Union or Newcastle University.

Monday 4 December 2017

From the archives 45 YEARS AGO

Ricky Road flats now demolished Image: Mark Sleightholm

Ricky Road opens three months late

Its 44 years of life came to define the university experience of generations of Newcastle students, but the marmite accommodation site was disappointing students before it even opened.

Twice as many students applied to move into what the University believed would be “an undesirable residence” as there were rooms available. Students were so divided over how to allocate the rooms fairly that the Students’ Union was forced to intervene and hold a referendum. A random ballot was eventually chosen over a first-come-firstserved policy.

The controversy continued, however, when students turned up in September to find most of the halls incomplete.

A builders’ strike and general delays meant that students had to live “with landladies in Whitley Bay”.

Union president Stuart Prebble furiously told the Courier that this was outrageously far away and that they would soon be moved to city-centre accommodation. He then met with University officials and promptly announced they’d be staying in Whitley Bay. Prebble assured students the new site would be fully open by the end of October, but it was over a month later before Ricky Road finally opened its doors.

Students paid £4 a week to stay in the new halls and were, according to the Courier, “very satisfied with the facilities”.

CROSS-CAMPUS NEWS

VC salary scandal claims next victim

The beleaguered vice-chancellor of the University of Bath has resigned amid a scandal over her high salary.

Glynis Breakwell is currently the UK’s highest-paid vice-chancellor but has faced mounting pressure to step down in recent weeks. Over 300 staff openly called for her resignation, students had organised protests and even the university’s senate only narrowly voted against a motion of no-confidence two weeks ago.

Complaints have been raised not only about Breakwell’s £468,000 salary but also about the manner in which this was awarded, with Breakwell herself part of the committee that decided to increase her pay. Her salary has also increased much faster than those of other staff at the University, and stands in contrast to a decline in financial support for students in recent years.

Further accusations of mismanagement and a lack of transparency within University decision-making processes added to the pressure on Breakwell.

Her departure is hardly a fall from grace, however. She will continue as vice-chancellor until the end of the academic year, when she will take a paid sabbatical and formally retire in 2019.

She has served as vice-chancellor at Bath since 2001, after spending 20 years teaching psychology at the University of Surrey.

An annual salary of £468,000 makes Breakwell by far the most highly-paid vice-chancellor in the UK, with the average vice-chancellor earning about £280,000 once pensions are included – over 10 times the average UK salary for all occupations. Chris Brink earned £316,900 in his final year as vice-chancellor of Newcastle University.

Mark Sleightholm

You can help combat everyday sexism now Shannon Aiken Newcastle University are conducting a research project around different forms of ‘Everyday Sexism’ in order to get an insight into the prevalence of this phenomenon. This exploration requires students to participate and contribute, whilst encouraging others to do the same.

If you experience ‘Everyday Sexism’ on campus, please report the incident in one of the following ways: by filling in this short form - https://forms.ncl. ac.uk/view.php?id=369238, sending a text message to 07496 543730 or by sending a private message on Twitter (@hopkinspeter1)

We hope that at the time of reporting, you are able to provide details about the incident, the location of it and any characteristics of the perpetrator. Please note that your personal details will remain confidential.

‘Everyday Sexism’ takes an inclusive approach, so includes all forms of sexism such as physical, verbal and more ‘subtle’ forms (such as looks, glances or experiencing a general sense of discomfort or uneasiness). This is an important project, as it aims to shine light on sexism that is taking place on campus, which often goes unreported.

It will help to direct future funding and provisions to ensure that our campus is an equal and safe community. If you are interested then feel free to join

a closed Facebook discussion group called ‘Everyday Sexism at Newcastle’ and share information of this with your peers.

Laura Sidebottom, a biology student, said: “It’s a prevalent issue, and unfortunately, regardless of the amount of research it remains a problem that still affects millions of women.

Despite this, I hope this is a step towards a brighter future, and we’ll soon see some changes.”

Alex Clarke, a history student, agreed: “Sexual harassment is a widespread problem affecting our generation. It is great that this research project is attempting to combat this, and it is an incremental step toward a safer society for all of us.”

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the courier Monday 4 December 2017

@TheCourier_News courier.news@ncl.ac.uk thecourieronline.co.uk/news Current Affairs Editor Sunil Nambiar News Editors Valentina Egorova, Hanson Jones, Louise Hall, Laura Higgins & Isabel Sykes

NUS investigates Sexual Harrassment Jaymelouise Hudspith Lifestyle Editor

The National Union of Students (NUS) is to investigate sexual harassment reports in British universities. As part of this they will conduct the UK’s first ever survey of staff sexual misconduct in higher education.

This investigation follows NUS Women’s campaign, in association with The

“As it currently stands, many institutions are ill-equipped to deal with instances of student-staff harassment” Hareem Ghandi, NUS women’s officer

1752 Group. Researchers will explore professional boundaries and analyse the behaviour staff use when encountering students. They will also assess the type of behaviour students are comfortable

dealing with from higher education staff.

NUS will question students about whether they have ever experienced or witnessed sexual misconduct from any staff members, and also whether or not the incident was reported and procedure correctly followed by the university.

The NUS women’s officer Hareem Ghandi states: “As it currently stands, many institutions are ill-equipped to deal with instances of student-staff harassment or indeed, harassment in general”.

Previous data suggested that 1/3 of UK universities did not have a sufficient approach when dealing with staff-student connections and complaints.

Generally, a lack of research and understanding has meant universities don’t have basic guidelines to follow up on these issues.

In regard to the NUS investigation, a representative on behalf of Newcastle University said: “The safety and wellbeing of our students is our number one priority and this is an important topic.”

Newcastle University Students’ Union claims to have a zero-tolerance policy to sexual harassment. The zero-tolerance campaign was launched as a direct re-

sult of the Hidden Marks report published in 2010 by the NUS Women’s Campaign.

The Hidden Marks report found that 68% of female students will suffer some form of sexual harassment on campus.

The report suggested that not only is sexual harassment at epidemic levels in universities, but also that a culture of acceptability has developed around it.

A similar study conducted in the US suggested that one in six female postgraduate students will experience sexual harassment or abuse from a university staff member.

Dr Anna Bull, co-founder of The 1752 Group, said: “We have worked on numerous cases in institutions across the UK that show students being failed by their institutions when they try to report sexual misconduct.”

This comes at a time when the world is more aware of the epidemic of sexual harassment and abuse. More victims than ever are coming forward to expose misconduct across many institutions, including the higher education sector.

People invited to take part in this NUS are any students, whether current or former, who have experienced any form of sexual harassment by a higher education staff member.

Shakira Martin, Leader of NUS Image: Wikimedia Commons

Full time for Femsoc’s Women in Sport week Carys Rose Thomas Arts Editor Coinciding with the university’s This Girl Can week, Newcastle University’s Feminist Society ran Women in Sport week, a week filled with sporty taster sessions, panels and women in sport and craftivism on the theme of women sporting heroes.

The week was meant to ‘encourage more women in our university to get involved with our sporting societies.’

Sian Dickie, secretary of the Feminist Society

Sian Dickie, secretary of the Feminist Society and the main organiser of Women and Sport week said she wanted the week to ‘encourage more women in our university to get involved with our sporting societies.’

People were able to do this through taster sessions, which were given throughout the week for sports like ultimate Frisbee and pole dancing. These sessions gave people a chance to try out different sports in a relaxed and safe environment.

Many women at events throughout the week spoke about the general lack of good quality P.E. lessons at school meaning they never truly got into any sort of sport; this is something Sian says she experienced herself.

Sessions like the ones during Women

and Sport Week gave women those opportunities in sport that some did not feel they had when they were younger.

During the ‘Empowering Women in Sport’ discussion during the week, women in sporting societies at Newcastle University spoke of their experiences as women in sport, and of what inspired and challenged them.

They discussed frustrating preconceptions men in their sport can have of them as weaker opponents or team members, and ways in which they personally tackle this. The panel did not only focus on women in sport, but also on how they as women in sport perceived the pressures men face in sport – specifically pressures for men in sporting societies to ‘prove themselves’ in situations such as sporting initiation.

As well as encouraging women to get involved with sport, events such as the Sporting Heroes Craftivism session discussed women like Billie Jean King. It explored what they achieved as a sporting professional and for women as a whole in sport.

Sian said that what motivated her to organise Women and Sport Week was ‘the underrepresentation of women’s achievement in the field.’ and sessions such as this one promoted such achievements, both of professional women and those in sporting societies at our own university.

Women and Sport Week was a wonderful celebration of women’s sporting achievements, both of women worldwide and those we are lucky enough to have right on our campus.

The discussions and events were attended by lots of students across campus throughout the week providing the foundation for many importnat discussions about womens place in sport.

Ladies participating in a women only run Image: Wikipedia

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Monday 4 December 2017

New budget aims to win over young voters Stephen Ross Phillip Hammond has been trying to win over young voters with cheaper rail travel and student loan reforms.

On Wednesday 22nd November the Chancellor of the Exchequer released the Autumn budget. Several elements of the budget were aimed to win over young people who had voted for other parties in June.

One of these incentives was the extension of a railcard to those aged 26-

A policy that Hammond aimed specifically at students is the plan to move the repayment threshold on student loans up to £25,000 30. Currently the 16-25 railcard, which costs £30 a year, offers around a third off the cost of all rail fares.

The new railcard will be implemented in Spring 2018, though it is not clear if it will cost the same or offer the same reduction as the 16-25 railcard.

63% of those aged 25-29 voted for Labour in June 2017, while only 23% voted for the Conservatives. Such policies which directly benefit this demographic could be help Hammond and

May in 2022, if the next general election is to be held in that year, and if the two still hold office when it comes.

A policy that Hammond aimed specifically at students is the plan to move the repayment threshold on student loans up to £25,000. However, this was the intended repayment amount when university tuition fees were tripled to £9,000 per annum in 2012.

The current repayment threshold is £21,000, while the average Newcastle graduate will have a starting salary of £25,000.

This change will come into effect in April 2018, as will the new tuition fees cap freeze at £9,250 a year. This also means that the September proposals to slash tuition fees to £7,500 a year will not be coming into effect.

However, Hammond has taken measures to ensure students don’t keep making loan repayments after their loan has already been fully repaid, as has been happening. £86,000 was overpaid by an average of £592 for the year 2015/16, but as of 2019 this will stop as a new system will be in place to make sure loan repayments to the Student Loans Company stop automatically when the loan has been paid off.

Lottie Bates, a second year student said, “students accrue £5,000 more debt on average just from the high interest rate, and the fact that nothing has been said about interest rates in the budget shows that the Conservatives do not have sympathy for students”. Whether other students share this sentiment will be seen when they mark their ballots at the next general election.

Humanities and arts graduates in demand Laura Higgins News Editor According to a recent study conducted by the British Academy, employers are seeking graduate skills from Arts, Humanities and Social Science degrees.

Amongst the desired transferable skills are: communication and collaboration, teamwork, analysis, problem solving and decision-making. These skills enable graduates to work in a variety of jobs including teaching, civil service and financial services.

Newcastle University are proud to have a strong reputation in the arts, humanities and social science departments. They also have impressive links with a wide range of organisations that provide innovative ways for students to develop their skills further and gain invaluable work experience in the outlined fields of work.

One example of these links is the university’s connections with the long running collaboration between Northumbrian Water, Kielder Water and Forest Park Trust, Northumberland National Park Authority and the School of Architecture, Planning and Landscape that has enabled students to work alongside local communities, clients and contractors to design and construct projects in the city. As a result, they gained useful insights into the world of work.

In addition, Newcastle University also supports its graduates via innovative partnership programmes for example The Collective Studio, a partnership with The NewBridge Project, which aims to bridge the gap between studio based practice on campus and the workplace. It is an artist-led, graduate development programme that provides graduates with useful skills to manage

their own creative practice.

Professor Julie Sanders’, as Pro-Vice Chancellor of Newcastle University and an academic specialist in Humanities and Social Sciences, compliments the British Academy’s recent study with her statement: “As recognised by the British Academy report, AHSS graduates play a vital role in all areas of our economy, bringing a distinctive set of skills developed during their studies. At Newcastle we are committed to supporting our graduates to reach their full potential and in this we are fortunate to work with a range of external partners who not only help us to identify the skills required, but who also actively collaborate with us, our students and graduates to ensure they are best placed to contribute and lead.”

Similarly, Professor Sir Ian Diamond, Chair of the British Academy Project, believes that: “The question every arts, humanities and social sciences student has heard at least once is: ‘what are you going to do with that?’ Today our research proves that these graduates have the potential to adapt to almost any career in an increasingly globalised and uncertain world.

“Our research has defined for the first time the skills shared by arts, humanities and social sciences (AHSS) graduates, and looks at their careers in almost every sector of our economy, from the booming creative industries to financial services.”

The study conducted by the British Academy is great news for Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences students.

It confirms that the skills gained in their degree programmes, such as communication, analysis and independence, are highly valued by employers.

Phillip Hammond Image: Flickr

Students sink their teeth into important research Ivan Lazarov Newcastle University students came up close and personal with one of the world’s most feared predators during a research expedition to the pristine wetlands and dry forest habitat of Costa Rica.

Max Henderson, Alexander Liddington and Yannick Thompson embarked on the expedition to study the effects of environmental change on crocodiles, insects and amphibians.

The trio arranged the trip independently, with help from the Expeditions Committee and the School of Biology, and funding from the Royal Geographical Society, Newcastle University Expeditions Committee, the James Marshall Trust and the Hertfordshire Travel Fund.

BSc Biology student Max researched

factors affecting chronic stress levels in American crocodile populations. He captured and measured crocodiles in Palo Verde National Park, and analysed blood samples in the field laboratory.

The 21-year-old, from Whitley Bay, said: “I am studying stress physiology in American crocodiles. Chronic stress affects reproduction, behaviour, and immune system function in crocodilians, but little research has gone into the environmental causes of this stress.

I’m looking to investigate links between chronic stress levels and age, as well as variation in this stress throughout the wet season.

“I have been passionate about crocodiles as long as I can remember. My mum was really supportive of it and actually took me to Florida to see alligators when I was three. I also made an appearance on “Junior Mastermind” when I was about 11, with crocodilians as my specialism.”

Crocodiles play an extremely important role as ecosystem engineers, apex predators, and keystone species for conservation efforts, and chronic stress levels could provide a valuable insight into the health of populations once causal mechanisms are better understood.

While the crocodiles that Max studied can grow up to five metres, he worked with smaller, two-metre ones, as bigger crocodiles tend to be more evasive and “harder to get close to”.

He is hoping to work with crocodilians again next year as a PhD thesis, in Central America or West Africa.

Max added: “It has been great to work with so many professional researchers who are equally passionate about the subject.

My supervisor, Dr Richard Bevan, and the team at Palo Verde, have been incredible in helping me to succeed with this project.”

One of the crocs found Image: Ivan Lazarov

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Monday 4 December 2017

Saving lives with stem cell donation Hanson Jones News Editor Charles Van Lennep, a trainee paediatric doctor from Newcastle, has taken a very practical approach to saving lives by donating his stem cells to give someone in a critical condition a second chance of life.

Charles is a donor on the stem cell register of Anthony Nolan, a blood

“It’s something I have really wanted to do because it’s such a simple thing that could save someone’s life” Charles Van Lennep, trainee paediatric doctor

cancer charity. The specifics of his biology matched with a patient who required a lifesaving stem cell transplant.

Coincidentally, the trainee doctor had been involved with Anthony Nolan across many areas: from treating patients, to taking part in fundraisers, and now donating. Charles joined Anthony Nolan’s stem cell register before starting his studies at Newcastle, and went on to become involved in the charity’s student group, Newcastle

Marrow, which fundraises and recruits students to the stem cell register.

During his time as a trainee doctor at Newcastle, Charles has treated patients who have received stem cell transplants to treat life-threatening conditions and now, he has given his own stem cells to help critically ill people recover.

Charles told the charity, “I was excited when I found out I was a match for someone, especially after being involved with Anthony Nolan for so long.

“In the past I had been a potential match for someone but hadn’t ended up needing to donate my stem cells so it felt like a long time coming. It’s something I have really wanted to do because it’s such a simple thing that could save someone’s life.”

Charles joined Newcastle Marrow in his first year of university and by his fourth year, continued to become President of the group. A passionate member of Newcastle Marrow, Charles went great lengths for Anthony Nolan: he participated in the Great North Run, the Newcastle Strip and featured in a Marrow Strip calendar – all in the name of the charity.

Rebecca Pritchard, Head of Register Development at Anthony Nolan, said: “It’s wonderful to hear that, after working hard to recruit donors to the Anthony Nolan register, Charles is about to give somebody a second chance of life. We rely on our fundraisers, Marrow groups and donors to carry out our lifesaving work.

“Without people like Charles we wouldn’t be able to reach the young men, like him, we desperately need to join the register”, Rebecca continued.

Anthony Nolan uses its register to match potential stem cell donors to blood cancer and blood disorder patients in need of stem cell transplants.

It also carries out pioneering research to increase stem cell transplant success, and supports patients through the process of the transplant.

The charity currently needs more young men to sign up to the register,

“Without people like Charles we wouldn’t be able to reach the young men, like him, we desperately need” Rebecca Pritchard, Head of Register Development at Anthony Nolan

as they are most likely to be chosen but only make up 16% of the register.

They also require more people from Black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds to sign up, as they are currently less likely to have their match found.

You can join the Anthony Nolan register if you’re aged between 16 and 30 and are in a healthy condition.

Charles Van Lennep Image: Tegen Brown

Award winning author visits Newcastle Uni James Davies reports on Booker Prize Event and offers insight into how it influenced his own perspective as a writer A known author for many years, Graeme Macrae Burnet was catapulted to literary fame by his novel ‘His Bloody Project’. This Scottish novel was shortlisted for the 2016 man-booker prize.

Macrae Burnet visited Newcastle University to talk with Sinead Morrissey, also a well-established writer, about his novel ‘His Bloody Project’.

Macrae Burnet began with a reading

This is the eighth year that the Booker Prize Foundation has worked with Newcastle University to gather and engage students from all areas of the university by providing events such as the reading of His Bloody Project. from ‘His Bloody Project’. A talk between the two writers followed before the talk was opened to questions from the floor.

This is the eighth year that the Booker Prize Foundation has worked with Newcastle University to gather and engage students from all areas of the university by providing events such as the reading and conversation of His Bloody Project.

The university provided over 4000 copies of His Bloody Project for Students to take for free from various areas of the university.

Attending the event on 23rd November students had the chance to meet Macrae Burnet and gain some more

insight into the novel. The talk gave a glimpse into the inspiration behind His Bloody Project. Burnet’s inspiration came 30 years before the book was written, although Marae Burnet didn’t know it at the time.

The novel: I, Pierre Riviere, Having Slaughtered My Mother, My Sister, and My Brother, inspired him by the contrast between violence and elegance, a quality that has been brought forward into this novel.

Burnet was keen to point out his view that “the idea of authenticity is very, very important”. “Even though we know it’s fiction, we want to see the story”. And Hid Bloody Project certainly allows this. The novel creates a clear picture of what Roderick Macrae was like (at least at first, I can’t say more without ruining the story).

He went on to point out that the truth is very subjective. Burnet used the example of ‘Blind Date’ in ‘The Guardian’ newspaper to demonstrate this.

When asked what they’d talked about, each person would always list different topics after the date. Burnet gave more insight into his inspiration when he stated that he never knows why he starts writing, he just writes, and the story comes to him as he writes.

Similarly, he doesn’t ever plan. Burnet strongly believes that research into a topic before writing is complete when you feel it’s complete, there can’t be a timer or quota put on it. Burnet put his fame into perspective however, when he discussed how this newfound lifestyle as an award winning author has impacted his everyday life commenting: “Sometimes when I go to Greggs, I get a Steak Bake instead of a Sausage Roll.”

Overall the discussion provided an exciting insight into not only the world of ‘The Bloody Project’ but Graeme Macrae himself and what It means to be a writer.

As an English Literature with Creative Writing student; I jumped at the opportunity to be able to attend an event like this and I was lucky enough to be able to attend the event on 23rd November and be able to recount some of the event.

It was exciting to be able to finally meet the author of a novel that I’d spent hours studying and making notes on.

Equally though, it is an exciting opportunity for anyone who likes reading, especially to hear a novel in the author’s own voice.

The talk gave a glimpse into the inspiration behind His Bloody Project.

His inspiration came 30 years before the book was written, although Marae Burnet didn’t know it at the time.

Sinead Morrissey gave the point that “the novel hands power to the reader” and this is a point that I very much agree on. We make our own view of why Roderick did what he did and whether he’s evil or not. A point by Macrae Burnet was Roderick’s murders are pre-destined, is arguably no alternative outcome.

As a writer, there’s a fair few things that inspired me in this talk. Burnet stated that he never knows why he starts writing, he just writes, and the story comes to him as he writes.

Similarly, he doesn’t ever plan. Burnet strongly believes that research into a topic before writing is complete when you feel it’s complete, there can’t be a timer or quota put on it.

Something that amused me (because there’s times I feel the same way), he said he hates writing and will do anything to put it off, but the advice he gave to me when I asked a question, was that “You have to keep writing, the book isn’t going to write itself.”

I thoroughly enjoyed attending the talk, and was happy to have got the chance to learn more about this inspiring author.

One Book Event banner Image: Zoe Pye

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Monday 4 December 2017

@CourierComment courier.comment@ncl.ac.uk thecourieronline.co.uk/comment Comment Editors Jamie Cameron, Caitlin Disken & Alexandra Sadler

Human rights: a cold Turkey?

Following the Turkish government’s restrictions on LGBTQI events, our writers discuss democratic decay and Britain’s response Fred Hunt

S

ince World War One and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, Turkey has set its roots firmly in secular values.

Kemal Ataturk, the first president of the Turkish Republic in 1923, was the leading figure driving Turkey to economic, social and cultural reform.

His agenda equalised the civil rights of men and women, and created a free and compulsory education system. This secularism, albeit heavily reliant on the support of the armed forces, for the most part remained throughout the 20th century.

Despite its flaws Turkey has, until recently, always presented itself to the world as the exemplary Muslim nation-state, a bulwark and example against the violence that has embroiled the Middle East.

Turkey has been a bulwark against the violence in the Middle East This tradition is in decay. Under President Erdo ğan, fundamentalist Islamism has crept back onto the political agenda, which has eroded the liberties of many groups in the country. State censorship has come into play, and the suppression and arrest of dissidents, political rivals and journalists is now not uncommon in Turkey. Even Wikipedia was banned in April of this year, betraying the exchange of Turkey’s secularism with a sinister war on empirical and encyclopaedic truth.

With the recent shutting down of LGBT events in Istanbul and Ankara, many in the community are voicing genuine concern not only for their civil liberties, but their safety itself. In this environment

of hostility and intolerance, backed by Erdoğan’s administration, the ever-emboldened authorities have a greater inclination to move against groups that are considered to be a threat.

Where is the outrage? Where are our sanctimonious leaders, so willingly critical of the likes of Russia, Syria, Myanmar and Venezuela? There are two unfortunate answers. The first can be linked to a complete lack of American moral leadership. With Donald Trump’s penchant for trusting Putin over the CIA, his America-First global apathy is emboldening countries across the world to violate the world order that the USA has attempted to secure since World War Two. The second is the sad truth that as a NATO member with close proximity with Syria, the Crimea and Russia, Western leaders are entirely unable to criticise Turkey for fear of losing a key ally in those crucial theatres.

One could certainly be forgiven for thinking that the age of global conflict is over, that the archaic 20th century dogmas of authoritarianism, censorship and military tension have been learned from.

What the Turkish example illustrates perfectly, is that once a country has been liberalised, there certainly is a way back - and with this in mind, our liberal democratic way of life seems just that bit more fragile.

Rory Cameron

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hilst the authenticity of the 2016 failed coup d’état in Turkey remains dubious, what remains beyond question is the totalitarian manner in which Recep Tayipp Erdoğan has consolidated power and turned Turkey into a nation with severe limits on liberty.

The

past 16 months are proof that Turkey is no longer a free country. These 16 months have seen the shutdown of nearly 187 media outlets and 3,003 universities; the dismissal of 4,463 judges and prosecutors; the sacking of 150,000 state officials, teachers, bureaucrats, and academics. According to recent figures, Erdoğan has jailed more journalists than any other nation on earth. Turkey’s slide from a beacon of a modern and secular state to a nationalist of restricted freedom has been as swift as it has been worrying.

Turkey has turned into an authoritarian nation with severe limits on liberty Such frightening figures don’t even mention the serious reports of the genocide of Kurdish peoples in the south east of the country, or the rape, torture and murder of detainees in prisons, which international aid and human rights organisations have been barred from investigating.

The recent curtailment of all queer events in Ankara should therefore comes as no surprise. In the wake of this further curb on social, sexual and personal liberty, President Erdoğan stated that ‘gay representation was at odds with Turkish values.’

Regrettably, as far as official governmental Turkish policy goes, this is very much true, and has increasingly been the case in recent years. Indeed, in Turkey’s current state, the nomenclature of the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) seemore than cruelly ironic. Despite fierce pushback from supporters, the last three consecutive years of Gay Pride rallies in Ankara and Istanbul have been shut down by riot police with water cannons. Unlike many Muslim nations, homosexuality remains legal, however such restrictions suggest that this may not remain

the case for long.

I spoke to Turkish national and pansexual, Birce Didar, 27, of Istanbul, who stated that recent measures ‘legitimise violations and encourages hate crimes against the LGBTI community. It is a huge step backward for the protection of basic human rights, and puts more pressure on the queer community, instead of securing equality and freedom as we have recently witnessed in more liberal countries such as Australia. This leaves us with nothing but despair for the future of Turkey.’

The response from Europe and Downing Street has largely been that of silence. This is to be expected, given how complicit the EU has been in the suffering of many of those trapped in Turkey.

It also served to strengthen Erdoğan’s political position to Turks in the run-up to the referendum, which gave him sweeping presidential powers to dismiss ministers as he saw fit. Blood is on EU hands, and our government knows it, which is why they choose not to denounce such crimes.

This leaves us with nothing but despair for the future of Turkey Sweden’s law, allowing the country’s courts to judge cases of alleged crimes against humanity, regardless of where they have been committed or by whom, has allowed a handful of politicians to file a genocide complaint against the authoritarian Turkish President. The introduction of similar measures would be progressive, but I expect that it will not happen.

The British influence of power extends far beyond the borders of our country, and it is time that we act like it. We won’t see a similar law passed for fear that too many of those who govern us would be forced to acknowledge that they could have done more to protect others.

The magic money tree of the Council With revelations about the salary of Newcastle Council’s Chief Executive, Dom Sutcliffe discusses continued government cuts

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arlier this year The Chronicle revealed that Pat Ritchie, the Chief Executive of Newcastle Council, had been awarded a £8,500 pay rise under shady circumstances - she now makes £160,000. The Civic Centre is receiving a £45 million makeover on borrowed cash. Meanwhile council taxes have risen by almost 5%, and the city has implemented £221 in cuts since 2010.

The city says it can only afford to keep five lollipop men and women.

It is astounding that the council can in one breath condemn cuts from Westminster, whilst approving pay increases for themselves on the sly. The Newcastle websites lists her pay as £150,000 - which is

false, as the salary information has not been updated since 2013. This is the pay band she is in and we only found out because The Chronicle investigated it and found she actually earned £10,000 more than that.

People want basic services, not flashy offices Similarly, why is the council approving ambitious renovation projects when it is making cuts to its core services like roads and libraries? This is what

people want from their council - basic services and amenities, not flashy offices and well-heeled executives.

The argument that high wages and flashy offices are needed to attract the best people to the council is unconvincing. The current Chief Executive has been in place for four years. If the wage was high enough to attract her to the position in the first place, it should be enough to keep her now. If it isn’t then she should step aside and let someone else take her place. Someone with the cities’ best interests at heart.

A spokesperson for the council said that the chief executive for Newcastle Council is one of

the lowest paid in the region. Tough custard. This shouldn’t be seen as a problem that the council needs to solve, but as a blessing which should be protected.

Nick Forbes, the political leader of the council does not have an enviable task - having to implement tough cuts in their grant from Central government. However, I would have a lot more sympathy for him if he didn’t have to raise his to voice to speak over the drilling of builders improving HIS offices.

The city can build all the offices it wants when they stop going to residents with the begging bowl and firing lollipop men and women.

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comment

Monday 4 December 2017

Hammer meets glass ceiling SOAPBOX The European Commission is pushing for 40% female quotas in company boards. A good idea?

Thomas Atkinson

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ender equality is important. Well, frankly, equality of all descriptions is critically important. So why would I be grumpy over the concept of a gender quota? Well. In my opinion, gender quotas don’t improve equality, they degrade it. Rather than hiring the best person for the job, agnostic of their details, people will hire someone based entirely on their gender.

What’s more, other employees will be angry at the perceived fact any new female hires got an ‘easier ride’ during the application process. This doesn’t exactly help workplace harmony.

The focus must be put on turning upside down the root causes of such inequality like educational disparity, issues over re-entry to the workplace after childbirth, access to affordable childcare, worklife balance issues and so on.

In my own specialism, computer science, gender imbalance has always been an issue (well, at least after the first wave of programmers – most of whom were women) which may well stem from the fact that the industry has a reputation for being male dominated, driving away potential students.

If we’re really to get big business and other industries to be more balanced, we need to focus on the entry paths into the industries.

Gender quotas don’t improve equality, they degrade it Another issue is that positions on many boards are filled through progression. Women need to be able to progress through the ranks of middle management and they can’t do that if they are pushed back down after having a child. Women are still faced with the choice of family or career.

The fact the European Commission feels the need to impose a gender quota is symptomatic of a much larger, much more complex issue. To carry on the medical metaphor, gender imbalance is a chronic issue with many causes, and it isn’t something that can be cured with the administration of a brute force remedy like quotas.

Louis Vanderlande

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ny publicly listed company better be prepared to shake up their boards - the women are in town.

A newly pushed for law by the European Commission will see a compulsory quota placed upon companies listed within Europe. It will ask for a minimum of 40% women representation on the non-executive director board with exemptions for smaller to medium sized companies (below 250 employees). The aim of the legislation is to improve gender representation as, currently, women only occupy 13.7% of the total board positions with listed companies across Europe.

It is the duty of liberal governance to promote a meritocracy Forced quotas tend to be, in my opinion, a positive. There are far too few women in powerful positions compared to their gender counterparts.

It is the duty of liberal governance to promote a meritocracy but, as we all know, our world isn’t perfect and thus governments’ have a duty to promote those who face inequality. Therefore a states should support quotas as it is not only their philosophical duty, but also their moral duty.

This is where my issues with this policy stems from. I dislike its enforcers it and the threshold for the quota is too high. The EU should not be legislating publicly listed companies on behalf of its members states, especially when states such as Sweden, the UK and Germany have all voiced concerns for quota policies. It is exactly this style of leadership that has lead to the UK leaving the EU. Furthermore, the quota is too high. The policy should aim for a more reasonable figure such as 25% and then proceed to increase it as time goes on. This would allow companies the opportunity to invest in their employees and not undermine the quality of the positions women are elevated to.

Overall, the policy is needed but perhaps it’s a little too much a little too quickly and from the wrong establishment.

Caitlin Disken

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t’s well-known that gender equality within businesses is diabolical. In the UK, recent statistics show that the proportion of senior business roles held by women has dropped to 19%, whilst the share of UK businesses with no women in senior management is now 41%.

These figures are astonishing. How can Britain call itself a liberal, progressive democracy when there are still clear issues regarding gender equality? We’ve come a long way from traditional expectations, when many women didn’t have a choice: they were expected to marry, start a family, and stay at home. Whilst this path is still available, and is obviously great for anyone who chooses it, it’s clear that we’ve still got a long way to go in promoting women who wish to make their mark in the business world.

A classic argument as to why there are so few women in executive roles is that they lack the skills needed to head a business. Although this is obviously untrue, a lie made up by the masculine establishment to make themselves feel better about their clear discriminations - if we take it to be true then it only further highlights societal issues regarding gender. Women aren’t born lacking confidence but instead confidence is simply instilled into men more clearly. Our society still sees gender as a black and white issue, and unfortunately gender stereotypes still define us whether we like it or not.

The European Commission’s quota is a step in the right direction The European Commission’s quota is a step in the right direction. The quota isn’t meant as a disguised discrimination, in which less-able women will gain jobs over more-qualified males. Instead, it will simply give women the confidence to apply for roles they previously thought they had no chance of getting. We don’t yet know if the quota will be effective, but hopefully it will push us towards a fairer world in which anyone can succeed, no matter what their gender is.

Vice-Chancellors’ costings Grace Dean condemns the pay of university top dogs and asks: “Where is our money going?”

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ith tuition fees continually rising, students are increasingly demanding transparency about where their money is being spent. The revelation that much of it is simply bulking up vice-chancellors’ pay cheques, whilst under-resourced students suffer from over-crowded lecture theatres and increases in accommodation costs, is quite frankly appalling.

Times Higher Education has revealed that the vice-chancellor average salary increased 7% in real terms over the last five years, whilst other university professors have actually seen a real term salary drop of 3.1%. Figures from the University and College Union show that the average salary of a vicechancellor in 2015/16 was a staggering £277,834.

Universities Minister Jo Johnson and former Labour Education Minister Lord Adonis, two of the most vocal opponents to these pay rises, agree that students have every right to be sickened by this.

Johnson has said that universities paying vicechancellors’ more than £150,000 could be fined, because, “exceptional pay can only

be justified by exceptional performance.”

Britain’s ever-increasing tuition fees make us the laughing-stock of our European counterparts, who offer tuition fees often just in the hundreds of euros, and yet still boast some of the world’s most successful educational institutions. We get the same resources, level of expertise and opportunities, and yet we pay in excess of £9000 per year – where is this going, if not just into people’s wallets?

Professor Breakwell, the ViceChancellor of Bath University, currently earns three times more than the prime minister, and even had the audacity to claim a further £20,000 in

“domestic expenses”, despite living in universityowned accommodation. Her pay rises were indeed granted by a remuneration committee of which Breakwell herself was a member, a common practice in universities, with over two-third of vicechancellors’ being allowed to join the remuneration committee.

Students pay these salaries, but don’t get a say This deceitful behaviour is only compounded by a lack of democracy; students pay these salaries, but don’t get a say in who their vice-chancellor actually is. While people complain about the Prime Minister’s hefty payroll, at least she was actually elected (whether it was democratically or not is a deserving of another article). The question we should all be asking ourselves is: what does a vicechancellor do to deserve such a high salary?

COMMENT’S HOME OF WEEKLY RANTS A QUESTION OF...

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Jack Coles

sually, I’m perfectly happy to write an answer for an online interview. Hell, I write excessive amounts of stuff on a regular basis anyway, so I might as well put it to good use for a bit of futureproofing.

Every now and then, though, you get a question that throws a bit of a curveball. Even Newcastle University hit me with “what was the last thing you learnt from somebody younger than you”, many years ago.

The silliest one I’ve ever seen was “what inspires you most about our products” from a yoghurt manufacturer. I mean, I like yoghurt.

But I’m not going to bow to it three times a day and recite the Lord’s Prayer. I don’t have a picture of it on my bedroom wall. And I’m certainly not going to write 1,000 words on the subject. I think I’ll focus on my studies, thankyou very much.

LABOUR’S DISREGARD

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Joe Holloran

he ‘fair future’ budget unveiled by Chancellor of the Exchequer, the before picture in every anti-depressant advert, Phillip Hammond on 22nd November, guaranteed four more years of austerity, public sector cuts and a lack of investment for future industry. So, the non-Tory loyal public naturally looks to the opposition party for their views and their plans. Unfortunately, doing so requires listening to John McDonnell.

McDonnell is a problem for Labour going forward. He is brash, confrontational and condescending to those Labour supporters (like myself), who seek a discussion on economic policy. His numerous public gaffs, and support for questionable figures, both living and dead (Chairman Mao for instance) are also problematic. Perception matters a hell of a lot in politics and McDonnell’s far-left economics and confrontational nature are not going to win over the voters Labour needs.

Labour has reached a critical moment. They need to end the culture of intimidation within the party to those who hold views not held by ideological stalwarts like McDonnell. If Labour truly are the party of the people, then all people’s views should be taken into account.

ANIMAL IGNORANCE

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Mhairi McGee

arlier last week, The Independent released an article headlined ‘MPs refuse to recognise that animals feel pain or emotion in Brexit bill vote’.

The headline has since sparked controversy and confusion as to what exactly the vote meant. Does the controversy not lay in the ongoing debate of animal sentiency itself? Maybe those pigs in Westminster are some sort of anomaly, but scientific research had proved time and time again that animals of all kinds are conscious of the way they feel and have the capacity to feel pain.

As long as we are able to detach ourselves from the animal on our plate, the longer the question of animal sentience will be dismissed.

We are all guilty of selective compassion, and whilst many are understandably uncomfortable with the idea of their pet in pain, they are happy to let a butcher or a scientist loose on an equally sentient being.

life & style

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the courier Monday 4 December 2017

@CourierLifestyle c2.lifestyle@ncl.ac.uk thecourieronline.co.uk/lifestyle Life & Style Editor Izzi Watkins Lifestyle Editors Sophie Henderson, Jaymelouise Hudspith, Lauren Sneath & Victoria Young

Blind Date

Tom on Laura

What word would best describe Lauras personality and why?

Confident — she definitely wasn’t a shy person from what I could tell, which I loved Why did you agree to go on blind date?

I agreed to go on a blind date because it’s something I’ve never done, I’m single, and it sounded like fun Was your blind day experience what you expected?

Yeah pretty much, nerous to start but once we got chatting it was just really enjoyable and good fun Any awkward moments?

I don’t think so... at least not for me and I hope she felt the same way What did you two talk about?

Lots of things, a lot about stuff to do with her course as it was very

interesting, the conversation flowed really easy

Fancy a date? We’ll set you up.

Find us on our 2017/ 2018 Facebook page or email at c2.lifestyle@newcastle.ac.uk

Laura on Tom

a good time and would definitely go on another blind date

Did you kiss goodbye?

What did you do / have?

No, well, I gave her a kiss on the cheek We went to 97 & Social, and had mojitos but that’s not quite kissing goodbye what was Laura’s best quality? And why?

How easy she was to talk to, it was really easy to keep chatting to her and really nice to chat to her too Most memorable moment of the date?

I mean it was all very memorable, I really enjoyed seeing her. The full date was lovely, I oculdn’t pick one single moment

What kind of guy is your ‘type’?

It’s a cliché I know but my type is definitely tall, dark and handsome. A good smile and someone who will make me laugh, plus I’m a sucker for a Northern accent!

What’s your ideal date?

I would love to go for breakfast or a roast dinner on a date - basically anything food related! The Quayside as it’s one of my favourite places in Newcastle

What was your opinion of Tom when you first met?

I thought that he was a proper gentleman - the weather was atrocious so he brought an umbrella with him, which he held for me as we walked to the bar Of all the dates you’ve been on where does this one rank? And why?

I would say it’s in my top ten, being a blind date added to the excitement. Once we started chatting we had a lot to talk about a. Plus mojitos are my favourite cocktail so it couldn’t go too wrong!

Will there be a second date? product would he be?

Yeah, I would like to see her again. A An eyeshadow palette because he’s second date could be fun interesting and there’s lots of different

Any awkward moments on the date?

I wouldn’t say there were. The conversation flowed well and there were no awkward silences

After the date, would you swipe left, right or superlike?

Would you ever go on another blind date?

Swipe right I was very nervous beforehand but I had

After the date, would you swipe left, right or superlike?

Swipe right

If Tom we’re a makeup product which

things to learn about him

Tom Pom, 19, 2nd Year Languages and Business

Laura Greatrex, 20, 3rd Year English Lit & Lang

VERDICT: TOM ON LAURA

VERDICT: LAURA ON TOM

Really easy to keep chatting to her

Personality

Conversation Overall

9/10 9/10 9/10

I thought that he was a proper gentleman

Personality

Conversation Overall

8/10 7/10 7/10

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life & style lifestyle

House plants and how to keep them alive

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t’s been a few weeks since the university plant fair – Plenty of time to let them grow and flourish, enjoy their bright flowers and pretty green leaves… wait, they’re dying? That wasn’t the plan!

Plants are supposed to be easy to keep!

Well, even if your plants are looking a little sad, they’re probably not too hard to rescue. The first thing I always do when I buy a new plant is make sure they’re in the right sized pot. Garden centres tend to grow plants in fairly small pots, so they can fit more on a shelf. If you have a look underneath and can see white roots poking out, you probably need to repot. Make sure you get a pot that’s got drainage holes to let out any excess water, or put a few stones at the bottom before adding the soil so your plant isn’t going to be sitting in boggy soil the whole time. Once you’ve re-potted your plant, give it a little water to get it settled.

Lots of plants are picky about watering – some don’t even like water out of a tap! The main culprits of this are carnivorous plants; that venus fly-trap that looked so cute isn’t the easiest to look after.

They prefer damp conditions- putting them in a tray of water is best- and don’t like water with minerals in. Stop using tap water and either collect rainwater- or even better, distilled water from a dehumidifier.

If you’ve got a cactus though, stop watering it!

There was once a messy experience in my house involving an overwatered cacti literally exploding… although hilarious, this probably isn’t the way you want your poor cacti to go. After all, they are desert plants are designed for arid conditions.

They will survive the freezing temperatures of student accommodation, although make sure they have enough sunshine or they’ll start to wilt away.

A overwatered cacti literally exploded... although hilarious One of my favourite plants to keep is a peace lily, as they’re incredibly resistant. They also respond to water levels really quickly, so if you’ve not watered one for a while, they’ll start to droop, making it clear what the need. Once I came back from a week away and found mine almost completely flattened, it was so droughted; but 24 hours later and a pint of water, and it was back to it’s normal self. Definitely one for the aspiring student gardener- but keep it away from any pets, as they’re poisonous and that is one disaster we don’t need. They like low light levels and warmth. Peace lilies are generally sold with flowers, but they’re forced to flower through adding natural plant hormones. If you want them to flower again, try putting them somewhere dingy, then moving them slowly towards a light source.

Hopefully they’ll respond after a while and you’ll get lovely white flowers!

Other easy plants, if you’re looking to expand (or replace) your collection are spider plants; difficult to kill, look pretty with their variegated leaves, and eventually will propagate tiny spider plants on stems to grow literally everywhere. Money plants do something similar, dropping tiny seedlings once they get big enough. Want more of a challenge? Basil is notoriously difficult to keep alive, and not just because it’s so delicious…It certainly doesn’t last long in my flat!

Monday 4 December 2017

Unique winter date ideas

Charlotte Cooper shares her unique winter date ideas to make the most of the festive period

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o, you’ve plucked up the courage to ask out the person who you’ve liked for ages but avoided due to the fear of possible rejectionNow all you have to do is think of a unique idea for the date. That’s where I’m here for you.

I’ve come up with some of the best date ideas to sweep that special someone off of their feet this winter. You could go for a safe option but once you’ve read these unique ideas you won’t be doing the usual dinner and drinks.

Ice-skating

That time of year has come once again where the Centre for Life has its own winter wonderland, so you best get your skates on. For only £8 each you and your date can skate around the rink to the mellow sound of Mariah Carey’s ‘All I want for Christmas’. With opening hours from 10am till 6pm you and your date can get your warm winter gear on and have an early evening skate. Darting around a frozen rink in your blades, hand-in-hand, what could be more romantic. If you’re worried about the cold don’t be, you and your date will be too busy trying not to fall over and laughing if you both do, to notice the cold.

You and your date can skate around the rink to the mellow sound of Mariah Carey Lane7

If you don’t fancy braving the cold air, why not head down to Lane7 for a mix of beer-pong to pool tables. With student deals on every Sunday to Wednesday this date idea won’t break the bank.

Having your own personal bowling lane is definitely one of the main attractions at Lane7 and for a small price of £5 each this is a bargain date. If you don’t fancy bowling, no stress, there are plenty of other activities going on here. Mini golf is the newest attraction and is great for more of a competitive type of date. Lane7 could be seen as a bit

Image: @_gorse_

out the way if you are wanting to grab some drinks or food, but it also offers a fantastic range of hot snacks and pizzas from £3-£10. Even the cocktails are a treat, a personal favourite would be the Mojito Ting.

Walk around the international Christmas Market

Grey’s monument is home to the magical Christmas market full of wooden cabins holding over 100 stalls. This is a great idea for a date this winter. Grab a hot chocolate from one of the stalls and wander the market. Open till 9pm, the twinkly lights will set the perfect scene that will make sparks fly. The sweet treats such as flavoured fudge and the giant pick’n’mix are just some of the stalls on offer. With street-foods from around the world including German, French, Belgian cuisines you are sure to find

something your date will enjoy.

Tyneside Cinema

This cosy setting is one of the best-known date places in Newcastle. Renowned among students for its super cheap prices, it’s bound to be a winner.

There are always new releases of movies out, but this winter there is a Christmas special. Some of the best festive films are to be shown at the Tyneside Cinema across December, so if you’ve got a date coming up and don’t want to go out into the cold why not give this a go. The Polar Express and the all-time classic A Wonderful Life are just some of the films screening. A student ticket will normally cost you £4 but upgrading for an extra £3 will get you a hot chocolate and gingerbread man or if you are wanting to splash a bit more cash, a mince pie and a glass of mulled wine during the film.

Your‘Bookmas’readinglist2017

With the Christmas break fast approaching, Errol Kerr lists his top reads for this time of year

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he top 5 are:

Skipping Christmas – John Grisham

This book is one hell of a laugh, and is where 2004 film Christmas with the Kranks was adapted from.

It focuses on a family – said Krank family – attempting to avoid the hectic and maddening nature of Christmas, leading to their decision to try to completely avoid it. Hilarity ensues when quite literally nothing goes to plan as the confusion of their neighbourhood, friends and other family members throws everything completely off course.

This is my go-to festive barrel of laughs this year.

iconic horror novel, The Shining, continues the story of said iconic novel, exploring the psychological trauma that Danny experienced after his already abusive father Jack was possessed by the entity controlling the hotel and attempted a bit of redrum.

But Errol, I hear you cry, how is this a good book for winter? It’s fricking cold in both books, and they’re definitely going to keep you awake. Trust me, they’re both absolutely iconic books, and an exploration of family that only Stephen King can really provide. Read both of them.

A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens

Maddadam – Margaret Atwood

The final book in Atwood’s fascinating dystopian trilogy, this trilogy unites the timelines of the prior two – Oryx and Crake and The Year of the Flood, focusing on the recreation of civilisation after a biological apocalypse. Sure, it sounds a bit of a dreary topic to cover over winter, but it’s both the culmination of a fantastic trilogy and an exploration of unity, of people and humanity as a whole.

Whilst I’d obviously suggest reading the first two beforehand, it’s within this book that we as humans are truly explored, and sometimes it’s worth a bit of self-discovery over the winter months.

This was going to be on here somehow, in some form. Dickens is a wordy piece of work, and his works take about a solid week or so to get through – but that’s perfect, because we all want to avoid assessments, right? You’d think after five years here I’d be slightly better at this assignments stuff. Anyway, this book has cemented itself in wider media as a tale of the importance of goodwill and kindness to those around you, and if you like seeing a rich man tormented to the point where he’s not a dick, this is a good place to go.

Letters from Father Christmas– JRR. Tolkien

Rowena Tylden-Pattenson

Image: @darkfaerietales_

The Shining & Doctor Sleep – Stephen King

Image: @_jane_alexandra

I’d love to just say one of these two, but I’m going to cheat. Doctor Sleep, the 2013 sequel to 1977’s

Of course I’m going to include Tolkien on any list I write. Have you met me?

This book is a group of ‘letters’ Tolkien wrote between 1920 and 1942 for his children and it’s an incredibly heart-warming little read. It’s very clear that this was a huge part of his inspiration for The Lord of the Rings series and Middle-Earth as a whole. It’s a little book I read at the end of every year – its tone clearly oriented for a younger audience, they never fail to be quite a relaxing read by the fireplace. Or radiator. Just, find something warm and read this at some point over the Christmas – you won’t regret it

Image: @rcsreads

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Monday 4 December 2017

Real women, real representation

Lifestyle editor Jaymelouise Hudspith shares her thoughts on brands choosing not to digitally enhance their models images and how this act symbolises a step towards body inclusivity

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here isn’t a single day where we do not see photographs of models, whether it is online, in magazines, on television, or billboards. More often than not these photographs have been digitally enhanced, for a long time this has been greatly accepted by society.

However, this is changing as people begin to challenge the social acceptance of this norm, as a result more and more brand – including high street retailers such as Missguided and ASOS have stated they will no longer Photoshop out the imperfections that make their models unique. Instead they are embracing the natural beauty of these women and the qualities such as stretch marks, acne and cellulite; providing a more realistic image of women, thus promoting body positivity and inclusivity.

I think I speak for us all when I say there is nothing that can dint your self esteem and body confidence like seeing a picture perfect image of a model in magazines, on Instagram, even when you’re online shopping, leaving you wishing you could look like that too – thank god bikini season is over, am I right? Usually you’ll stare at the image and it’s impossible to tell if the item would look good on you because the woman in the photograph resembles you as much as a dirt resembles a diamond.

You’d try and remind yourself that these women

don’t even look like that in reality, they’re not that slim, not that imperfection free, not that prim and polished but it’s no good.

This move towards a Photoshop ban by brands is a step in the right direction for body inclusivity, you can now shop online and see a real woman unaltered and imperfections on show. It may be a small thing leaving a few stretch marks or acne scars visible in the editing process but it makes a huge difference to the people who see it. It reinforces the notion that it is okay to have blemishes, these are all part of having a natural, normal and a healthy body; you don’t need to feel insecure or ‘weird’ about your qualities.

Sure, these models will still be shot under perfect lighting with very expensive technology which guarantees a great photo, they are undoubtable drop dead gorgeous and will still look 10x better than I would in that outfit but lets not fret on that and instead celebrate the small win.

The fashion industry still has a long way to go, even brands who have taken a step in the right direction have received criticism for not being entirely inclusive to all body types. There is a distinct criticism in the lack of plus size models, and often models that aren’t plus size being chosen to represent women who are. I

Image: Missguided

think we all remember the Calvin Klein ‘plus size’ model that couldn’t have been any bigger than a UK size 12.

Missguided have also been accused of deliberately Photoshopping imperfections, such as stretch marks, onto their models in an attempt to make their models more relatable to the average women as part of a marketing technique, this has however not been confirmed.

France recently placed a ban on editing model’s bodies without stating the image has been digitally altered, those who do not comply will face fines. The French government believes that it is a public health issue and hopes the new rule will help to reduce the promotion of unhealthy and unrealistic ... body images.

Tapas revolution: review Melissa Kuman visits restaurant Tapas Revolution to sample the best of their Spanish menu

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personally love sharing food with people because, as Tapas Revolution so rightly says, ‘eating from the same plate enhances conversations, encourages adventurous eating and brings us all closer’.

Tapas Revolution, situated conveniently in Eldon Square, has super friendly Spanish staff and an awesome wine, cocktail and Spanish gin list. All of these factors ensure the sort of buzzy vibe that transports you straight back to sun-soaked holidays.

We had a jug of fresh sangria with fruit and ice and a passion fruit and marzipan cocktail. It contained vanilla and marzipan vodka, condensed milk, tiger-nut milk and passion fruit, all shaken with pimento dram and amaretto.

At this establishment, you can expect on point tapas classics typically found in wonderful Madrid.

Our feast included ‘pan de la casa’ with our cocktails and sangria, as well as my favourite roasted cod loin tapas with slow cooked sweet peppers, onions and olives. I felt worlds away from cold, rainy Newcastle, perhaps enjoying one of those long sunshine filled Spanish feasts you dream about on

Image: Melissa Kuman

these chilly November days.

We ordered so much delicious tapas we forgot what was coming next, each dish was a pleasant surprise. Maria, the most passionate waitress I have ever met, recommended ‘berenjenas fritas’- crispy aubergine with spiced honey and thyme. I am glad she did, as the sweet thyme element just made the dish. Even the simple ‘huevos rotos’ dish was amazing- crispy chorizo mixed with potatoes and egg. I could talk for days about each dish! They also serve premium Iberian hams, which can be found hanging as decoration around the restaurant.

Finally, to sweeten our palette we ordered desserts. Of the large selection available, we eventually chose crispy churros (with hot chocolate sauce and dusted with cinnamon and torrija), and a caramelised warm brioche soaked in custard.

I enjoyed getting to know Omar, the owner and chef of Tapas Revolution, by perusing his cookbooks as I waited for the food. I fell in love with his story and his passion for Spanish food. Thank you for having us Tapa Revolution, and we look forward to our return!

Get away with doing no housework Amy Urmston helps those of you feeling slightly housework-shy. . . just don’t tell your flatmates

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ousework - the age-old chore. Before coming to Uni, we would fall into a peaceful slumber, and ignorantly wake up to sparkling dishes and an empty bin.

But here’s a newsflash: the cleaning elves aren’t real. None of us like taking the bins out, doing the washing or scrubbing the toilet, but as soon as we sign that house contract it falls upon our shoulders Image: @smeg50style

like a ton of bricks. Here are the tried and tested methods on how to get away with doing minimal housework. Follow them all, or just follow one, but don’t tell your housemates. And trust me - I literally do nothing.

Basic steps

1. We’ll start nice and easy. Every time you’re in the kitchen, wash something… anything. It doesn’t have to be yours, just wash it. Your housemates will assume you’re pulling your weight, and its all about what they see, not what they don’t see.

2. Another basic step is to bring your hoarded cups, plates and bowls out of your room in the dead of night. If no one sees your mess, it doesn’t exist. Set an alarm. Stay awake. Do everything you can to avoid peak kitchen hours.

3. When a group tidying-session begins, tell your housemates you’ll ‘be back in a minute’. Two good excuses are your ‘mum is on the phone’, and you ‘left a candle burning in your room’. No one can argue with talking to a parent... or the house burning down.

Intermediate

4. Always appear stressed - I know a few people who get away with this one. If you always seem to have Uni work to do, your housemates will feel bad

nagging you to clean your pans and they’ll do them for you. The trick with this one is to just seem flustered, never go into the exact work you have to do, just 1000 words for this day, and 1500 for the next.

5. And for the lucky ones amongst us, the dishwasher is the perfect solution. If you put your plates inside the dishwasher, just leave them there. Someone else is guaranteed to fill it with their things, close it and empty it after the cleaning process.

Shut the dishwasher door and problem solved.

For the truly dedicated. You really don’t like housework.

lifestyle life & style Rant of the Week: Winter whine

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hristmas should act as the perfect reminder that winter is now upon us. Lights shaped like snowflakes lining the roads, cosy and colourful Christmas jumpers; as much as I love all the festivity around winter-time, I can’t help but be reminded of some of the dreadful things that inevitably come with it.

Wearing too many layers

‘It looks like it’s going to be the coldest winter in 15 years!’

The BBC just can’t help themselves with that annual over-exaggerated weather report; regardless, at some point the chill becomes too much and wearing shorts is unacceptable. We over-compensate with scarves and hats, puffas and trackies; and whilst it’s all good braving the harshness of the outside world, the real struggle comes indoors.

The heating’s on, the double-up decision has really backfired; you look calm and collected to everyone else, but your artic outfit has reduced you to a sweltering mess on the inside. Beads of sweat trickle from your forehead, and the excess stress from the zip on your coat is only making you hotter.

The BBC just can’t help that annual over exaggerated weather report What’s happened to my hands?

For those missing the luxury of some thick gloves, this is always a huge frustration. The icy breeze has your hands clamped shut, and despite attempts to clap and blow your hands back into action, they seem somewhat unresponsive. The delay between entering warmth and ability returning has left you with the written style of a four-yearold, and the typing speed of an arthritic pensioner.

You may have essay, maybe even a dissertation you should be writing, but winter will do its absolute best to make it unreadable and unwritable!

Winter costs money!

Ignoring the obvious expenses on warm clothes and Christmas presents, the sheer cost of heating leaves most students cold through winter. Those with fixed bills revel in their comfort, maxing out heaters and derisively lounging in minimal clothing just because they can. Meanwhile the unfortunate majority stare longingly at their boiler- counting the few pennies saved with their frostbitten fingers; there’s nothing more Christmassy then a group of friends huddling by a matchstick in a desperate attempt not to freeze in their own home.

The Cold gives you colds

No doubt at some point through winter you’ll find yourself feeling thoroughly ill. Yep, whilst work left last minute begins to mound, and the overdraft braces for a rather rocky end to the semester, winter will certainly put in one last shunt to crush your dreams of graduation. This usually comes in the form of a bug or a cold that leaves you utterly repulsive; sniffing and coughing with migraines and back pains, scared to tilt your head forward without a tissue to hand. It might seem grim, but it’s just one of the many un-pleasantries during winter.

Dishonourable mentions : de-icing a car, the inappropriateness of summer food and people spreading word of snowfall for there not to be any.

Will Hamilton-Davies

For the truly dedicated. You really don’t like housework.

6. Try regular baking, or make house meals without asking. No one hates the housemate giving away free food. Think Victoria sponge, brownies, gingerbread, cookies… all the classics. You may have to wash your mixing bowl, but its worth it.

And you can always say “I cooked, you wash up”.

7. Just eat take-out food. You may only be able to afford eating twice a week, but at least there’s no washing up.

You’re a professional now, but I’m sure the list goes on.Don’t take it too seriously.

Image : Pexels

@Courier_life @courier_lifestyle

12

life & style fashion

LET’S GET ETHICAL

Kering Foundation Campaign

c2.fashion@ncl.ac.uk Fashion Editors Chloe Bland, Sophie Schneider and Zofia Zwieglinska

the courier Monday 4 December 2017

VS Fashion Show 2017 Federica Mazzili brings us the sexiest lingerie event of the year straight from Shanghai, China

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eing born a female should not put you at a higher risk of gender based violence, but sadly that is not the case. With 1 in 3 women affected as victims worldwide, this is an issue that needs confronting immediately. As a response to this problem, for the five days leading up to the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women (25 November 2017), the Kering Foundation have launched the digital #ICouldHaveBeen campaign. This is part of its annual contribution to the white ribbon initiative which involves promoting awareness of the problems surrounding violence towards women.

Highlighting this injustice seems particularly important recently. In the wake of the numerous sexual harassment cases seen in the news by oncecelebrated men such as Harvey Weinstein and Ed Westwick. Also, with at least one in four teen girls in the UK being subject to physical abuse from their boyfriends, the digital aspect of #ICouldHaveBeen is hopeful to appeal to computer savvy teens in addition to the wider public.

At least one in four teen girls in the UK are subject to physical abuse from their boyfriends The Kering Foundation was launched in 2009 and is part of a luxury group that has ownership of brands such as Gucci and Balenciaga. The foundation fights for woman’s rights by promoting female empowerment and tackling violence against women, including sexual and domestic violence as well as harmful traditional practices such as female genital mutilation.

The #ICouldHaveBeen campaign has used a variety of well-known faces from the fashion world as ambassadors for to help spread their message, including Joseph Altuzarra, Stella McCartney, Alessandro Michele and Christopher Kane. The aim of the campaign is to bring the world’s attention to gender based violence by making people visualise what it’s like to be in ‘her’ position (the 33% of female victims) drawing attention to the increased risk women face, simply by being born female.

This campaign is not only aimed at women, with men being asked to imagine how their lives would be different if they were born female. Part of the campaign was that the ambassadors were asked to assume new names. The female ambassadors took the name ‘her’ to show solidarity with the victims whilst the men chose names that their parents might have given them, had they been born female.

For example, for the campaign, Christopher Kane became Christine. As part of their contribution to the cause, the ambassadors were asked to share personal stories of their experiences relating to gender based violence, with the hope that the public would join in too using the hashtag #ICouldHaveBeen on social media platforms. Last year more than 1 billion social network users were reached through this campaign and there is hope that this year, even more people will be reached.

For more information and to show your support, visit icouldhavebeen.org.

Amy Carroll

Instagram: @stellamccartney

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he Victoria Secret fashion show is an annual event that is surrounded by speculation each year by both the audience and those in the fashion industry as to who will take the catwalk as well as which astounding location will be selected. This year, Shanghai was the chosen city where the models immersed themselves in a different culture once again, which is what makes the show so unique.

Supermodel regulars such as Candice Swanepoel, Sara Sampaio and Josephine Skiver were among the many models that made an appearance. However, it was Brazilian beauty Lais Ribeiro who had the honour to wear this year’s $2 million themed fantasy bra entitled ‘Champagne Nights’. The fantasy bra featured layers of Mouawad jewelry in gold, diamond, yellow sapphire and blue topaz.

Lais described this experience as “you just feel so powerful wearing it—like all the hard work has paid off,” in a video interview for Vogue.

Aside from the famed fantasy bra, the collection included a collaboration with Balmain that will launch in stores on the 6th of December. Oliver Rousteing told Vogue the inspiration for this punk style line as being mainly tartan and netting, with his favourite piece being the “Michael Jacksoninspired jacket [that] Romee Strijd will wear in the show”. This will be one of the many looks that we will be on the hunt for! However, my favourite

designs had to be Romee Strijd’s lace up corset with hints of gold and the matching coconutwhite lingerie, and Taylor Hill’s tribal feather look.

Not to forget the dazzling pastel pink and flower embroidered silk robes backstage inspired by traditional Chinese silk painting!

It is argued that the Victoria Secret brand and the catwalk lacks body diversity The show also featured musical appearances from the likes of Harry Styles, Miguel, Jane Zhang, Leslie Odom Jr, and Yundi Li. Though it was not only these performances that made the night memorable, as there were also a few runway accidents that were only visible from the frontrow seats, such as Bella Hadid’s double nip slip and Ming Xi’s fall during the ‘Winter’s Tale’ part of the walk; both models were quick to laugh it off nonetheless and continued modelling with the crowd cheering them on.

This year’s show waved goodbye to Victoria Secret angel Alessandra Ambrosio, who has been with the

Instagram: @themodelssecret

brand for 17 years. Although she will be missed as she has become an icon for the brand itself, this has also caused some controversy. It is argued that the Victoria Secret brand and the famous catwalk lacks body diversity and leaves little space for new faces to be discovered, as it is continuously the same angels who walk the catwalk each year. This noticeable issue has led model Ashley Graham to publicly slam the brand on her Instagram account to show the absence of plus sized models for the brand.

Another case showed two sisters who organised an ‘Anti-Victoria’s Secret’ fashion show with cancer survivors and girls on wheelchairs, accusing the brand of not having “real” women like the women on their catwalk. Because of this, it begs the question- is Victoria Secret really creating an illusion for realistic body ideals? Everyone is diverse and each body, despite its shape and size, should be celebrated. Fortunately, this perception is gradually altering the fashion industry, with the introduction of plus sized models and petite models, as well as beauty Jillian Mercado who is one of the few successful models to have a physical disability. Could this move forward also implicate a change in Victoria’s Secret shows in the future?

The audience will simply have to wait and see, but for now we all secretly wish it could be us wearing wings down that runway!

The all-black look

Chris Wilkinson tries to convince us of the versatility and cheapness of going back to black

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am not someone who would presume to know anything about high fashion. I know nothing about the length of a lapel, or the thickness of a cuff, or whether a certain choice of material can raise an outfit to new heights or bring it down to horrific and stale lows. I am aware that I am strutting dangerously close to a crime against fashion, soon to be punished for my sins by the fashion police. But what I do know, I think, has saved me. What I know is colour. And the colour I know is no colour. For I am about to introduce to you the virtues of dressing only in black.

If someone were to only wear millennial pink, they would either look like a slice of ham or Turkish Delight The only thing that is slightly troublesome about the all-black look is the footwear, however. I, for shame, had to spend a lot of money on some Doc Martins for the look to be complete. But now that it is, its smooth sailing from here on out. Winter colours? Black. Autumn colours? Black. Spring colours? Black. Summer colours? Black. Every season its back to black.

Gone are the days when you would trudge through shops, aching over which colours match or not When people ask me why I only dress in black, my usual response is this: it’s simple, and it’s cheap, and you can never go wrong. The simplicity of it is obvious. Gone are the days where you would spend half of the day aching over which colours match and which colours do not. Gone are the days when you would trudge through shops aching over which colours match and which do not. Gone are the days when you would get birthday and Christmas presents, opening wrapping and aching over which colours match and which do not. Black is black, every shade of black works with every other shade of black. But what is more interesting, is that this trait isn’t apparent with any other colour or shade. If someone were to only wear millennial pink, they would look either like a slice of ham or Turkish delight, and I take it as a moral decision to never share company with those who wear entire

Instagram: @lulalore_girls

outfits of blue.

As said before, an additional appeal to the allblack look is its cheapness. There is absolutely no need to buy expensive black shirts, or expensive black jeans, or expensive black jumpers; even if you did, no one would be able to tell anyway. Saying this, I did buy a discounted pair of black Levi’s recently, only because I was attempting to emulate the lost look of an all-black Bruce Springsteen. But generally, go to Primark or to any charity shop and you will find your outfit waiting for you. And if you are really really cheap, like me, you will find satisfaction in how inexpensive it is in other ways.

I rarely have to do more than one load of washing, and because everything in the washing machine is black I am at a slightly lesser chance of my colours fading. How’s that for advice, eh?

Instagram: @marmalade_skies_art

the courier

@CourierFashion c2.fashion@ncl.ac.uk

Monday 4 December 2017

All I want for Christmas is...

13

fashion life & style

FASHION NEWS

Jayme Hudpsith hunts down the items that should be top of your Christmas list this December Death of Azzedine Alaia

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don’t know about you but Christmas seems to have snuck up on me. To avoid panic buying things people will never want, or need, I have compiled some of the easiest and most appreciated gifts that are guaranteed to be useful!

The closer we get to Christmas the colder it seems to get outside and as a result I think it is safe to say pyjamas or onesies, dressing gowns, slippers and even socks are a present anyone would be happy to receive. Yes, even socks, the present we use to dread as children has become the perfect gift which just shows how old we have all gotten…

But really, who wouldn’t love some fluffy bed socks with a snowman or a Christmas pudding on your toes?

Match those fluffy socks with a fleeced, soft, fluffy onesie and you’ll be as snug as a bug in a rug.

Whether you want to go all out and be the symbol of Christmas or if you’re a bit more of a Grinch and want a plain version you can wear all year around, there is the something out there for every preference! I’m a Christmas baby so you’ll see me sporting this grey polar bear onesie this year.

Who wouldn’t love some fluffy bed socks with a snowman or a Christmas pudding on your toes?

If staying tucked away at home hiding from the cold isn’t the right idea for you then why not go all out and treat someone special to a new bag this season? Embrace the beauty of the Christmas season with a bejewelled bag. Brands such as Topshop and River Island have gorgeous bejewelled clutches, side bags and cross body bags in every colour- from your classic black to more festive colours such as red and green and even

shades of pink for the bolder characters. Fret not that come Christmas day, all the Christmas parties will be over and it will be too late to put these bags to good use because they’ll go perfectly with any party dress for New Year’s Eve. Also the bolder colours like pink, green and red will be perfect for the upcoming summer season, while the black will remain a timeless classic for any occasion.

Lastly, we all know Spring is just as cold, if not colder than winter. So, a matching hat, scarf and gloves set would make a great stocking filler for anyone. All fashion retail stores have an abundance of sets in a range of fabrics, prices and styles. My personal favourite has to be a grey and cream set from Accessorise and the neutral colours will match any outfit and bring a little bit of brightness to the cold and bleak winter mornings.

If you act quick you can grab all of these gifts at bargain prices online during cyber Monday, if not don’t worry, many stores this time of year are running promotions on their winter stock to reduce the amount of stock they’ll have left for Boxing Day sales.

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CHRISTMAS WISH LIST: 1. Red floral cross body bag, Topshop, £27- Perfect to jazz up any outfit this Christmas, for a visit to the markets or a staff Christmas party!

2. Stripe heart print pyjamas, Topshop, £33 - Comfy clothing for Christmas nights in by the fire, style with a big glass of wine.

3. Jewelled bug cross body bag, Topshop, £27 - Perfect to add some colour, jazz and sparkle to an all-black outfit.

4. Mixed pom knit beanie, Topshop, £14 Perfect with a big scarf and coat to wrap up this Winter.

5. Metallic Star Gloves, Topshop, £22- Stay bang on trend with these metallic numbers whilst keeping your hands toasty

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3.

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1.

Surprise NSYNC collection

Natalya Baranovskaya showcases the most unexpected fashion collection coming from the 90s band

Instagram: @chriskirkpatrickstreetteam

Images: NSYNC.com

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ost of us know this disappointing feeling when your favourite band is splitting up and leaving you without future songs and concerts. When it seems like you want to search for their new song, but the band you love to listen to is not on the top of the new playlist.

Then you probably know this treasured moment when you look through the shelves of clothing shops and find the name of your favourite band stamped on a ‘one in a thousand’ T-shirt. This T-Shirt or Hoodie becomes a kind of reminder of the good times when you could enjoy listening to this band live, when you could download a new song and add it to your playlist. Time is cruel as it takes away so many amazing bands, leaving us only with their T-Shirt in our hands.

However, time does not always play its cruel joke, especially now for fans of NSYNC. Once famous in the 90s and early 2000s, performing over 350 concerts to sold out crowds, boyband NSYNC with Justin Timberlake, Lance Bass, Joey Fatone, JC Chasez, and Chris Kirkpatrick have recently decided to team up with Epic Rights, a leading branding and licensing company, to launch a new Merchandise Collection. The new line includes branded apparel, accessories, gifts and collectible

products.

The first kind of ‘trial’ limited-edition collection was released on the 16th of November and went on sale on NSYNC’s website, with the announcement on the official Twitter account. The collection of Christmas sweaters, including one that featured the marionette-like versions of the singers, sold out in less than a day. This collection included a T-shirt, a mug, and slip-on shoes with a cartoon of the band and the words ‘It’s Gonna Be Sleigh,’ as well as a tree ornament, two pins, and a beanie.

For music fans this is a chance to buy something symbolic from their favourite band The success of this limited Christmas collection was so unexpected for the ex-band as everything sold out so fast! But thanks to the unexpected popularity of the collection, we can definitely

expect the launch of their 20th Anniversary collection in the Spring. The collection will be produced in the style of the ‘90s. Also, Epic Rights has acquired logo licensing for the iconic boy band, so this retro collection of apparel and accessories will be truly authentic.

For music fans, especially for fans of the former band, this is the chance to buy something symbolic from their favourite music band. However, not everyone knows that t-shirts with music band logos are also very fashionable right now. Sure, this is not a new thing, as rock music t-shirts are co-opted by the fashionable and have been worn by non-rock people as a sort of broad, brushstroke idea of cool. Not everybody knew that the first band logo t-shirts were produced in 1968 by Bill Graham, the concert promoter who used to work with bands such as Jefferson Aeroplane and The Grateful Dead. Since that time, band T-shirts have become stylish, giving the wearer rock-chick appeal and adding to the outfit straight out of a wild night out in the 70s.

So for this festive season, let’s refresh the memory of our favourite boyband with NSYNC’s new Merch collection.

T

Instagram: @just_a_few_days

he inspirational Tunisian fashion designer Azzedine Alaïa has passed away on the 18th November, at the age of 82. Alaïa was once termed “The King of Cling” and this is certainly what he will be remembered for.

His job at Guy Laroche is what kick- started his career, before working for Thierry Mugler and then opening his first shop as a dress-maker and designer. His skill for dress-making was marveled at by his friends and clients due to his extremely hands on approach. In an interview for ‘The Financial Times’, Joe McKenna states that Alaïa is the only designer he has seen to “cut and sew the clothes himself ”. Throughout his whole career as a designer he demonstrated a love for fashion and this passion and his hands on approach is what he will be remembered for.

His skill for dressmaking was marvelled due to his extremely hands on approach His collections in the 1980’s had a huge impact on his career. It was from then on that he was termed the “King of cling”. He was revolutionary in that he ditched the diamonds and embellishments on a dress to focus more on a tighter, more fitting and more erotic dress, allowing women to feel confident and sexy. The more simplistic, elegant dresses contrasted with the vibrant trends that we all associate with the 80’s.

He was known for not following the fashion trends of the time- instead he made his own. These collections from the 80’s are what allowed for some of his greatest accomplishments- during the 1980’s he was voted ‘Best Designer of the Year’ alongside the ‘Best Collection of the Year’. He was also supported in the French Elle magazine editorials around the same time.

Although known for being shy he certainly didn’t shy away from working with some of the biggest names of the time. Women devoted to his skin-tight collections included: Tina Turner, Janet Jackson and Naomi Campbell. However, his career didn’t just peak there, in 2000 he partnered with Prada. With Prada, his leather collections became some of his most popular, again sticking to the ‘cling’ effect- they fitted the woman’s body extremely tightly, and figure-hugging leather was rare at this point.

Whilst also famous for his designs and his works, his character is also what people are just as likely to remember him for. He was known for ‘doing his own thing’ and many times his collections were not exhibited in the Paris Fashion Shows as he believed he could not rush fashion and that ‘collections are ready when they are ready’, going against the consumer-led market. A true visionary in that he didn’t let people in the fashion industry control him. Even when Prada stated he would make much more money in selling bags and perfume; he refused as this was not his forte. Whilst working for others he still managed to remain completely independent, which is why so many people idolized him during his career and now after it. His character and his collections reflect his character perfectly, in that he was a visionary and worked with materials not often worked with, and styled dresses in a way that had not been done before.

Katy Propher

14

life & style beauty

the courier

courier.beauty@ncl.ac.uk Beauty Editors Laura Greatrex, Lois Johnston & Susanne Norris

Monday 4 December 2017

Beauty advent calendars

To celebrate the fabulous festive season, Emily Cartwright talks us through the best beauty advent calendars for every budget

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hristmas. The time of year where everyone’s make-up wishlist goes up, yet affordability goes down because you’re buying gifts for everyone else. A beauty advent calendar is therefore ideal, as the cost comes a month or so before Christmas and you’ll get a little treat each day. Here are ten beauty calendars you may want to consider, and what I love about them.

1. NYX - £50 One for lipstick lovers either new to make-up or obsessed by it, this calendar gives you lip products for everyday leading up to Christmas.

NYX are famously known for their lip products.

So, whether you want inspo for a new look every day until Christmas or to add to your already huge lip collection (or both), then this is a good calendar to go for. This is quite budget friendly too as each lipstick works out at just over £2 each.

Image: @blushno

Image: @loccitane

bestsellers, this 24-day calendar gets you big things for your bucks. Full of the best skincare and haircare on the market this is definitely a calendar worth your money. You’ll be bathing in the best of the best for the whole month of December!

5. No7 - £40 Potentially the most wanted calendar this year, Boots’ No7 calendar is packed with make-up and skincare products that total to a value of £169. It’s a no brainer then, if you can get your hands on this calendar snap it up. It would even make a great gift for someone because who doesn’t want to try dozens of mini make-up and skincare products?

6. Look Fantastic - £79 With a value of over £300, this calendar is also one you might want to snap up. Not only does it have make-up, skincare and

2. Make-up Revolution - £30 At an unbelievably cheap price, this calendar provides a range of lip and eye products, as well as brushes, so you can refresh your make-up bag without spending too much. I think this would be perfect for anyone who’s new to make-up and trying to get into it, or to try out a range of Make-up Revolution products.

3. Charlotte Tilbury - £150 If you’re a big spender and want to treat yourself this Christmas, Charlotte’s advent calendar is the one for you. Full of her best-selling products, it is definitely one to consider. Full of luxury skincare and mak-eup goodies, December will be a time of bathing in beautiful products ready for Christmas. Do note though, this calendar is only 12 days’ worth so be aware if you’re purchasing!

4. L’Occitane - £89 Another packed with

Image: @lookfantastic

CHARLOTTE TILBURY Born in London, and raised in Ibiza, Charlotte Tilbury discovered her love of makeupn at the young age of 13.

Image: @ctilburymakeup

haircare, but it has the best buys from multiple brands rather than just one. So that means you’re trying the best products on the market, rather than the best from just one brand.

7. The Body Shop - From £45 Catering to different budgets, the Body Shop produced three calendars this year which can save you money on their lovely, ethical products. The smallest calendar saves you £40, while the biggest can save you £113.

8. Benefit Cosmetics - £34.50 This 12-day calendar gives you a super-cute best-selling mini from Benefit for the 12 days of Christmas. This means you can try before you commit to a full-size purchase of a Benefit product - a try before you buy type of thing. What could go wrong?

9. John Lewis - £149 On the pricier side, this amazing 24-day calendar is worth your money if you’re a label lover. With a full-size MAC lipstick and a Hermés perfume, you’re going to be wanting to grab this while you can.

10. Fenwick - £150 Another department store calendar full of different brands and different beauty products is the Fenwick’s calendar. Every single product is a must have, or at least try, in this calendar. So, go on, treat yourself!

Dramatic dyeing Filling those flaws Nimra Rafique looks at dramatic hair transformations and why everyone from Selena Gomez to Kylie Jenner opt for dye

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he possibilities are infinite when it comes to changing up your hair. There are so many ways you can style your hair to express your own personal style. That’s one of the beauties of hair, you can always experiment with different looks and change it as many times as you want. Whether you want to cut it short, wear hair extensions to achieve Rapunzel locks, get highlights, or dye it an entirely different colour altogether. You can make it as subtle or drastic as you want.

When it comes to hair there are many celebrities who only need to make one quick call to their hair-stylists to get that dramatic transformation.

The most notable celeb for her ever-changing dramatic hair transformations is none other than Kylie Jenner. Kylie revealed on her app that she first dyed her hair when she was only 16 years old and soon became addicted to experimenting with different colours as she said ‘it makes [her] feel like a new person’. She used her hair as a way to express her style and as she grew she continued to try out different looks. Kylie herself said that when she began experimenting with different looks that’s when her social media following began to grow, because a lot of people could relate to that.

From originally having dark black hair to having bleach blonde, fiery red, and even having bright blue tips at Kim’s wedding, Kylie has earned the title of queen of dramatic hair transformations.

When she is giving her hair a rest from the constant bleaching and dying, Kylie wears wigs, so she always has the option to transform her look.

Dramatic hair transformations must run in the family, as Kim Kardashian West has frequently switched between her original black hair to bleach, silvery blonde. Celebrity hair guru Chris Appleton worked his magic on Kim’s recent hair transformation, changing her dark mane into beachy, silvery, blonde locks. The British hairstylist has worked with celebs such as Ariana Grande, Katy Perry and Jennifer Lopez.

Another celeb that has recently decided to trade in her brunette locks and try out bleach blonde is Selena Gomez. She debuted her new look at the 2017 American Music Awards and can I just say

she looked incredible. It took hair-stylists Nikki Lee and Riawna Capri ‘9 hours, about 300 foils, and 8 bowls of bleach, all with 2 stylists working together simultaneously’ to achieve the look, as stated by Capri on Instagram.

Image: @marissa.marino

K-pop (Korean-pop) idols, such as BTS, EXO and BLACKPINK just to name a few, are known for their constantly changing dramatic hair transformations, especially when they made a comeback. BTS just made their official US televised debut at the American Music Awards, and as well as showcasing their music and amazing chorography, they also killed it in the style department wearing Saint Laurent on the red carpet and Gucci on stage, and they were unmissable with their bright hair colours, from bleach blonde, icy silver and crimson red. K-pop idols are frequently changing their hairstyles and are not afraid to go for dramatic, bold looks. They don’t just go for natural hair colours like blonde or brunette, but they usually opt for vibrant, statement colours like electric blue, red, purple, baby pink, silver and so much more.

Remember though, if you want a dramatic hair transformation yourself to see a stylist first!

With the rise in people opting for non-surgical ‘fillers’, beauty editor Susanne Norris explains all the different treatments

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en years ago, fillers were practically unheard of. Whilst Botox was popular for older women aiming to keep their skin looking younger, there was no market in fillers for young people. Yet today, it is virtually impossible to log onto Instagram and see noone on with fillers on your explore page.

Demand for lip fillers is through the roof. This appears to be the most popular non-surgical choice, with everyone from reality TV stars to university students opting to spend money on enhancing their lips. However, there is also a growing demand for fillers in other parts of the face, such as the nose, cheeks, and chin.

So how are we meant to feel about this? Are we meant to embrace and celebrate the fact we can change our faces to renew our confidence, or are we meant to shake our heads and lament for a self-obsessed generation? Both sides have valid arguments. If you don’t like one of your facial features, and can change it relatively easily with fillers, then why not? Equally, is the rise of demand for fillers making us a vain generation, and will it make people want to change everything about themselves?

Obviously, this is a personal preference. I know many people who would happily have fillers, and many people who would stick their noses up at the thought of it. I personally however, am in favour of non-surgical cosmetic procedures. To be frank, I’ve hated my nose for as long as I can remember. I’ve spent hours researching prices of surgical rhinoplasty, and hours watching Youtube tutorials on ways to make my nose look smaller,

such as using special contouring tricks. I wouldn’t say I let this insecurity get in the way of how I live my life, but I would say it knocks my confidence sometimes. So recently, I’ve begun looking at the non-surgical nose job. It involves applying fillers to certain parts of the nose to give it a more streamlined profile. I have done my research and found the doctor who I want to do it, and I’m excited for how confident I think I’m going to feel afterwards.

There is a growing demand for fillers in other parts of the face I would take a moment to point out that doing your research is crucial. Don’t go with someone purely for some pretty Instagram pictures, celebrity endorsements or because they offer a lower price. Research the procedure you’re considering, paying specific detail to how the procedure should be performed, with what doses and with what filler itself (Juvederm, Radiesse, etc).

A good way to do this is by researching through Save Face. They are website offering information purely on non-surgical procedures. They also offer a government approved register of practitioners who can perform these procedures. It can be easy to fall into the wrong hands with fillers as anyone can claim to do them, so by using Save Face you’re minimalizing the risks of complications.

SAVE FACE A national register of acredited practitioners, Save Face help patients to find a safe and reputable practitioner for their desired non-surgical cosmetic procedure

Image: @beautybydrkay

Image: @save_face

I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting to change an insecurity. We all have one or two and if that can be taken away by having a non-surgical procedure performed then I really don’t see the problem with it.

We’re all beautiful no matter what we look like, fillers or no fillers, but if non-surgical cosmetic procedures can help you become a more confident person then I see no harm, it’s something you’re doing for yourself after all.

the courier

@CourierBeauty thecourieronline.co.uk/beauty

Monday 4 December 2017

15

beauty life & style

Sick of shaving? Try an alternative

Let’s face it, the most popular method of hair removal is still shaving. Bianca Ionici educates us on alternatives to shaving, both well known and less well known, and explains their benefits and what kind of budget you need to experiment with them

Image: @tekleulaart

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nce puberty hits, so does the expectation for women to remove unwanted hair. And once you get started on a certain method, it’s difficult to make a move into uncharted territory and try out something different.

Talking to women my age, most got hooked young on shaving using disposable razors, and still shave, years later. Why shave? Most of the time, it’s cheaper than other methods, and far more convenient, less messy, and even quicker! However, despite its ease and convenience, many choose not to shave. One of the biggest problems with this method is the annoying after-effect of shaving

rash, bumps, and even cuts, which are not only unsightly but can also be highly uncomfortable, especially when wearing tight or synthetic clothing. Shaving also enables hair to grow back much more quickly when compared to other ways of removing hair, which gets frustrating when you end up taking the blade to your legs multiple times a week, and sometimes even daily. Imagine the time (and water!) you’d save in the shower by omitting shaving from your routine. So, if you’re tired of shaving, need more hours in your day, and strive to be more environmentally conscious, then read on to find out about alternatives to shaving!

Waxing: Definitely the most widely known out of all alternatives, waxing is great if you don’t mind a little regrowth in between sessions. This method is considered to be semi-permanent due to it removing hair at the root (unlike shaving). You can wax at a salon, which can get very pricy very fast (a full leg wax in the toon can set you back around £30), or you can do it at home, which is always a lot more affordable. At home, you can choose to use waxing strips, which are by far the least messy way of using wax, but are also sometimes ineffective (and you therefore feel like you’ve wasted your money). If you’d rather not use strips, you can buy little pots that you heat up in the microwave and use with strips bought separately. You can also choose to splurge if you decide waxing is your method of choice, and buy an at home kit for a salon-feel in the comfort of your home. Beware though, as this method of waxing can get super messy if you aren’t careful – so definitely not the way to remove your hair an hour before your night out begins!

Sugaring: Similar to waxing but not as widely used (in the UK at least; this method is super popular in northern Africa and the Middle East), sugaring wax is pretty easy to make at home. It’s said that it is less painful and less likely to cause irritation than normal wax, and lasts longer as well.

Not only that, if you decide you can’t bear the pain and suddenly change your mind, you can easily wash it off with water, which can’t be said about plain old wax. The basic sugaring paste ingredients are white sugar, lemon juice, and water, and there are thousands of videos on Youtube to guide you through the process of creating this affordable hair removal product.

58%

of British women use shaving as their preferred method of hair removal

Electrolysis: The only permanent hair removal method recognised by the FDA in the US, electrolysis utilises chemical or heat energy to remove individual hairs from the follicle. Although it’s generally THE most effective way of removing hair, it can be painful, and you would also need to do multiple sessions, meaning it can also get super expensive. Of course, in the long run it’s worth your money.

Laser Hair Removal: Lasers on your skin, woah!

Slightly similar to electrolysis, the laser’s intense heat damages hair at the follicle, slowing down your hair growth over time. This method works best if you have light skin and dark hair. A “full-body” 3 treatment course can cost you upwards of £1,000 though, so not overly great on a student budget!

It may be better to wait until you’ve graduated for this one!

So there you have it, these are just some alternatives to shaving to consider. Getting rid of unwanted hair is a matter of money and convenience, so here’s to finding a method that won’t be painful to your skin nor your wallet!

Like us on Facebook @TheCourierBeauty

Break-up make-up Unlikely beauty icons Miranda Stoner discusses her childhood beauty icons, and Jaymelouise Hudspith gives us all the confidence boost we how they have shaped the beauty habits she has gained in life need by teaching us how to change up our look post break-up eauty icons can come from anywhere. to remove that double chin.

Image: @nyxcosmetics

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reak-ups are awful. Anyone who has been through one knows that. It doesn’t matter whether it was long term or just a guy you thought had potential, it’s always hard and no doubt there will be tears. So how do you get over it? You need a post break-up makeover to bring back your confidence and distract you from your feelings. By changing up your look you’ll be more open to new experiences and it will leave you with a new outlook on life.

Coco Chanel once said, ‘a woman who cuts her hair is about to change her life’. We’ve all seen the celebrity post break-up photos, the latest is Selena Gomez sporting her new blonde long bob not long after her break up with Abel Makkonen Tesfaye (The Weeknd). It’s one of the easiest steps to take to move on and boot your self-esteem. Head to your salon and treat yourself to a new look, you don’t need to do anything crazy or do anything drastic. Getting a few inches chopped off or trying out a new colour will leave you with fresh hair and a fresh lease on life. Keep your new hairstyle

looking it’s best with at home products to ensure your hair is nourished and enriched for longer.

The second step you can take is to get out of your beauty routine rut. It’s time to start a fresh, although this doesn’t mean you have to totally reinvent your make-up routine and look. Sometimes, all it takes is getting a little braver with your colour choices.

Wear that burgundy lipstick, go bold with that smoky eye, attempt the latest beauty trends, and master it by the time it moves on to the next trend.

However, if you do want to reinvent yourself why not book some one on one lessons with a make-up artist? Not only will they teach you all the basics you’re getting wrong, but also all the latest trends to have you feeling glamourous and like ‘your best you’.

While you’re at it why not treat yourself to a spa day? You need a pamper to cleanse all the negativity that you’ve no doubt been carrying for weeks, or months, as your relationship has come to an end.

It’s up to you whether you go all out with a massage and a full manicure and pedicure or sit at home watching your favourite film with a facemask in your dressing gown. You deserve it, a break-up and a bad relationship can take a lot out of you so it’s time to be selfish and put yourself first.

47%

of people born after the year 1984 ended their last relationship in person, as revealed by a Facebook polling app

Whilst your pampering yourself, it may be time to think about body hair. Some of you will embrace it proudly, some of you may hate any sign of it, it’s totally up to you. However, we’re all guilty of getting comfortable and letting things slip, so getting on top of your annoying little grooming tasks can go a long way to make you feel like a new woman. Grab the tweezers, razor, cream or wax and get ready to jump into the dating scene. Before you know it, you’ll be ready to take on the world and venture into a new relationship, or just enjoy single life so much more!

B

Artwork, advertising, films, your best friend, but sometimes inspiration can strike you at the most random moments and it can come from the most unusual sources. It’s so easy to get stuck in a make-up rut and repeat the same looks every day because you know they work. Sometimes though it’s nice to mix it up and get creative.

For example, as a child I always looked up to the Disney princesses as the most beautiful characters, and my make-up for a long time was very low-key and natural beauty based, with lots of nudes and BB creams. However now that I am older I have come to appreciate the less subtle efforts of the Disney villains. Take Maleficent for example- her full coverage look and sharp contour are enough to make anyone swoon and that smouldering smokey eye is truly inspirational. Quick tip: Kat von D has everything you need to recreate this look. The glorious coiffure of Cruella De Ville is also an object of envy. I bet she used BIG, shampoo from LUSH, it makes your hair stand on end almost as much as her devilish cacklebut its cruelty free certification means that no puppies were hurt in the process. Even the wicked step mother in Cinderella has a sort of on-fleek charm to her groomed features. You might want to avoid taking inspiration from Ursula in the Little Mermaid though, she’s clearly never learned the trick of applying contour underneath the jawline

Image: @mirandahedman

On the other end of the spectrum is the subtle style of Barb from Stranger Things, her beautiful hair proves that even in the 80s it wasn’t all about back combing and wild crimping. I love her look. Her natural make-up emphasises her clear complexion and the shine and curl of her lovely locks can only be the result of a very attentive and talented blow dry artist. Your best bet for recreating this look is using the scünci blow dry kit. Comb out your hair and spray it with a heat protective spray, then dry using the round brush and brush out the curls using the finishing brush.

This day-time look is perfect for making a good impression at a job interview or on a date.

The glorious coiffure of Cruella De Ville is an object on envy Another thing we can take inspiration from, and hear me out on this one, is the dinosaur. For almost a year now the beauty industry has been awash with unicorn themed products. Holographic glows and prismatic glitter, as well as pastel colours have won the hearts of adults and children alike, but there has been a shift recently towards a more metallic look. The long embellished black nails at the Fenty x Puma show also resembled dinosaur claws.

What’s more, among others, NYX Cosmic Metals and most of the Maybelline City Mini Palettes have a metallic influence. If you haven’t seen them already these are a collection of 8 palettes you’ll wonder how you ever lived without, which can be used to create very reptilian looks, my personal favourite is Urban Jungle. Green eyeshadow is also creeping in, it can be found in the Too Faced Clover palette as well as the Fenty x Beauty Galaxy palette. Emerald greens are best blended into the inner corners of your eye and paired with black or dark brown on the outer lid.

Basically, you should never feel restricted by conventional beauty looks, let anything and everything be the inspiration for the colours, techniques and looks you go for, who knows where it could lead.

16

life & style travel

courier.travel@ncl.ac.uk Travel Editors Charlotte Hill & Talia Gillin

Experience the very best of winter sports in the UK

@Courier_Travel thecourieronline.co.uk/travel

the courier

Monday 4 December 2017

Vrai or faux? Surviving life in Paris

Year abroad student, Amy Hannigan, debunks some of the stereotypes surrounding being a student in the French capital

Ugne Rinkeviciute reports on the top 2017 winter activities

W

inter is just around the corner, which means snowball fights, snow angels and catching snowflakes. Whether we get snow or not here in Newcastle this year, there are places just a few hours away known for being some of the snowiest regions in the UK. It’s no surprise, then, that they also offer some snowy activities for every level of experience- so everyone can join in the winter fun.

Snow hole sleeping

Why not head to the Cairngorms for a good night’s sleep in a snow shelter? Scout Mountain Holidays offer a two-day expedition into the mountains of Scotland, surrounded by nothing but winter wildlife. Led by an experienced guide, the trip is physically challenging with hours of walking through the snow carrying a 10 kg rucksack.

Following this, you will dig to a snow hole for you and the rest of your expedition team.

When you think of winter, you think of skiers descending down a steep slope somewhere in the Alps.

In the end, you will have a cosy shelter to curl up in with your sleeping bag, as well as the chance to warm up with a 3-course meal cooked by your guide. If you’ve ever wondered what it’s like to tour through Antarctica, this might just give you an idea.

Fat bike riding

Hop on a fat bike and set out to North Berwick.

Actually, better hop on the train first as it is a couple of hours away! When you reach the coastal town, the thick large tyres on a fat bike will keep you from sinking into the snow, allowing you to reach places otherwise too dangerous when accessed with a mountain bike. With a fat bike you can reach ancient cliff-top castles, deserted bays and shipwrecks in the seaside town without spending tedious hours driving. Have your own adventure riding along the coast. You might even spot a dolphin or two.

Skiing or snowboarding When you think of winter, you think of skiers and snowboarders descending down a steep slope somewhere in the Alps. But you don’t need to pay vast amounts for a plane ticket to the mountains to get a little rush of adrenaline. Situated in Hertfordshire, the Snow Centre has something for everyone, whether you’re an expert or a complete beginner. Try skiing or snowboarding. I can only speak for the latter, but having done so there is one thing I can say for sure. After trying snowboarding, you’ll begin to see Olympic snowboarders for what they really are—a rare kind of immortals. It’s not as easy as it looks! The snowboard is heavy, the slope seems very slippery and you gain speed faster than you think you would. But overall, my first experience was great. Nothing builds your confidence like watching your parents with their skis move on to the big slope after the first fifteen minutes, while one hour in you’re still struggling on the training slope.

Snowshoeing

Snow shoes have wide hardwood frames that distribute your weight over a larger area of ground so that you don’t sink into the snow as you walk. So snowshoeing is effectively winter-style hiking. The North Pennines is a good place head to give it a go. It has been designated an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) and is Britain’s first UNESCO European and Global Geopark. Most importantly, it’s one of the snowiest parts of the UK with snow lying on the ground for around 2 months of the year. And it’s only an hour away from Newcastle. Yay!

Reindeer sleigh riding For the ultimate Christmas experience, without the challenging heights and bitter cold, Blithbury Reindeer Lodge offers rides on a traditional Scandinavian sleigh and the chance to feed moss to over one hundred reindeer. But there is much more on offer. Daytime hours are for children to meet Santa and his elves, but at night the Lodge is for over-eighteens only. Warm mince pie, mulled wine and carol singers in a cosy barn will help you get into the Christmas Spirit. ‘The Reindeer Man’, Steve Swinnerton, will also be there by the fire to tell his adventurous stories and experiences with reindeer throughout his life as a breeder and trainer. But if I could give you just one reason to visit the Lodge, it’s this: there’s nothing on this planet more adorable than a baby reindeer!

Image- Max Pixel

T

hree months into my life in Paris, and I’m still constantly surprised by how different Parisian life is to what you see in tourist brochures. Whilst I didn’t exactly believe everyone would wear onions round their necks, a lot of expectations have turned out to be mere clichés. So, what is true of Paris? And what’s plain faux?

“Parisians are rude and arrogant” It wouldn’t be over-exaggerating to say the Parisians are hated: they’re depicted as self-centred characters who rush around getting irritated by everything they see. Now I’m not completely denying this, I won’t pretend I wasn’t once scolded for carrying a suitcase in a train station…

But over the last three months I’ve been blown away by how KIND everyone is! Having the door held open for me on the metro, receiving free snacks in bars, and being wished a ‘wonderful’ day are strangely frequent occurrences. The Parisians are always ready to help you out, you just have to return the favour! Expect them to be rude and moody, and blimey they will be… but give them a smile and thank them for their little gestures, and they’ll spend five minutes explaining “no no, it’s me who should thank you” or “please, have a great day”.

“The best monument in Paris” You either just thought of the Eiffel Tower, or you’re lying. It’s true the Eiffel Tower is pretty damn impressive; catch it after sunset, and (spoiler alert) every hour it displays a sparkly light show that’ll take your breath away. But I really don’t recommend the experience of climbing the tower: a minimum of two hours waiting to pass security checks; a choice of endless steps to climb or a lift crammed full of tourists; and a view from the top hindered by wired fencing. It’s not the magical experience tourist guides make it out to be.

My solution?

The Montparnasse Tower. Whilst from the bottom the tower resembles an ugly skyscraper, the top of the tower offers the best view of Paris.

Pay half the price, wait a fraction of the time, have a lift to yourself, and enjoy an unhindered 360 panorama of the city, including an amazing view of the Eiffel Tower (a view ‘La Tour Eiffel’ herself couldn’t possibly offer!!)

“Parisian chic: berets and stripy shirts” This HAS to be an untrue stereotype, right? I’m not sure whether it’s intentional, but the Parisians really DO love pairing their maroon or mustard chinos with one of the few hundred striped t-shirts they must have in their wardrobes. And when the weather gets cold? Obviously, they throw on a beret. It’s perfectly normal to walk the streets wearing a beret (usually a red one) and you can find them in most accessory shops.

“Parisians take two-hour-long alcohol fuelled lunches” In smaller towns of France, it may well be true that businesses shut down for half of the afternoon whilst workers take their time over several plates of food and bottles of wine. But in Paris, the locals barely take time away from working. Boulangeries offer “formule” lunches to eat on-the-go, and fastfood chains are becoming more and more popular. Don’t get me wrong, the Parisians LOVE their food, but unfortunately, I’ve never been allowed to abandon my office for an à-la-carte feast…

“Don’t eat out, the tourist restaurants are a rip-off ” This one couldn’t be further from the truth. The Latin Quarter of Paris is one of the most reasonably priced areas I’ve ever encountered in a big city, especially considering it’s a stone throw from the spectacular Notre Dame cathedral. The majority of restaurants offer three course meals for less than 16€, with an amazing variety of choices like duck, steak, cheeseboards, mussels, frogs-legs, onion soup… what was I saying?

If you stick to this area, there’s absolutely no need to break the bank for a lovely meal. And if you fancy treating yourself to a drink afterwards? Just a ten-minute walk over the river is the area Châtelet, full of bars offering Happy Hour all evening!

“Paris is a city of magic and beauty” Spend just a few hours here, and I promise you’ll fall in love with the place. It’s quirky, enchanting, mysterious, charming. Whilst evidently a lot of Parisian stereotypes are outright false, this perception of the city is far from wrong. Whether you come for a six-month work placement like me, or just a weekend mini-break, Paris and all its weird and wonderful clichés certainly cannot be missed.

Words of the week- Turkey

Image- Wikipedia Commons

Hello-Merhaba Goodbye- Allaha ısmarladık How are you?- Nasılsınız?

What is your name?- Adınız ne?

the courier Monday 4 December 2017

student activity

culture What’s on 17

editor.union@ncl.ac.uk thecourieronline.co.uk Culture Editors Zoë Godden and Errol Kerr Student Activity Editor: Alex Hendley

NSR SHOW OF THE WEEK Rozza’s Roundup Wednesdays 2pm-3pm

Rory Ewart is new the to radio presenting game but you wouldn’t know it when you tune in to Rozza’s roundup on a Wednesday afternoon from 2PM. The show is an hour of specialist, informed analysis, debate, talk and featured interviews with guests of all varieties. Rory uses his sharp commentary and his deep understanding of the sporting world to flow between everything from football to boxing and all things in between.

Often joined by Angus Buxton and Alfie Lacrombe the team provide superb comment in a light hearted and easy listening style. Accompanied by Rory’s picks of some of the most current and relevant songs of the moment, the show is the first of two hours of essential listening of sporting coverage on NSR’s Wednesday afternoons.

Recently Rory headed up commentary of NSR, The Courier and NUTV’s coverage of Fight Night broadcast live and proved himself, and his show, as one of the best new additions to NSR in 2017.

POETRY IN ACTION POEM OF THE WEEK To hang a price around the neck of what we learn is to slip a noose on this, our truth, our capability to discern how many stars, in their cradle, the sky preserves.

Now they fade, as the velvet dusk encloses black, the will to learn, the seed intact, will wither, while resources lack.

Education is limited in no other way, no boundaries born from creed or age.

Not natural, to cast students away, ‘A clever thing, but to grasp at more, and illuminate the failing day Ah, I’m afraid you’ll have to pay.

Union University Campaign Society Monday 4 December

5pm Wellbeing and Mental Health Services Location: History Room, NUSU 7pm Bingo Revolution, Secret Santa Edition Location: Venue, NUSU

Tuesday 5 December

7pm-11pm Go Volunteer: Bring in Your Clothes Location: NUSU, Go volunteer Office

Wednesday 6 December

1pm Equality and Diversity Training for Student Reps Location: History Room, NUSU 7.30pm-10pm Christian Union Society Text-AToastie Location: Across Jesmond, West Jesmond and Newcastle University Libraries

Thursday 7 December

11am-3pm Amnesty International Write for Rights

Student spotlight FEMINIST SOCIETY

Events: Wednesday 13 & Thursday 14 December The Feminist Society, which explores intersectional feminism in society, holds two events per week which range from talks with guest speakers to craftivism workshops. The society also recently ran Women and Sport Week, a week full of sporty taster sessions and talks on women in sport.

As well as exploring the topic of feminism as a group, the society also hosts fundraisers such as bake sales or film screenings to help a range of charities, supporting marginalised groups across the globe. It’s also a generally lovely place to meet likeminded people and the society runs both drinking and non-drinking based socials on a regular basis. A recent non-drinking social was to The Baltic with Northumbria and Durham’s feminist societies, which was a great chance to meet like-minded people from other universities.

Their upcoming events include a class and gender talk on the 13th and a Christmas-based craftivism session on the 14th. Whether you are completely clued up on feminism or a total novice to the topic, anyone and everyone is welcome! More info can be found on the Facebook page: ‘Newcastle University Feminist Society’.

AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Event: Thursday 7 December

Write for rights is a campaign ran by the human rights charity Amnesty International. It runs every year and each year, for fifteen years, ten different human rights cases are supported. The Amnesty International Society are holding an event in the student union on the 7th December, between 11am and 3pm.

This gives students the chance to write letters and postcards to support the people involved - don’t worry, we also have templates to follow if this sounds daunting.

During the event there will be music, free food and drink and a tombola with £100’s worth of prizes to be won, including meal vouchers and cinema tickets. Millions of people from different countries write letters and this puts pressure on governments to make a change.

You can drop in for five minutes, or stay for a lot longer. ‘Write a Letter. Change a Life’ - Your letters truly make a difference.

Location: NUSU 12pm-1pm Christian Union Society Talk and Free Lunch ‘Why Doesn’t God Just Show Himself Location: Northern Stage 1pm-2pm Christian Union Society Talk and Free Lunch ‘Why Doesn’t God Just Show Himself Location: Northern Stage

Friday 8 December

6.30pm-7.30pm Christian Union Society Candlelit Service Location: Jesmond Parish Church 8.30pm-9.30pm Christian Union Society Candlelit Service Location: Jesmond Parish Church 7pm Harry Potter Studios Tour and London Trip Meet: Hatton Gallery 10pm Winternational Student Blow Out Meet: Venue, NUSU

Saturday 9 December

10.30am Jesmond Street Tidy - Volunteers Wanted!

Location: Jesmond Including Great North Road 1pm Fashion Society: Upcycling Session Location: MLK Room, Student Union 6.30pm Pharmacy Society: Winter Wonderland Ball Location: The Biscuit Factory

Sunday 10 December

1pm Fashion Society: Upcycling Session Location: MLK Room, Student Union 6.30pm Modern Languages Society: Christmas Party Location: Pitcher & Piano

18

culture music

c2.music@ncl.ac.uk Music Editors Toby Bryant, Charlie Isaac & Ally Wilson

On Campus MUSSOC: Christmas Concert

T

his time of year is an exciting one for the Newcastle University Music Society as we wait in anticipation in the lead up to our annual Christmas Concert.

The past few months of practice and hard work will culminate in an evening of fabulous varied music in the King’s Hall on December 10th. I’m so pleased to say that we’ll have six of our wonderful ensembles performing on the night, including vocal ensembles, brass ensembles, and full orchestras.

The night will include notable works such as Tchaikovsky’s ‘Swan Lake Suite’ and Rossini’s ‘Barber of Seville Overture’ performed by the MUSSOC Chamber Orchestra, as well as Vaughn Williams’ ‘Fantasia on Christmas Carols’ performed by the MUSSOC Chamber Choir and accompanied by the MUSSOC String Ensemble and Organ.

Where?: King’s Hall, Armstrong Building When?: 19:30-22:30, Sunday 10th December Who?: Chamber Orchestra, Voices, Chamber Choir, String Ensemble, Brass Ensemble, Flute Group Price?: £3 for students

Here at the Music Society, we pride ourselves on offering a varied range of ensembles and musical practices, and our talented ensemble leaders have carefully selected repertoire to ensure that this evening will be one you can’t miss. Thanks to the determination, commitment, and rigour of our dedicated members, we can proudly display the musical achievements we’ve all worked so hard towards.

Chamber Choir Image: Timothy Cranfield

Orchestra Image: MUSSOC

The concert will take place on Sunday December 10th at the King’s Hall in the Armstrong Building.

Tickets are £5, and £3 for concessions, students and over 60’s. We’d love to see as many of you as possible there, musicians or non-musicians alike!

Jacob Burtenshaw - Music Society Marketing Director

Mussoc Christmas Concert @Courier_Music @TheCourierMusic

the courier

Monday 4 December 2017

‘Despacito’: perfect pop or cultural cock-up?

Natàlia Server Benetó discusses the recent rise of latin-style pop remixes in the mainstream sphere and whether it supports or misuses the artists who lend their names to the hit tracks

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ver since the ‘Despacito’ remix featuring Justin Bieber became a worldwide hit, other English-speaking artists have remixed Hispanic songs – Beyoncé, Little Mix, Sia, Demi Lovato... How is this interjection affecting the music industry, the countries and artists from which this type of music originated?

I believe we should always embrace multiculturalism. Music is constantly evolving and this is not the first time that Hispanic music has made it into the English-speaking world - see ‘La Macarena’, by Los del Río in the 90s. Singers such as Shakira, Jennifer López or Enrique Iglesias all come from either Latin America or Spain and are well-known in the UK, the USA, Australia and other countries. I applaud this because I love seeing Latin artists getting the recognition they deserve, which is why I don’t think that this recent interjection helps make Latin music more accepted or mainstream music more culturally diverse.

Justin Bieber’s case is a clear example of why these collaborations are fake multiculturalism I will avoid going into depth on my own opinion on Bieber, although it’s worth mentioning how he forgot the lyrics to ‘Despacito’ in a live performance, instead saying extremely racist things. I will, however, use his case as a clear example of why these collaborations are fake multiculturalism and not a real acceptance of Latin culture (and its people).

It is extremely difficult for Latin American, and sometimes Spanish, artists to make a name for themselves. In a world in which English is the predominant language, artists with a different first

Image: YouTube language are already at a disadvantage. Besides that, people from Latin American countries often have to migrate in order to work or have a good education, regardless of their career goals. Obviously, artists from other backgrounds also have it hard, but we need to understand the barriers that Latin artists have to overcome before they can even be taken seriously – one of them being their mother tongue. In the case of ‘Despacito’, most people didn’t know there was a song prior to Bieber’s involvement. This makes sense in Anglophone countries where the majority of the music in the charts is in English. But still, it wasn’t Justin Bieber’s song.

Could you name the original artists? Well, Luis Fonsi has had a successful career since the late 90s and Daddy Yankee is considered the king of reggaetón. They both wrote the song, which was already very well-known in Spanish-speaking countries, long before Bieber. However, he is the

one getting the credit, having been awarded a Latin Grammy this year (I mean, come on, he’s not even Latino). So, is the music industry really becoming more culturally diverse? Or is it just focusing on the wrong people?

Coming from a Spanish-speaking country, I would love for people to be genuinely interested in our language and heritage. Sadly, I don’t think that’s what’s happening. Artists like Bieber are getting recognition for the things that Latin artists have been creating for years and years. We may praise the fact that Latin and Spanish music are gaining a space in the English music industry, but we need to understand the power and race relations. I am fine with Justin Bieber being part of ‘Despacito’, as long as Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee receive the credit for it.

Lamenting the losses of 2017

2017 has seen us love and lose some of the most influential and innovative musicians of the 20th and 21st century. Gerry Hart eulogises some of the most heart-breaking losses this year

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n 18th November, the world learned the sad news that AC/DC guitarist and cofounder Malcolm Young had died. He was 64 years old and is survived by his wife and two children.

Malcolm’s death was, sadly, one of many high profile deaths this year. Though not quite so devastating as 2016 (a year I’m sure most of us would rather forget), 2017 was still a pretty bad year for the music industry. The first to really catch my attention was Soundgarden and Audioslave frontman Chris Cornell, who committed suicide on 18th May 2017.

Of all the early ‘90s grunge singers, Cornell was probably the most versatile. Though he frequently stuck to the more understated vocal style of his peers, he could be much more sonorous, resulting in a melodious, piercing wail. This is best demonstrated in Temple of the Dog’s song ‘Hunger Strike’ and the wonderful manner in which Cornell and Pearl Jam vocalist Eddie Vedder feed off one another.

Another more underreported death this year was that of rock and roll star Fats Domino, who died on 24th October aged 89. Fats was a musical titan, with a career spanning six decades in addition to inspiring numerous artists, including The Beatles. He was also a towering figure in his

home city of New Orleans, as is demonstrated by the outpouring of emotion when he briefly went missing following Hurricane Katrina in 2006.

I found a certain catharsis in Linkin Park’s music, and Chester lay right at the centre of it There’s a real energy to Fats’s music, stemming in no small part from his mastery of the piano, which lay at the centre of most of his songs. And though his playing style was fundamentally grounded in Jazz and Blues, it was this energy that allowed Fats to transition seamlessly into Rock n’ Roll. Still, Fats’s music is remarkably accessible to newcomers and definitely worth exploring.

But the death that hit closest to home for me was Linkin Park’s Chester Bennington who, like Cornell, committed suicide on 20th July.

Linkin Park defined my teenage years in no small way. I remember whenever we were on the computers at school loading up whatever dodgy

streaming site that hadn’t been blocked, plugging in my tangled headphones and drowning the world out to the tune of Linkin Park before going home, logging onto World of Warcraft and doing the same. One of my fondest memories is of the journey back from a school trip to Poland listening to Hybrid Theory on my dad’s old Walkman, staring out the coach window as the German countryside rolled past. Angsty though they may have been, I found a certain catharsis in Linkin Park’s music, and Chester lay right at the centre of it.

Like Cornell, Chester’s strength as a vocalist stems from his versatility, though in his case, it’s a versatility of style. Chester could alternate between clean signing, piercing screaming and even rapping near seamlessly, and all done with an emotional energy perfectly in keeping with the instrumentation and the band’s other vocalist Mike Shinoda.

Of course 2017 was witness to many more deaths than the four mentioned here. I’ve not even touched on the likes of Glen Campbell, Lil Peep or Tom Petty, all of whom died this year. I’d sign off by saying something about their musical legacy, but anything I would say would be vapid and trite. So, for lack of anything better, here’s to those artists we lost this year. I just hope 2018 will be a bit more sparing.

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the courier

Songbook Frank Turner

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ith his upcoming seventh studio album described as creativity ambitious and sonically diverse, Frank Turner’s new compilation album Songbook (featuring one new single and ten reworked arrangements of old songs) reminds us that Turner is a master of the singer-songwriter craft, and makes us question the need to stray from his ever-successful formula.

Songbook is a reflective look back down memory lane for Turner and his fanbase, both new and old, featuring eighteen tracks panning all six studio albums. The album’s opener, ‘Four Simple Words’, is a rather fitting one; a staple in Frank Turner’s live set, the song lyrically captures the punk rock ethos of Turner, whilst musically portraying the diversity and raw authenticity of his sound. Whilst songs such as ‘I Still Believe’, ‘Recovery’, ‘The Way I Tend To Be’ and ‘Photosynthesis’ unsurprisingly make the cut, ‘The Road’ is the only track from third studio album Poetry of the Deed to find its way onto the album. Instead, Turner opts to feature five tracks

Blue Lips Tove Lo

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arving a name for herself as the brutally honest lyricist that didn’t want to sing her own songs, it seems no one else can sing these words for her. Tove Lo is undoubtedly not scared to say the things that trouble and delight her.

The very title is a testament to this statement, with the continuation of her second studio album Lady Wood being named Blue Lips. Love and sexuality have been the dominant theme of Tove lo’s work; Blue Lips is no exception to this, with lyrics retailing her sexual experience rebounding loudly through the album.

Tracks ‘Disco Tits’ and ‘Bitches’ use the same explicit focus on sex The punchy, gated reverb dominates, giving Tove Lo’s love of the 80’s a considerable presence in the album, alongside elements of more contemporary EDM. The opening track ‘Light Beams’, though short, is a representation of the heavily stylized sound that marks Tove lo’s progression from her debut album.

Blue Lips retains the same likable aspects of Lady Wood, taking its charming pop and combining this with sharp and jagged lyrics that speak of relationships, love and sex. ‘Shivering Gold’ contains the lyrics ‘Kissing it better, a physical face/Taking your body, I sit on your face’; there is an honesty inherent within the album that is both endearing and brutish. Tracks like ‘Disco Tits’ and ‘Bitches’ use that same explicit focus on sex that make it an entertaining, but equally difficult listen.

‘Stranger’ is seemingly a standout amongst the tracks of the album, boasting the lovable sense of 80’s and a chorus that drags the listener into the lyrics. Similarly, ‘Cycles’ evidences Tove Lo’s ability to a write catchy dance music. Blue Lips isn’t exceptional, and yet it is very much an entertaining listen.

Rory Ellis

from his latest studio release, Positive Songs For Negative People, including the surprising choice of lacklustre album filler ‘The Opening Act Of Spring’.

Whilst this will no doubt split opinions amongst Frank Turner fans, nothing will create greater division than new track ‘There She Is’. Turner has described Songbook as a book-end to the first chapter of his career, as he strays towards a fresh and more innovative sound; ‘There She Is’ supplies the first preview of this. Sonically exciting, the production value on the new single is outstanding, but is unable to cover up surprisingly poor lyric writing. For an artist renowned for his ‘heart on the sleeve’ lyrics and baiting melodic chorus’ and sing-alongs, ‘There She Is’ can be deemed as nothing short of an album filler, thus being a very odd choice for the first glimpse into Turner’s new direction. Whilst the desire to stay innovative must be admired, Turner must remember what he does best, and not sacrifice quality song-writing for the desire to escape being pigeonholed as ‘the guy with the acoustic guitar’.

The second half of Songbook only amplifies this fact. With ten rearranged versions of old tracks, the true genius of Frank Tuner’s songwriting is conveyed through each song’s ability to be adapted in a number of different ways. ‘Long Live The Queen’ and ‘Photosynthesis’ are rerecorded to their live arrangements, and with 2124 live shows under his belt to date, Turner successfully captures the excitement and intensity of his live show within these recordings. However, real success of the album comes from the

Polygondwanal King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard

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ing Gizzard & The Wizard Lizard have had a busy year, with this being their fourth out of five proposed albums in 2017 (the fifth due around Christmas). Their gift to Image: ATO Records the fans being that they have been given access to the digital, vinyl, and CD masters so they can produce and even sell their own versions for profit.

Polygondwanaland leads listeners to accompany the narrator on a quest to find an elusive supercontinent to which man has never ventured, with the band using each song to tell the story in their usual eccentric manner.

The album starts off with ‘Crumbling Castle’, a 10-minute trip into psychedelia with the essence of krautrock accompanying 70’s prog rock dramatics; this is by far the best song on the album. ‘Deserted Dunes Welcome Weary Feet’ is a heavy, experimental track and synth-laden treat for the ears, making it one of the stand out tracks .

A melting pot of their past 5 years of work The album is a melting pot of their past 5 years of work, but in a refined way. By far their most experimental and genre-defying album, like most of King Gizzard’s discography it feels like a sensory overload. ‘Tetrachromacy’ leads us to search for a fourth colour that only a gifted individual can witness, whilst ‘The Castle In The Air’ is a prime example of the albums excellent storytelling, emblazoned with a futuristic edge in the way of lasers.

The album concludes with ‘The Fourth Colour’ a momentous finish of manic drums and overdriven guitar. Overall it is a very impressive 12th album from the Australian outfit, fusing together the sounds of their 5 years of work into this spectacular album. They have proved that you can simultaneously release multiple impressive albums in a year and tour nonstop.

Mollie Middle

music culture

@CourierMusic

Monday 4 December 2017

A Love Letter

To...

Christmas Music

T Image: NME stripped back acoustic rearrangements, which highlight the lyrical integrity and musical authenticity of Turner’s writing. Whilst songs such as ‘Josephine’ now sound redolent of Springsteen’s Nebraska, tracks ‘I Am Disappeared’ and ‘The Way I Tend To Be’ now bleed with a new found emotion.

Turner successfully captures the excitement and intensity of his live show within these recordings The album’s closer, ‘The Ballad Of Me And My Friends’ is fitting, as one of Turner’s oldest songs telling the story of a dead end musical career that never had a chance of going anywhere. Reworked from an acoustic guitar to a beautifully fitting piano piece, the inspiring roar of the closing lyric ‘we’re definitely going to hell, but we’ll have all the best stories to tell’ is Turner triumphantly asserting the end of this chapter as a far greater success than he could have ever imagined. One must simply hope the next chapter of his career still brings with it something of the same.

Danny Aspinall

Editors’ Picks

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ach week, The Courier’s Music Editors are working with Newcastle Student Radio to bring you the best new tracks from the week before...

‘Palace’ The Amazons The breakout band of the year, The Amazons just can’t put a foot wrong. ‘Palace’ from the debut album was always screaming out to be a single and now it is. Completely different to their normal sound, but boy does this work.

Toby Bryant, The Courier ‘Puppies Are Forever’ Sia Hard to tell whether this is a genuine attempt at a hit or just Sia taking the piss. It’s quintessentially shit, catchy and annoying. Gotta love it though.

Ally Wilson, The Courier ‘Powerlines’ Tame Impala Part of a long-awaited collection of Currents B-sides, ‘Powerlines’ is an ambient instrumental which showcases Kevin Parker’s hypnotic production style. Like most Tame Impala, it’s brooding and dreamlike, and also like most Tame Impala, I absolutely love it.

Charlie Isaac, The Courier ‘Small Death’ KAWALA After discovering this extremely up and coming band and their one release, I am already buzzing to hear what new sounds they’ll come up with. Fresh and exciting, descibed as alternative indie/folk, Camden locals KAWALA are ones to watch!

Meg Smith, NSR ‘Turn’ The Night Café ‘Turn’ is the second track from The Night Café’s upcoming EP. The band from Liverpool, are firm favourites in the local indie scene, but are growing ever more popular across the UK. The new track is a treat, packed full of jangly, dazzling guitar riffs -this is definitely just the beginning for The Night Café.

Amy Woods, NSR Hear the Editors’ Picks first, as well as all the latest music news, reviews and gossip on NSR’s Music Show, Wednesdays at 4pm.

by Charlie Isaac

is the season, as they say. Along with fairy lights, fir trees and bitterly cold weather, nothing quite cries ‘December’ like the relentless and inescapable playing of cheesy Christmas songs from every conceivable direction. And, for this very reason, Christmas music is a profitable business; every artist seems to want to jump on the Christmas music bandwagon at some point or other. Mariah Carey’s ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ is perhaps the Holy Grail, raking in an estimated £376,000 per year in royalties and acting as the only song of the last 25 years to have truly entered the Christmas music canon.

But, obligatory cynicism aside, what exactly is it about Christmas music that makes it so… Christmassy? We’ll start with the obvious: festive lyrics, upbeat rhythms, use of major keys and basic diatonic harmonies (to give it that comfortable, familiar feeling), and simple nostalgia play no small part. But we can go deeper.

Timbre, the ever-vague ‘sound’ or ‘character’ of the music unrelated to pitch or intensity, plays a bigger part than most ever consider. The nowiconic opening of ‘All I Want For Christmas Is You’ for instance, is played on a celesta. You might recognize this instrument – a type of keyboard developed in the 19th century – from its other famous use in the equally-festive ‘Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy’ by Tchaikovsky. The association thus spans over 100 years, and now shows up in a shocking number of Christmas tunes.

What exactly is it about Christmas music that makes it so...

Christmassy?

Similarly, the unrelenting sleigh bells of Shakin’ Stevens’ ‘Merry Christmas Everyone’, among others, screams ‘Christmas’ like no other sound. The sweeping strings of Bing Crosby’s ‘White Christmas’ and the Pogues’ ‘Fairytale of New York’ undoubtedly give one that warm, fuzzy Yuletide feeling, as a result of the fame of the former and similar holiday classics from the trad-pop era.

Perhaps a relic of 80s synthpop, a steady quaver pulse (or rhythmic ostinato, if you want to get technical) now has distinctively wintery connotations. See Wham’s ‘Last Christmas’, Band Aid’s ‘Do They Know It’s Christmas’ and Slade’s ‘Merry Christmas Everybody’.

Even something as simple as a major scale descending from the tonic – as in Wizzard’s ‘I Wish It Could Be Christmas Everyday’ and the soundtracks to various Christmas movies – is used to evoke the image of snowflakes falling and the childlike excitement that comes with it.

None of these features are, of course, inherently Christmassy, or indeed only employed for festive reasons. Rather, their cultural connotations and associations have been moulded by decades of popular Christmas music, into defining what exactly a Christmas song should sound like. So merry Christmas one and all, and I truly hope this article hasn’t sucked the magic out of your favourite Christmas song too much.

Newcastle Student Radio: nsrlive.co.uk @NSRlive

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culture TV

Amy Gildert’s Sherlock Image: Bruno Scramgnon (Pexels)

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BITTER

he BBC’s reimagining of Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock poised the beloved characters in a modern world, but what started as a refreshing take on an old story quickly turned into nothing but frustration.

As a fan at the time, the wait between each season was unbearable. TWO YEARS IS A LONG TIME TO WAIT MY FRIENDS. Yes the show is expensive and yes each episode is basically a film, but the creators almost made a game out of dragging on the wait between each season. When this occurred between every single season, it did nothing but negatively impact fans who grew tired of waiting for new content. It lost its momentum in that time, and the following seasons dipped in story quality.

What could have been interesting characters turn into plot devices Sherlock also mocks the fan base that made it so popular in the first place. After Sherlock’s faked suicide in the second season, fans took to the internet in droves trying to figure out how he did it.

But when the show came back, their theories were used against them in a sequence that comes across as mocking of fan culture. Not to mention the hideous sin of queerbaiting that the show has a long history of.

In the world of Sherlock Holmes, women have no agency but to further the tension. This is true for both Mary and Eurus. What could have been interesting characters turn into plot devices that exist purely for Sherlock’s character development, rather than what would have actually made sense in the story. Even the mighty Irene Adler is trivialized by her ‘girly’ feelings. Co-creators Moffat and Gatiss consistently demonize women in order to humanize their male characters.

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SWEET

lthough the plot of later seasons plot descended into nonsensical fever dreams, Sherlock was undeniably huge. And for good reason too. By bringing Sherlock into modern times, Gatiss and Moffat really set their show aside from the other adaptations of Conan Doyle’s work. Something about the characters of Sherlock Holmes and John Watson never fail to be captivating in any reimagining’s, and this version is no exception. Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman work amazingly well together, and their comedy and chemistry were strong enough to start a whole fandom of people who were obsessed with the show.

One of the qualities that really sets Sherlock aside is the way it manages to represent the patterns and procedure of thought on screen. Sherlock is an impossibly clever character, and without some way to follow the process of the deductions, the audience would be left behind. So they cleverly use a combination of visual aids and cinematography to involve the audience.

The cinematography has always been incredible, and even more so after the show was renewed and given a larger budget. The crew manage to accomplish the kind of shots and transitions that you would automatically assume had been the result of CGI. However in the behind the scenes, you suddenly realize that painstaking effort has been put into crafting these intricate shots, such as the bullet time shot in “The Sign of Three” where a long line of cameras were set up side by side for a shot that only lasted 10 seconds, or the repositioning of entire sets to allow Sherlock to walk through memories.

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the courier

c2.tv@ncl.ac.uk TV Editors Jacob Clarke, Joel Leaver & Alex Moore

VERDICT

herlock has me divided on a verdict. Early seasons are nothing but Sweet, but most episodes past season two leave me with a bad taste in my mouth that I could only call Bitter.

Monday 4 December 2017

Charity shows: a help or hindrance?

Grace Dean weighs up the real world pros and cons of rising charity fundraising programmes

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he success of BBC’s Children In Need this year is undeniable; the night recorded a total of over £50 million, adding to the current grand total of more than £890 million since the first television broadcast in 1980. The annual event is, alongside Comic Relief, one of the UK’s celebrated annual telethons, and raises funds to improve the lives of disadvantaged children nationally who are affected by poverty, disability and child neglect.

The ever-increasing popularity of charity TV shows has brought with it a whirlwind of debate about the morality of this as a fundraising method.

In the aftermath of Children In Need, this issue is once again in the public eye.

Naturally the shows are a powerful way for charities to raise vital funds. With increasing work pressures and ever-busier lives, many people find it easy to turn a blind eye to the silent suffering in the world. Some of these people are lazy; some just are oblivious. With watching television reportedly being the nation’s favourite pastime, the black box is arguably the most influential form of media.

People are critical of their exploitation of guilt psychology Thus, of all the methods of raising awareness of the great inequalities and injustices in the world, television is the most accessible option; whilst many schools and workplaces actively celebrate the day with sponsored events, bun sales and nonuniform days, the annual telethon allows other demographics to simply tune i n passively and send a £5 text donation whilst watching the show.

Charity television shows also showcase charity work. These relentless teams of volunteers rarely are praised, and the telethons ignite a feeling of national pride by celebrating the generosity and goodwill of people across our country. Children In Need supports around 2400 projects, and without this annual broadcast many of them would fail to receive recognition.

When used in combination with other regular fundraising events and more traditional methods, charity television shows can serve as a gentle reminder and source of reinforcement.

In spite of this, the growing popular-

ity of these shows has also opened intense political and moral debate.

For some people, Children In Need and Comic Relief are evidence of charities bowing down to the increasing pressures of commercialisation and commodification. The shows are spectaculars which utilise a prime studio location, hefty camera

The hard work of many local charities can often go unnoticed team and prime-time viewing. Whilst these aspects of the show are vital for raising viewing numbers and thus donations too, some people are critical of the fact that the BBC does not choose to directly donate this money to charity instead.

The biggest scandal Children In Need has been involved with to date was the announcement in 2007 that Terry Wogan, who presented the show between 1980 and 2014, had been receiving an annual honorarium. Despite this being paid from BBC resources rather than the charity fund and only increasing in line with inflation, it has still led many people to question the financial motivations behind the show.

The telethons can also be argued as focusing on a limited group of charities and thus dwarfing smaller charities.

Charity television shows as a rule of thumb concentrate on national and transnational

charities, and therefore the hard work of many local small-scale charities can often go unmentioned. Is it fair that, through this monopolisation of the third sector, many voluntary groups get less praise and appreciation despite their work being of no less value?

This problem is exacerbated by growing public outcry over the groups which are being supported with the funding. Particularly controversial is Children In Need’s support for the politically-motivated organisation Women in Prison, which campaigns against the imprisonment of female offenders.

Similar debate has been raised over Comic Relief’s apparent lack of gender equality, with a large proportion of the funds going towards charities that focus exclusively on females.

Problems have also surfaced related to the way that the shows are directed, with people criticising their exploitation of guilt psychology to encourage people to donate when they do not always have the financial means available to do so. Furthering this, telethons can be described as a poignant reminder of how inherently selfish and lazy people are; it is harrowing feeling to realise how much effort has to be put in just to encourage the British population to open their purses for charity.

Ultimately these shows will increasingly cause controversy and public debate as Britain becomes increasingly inquisitive about what goes on behind the studio screens. Despite this, if the BBC has more transparency about the destinations of the funding and introduces more support for smaller charities, shows such as these ultimately have the potential to save lives.

Images: Karen Abeyesekere, Wallzbucket.com, Jose Manuel Ruiz Fernandez (Wikipedia)

Is the British media failing to represent the North?

Lucy Lillystone critiques the constant centralisation of British television in the 21st century

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ne task that occupies many is the need for more diversity in the media. A need to promote inclusiveness and show a vision of the world separate from an all-whitemale-heterosexual society. And although this focus has been successful to some extent, with increases in the amount of LGBT+ representation and a higher inclusion of women, it seems the media is still lacking.

Whether it be newspapers, television or the radio, there is a focus and centralisation on the South, primarily on London. A South versus North battle has emerged with London being on top, marginalising the North and all it embodies.

Take the news as an example: we always hear about the crime and action occurring in London to the extent I find myself knowing about every miniscule detail of London life. Yet, when it comes to the North: nothing. Tragic shooting in London: CENTRAL NEWS. Tragic shooting in Newcastle: what? Where did you hear that? It wasn’t on the news. It is about time we turn the tables and have the media focus on the North.

Maybe it’ll brighten up the lives of Londoners to be exposed to something other than themselves for once.

There is also the problem of the radio.

Despite the recent movement of the BBC to the North which previously was not the case, the radio is still filled with London broadcasters, telling the latest news in their sophisticated, refined accents.

Because of this, Northerners are now starting to accommodate to these views, converging their accents to sound more like Southerners so as to ‘fit in’ with the image of what the media hopes to cast.

As a Northerner myself, I find this just disrespectful. Since when was my accent not enough?

And of course, things are starting to get better, particularly regarding television and shows such as Coronation Street and Cold Feet where the North of England, particularly Manchester, gets its moment of fame. However, despite this, closer examination of some television shows situated in the North show that this representation is not always a good one. Shameless, for example, although humorous and charming portrays Northerners to

Image: Tellyaddict (Wikimedia Commons )

be lazy, reckless and the deadbeats of society. Okay, this might be exactly what the producers intended for the show in order to produce comedy but it has its problems

t o o : one being that this image becomes a stereotype for all Northerners with everyone assuming we are all like this and nothing more. As much as comedic Northerners are entertaining, where are the serious portrayals? Why can’t Northerners be seen as serious as Londoners?

When did the South become superior? What the media needs is a departure from classy old London and a focus on the North. Give me a true Brummie accent on the news; a story centralised on the North in the newspaper; a show that depicts us Northerners to be just as sophisticated as those dwelling in the South. Media, give me the North.

the courier Monday 4 December 2017

Reviews

Preview

Preacher

Star Wars Disney

Amazon Prime

Image: Steve Troughton (flickr)

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@CourierTV thecourieronline.co.uk/tv

Expected 2019

hen Star Wars first returned to screens, euphoria greeted the 1998 Phantom Menace teaser. Fast forward twenty years and House Mouse is creating new Star Wars material at breakneck pace. This month - buried beneath the press release of a new new trilogy - Disney also announced a live action Star Wars series to be released exclusively on their forthcoming Netflix-esque streaming platform.

With the series being a flagship show, big investment seems likely, so whilst everyone else talks about the further adventures of Rey and co.

I’m wondering where they’ll go with this new series (warning - painfully geeky content ahead):

Whatever they decide, here’s hoping it doesn’t involve Jar Jar Binks 1. The Old Republic: The likely fan choice; a pre-history story where the Jedi push the Sith to the brink of extinction. Imagine Star Wars meets Lord of the Rings. The expensive choice, but with flagship value.

2. Something Firefly-esque: How ironic would it be? Joss Whedon’s cult favourite proved the quality in a personal story within a bigger world.

Maybe the further adventures of Cassian and K2SO prior to Rogue One? 3. Star Wars Stories: I’ve wondered for years why we don’t have ‘Springfield Stories’ focusing on supporting Simpsons characters. A spotlight on supporting characters; who doesn’t want an hour of Porkins?

4. Underworld: In 2005 George Lucas said he had 100 scripts ready to shoot of a series focused on the underbelly of the galaxy far far away. Unlikely given its adult themes but shines a light on the smugglers paradise within the Star Wars universe.

5. Something Fargo-esque: Essentially character driven anthologies similar to the big screen versions (Rogue One, Solo) - I’d love to see six episodes concerning Darth Maul or the Vader comics.

Whatever they decide - here’s hoping it doesn’t involve Jar Jar Binks.

Callum Costello

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hhh Preacher. What a breath of fresh air.

In an industry saturated with lengthy superhero shows and crime procedurals, a programme about a preacher that receives the power of “Genesis”, giving him the power of command over any human is as original as they come. AMC could have simply produced another cop drama or teen angst serial. Instead they went with an adaption of a relatively obscure comic book about a super powered preacher.

The story follows a Southern States preacher named Jesse Custer and his flock in a small rural community. One day, Jesse receives the gift of Genesis. He begins to use it, but struggles to combine his almost God like power with his religious beliefs. Eventually, Jesse succumbs to the power of this gift, using it on a particularly needy member of his flock, Eugene, telling him to “go to hell” which he promptly does. Dominic Cooper’s acting portrays perfectly the guilt and shock of literally sending someone to spend eternity in fiery damnation, or so we think. It turns out Hell is more of a prison in which you are forced to live out the worst moment of your life on repeat. For Eugene, this is the moment his crush blew her brains out in a fit of psychopathic rage, and Eugene then proceeds to blow his own brains out, only to be left with a massive hole in the middle of his face. Yep this show is that weird.

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Preacher was nominated for three awards in 2017

In season two we look more at Jesse’s back story; his criminal beginnings with his girlfriend, Tulip and his abusive childhood. Every character is incredibly unforgettable, whether it be the Nazi businessman who wants to find God (literally), the immortal angels who have come to defend Genesis, the undefeatable gunslinger who murders everyone in his way to get Genesis, but most of all the comic relief vampire, Cassidy, played by Misfits’ Joe Gilgun. The immortal nice guy acts as a great moral compass for the ethical dilemmas Jesse and Tulip face in the show. Cassidy, despite being easily characterised as a blood-sucking monster is a true friend to the both of them. If you are sick of generic rubbish TV produces these days, give Preacher a go.

Jack Coles

TV culture

Inhumans

I’m a Celebrity...

Get me Out of Here!

ITV One

Image: YouTube

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Sky One

Image: YouTube

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ince pies are back in the shops and the John Lewis advert has appeared on our screens. That can only mean one thingeveryone’s favourite reality show is back!

There are so many reasons to love this show: from Ant and Dec’s banter to camera, the celeb breakdowns during the bush tucker trials and the fights back in camp.

This year, Ant’s potential no-show was a huge talking point after going into rehab, so it was a relief to have him back and even making jokes about it.

There’s an interesting mix of “celebrities” this year including the camp’s first vlogger. Stanley (Boris Johnson’s dad) is shaping up to be this year’s most loveable celeb, as he’s truly baffled about modern culture and what the others actually do. For example, he asked Jack whether he vlogged about global warming and what E4 was.

If you were expecting a shakeup of the show, you’d be disappointed as the format is largely the same as in previous years. However, it works. It still manages to make some great commentary about what has happened during the year (case in point: Donald Hump the camel and the Battle for 10 Downing creek challenge).

Stanley (Boris Johnson’s dad) is shaping up to be this year’s most lovable celeb There are always plenty of funny moments whether in camp or during a trial, such as when Amir Kahn completely lost it and forfeited the challenge after accidentally pulling a snake from a box. You can definitely expect more as the hunger gets stronger and delirium starts to set in.

The only negative for me so far was when the camp separated for two nights. Although it was a one off, I felt it stagnated the action.

Overall, it’s a great pick to watch with housemates and is a true guilty pleasure in the countdown to Christmas.

Harriet Middlewood

Image: YouTube

F

ollowing the UK Release of Marvel’s Inhumans on the 25th October, it is only four episodes in and already has a lot of negativity surrounding it, with low ratings of 5.3/10 on Imdb and a shocking 8% on Rotten Tomatoes.

However I am here to restore a little faith for you Marvel fans, or Marvel newbies.

The series follows the life of inhumans and the Royal family who live on the moon, hidden away from the people of Earth and then the consequences that follow after a divide between members of the Royal family unfolds.

Just like every other MCU creation it delivers on humour, stunning visuals and a storyline that invites you in and grabs your attention from the word go. My personal favourite is Lockjaw, the giant bulldog who acts as the Royal’s loyal protector.

I am here to restore a little faith for you Marvel fans Another aspect of Inhumans that does not disappoint is Iwan Rheon’s portrayal of Maximus, the King’s brother. Iwan as an actor has always delivered an explosive performance, we love and root for him as Simon in Misfits, we hate him in Game of Thrones and aren’t too fond of him either in Riviera but one thing is for sure, he is a brilliant actor and not unlike his other roles he delivers a performance that packs a punch and gives me hope for the rest of the series.

So there may be low ratings and the word stumble being thrown around in regards to Marvel’s new series, and part way through the first episode I thought maybe I wasn’t going to be a fan; but if we put the one ‘cheesy’ scene aside, it was definitely not a waste of my time. In fact, I cannot wait to watch the next episode and I guess there’s no time like the present.

Danielle Brier

@thecouriertv @Courier_TV

Why are so many movie stars �locking to television?

From Rachel McAdams to Rupert Grint, Laura Bolden addresses why Hollywood stars are taking on roles for the small screen E very year we become more and more engrossed by television series’. Some TV networks raise the stakes by introducing new storylines that shock even the most avid of viewers, whilst others establish new hit shows that leave us desperate for more episodes.

Considering the vast numbers of shows all competing for viewers and success it is no surprise that networks and studios are trying new tricks to win the world’s attention. The new secret to a hit show seems to be an all-star cast, specifically one that features movie-stars.

TV stars have been known to successful transfer to Hollywood staring in blockbuster films, take Jennifer Aniston for example who successfully moved from playing Rachel Green in

Friends to starring in some of the biggest films of the last decade such as Along Came Polly and Just Go With It It. Traditionally working from TV to movies is considered to be moving up the success-ranks for actors whilst moving from movies to TV was seen as a desperate attempt to keep a career alive; however, more and more A-list stars are making the move to TV. We shouldn’t be surprised by this though. with shorter shooting times meaning longer holidays, more series allowing for guaranteed employment for longer and major pay-days (remember when Charlie Sheen was earning £1.8 million per episode of Two and a Half Men) the world of television does seem more appealing.

If I were to list all of the Hollywood Image: Gage Skidmore (Wikimedia Commons) stars who are now featuring in hit television series I would probably need

my own pull out magazine, but a notable few include Kathy Bates, Zooey Deschanel and Robert De Niro.

Traditionally, moving to TV was seen as a desperate attempt to keep a career alive Series that feature big name actors are even some of the best around, after some public scandals in her personal life Winona Ryder is currently back at her best staring in one of the most talked about series of the decade; Stranger Things.

Rupert Grint’s move to television allowed him to display more versatility and move away from his typecast as the dopey Ron Weasley from Harry

Potter. His character in Snatch is part of a gang of hustlers, intelligent and educated, a sharp change from what we are used to. Side note: If you have not watched Snatch yet you really should.

The American drama series True Detective is one of the show’s most known for its A-list cast. Matthew McConaughey, Collin Farrell, Rachel McAdams and Vince Vaughn are the most notable of stars who have swapped movies for the hit series.

McConaughey won an award for his role in True Detective in the same year that he was awarded for his role in the Oscar winning movie Dallas Buyers Club proving it is possible to work in both films and television at the same time.

Some believe movie stars shouldn’t be starring in television shows as their notable presence can distract from the storylines and is overwhelming, whilst others, like the networks themselves, can’t seem to get enough of the hybrid of TV and Film.

One thing is for certain, the landscape of television has changed.

22

culture film

c2.film@ncl.ac.uk Film Editors Helena Buchanan, Dan Haygarth & Christopher Wilkinson

Golden Oldies

Battle of the Sexes (12A) Review

Lauren Sneath reviews Battle of the Sexes, a star-studded film highlighting sexism in sport

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am one of those people loved by any film producer because I am inevitably always sucked in. I’m very rarely displeased by cinema; I greedily consume a story without reservation, fall in love with characters without censorship. So, of course, I am now Emma Stone’s number one fan.

I

The historically testosterone filled world of American tennis

Stand By Me (1986)

t is safe to say that I was desperately emotionally unprepared to watch Stand By Me. Not that I am entirely convinced that anyone ever can be, but seeing the film somewhat hung-over and on a big screen definitely did not aid the potential for falling into floods of tears each time subtle strains of Ben E King’s ‘Stand By Me’ came on in the background.

One of the most heart-breaking aspects of this film is the fact that it is carried by the late River Phoenix, in both his flawless acting and the way his character supports the rest. It is amazingly impressive to have a legacy despite having died so young, but the tragic reality is that he could have gone on to do so much or simply to live a life.

I knew the story of Battle of the Sexes vaguely - a heart warming, feminist victory over classic male chauvinism, set in the historically testosterone fuelled world of American tennis. When I sat down, I expected something light; Steve Carell providing easy laughs, Emma wide-eyed and probably falling in love. All of this took place, but took a very different form to my preconceived idea.

It’s easy to be loud (and even easier when you’re

Steve Carell and have built a career around it) but Bobby Riggs was a step even further than Carell’s classic characters have been. Bizarrely, despite the character’s open sexism and complete lack of moral feeling, I couldn’t help but warm to him.

This was perhaps helped along by Riggs’ wife their marriage as a side story was, aside from his relationship with his son, the only aspect which showed his humanity.

The play-by-play way in which the final match was filmed felt genuine Carell as Riggs was at times painful to watch (how many offensive jokes can one man (or a whole host of script-writers and developers) make?) but the way he made me feel uncomfortable was brilliant.

It was real; his brashness and lack of empathy makes a perfect reflection of how unfeeling society was at that time, and Emma as his perhaps overly emotional counterpart an excellent figurehead for

Image: YouTube

I felt incredibly lucky to have been able to see this film on the ‘big screen’. The impact during scenes such as the crossing the railway bridge was tangible.

The drama of the moment and the smallness of the boys can be appreciated nowhere else.

The greatest (if clichéd) moment comes at the very end, when the grown-up Gordy muses on the brilliances of the friendships you make when you are twelve. It is impossible to watch this without thinking about your own, and I imagine I always will.

The essence of the time was so zesty it is hard to not think of it as the very best of the best of times At twelve we all had long greasy hair, short skirts and never stopped singing. Though the same is still essentially true, the essence of that time was so zesty it is hard to not think of it as the best of the best of times. You can try to rip off the rose tinted specs, but I wouldn’t recommend it. Get high on nostalgia (as long as you never feel the need to ‘make anything great again’) and watch this fabby fab film.

Helena Buchanan

Carell as Bobby Riggs was times painful to watch

Star Wars taking on intergalactic proportions

Joe Holloran looks at the ground (dare I say galaxy) shaking news of a new Star Wars trilogy.

Will it be a blessing or an unnessecary addition, ruining the ‘perfection’ of a trio of trilogies?

T Image: Flickr.com

change.

Stone herself was an excellent heroine. I’m easy to please, I’ll admit, but I’d be surprised to find someone completely unaffected by her energy and determination. She and Carell bounced off each other to add a showy dynamic to what could otherwise seem a rather heavy film.

The high volume, high drama world of tennis and women’s rights was balanced by a perhaps surprisingly believable performance by Stone of a struggle with sexuality. Maybe I’m too used to seeing her loved up with Ryan Gosling, but until I saw this film I was a little sceptical of her ability to act this credibly- without turning the role into a classic, ‘Oscar-bait’ part to add to her portfolio.

Andrea Riseborough was also convincing, though perhaps a little airy. I do feel that too much emphasis was placed upon Jean’s ‘temptation’though in order to show the character’s distraction and heighten tension pre-game, perhaps it was necessary.

The number of close-up shots was borderline uncomfortable - Emma Stone has incredible teeth, though, by the way- but in general, I found the cinematography in keeping with the story. I was particularly impressed with the play-by-play way in which the final match was filmed; it felt genuine, and by the end I almost forgot the fictional aspect and simply enjoyed the tennis. I hope that was the intention of directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris.

Yes, I’m something of a film-whore. I’ll sing the praises of any film, any story, any actor which makes me feel something, and from the slow motion first sequence to Stone’s last, victorious smile, I was captivated. Is it really bad practice to applaud in a cinema?

At twelve we all had long greasy hair, short skirts, and never stopped singing One of the amazing things about this film is the fun that resonates. Though the subject is essentially bleak, and the scenes are punctuated by harrowing revelations about the boys’ lives, joy is never lost.

The characters’ light-hearted nature lifts the film out of sorrow, the way that optimists can lift us from the misery or morbidity of life as we know it.

The opening of the film always irritates me, being a Goonies girl at heart. Both films begin with an out-of-breath fat friend with big news to share, and the similarity is painfully overt.

the courier Monday 4 December 2017

here comes a time in everyone’s life when something comes along that brings them joy unbounded. A wedding to the love of your life or the birth of your first child - these events are fine. But they pale in comparison to the announcement of the new Star Wars trilogy.

This month Disney-Lucasfilm gave the geekworld another early Christmas present when they confirmed the rumours that more movies were in the works. What’s more, Episode VIII director Rian Johnson has been asked to create an overall story treatment for the trilogy as well as directing the first instalment. They must be mightily impressed with Johnson’s work on The Last Jedi to trust him with creating a whole new, separate, trilogy, before the film has been released and scrutinized.

Financially speaking, the new trilogy makes complete sense for Disney Disney paid an amazing $4.5 billion for the franchise in 2012. So far the two films alone have raked in a net profit of around 2.6 billion in Box Office sales alone, not to mention the untold millions made from merchandise and ‘expanded universe’ media such as comics, books and video games.

Financially speaking, the new trilogy makes complete sense for Disney. There only potential pitfall is a story that disappoints the fan base.

So, what can we expect from these new films?

Information so far is limited. This isn’t surprising given the release date for the first movie is 2021, but that doesn’t mean we can’t make an informed guess based on what little we know. The statement says that the trilogy will feature entirely new characters and show a part of the galaxy never explored before. Disney will not risk venturing to far from the tried and tested conventions of the

space opera. I think it is safe to assume therefore that lightsabres, the force and a conflict between light and dark will feature in these films.

$2.07

billion taken at the worldwide box office

by Star Wars: The Force Awakens

The question is will Disney and the Lucasfilm story group go back to established ‘Legends material’ (non-canon material from before the 2012 buyout) to find their story, or will they create something entirely new? Personally, I think the story will take place during the Old Republic era and tell the story of a galaxy wide war between the Sith and the Jedi. This will fulfil both criteria for Disney, the hardcore fans will love the new backstory, references to old material and continuation

Image: Vimeo

of the mythology, and the casual fans will get to experience the epic swordsmanship and all the space dogfights they could ever want.

Whatever the future holds for the franchise I for one will be there. First in line to buy tickets on opening day, pre-ordering all the add on books and comics online and generally geeking out with zeal. Is it strange for an adult to care this much for a mythology of good and evil? Maybe, but at least I know that my favourite story didn’t actually happen and don’t build my life around its fables.

Roll on December 15th and every year after that so long as it contains a new adventure from a Galaxy far, far away....

@NewcastleCourierFilm @Courier_Film

the courier

@Courier_Film thecourieronline.co.uk/film

Monday 4 December 2017

Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond

film culture

Column 2 Electric Boogaloo

Callum Costello discusses the new Netflix documentary about Jim Carrey’s method acting

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omedy and tragedy exist at a crossroads, and in Jim & Andy we see what happens when they smash together violently.

Irrationality is part of Jim Carrey’s comedic genius, but a part of the persona that James Eugene Carrey seems most conflicted with. Each time Jim’s career has taken a right turn James has steered back again; Liar Liar followed The Cable Guy, Lemony Snicket followed Eternal Sunshine.

A much publicised battle with depression has led to a re-evaluation of the subtext of his performances; there’s split personality disorder in Me, Myself and Irene, psychotic obsession in The Number 23, uncontrollable self destruction in I Love You Philip Morris. An analysis of Jim Carrey’s star persona is fascinating; he is at once a voice of the voiceless yet also one of the biggest film stars in the world. No investigation of Jim Carrey’s body of work is complete without a deep look at Man on the Moon, Carrey’s finest performance and pet project biopic of comedic idol and performance genius Andy Kaufman, which is exactly what documentary Jim & Andy is.

There’s plenty of uncomfortable moments in the film, but none more so than when Carrey returns to set at the height of his psychosis with an entourage of Hell’s Angel’s bikers. A crew member shouts that a dozen people will sue the production for mental distress - front of that queue is Carrey himself. Jim’s desire to do justice to Kaufman is so extreme that he gets completely lost in the role (and may still be).

Man on the Moon wasn’t a popular film and there’s not much about Jim Carrey’s method

approach to the work, so for Netflix to release a documentary eighteen years later solely on Carrey’s approach to a role in a film that flopped critically and commercially seems an odd decision - but if you know Andy Kaufman’s work then you can understand why we got Jim & Andy, or to give it the full title; Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond Featuring a Very Special, Contractually Obligated Mention of Tony Clifton.

Much like the work of Kaufman, the work of Carrey as Kaufman, Jim & Andy, is a performance art piece. A voyeuristic document on the mechanics of method acting. Watching archive footage of Danny DeVito and Milos Forman crumbling at the hands of Carrey’s psychotic performance is almost as uncomfortable as watching Carrey explain how divine intervention was the catalyst in his decision to go method.

You don’t become an actor without a theatricality complex, which Carrey obviously has, but it’s also evident that he’s a tortured person, and his desire to do justice to his hero lands him in a stressful place between Jim and Andy.

Alongside the joys of seeing Carrey do Kaufman, the dormant angers of both performers are exposed. It’s a fascinating insight, and the

film, much like the subject matter, is an exercise in shapelessness.

In that respect whilst I went into this film expecting a surreal documentary instead what we got was a deep look at James Eugene Carrey, and his relationship to the persona of Jim. What makes it work is that Jim, much like Andy, for all his darkness is a fundamentally likeable guy. This is a raw, fascinating, and unmissable film.

Suburbicon (15)

Daddy’s Home 2 (12A)

Mudbound (15)

Image: YouTube

The Bourne Supremacy (2004)

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dapted from the first of Robert Ludlum’s Cold War novels, The Bourne Identity was arguably the most influential action film of the 2000s. Its ferocious action, gritty tone and Matt Damon’s surprise turn as an action star made it a considerable success, both critically and commercially.

Released in the same year as the CGI-laden debacle that was Die Another Day, which ended Pierce Brosnan’s otherwise impressive spell as James Bond, Identity changed the action genre and forced 007 into a reboot.

$1.64 Image: YouTube

billion taken at the worldwide box office by the five Jason Bourne films

Despite the success of the first film, Matt Damon was reportedly reluctant to return for a sequel and the franchise’s producers were not keen on working again with Identity’s director Doug Liman. Thankfully, Paul Greengrass, who had just made the superb Troubles drama Bloody Sunday, was recruited as director and Tony Gilroy’s revenge-orientated screenplay coaxed Damon back into the role.

Image: YouTube

Image: Youtube

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eorge Clooney’s latest film suffers from a crisis of identity, never quite sure what it wants to be. It’s a classic slice of Cherry Pie noir, kitsch 50s Americana skewered for dark laughs. The only problem is, it’s not that funny.

Suburbicon is a pretty typical tale of infidelity, murder and botched cover ups, a threadbare narrative that struggles to fill the 104-minute film.

Director, Clooney attempts to include a secondary plot involving an African American family moving into the neighbourhood and struggling with racist neighbours.

It’s problematic for multiple reasons, firstly a family we are meant to empathise with is given little screen time and fewer lines, what could be construed as a metaphor for a lack of voice in society comes across more as lazy storytelling.

Secondly, their narrative thread barely crosses with the main plot line involving Julianne Moore and Matt Damon. For the entirety of the film we are presented with two parallel narratives that have little to do with each other leaving the audience to wonder what the point is?

Moore and Damon are fine, although their characters are lacking in motivation. We have no understanding as to what drives these characters, the story in parts appearing ludicrous as we have little context for the reasons behind Damon and Moore’s actions. For a film that feels much longer than its 104 minutes, with great stretches of time in which little seems to happen it is a wonder why more time wasn’t spent on character development.

However, the film isn’t entirely void of charm, the sets and costuming are immaculate. Moore is brilliantly sinister at times and young Noah Jupe portraying Damon’s son is excellent. He manages to be serious and sullen without coming across too angsty or unlikeable.

Suburbicon is an entertaining enough slice of the sinister side of suburbia but you’d be better off picking up a copy of Blue Velvet or Pleasantville.

didn’t think we needed another Daddy’s Home movie. But Hollywood, being the morally void clique that it is, felt it necessary to squeeze every last bit of nutrient from the carcass left over from the first one. Still, since when has quality stopped flocks of people from watching another Will Ferrell and gang bore fest?

Brad and Dusty (Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg), having made their fragile father stepfather relationship work, now have to try and introduce their own fathers to the greater family and, like Brad and Dusty, they have to try and make their incompatible personalities work.

This isn’t that interesting, so they try to fill the interest leak with a Mel Gibson sized wedge. Mel Gibson recently said he’s “surprised” he still has a career and I don’t know if he’s trying to get rid of it here but he’s playing on thin ice.

In fact, the entire cast is dull. Perhaps not entirely through any fault of their own, the content is dire, but there’s a sense nobody minds the film is crap.

Will Ferrell plays Will Ferrell and he gets the most laughs, if only they’re because his silly faces remind you of good films gone by. The gags are forced and predictable, so dry moments are glazed over with cheap, unimaginative slapstick that they repeat as if it were funny the first time.

The film unravelled with painful predictability but it’s no surprise in an era of Hollywood comedy that is just going through the motions, releasing crappy comedies with great ensemble casts to guaranteed profit.

The only positive I can take from Daddy’s Home 2 is that for every year Will Ferrell gets older and his charm is replaced with wrinkles, he gets closer to retirement and can stop tarnishing the legacy of his Christmas masterpiece, Elf.

ew to Netflix is Mudbound, an incendiary WWII epic about two Deep South families tied to land, love and racial disharmony. Spanning the entirity of the war, Mudbound’s families – the white McAllans and the black Jacksons – share experiences of conflict, trauma and love under the shadow of racist violence and oppression.

At the centre of the McAllan clan is Laura (Carey Mulligan), whose marriage to her farmowning husband (Jason Clarke) is tested by her secret relationship with his brother Jamie (Garrett Hedlund), who returns disturbed from WWII. The Jacksons, who work the McAllans land in nearslavery and are tasked with solving the McAllan’s every problem, endure life in the repressive South the best they can. Eldest son Ronsel (Jason Mitchell) returns to his family after Allied victory, and finds himself unwelcome in American society.

The first 40-odd minutes of delicate family drama set up the emotional fallout from the soldiers’ homecoming, despite a sluggish start.

That said, Mudbound is an engrossing, powerful piece of work which absorbs you into a world of inequality, but also one of humanity. The stand out relationship is that of the two veterans, Ronsel and Jamie, who come together united by forbidden love, giving us a hopeful oasis amongst the misery.

The end of Mudbound is devastating. This subtle, well-paced drama that leads into its shattering climax, which you’re depressingly prepared for but horrified regardless. But, most importantly, Mudbound appropriately handles the presentation of the uncomfortable reality African-American soldiers faced when they came home from the frontline. Handling the subject matter with a nuanced presentation of life in a deeply segregated society, Mudbound is a powerful and, at times, appropriately optimistic portrayal of problems of 1940s America, which also shows the resistance love can exert in the most dire times.

Beth Chrisp

Sid Pinsent

Finbar Oliver

Image: YouTube While Liman was important to the first film’s triumph, Greengrass’ shaky-cam and kinetic direction, which is now synonymous with the series, gave Supremacy the edge over its predecessor. The film has an added urgency and its action scenes are some of the best in modern cinema, with a foot chase in Berlin, the Moscow car chase and the now notorious magazine fight being the highlights.

Second unit director Dan Bradley is integral to the success of these dynamic set pieces, which are amplified, rather than hampered, by being firmly grounded in reality.

The cast is also superb. Matt Damon develops the depth of the character and performs the many stunts with aplomb, while Brian Cox is on great form again as shady CIA suit Ward Abbott. Joan Allen and Karl Urban are excellent additions to the cast as Task Officer Pamela Landy and CIA assassin Krill respectively.

The film’s action scenes are some of the best in modern cinema However, what truly sets Supremacy apart from Liman’s original is how it handles the mystery of the conspiracy surrounding both the CIA and Bourne as a character. Tony Gilroy’s screenplay provides satisfying and unexpected answers to questions posed in Identity, but leaves many crucial avenues open for the third instalment – making a binge watch of the entire trilogy very enjoyable.

Formidable action, an efficient story and Greengrass’ direction make The Bourne Supremacy the best film in the series and one of the greatest action films of all time.

Dan Haygarth

24

culture gaming The Top 5 Total War Games

courier.gaming@ncl.ac.uk Gaming Editors Gerry Hart, Georgina Howlett & Richard Liddle

Image: IGDB.com

Review: Pokemon Ultra Sun/Ultra Moon

Jacob Stimson returns to Alola to catch ‘em all (again) in the new expanded ultimate versions Images: Pokemon Offical Website

5. Attila Patching the chasm of disappointment left by Rome 2, Attila was a breath of fresh carnage to a franchise which was losing the fun factor of its early releases. Controlling swathes of barbarians, displaced and vulnerable, gave the game a dynamic that has a unique attraction. Attila is the game where you play against not just rival factions but the weather and your own troops; the feeling of loose control means your power is never solid like in other Total War games. Tactically, this makes Attila one of the most enjoyable in the series.

4. Napoleon Napoleon Total War owes massively to the game that preceded it. Empire Total war was hugely ambitious and Napoleon built on the introduction of sea battles and mainstreaming of artillery that wasn’t quite balanced. Although not really containing any reference to Napoleonic warfare the game translated a crossroads for modern warfare into beautiful fun. Seeing a cluster of languid skirmishers blow up from rockets set up a mile away will never not be fun and is there a greater satisfaction than setting a flagship on fire with a 10-man fireboat? This is the game of choice for the learned and French.

3. Medieval II Don’t get me wrong, there are problems with this game. Longbowmen’s sharpened stakes carve through cavalry like butter, everyone’s so scared of loud noises cannons are used simply as scaring horns and one charge from a group of jousting knights will knock out an entire unit. But that’s exactly why it’s the game I come back to the most.

It was the last in an era of Total Wars before it got a bit too serious, a bit too tidy for my tastes. No other game in the series reaches levels of such visceral carnage. Brutality is addictive.

2. Shogun II Some people really don’t like Shogun 2. They say it’s not a Total War game. Yes, the game’s campaign is as linear as a first-person shooter and you need a gaming computer worth more than my first car to run it but its beauty is worth it. Taking a step back from the complexity of Napoleon, Shogun focuses on the diplomatic storm of Feudal Japan.

This focus gives the game notoriously luscious visuals while still retaining clearly defined factions and unit types; with archers finally taking a lesser role so hand to hand fighting is emphasised in the age of the Ninja and Samurai.

1. Rome Not just the best Total War game but one of the best PC games ever. Everything just came together: the music, factions, and gameplay are now ingrained in the nostalgia of everyone who grew up with it. It’s not all nostalgia factor though - when it came out in 2004 it immediately got a TV show called Time Commanders where two groups of nerds battled it out under the advice of historians and (weirdly) Richard Hammond. Fighting as a Gaulish horde, Egyptian Chariot or Roman Legion all have their own unique aura while retaining the scope that makes this game a classic.

Sidney Pinsent

the courier Monday 4 December 2017

P

okemon Ultra Sun and Ultra Moon are the latest, and last edition of the popular Pokemon franchise on the 3DS. The games are based around an alternate universe to the one established in Sun and Moon, and once again takes place in the tropical Alola region. Like all the previous instalments, the main gameplay revolves around travelling around the game world, capturing the many colourful creatures known as Pokemon and aiming to become the league champion.

US/UM keeps the same system as S/M, changing out the gyms for the trial system once again, where instead of going through many battles to reach the leader as in the rest of the series, the trial captain gives you a task to complete, and once you have done so, you pass the trial. While the trials are certainly more creative than the usual gyms, they lack the same impact, with the challenge to

reach the ultimate leader with their strong team no longer there, just the need to reach a single Pokemon through a task. The only difference is in the final boss, being that they’re a little bit bigger and have boosted stats.

The games follow a similar story to S/M, with one or two changes being thrown in along the way, which is both a strong and weak point. Like the previous games, the story that is told in the game is one of the best, but it is almost exactly the same as the one you have been told before, simply with a new Pokemon being the final boss you need to capture. While many won’t see this as something to complain about, due to the great story that is told, as someone who played the first set, it felt a little old.

Something added into USUM that wasn’t in its predecessors though is the new post-game scenario, Rainbow Rocket.

This sees the original game’s villain, Giovanni, head of Team Rocket, make a return, bringing along with him his team of young grunts as well as a host of old antagonists spanning from all the way from the third generation to the most current.

remixed music too. With Sun and Moon, we were left begging for more, but fortunately the case isn’t quite the same here.

One of the last things the game does really well is the music, with a variety of new tracks added in along with those found in the previous two games, and once again expands probably one of the greatest soundtracks to come from a Pokemon game to date.

All in all, the game vastly improves on some mistakes made in Sun and Moon, and adds that little bit extra that can stop people who have gone through the previous game having serious déjà vu.

With a few more secrets to be discovered along the way, for those who are fans of the serious, these games are certainly worth a try, if only to give you that little bit of nostalgia for your old favourite baddies.

The games follow a similar story to Sun and Moon, with one or two changes thrown in along the way This post-game scenario is well made, giving you a chance to listen to the old villains’ new

FCC set to abolish net neutrality in USA George Boatfield explains what the latest battle for the internet means for gaming industry J ust when you think it had all gone away for a while, the debate around net neutrality is back rearing its ugly head. Of course, net neutrality itself is not the enemy here, but in fact beneficial to consumers. For the uninitiated, it ensures a fairer and more open internet that provides a level playing field for big business, small business and the individual user.

The introduction of data throttling or ‘fast lanes’ could potentially benefit one console brand Although the bulk of discussion around it is taking place in America, actions taken by the US government could still signal change for the rest of the world.

Back in 2015, a then democratically-led Federal Communications Commission (FCC) labelled broadband as a ‘Title 2’, thus meaning US legislation currently classes it as a utility.

This prevents Internet Service Providers (ISPs) from throttling data speeds and creating ‘fast lanes’ for specific websites and companies. There are fears that without this control, ISPs would throttle the speeds of services run by rival corporations to funnel consumers towards their own products.

For example, users of the ISP Comcast would be funnelled to Hulu (owned by the same company) instead of Netflix.

The new Republican Chairman of the FCC, Ajit Pai, wants to reverse this legislation. He argues that the market will decide what happens and that this will keep things fair for consumers. In a statement issued on the 14th November, Pai claimed: “Under my proposal, the federal government will stop micromanaging the Internet.” Approval of the plan to remove broadband’s utility classification could be put into effect as soon as the FCC’s next

meeting on the 14th December.

Unfortunately, the market keeping options for consumers fair like Pai describes can’t happen when many American citizens can only choose between one or two ISPs, so changes to this legislation will make the effects of market monopolisation even more prominent. Consumers don’t have the power to decide where the market goes when the market is

Image: Wikimedia Commons as limited as it currently is.

While this is bad for consumers who would have to pay more money to be upgraded to ‘fast lanes’ or instead alter the services they use, ISPs love the idea. It’s just one new way to get more money from both the consumer and rival companies, some of which may decide to pay the ‘fast lane’ charge on

their end, absorbing the cost that their customers would otherwise have to pay.

This is just a new way to make more money from consumers

Many other companies are opposed to the reversal of legislation. “The FCC’s net neutrality rules are working well for consumers, and we’re disappointed in the proposal released today,” Google said in a statement.

In the world of video games where so many elements revolve around the internet, the loss of net neutrality could prove to be especially harmful. This starts with the extra costs of internet use for players on top of the existing fees for accessing online services through PS Plus or Xbox Live.

The introduction of data throttling or ‘fast lanes’, potentially even benefiting one console brand over another, would add additional unfairness to the current problems of people with poor connections being at a disadvantage in multiplayer games. Communities would become fragmented, video streaming functions would become less of a focus, and players would have a reduced general usage of consoles and engagement with the ecosystem.

Right now, most of the responsibility for preventing these changes lies with US citizens.

Communities online have been providing resources that educate people on the best way to convey their disappointment to elected officials.

The primary method for this is to telephone or write to members of Congress.

Right now, it’s looking likely that net neutrality could well be going away, but citizens can still make their voices heard until the Congress vote on the 14th December.

the courier Monday 4 December 2017

Belgian courts give loot crates the boot

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oot Crates have recently been condemned by frustrated gamers, parents and even governments. These microtransactions are almost impossible to avoid in modern games and come under many different guises, from FIFA 18’s card packs to chests in Shadow of War – they’re everywhere!

The Belgian authorities have recently recognised loot crates as a form of gambling, as the rewards are randomised, meaning players have no idea what they are paying for. Suggesting that these games employ predatory practises largely aimed at younger audiences, they are aiming to have them banned within the EU. These authorities are not the only ones to do so, with Hawaiian regulators calling for games with randomised microtransactions to be automatically given an R rating to protect and discourage children from gambling and developing these habits from an early age.

Take Star Wars Battlefront II, a game already under laser-fire as players originally had to pay extra for classic heroes like Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader. The game is so plagued by microtransactions that a recent calculation by Star Wars Gaming claimed it would require 4,528 hours of gameplay, or $2,100 to unlock all the base content – EA seem to have misunderstood the meaning of ‘replayability.’

EA’s defence of the microtransactions in Battlefront II - that ‘the intent is to provide players with a sense of pride and accomplishment’ became the most down-voted post on Reddit in a day. Following the justifiable backlash, loot boxes have been removed from the game.

Finally, EA have grasped some common sense and shreds of human decency… Or not, as these microtransactions will apparently return once they have been ‘fixed,’ likely meaning they will have found a subtler way to coerce pocket money from children.

Let’s just hope that we will eventually return to those magical days where we only had to pay for a game once. Is that too much to ask?

Alex Moore

@Courier_Gaming thecourieronline.co.uk/gaming/

Screenshot spotlight

Callum Costello monkeys around in our new photo segment

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evokes happy memories spent discussing how to do what with my mate Matt during year five maths.

After struggling with which still to choose (Verbal sparring? Tofu mask? Big Whoop Amusement Park?) - I settled on this opening shot; picking up where we left off after ‘LeChuck’s Revenge’, hero Guybrush Threepwood is adrift at sea in a rollercoaster cart with nothing but his thoughts to keep him company. I remember the excitement at the time of knowing that after six years Monkey Island was back - here’s hoping we get to experience that feeling again.

Memorials and tributes in video games

Chris Wilkinson examines how games commemorate the passing of their late devs and players

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nce, when discussing with someone the frivolous argument that games do not qualify as art, the idea of devotion came up, and how in most cases a piece of art may be in honour of someone, or in honour of some abstract ideal. The argument went that most games were created simply for their escapist quality, and that games such as World of Warcraft or Call of Duty were made either to vent or fantasize. This might be true to some extent, most video games are cathartic, but an easy reply offered itself. Some of the most memorable moments in gaming are devoted to real people, and some of the most touching are ‘memorials’ to people who have died.

Image: Blizzard Entertainment

Image: Flickr.com

or me, one of the major things to make or break a game is how music is used. If there’s a good soundtrack, or a useful mechanic related to music, I’m a lot more enthusiastic about playing it.

Starting off, some games have soundtracks that are just great to listen to. Journey, by Austin Wintory, or Ori and the Blind Forest by Gareth Coker, have quiet, atmospheric tracks that are fantastic to study to - although perhaps they’ll make you want to sack off an essay and play games instead.

In a completely different vein, Mirror’s Edge is the soundtrack to listen to when trying to finish an essay. Music is not a constant in this game, but a welcome addition to moments of action, adding urgency to a game that may otherwise turn into a slog through technically difficult puzzles. Perhaps controversially, the soundtrack to No Man’s Sky is quite unique, for a game that could be labelled the biggest flop of 2016. A writhing mess of electronic sounds from 65 Days of Static, I feel like perhaps it echoes the game: the first few tracks are really good, but after that they’re fairly monotonous and there’s not much reason to keep listening. More successfully, racing game Distance has a fantastic soundtrack that really fits the sci-fi theme of the game; especially when the settings make the entire world pulse along with the bass. The gameplay reminds me a bit of Tron, with bright lines of colour against a dark background.

Another game with a pulsing beat is Crypt of the Necrodancer, a 2D dungeon crawler where you can only move on the current beat of a song. It’s a neat mechanic that causes the difficulty of levels to increase, as the music tempo gets faster. Dance, dance!

If there’s a good soundtrack, or a useful mechanic related to music, I’m a lot more enthusiastic about playing it

Like revisiting an old photo, people are now able to revisit their loved ones through gaming In the past year, before the release of the hugely popular Overwatch, a Chinese student was killed attempting to stop a man from robbing a motorcycle. Besides from being mourned in China, the Overwatch team, upon finding out that he was exuberant with the release of the game, decided to honour him in game with a memorial. Much more recently, one of the developers of Shadow of War passed away, and in order to raise funds so that his family might live comfortably, the team brought out a new DLC based around a character modelled significantly on the deceased man.

You will notice that of these two memorials, one is dedicated to a fan whilst the other is dedicated to one of the developers themselves. But what is more important is that both these memorials show the emotional passion at the heart of gaming. Whereas one of these examples shows the inter-dependent connection which developers have with the gaming community, the other shows the inter-dependence

gaming culture

Creating an atmosphere through sound in games

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s the release of the Nintendo Classic Mini: Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES Classic) proves, nostalgia in gaming is a lucrative market.

To that end my wish this festive season is not for world peace or a Trump impeachment but rather for Ron Gilbert to get back the rights to his work so he can push for the long overdue special edition of ‘Curse of Monkey Island’ - which I think would sell en masse and prompt a film adaptation should I be plagued by hives if wrong.

Still a work of art twenty years later, ‘Curse’

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of the developers themselves, both of which are crucial qualities needed to create masterpieces of gaming.

These memorials show the emotional passion at the heart of gaming A superb example of both of these qualities being brought into one game is ‘Witcher 3’. An outstanding game that actually respects its players (eat shit EA), the standard copy of the game came with a genuine thank-you note which thanked the players alongside some free downloadable content.

When developers such as CDProject and Bethesda and Blizzard decide to dedicate something in some form to the players, it shows gaming as something

more than the cathartic button mashing that a lot of people consider gaming to be. It shows the connection between the art and the artist, and more importantly is an actual manifestation of the emotional connection between the art and the gamer.

Interestingly enough, quite a few in-game memorials are not in fact created by the developers.

A lot are created by the gamers themselves. Now given the tools to freely manipulate a gaming world, such as Skyrim’s extensive modding community, memorials are increasingly becoming small features of larger mods. The democratisation and decentralisation of the gaming world has allowed this, and once again a new layer of emotional feeling to gaming has come about. Like revisiting an old photo or video, people are now able to revisit their loved ones through gaming, and allow others to visit them in the process.

Games have the unique ability to convey different information to a player depending on what’s important at that time to that player. Overwatch is a prime example of this, using different sounds to alert players of opposing teams to an event. If someone’s ultimate is about to go off, friendly players will hear one phrase (“Rocket barrage incoming”), while enemy players will hear a different one (“Justice rains from above!”). Once you’re aware of mechanics like this, the game becomes a lot more dynamic, and not entirely reliant on just visuals.

A popular design is to have music alert the player to enemies. Think classic Elder Scrolls: Morrowind, where the minute cliff racers descended to attack (again), the music would alert you to the irritation above you about to cause minimal damage and maximum annoyance. Although the double piping of a horn will haunt my dreams, it was a great way of using music. Left 4 Dead 2 uses similar musical cues to alert the survivors to the presence of different special infected. Depending on the time of logging on, Animal Crossing plays different music - so if you’ve never logged on at 4am, perhaps it’s time you did, to discover a few new tracks as the sun rises.

Rowena Tylden-Pattenson

the courier

Monday 4 December 2017

c2.arts@ncl.ac.uk Arts Editors Scarlett Rowland and Carys Thomas

@CourierArts thecourieronline.co.uk/arts

The Life of Arts outside London

Ella Williams dispells the myth that our country is a culture-less wasteland beyond the capital

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rtists and audiences, this is a Southerner announcement: there is life outside London!

As a born and bred inhabitant of the London bubble, I grew up under the notion that home is where the art is. The concretion of culture on my doorstep meant “expanding my horizons” from the stops on the Northern line; a world-famous theatre a walk-to-school away, a bus ride to the buzzing heart of art… so I thought.

Art is crying out for geographical variety The problem with this un-branching network of culture and consumer is in its sufficiency: existing within the “artistic capital” never presented as a limitation, seeing local exhibitions at shard-high prices was never challenged. Simply, it was never put to me (by my London-dwelling social circle) that having an entire world-view from within the M25 was an urban myth that needs dispelling…

It is not just I with a (now ashamedly) narrow-minded take on a diverse outlook. In fact, art is crying out for geographical variety! The cultural culmination that has spurred London’s most unique and beloved art scenes is in danger of falling into division.

Budding communities of creatives emerge before businesses pick up on the “bohemian vibe” - prices skyrocket and they are forced to move on. Such has been the case across decades, with the 1970s boom of Nott i n g Hill, then Shoreditch in the 90s and most recently Hackney falling victim to the cycle.

The paradoxical popularity of “hidden gems”, the capital’s flurry for the avant-garde can no longer function in the sealed microcosm of the SouthEast.

Luckily, and as I’ve been discovering increasingly since coming to the Toon, our various and vibrant artistic heritage extends nation-wide. While world-famous establishments are not indicators for a place’s cultural worth, the classical architecture of Oxford’s Ashmolean Museum, for instance, has earned its popularity and is one of the world’s oldest public museums. If it’s London-less prestige for which you are scornful, paintings by Turner, Rembrandt, Monet, Freud and Hockney can be found at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool, as well as a wide collection of sculpture, fashion and installation art.

There are 5000 years worth of works at the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts in Norwich.

See the likes of Blake, Rossetti, Picasso, and Van Gough at the Whitworth in Manchester.

Keep broadening your mind: not-the-capital Britain goes beyond its rich history and is a thriving scene for the modern, too. The Turner Contemporary gallery in Margate is currently showing an exhibition of works by Jean Arp, exploring the parallels between artistic creativity and nature.

It’s less about reading between the tube lines and more about thinking outside the little red box...

This follows a great artistic shift from the city and towards the countryside; creators like Damien Hirst and Sarah Lucas are sprouting from their London roots in favour of the rural aesthetic. This is no more evident than in the green and flourishing rise of “New Nature Writing”, which points an unpatronising lens into the wilderness and quells, with a Yorkshire-in-spring-esque freshness, its dismissal as boring or backwards.

This is not a dig at Britain’s big city. On the contrary, we are calling for its revival as an engaged part of an even bigger country- joining the London buzz only feeds the destructive cycle of gentrification. We can explore the capital’s graffitied backstreets for the niche and undiscovered, but we would be ignoring the cultural mass that surrounds it. Perhaps it is less about reading between the tube lines, and more about thinking outside the little red box…

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arts culture

SALTY COLUMN Modern Art ALLY WILSON

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or me, art is something that requires effort and skill. Something that you can look at, appreciate how much work went into it and enjoy its beauty as a result. These are the things that should be filling the walls of art galleries around the world.

What shouldn’t be filling art galleries around the world are plain black canvases called ‘Abyss’ or just an enlarged photo of a saggy boob. This is what I saw when I visited the Tate Modern in London about a year ago, somewhere it’s safe to say I won’t be visiting again. Now, I’ll be the first to say that I’m pretty uneducated when it comes to the art world, and am certainly not qualified to make educated analyses about pieces, but surely these examples don’t qualify as art?

I could go to Wilkos, buy a canvas, paint it black, give it a pretentious name and present it to an art dealer asking for a million pounds, and do you know what I’d get? A raised eyebrow and a snotty refusal is what I’d get. And rightly so, because it literally took a grand total of five minutes’ work.

I could have, there and then in the Tate Modern, taken a picture of my brother’s nose, zoomed in a bit and demanded an award and my own personal exhibition room. But I didn’t because it would be completely undeserved.

But what amazes me is that you’ll still get floatyscarfy people walk past these “creations”, take off their brightly-coloured, oversized glasses, raise their eyebrows and make an impressed “mmm” whilst scribbling down some notes on “what this black canvas means to me”, before no doubt, trying to replicate the artist’s style. Go home and paint something worth paying to see.

Image: Pixabay

What’s On: Alice in Wonderland @ Northern Stage, 27 - 29 Nov

Lights Out for Lumiere Sophie Hicks comments on the anticipated Durham Lumiere

Image: SketchPot

An all-singing, all-dancing weird and wonderful retelling of Lewis Carroll’s famous tale.

PHOTOBOX

Terminal Velocity of a Snowflake @ Live theatre, 22 Nov - 16 Dec

‘Tis the Season

This play takes a touching look at what it means to grow up, fall in love and how the tiniest, most seemingly insignificant detail can change eternity.

Cardboard Box Disco @ Keith’s Cafe (Fine Art Building), 7 Dec

Second year Fine Art student Maya Wallis invites you to a party in celebration of cardboard, collage, photography and film!

Ushering In @ GOLDTAPPED Gallery, 22 Nov - 13 Dec

Kate Liston has transformed the gallery in response to the history, location and presentday use of Carliol House, the new site of The NewBridge Project.

@TheCourierArts @thecourierarts

KATIE GARWOOD

Image: Wikimedia Commons

T

he Durham Lumiere happens every two years, and is a much–anticipated event.

240,000 people went to it over the weekend, but was it worth the hype?

The Durham Lumiere is a light show that Durham Council puts on, and is the UK’s largest light festival. Around the city there are different light exhibitions to see during a weekend in November.

It is quite beautiful when the night is so dark, but honestly it gets quite old quickly quite quickly. At first, you’re in awe of the lights, but then after about fifteen, you aren’t shocked.

It gets quite old quite quickly There were some highlights, such as going inside the Durham Cathedral at night and watching it illuminate from inside to the bells chiming.

However, in order to go inside, you had to wait in a queue to go inside, which took about an hour.

The queue was in pitch black so that the outside Cathedral lights could be seen, but it meant that for an hour, you were in pitch-black, in mud and

almost falling over whenever there was a dip in the terrain because you can’t see it. Whilst it was beautiful inside to see the architecture detail illuminate, I would say it was not worth the wait in the cold.

One of my favourite exhibitions was a lit-up wall of bars of some sort, and people were hitting them to make a chime-noise that sounded quite pretty.

Another photogenic scene were lights reflecting on the river from the trees opposite, which gave a reflected illusion of vibrant colours. However, when the river is so long and there’s nothing else to see down there, it can be quite boring. On the other hand, some were slightly more creepy. Illuminated on Durham Castle was ‘Our Moon’, a terrifying moon face that moved around and watched people. I cannot begin to describe how haunting it was. And then some, in my opinion, were copouts. A ‘Fire Tornado’ is not a light? I know that fire produces light, but watching fire twist to terrible club-music bass is not what I had expected from the Durham Lumiere.

Overall, I feel that the Durham Lumiere was highly overrated. Whilst it was fun to see a few, when you have so many to see and so much walking to do in the freezing cold, it is no longer enjoyable.

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t is that time of year again.

Not the dingy, depressing time of year when student houses are the almost sub-zero temperatures, deadlines are creeping up, and you can’t focus in your afternoon lecture because it is basically nighttime - but the time of year when the walk home is the prettiest, the streets are draped in lights, hot chocolate is appropriate at all times of the day, and a cozy evening wrapped up in bed with Netflix instead of a 3am sesh is 100% socially acceptable.

Shot on a Huawei P9 phone, this light-capture photo of sparklers that I am sure is familiar to us all, was taken at Bonfire night. It makes me happy because it reminds me that we are now in the best season; warm scarfs, fireworks, free food, presents from loved ones and twinkling lights which make Newcastle’s freezing weather worth it!

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science & technology

Are you Tech-ing the piss?

the courier

courier.science@ncl.ac.uk Science Editors Jack Coles, Christopher Little & Ciara Ritson-Courtney

Monday 4 December 2017

Animals “don’t” feel pain

Graphene car batteries Alexandra Sadler decries Parliament’s decision to repeal Lisbon Treaty animal welfare codes

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he electric automobile has been long in the works and is fairly divisive in the minds of petrol heads all over the world. The concept of having to charge a car up for many hours rather than filling up in seconds is one of the biggest frustrations, along side the current availability of charging stations, the car designs, the idea of global warming and the whole thought of an alternative to monster trucks and mustangs ruling the world.

However their descent is inevitable and is welcomed with open arms to many, with the newly established Formula E rivalling F1, the need for power has never been greater. So who better to address this problem than Fisker, one of the first US companies to produce a plug-in hybrid electric vehicle?

Fisker has just filed a patent for a battery technology that has the potential to charge a vehicle in just one minute. Just to put this in context, currently the charging times for an electric vehicle with a range of 100 miles can be around 6-8 hours in the UK (according to thecharginpoint.com).

The owner of the company, Henrik Fisker, has had previous attempts at automotive batteries, including the famed run in with the Fisker Karma in 2012 whose battery had so many issues that more than 600 were recalled, not including the ones which were known to burst into flames. His past however does include some huge successes, including consulting at Tesla, his design work on the BMW Z8, an iconic roadster around 2003, and the Aston Martin DB9 which achieved a rating so high on Top Gears ‘cool wall’ it was classified in it’s own category of ‘DB9 Sub Zero Fridge’.

A battery that has the potential to charge a vehicle in just one minute Fiskers innovative design work has followed him from his beautiful work in Aston Martin and BMW into his own company, and now is applying to all areas. Instead of working with the commonly used lithium-ion batteries, Fisker has begun developing a battery that turns graphene into super capacitors. Graphene is the thinnest and strongest material discovered by mankind so far, but also as many of you will recognise, it’s a solid.

Lithium-ion batteries use the transfer of charged particles within the liquid between electrodes to charge and discharge, solid state batteries instead have a solid electrolyte, which while they are more difficult to manufacture, come with a host of advantages. They reduce the risk of leaking or igniting (great news for the Fisker Karma), have virtually no degradation meaning they can last indefinitely without loosing their hold, and crucially they have a higher power density. Working with graphene however comes with it’s own set of issues, with it being very expensive to manufacture.

So how does it work? Super capacitors store energy like batteries, however with much faster charging times. Typically they don’t hold the same quantity of charge as batteries due to their lower energy density, however by using graphene this problem could be bypassed. Graphene has high electron mobility, therefore allowing electrons to move more freely and at higher speeds leading to quicker charging. Yet the problem of density and energy storage remains, but can be addressed through a slight alteration in the structure of graphene apparently, however the details of this have not been shared yet by Fisker.

Fisker claims that their battery could charge its next-generation of electric cars to around 500miles of drive time and deliver 2.5 the amount of energy density than is currently available. Yet despite these claims, the actual reality of the build is still fairly far away.

Ciara Ritson-Courtney

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he incorporation of animal sentience into EU law, via the 2009 Lisbon Treaty, was hailed as a great success by animal welfare campaigners. However, the recent vote in Parliament about the inclusion of the animal sentience provision in the EU Withdrawal Bill has recently come under fire, with suggestions being made that the government does not care about animal rights.

It has also been suggested that the government does not recognise animal sentience, the capacity of animals to feel pain and suffering. If we’re being honest, there’s probably a few people that don’t recognise animal sentience, despite scientific studies providing multiple pieces of evidence to support the existence of animal sentience. Whether or not the government actually recognises the existence of animal sentience, this vote is particularly important, as it doesn’t just show a seeming lack of care for other creatures, but also Britain’s claim at being a state well-known for animal health and welfare, and scientific analysis.

Britain cannot claim to be at the forefront of scientific research if we don’t protect science that has already been established. As Marie Curie stated ‘after all, science is essentially international’, and Brexit threatens the scientific community. The animal sentience bill represents a fraction of international scientific cooperation, but nevertheless is still an important indicator.

313

Number of MPs that voted against keeping the clause, out of a total of 618 votes; 295 voted for it

Whether or not they actually believe in said certainty, what is most important is that by rejecting this provision, MPs also disregarding the most basic of scientific certainties, simply because they think they know best. The 2006 Animal Welfare Act does not specifically mention animal sentience, leaving a potential loophole for those who wish to abuse animals. Some Conservative MPs have branded the claims of the government not recognising animal sentience as ‘fake news’, with Michael Gove arguing that the UK will be able to better protect animals once we leave the EU. However, what Mr Political Chameleon seems to forget is that, by voting down the inclusion of this provision, he’s

failing to abide by his commitment to prioritise animal rights during Brexit. Despite ministers’ claims of Brexit being an opportunity to improve the welfare of animals, the Bill suggests the exact opposite. By failing to include this provision in Britain’s withdrawal, the MPs that voted against its inclusion, and the government in particular, appear to lack compassion and consideration for other sentient beings.

Brexit is complicated, and animal rights may not be seen as the most important issue, but the denial of animal sentience inclusion in the EU Withdrawal Bill is indicative of a larger issue. Those who voted against its inclusion are sending a message of rejection, rejecting the importance of a basic scientific principle, and of its impact. Sure, MPs aren’t necessarily rejecting the existence of animal sentience, but the rejection of this provision suggests a lack of care for other beings, and for Britain’s international scientific standing.

The MPs that voted against appear to lack compassion Britain’s international standing is ever-decreasing, and the rejection of the most basic of scientific understandings as important only serves to hasten its decline.

Asteroid space Jobbie-ty

Stellar cartographer Sidney Pinsent thinks this newly discovered extrasolar capture is the shit

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ike most people, I poo. I poo big, fast, small, quiet, privately and almost daily. And, as a poo-er, I’m offended by the breaking news people are claiming the first interstellar object to pass through the solar system, discovered in October, looks like a poo. Unless these scientists are in fact porcupines whose poo, like the asteroid, is 10 times longer than it is wide, I refuse to believe it looks like anything other than a 400m blunt.

I poo big, fast, small, quiet, privately and almost daily An interstellar object is a body that isn’t gravitationally bound to a star, so the aptly named asteroid that has just been discovered is not just out of this world, it’s out of this Solar System! For this reason, I believe the asteroid is of infinite beauty. That’s not just because it’s red like my favourite colour, but it’s a solid piece of intergalactic history that’s doing more than just waving as it passes by. Its life has no doubt been harsh and filled with violence, birthed from a collision or stellar explosion that caused its ejection from its system of origin. Now it’s been left to fend for itself in a whole new solar system; too small to be a planet and too quick to let it get equated with the other flying rocks in our solar system with no hope of getting back home.

It is right, therefore, to forgive 1I/’Oumuamua for taking on the dark and unattractive extremity that absorbs 96% of the light that hits it. And what does

little 1I/’Oumuamua get from us, probably the only intelligent life its ever going to come across? A great big slap in the (rock) face.

The best we can do is label it excrement a n d wait until it leaves us i n 20,000 years. Granted, some more respectful astrologers are planning a space mission to reach 1I/’Oumuamua but at this moment in time our existing craft haven’t got the capacity to land on a rock that’s moving at 196,000 mph (87.7 kilometres per second) so the mission remains hypothetical.

The Hawaiian astronomers who discovered it are optimistic. They named the asteroid Oumuamua, which is the Hawaiian for scout or messenger as if sent from a distant past to reach out to us. And its red colour suggests it carries organic molecules that are building blocks for life.

96%

How much light that hits Oumuamua that gets absorbed

Like my almost daily poo, 1I/’Oumuamua is unfortunately unlikely to be that special as its estimated there could be 10,000 other interstellar objects lurking undetected in our cosmic neighbourhood.

But to me she is special – like the plinth in Kubrick’s 2001 she possesses infinite knowledge of universes beyond our imagination; a gem, a memory, a message, perhaps we shouldn’t lay our hands on her.

Rather watch her dance on by, alone, forever

spinning at intergalactic speeds t o spread t h e word of the infinite size o f

t h e universe.

She is a reminder of the unknown b e yond us, we may understand why we love music or why a person is sad but we should try to understand this rock is more beautiful than anything human creation, we’re nothing, a feeble memory in an ageless universe. Try and digest that.

the courier

@CourierScience thecourieronline.co.uk/science

Monday 4 December 2017

science & technology

Immunoschizophrenia

Ng Yi Min draws parallels between the mental illness schizophrenia, and autoimmune disease

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chizophrenia is a severe long-term mental disorder that causes a range of different psychological symptoms, which affects the way patients think and act. Patients with schizophrenia often experience both positive and negative changes in their senses, whereby positive changes refer to sharpened senses such as hallucinations and delusions; negative changes refer to dulled senses such as lack of motivation and being withdrawn.

23.6

Estimated total number (in millions) of schizophrenia patients worldwide

“My greatest fear is this brain of mine….The worst thing imaginable is to be terrified of one’s own mind, the very matter that controls all that we are and all that we do and feel.”

“I heard people talking, but I did not grasp the meaning of the words. The voices were metallic, without warmth or colour. From time to time, a word detached itself from the rest. It repeated itself over and over in my head, absurd, as though cut off by a knife.”

“For about almost seven years— except during sleep—I have never had a single moment in which I did not hear voices. They accompany me to every place and at all times; they continue to sound even when I am in conversation with other people, they persist undeterred even when I concentrate on other things, for instance read a book or newspaper, play the piano, etc.; only when I am talking aloud to other people or to myself are they of course drowned by the stronger sound of the spoken word and therefore inaudible to me.”

By reading some of the many quotes from schizophrenic patients, one can begin to understand the helplessness and fears that they experienced daily, and feel the need to support and help them.

While the exact cause of schizophrenia is not

known, most people believe that both genetic and environmental factors play important role in schizophrenia. Besides, stressful/traumatic events such as the death of a loved one can also trigger schizophrenia. Recently however, it was reported that in some patients, schizophrenia could be an autoimmune condition that mimic mental problems.

Professor Belinda Lennox, a clinical psychiatrist at Oxford University, has found that a sub-cohort of schizophrenic patients has pathogenic autoantibodies to some neuronal membrane proteins in their blood serum. These pathogenic autoantibodies are believed to originate from other autoimmune disorders such as arthritis. They moved and bound to receptors in the brain, affecting memory and triggering delusions and hallucinations in these patients. It is also reported that immunotherapy has been shown to improve/cure the condition of these patients as quoted ‘in patients that

we’ve identified the antibody and we have treated, almost everybody has a dramatic, if not total, recovery’.

Similarly, Professor Oliver Howes, a professor of molecular psychiatry at the MRC London Institute of Medical Sciences and a consultant psychiatrist at the Maudsley Hospital in south London, togeth-

Vault seeds of the post-apocalypse Rory Cameron banks on saving the world with a load of seeds

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eed banks. No, they’re is not a place where conkers go to have a meetings about potential mortgages. Nor are they another name for sperm banks, although they are a form of gene bank. What they are, are depositories and vaults of seeds of the flora found on planet earth, preserved at incredibly carefully controlled temperatures and moisture levels. Think of them as an iCloud for the plant life information of the planet.

So why should you care? Well, seed banks may just save the world.

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Temperature of Svalbard Global Seed Vault

The five largest seed banks in the world comprise of Kew’s Millennium Seed Bank Project, Wakehurst, here in England, where collecting seeds from environments that are most vulnerable to climate change is a priority (the bank also hopes to house 25% of all known species of plant seeds on earth by 2020); Navdanya, in Uttrakhand, India, which is home to 5,000 crop varieties, focusing largely on the preservation of grain species, including 3,000 species of rice alone; Svalbard Global Seed Vault, Norway, which regularly hosts global environmental problem-solving and innovation events, and conferences concerning on topics related to food security and climate change; the National Center for Genetic Resources, Fort Collins, Colorado, which recently developed an ecologically cleaner alternative to fertilizers that contribute to heavy metal watershed pollution; and the Vavilov Research Institute, Russia, where nearly 90% of the plant specimens contained cannot be found at any other seed or gene bank in the world.

Any one of these enormous genetic banks could be used to help repopulate the vegetation of planet earth in a doomsday-like scenario, yet the actual methods of protecting our planet are in fact multifaceted.

The primary objective of seed banks is to preserve biodiversity, which is especially important whilst we are in the midst of the most severe climate change the world has witnessed since the ice age.

Climate change, which will continue to eradicate much of the biodiversity of flora and fauna alike, as species struggle to adapt to changes in their environment, brought about by increased methane and carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere, and in turn more acidic oceans and extreme weather.

Indeed, plants which are resistant to more extreme climate may be created by breeders, through preserved genes of other flora, in controlled environments. Plants which increase yield, are more drought resistant, more nutritious, more resistant to disease are all possible thanks to seed banks.

These could save millions, even billions of lives through the aversion of future famines, another worrying effect of climate change which is on the increase. As you might expect, on top of crossbreeding new seeds, many genetically modified varieties of plants and foodstuffs stem (no pun intended) from seed banks.

Whilst scientists have extracted and regrew plant materials buried in the Siberian permafrost over 30,000 years ago, the longevity of seed banks and their contents depends entirely on whether they are protected with appropriate accordance of importance. Such is this importance, that during the Nazi German siege of the town during World War II, 12 scientists of the Vavilov Research Institute chose to starve to death, rather than consume the precious contents of the vaults.

er with his team have also previously shown evidence of abnormalities in immune activity in the brain. Through genetic studies, they have shown a correlation between changes in immune system genes to increased risk for schizophrenia.

Don’t worry about walking a mile in my shoes, just try a day thinking in my head In addition, other studies have also shown increased risk for mental disorders in patients with autoimmune disease. For example, diabetic patients are 65% more likely to develop dementia or quadruple greater decline in memory test performance in Alzheimer’s patients who suffered from regular infections during a six-month period compared with patients with the lowest infection levels.

While more studies are still needed to ascertain of the role our immunity plays in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia (and other mental disorders), this discovery has indeed shone some lights into a potential revolutionary treatment for patients with mental disorders resulting from autoimmunity.

While the society has greatly improved in minimising stigma and great advances have been made in treating mental disorders like schizophrenia, these patients still face little empathy or even sympathy from others. Hence, let us all work together to make this world a friendlier place for all.

And with this, I will conclude this article with yet another quote: “Don’t worry about walking a mile in my shoes, just try a day thinking in my head”.

Word of the Week: Bioluminescence

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ioluminescence is an excellent phenomenon whereby a living organism produces and emits light, usually a pale yellow or blue. Although the images of beaches with glowing waves lapping at a shore are beautiful, and something many aspire to see, looking more closely at the actual creatures reveals they’re rather less endearing. If you’re lucky, it’ll be dinoflagellates that are bioluminescing, tiny indistinguishable eukaryotes. These I can get behind. If you’re unlucky though, they’ll be squid bioluminescing, dredged up from the depths of the ocean to terrorise unsuspecting swimmers. No thankImage: Wikipedia you!

At least squid are using their bioluminescence for camouflage. Worse, perhaps, are those that use it for luring prey. Let me remind you of the anglerfish, portrayed in all it’s ugly glory by Pixar in Finding Nemo. Anglerfish have an appendage called an ‘esca’ on their heads to lure prey to their doom in the dark depths of the ocean. Also horrifyingly, male anglerfish are parasitic of female anglerfish, literally fusing with the female anglerfish to feed through their blood supply. Not a creature you’d ever want to come across. Dragonfish are another, even more horrifying deep-sea fish, not unlike an eel, but with giant creepy eyes to boot. Keep them away from me. The sea’s a terrifying place.

Rowena Tylden-Pattenson

Mythbusters:

Cannabis cures cancer It’ll be no surprise to those of you reading this that a seemingly random object has been linked to curing cancer. The Daily Mail has a reputation for making rather tenuous links to a long list of products that either prevent or cause cancer, but we’re talking about curing cancer, that is killing cancer cells and keeping the patient cancer-free for five years.

However, in 2015 the National Cancer Institute in the US updated their website to state “cannabis has been shown to kill cancer cells in the laboratory” So, who thinks that it can cure cancer? Well, in short, not many people that that actually knows what they’re talking about. Lincoln Horsley, creator of www.cureyourowncancer.org seems to think that the herb has more of a divine purpose than many others would think, claiming that “Cannabis is a plant that GOD has placed on earth for us to use.” They’re not the only group that sees the spiritual potential in marijuana, as The Sisters of the Valley are a group of nuns that have turned to cultivating cannabis in order to ‘heal the world’.

Cannabis oil is believed to be the most potent cannabis product, and is therefore believed to be the key to curing cancer, alongside a host of other diseases and disorders. However, its only prescribed use in Britain is for reducing muscle spasms in people with multiple scleorosis.

Horsley’s website cites Dr Cristina Sánchez as one of many high-profile researchers who claims that the phytocannabinoid tetrahydrocannabinol (THC, most common cannabinoid, or psychoactive compound, found in cannabis) has antitumour effects. Sánchez has built on the work of Raphael Mechoulam, the so-called “grandfather of medical marijuana” for his role in the discovery of THC, got the ball rolling on the medicinal uses of cannabis.

From there, there has been slow progress. However, in 2015 the National Cancer Institute in the US updated their website to state “cannabis has been shown to kill cancer cells in the laboratory”, and already cannabis has been seen to help paediatric oncology cases, as well as being more regularly used to reduce side effects of cancer treatments.

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Oxford University have committed £10m into the exploration of medicinal cannabis

However, there is widespread uncertainty about still, with most seeming to agree that more research is needed. Quite fittingly, Oxford University announced earlier this year that they are set to invest £10bn into an “area of huge untapped potential”, the exploration of the potential benefits of cannabis compounds in an attempt to create new treatments for conditions including pain, cancer and inflammatory diseases.

Despite all this, cannabis is inconclusively considered to be a carcinogenic, so may well cause cancer as well as ‘cure’ it. So, the answer to the question ‘can cannabis cure cancer?’ is ‘maybe, but it might also give you cancer’.

James Sproston

puzzles

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Puzzles Dictator Joey Barton Puzzles Editor Alex Hendley Deputy Puzzles Copy Editor Laura Staniforth Deputy Puzzles Copy Assistant James Sproston Deputy Assistant Puzzles Copy Assistant Mark Sleightholm 1

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1 Band including Tom Meighan and Sergio Pizzorno (8) 4 Small town in North Yorkshire, by the Tees (4) 7 Lord of the Rings’ sharpshooting elf (7) 9 French for ‘April’ (5) 10 A stretched out square (6) 11 Name of the famous Florentine statue (5) 12 A baby lion (3) 13 Australian wild dog (5) 17 What the general keeps up his sleeve-y (4) 18 Getting food delivered to your door (8) 20 Spanish for ‘faith’ (2) 21 Hold hands so they don’t float away (5) 22 You’d find one in a cemetary (5) 23 Jim Carrey’s wacky animal lover (3,7)

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1 Indian contact sport (7) 2 Famous birdwatcher (4,5) 3 _____ of the North, famous landmark featuring on NSR’s logo (5) 5 Noel’s House Party’s terrifying monster created to haunt your dreams (2,6) 6 Rome’s most famous fountain (5) 8 Han Solo’s smuggler friend (5) 12 You’ll get one for Christmas (4) 14 First name of ‘Fantastic Beasts’ protagonist (4) 16 Unmoving (6) 19 Spews from a volcano (4) 20 Soft material, condensed, pressed fibres (4) 22 Lead character in ‘Despicable Me’ (3)

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1 Former Swedish tennis player, 11 time grand slam champion 2 One of the seven dwarves; lectures might make you ______ 3 Libra birthstone 4 To bombard someone or something

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Last Week’s Solutions...

Issue 1357 quiz solutions: Name that lake: Carlisle Castle, Future Independent Republic of Cumbria Hidden editor: Alex Hendley (Andean, Bell, Break, Exact, Hat, Bean, Banish, Goad, Flatley, Derek, Moyes)

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Bouncing back: The triumphant sportspeople wh

Injuries and illness are an unfortunate, yet unavoidable part of sport and life in general. Today we write about athletes here in Newcas Sports Editor Courtney Strait interviews Maria Pregnolato about her recovery from her ACL injury Darren Fletcher's rallies after Newcastle PhD student and basketball player Maria Pregnolato is no stranger to major injuries. Pregnolato, who is playing for her fourth year with the Knights, has torn the anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in her knee twice during her basketball career. The most recent injury occurred on 30 January, 2017 and has led to a long and grueling comeback.

Maria said unlike her first injury, this one was a puzzle to doctors. Her knee was examined and tested by orthopedic doctors at the emergency room as well as physiotherapists at a sports injuries clinic, yet both doctors were unable to identify the problem.

Finally after RMI (remote medical imaging) was performed it was confirmed that Maria’s knee had endured a severe injury to her ACL. In fact, there were few fibres left in the entire ligament.

Maria isn't one to back down from a challange Despite a scary prognosis Pregnolato is not one to back down from a challenge. After a very timely rehabilitation program before surgery, Pregnolato had major reconstructive surgery to repair her torn ACL. Once awake and stable Pregnolato began working to strengthen her knee back to basketball form. The first step in this process was straightening her leg — from then on it was full speed

ahead in her hopes of returning for the 2017-2018 season.

Pregnolato has improved from using crutches, to walking on her own and cycling, to performing S&C workouts and training with the team. She has almost come full circle from that fateful day in January last year and has shown her dedication to return to basketball. With help from Rich Eaton, S&C coach at the Newcastle Sport Centre, Maria has made great strides and is soon to be fully recovered.

Despite Maria’s impressive comeback thus far, this process was not easy. She said hearing her prognosis was devastating, as she was excited to enter the best part of the basketball season with her teammates and compete in the playoffs. In addition Pregnolato said experiencing this injury away from home was difficult.

Being from the Milan area of Italy, Pregnolato had to face her injury and an extensive rehabilitation program without her family there to support her — a feat any athlete would find difficult.

Pregnolato is still a little cautious when she steps on the court but she said that mentality will change as she continues to gain her strength and confidence. She said she is resilient and is very eager to play at full speed and challenge herself in training.

Mentally, Pregnolato said she is mentally stronger because of her injury.

She said that she is proud to have the

Darren Fletcher started out in football by working his way up through Manchester United’s Youth Academy, resulting in him spending 20 years with the club and making over 300 appearances with them.

However, his career was interrupted when he was diagnosed with the chronic bowel disease ulcerative colitis in 2011. He announced in December 2011 that he would take an extended break from the game.

Fletcher under-

strength and diligence to overcome not one major injury, but two.

In reflection of her most recent injury Maria said she has learned a lot.

She said she has learned to abandon her fears and focus on the positives — focusing on details, improving her mental strength, gaining maturity, etc.

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Maria Pregnolato has overcome two potentially careerending injuries.

Maria’s love for the game has increased as well. She said it has been hard watching her teammates from the sideline for so long, and wanted nothing more than to compete alongside them once again. While observing, Maria said she was able to analyse the game as a spectator — something she had not done before. She said her knowledge of details, player positioning and timing have improved through her time on the sidelines.

Maria was finally able to use this newfound knowledge for the first time since January last week. Despite Maria not being completely recovered yet, she played in her first game of the season last week on 29 November against Nottingham, where she scored her first basket of the season. We are looking forward to Maria’s complete recovery and are excited to see how she can help the Knights through the remainder of the season.

Petr Cech's miraculous recovery

Maria Pregnolato Image: Courtney Strait

Petr Cech’s towering form in goal has graced the Premier League since 2004.

Nowadays, the Czech is just as well-known for his headwear as his shot-stopping skills. Yet in October 2006, Cech was victim to one of the most horrific injuries in modern football.

15 seconds into a match, Reading FC’s Stephen Hunt misjudged his run and stepped directly on to the keeper’s skull.

The injury could not have only been career-ending, but life-

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ho took a hit but kept on going forward

stle and around the world, who know what it takes to turn a terrible setback into a magnificent comeback ulcerative colitus went surgery in 2013 and describes it as a success and how he is now able to live a “normal life”. Following his recovery, he has spoken about the debilitating effects of the illness and the impact that it had on his football career.

Despite his condition, Fletcher has certainly made an admirable and successful return to the game; after his contract with West Bromwich Albion expired, he signed a two-year contract with Stoke City and has since become one of only eight players to achieve a 100th consecutive Premier League appearance.

Robert Kubica's comeback after rally car accident

stopping too. Thankfully, brilliant work from surgeons in Oxford saw metal plates inserted into Cech’s head with just minutes to spare.

Despite the severity of the injury, it took the now Arsenal goalie a mere three months to be playing again. He donned a rugby-esque headguard, which he still wears today, and began a seamless transition back to the top of the game. Where many athletes battle for years to defeat their injury demons, due to the nature of his head injury, Cech owes a lot to the fantastic surgeons who saved him.

The motorsport maestro was a rising star in Formula One, until Robert Kubica’s racing career was curtailed in February 2011 after suffering career-threatening injuries when he crashed into roadside barrier while rally driving noncompetitively.

The crash had severed his right forearm and caused several compound fractures to the right-side of his body. Despite several lengthy but successful operations, the crash had left him with limited movement in his right arms.

After a period of rehabilitation, and then re-breaking his leg, he restarted rally driving by the end of 2012, later winning the World Rally Championship-2 and subsequently the FIA Personality of the Year Award in 2013.

Kubica has recently begun testing for the Formula One teams Renault and Williams, and is currently favourite to take a seat for latter in the 2018 season. Kubica has acknowledged that he has had to adapt to his disability but is feeling assured stating “the motivation is there, and the body is reacting in a good way”.

A return to Formula One for Robert Kubica would be just another chapter in a remarkable story.

Toby Bryant

Tom Shrimplin

Emma Bancroft

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Rafael Nadal, the Comeback King

The famous Spanish tennis player, Rafael Nadal had to withdraw from the 2017 Paris Masters tournament, because of a serious right-knee injury.

During the emotional speech at the conference, he admitted that he did everything he could on the court, but due to almost unbearable pain, continuing to play in the tournament would be impossible.

He noted, that he wanted to concentrate on long-term goals, and therefore decided to save his

health for future tournaments.

Moreover, due to the injury, he also lost his chances to play at the ATP World Finals, which took place in O2 Arena in London. Since becoming professional in 2001, Nadal has had many injuries in comparison to other tennis players.

Although he has experienced the many of his worst injuries at the beginning of his career, he has always managed to recover and come back even stronger to the courts of the best tournaments.

Egle Vaitekenaite

Image: Wikimedia Commons

Jonas Gutierrez' triumphant return to football Although Gutierrez’s story is not technically a comeback from injury, his battle with cancer and subsequent return to football is an inspiring story nonetheless.

Gutierrez signed for Newcastle United in 2008, and endeared himself to the fans during a successful stint that saw the club play Europa League football. However, Gutierrez was diagnosed with testicular cancer in 2013, and returned to his homeland of Argentina to undergo treatment. His concern was not a return to football but simply surviving, yet Gutierrez incredibly managed to do both. He

made a return to the game on loan at Norwich before reappearing for Newcastle in February 2015.

The crowning moment of his triumphant return may well be his final day heroics in the 2014-15 season, when a goal and an assist against West Ham saw Newcastle stave off relegation in the most dramatic of circumstances, and his determination to return to the club left an indelible mark on Newcastle supporters even after his unceremonious dumping by John Carver at the end of that same season.

Tom Hardwick

Getting Great North Run ready

Mark Sleightholm Sports Editor Places in 2018’s Great North Run are up for grabs, and the manager of Newcastle University’s team is urging anyone interested in taking part to get in touch.

Dr David Golding CBE, from the Institute of Sustabainability, organises the team, typically made up of around 60 staff and students. The nationallyacclaimed team raises money for action on global poverty and climate change.

The ballot for the race opens in January, but since students are likely to be busy with exams and the Christmas break, Golding is encouraging students to let him know now if they are intending to apply, so that he can remind them when the ballot opens and help them fill out the application form.

Golding is part of Newcastle’s Institute of Sustainability, but is also involved in the Jubilee Debt Campaign. This national charity calls for unjust debts of some of the world’s poorest countries to be cancelled and for an end to the use of debt as a form of international power.

40% of the money raised by the team goes to the Jubilee Debt Campaign, 10% each to STOPAIDS and the National Climate Coalition, with the remaining 40% donated to whichever aid or environmental charity that runner chooses to support.

The nearly £20,000 raised by the team in 2017 contributes to a total of around £220,000 that they have raised for charity over the past sixteen years.

The first team Golding put together, in 2001, had the backing of the then-vicechancellor James Wright. Since then each vice-chancellor and all the recent presidents of the Students’ Union and the university branch of UCU have acted as patrons of the university team.

Golding and his wife sort out the administration for the team, ensuring

The full university team on the morning of their Great North Run Image: David Golding everyone is registered and Golding acts as “chief nagger” to keep everyone motivated through the training process.

Each year the team holds a training seminar, where new runners can get support from more experienced particpants. Golding also provides resources such as recommended training schedules to runners and encourages them to keep up training.

“Anyone, in ordinary health, can do it,” Golding said of the Great North Run. “If they do the training.”

Golding himself took part in the run in 2010, to celebrate his 70th birthday, despite confessing that he’s “never been a runner”. His crossed the finish line with a time just shy of three hours, very respectable but he joked: “I didn’t rival Mo Farah, let’s put it that way.”

Golding’s time on run day is more usually spent at the finish line in South Shields, where he waits for every member of the university team to cross the

line, no matter how long he has to stand out in the rain. He takes a photo to mark each runner’s achievement.

With 57,000 runners taking part in 2017’s race, starting places are in high demand, and around a third of those applying for places in the ballot are likely to be disappointed.

DAVID GOLDING As well as managing the university's Great North Run team since 2001, Golding took part in the 2010 race, to celebrate his 70th birthday

Members of the university team, however, have an extra chance of a place, with the Great North Run allocating 25 places directly to the JDC, to be used by those who don’t get a place through the ballot.

Golding wants to give as many people the chance to take part as would like to, and those missing out in the ballot will be given high priority for these places.

“I don’t think I’d be happy if the people in the ballot who didn’t get in didn’t get one of our 25 places,” said Golding.

Whether they get their place through the ballot or the JDC’s charity places, runners will only have to pay the £55 entry fee, with admin fees and the cost of JDC t-shirts covered by the charity.

In addition to this, Golding offers a discount to students; if they raise £100 they get a third off their entry fee, rising to a fully-paid entry if they raise £300. Given that some students manage to raise over £500, this is a generous offer, and one that Golding hopes will encourage more students to take part.

“The last thing I want to do is to contribute to student debt,” Golding added, pointing out that the JDC’s aim is to eliminate debt, not add to it.

FOOTBALL 11s WEDNESDAY LEAGUE Division 1 1 SS Ladzio

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Hardly Athletic sink to new low INTRA MURAL FOOTBALL 11s

Hardly Athletic 0 Oxbow Lakers 10

Dan Haygarth at Henderson Hall The latest disaster in Hardly Athletic’s season came against Geography society’s Oxbow Lakers. A comprehensive 10-0 defeat is the worst in the club’s short and bleak history – overtaking the 8-1 loss against Jesmond Tutu earlier in the season.

A sparse squad of 12 arrived at Henderson Hall (maybe people are tired of losing week after week) and the afternoon got off to a very bad start. A breakdown in communication meant that Athletic’s right back and number ten had driven to Close House in Northumberland, a mere twelve miles away from the ground in Heaton.

A makeshift starting eleven was assembled, which involved playing centre half Henry Clark as a striker.

Clark managed Athletic’s only shot on target in the first half, putting himself in contention to start as a forward again – his zero goals this season is level with any of the team’s other strikers.

Athletic were 4-0 down after fifteen minutes and any hope of finishing the season with a single point disappeared. This seemed to spark a realisation among the team that there was no point in trying to win and we were better suited to embracing the farce that is our club.

As enthusiasm increased, the team’s discipline deteriorated. This came to a head when centre half Will van Woerden almost killed Oxbow Lakers’ striker with a remarkable chop tackle. Van Woerden was lucky to escape without a booking and we hope that he will not receive a retrospective ban.

A bruising, but liberating fixture for Athletic – at least our delusions of grandeur have been put to bed.

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Razor-thin victory for the Blades against Durham MEN’S FENCING

Newcastle 2nds 129 Durham 3rds 128

James Sproston at Newcastle Fencing Centre A long, wintery afternoon of fencing kicked off with the Blades’ men’s seconds in action against their Northern 2B counterparts, the Durham thirds.

Newcastle went into the fixture with confidence knowing that they already had a game and head-to-head advantage in the league over their opponents, after a convincing 125-95 win away at Maiden Castle With no points to separate the two, Durham looked to eliminate Newcastle’s head-to-head advantage with a win out in Benfield, but that is far easier said than done, as only league-leaders Northumbria firsts have taken points off Newcastle at the fortress.

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point separating Newcastle and Durham in their closely-fought encounter in the Northern 2B league

The two sides battled in the sabre first, with Matt Dugher convincingly beating Tom Spencer 5-2. Daniel Nicholson then added to Newcastle’s lead after nicking the win against Mark Lee. Durham then hit back through Jon Pritchett, turning the game on its head by sending the away side into a 15-12 lead.

Leading into the last match-up, Durham held a 40-36 lead. Max Sharp had appeared nonchalant in his early matches, and Nicholson had one blip against Spencer, so it was up to Dugher to turn it around. Sabre in hand, he did just that, winning 9-4 to clinch the first of three weapons 45-44.

In the epée, Durham took control of the tie. Sharp absolutely redeemed himself, wining crucial fights against

Pritchett, Spencer and Matthew Bonini.

Nicholson also played well, winning his first encounter and drawing his second, so he looked in a good position to turn around the 40-39 deficit. However, Durham captain Pritchett, putting Durham 89-84 ahead overall, scored all five points without return.

Foil specialist Max Sharp played a blinder, a masterclass in patience and composure Following the epée, the two teams took back to the piste to fight with the next weapon, the foil. Here foil-specialist Max Sharp played a blinder, winning all three of his fights, the first two being against Ryutaro Kikuchi and Andrea Pozzetti.

Sharp was pitted against Pritchett in the final clash of with the foil, with Newcastle narrowly trailing 124-125 overall. In a masterclass in patience and composure, Sharp won the bout 5-3 to take all three point in the fixture, sealing a 129-128 win overall.

MEN’S FENCING

Newcastle 1sts 103 Leicester 1sts 127

Simultaneous to the men’s seconds fixture, Newcastle’s men’s first side took on a high-flying Leicester in a heavyweight Premier North bout.

Looking at the table before the tie, not many punters would’ve backed the Blades to beat Leicester, as Newcastle footed the table with zero points after the first six fixtures. In contrast, Leicester had been having an unexpectedly

successful season.

According to Leicester’s Aidan Michaels, this was down to very few players graduating, and being lucky with the crop of master’s students and freshers that came into the team this year. Michaels added that he wouldn’t expect the team to perform anywhere else next year.

Opening with the epée, Leiecester quickly established a clear advantage.

Being their best weapon, Leicester were able to cruise past Newcastle, who weren’t able to get the better of their opponents in any of the individual bouts.

Leicester’s Phil Huard wrapped up the tie, beating Sammy Hang 5-4 in the final fight to establish a 45-27 lead. Navneet Kandhari started for Newcastle, matching his energetic fencing with equally passionate vocals.

Throughout, Newcastle put up close battles, with Stefan Chiu getting the better of Huard, showing their strength of character not to roll over. Nevertheless, Leicester ended with a 45-32 win, giving them a 90-59 lead.

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wins for Navneet Kandhari in his clean-sweeping sabre round against Leicester

In the sabre, Newcastle demonstrated their true caliber, as scholar Ginn Artesi won all three of his fights, and Kandhari even notched up a 5-0 win in his first bout with the third and final weapon.

Despite the 45-37 victory, Leicester still triumphed with an overall score of 127103.

Even though their season has defied all expectations, Leicester have no chance of catching Durham, who are nine points clear with three fixtures still to play. Newcastle remain at the foot of the table, with a very slim hope of staying up.

Canoe Club braves CANOEING Ben Smith at the River Washburn Chilling temperatures and an icy wind ushered in the Canoe Club’s annual Wild Water Racing Championships.

Packing bobble hats and gritted teeth the 23-strong team were determined to lay down strong times on both the Classic (2.5km) and Sprint (200m) events in various canoe and kayak disciplines.

Following months of dedicated training, Nick Bennett, a post grad medic, smashed the 2.5km course in under eight minutes, beating 170 other competitors and earning himself a gold medal in the competitive men’s kayak (K1) category before going on to earn a

bronze in the K1 Sprint race.

Following Nick’s exciting start, the team took on the two-person canoe (C2) category. These are closed cockpit, tie-yourself-in, carbon Kevlar racing canoes, and not for the meek hearted.

62

BUCS points earned

by Newcastle across all the Wild Water races

On the classic course, Ben Smith and Dan Leicester took bronze, with Nick and Seb Tyerman snapping at their heals 2.4 seconds behind in fourth place. Second years Emma Scorror and Esther Michel came in tenth place, followed by old hat Carrie Bamber and second year Cat Mills.

New tournament SEPAK TAKRAW Paavan Chouhan at the Sports Centre

A chilly Newcastle Fencing Centre hosted the Blades’ victories and defeats Images: Clara Pettitt

Newcastle University’s Sepak Takraw Club hosted the first of a series of monthly tournaments to give club members a chance to play in a competitive environment.

Sepak Takraw is South-East Asian derived sport that can be most likened to foot-volleyball. Yes, that’s right, footvolleyball. The sport consists of a team of three players stood either side of a net on badminton-sized court. The team has up to three touches between them to use anything apart from their arms and hands to return the ball over the net without letting the ball touch the floor.

The players must quickly decide how

they wish to use their three touches as they receive the ball, whether that be setting up a team mate or knocking a quick return straight back over the net.

Every week Newcastle’s Sepak Takraw club undertakes a variety of training drills working on their ball control and team play. It takes a while to get used to the Sepak Takraw ball which is springier, harder and smaller than most people anticipate at first glance.

The players play in different teams every week; this encourages them to use different styles of play to defeat the opposing team; depending on the stature and playing technique of each of the individuals.

The club aims to ensure the players have the ability to rely on a range of different touches and techniques to both set up their fellow team-mates and re-

35

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sport

Monday 4 December 2017

Sparks fly at Fight Night BOXING Alex Hendley at Venue

Clockwise from left: Fergus McClean in the K1 kayak race; NUCC freshers ready to start their race; Ben Smith and Dan Leicester in their bronze medal-winning C2 performance; the NUCC team Images: NUCC

the cold for wild water win Accidental duathlon athletes Emily McCarthy and Kayley Barnes, who decided that part of the course was best swam, successfully navigated a high spec WWR boat down the course. This is something rarely attempted by a female duo and often regretted by many of both genders.

Team Newcastle had similar standings in the C2 Sprint category. Bennett and Tyerman once again took fourth place, but brains once again triumphed over brawn as PhD students Smith and Leicester placed just above in third, being pipped to second themselves by three tenths of a second!

In the team events Newcastle also performed well as experienced boater Fergus McClean and Race Captain Seb Tyerman joined with Smith, Leicester and Bennett to take another bronze fol-

lowed by the latter three taking silver in the Open Team discipline.

These are closed cockpit, tie-yourselfin, carbon Kevlar racing canoes, and not the meek hearted The team placed second in the competition, something that would not have been possible without the help of Jake Coulthard, who was out due to injury, coach Chris Barratt and enthusiastic supporter (and racer) Jay Endean.

Arguably however, the greatest achievements of Team Newcastle are

those not mentioned above. Instead they are from those who pushed themselves and challenged their comfort zones (sometimes overstepping them and taking swims…).

With a high number of paddlers, women in particular, entering the more challenging disciplines, and almost all Newcastle paddlers tackling the more challenging racing boats, NUCC has proven itself to be a successful club of strong and determined athletes!

In all, it was a fantastic weekend and the determination, enthusiasm of the competitors spoke as much for Team Newcastle as our many glorious medals (and BUCS points).

Thanks must also go to the organisers,Tyerman and Barnes, for all of their hard work and efforts in the run up the event.

kicks off for sepak takraw turn the ball over the net.

Last Sunday Sepak Takraw hosted its first ever monthly tournament. Players trained for weeks so that they could battle it out for the ultimate prize: free food.

Players can use anything apart from their arms and hands to return the ball over the net The monthly tournaments were introduced to add an extra element of competition amongst the players; especially

with the lack of teams from other universities.

The club hopes that by hosting these events it will prepare the players for the Ultimate Tournament, held at the end of the year where they invite and compete against other adult Takraw teams from within Newcastle where a much bigger prize is at stake.

Newcastle University’s Takraw club is also in the process of organising fixtures against Manchester University and Dublin University which would mark great progress for the club, which was only established two years ago with a relatively small following.

By preparing for and hosting these monthly tournaments they hope to raise the level of performance of their players as well as improve the social aspect of the club.

As Sepak Takraw is a relatively obscure, up and coming sport, many of the club’s members have had no experience prior to joining this year. It is incredible how quickly they have been able to pick up the rules and the technique of the sport.

The winning team of the first monthly tournament consisted of two new members, Tom Fisher and Ophelia Lightowler who joined the club through the University’s Give It a Go scheme. They have shown a great example and their victory just goes to show the success that can be had if you put yourself out there and try out a new sport!

Similarly, the club hopes that Ophelia’s success in this tournament can encourage other girls to try it out and dispel any questions that Sepak Takraw is a men’s sport.

Hundreds flooded into NUSU’s Venue on Thursday evening to watch the annual spectacle that is Fight Night.

With a plethora of electric fights and an atmosphere to match, the evening lived up to everybody’s expectations.

Whether they were supporting a friend, there to watch the boxing or simply using it as an excuse to get dressed up, the crowd was rocking and, at times, uncontrollable.

Each table was stocked with three bottles of vodka and a set of chairs which, once the first round started, merely served the purpose of footstools to allow fans a better view of the action, if you hadn’t managed to clamber onto a nearby stage or speaker.

The opening bout was the only female fight of the evening as Jenny ‘From The Block’ Walker was pitted against (possibly now former) friend Lana Jane Hutt, and it took no time at all for them to set the tone for the night ahead. A ferocious first round was followed by a punch thrown after the bell, which can end friendships quicker than never doing the washing up in a student flat.

Throughout the course of the night, there was a smorgasbord of talking points for the commentary team lead

by Rory Ewart to get excited about, but perhaps none so controversial as the drama that unfolded in the wake of Olly Gilby and Max Haller’s fight, where no result was announced following crowd trouble involving Northumbria fighter Muzi Mbele.

Perhaps attempting to make up for the

unsavoury scenes earlier in the night, two of the final three fights were allowed to run four rounds, much to the ecstasy of those packed into NUSU like boxing-mad sardines. The battle of the ‘Emis’ was declared a hard fought draw, while the headline fight was edged by Patric Cochrane, a decision which split the crowd in two but rounded off the night in explosive style.

Fight Night results Thursday 30 November Lana Jane Hutt bt. Jenny ‘From The Block’ Walker Judges decision after three rounds Muzi ‘The African Jewel’ Mbele bt. George ‘The Ram’ Ramsey Technical Knock Out in Round 1 Lewis Whitelaw bt. Harry ‘Light Out’ Linter Technical Knock Out in Round 1 William ‘The Conqueror’ bt. Fred ‘The Rock’ Johnson Technical Knock Out in Round 2 Olly ‘White Tyson’ Gilby v Max ‘Shelby’ Haller No result called following disturbance Archie ‘The Butcher’ Hughes bt. Freddy McNaughton Judges decision after three rounds Charles ‘Move Over’ Murphy bt. Andrew ‘The Fear’ Cleare Technical Knock Out in Round 2 Temi ‘Chocolate Thunder’ Olugbenga v Yemi ‘The Better Emi’ Lijadu Draw called following four rounds Rory ‘The Hammer’ Hanna bt. Fred ‘Kiss Me Through The’ Fone Technical Knock Out in Round 2 Patric Cochrane bt. Harry Goodman Judges decision following four rounds

BUCS RESULTS AMERICAN FOOTBALL

Mix1 v York 1sts

BADMINTON

M1 v Sheffield 1sts M2 v Hull 2nds W2 v Northumbria 1sts

BASKETBALL

M1 v Man Met 1sts M2 v Sheffield 2nds M2 v Sunderland 2nds W1 v Nottingham 1sts W2 v Durham 3rds

FENCING

M1 v Leicester 1sts M2 v Durham 3rds M3 v Northumbria 1sts W2 v Manchester 1sts W3 v Sheffield 1sts

FOOTBALL

M2 v Teesside 1sts

36-0 2-6 7-1 1-7 69-73 64-53 84-34 68-48 69-44

LACROSSE

W1 v Leeds Beckett 1sts W3 v Northumbria 1sts

NETBALL

W1 v Leeds 1sts W2 v Sheffield 1sts W3 v Hull 1sts W4 v Leeds 4ths

SQUASH

M1 v Birmingham 1sts M2 v Durham 2nds M3 v Durham 3rds M4 v York 2nds W1 v Lancaster 1sts W2 v York 1sts M1 v Durham 1sts

TENNIS

M2 v Leeds 3rds W2 v Leeds 1sts

M1 v Leeds 1sts

VOLLEYBALL

FUTSAL

HOCKEY

RUGBY UNION

ULTIMATE

3-2

2-3 0-1 2-0 1-3 11-6 2-18 39-39 43-62 28-37 36-35

16-24

M1 v Nottingham 1sts 22-17 M4 v Sheffield Hallam 2nds 31-19

TABLE TENNIS 103-127 129-128 68-135 106-119 54-135

M1 v Durham 3rds 18-3 M2 v Leeds Trinity 1sts 2-2 M2 v Sheffield 2nds 6-5 W1 v Durham 4ths w/o Durham W1 v Durham 5ths w/o Durham M1 v Manchester 1sts M3 v Leeds 4ths W3 v York St Johns 1sts W4 v Leeds Beckett 3rds

RUGBY LEAGUE

M1 v Hull 1sts

M1 v Northumbria 2nds W1 v Nottingham 1sts

WATER POLO

M1 v Liverpool 1sts M1 v Manchester 1sts M2 v Leeds Beckett 1sts W1 v Nottingham 1sts

1-4 4-1 0-3 2-1 3-1 2-2 10-7 10-2 4-8 9-6 0-3 3-2 11-7 11-10 10-16 17-7

OVERALL BUCS POSITION Pos

University

Pts

9

Northumbria ■

1509

10

Cardiff ■

1451

11

Newcastle ■

1359

12

Notts Trent ▲

1252

13

Manchester ▲

1241

sport the courier

Monday 4 December 2017 Issue 1361 Free

@Courier_Sport courier.sport@ncl.ac.uk thecourieronline.co.uk/sport Sport Editors Tom Shrimplin, Courtney Strait & Mark Sleightholm

Inside Sport today >>>

OVERCOMING INJURY

CANOEING

FIGHT NIGHT

Athletes near and far making major comebacks Page 32

Newcastle sees great success at Wild Water Championships Page 34

Recapping an exciting night in Venue Page 35

Knights build NBL momentum

Image: Courtney Strait

MEN’S BASKETBALL

Newcastle 69 Derby 62

Courtney Strait at Benfield Sports Centre The Newcastle Men’s Basketball Club built some much needed momentum over the weekend, defeating the Derby Trailblazers 69-62 and narrowly missing the top team in the NBL Division 1, Loughborough. Despite the loss, the game proved that the Knights are able to rise to the occasion and compete with anyone in the league.

On Saturday, the game belonged to Newcastle from start to finish but was not without adversity. The team debuted a very unfamiliar starting lineup, with four of the five starters for Newcastle being unable to play due to injury or other time commitments. The combination of starters including Romonn Nelson, Jack Beresford, Mark Elderkin, Kingsley Pinda and Patrick Wrencher was just what the Knights needed to start off on the right foot. In the first few minutes of the game,

the Knights came out to a blazing start, taking a 11-0 lead before the Trailblazers could put points on the board.

Once both teams got settled into the game, it was a back and forth affair — Team Newcastle would gain a comfortable double-digit lead, and then Derby would inch its way back within a few possessions — there’s a reason they call basketball “a game of runs!” This trend was true through the entire game until Newcastle was able to defend Derby’s late game efforts and capture the win in NBL league play.

Standout efforts came from Romonn Nelson and Patrick Wrencher on Saturday, who both tallied double-digit points in the match. Nelson knifed his way through Derby defenders on multiple occasions for lay-ins, and was able to find his stroke from deep to notch a team-leading 19 points while shooting 50% from the field for the day. Nelson also dished out a team high seven assists for the Knights. Wrencher was a force down low for the Knights, which was much-needed as the team’s starting center, Fran Urli, was unable to attend

the game. Wrencher scored all of his 15 points in the first half and was instrumental in the team gaining confidence (and the lead) in the first two quarters.

In addition to scoring, Wrencher hauled in 13 boards and three assists. Team Captain Mark Elderkin was strong defensively for the Knights as he nabbed five steals.

During crunch time for Team Newcastle, one player stepped up in particular: Ben Seipt. With the score close and pressure on every possession, Seipt was the game-changer for the Knights. He scored eight of his 14 points in the fourth quarter and was calm, cool and collected when the Knights needed it most. He hit shot after shot to keep the Trailblazers at bay and help lead his team to victory. Seipt was also steady defensively, coming up with big rebounds in the fourth quarter and causing a handful of turnovers. Seipt finished with six rebounds, three assists and a steal in addition to his 14 points.

The next day, the Knights were not so lucky as they traveled south to Leicester to battle the Loughborough University Student Riders. The script was flipped

from the previous day, with the Riders taking the early lead and Team Newcastle having to claw its way back into the game.

The Knights put up a strong performance against the league’s best team, but offensive struggles put a damper on the day as the visitors fell 70-59.

Newcastle shot a 23% from three-point range and 50% from the free throw line — two stats that need to improve if you’re going to beat the NBL’s top team. In addition the Knights turned the ball over 19 times, which led to 14 points for the Riders.

Another huge factor that decided the game was layups and points in the paint, in which the Riders scored 46 of their 70 points. Morgan Carter, Loughborough’s 6’7” center, was extremely efficient for the home team. He scored 14 points for the hosts and collected six rebounds.

There were many positives to take from the game, especially the fact that Team Newcastle was without a handful of players and still managed to go neck and neck with Loughborough. Being down by as much as 16 in the game, Newcastle never gave up and managed to cut

the lead to five on multiple occasions.

Unfortunately, they just couldn’t get over that final hump and settled for a respectable loss at a tough venue. Kingsley Pinda and Ben Seipt were bright spots for Team Newcastle. Pinda filled up the stat sheet on Sunday by posting 17 points, five rebounds, four assists and a steal, and Seipt finished with a strong 14 points and eight rebounds. Patrick Wrencher added his second double-double of the weekend with 10 points and 10 rebounds.

If the Knights can continue to improve as a team and stop the drive on defense, they have a promising second half of the season to come.

The Knights’ next BUCS game is this Wednesday against arch rival Northumbria at the Royal Grammar School in Jesmond at 7:30PM. If you want to catch the Knights in NBL action, their next home fixture is Saturday, 16 December against the Solent Kestrels at Northumbria Sport Central at 6:00PM. Newcastle dropped a close game to Solent earlier this season, so this is a matchup you don’t want to miss (not to mention, admission is free).