thecourier thecourieronline.co.uk Lifestyle Find out how eggs are cracking mental health stereotypes Page 14-15
Music Has Kanye’s sound changed for better or for worse? Page 24
Monday 25 February 2019 Issue 1384 Free
TV First ever Disney Channel character comes out as LGBTQ+ Page 28
Postgrad sabb most nominated ever The independent voice of Newcastle
It is the first year the paid role has been made available
Louise Hall Editor
Nominations for sabbatical and part-time officer positions at Newcastle University Student’s Union closed at 11.59pm last Thursday on the 22nd of February. After nominations closed all candidates received a list of those who have nominated themselves for all positions, and it was revealed that there have been ten candidates nominated for NUSU’s brand new postgraduate officer positon.
This is the most nominations a sabbatical role has ever recieved with ten candidates for the role. The closest to this was nine candidates running for President in 2015
Jonny Hall the Education Officer proposed an open debate on the Postgraduate officer at Council in 2018 Image: NUSU
Landlords can now be sued for mould Molly Greeves News Editor
For years, students have been at their landlord’s mercy when it comes to complaints about mould. This is all going to change on March 20th when an update of the Landlord and Tenant Act of 1985 will allow people to take their landlords to court if their home is not up to scratch. According to the charity Shelter, the new law will make mould, dampness, cold temperatures and the appearance of rodents a landlord’s responsibility. Many students have found their landlords to be dismissive of these issues in the past; an anonymous second-year student from Jesmond shared her experi-
ences. “Having a massive amount of mould in my room was terrible.” She told The Courier. “The
The update of the Landlord and Tenant act will allow students to take their landlord to court over mould
room and my clothes smelt damp all the time. I noticed it made me sick after a couple of
weeks... I contacted the estate agents multiple times and they said that there was nothing they could do and that it was probably my fault. I had to treat it myself with a mold spray that they provided. This spray was basically bleach which created an even worse smell.” The chief executive of Shelter, Polly Neate, claims that the new law will give tenants “the power they need to tackle bad conditionswhich is why Shelter campaigned hard for it to be passed as a law”. According to a blog post by the charity, there are “almost one million rented homes with hazards that pose a serious risk to health and safety”, meaning that around 2.5 million people, both students and permanent residents, will benefit from this change in the law.
This is the most nominations a sabbatical role has ever received, the closest being nine nominations for the president role in 2015, when Dominic Fearon ultimately won the role. This is the first year that the position has been made available to students. The postgrad sabb job description on the NUSU website states that the role ‘will focus on PG student issues and ensuring the University act on their concerns and difficulties as well as increasing PG engagement in events and activities at NUSU.’ Jonny Hall, the current Education Officer of NUSU has been overseeing the implementation of this role into the Union’s internal structures. The sabbatical team will now have 7 officers and will be one of the biggest in the Country. Jonny Hall told the Courier: ‘It’s genuinely incredible to see how many nominees we have for the brand new PG Sabb role. Just the quantity alone shows why there was
such an important need for this role to be introduced to the Sabbatical Officer team. Myself and other NUSU staff have been heavily involved in a consultation on PG issues this year, so with that and their own manifesto pledges there should be a lot of projects for the winner to look into once they take office.’ Some have said that the high volume of applicants points to how necessary this role is for postgraduate students, who may have previously felt underrepresented in the Union. Jonny Hall held an open debate on the concept of a post-graduate sabbatical officer at Student Council where he asked the room what they thought the key issues are for postgraduate students are and what the priorities of a post-graduate sabbatical officer should be. While only a small number of the students in the room were actually postgraduate students they generally agreed that the nature of postgraduate study is quite different to undergraduate and therefore students would need different kinds of support in their studies. Jonny Hall stated he believed the role was necessary because Sabbatical officers coming from a Bachelor’s degree ‘don’t have the experience of post academic research students.’ It is interesting to note however that the role of Postgraduate nominations superseded those of quite a few of the other traditional sabbatical roles, with the Athletic Union Officer and the Welfare and Equality officer roles only receiving three nominations each. However, the overall number of nominations for sabbatical roles was significantly higher than last years, with 38 nominations in total in comparison to last year’s 25. Last year a significant amount of candidates also dropped out of the elections in the run up to campaign week- some even during. The ballot percentage was at an extreme low as only 3387 students voted University Students’ Union elections, 2052 down on last year, as the overall turnout proportion dropped from 23% to 13%. Some argued this could be attributed to UCU pension strikes taking place during election week alongside severe weather conditions on campus. All the Part-Time Officer roles have at least one candidate this year, while last year the International Students Officer, Disabilities Officer, Racial Equality Officer and Students with Faith of Belief officer all had to be reopened and elected at a second cross campus ballot in May 2018. Voting will open in the cross-campus NUSU elections from noon on Monday 18th March and any Newcastle University Student is eligible to vote.
Inside today >>>
Student fines at £27,000 Newcastle Students have been fined over 27k for parties over the last three years News, page 6
Vegan around the globe Two of our travel writers take you on a tour of the hottest vegan spots in Europe Travel, page 21
Blind Date
Catch up with this week’s Blind Date couple and find out whether it was love at first sight Lifestyle, page 13
The Oscars 2019
Our feature details predictions for and attitudes towards this years academy awards Feature, page 22-23
Battlefield V
Our writers detail how the latest instalation has fallen short of sales expectations Gaming, page 36
2
the courier
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 Louise Hall Deputy Editor Isabel Sykes News Editors Grace Dean, Molly Greeves, Sidney Pinsett and Steven Ross Comment Editors Jamie Cameron, Caitlin Disken and Alexandra Sadler Life & Style Editor Sophie Henderson Lifestyle Editors Phoebe Fielder, Holly Margerrison, and Ella Williams Fashion Editors Poppy Couling Joe Hood and Miranda Stoner Beauty Editors Laura Buckle, Susanne Norris and Nimra Rafique Travel Editors Jenny Franken, Bianca Ionci and Amy Harris Culture Editors Alex Moore and Carys Rose Thomas Feature Editor Ally Wilson Arts Editors Rosie Mccrum, Julia McGhee Russell and Scarlett Rowland Music Editors Charlotte Boulton, Rory Ellis and Max Hobbs TV Editors Jacob Clarke, Tom Cooney and Chloe Mullins Film Editors JImmy Athey, Joe Holloran and Jack Gill Gaming Editors George Boatfield, Kelly South, James Troughton, Shawn Khoo Science Editors Eleanor Gratton and Cecilia Adamou Sports Editors Sydney Isaacs, Rebecca Johnson, Harry Parsons, Jack Smilie, Rory Ewart Puzzles Editor Helena Buchanan Online Editors Rory Cameron, Jodie Duddy, Amanda Goh, Thomas Hardwick, Orestis Katsoulis, Sophia Kypriotis, Dominic Lee, Lucy Lillystone, Alex Darbyshire The Courier NUSU King’s Walk Newcastle upon Tyne NE1 8QB Tel: 0191 239 3940 The Courier is printed by: Trinity Mirror Printing, Barton Road, Riverside Park Industrial Estate, Middlesbrough, TS2 1UT 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 25 February 2019
NSR show of the week Hot off the Press Mondays 12pm-1pm Isabel Sykes Deputy Editor Your favourite Editor and Deputy duo are coming to NSR from Monday 25 February with a new show. Louise Hall and I will be on Mondays at 12 chatting about our favourite highlights from the the latest issue of The Courier. We will be talking about what’s new in Current Affairs, Life and Style gossip, and picking out some best bits from our lovely Culture sections. We will also be inviting writers of some of the best articles onto the show as guests
to tell us more about their latest scoop. In terms of music, we will be treating you t o the absolute bangers that keep us sane while we’re finishing the newspaper at 2am on a Friday. Think feel-good tunes and girl-power anthems with a sprinkling of 90s throwbacks. If you need something to get you over that Monday lunchtime slump, tune into NSR to have a natter and a boogy with two of The Courier’s top gals.
STU BREW beer of the week: Extended Overdraught ABV: 5.2% Isabel Sykes Deputy Editor Extended Overdraught IPA is part of Stu Brew’s core range and with 160 ratings on their website, it is also certainly a popular one. Caramalt and Marris Otter malt and Magnum and Dr. Rudi hops are used in the brewing of this lovely goldencoloured beer. This is a successor of Stu Brew’s first ever recipe and the one they have created most variations from, by experimenting with different hops.
Student Spotlight La Vida Loca charity hosts salsa night Isabel Sykes Deputy Editor On Tuesday 26th February Newcastle music students are putting together a salsa night in aid of the South American charity La Vida. The event, called La Vida Loca, will start at 8pm and is being hosted at Revolución de Cuba in Newcastle city centre. The event is scheduled to finish around midnight. La Vida is an entirely volunteer-run Latin
The La Vida charity support grassroots projects dedicated to improving health and education in local communities
American charity founded in 2006. They support grassroots projects dedicated to improving health and education in local communities. The La Vida Loca night will kick off with a 30 minute salsa lesson from 8:30-9pm. This will be followed by an evening of music for attendees to enjoy while putting their new salsa skills to the test. Providing the entertainment will be Latin band Azúcar and a set from local DJ Elliot Cruikshanks. Anybody is welcome to attend this event and more information can be found on the Facebook event page. Tickets can also be bought through a link on this page and will cost £5 per person. 100% of profits from the La Vida Loca night will go to the La Vida charity.
For an inexperienced beer-drinker like me this IPA was not too overpowering, very smooth, and I appreciated the fruity undertones (I think they say it’s pineapple and apple peel) which made it quite refreshing. This is definitely a good one for those sunny spring days we are seeing more of now. This popular IPA is available to purchase from Luther’s, various Eat@Newcastle venues and external venues such as The Town Mouse and The Crow’s Nest.
Whats on near you:
Monday
Tuesday
Sport: 12pm-2pm: GIAG Table Tennis. Location: Venue, NUSU. Lifestyle: 4:45pm: Culture Kitchen open meting. Location: INTO Building. Sport: 4:55pm-6pm: GIAG Female only basketball. Location: Meet at sports centre
Sport: 12pm-2pm: GIAG Table Tennis. Location: Venue, NUSU. Sport: 12:30pm-1:15pm: GIAG Les Mills BodyPump fitness class. Location: Sports Centre, Multipurpose room B. Arts: 7:45pm: NUTS presents “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?” Location: Northern Stage.
Wednesday Employability: 1pm-2pm: Sharing information about a disability with an employer. Location: Kings Gate L1.20 Employability: 1:15pm-1:45pm: Sharing information about a disability with an employer. Location: Kings Gate L1.20 Arts: 1:30pm-4pm: GIAG Silver ring-making jewellery workshop. Location: Meet outside NUSU front entrance. Sport: 6pm-7pm: Watch Your Head run DMC. Location: Start at West jesmond met-
Friday Arts: 10:30pm-1:30pm: Artist book-making workshop. Location: BALTIC Centre for Contemporary Art. Sport: 12:30pm-1:15pm: GIAG Les Mills BodyPump fitness class. Location: Sports Centre, Multipurpose room B. Lifestyle: 3:30pm-6:30pm: GIAG Cocktailmaking masterclass at Revolution. Location: Meet outside NUSU front entrance. Arts: 6pm-9pm: The Spring Launch. Location: The Biscuit Factory. Arts: 7:45pm: NUTS presents RENT. Location: Northern Stage.
Thursday Sport: 12pm-2pm: GIAG Table Tennis. Location: Venue, NUSU. Arts: 2pm-4pm: Where Art Thou with Watch Your Head. Location: Hatton Gallery. Societies: 5pm-6:30pm: Societies Welfare Officer Training. Location: Planning Room, NUSU. Societies: 5:15pm-8pm: Sober Socials Society SobrieTEA. Location: The Coffee Trader. Sport: 6:20pm-9pm: GIAG Squash. Location: Meet outside NUSU front entrance.
Saturday Societies: 12pm-3:30pm: Newcastle Stands Up To Racism 2019. Location: Venue, NUSU. Arts: 1:30pm: NUTS presents RENT. Location: Northern Stage. Music: 7:30pm: Newcastle Bach Choir Spring Concert. Location: Kings Hall, Armstrong Building.
Sunday
Sport: 9am-11am: GIAG Mixed Basketball. Location: Sports Hall, Newcastle University Sports Centre.
news
3
the courier
Monday 25 February 2019
@TheCourier_News courier.news@ncl.ac.uk thecourieronline.co.uk/news News Editors Grace Dean, Molly Greeves, Sidney Pinsent, Steven Ross Online Editor Jodie Duddy
UK students demand decolonised curriculums Molly Greeves News Editor
The decolonisation of university curriculums is a topic that has repeatedly cropped up over the years. Back in 2016, NUS posted an article to their website called “Why is my curriculum white?”, addressing an online movement to make university curriculums more inclusive. That academic year, only 59.7% of black, minority and ethnic students (BME) graduated with a first or a 2:1, compared with 73.5% of white students according to Universities UK. The next year, Cambridge University student Lola Olufemi spoke up about the issue, only to receive racist and sexist abuse online after a Telegraph article claimed that she was “(forcing) Cambridge to drop white authors”.
“Decolonising the curriculum is the acceptance that education needs to enable selfunderstanding”
Priyamvada Gopal, writer for The Guardian
What does it mean to want a “decolonised curriculum”? Priyamvada Gopal, writer for The Guardian, argues that “decolonising the curriculum is, first of all, the acceptance that education... needs to enable self-understanding. This is particularly important to people not used to seeing themselves reflected in the mirror of conventional learning- whether
women, gay people, disabled people, the working classes or ethnic minorities.” For many, the lack of representation within the university syllabus causes BME students to underachieve; in their 2019 report, Open University named decolonising curriculums one of the most important ways that higher education can be improved. Arguably, certain institutions are making steps in the right direction. Many universities such as Swansea, Cambridge and Birmingham claim to be making steps towards making their reading lists more inclusive to different groups of students. However, many argue that universities still have a long way to go in terms of diversity. As of 2017, only 9.6% of professorial posts in the UK were made up of BME staff- Equality, Welfare and Diversity officer Jack Green believes that hiring more people of colour would improve education for everyone. “Diversifying the curriculum would not only be beneficial to Black and Minority Ethnic students but also give a broader education to other students.” Green argued. “There needs to be adequate representation in the curriculum to reflect the student population, however to fully diversify the curriculum we must also actively seek BME members of staff into teaching roles.” Green is not alone in valuing a more diverse education for Newcastle University students. Chris Wilkinson, NUSU’s Racial Equality Officer, stated: “The decolonisation of the curriculum is an absolutely necessary step towards meaningful conversation and representation in our society. Being able to study how things actually are and were is so important for many reasons, not least because an entire generation of students is ready to become
genuinely self-aware.” Since the issue is clearly important to many students, The Courier asked Newcastle Uni-
“This generation of students is ready to become self-aware.”
Chris Wilkinsion, NUSU’s Racial Equality Officer
versity’s Head of Literature, Helen Freshwater, for information on how the school are diver-
sifying the course. While less than 53% of undergraduate literature modules contain BME authors, Freshwater asserts that diversity and inclusion are “at the heart” of the work done at SELLL. “The modules which don’t include BAME writers focus on earlier historical periods.” She explained. “Many of these modules seek to address the gaps and silences in English literature from earlier periods... modules such as the third-year option, “Other Renaissances: Gender, Race and Sexuality in Early Modern Culture”, are centrally concerned with these issues despite not including any writing by BAME authors.”
According to Professor Kate Chedgzoy, Newcastle’s Director of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, English Literature is not the only subject that is facing changes. “The entire History curriculum is being reviewed, and decolonisation is an important part of that.” She explained. “This links with other curriculum diversification initiatives in the School of History, Classics and Archaeology. “Working to make both the content of the curriculum and the ways in which we teach and learn more diverse, equal and inclusive is a key goal for many people across the university.”
Rhodes Must Fall was a movement that began in the University of Cape Town to remove Cecil Rhodes Image: Wikimedia Commons
University heads paid up to 13 times above average Joe Molander
University heads have been enjoying immense salary boosts – including at some of the top schools in the UK – while their sub-
ordinates’ pay continues to lag behind. The “head of provider” at Cambridge University saw their pay increase by 26% from 2016-17 to 2017-18, followed closely by their opposite numbers at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama (a leading uni-
versity for creative courses), who secured pay rises of 18% and 22% respectively. The revelations come from research published on 12th February by the Office for Students (OfS), a ‘non-departmental government body’ working under the Department of Education. The report, titled “Senior Staff
Remunerations” also reveals how the salary for the average member of university staff has barely budged. The pay boost for the Vice Chancellor of De Montford University saw their salary grow to £350 000, for example, a 22.4% rise from
All but 4 of the 133 institutions that were examined paid their Vice Chancellors more than £150 000
De Montford University Image: Flickr, John Ford
2016-17, over six times higher than the modest 3.6% pay rise for “all staff” over the same time period. At Bishop Grosseteste, the Vice Chancellor’s pay grew by nearly twenty four times that of the institution’s other workers. In terms of nominal pay, some universities pay their providers as much as thirteen times more than the university’s average salary. The so-called ‘basic salary multiple’ was highest for Royal Holloway, which stands at 13.4. When one considers remuneration as opposed to basic salary – meaning such things as benefits, bonuses and expenses are taken into account – the worst offender was Oxford, with a ‘total remuneration multiple’ of 12.8, meaning their head of provider’s salary is 12.8 times bigger than the university’s average salary. The OfS introduced new rules last year threatening “significant” fines for giving Vice Chancellors extremely large salaries, which seems to have been ignored. All but four of the 133 institutions that were examined caid their Vice Chancellors more than £150 000,
meaning barely 3% of universities paid below that. Nearly half pay more than £300 000, while six institutions pay a staggering £500 000, or possibly even more (in terms of remuneration, not basic salary). At the top of this list sits the Open University, which paid their provider £718 000 in 2017-18, up nearly 70% from £425 000 in 2016-17. Other universities paying more than £300 000 include Cambridge (£492 000), LSE (£500 000) and King’s College London (£461 000). As a non-departmental government body, the OfS is in its infancy, celebrating its first birthday on new year's day of 2019. If it delivers research of the same quality and rigour, it may well be that injustices in higher education become harder to get away with, though the body has drawn criticism. For example, it’s provoked the ire of the University and College Union – the world’s largest higher education
The Vice Chancellor of De Montford University saw their salary grow to £350,000, a 22.49% rise from 2016-17
union – which claims that OfS are letting universities get away with high salaries without any form of justification. How effectively the OfS deal with their own intelligence, then, remains to be seen.
4
news Newcastle experts help children with blood cancer
the courier
Monday 25 February 2019
Isabel Sykes Deputy Editor A team of computing scientists and medics from Newcastle University and the Great North Children’s Hospital are working together to improve paediatric services in the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre Malawi.
"We have always wanted to share our discoveries with services around the world and this is a great way of doing that"
Dr Yuchin Ding, Research Associate at Newcastle University's School of Computing
The team of experts are working to develop an Artificial Intelligence-powered digital pathology microscope slide scanner which will be used to speed up the diagnoses of African children with blood cancer, therefore helping to increase their survival rates. The microscope is only the size of a coffee flask but can magnify children’s blood samples 1000 times and enhance picture quality
Dr Yuchin Ding developed the AI-powered digital pathology microscope Image: Newcastle University Press Office
by highlighting abnormal white blood cells. This will allow pathologists to confirm a cancer diagnosis more quickly. 28,000 children are admitted to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital every year, and 320 of these patients are admitted to the paediatric oncology ward. Previously, the image quality of half of the cancer cases in Blantyre, Malawi has not been good enough to provide a cancer diagnosis, and the country has a lack of experts. This new technology will enable pathologists in the North East to access hundreds of images of blood samples digitally so they can confirm a diagnosis from Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary. Dr Yuchin Ding, Research Associate at Newcastle University’s School of Computing, is responsible for constructing the Artificial Intelligence-powered system. He has set up a fundraising page with the aim of getting £4,850 to buy the device and a laptop for the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital. This is part of the Malawi Telepathology MPathE Project to help pathologists assist deprived areas around the world. Dr Ding said: “Malawi is one of the world’s poorest countries, but despite this, it has a dedicated paediatric oncology service. Yet this is hampered by the fact that there isn’t good technology that can be used for timely diagnosis in the majority of patients. “While spending our daytime working on cutting-edge scientific research, we have always wanted to share our discoveries with services around the world and this is a great
way of doing that. “We believe that people around the world should have a chance to benefit from the latest technological advances to fight cancer, especially children who have their whole lives ahead of them.”
28K
Number of children admitted to Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital every year
Simon Bailey is a professor of paediatric neuro-oncology at the Northern Institute for Cancer Research and one of the experts who will be viewing the patients’ images. He said: “Accurate diagnosis of cancer in children in Blantyre is challenging due to the lack of pathologists and the resultant delay in diagnosis would severely compromise the treatment offered to these children. “The system that Dr Ding is raising money to purchase will provide high resolution fullslide imaging that will ensure a more accurate diagnosis and the hence best treatment for cancer.” Next month the team of experts will be heading to the Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital to deliver the microscope slide scanner and laptop, but donations to fund this equipment are still needed. Those interested in donating should visit the gofundme page titled ‘Help Children With Cancer in Malawi with HighTech’.
LGBT+ talk tackles prejudice and trans-forms opinion Joe Molander
On 16th February, a few rooms along a quiet corridor in the Student’s Union played host to the LGBT+ Conference. The result was six talks and one panel, each offering a different insight into the world of LGBT+ identity and culture.
Kitted out in twoinch nails, pink blusher and green eyeshadow, it's clear that Windust's brand of activism is one that offers an unapologetic confidence
First was an address from Jamie Windust, the writer, activist and editor of Fruitcake Magazine, a publication which focusses on “queer excellence”. His website discusses what it is to be non-binary (a term describing any gender identity that isn’t exclusively masculine or feminine, such as bigender – meaning masculine and feminine – or agender – meaning neither). As someone in the public eye, Windust is able to offer an inside perspective on the need for LGBT+ people to debate for basic rights and acceptance: they relate not inconsiderable frustration at the standard format for TV debates, which they describe as a shouting match between trans and cisgender people designed to make TV stations money, not advance the interests of any other group. However, Windust also explains the human side to the issue, namely that the participants in these shouting matches are still people trying to pay rent. They end the talk in style, posing so that audience members can take pictures of them for their Instagram stories. Kitted out in twoinch nails, pink blusher and green eyeshadow, it’s clear that Windust’s brand of activism is one that offers an unapologetic confidence and articulacy. The next event focussed on LGBT+ educa-
tion, led by Oliver Isaac, a trans man currently in teacher training. He asks the room about barriers to LGBT+ education, and the crowd do offer some interesting insight, particularly from a teacher in the audience, who explains how harmful it can be to presume a child is gay and then project one’s own experiences of being LGBT+ onto them. But Isaac tells us he’s waiting for one issue to come up: the law. He explains that Ofsted have a “box to tick” about tackling homophobia, but that’s as far as it goes, which Isaac says candidly is “kind of shit to be honest”, saying that if “that’s all you hear about being LGBT+”, you’ll develop the impression that “if you come out, you’re going to be bullied… you’re going to be targeted”, showing how efforts to improve LGBT+ interests don’t work when piecemeal or halfhearted. It should already be obvious that the conference’s purview was immense (not covered in this article are a talk on AIDS and ‘the queer business masterclass’), which was expanded further in the next talk by Charlotte Boulton, Marginalised Genders Officer for Newcastle University Students Union. Her discussion focussed on LGBT+ representation in the media. She gives several examples of LGBT+ characters in film and TV, such as Laverne Cox, who became the first non-white, openly
The relationship between religion and its LGBT+ followers is often more nuanced and complicated than many of those outside the Church, Mosque or Synagogue often believe
transgender person to be nominated for an Emmy in 2014. However, she doesn’t shy away from addressing the media’s tendency to rely on stereotypes, or on killing off LGBT+ characters (the so-called ‘bury your gays’ trope), showing how they’re often more expendable than or used to further the narrative
of the heterosexual cast. When she comes to talk about LGBT+ representation in news media, she says, only half in jest: “Oh god. I’m so sorry”. She discusses the rise of homophobic and transphobic press coverage, and goes as far as suggesting News Corp (the American media titan founded by Rupert Murdoch, whose assets include the publishers of The Wall Street Journal, The Sun and The Times) be abolished. Finally came a panel on LGBT+ and Faith. The panellists came from a range of religions, from Judaism to Islam to Pentecostal Christianity. An Evangelical Christian told of their experience of being kicked out of the church they had attended since the age of two for being gay, and how they kept their faith, explaining that loyalty to one’s Church does not stop one from acknowledging its problems. In such a “hardline” strand of religion (to use their phrase), you’re made to feel stupid unless what you’re saying can be backed up with scripture. Indeed, such an environment can take its toll: the same panellist relates an experience of feeling upset and wanting to have a shower after undressing in front of their girlfriend for the first time. This is something the Muslim panellist picks up on, saying that they too felt unclean being with a woman and stopped praying, despite it making them happy, because they thought it meant that God didn’t accept them. Despite this, they explain that growing up in central Scotland, everyone was white and straight, meaning no-one had similar experience to them, thus leaving them with no-one to turn to but God. The other main area of insight was that religious homophobia can be subtle. As a whole, the panel revealed that the relationship between religion and its LGBT+ followers is often more nuanced and complicated than many of those outside the Church, Mosque or Synagogue often believe. The panellists had at times experienced friction between their sexuality and their religion, but still remained true to themselves. What the conference showed above all else was the diversity of thought and opinion within the community: whether the speaker was in Converse or four inch heels, the one thing they all shared was a desire to educate and to engage.
Jamie Windust at the LGBT conference Image: Joe Molander
5
news
the courier
Monday 25 February 2019
Graduates bring a taste of Indonesia to Newcastle Gayatri Gopalakrishnan
Waroeng Indonesia, the brainchild of two Newcastle University graduates, has brought a taste of Indonesia to Newcastle. In the few months since Waroeng Indonesia launched, the pop-up restaurant and catering business has had a lot of takers, including securing deals with clients ranging from INTO Newcastle University, Vita Student, Globe International Student Café, Newcastle University Business School and several private clients. They can also be found in a number of locations around Newcastle and Gateshead, including By the River Brew, and Kommunity NCL’s Monthly Night Market. Waroeng comes from an Indonesian word that means a small restaurant where people from various backgrounds come together to bond over food. This is the spirit that the founders, Kezia Toto, and Monica Said, who are Newcastle alumni, hope to imbibe in their start-up. Talking about their pop-up business model, they said, “We have this thing called Kaki Lima, which translates to Five Feet, because the food cart has 3 ‘legs’ and the seller has 2. They pop up at every corner in every possible street in Indonesia. For us, it started as a way to test our market and build awareness.” Kezia and Monica, who graduated from Newcastle University last year with degrees in Psychology & Media and Architecture respectively, worked on several projects to-
gether, before deciding to start their enterprise. In under nine months, they managed to turn a £120 start-up capital into a £3000 profit, which they donated to an orphanage back in Indonesia. A pop-up restaurant bringing the flavours of South-East Asia all the way to the NorthEast of England is a fairly innovative concept, but according to the founders, the pressure to constantly keep innovating in the heavily regulated food industry is a major challenge. As they said, “It is like having to sprint straight
The duo credited the Careers Service as fundamental to getting their business up and running
in a long curvy track.” The pair, who managed to secure a Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur visa through endorsement from the university, also received a grant from UnLtd, an organisation that supports social entrepreneurs in the UK. Considering the competitive process in securing endorsement from the University’s StartUp service, the duo credited the support that they received from the Careers Service and the mentorship with Steve Bowden and Jackie Wade as fundamental to getting their business up and running, and to help them grow as entrepreneurs.
Above: Kezia and Monica serving food at By the River Left: beef rendang prepared by the graduates Image: Waroeng Indonesia
Nearly one million more young adults living at home Joe Molander
New research has revealed that nearly one million more young adults are living with their parents now than over 20 years ago. The research, conducted by Civitas, an independent think-tank, reveals that the proportion of young people, defined as those aged between
Brits that do move out are something of an anomaly in Europe, in that they’re less likely to live alone
20 and 34, living at home swelled to 26% in 2017, an increase of seven percentage points from 1998. The shift in lifestyle was particularly pronounced amongst 23 year olds, almost half of whom were living at home two years ago. Brits that do manage to move out are something of an anomaly in Europe, in that they’re less likely to live alone. Around 30% of UK households are ‘single-person’, a figure that’s remained static since 2008, compared to 45% in Norway and 40% in Germany, percentages that have both grown in the last decade. Indeed, in historical terms, young adults in the UK have been good at flying the nest, with average household size falling steadily since the 1970s. That changed with the turn of the millennium, which saw the average number of people per household stall and eventually start going in the other direction, increasing for the last ten years or so; Civitas’s report revealed the 2017 average household size as 2.39 people, the highest number since 1999. In identifying the causes of this change, Civitas’s paper – rather ominously titled “Rise and Fall” – is wary of coming down too strong on one explanation or the other. It touches on a range of theories, citing the work of sociologists who examined youth unemployment – which has got worse since the 2007 financial crash – and how higher education has delayed ‘family formation’, reducing the need for young people to get a
house of their own. The paper also mentions how house prices have increased at a greater rate than wages, making a mortgage further and further out of reach for first-time buyers, especially those tied up in student debt. A number of Newcastle University students from the local area choose to stay living at home and commute to the campus on a daily basis rather than move into university accommodation or private rented housing. Alongside the convenience of living at home, the high cost of rent compared to funding from Student Finance is often a driving factor behind the decision to stay living in the family home. Fourth year German student Madison Lowes, who lives with her parents near Fenham, said, “I chose to live at home this year because it seemed like the best thing to do financially. Even though I receive less student loan by living at home, I don’t have to pay for things such as rent or food so I am saving a lot of money. "In second year I lived out with friends and that was great however I had to work at least two shifts a week in order to be able to pay for food and rent [Maddy lived in Jesmond and paid approximately £450 per month in rent]. Now I can work as much or as little as I want to.”
but believe that by not moving out it has limited this experience as a whole.” The trend of students commuting to university from home is however not just the case in Newcastle. Lauren Willis, graduate of English Literature from Royal Holloway University, is currently studying for a Graduate Diploma in Law at BPP and commutes daily from her family home in Guiseley, Leeds. “The main reason I chose to live back at home this year is because renting is so ex-
pensive. I would have had to take out loans or money from savings. "The specific postgraduate course I am studying does not qualify for postgraduate government maintenance grants, which is very frustrating. I am lucky to have a home that is quite near the city centre, I can get to university within 30 minutes. At first I struggled with moving in back at home after looking after myself for three years. I needed my own time and space.
"However, after having a few conversations about it, my family seem to understand more now. Many of my friends are either still at university or have jobs and are living my themselves. I am quite jealous of this, but I know that it won't be long until I can do the same.” It would seem, ultimately, that flying the nest is hard when the bird’s saddled with high house prices and thousands of pounds’ worth of debt.
"Even though I receive less student loan by living at home, I am saving a lot of money."
Madison Lowes, fourth year German student at Newcastle University
Fourth year German and History student Sophie Roberson similarly recognised financial constraints as contributing considerably towards her decision to study at Newcastle whilst living at home. “One of the main reasons I chose to study at Newcastle was because I live so close to the university campus that it did not seem financially beneficial to move out, especially as I did not receive enough student loan to cover the cost of student accommodation rent. I still feel as though I have had a great student experience
Financial constraints stop some students from leaving their family home Image: Geograph
the courier
news
6
Monday 25 February 2019
Newcastle students fined £27,000 for parties over last three years Molly Greeves News Editor In a recent article by the Newcastle Tab it was reported Newcastle University students have been fined over £27,000 for throwing house parties over the last three years. These fines were given out to students who were responsible for “significant disturbance to members of the public or damage to public property”. While these fines are common among many UK universities, this article led many students to question whether they are productive or even fair. There have been several instances over the years where Newcastle students have been criticised for anti-social behaviour. In February last year members of the Union Rugby Club were fined for throwing a party after local residents complained, and the year before it was reported by The Chronicle that a Jesmond party had “spiral[ed] out of control”. This article quoted a Jesmond resident who believed “rowdy students” were a “long-term problem” in the area and that they “ruin the lives” of permanent residents. While the university has acknowledged that only a minority of students behave this way, the publicity surrounding these incidences seems to worsen the public’s apprehension towards the student population. Steps have been taken to address this issue, such as NUSU’s and Keep Jesmond Clean’s collaboration that aimed to “improve the relationship between residents and students” by cleaning up the area. However, there is still a long way
to go before locals fully embrace the student population, as shown by an article published on Jesmond Local last November that reported that “Permanent Jesmond residents are unhappy with student discounts”. When asked about the issue, NUSU’s President Raff Marioni argues that fining students for house parties is not the right way to address the issue. “I’ve never respected fines as a method of
Raff Marioni argues that fining students is not the right way to address the issue
punishment, as it creates an unfair divide among students who are able to pay them and those who can’t.” He argues. “I would prefer alternative methods, and I think students should be made more aware of the ramifications of potential anti-social behaviour and what they need to do to prevent being punished. “At the end of the day, parties will always happen, it’s just about making sure they’re set up as safely as possible and the circumstances of neighbours are taken into account and respect is shown. I think there’s a discussion to be had about whether something like community service would be fairer than fines, because the Uni seemed to be obsessed with the latter.”
Newcastle University was named one of the top ten universities for nightlife in the Which 2018 Student Survey Image: Flickr
Plans revealed for multimillion-pound developmen Emma McLaren
Newcastle University has unveiled major plans to redevelop the former Newcastle General Hospital site after purchasing it for £7.5 million. Plans propose using the space as a hub for innovative scientific research and the provision of care options for the elderly, developing the Campus for Ageing and Vitality which occupies part of the site. This will be achieved in collaboration with Newcastle Hospitals and the City Council. The 29-acre plot, in the city’s West End, was previously the site of Newcastle General Hospital. After the hospitals trust moved the majority of its services from the site, the future of the land had been in question until the agreement was announced. The chief executive of the city council, Pat Richie, commented: “The proposed development on the former General Hospital site is a
further progression of that close relationship in partnership with the Hospitals Trust which demonstrates our shared commitment to be at the forefront of innovation, creating safe environments with an integrated multi-agency approach to health and wellbeing to meet the needs of an ageing population.” The plans divided the site into three core zones. The central zone of the development would provide care for older patients, offering a dementia care village, a care home and assisted living homes, using innovative technology to support independent living. The second zone will house a range of research projects at laboratories and clinics. There are also plans for a residential zone, offering opportunities for new businesses, particularly SMEs and commercial partners. Vice-Chancellor of Newcastle University Chris Day said, “Our unique position with expertise in ageing, nutrition, digital science and tech combined with the forward-thinking nature of our city partners, particularly around the challenges of supporting an age-
ing population, could help transform this site” He further promotes the new site as an opportunity for world leading research. He said, "This is an exciting and ambitious vision which looks to the next 10 to 15 years to ensure that we are a world-leading hot bed of innovation and creative research in the field of ageing.” Resources on the site are to be developed, with the existing nurse-led unit for patients with minor injuries and illnesses remining, as it is outside of the site purchased for re-development. Other services, such as the Diabetes Centre, will remain in place for approximately three years. Professor Day commented on the university’s previous success in developing the Helix site in Newcastle city centre - a £350 million flagship project serving as a location for science, technology, business, and leisure, suggesting that it would help the university attract investment to the hospital site.
Dame Jackie Daniel, Professor Chris Day, Pat Ritchie Image: Newcastle University
7
news
the courier
Monday 25 February 2019
Breakthrough in reversing age-related heart damage Yasmin Hailes
Medical scientists at Newcastle University are suggesting it may be possible to reverse agerelated damage in the heart, after a journal from EMBO was published on the 8th February. Part-funded by the British Heart Foundation, the study looks at the impact of senescence “zombie” cells; these are cells that do not function properly, and cause other cells to do the same. It was explored how these form and how they eventually lead to heart failure. Recent estimates suggest that heart failure potentially affects around 920,000 people in the UK alone. It occurs when the heart fails to pump blood around the body normally, after becoming too weak to do so. Generally heart failure comes after other illnesses have already weakened the heart. Elderly people do not recover as well as younger people following heart attacks, meaning old age is one of the biggest risk-factors of heart failure. In other parts of the human body, these zombie cells are often caused by the shortening of structures called telomeres – this is something that occurs every time a cell divides. However little knowledge was known in whether heart cells, otherwise known as cardiomyocytes, could become senescence. One of the leading scientists in the research, Dr Richardson, from the Institute of Genetic Medicine at Newcastle University, has said:
“Previously, it was believed that senescence occurs only as a result of a lifetime of cell division and the shortening of telomeres. “Our data support the very exciting idea that heart cells can become senescent due to stress rather than the process of division. This mechanism could also explain how other non-dividing cells in our bodies age. We saw that removing senescent cardiomyocytes from the hearts of aged mice, both genetically and using drugs, was able to restore cardiac health – essentially removing the damage caused by ageing.” This life-changing research has proved an
920K
The number of people potentially affected by heart failure in the UK
enlightening foundation for further tests, where study is currently being undertaken in exploring the effects of removing zombie cells, that form as a result of heart attacks. Dr Richardson continued “this data provides critical support for the potential of using medicines to kill zombie cells. If this is validated through clinical trials it would provide us with a new way of treating cardiac diseases,” explained Dr Richardson. With funding from the BHF and help from international researchers in France and the USA, the study has proved vital evidence in suggesting how to age with a healthy heart.
nt of a former hospital
Research suggests it may be possible to reverse age-related heart damage Image: Pixabay, Stux
Are lecture theatres emptying forever? Grace Dean News Editor It is being increasingly suggested that the rise of technology could lead to traditional university lectures becoming a thing of the past. Universities are now accepting more and more students onto their degree programmes each year, but are finding themselves struggling to adapt to these rising student numbers. This is being seen at Newcastle University, which has a total of 27,191 undergraduate and postgraduate students at its Newcastle campus for the academic year 2018/19. In Newcastle, however, the main emphasis has been on providing accommodation for these increasing number of students, leading to a rapid growth in the provision of private accommodation such as Verde, alongside expansion of many University-managed accommodation such as the new Park View Student Village development. In comparison, some other universities are feeling the strain on their ability to host large numbers of students in their lecture theatres.
fessor in November emailed his 400 students a picture of an empty lecture theatre after no one came to his lecture. The 2018 Student Academic Experience Survey suggests that the average time-tabled contact hours for UK students has actually increased over the past three years, though by a mere 20 minutes per week up to 13.7 hours, while the number of hours students actually attended their classes for has stagnated at 12.1. Despite the low number of contact hours leading to widespread debate over whether students are getting value for money, which is further intensified by tuition fee rises, traditional lectures are evidently not very well attended. It is hoped that technology may be able to plug this gap and ensure that students continue to learn despite their low lecture attendance. At Newcastle University this is enabled through an increase in the use of ReCap to record large lectures which is beneficial not
only for catching up on missed work but also for revision purposes. Simon Mortimore, Head of information
Lancaster, East Anglia and Brunel universities announced lectures running as late as 8pm
Technology at three University of Oxford colleges, expressed support for the recording of lectures, describing how “it allows those students to go back through the content at their own pace. Lectures can also be live-streamed around the world, with video conferencing bringing presenters from overseas into our campus.”
The average student only attends 12.1 contact hours a week, despite increased contact hours offered by universities
Artist's impression of 'Discovery Crucible Image: Newcastle University
In August, Lancaster, East Anglia and Brunel universities announced that lectures would be running as late as 8pm. Despite attempts to cater for the masses of new arrivals, universities have nonetheless faced criticism. Attempts in Durham to introduce 8am lectures were ultimately rejected following protects from students and staff. Low lecture attendance has also been identified at Birmingham University, where a Literature Pro-
Universities across the country are witnessing a decline in lecture attendance Image: Wikimedia Commons
9
the courier
student voice
Monday 25 February 2019
Sabb Chat: changing campaigns Editor Louise Hall finds out if Welfare and Equality Officer Jack Green has delivered on his manfiesto promises this year
Campaigns are obviously a big part of your job as Welfare and Equality Officer, so what have been your main focuses this year in terms of helping students through campaigns? When I applied for the job mental health was a massive part of my manifesto pledge as it’s something students really care about. NUSU did the biggest survey it has ever done last year interviewing 3000 students and students’ priorities were things like equality, liberation, and mental health. It’s really about making sure campaigns that we deliver are hitting those priorities that students want.
We’re finding that students have a lot on their plate at the moment and they still want to do extra-curricular activities but it’s about giving students the ability to access materials when they want and when it’s convenient to them
More specifically, what are the kinds of campaigns you have been running so far that you feel have been a success in the first semester? So far we’ve seen things like SHAG, the Housing Fair and Housing Information Week. SHAG has gone on for a while now, it’s always popular and is about reminding students about good sexual health. I thought it was important to do that at the start of the year so it broke down the taboo straight away, so that when you come to Newcastle University you see it as a place where people do engage in sexual health and it isn’t a big deal. Housing Fair was quite interesting. Rather than advertising it as a week like we do with every campaign I advertised the Housing Fair and the information and advice around that which I think students responded to a lot more. We’re finding that students have a lot on their plate at the moment and they still want to do extra-curricular activities but it’s about giving students the ability to access materials when they want and when it’s convenient to them. I decided not to run the Alcohol and Substance Misuse Week because I thought that it would be better as a longer campaign, especially in the context of the tragic death of Ed Farmer. The coroner’s report didn’t come out until November time and we have that now with some recommendations that the Students’ Union and the University should be adhering to. You talked a lot about students responding better to shorter, more focused campaigns and events. How are you measuring the successes of these campaigns? Really it would be in attendance numbers and things like that. Things like SHAG week are quite difficult to gauge but we gave out more packs of free condoms and contraception than we ever have before. That is translating into more awareness, as we saw the number of students partaking in the STI test this year rose to 539 which is a decent number for just one week. So recently you have been discussing having a liberation summit in place of liberation month. Can you elaborate on that? Usually the Part-Time Officers and liberation groups plan different events throughout the year and sometimes they don’t necessarily get to the audience that they need to get to. For example if we look at LGBT Awareness Week that has been run previously, there were a lot of events to dispel stigma but they weren’t necessarily attended by those who are homophobic. The purpose of the summit is essentially to try and get some students with lived experiences in a room with various university staff members involved in welfare and liberation issues. The summit is a chance for different marginalised groups to present ideas to a range of university staff who are going to listen to these lived experiences and hopefully enact some real change for students. What kind of feedback have you had from Part-Time Officers about this new concept? Initially they were a bit hesitant about it because they were really looking forward to working together as a team and delivering this month. But I just thought, why run another campaign demonstraing equality, diversity and in-
Mental health was an important part of Jack’s manifesto Image: NUSU
clusion when we aren’t running enough campaigns trying to push positive change? The scope to run those kind of campaigns is still there but things like that should be led by students and supported by the Union. So you said they were initially hesitant. Have these opinions changed? Yes. Ideally they would have liked both but unfortunately we don’t have the resources to do that unless they decide to lead it themselves. It’s about working as a team and I think they can see my point of view. There has been a chance for all Part-Time Officers to be involved in this summit. Another thing you’ve decided to change is not running the Inspiring Women Conference this year. Why have you made this choice? There were a number of factors in the decision really. I don’t identify as female so I could have facilitated and coordinated it but I wouldn’t have felt wholly comfortable being the front person and presenting it. Also it cost a lot to put on and the attendance wasn’t great last year. In my mind the amount of money that it cost didn’t equate to a massive benefit for a significant number of students. Even though the platform has changed we are hoping to offer a lot of things around International Women’s Day and the Empowering Series. There will be different avenues to look at and I’m in discussion with the Marginalised Genders Officer to look at what students want. What else have you been doing to fulfil your manifesto points throughout this year? A criticism of myself is that I haven’t actually managed to find time to update a lot of the online things that I wanted to do. A part of my manifesto was something called Welfare Waypoints where students would be able to go online and see resources and external services. I have begun working on it but I haven’t managed to get it up yet due to the volume of work involved in it. I had input on the Inclusive Societies initiative launched by Sophie McDermott the Activities Officer this year and that’s seen a really good uptake within societies. I also delivered a general wellbeing training to society Welfare Officers which we got good feedback on. Another thing is the free sanitary products across the University which myself and Raff Marioni have been working on quite a lot. We are really keen to see it happen this year.
comment
10
the courier
Monday 25 February 2019 @CourierComment courier.comment@ncl.ac.uk thecourieronline.co.uk/comment Comment Editors Caitlin Disken, Alexandra Sadler & Jamie Cameron Online Editor Rory Cameron
Orban: Hungary for nationalism
As Hungary introduces new incentives to increase its population, our writers analyse whether these measures will be effective Grace Dean
H
ungary has recently attracted global media attention following Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s announcement to introduce generous financial incentives to promote the country’s population growth. In a state of the nation address on 10th February, Orban announced a range of new benefits offered by the government. This included guaranteeing that women with four or more children will never have to pay income tax, offering cheap mortgages to families buying new homes and promising cheap loans and a lifetime exemption from income tax for married younger under 40. In a move divergent from sustainability policy in many other countries, he also announced that the government would subsidise £6840 towards the purchase of sevenseater vehicles for families with three or more children. These policies are all aimed at raising Hungary’s birth rates to reverse population decline, with Orban hoping to reach a fertility rate of 2.1 by 2030. An analysis of Hungary’s demographics is necessary to see whether Orban’s measures are justified. As of 2017, Hungary has had a fertility rate of 1.50, which actually shows a substantial rise from previous years. There has been a sustained year-on-year increase in fertility rate since 2011 when the rate was 1.23, the lowest on record, presumably in the aftermath of the financial crisis. Records suggest a very gradually ageing population, which is something reflected across many developed countries globally. Therefore, despite the rise in fertility rate, Hungary has seen a considerable fall in total population from 9,850,845 in 2017 to 9,825,704 in 2018. While Orban’s policies seem incredibly generous, it appears that government officials don’t expect the population to take up these offers all too easily: the government estimates this umbrella of policies
will cost the state $500m, or 0.3% of GDP, in 2020, which seems surprisingly low considering the vast financial benefits on offer. This ultimately reflects Hungary’s benefit system prior to the introduction of these new policies; currently there is already a broad range of family benefits on offer, which have ultimately seen only limited success.
By focusing on incentives, core structural problems are not addressed
Orban has a clear anti-immigration stance, even arguing that ‘immigration means surrender’, and heavily criticising the EU. This is reflected in the results of a microcensus from 2016, 98.3% of the Hungarian population is of Hungarian nationality. Arguably his beliefs echo those of many other who similarly oppose globalisation and the influx of workers and students that it brings - thank God he isn’t planning on building a wall. However, by discouraging immigration he is limiting Hungary’s economic development. Furthermore, simply introducing generous financial subsidies does not target the root of the problem. Orban should instead be focusing on why people don’t want to have further children, rather than simply paying them to do so. By focusing on the economic incentives for childbearing, he is not addressing any core structural problems in his country which may additionally be contributing to the problem. Increasing the fertility rate is of little impact when many of them simply grow up to emigrate to other countries, thus facilitating the development of an infamous brain drain in Hungary. Why encourage a higher birth rate if the job market and university system are not attractive enough to actually retain these children as they grow up? Ultimately, people are
questioning the morality of a system which so strongly encourages having children for financial benefits. Will these children grow up happy with parents who were tempted by the offer of subsidies on cars and cheaper mortgages? Only time will tell, but recent opinion polls suggest that Orban and his team will remain in power for a while yet, despite unrest and protests against the government. These polls suggest that his party will win close to 40% of the popular vote, leaving it in a much more favourable position than many of its rivals.
Sophie Wilson
T
he President of Hungary has announced his superficially positive plan to boost Hungary’s birth rate, by creating incentives for mothers and young couples to have Hungarian children. But when his motives are based on denying immigrants the right to enter his country, can his plan really be seen as beneficial? On 10th February, in Budapest, Viktor Orban announced his seven-point plan to try and halt the declining of birth rate of Hungary. In 2017, there was a population decline of 37,000 people. This has evidently worried Orban, who has attempted to persuade Hungarian mothers to have more children. His plan includes allowing mothers of four or more children to be exempt from paying income tax for life, and to give young couples a loan of £27,400, which is to be cancelled once they have three children. Superficially, these incentives appear to be for the good of the Hungarian people, as it seems an attempt to improve their population in order to help fu-
ture societies flourish. But are these ideas really progressive for the country, or are there ulterior motives driving Orban and his government? Orban has introduced these reforms because he wants Hungary’s population to increase, but not through immigration. He wants only Hungarian children to increase his population, saying that ‘We do not need numbers. We need Hungarian children.’ He is strongly opposed to accepting immigrants, believing that ‘immigration means surrender’. Hungary’s position on immigration has been controversial recently, particularly when it refused to allow asylum seekers into the country during the 2015 migration crisis. Now, Orban has refused to take in Hungary’s quota of immigrants from outside the Bloc, the plan that has been imposed by Brussels. Orban’s harsh stance on immigration obviously has led to these new reforms, and so there is malicious intent behind it. This is, therefore, not an act done in the best interests of the people: it has purely been done to reduce immigrant’s access to Hungary.
This is not an act done in the best interests of the people
Nigel Farage has said that Viktor Orban is more of a nightmare to him than the EU, and I have to agree that his new policy cannot be seen as a positive. When other countries are doing their part for immigrants, then surely Hungary should also be taking in their quota? If their country is in a time of need, then surely they should be empathetic to immigrants who are also in need, some of who are in life threatening situations. And so, although t h e idea of helping Hungary’s population boost may seem advantageous superficially, in terms of helping future Hungarian societies, its motives are not. Orban has tried to dodge responsibilities in terms of helping migrants, and this seems very inhumane to me.
Image: Pixabay, Pexels
No plan(et) B, but is there even a plan A?
Following the student-led climate protest, James Nash reviews the reactions to the strike and asks, will it make a difference?
A
s Joni Mitchell’s ever-relevant ‘Big Yellow Taxi’ echoed through the streets of Manchester, thousands of students across the UK skipped school on Friday 15th February to bring attention to the current climate crisis, and to force the government to address it as a global emergency. Unfortunately, one question rears its ugly head: will any of this make a difference? Dire forewarnings from leading climate change experts have predicted irreversible damage to planet Earth if change is not implemented within the next few years. Despite numerous schemes and action plans to combat these various climate issues, it remains clear that not enough is
being done. And so, cue the children. Placards reading ‘there is no Planet B’ and ‘denial is not a policy’ were carried by protestors aged 6 to 60, marching through numerous cities, from Newcastle to Brighton.
Children have been saddled with the responsibility
As expected, there were some accounts of St Trinian’s style behaviour, with some kids clearly using the strike as an opportunity to bunk off school and cause some may-
hem. However, there were also many primary school children admirably demanding change and action from their government, far younger than they should ever have to. Theresa May condemned the strike, stating that students should not waste lesson time so that ‘they can develop into the top scientists, engineers and advocates that we need to help tackle this problem’, quite frankly, an insult to anyone protesting, and to the entire younger generation. Not only does May’s statement refer to the strike as a mere ‘disruption’, but also comes across as saddling the responsibility of saving the planet with said children. The strike was disregarded, rather than accepting the plea and making the government, and older generations, attempt
to solve the problem they were instrumental in creating. Paralleling the horrific Parkland school shooting last year, once again the children are tasked with solving the problem and dealing with the fallout, whilst the government sits idly by. Unfortunately, the parallels run deeper. Despite extensive protesting and public support, neither cause has led to decisive political or legal change, at least not yet. Yes, this march was needed – a powerful reminder of the state of our planet and our complicity in its destruction, a message made even more impactful coming from the wide-eyed, innocent faces of children. But will it make a difference? Doubtful. So no, Joni we really don’t know what we’ve got till it’s gone.
the courier
11
comment
Monday 25 February 2019
We don’t need no education reforms
Our writers discuss calls for drastic changes in the exam system, and debate if they’re necessary
Emily Hawksley
R
obert Halfon, the chairman of the Education Select Committee has called for drastic changes in the UK’s educational exam system. He has proposed that GCSEs should be scrapped completely by branding them as “pointless”, he also claims that “they belonged to a forgotten era where people left education at 16”. Halfon has also suggested that A-levels should be changed so that they have more of a mix of academic and vocational subjects. In regards to GCSEs, they have become increasingly difficult and heavy in terms of the ways exams and teaching has been structured. This has also gone on to GCSEs being named as one of the contributing factors as to why mental health has become more of an issue for young people. GCSEs can have this affect as 16 year olds may not be mentally prepared for the stress which comes with such important exams. By scrapping GCSEs, young people would have no more unnecessary stress amounting to mental health problems and allowing them to mature so that they know how to handle them. If GCSEs were to be removed, what option would people who leave school education at 16 have? Young people now have to stay in some form of training until 18, and GCSEs are used as a way to apply to training or A-Levels posr-16. It then raises the question of whether scrapping GCSEs would be a good idea and whether this means that there should be more options for 16 year olds like there are for 17-18 year olds. Halfon also raised the problems with A-levels as schools tend to prioritise academic subjects over vocational ones to prove academic excellence, and so he suggested that there should be more of a mix of both. This can be beneficial to students especially those who struggle academically as they can still excel at A-levels and pursue subjects which are more enjoyable. Additionally, by having a mix of academic and vocational Alevel subjects, students will be able to develop skills which would be more practical later in life and so that they can be part of a future workforce which will have more to offer than academic achievements. Therefore, while scrapping GCSEs would have positive impacts on education, there are still some flaws in this idea. By having a good mix of academic and vocational subjects, A-levels would have the potential to bring a lot of benefits.
Sean Simpson
T
he education system is a sort of old fashioned headmaster that stumbles behind the times and gets ahead of itself in an ill-fashioned attempt to catch up with the needs of modern society. This is probably to do with the different ideas we all have about what education should be. Are you the old fashioned dad who wants to bring back the cane or the free-thinking visionary who wants to leave pupils to their own devices? Do you admire the staunchly defended funding of Scandi-
navian education systems or the stress inducing but assiduous approach of eastern Asian school programmes? Lots of people have oddly strong views on these things, but lots of people are not teachers, and if there’s one thing modern political discourse is good at its having people act like an expert about things they know
relatively little about. And so we go on to the new thrashing around of the politics of education in which GCSE’s - the ones which the Government not long ago went to great pains to reform and make even harder - are being described as “pointless” by no less than the chair of the Education select committee Robert Halfon MP. He is completely right in the fact
People act like an expert about things they know relatively little about
that GCSEs are pointless in truly the most literal sense, because our idea of what qualifications are supposed to be has lost all meaning. Education used to be a form of liberation done for its own sake, but many people now see the GCSE as something which looks good on a CV, an easy metric used to gauge the general intelligence of a potential employee. Under Michael Gove GCSE reforms pandered specifically to the job market - if you want to continue to academia then the standards have been raised because we need more plumbers and less historians. GCSEs aren’t necessarily pointless, but as a form of education they are useless. The endless gaming of the exam system by teachers and schools is known to everyone who left secondary school within the last decade. Strategic grade predictions, lessons focussed solely on mark schemes, memory exercises and the constant reply of “because it’s on the exam” to the question of why we cover certain material is indicative of education that has lost sight of its real purpose. If the real concern was learning then cheating would not be needed. On my GCSE literature exam I had to analyse a section of Orwell’s Animal Farm in which the pigs running the farm fill grain sacks with sand to fool others into thinking their hard work is amounting to something: I can’t think of a better analogy for the current exam system.
‘Global Britain’ or Greedy Britain?
Seshadhri Subramanian considers proposals to divert foreign aid to exert British soft power
F
ormer Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson flawed notion. Aid or help is given without threw his weight recently behind calls selfish interest – it’s done to help somefor a de facto cut to the foreign aid body else become better or reach better budget, instead saying that the money circumstances. That might be a utoshould be spent in the country’s politipian way of looking at it, especially cal and commercial interests. when it concerns international poli‘Global Britain’, a report filed by Tory tics and international relations. Yet, MP Bob Seely and James Rogers (a stratthere are certain aspects even to a egist at the Henry Jackson Society think field as cynical as those mentioned tank), has Mr. Johnson’s verdict on it as that satisfy that utopian condition. a foreword to the document. In it, BoCountries support non-governmental organris Johnson says that the proposals are isations and charities – not because they want ‘hard to disagree with’. In his view, the to wield some form of power over a weaker Affunds amounting to around £13.4 bil- lion rican country, but because they genuinely want should be used to fund all peacekeeping work to help people who are doing good work in those places. and broadcasting services, through the MinisI understand where Boris Johnson is coming from, to a try of Defence and the BBC. degree. In international politics you need to exert power. He also wants the aid target, currently What that means is obviously not laid down by law to be at 0.7%, to be taking people and tanks and thrustreframed and put to use in such a way ing them into another country that the British government can exert and occupying them – those days Image: Wikimedia Commons its influence abroad. This in itself is a are gone. It’s the time to exert power
in different forms, more subtle forms like economic aid for example. But to cut off funding for charities and other
He also wants the aid target, currently laid down by law to be at 0.7%, to be reframed and put to use
institutions that are doing good work but do not necessarily serve the aims of United Kingdom is not the answer. A review of international definitions of aid is a must, and an evaluation of how the United Kingdom fits into the general tapestry of international politics post-Brexit is almost mandatory at this point. However, it would be an ill-advised and hasty measure if the UK government was to seriously consider and try implementing the proposals that have been outlined in ‘Global Britain’ and supported by Boris Johnson.
SOAPBOX COUNCIL CALAMITY
S
Harry Parsons
ix times a year,Newcastle University Student Council gathers. Motions are put forward trying to make university life slightly more palatable, fair or sensible. Discussions take place, some constructive, some very much not, and opinions are aired. But it is about time that we all agree that something about it doesn’t work. If you’ve been, you’ll know. People stand up and are forced to say their name and the title of their role in the union, in a club or in a society. the majority of the student body couldn’t give two damns about what your role is. The chances are more people are going to read this stupid little article than attend council next month. More people will read this sentence than have probably even heard of Student Union council. Maybe, just maybe it’s time for us all to step back and look at whether the system works anymore. The system doesn’t work. The productivity is low. The ego-filling nonsense is ripe. I know that because I’m guilty of having my ego filled by council. It’s time for change to the body. So who’s in?
ROAST OF THE WEEK
FURY AT FARAGE
I
Sam Webber
f Brexit was a toilet, then Nigel Farage would be that turd that just won’t quite flush. The gammon in chief has resurfaced to voice his dismay over Theresa May’s handling of Britain’s imminent withdrawal from the EU. For years, Farage has been adopting the false persona of a functioning member of society, relating to the common man through xenophobia and casual misogyny over a pint. Like your uncle at a wedding, he doesn’t quite know when it’s time to stop going on about immigrants. Perhaps his greatest achievement was to coerce Britain’s racists into believing that the real reason they voted leave was because of some deep seated personal principles concerning EU bureaucracy, and not simply because they don’t like their Lithuanian hairdresser. You won, Nigel, now retreat to your ivory tower and watch the rest of us burn in this monumental dumpster fire you created.
TOAST OF THE WEEK
MAD FOR MADS
M
Mohi Choudhry
ads Mikkelsen, the Danish actor perhaps best known for his chilling and charismatic portrayal of the serial killer Hannibal Lecter in the brilliant NBC series, Hannibal. The Bond fans amongst you would perhaps point towards his villainous role in Casino Royale, but his role as Doctor Lecter is where we can fully unearth his wider talents. It is not just the psychopathic and stoic faced realism he injects into the role, but rather, Mads adds subtle dimensions of mellowness and sexuality which allow viewers to understand the character on a personal level. How does he keep his cool when playing such an iconic character? He notes that he has a strange ability to shut things out, otherwise he would be too worried about soiling himself. Perhaps this is to be expected from a professionally trained actor, but some do it better than others. He does.
life&style
13
the courier
Monday 25 February 2019
@CourierLifestyle c2.lifestyle@ncl.ac.uk thecourieronline.co.uk/lifestyle Life & Style Editor Sophie Henderson Lifestyle Editors Phoebe Fielder, Holly Margerrison, Ella Williams Online Editor Amanda Goh
Blind Date
Charlotte Saunders meets Sean Dwyer
So, how come you decided to try out Blind Date? Well basically it was my house mate Becca (who is a sports editorfor the paper) who signed me up for it because I never have any luck when it comes to boys, and I love reading Blind Date in the paper every week. Glad you enjoy reading it! How did you think your date went?
What were your first impressions?Where you happy with who you met? Yeah I thought she was nice and very approachable. Did you chat about anything that was particularly interesting?
I think it was alright! I was super nervous beforehand, but he was very polite and we had a good laugh.
Yeah, she told me how she was going to study abroad in France next year, we had a good conversation about travel.
Apart from being polite how would you describe him overall, did he leave a good first impression?
If you could describe her in five words what would you say?
I don’t know, we got on and he bought my drinks for me which was very kind. I felt he left kind of abruptly though because he was going out in town with his friends. Sorry to hear it was cut short! Do you think you might see him again? It’s okay, I had an appointment at 9.a.m today so it was probabaly not a bad thing and we’d been there a decent amount of time. I doubt it, I think we had a nice time but there was nothing there for either of us. And you think he felt that way too? Well probably, we didn’t exchange numbers so. . . Was there any particularly funny or awkward moments? I definitely said some strange stuff... If he contacted you would you consider giving it a second chance? Yeah, I probably would. Could you describe your date in five words? It was a good laugh.
Erm, down to earth, pretty, quirky? Did you spend long together? About an hour and fourty-five or so?? Do you think you might be interested in asking her out again or was it just friendly? Just friendly I think, had a good night but don’t think there was anything was there. What was going throught your mind before your Blind date? Generally excited, I enjoy getting to know new people. How did you bring your date to an end? I let her know during that I had to leave for ten and when it hit ten I thanked her for a good time, made sure she was okay to get home and left.
Are you unlucky in love? Email us at c2.lifestyle@ncl.ac.uk
14
the courier
life & style lifestyle
Monday 25 February 2018
Blackfishing: when fake tan gets sticky
Travel Editor Jenny Franken tackles that highly-debated blurred line between respect and all-out racism
I
t is 2019; in Ariana Grande’s latest single ‘7 rings’, we see her as a mixed raced woman dancing in front of a villa with her other mainly mixed-race friends. Flashback to 2010, the series ‘Victorious’ stages a girl with white skin and red hair who doesn’t look anything like the Ariana Grande that exists today.
There is a fine line between ‘celebrating’ culture and ‘disrespecting’ culture
Image: Instagram @ arianagrande
Weekly Rant Televised Election Debates
O
nce upon a time there were several countries who had televised political debates when electing a leader. Debatably two of those major countries then went to hell in a handbasket. If you haven’t guessed yet, they were/are America and England. Even with the highly contentious rise of Donald Trump, America still managed to hold effective, entertaining and informative debates. The idea of publicised debates of some sort have been around for as long as my parents (which is quite a while).
Even America holds entertaining debates Yet we still watch the shit show of debating having debates in the news now. We peaked in 2010 where the three main parties went head to head. Then the stage got crowed and we ended up with only one debate including the incumbent Prime Minister. Then the Liberal Democrats effectively fell off the political stage. Even easier for a debate when theres only two parties. The two-party system (that definitely does exist) called for it. Why didn’t this happen, I hear you scream? Because our political leaders aren’t interested in accountability, they don’t want to say something that might come back to hurt them. They don’t want to take the responsibility of being a politician. The perfect conditions existed in 2017 for a reinvigoration of televised debate. Yet our esteemed Prime Minster decided that appearing in front of the electorate was too much. Of course, she decided to send a replacement: a very impressive public speaker... completely defeating the whole point. And the opposition are no better and appear to have been responsible for the failure of a Brexit debate and from the 1990’s has been very camera shy. How can a democratic country, which not so long ago attacked someone about how they ate a sandwich, think that politics is not about individuals and then do their societal duty and cater to the electorate? Leaders of all parties need to grow the fuck up and stop avoiding the responsibility they have in this digital age. Benja Townsend
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Many people probably wouldn’t even believe that it is the same person. Despite her current popularity, we question ourselves what has happened within this decade for her cultural identity to become unrecognisable? Ariana Grande is not the only one appropriating elements of other cultures pretending to be someone who she simply isn’t. ‘Blackfishing’ is a new term to describe a person pretending to be of African or Arab origin. This is expressed by changing the appearance using make up, choosing different hairstyles and outfits and sometimes even getting surgery to adapt their body shape. The trend is widely spread in the world of social media and the fashion industry. After the Twitter community started to call out white girls blackfishing in November 2018, many before and after pictures of influencers were tweeted displaying a clear discrepancy. In the case of Ariana Grande, the blackfishing is not limited to the appearance but also about copying the other culture’s way of speaking. She’s adopted a so-called “blaccent” using African American Vernacular English which matches her new appearance. The criticism evoked by black-
fishing revolves around ‘cultural appropriation’. Simply put, cultural appropriation means that elements of one culture are adapted by members of another culture. In itself, this is not yet problematic, however, gets very provocative when a dominant culture appropriates from an oppressed culture. ‘Blackfishing’ is one form of cultural appropriation. Although the term has only been brought up in November of last year by the increased influencers embodying it, the phenomena occurred a while ago. The Kardashians, especially Kim, have been severally accused of appropriating black culture by wearing braids and getting cosmetic surgery. Also, the fashion industry has often made use of other culture’s elements. Gucci featured models wearing turbans on the catwalk, Marc Jacob’s models walked down the catwalk with braids and Gucci was recently involved in a scandal involving their highly offensive ‘black-face’ jumper. There is a fine line between ‘celebrating culture’ and ‘disrespecting culture’. Some people may say that the fact that white women want to look like black women is a compliment. However, mixed-race and black women always had to fight for their identity to be accepted. They have gone a long way and are, as sad as it is, still not at a point of full recognition in Western society. Fears of presenting for example their natural hair is still present. White women now just pick and choose elements they would like to own without considering historical and cultural backgrounds. Becoming blacker within minutes by Ariana Grande using fake tan implies that the process can be reversed just as easily. Depending on the situation, women can decide which identity fits better, therefore, having the benefits of both worlds. They never know the struggle to be accepted which makes blackfishing to a matter of missing respect. For many people, cultural appropriation does not seem like a big deal. That makes it more important to call it out which will eventually make more and more people aware of the meaning of their actions in a broader context. Fashion designers for example, have to startincluding the original population to firstly, make it more authentic, and secondly, not exploit their culture but celebrate it.
I like big books (and I cannot lie) Kate Bagueley on good reads to sink our teeth into this year
1) Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincoot, publication date: 14th January 2019
Five Feet Apart was the first book that I picked up in 2019, devouring the whole thing in one-sitting. As it is soon to be a motion picture, starring Cole Sprouse and Hayley Lu Richardson, all of us ‘book-before-the-film’ lovers need to pick this up ASAP. Before the 12th April 2019, to be exact. In the story, two teens with Cystic Fibrosis fall in love, with just one detail preventing their being together - they cannot get within a few feet of each other without risking their lives from cross-contamination. Can you love someone you can never touch? The love story of Stella and Will is simultaneously heartwarming and heart-breaking, which is everything a good YA book needs to be. This book also brings great awareness to Cystic Fibrosis, teaching the readers about aspects such as the ‘six-feet-apart’ rule that is in place if two people with CF meet, and representing voices that are otherwise silenced. The terminal illness is not utilised as a plot device nor exploited to make a tragic love story, it is utilised in a raw and unfiltered manner to emphasise the struggles of family, friendships, and loss, as well as that of the love story. Though at times the action may seem unrealistic, Lippincoot attempts to capture the drama and heightened emotions of first love. This book is a must-read tear-jerker for lovers of YA fiction, even as another one to add to the collection. Now we must patiently wait for the film! 2) Frankissstein – by Jeanette Winterson, publication date: May 2019. In this novel, Winterson aims to show us how much closer to the future we are than we think. Spanning many stories
throughout, such as a transgender doctor falling in love with a professor amid post-Brexit Britain, a divorcee making his fortune from the sex doll industry, and hundreds of bodies waiting to be brought back to life, Frankissstein brings a modern twist on Mary Shelley’s 1819 classic novel. 3) The Testaments – by Margaret Atwood, expected publication date: 10 September 2019 The wait is over. Atwood finally brings the heavily anticipated sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale, answering the question that has tantalised us readers for years: what happened to Offred? This book is set 15 years after her previous book, revealing her vision of Gilead’s future. Save the date!
4) A Mouth Full of Blood – by Toni Morrison, expected publication date: 21st February 2019
Toni Morrison brings us an inspiring new non-fiction collection of essays and speeches about race, gender, and globalisation. Morrison is a hugely celebrated writer, as shown in her incredible novel Beloved, so the announcement of her new book is one of huge excitement for a collection that is raw, inspiring, and essential.
5) Machines like me – by Ian McEwan, expected publication date: 18th April 2019
Machines Like Me is set in an alternative 1980s London, where Britain has lost the Falklands war, Margaret Thatcher battles Tony Benn for power and Alan Turning achieves a breakthrough in artificial intelligence. McEwan combines questions of the present with anxieties of the past to create a novel that questions love, power and what it means to be human.
the courier
15
lifestyle life & style
Monday 25 February 2018
How an Instagram Egg is cracking the stigma Libby Shaw enlightens us as to what the egg ‘means’ and is tackling the mental health crisis
O
Image: pngimg.com Image: Instagram @world_record_egg
n the 4th of January 2019, the Instagram account @world_record_ egg posted a picture of an egg with the caption ‘Let’s set a world record together and get the most liked post on Instagram. Beating the current world record held by Kylie Jenner (18 million)”. After it was posted, the Instagram egg quickly became a global phenomenon, and gained a great deal of attention. The post surpassed Jenner’s previous record in under 10 days, and currently boasts an amazing 52.9 million likes.The infamous egg not only holds the world record for the most-liked Instagram
post, but also the most liked post of any social media platform. Many have found amusement in the fact that a stockimage of an egg has beaten a successful influencer like
It has successfully become a positive and meanigful campaign Kylie Jenner. Some have seen it as a revolt against consumerism and the fact that certain influencers have dominated social media. Vogue have observed that “The attention economy is a scam based on requiring little to no labour from both producer and consumer despite commanding the most space, and therefore value, in our digital lives... but it very well could be: As a metaphor for the fragility of the influencer ecosystem, the egg has broken the Internet.” The account later posted a second picture of
an egg, but this time there was a small crack on it. After this, the account continued to mysterious posts of additional eggs, with each one becoming more and more cracked. This created a great deal of anticipation and discussion around what might be inside the egg. On the 4th of February, the egg finally cracked, and the reveal was used to promote a mental health campaign. The page posted a video, with the caption ‘if you’re ever feeling the pressure, visit talkingegg.info to find out more’. The video showed the egg cracking, saying ‘recently I’ve started to crack. The pressure of social media is getting to me. If you’re struggling too, talk to someone’. The website talkingegg. info contains useful mental health links and encourages people who are suffering to speak out. Although the Instagram egg started out as an amusing joke, it has successfully become a positive and meaningful campaign about the damaging effects of social media, and awareness of mental health.
It was acceptable in the Nineties!
Cooking with Hope Coke Spiced Aubergine and Tomato Galette
Cooking aubergines with spices really brings out their flavour, which is delicious teamed with the mellow sweetness of red onion and cherry tomatoes in this galette. Although pastry can be a little scary, don’t worry if things end up looking a little rustic, it’s all part of the charm! Makes one galette (serves 2) Ingredients: Pastry: 150g spelt/plain flour 4 tbsps olive oil 5 tbsps water 1 tsp mixed dried herbs 1/2 tsp salt a good pinch black pepper zest of 1 lemon Filling: 1 large aubergine 2 tbsp olive oil 1 red onion 2 handfuls (roughly 200g) cherry tomatoes 1 tsp cumin seeds 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg 1/2 tsp cinnamon 1 tsp ground cumin 1 tsp ground coriander salt and pepper, to taste 1 tbsp tomato paste or tomato pesto
Caitlin Rawlings re-enters the golden age of jelly shoes, discos, pixel pets and... scoubidous
B
eing babies on the cusp of a new century has set us 90s babies firmly in-between the new and the old. Our first phones looked more like Chatter Telephone from Toy Story than iPhones. We were the last generation that would understand the struggle of rewinding Spice Girl cassettes to blast out in our Groovy Chick themed bedrooms. In the 21st century, twelve-year olds are using Kylie Jenner contour kits instead of Girl Talk make up phones. The world has changed. Thankfully we have not. So, queue some 90s kid nostalgia as we recollect all things that were so fetch when were still fascinated by those gooey aliens that could produce their own offspring.
Freaky Fads:
As 90s babies there was a number of odd crazes that we all experienced in the early noughties. We all became well acquainted with the odd trends that would rule the school one week and become incredibly uncool by the next. The classic graffiti ‘S’ Why not start off with the trademark graffiti ‘S’ that branded every school desk in the country. If you could make your ‘S’ 3D you were pr a c t i cally Picasso. Apparently, this absolute classic is still appearing in the back o f exercise books to the current date, but we all know where it began.
Gel Pens.
Unfortunately, these beauties are not as popular as they once were. Multi-coloured gel pens were the sign of a girl who had her life together. These were the girls who were born to be extra. You were able to bring some glitter to your math equations whilst making your work smell of apples and blueberries which I’m sure your primary school teacher appreciated.
their candy bracelets. This was the one song where everyone knew the moves, the song that made you swing your hips like Shakira and impress your primary school crush with your killer moves.
Trending Tech:
You were able to bring some glitter to your maths equations Growing up in the early 2000s allowed us as children to experience technology slowly infiltrating our everyday lives. Technology was finally becoming readily available to the entire population as we were the generation that experienced a huge development in the evolution of all things digital
Tamagotchis
The ultimate portable digital pet that came into existence back in ‘97. These pocket size pets taught us the real struggle of having responsibilities. You quickly learnt the skills required to be a Tamagotchi parent from the day your baby hatched to the day it grew up to a fully-fledged adult.
The Nokia
The Nokia has become subject to memes for years as the original brick phone. However, only 90s kids will remember the sheer pleasure of beating your high score on snake or the struggle of having to press the same key to get to the letter you wanted whilst texting.
The Macarena.
The original school disco banger. The tune that would get everyone on the dancefloor after downing a bottle of Panda Pops and eating all the sweets from
Image: Wikimedia Commons
@TheCourierLifestyle @thecourierlifestyle Image: Wikimedia Commons
Image: Hope Coke
Directions: Preheat the oven to 200 degrees C. Put the flour, dried herbs, salt and pepper in a bowl and mix, then add oil and water. Mix with fork until dough starts sticking together, at which point it’s easier to use your hands to knead it. If it seems dry, add a little water until you have pliable dough. Form the dough into a disk, wrap in clingfilm and put in the fridge while you make your filling. Halve the aubergine and remove its top, then place each half flat side down and cut into 2cm chunks. Transfer to a baking tray and sprinkle over the nutmeg, cinnamon, ground cumin and coriander and toss with a tablespoon of olive oil. Spread on the baking sheet and transfer to the oven to roast for 10 to 15 minutes. Meanwhile, heat a large frying pan over medium heat and add a tablespoon of olive oil. Peel, halve and finely slice the onion and add to the pan, with the cumin seeds and a sprinkle of salt and pepper. Cook, stirring for 5 minutes, until onion is soft. Turn off the heat, cut the cherry tomatoes in half and add into the pan with the roasted aubergine and a sprinkle of salt and pepper, and stir. Take your pastry out of ridge, unwrap and sprinkle with flour. I recommend rolling the dough out between two sheets of baking paper, using a rolling pin (or a wine bottle! ) and rotating the dough as you go, until it’s about 0.5cm thick and the size of a pizza. Peel off the top sheet of baking paper and move the pastry - still on the bottom sheet of baking paper - to a flat baking sheet. Now assemble the galette. Spread the tomato paste or pesto over the base, then cover with the tomato aubergine mixture, leaving a couple of inches bare pastry around the edge. Fold the pastry over the edge of the filling a section at a time, rotating as you go so that you get pleats where the folds overlap. Once the edges are folded, place in the oven for 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and sprinkle over the pine nuts, if using, the return to the oven for 10-15 minutes, until the pastry is crisp and golden and the pine nuts are toasted. Once the galette is ready, remove from the oven. Roughly chop the fresh mint, if using, and scatter over the galette. And you’re ready to eat! Cut into wedges and serve hot, alongside a salad or two.
16
life & style beauty
courier.beauty@ncl.ac.uk Beauty Editors Susanne Norris, Nimra Rafique Laura Buckle Online Editor Molly Taylor
Beauty's latest must-haves
the courier
Monday 25 February 2019
Amy Harris rounds up the best recent beauty launches and pulls out the products you need
T
Image: @beautyblender
he beauty launches of 2018 did not fail to impress. Jeffree Star’s BLOODSUGAR palette and Morphe x James Charles’ Artistry palette collaboration were a hit, then Fenty Beauty took the stage at the beginning of 2019 with the addition of more foundations, concealers in 50 different shades and even face powders. Now it’s February, here are some of the best recent beauty launches. Firstly, let’s talk about the ‘Morphe x Jeffree Star Brush and Trio Sponge Collection’, exclusive only on Morphe. com and Morphe stores. Jeffree Star’s collaboration with Morphe is independent of Jeffree Star Cosmetics and has been in the works since 2016. All in Jeffree’s signature pink, the trio sponge collection includes one highlight and contour beauty sponge and two mini highlight and contour beauty sponges for £16. The brush collection includes 7 custom eye and face brushes with a brush bag included - all for £48. It was so popular on release it has sold out on Morphe’s website with all items of the collection unavailable. After being all swept up Morphe has promised for the two collections to be back soon, so we’ll have to keep an eye out for our chance to snatch up this iconic collaboration.
KKW Beauty also surprised us with the ‘Best of Reds, Pinks and Nudes Lipstick Sets’ and ‘Red Crème Lip Liners’. With four different shades in each lipstick sets you can switch from Best of Pinks Warm Plum to Best of Reds Candy Apple Red. All lipstick sets are packaged in a clear Lucite box. The collection is available on KKWbeauty. com for $65 (£50) as a set and $18 (£14) for an individual lipstick. Additional to the lipstick sets KKW Beauty has introduced the ‘Red Crème Lip Liners’, which contrast perfectly with the new Best of Reds range, with shades deep crimson, orange red, true red and vivid blue red at $12 (£10). A perfect pairing for the Best of Reds lipstick kit. Fenty Beauty by Rihanna also made a move for Valentine’s Day by dropping five new products, causing a stir with two brand new highlighters and three new Stunna Lip Paint shades. For the new ‘Stunna Lip Paint’ shades you have ‘Unlocked’, an intense pink shade; ‘Unattached’, a bright coral shade and ‘Undefeated’, a hot purple shade, a daring colour for those who aren’t used to wearing such dark shades of purple. The new lip paints are £19 each. For Fenty Beauty’s new highlighters, they are both pastel shades and are joining the ‘Killawatt’ highlighter family, the first being a baby pink shimmer called ‘Wattabrat’ and the second highlighter is ‘Chillz’, an iridescent baby blue shimmer. They can both be purchased for £28 and can be used on the eyes, cheek body or anywhere else that needs a little pastel shimmer. The five new products are now available at fentybeauty.com, Sephora and Harvey Nichols. Finally, beautyblender, another brand everyone recognises has launched the ‘Re-Dew Set & Refresh Spray’. A mist spray to refresh, set and illuminate the skin has been introduced to beautyblender lovers with the promise that the super blend will leave no dry patches, no caking, no fading and no dullness. Whether you use it after applying your full face or as a hydration boost throughout the day, your face will be snatched all day. They even suggest that instead of just using the product on your face that you spritz some on your beautyblender sponge for a better application. Get flawless skin with the ‘Re-Dew Set & Refresh Spray’ for $30 (£24) on beautyblender.com
Image: @fentybeauty
Remedies to the rescue
Skin conditions are a problem for many of us, yet they're often overlooked - Emily Cartwright shares all-important remedies though offering the benefits of a thicker cream through its three essential ceramides which can help strengthen the skin’s barrier and provide long lasting hydration. I also recommend Eucerin’s Eczema Relief Body Crème, as it targets itching while also improving hydration with ceramides. Both these creams are highly recommended for body eczema, and both come at a bearable price to relieve those incessant symptoms. PSORIASIS: Psoriasis is another skin condition that is quite common, defined by red, itchy, scaly patches that can appear anywhere on the skin. The symptoms can vary from mild to moderate, then suddenly go quite severe, and vice versa. It is therefore best to constantly treat the skin, in an aim to reduce inflammation and clear the red patches to give you the confidence you need. I would recommend using Epaderm’s Emollient for Dry Skin, as this can be applied every time you shower or bathe. It is a rich emollient that moisturises and soothes the skin, allowing you to target areas of the psoriasis. There is also an Epaderm cream to go alongside this so you can use this when you get out of the shower to give that final boost of hydration.
E
ven though they aren’t spoken about too much, skin conditions are a problem for many. I am going to investigate the best creams and remedies for two most common skin conditions and hopefully help some of you who are tackling these issues! ECZEMA: Eczema is a very common skin condition, sadly with no cure, that’s defined by patches of skin becoming rough and inflamed with blisters; resulting in incessant itching and often bleeding. The most common places are the hands, insides of the elbows and the backs of the knees. If you have eczema, one of the best ways to help your symptoms is keeping your skin hydrated. I firstly recommend using hyaluronic acid. Though the term acid sounds off-putting, this product helps alleviate dry skin by
Image: @neutrogena
boosting hydration and absorption of products used over top. It also helps reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles in the long-term, so it’s a win-win! I personally recommend The Ordinary’s Hyaluronic Acid 2% + B5 (a great vitamin for the skin) as it’s cheap (£6), vegan and really works. After using the acid, I would then turn to the appropriate cream. For the hands, I recommend Neutrogena’s Fragrance-Free Norwegian Formula Concentrated Hand Cream, as like the acid is super cheap (£4) and has a glycerine-enriched formula that instantly relieves dry and chapped hands. The high concentration means that you can have relief in just a dab of product, so it lasts for ages. For the body, I recommend CeraVe’s Soothing Creamy Oil as it’s a product that absorbs quickly,
basis. These are only given on the NHS in severe cases, however it’s definitely an option if you feel your psoriasis is too unpleasant and damaging. Overall, if you are suffering from a skin condition, I would say consult your doctor and discuss the right course of action for you. Turn to your friends and family and talk to them if you are feeling down or upset. I suffered acne for years, and that got me down – it’s the same thing as they both affect appearance! But just know, that if you are suffering from a skin condition, no-one is judging you. And if they are, you probably shouldn’t be their friend anyway.
I would reccomend using Epaderm's Emoillient for Dry Skin, as this can be applied every time you shower or bathe
These are just topical treatments though, and some psoriasis requires more. Light treatment is often a great remedy too, and this treatment can be done through the NHS. However, some people choose to use sunbeds monthly to get relief. I would strongly advise researching heavily before turning to sunbeds due to the health risks in the long-run. Finally, injections can be used to treat severe psoriasis if it’s affecting your life on a day to day
Image: @boo_on_fodmap
the courier
17
beauty life & style
Monday 25 February 2019
The hair washing debate
How often should you be washing your hair a week? Nusrat Angela takes a look at the latest research to find out
T
Image: @tresemme
he dilemma surrounding hair washing is neverending. Questions like “when to wash?”, “how many times to wash?”, and “what if all my hair falls off?” got us all on our toes day and night. Research suggests that washing your hair can be a damaging process, as frequent shampooing can strip the hair of its natural oils and vitamins, causing your hair to feel dry and crisp. This has led to the belief that hair should only be washed when it is oily. However, hair washing is not as simple as this. Deciding how frequently one should wash hair involves a lot of other factors which should be considered thoroughly. So, what’s the right amount of times to wash your hair? There is no simple answer to the question as to how many times you should wash your hair per week. Everyone’s hair is different and has different needs, based on lifestyle, preferences, and genes. Factors like how many times are you going out and styling products also affect this number. But the main three things to consider when choosing the right number of times to wash your hair are skin type, hair texture and styling. If you have normal scalp that is not too oily or dry, you can wash your hair once a week. However, if you have a greasy scalp like mine, you can’t help but wash your hair almost every day. Secondly, hair texture plays a vital role in deciding your hair routine since the spread of sebum from the roots to the ends of the hair will predict how quickly your hair becomes greasy. Ideally, curly hair slows down the spread of sebum so it needs to be washed less often compared to straight hair in which sebum quickly spreads. Finally, the amount of styling your hair is exposed to must be considered when you are devising your hair care routine. If your hair is subject to heavy styling, heat and chemicals, chances are it is more damaged and therefore should be washed less often to control the damage. However, it is only through experimentation you will find the right amount of times you need to wash your hair. It usually works differently for
everyone. I myself have curls and use straighteners almost every other day. But even then, I have to wash my hair everyday since it is very oily. If I skip shampooing for even a day, my hair looks almost wet with oil. So rather than bothering about how dry or damaged my hair is, my first worry is always to get rid of the oil. But a close friend of mine, who has straight, thick hair, washes her hair once a week, and it always looks good as new. This just goes on to show that here really is no set times you should wash your hair. You need to work out what suits and agrees with your hair.
Everyone's hair is different and has different needs, based on lifestyle, preference and genes. Factors like how many times you are going out and styling products also affect this number Setting that straight, another common question everyone seems to fret over is, “does over-washing really have that much of an effect?” Among the commonly mentioned effects of over washing are fading of hair colour, split ends, flaking of the scalp, frizzy hair, and hair lacking lustre. However, the extent to which you are likely to experience each of these nightmares is dependent of many factors, not hair washing alone. For instance, even though I wash my hair every day which people consider to be over-washing, there isn’t any difference in terms of hair fall, fizziness or flaking of the scalp compared to the time when I wouldn’t wash my hair as frequently. Therefore, rather than only considering the effects of hair washing, it is important to consider all aspects of your hair care routine, including taking vitamins and supplements and using a high-quality shampoo that suits your hair type to make it healthier and stronger in the long run. In this way, you will never have to part ways with your gorgeous, beautiful and luscious locks.
2019's clip trend is hair to stay
Beauty editor Nimra Rafique discusses why hair clips are the hottest trend of all right now
O
ld trends are always coming back into play all the time. From fashion to makeup, trends from the past always seem to make their way back into the spotlight. 2019 has already brought with it many great beauty trends, one being hairclips. Hair accessories haven’t really made headlines in a while, as headbands and hairclips could seem too childlike and immature, but this recent comeback has proven that hairclips can look totally cool, chic and sophisticated. Personally, I think hair accessories have always been a fun and cool way of adding something interesting and different to your style since the days of Gossip Girl, when Blair Waldorf made hair accessories her own signature look. Of course, Blair was known for her chic sense of style and sophisticated fashion, using headbands as a way to amp up her look, and I think the recent hairclip trend allows people to give their look something different and exciting in a more modern way.
It's like adding glitter to a dull makeup look, it really ties the whole look together and gives it life Hairclips can be used in numerous different ways and can be incorporated to many different hairstyles, both long and short hair, or whether you wear your hair up or down. This trend is very versatile and can be adapted to your own personal style. That’s the best part, I think, that this isn’t a trend that has to be followed in a particular manner, or has restrictions, it’s more about experimenting with different looks and just being creative with your hair. Sometimes you just want to change up your hair without going to the extremes of getting a totally different haircut or colour, and with hairclips you can do this. It’s just a quick, easy, and fun way of changing up your look by simply using clips to style and accessories your hair. I’ve noticed many influencers jumping on the bandwagon and embracing the hairclip trend. A popular
way of styling hairclips among these influencers is by wearing them only on one side of their head, usually layering a few clips together, which I found I really liked. You’d think it would look a bit too much, but from what I’ve seen scrolling through my Instagram feed, this way of styling the hairclips looks amazing. It’s a bold, daring look, yet it’s still super wearable and anyone can pull it off, for sure. It makes these influencers look chic and sophisticated, like they’ve spent hours perfecting their hair, when in reality they’ve just done basic hairstyles and added the hairclips, turning a boring hairstyle into something much more fashion forward and exciting. It’s like adding glitter to a dull makeup look, it really ties the whole look together and gives it life. S o m e influencers who’s hairclip looks have caught my eye are:
Jamie Genevieve – the big beauty YouTuber is always rocking the latest trend, and this one in no exception. Jamie doesn’t shy away when it comes to accessorizing, and this goes for her hair too. In one Instagram selfie she has stacked simple silver crystal hairclips to one side of her head, give a very classic, sleek, yet very edgy vide. Brittany Xavier – blogger and influencers who is always on the ball with new trends, has flaunted many different looks using hairclips on her Instagram page. The looks that really caught my attention were the sleeked back, low ponytail with large statement hairclips. One look is cute and feminine with a pearl Chanel hairclip, whilst the other is more edgy with a paperclipstyle Dior hairclip. This just shows how hairclips can really change up your style and be versatile.
Image: @jamiegenevieve
Big-up beauty brand lovin'
A
star was born when Jeffree Star first launched his cosmetics brand. Bright, fearless and energetic, Jeffree is a bold and successful internet personality, with incredible makeup skills to match. Back in the 2000s, Jeffree amassed a large fanbase on the renowned social media platform, MySpace. Jeffree’s MySpace page provided him with a place to share his creative personality. From makeup and modelling, to singing and acting, Jeffree’s fan base quickly gained traction. Star was first widely recognised for his music; in 2009 he released his first (and only) studio album, Beauty Killer, which featured musicians such as Niki Minaj. However, Star’s fans soon began to realise that Jeffree is much more than just a singer, he is an all-round star. Star truly began to build his makeup empire through his YouTube channel, which frequently posts makeup tutorials, reviews and advice. Star’s honest and unbiased reviews have gained him many trusty subscribers, and given them a guide to make informed decisions about products before they buy. Furthermore, one of the best things about Jeffree’s channel is that he is always trying and testing newly released products and trends often before they are available to buy. There is also a lot to be said for Jeffree’s personality, which is arguably the reason for his huge internet following; Jeffree regularly posts about his personal life, and his supportive mother, Laurie, allowing his fans to build up a relatable relationship with him. In 2014, Star launched his own cosmetics line, Jeffree Star Cosmetics. Jeffree’s cosmetics are loved by makeup artists for their bold colours, long-lasting finish and vegan formulas. Jeffree’s highlighters, also known as ‘Skin Frost’, have become every makeup lovers’ favourite. This highlighter is like no other; incredibly pigmented and available in a variety of luminous colours, these shimmers certainly pack a punch. There are 10 colour options to choose from, including a unique mint green, but most popular are his “Ice Cold” and “Sarcophagus”. Jeffree has not held back with this product; its super lightweight formula allows it to glide effortlessly onto your skin, leaving a long-lasting glimmer that will let you glow all night long. Due to its high pigmentation, this highlight only requires a small amount of product, and what’s more, its large size means you won’t be running out any time soon! The Skin Frosts all come pressed in a hot pink casing and are imprinted with Jeffree’s iconic star symbol. They also contain their own mirror, meaning the product can be placed in your handbag for easy, portable use. But this highlight doesn’t just stop on the cheekbones: it can also be used on the body and even double’s up as an eyeshadow to exaggerate and illuminate the corners of your eyes. If you haven’t already invested in any of Jeffree’s products, then I urge you to go out and buy one of his innovative Skin Frosts. You won’t regret it! Priced at £25.50, this large highlighter is total value for money and should last you years. Lori Harper
Image: @jeffreestar
the courier
18
life & style fashion
c2.fashion@ncl.ac.uk Fashion Editors Miranda Stoner, Poppy Couling, Joe Hood Online Editor Molly Taylor
Monday 25 February 2019
Influencers to add to your watch list Ellie James brings us the most Insta-pirational bloggers to help with breaking out the style rut without breaking the bank
R
unning low on outfit ideas despite having a wardrobe full of clothes you never wear? Are you wearing the same old ‘nice top and jeans’ for every meal out with the girls? Or how about throwing on a jumper and a denim skirt and feeling like there’s something missing that you just can’t put your finger on? Look no further, because Instagram fashion bloggers might be your key to learning how to look like you truly have your life together.
@fashioninflux A.K.A Lydia Rose
If you love those speedy food tutorial videos that won’t take more than 60 seconds of your time, then you’ll love the fashion form of just that by no other than Lydia Rose who may be your dream fashion tutor. Her videos put together a few simple 2-3 item outfits, either using one piece of clothing styled for different occasions or showing you new ways to jazz up the item of clothing that lurks in the back of your wardrobe gathering dust. But if there’s one thing Lydia Rose taught me besides how to change up my style, it’s that there’s one holy grail accessory that perfects truly any outfit - a belt. Yes you heard me, that underappreciated item seems to be Lydia’s secret - and she’s sharing it with us! Almost all of Lydia’s outfits use a belt whether it’s a typical trouser look or even over a long scarf, showing how a belt quite literally pulls any outfit together whilst making you feel like you scream, ‘I know exactly what I’m doing’ even if you’ve just failed your exam or missed 5 lectures. Lesson learnt: Add a belt.
@laurennicolefk A.K.A LaurenNicole Joining the ever growing number of fashionistas who are changing the fashion world and breaking previous boundaries comes curve model Lauren-Nicole. Her posts don’t just give some killer looks, the captions accompanying them are either inspirational, sassy or
downright raw. Lauren-Nicole slays in all her outfits which are mostly nabbed from Very and Asos, throwing in cute accessories to each one such as a shiny clutch bag or pair of bright earrings. Links to her blog page bring about her own journey to loving your body no matter what clothes you put it in, believing it’s ‘more about how an item can make you view yourself.’ The best thing about Lauren-Nicole isn’t that she fills your feed with clothing you want to get your hands on or that she gives you tips on how to make the street your catwalk each day, it’s how she takes each outfit and shows everyone that being told ‘you can’t wear that’ or that depending on your size you ‘shouldn’t wear that’ is not something that is allowed to stop you from wearing whatever the hell you want. PREACH IT. Lesson learnt: Wear. What. You. Want
@ellenextdoor A.K.A Ellie We’ve all wanted to look like we’ve spent a little too much yet well worth it amount of our student loan on an outfit before. But finding that balance between getting that wow effect and not breaking the bank is as hard as finding a decent bargain in a clothes sale. Not to worry, ‘The Elle Next Door’ blogger Ellie has you covered, incorporating clothes and accessories from our highstreet saviour Primark into her outfits. If I’m feeling low on funds and in need of some retail therapy I have a look for some style inspo by Ellie. Her posts not only offer cheap yet stylistic outfit ideas but also brighten my feed up greatly, their colourful contents in various beautiful locations popping on my screen as she travels the world trailing her amazing and affordable fashion sense behind her. What makes Ellie so special is her ability to show you how it doesn’t matter where you buy your clothes from to look and feel good - most of the items look identical to the more expensive brands and yet save you double the amount! Lesson learnt: You don’t have to break the bank to look badass.
Instagram: fashioninflux Instagram:laurennicolefk Instagram: ellenextdoor
Your one stop guide to
Grace Dean gives us her stellar advice on how one of a kind charity finds can become the object of envy among your friends
S
o often when I wear my latest charity shop bargains, I am met with remarks such as “Wow! How do you find such bargains?” and “You have the best luck in charity shops!” Luck, however, doesn’t necessarily come into it. From volunteering at my local Age UK between the ages of 15 and 17, as well as being someone who fulfils the Yorkshire stereotype of being stingy, I have developed what could be called a knack for finding charity shop fashion. Here are some of my tips so that you can save pennies, look fabulous, support good causes and promote sustainability.
True, the postcode is often reflected in the price tag even at Charity shops
Be patient
Unsplash: @camorin13
Yes, it may take you time to trawl through charity shop after charity shop. But patience here really is key. The chances of you finding something that you both like and that fits you are very slim, so you may have to go through a few shops before you find “the one”. But don’t worry, it’s out there somewhere. Thus it is best to head to a part of town where there are multiple charity shops in close proximity to enable you to do maximum browsing with minimum effort. Sometimes you even need to accept that it’s time to call it a day, but most charity shops rotate their stock every two to four weeks, meaning that visiting a month later could be rewarding. If you happen to be passing a charity shop, pop in for a few minutes – it is usually very quick to sort through the clothes on offer as they are often displayed by type (dresses, blouses, shorts)
and size, meaning that you can very quickly assess whether they have anything on offer that takes your fancy. A brief pop into the “everything £3 or less” Cancer Research on Grainger Street on the way back from the Centre for Life Christmas market rewarded me with a stunning New Look lace black dress for just £3. Best still, the dress was completely unworn and still bore the original New Look label which priced it at £20; from my time as a volunteer this is something I encountered many times. Whether the wrong size, an unwanted gift, or simply forgotten about, many people donate brand-new clothes still with their original labels on, so don’t be put off by the stereotype of charity shops simply stocking tatty, torn and stained second-hand clothes.
Shop in posh areas
It follows that posh people who own posh clothes live in posh areas – and when these posh people are finished with their posh clothes, they donate them to charity shops in these posh areas. If you happen to be in the “posh” side of town, pop into a charity shop there. True, the postcode is often reflected in the price tag even at charity shops, but this means that you can find barely-worn designerlabel clothes costing a fraction of the initial price. Even at charity shops in more run-of-the-mill areas, expensive labels crop up from time to time.
Be flexible
Due to the slim chance of finding an item of clothing both that is in your size and that matches your fashion taste, it is essential to be flexible when it comes to buying clothes in charity shops. Is there any chance that you could expand your size range? Even if you can’t sew yourself, the cost of buying a pair of good-quality but too long jeans from a charity shop and then taking them to a seamstress to have their hem taken up is dwarfed by the cost of buying a new pair of jeans from Topshop.
the courier
19
fashion life & style
Monday 25 February 2019
iFashion: who we are and what we wear Nusrat Angela talks style icons, indviduality in fashion and the art of building a wardobe completely personal to your tastes
I
have always loved Coco Chanel for that saying. Looking back in time, the biggest style icons have always been trend makers rather than followers. They have always interpreted fashion in their own way, and this is perhaps the reason why we consider them as style icons.
Each of them carried their own styles with so much confidence that is made us believe
Each of them carried their own styles with so much confidence that it made us believe in these fashionistas. Marilyn Monroe with embracing and emphasizing curves, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and the popularization of chic fashion, Madonna with the evolution of costume couture, Audrey Hepburn and the little black dress, and Lauren Bacall with her love of prints- each of these icons were able to express themselves through their own styles and preferences, bringing fresh, irreplaceable concepts into the fashion world. When it comes to style, some prefer to think outside the box and take inspiration from less mainstream sources, and dress themselves in what they believe is comfortable, fun, and fashionable. These are the people who don’t believe in seasonal trends but have a more authentic approach to their styles. Celebrities like Lady Gaga, Cardi B, Sia have embraced this individualistic style with their bold choices. Whether it is Ariana Grande’s signature high ponytail, Amber Rose’s buzz cut, or Gwen Stefani’s red lips, these attributes have become a part of who they are and what they stand for. Others are dedicated to keeping up with the latest trends, closely following the latest collection at runways to be at the forefront of the season’s top picks. Even when following trends, it is interesting to see how the same style is interpreted differently by individuals depending on their personality, moods, likes and dislikes.
And style should be like that. It should always lead to a door of freedom for people to express themselves without having to worry about being judged and add edge and flare to their looks. How often do we hear things like, I’m more of a jeans person, or I’m having such a little black dress kind of day? We make such simple statements almost every day, without realizing what they mean. It shows how each of us have our approach to styling and the smallest variables can influence that. As Versace said, “Don’t be into trends. Don’t make fashion own you, but you decide what you are, what you want to express by the way you dress and the way you live.” Style is something that is vast and open to interpretation. Style is supposed to be one’s identity and the most important factor is whether one is comfortable and happy in her own skin. To be able to do that means you have the best style. This is also the way we let our quirkiness s and creativity flow.
Think outside the box and take inspiration from less mainstream sources
We display all that we are capable of. It doesn’t matter how it is interpreted by others. Sometimes the surrounding reactions can be lukewarm. But the moment one wants to suit to other’s opinions and standards, their individuality is lost and killed. Because in the end, style is all about embracing what you like with confidence. It is the ability to look at the mirror and give oneself a nod of approval while feeling content. We all have our own complicated relationship with style. And as we grow, this relationship also evolves till we can fully understand each other. But the final goal is the same for everyone-shed some light into our personalities and let the world know who we are as individuals.
o sustainable shopping Instagram: madameei
Isabel Sykes shares a few tips with us on becoming a more conscious consumer when shopping for this season’s wardrobe problem you’re likely to have with this app is that you can’t Charity shop love get off it. Shopping second-hand is my favourite way to cut down on the price of clothes shopping sprees and have a Can you fix it? Yes you can! more environmentally-friendly wardrobe to boot. Rifling through the racks in charity shops is so therapeutic and the buzz you get when you find a unique vintage piece that nobody else will have, or a gem that you know is pricey elsewhere, gets better every time. More importantly for me, knowing my money is going to an organisation created to help people rather than a huge unethical corporation is deeply satisfying. Giving your unwanted clothes to charity shops is also a sustainable alternative to just throwing them away, and an easy way to offer support to a worthy cause. Charity shops really don’t get enough love in my opinion and there are some great ones in Newcastle. I’d definitely recommend having a venture down by Grainger Market for an ethical spree that is both kinder to your purse and the planet.
Pop onto Depop
Using Depop is another great way to make your wardrobe more sustainable. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s an app where people sell their unwanted clothes, makeup, and accessories, and the strapped-for-cash students among us can’t get enough. One good way to use the app is to look for an item of clothing you’ve seen in a popular high-street shop but couldn’t justify the spend at the time. Some lifesaver somewhere might just be selling it on the cheap. It is a friendly online community where people are generally happy to do bundle deals and negotiate on price. Some sellers have unworn clothes still with tags and packaging, other pages specialise in vintage clothes that they’ve hunted for in second-hand shops so you don’t have to, and some people even sell clothes they have made themselves, so you can get some truly unique items. If you’re seeking to clear out rather than acquire more and you need a bit of extra cash, selling your unwanted clothes on Depop is another great sustainable option. The only
As catastrophic as ripping your pants or popping a blouse button might seem at the time, it doesn’t always have to mean the end for your favourite clothes. Buying a needle and thread to sew a button back on or patch up a hole is a small expense for a long-term solution. If you’re not handy this way and you’re not pally with any art or textile students, taking your clothes to be fixed at the tailors is really not as expensive as you might think. Thinking twice before tossing broken clothes away is a great start to having a more sustainable wardrobe.
As catastrophic as ripping your pants or popping a blouse button might seem
Swap it out
Swapping clothes with friends and siblings is possibly the easiest and cheapest solution to the “I hate everything I own but I don’t have any money” fashion dilemma. This doesn’t mean taking your sister’s clothes to uni and hoping she’ll forget about them, although we’ve all been there, you could actually be a nice person and trade her for something you don’t want anymore. Alternatively, get your friends together with some snacks, stick a film on and have yourselves a little swap-shop night. When you’ve got fashionable pals, getting a new outfit doesn’t have to mean splashing the cash or harming the environment.
Instagram: depop
20
life & style travel
courier.travel@ncl.ac.uk Travel Editors Jenny Franken, Bianca Ionici, Amy Harris Online Editor Amanda Goh
Weird and wonderful museums
If you thought museums were unentertaining wait till you hear about News Editor Grace Dean’s visit to a pig museum
I
am a self-proclaimed museum advocate. Gone are the days when visiting a museum meant being dragged round for five hours with mum and dad; with age I have come to appreciate them as not just informative and educational but also interesting and entertaining. Similarly, with travel and experience I have come to appreciate the incredible diversity of museums on offer which can cater to all manner of niche interests. Here is a little countdown of three museums I have visited which are both unusual and entertaining in equal measure.
1. Laurel & Hardy Museum, Ulverston, Cumbria
True, it has been many years since I visited this museum on a family holiday, but it is one that certainly has stuck in my mind. Ulverston seems like a quite surprising location for a museum dedicated to one of comedy’s most iconic duos, but this small Cumbrian market town is actually where Stan Laurel was born back in 1890. While small, the museum allows visitors to discover the history of Laurel & Hardy with their black and white films playing on loop. While having a niche target market, this museum is a must for any England-based fans of the duo.
3. Pig Museum, Stuggart
Located in the southern German state of Baden-Württemberg, this is quite frankly the weirdest museum I have ever visited. A quick Google search brings up its definition as a “quirky museum in an old slaughterhouse focused on the history, mythology & gastronomy of pigs”, which is a very accurate summary. The eccentric museum composed of more than 20 rooms dedicated to bizarre pig merchandise, grouped very loosely by themes such as the pig as a deity and the pig as a sexual icon. On display are “collectors’ pieces” including pig salt & pepper shakers, pig teapots, pig lamps, a pig sofa and even a pig car. A personal favourite was one room containing a small cupboard for each day of the year, so that you could find your own personal pig birth ornament. I similarly took a swine to a very odd display consisting of plastic toy dinosaurs with pigs’ faces melded into them; the museum has certainly provided me with many interesting pigtures to whip out at dinner parties. The Pig Museum is as strange as it gets, and I love it.
2. Red Light Secrets, Amsterdam
Obviously a museum dedicated to prostitution would be in Amsterdam. There’s no surprises there. Red Light Secrets, however, differs greatly from fellow coitus museums in the Netherlands’ capital, such as the museum dedicated to erotica and the Temple of Venus, in that it offers a surprisingly factual and informative journey into the sex industry in Amsterdam and beyond. While the other two aforementioned museums are regarded often as gimmicky stops for stag-dos, Red Light Secrets actually has a very broad appeal. Following walking through rooms laid out like a brothel, the museum provides very interesting information on the legalities of the industry, such as the use of contraceptives, average wages and the mechanisms in place to protect the safety of the sex-workers. The final rooms of the museum offer an insight into global sex trafficking and explain the violence, abuse and manipulation faced by some workers in the industry. Included in this is a harrowing memorial to sex-workers killed around the world by their clients and pimps. For €12.50, Red Light Secrets ultimately offers a fascinating insight into what really goes on behind the windows in Amsterdam’s infamous Red Light District, and explores the motivations of those who go into the industry as well as their plights.
the courier
Monday 25 February 2019
Where to go for a
Are you a thrill adrenaline junkie? Holly Mawdsley helps you out re
A
s a student, I am usually spending the dregs of my student loan to go on holiday in summer, often exploiting my overdraft. My unstable financial situation makes it impossible for me to spend £80 for a 10 minute gondola ride in Venice, or £50 on a Segway tour round Budapest to get my kicks. Instead, I seek the adrenaline rush by finding the cheapest methods possible and I think I have found the best way.
All of my life, I have sought any apparatus that can be jumped off. You better believe i'm flinging myself off it.
All of my life, I have sought any apparatus that can be jumped off into water, whether it is a diving board, a cliff or a wall. If it is a raised surface, you better believe I am flinging myself off it and because of this drive I have become quite the serial cliff jumper. Whilst this activity does not promise safety, it guarantees exhilaration and the best bit is, it is absolutely free! Whilst interrailing this past summer, I have discovered Europe’s cliff jumping utopia. Croatia’s rocky shoreline creates easily accessible platforms towering over deep enough water to safely plunge into, attracting fellow adrenaleurs. The three places I visited in Croatia: Split, Dubrovnik and Pula were all perfect
for this risky sport.
First off: Split’s Park Marjan. This spot was just a 15-minute walk from the city centre and offers countless opportunities, of which are easy to get to and are relatively safe. It appeared to be a hub for both tourists and Croatian youths, as there was an amicable buzz from numerous speakers, each singing a different language. The only downside to this oasis of alcohol, potential friends and of course adrenaline was the jumps were limited to 5 metres, disallowing an escape too far out of my comfort zone. Dubrovnik was our next destination, which provided another great spot for jumps. Outside the colossal palace walls, was the Buza Bar: a notorious colony of a few tables, a bar and some of the best cliffs to jump from I had ever come across. The biggest jump was the 10-metre rock, which after much-needed encouragement from my fellow customers, I conquered. My unprofessional landing caused a worthwhile bruise, which dominated my entire lower leg. The combination of cheap booze and the feeling of seclusion, being on the literal edge of Dubrovnik, created an unforgettable experience and we stayed there until the sun had set. Croatia’s paradisal cliff jumps hit a peak in our final destination: Pula, in Fižela. To find this hidden haven, we had to stray from the city centre, blindly walking for an hour, following instructions to a renowned rock jumping spot from a website. It was an incredibly isolated spot and to get to it we had to walk through forests, but it was absolutely worth it! There was a colourful array of wild-
Instagram @marcomontori_f
Dark tourism: travel destinations of disaster and death
Travel Editor Amanda Goh gives us the low down on “dark tourism”- have you given this relatively strange trend a try yet?
H
earing the words “dark tourism” would usually make people have an impression of touring exotic, dubious and shady places. However in this context, “dark” is meant metaphorically as “a dark chapter of history”. It means visiting places associated with disaster or death. You may not know it yet, but you might just be a dark tourist.
Dark Tourism means visiting places associated with disaster or death. You may not know it yet, but you might just be a dark tourist.
Dark tourism comes in many forms – from visiting mausoleums of communist leaders to volcanic destruction points. Dark tourism may not involve any deaths or whatnot but it is enough to have a “dark appeal”. This “new” definition to tourism covers a vast range of different sites. There are many different dark destinations all around the world from Ground Zero in New York to the Death Railway in Thailand. The truth is, dark tourism has been here a long time. We just never realised it. After the end of World War II, concentration camps were not fully torn down – they were cleaned and opened up for tours to the public. Travel writers were the first to describe their trips to deadly places. P. J. O'Rourke called his 1988 travels to Warsaw, Managua, and Belfast 'Holidays in Hell' and Chris Rojek talked about 'black-spot' tourism in 1993 and 'milking the macabre'. Dark tourism used to give off the impression of having
a “deeply disturbing experience” and in the early days of dark tourism, it was used as an exercise in respect for the dead and recognising how evil has overtaken good. But recently, it has taken a whole other intention – dark tourism relies on the reverse of the old equation of more familiar tourism. While going to the beach and visiting art museums may give off a happy vibe, dark tourism relies on the opposite. Well-known sites that have aspects of human tragedy gives travellers more insight on unpleasant experiences of the country in the past. Similar to all different types of tourism, there are both positives and negatives to being a dark tourist. While touring the “dark” sites of destinations, it does give us some insight into what it was like in the past and further gives us more understanding as to what had happened, as compared to reading it in a textbook. However, some places may be just running on profit rather than anything else.
Dark tourism relies on the reverse of the old equation of more familiar tourism
A dark tourist does not entirely mean only visiting “dark” sites. More often than not, “dark” sites are only a part of the things one would do when visiting a destination. But it cannot be denied that there are many people out there who are “attracted” to the “dark” and are interested in visiting these places. You might be having second thoughts about your previous holiday destinations or questioning whether you are a dark tourist. Well, if you want to be completely sure you should try it out for yourself! You might just be a dark tourist because let’s be honest, everyone's a little dark.
Unsplash @ Joseph Anson
the courier
21
travel life & style
Monday 25 February 2019
adrenaline kicks Vegan venues
evealing the best locations to go to and what to do when you arrive life, due to the limited human impact and the jumpable rocks all towered over caves that you could swim into. Therefore, if you are looking for an adrenaline packed getaway on a budget, Croatia should be first on your list, starting with these three locations.
around Europe
Theodora Bruce-Smith and Olivia Wallis take us on a tour of highly delicious vegan restaurants in Europe's metropolises
Instagram @ Cameraleks
Instagram @ 1990veganliving
GRØD , Copenhagen 1990 Vegan Living, One of the most spectacular places of all time has to be GRØD. This fine venue presents some of the most deli- Berlin This wonderful restaurant serves delicious food with a cious porridge and risotto bowls you will ever taste. Using seasonal and organic ingredients, porridge varieties from around the world can be found here. Choose from a variety of options on the menu, such as the beetroot risotto, daal or mushroom barley-otto, all of which are packed with flavour and texture. Alternatively if you have a sweet tooth, why not go for the all-in porridge, coated in toppings such as apple compote, peanut butter, chia seeds, cocoa nibs and caramel sauce. This is certainly a place not to miss, a warming companion for those wintery days.
clear conscience. Delicious, vegan, crispy and authentic - what more could you want? The restaurant uses its own seasonal produce, organic where possible, creating authentic Vietnamese food, just as it would taste in Hanoi itself. This family-run restaurant also has delicious tapas creations all served elegantly in the middle of the table. This is certainly an unmissable Berlin spot.
Unsplash @arstyy
Scenic Scotland Caitlin Disken recalls her favourite places to visit in Scotland including Gairloch, Scotland's best kept secret
C
rossing the border from England to Scotland, the air always seems fresher and the landscape cleaner. Scotland is an extremely beautiful country, with a multitude of incredible places to visit. From the pretty seaside towns of North Berwick and Dunbar south of Edinburgh to mainland Britain’s most northerly point at Dunnet Head, Scotland is 30,414 square miles of sweeping landscapes, rugged mountains and picturesque islands.
The best time to go is early summer, where, if you survive being eaten alive by midges, you can enjoy the area’s beautiful beaches
For many people, their only experience of Scotland is visiting Edinburgh and Glasgow. Despite their differences, both cities are very charming. Edinburgh’s hilly landscape means that there’s always an opportunity to view the city from above – Calton Hill, Blackford Hill, and, of course, the famous Arthur’s Seat are always worth a visit at sunset. The Royal Mile at the heart of the Old Town is also a quintessential Scottish experience, as there will always be bagpipes blaring out as you walk down the historical street. Meanwhile, Glasgow is Edinburgh’s cooler younger sibling, with the city’s grittier nature adding a certain charm that’s lost in touristy Edinburgh. The
multitude of art galleries across the city, as well as its parks, means there’s plenty to do rain or shine. Heading further north, historical Stirling is a great place for a day trip. The city’s crowning glory is Stirling Castle, situated at the top of the Old Town, and it offers incredible views across the surrounding countryside. The National Wallace Monument which overlooks the city is also well worth a trip, especially in 2019, as it celebrates its 150th anniversary. Cities aside, the west coast of Scotland will always have my heart. If you’re keen to explore the islands, then Mull and Islay are beautiful, with plenty to explore. For the more nostalgic amongst us, I’d recommend a trip to Tobermory, the colourful village in Mull where the famous Balamory was filmed. There’s nothing like reliving your childhood by visiting the orange house that was Spencer’s in the show. Scotland’s most beautiful area, however, lies further north: the Highlands area of Wester Ross. A great base to explore from is the village of Gairloch, situated on Loch Gairloch, and overlooked by the Torridon Mountains. From Gairloch, you can almost always see the hills of Skye in the distance, and, on a clear day, it’s possible to see all the way out to the Outer Hebrides. As a result, the views are incredible, particularly at sunset. The best time to go is early summer, where, if you survive being eaten alive by midges, you can enjoy the area’s beautiful beaches. Red Point beach to the south is lovely, whereas Mellon Udrigle white sand beach can be reminiscent of the Mediterranean on a sunny day. There’s also plenty of boat excursions from Gairloch, which gives you the chance to appreciate the wonderful wildlife of the area, from seals to minke whales. Located 70 miles from the nearest city, Gairloch remains Scotland’s best kept secret, despite it being one of the most beautiful places on earth.
Instagram @ dignitaamsterdam Instagram @ pickywops
PickyWops, London
The modern vegan Italian pop-up PickyWops has been voted as the best vegan pizza in the world by HappyCow. Check out their new stuffed crust charcoal pizza for yourself at their next pop-up location at The Queen’s Head in Brixton, London.
Dignita, Amsterdam
With two locations in Amsterdam, Dignita is the place to go for breakfast, brunch or lunch. Tucked away in the oasis of Hoftuin, this amazing cafe serves some of the most wonderful food. Focusing on serving fresh and locally sourced food, the creations here are not only aesthetically wonderful but make you yearn for round two. Everything on the menu is handcrafted to perfection and is relatively well-priced for what you get!
Instagram @ lacolectivacafe
Instagram @ Gourapakora
Goura Pakora, Berlin For a true Indian experience, head to Goura Pakora where you will find the most exquisite Indian food ranging from vegan gluten-free dosa, thalis, curries and wraps served with a side of homemade chutney.
La Colectiva Cafe, Madrid
Set in the heart of Madrid, this wonderful eatery serves up lovely heart-warming food and some outstanding coffee. Whether you’re after a coffee, snack or warming bowl of daal, this place has it all – open for breakfast and lunch everyday.
the courier
22
feature
Feature Editor Ally Wilson
Spotlight: The Favourite
Elisabetta Pulcini on why thehistorical drama is worthy to win
U
nexpectedly funny and delightfully dark, The Favourite is a brilliant addition to the Best Picture race. Although historical dramas are often said to be favoured by the Academy, this would still be a surprising win. The peculiar style, married with incredibly complex characters, make this movie incredibly original and deserving of recognition. The importance of accuracy in historical films has been widely debated. While some believe it is not a necessary requirement, others may perceive the inaccuracies as a lack of care towards the project. While it can be under-
This movie is masterful in every aspect. From the soundtrack to the cinematography, everything detail is refined and purposeful
standable why the audience would feel cheated, any historian will confirm that many events of history are not as clear cut as it may appear. Therefore, a movie may show great care in choosing a certain version of history over the other, if in service of analysing themes relevant to the time period chosen. In this case, although the sexual relationship between Sarah and Anne has not been confirmed, the revolving of the movie around these events adds another dimension to the message portrayed. It was not necessary for director Yorgos Lanthimos to state that it was never his intention to stick to historical records: it is readily apparent in the highly styled tone contributed by the direction and soundtrack. This movie is masterful in every aspect. From the soundtrack to the cinematography, everything detail is refined and purposeful. All elements of cinema are employed to create an almost dream-like surrealist tone, in
stark contrast with the violently relatable characters. And that’s the biggest success of the movie: the surrealist tone focuses the attention on the characters who are able to feel contemporary despite the setting. Olivia Colman shines in her portrayal of the Queen. Dramatic, yet incredibly fragile, Anne exposes what the weight of responsibility, both as a Queen and as a lover can do to a person. She appears incredibly real in the way she experiences royalty. Particularly her insecurity, coming from the knowledge that sincerity in relationship is far from expected in a royal setting, explains the deep dependence she forms on Sarah, a refreshingly blunt personality. In the role of Sarah, Rachel Weisz is charismatic, charming and powerful. Her character shows how, even though ruthlessness can come from the heart, it can still be harmful. However, during the events of the movie, it is clear that the Queen longs for a purer connection. That leads her in the arms of Abigail, the apparent underdog. Ironically, this serves to fundamentally illustrate that toxic relationships can assume different forms: from outright abusive, to subtly exploitative. This movie not only changes the perception of historical figures, but also is not afraid to explore extremely daring themes, while not giving into the stereotypes of the genre.
Monday 25 February 2019
Oscars pred
Our film writers give us their favoured and most likely winners, and w
Best Actor It seems all but confirmed that Rami Malek will take home Best Actor for his role in Bohemian Rhaposdy. Following his BAFTA win earlier this month, Malek is odds on favourite to take home the award. Christian Bale is second favourite for his role in Vice, whilst Bradley Cooper is a long way out at 20/1 for his work in A Star Is Born. Willem Dafoe (At Eterneity’s Gate) and Viggo Mortensen (Green Book) are the other contenders. A Malek win is almost guaranteed and deserved too. Toby Bryant Best Actress In the female category, Lady Gaga is the big name nominee. Her role in A Star Is Born was breath-taking, from music creation to live recordings to her portrayal of the character – it’s an Oscar-winning performance. Sadly, she looks to be snubbed again as Glenn Close (The Wife) is all set to take home the award. Olivia Coleman (The Favourite), Melissa McCarthy (Can You Ever Forgive Me?) and Yalitze Aparicio (Roma) are the other nominees. Toby Bryant Best Picture Whilst I would want BlackKkKlansman to win Best Picture, honestly I doubt it. Personally, I’d only be disappointed if Bohemian Rhapsody won. Not because it’s a bad film, I just don’t find it to be in an Oscar-worthy league except for best actor. As cool as it would be to have Black Panther
Im-
win, I doubt it would actually happen (I wouldn’t be mad if it did though because that would be iconic). I believe The Favourite or Roma will win best picture, probably edging more towards The Favourite. Sophie Hicks Best Director In terms of best director, personally I want Spike Lee to win. However, I think Yorgos Lanthimos will win for The Favourite, which I would still be happy with. However, I haven’t seen Cold War or Vice to judge these films, but despite this I think The Favourite still has a very likely chance of winning. Sophie Hicks Best Adapted Screenplay The screenplay categories this year are bursting at the seams with talented writing. For Adapted Screenplay, I’d love to see Can You Ever Forgive Me? win, as it brought to life the crazy story of Lee Israel’s forgery scam with both humorous and realistic dialogue and character development. However, I’d be surprised if BlacKkKlansman doesn’t take the prize here with its biographical crime drama that’s nominated for four other awards. It’s unlikely to win Best Picture, so I’m wondering if the Academy will soften the blow with some writing and editing wins. Charlotte Paige Boulton Best Original Screenplay For Original Screenplay, there are more strong con-
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Image: Pixabay
the courier
23
feature
Monday 25 February 2019
dicted
why they are best deserved this year
tenders. With Alfonso Cuaron tipped for Best Director, perhaps he will be passed over for his writing credits for Roma. I’d love for The Favourite to win as I found the writing interesting and well-suited for its unique cinematography style. But Green Book is a likely winner, despite the criticism surrounding the consultation of Don Shirley’s family during writing. They’ve already won the Golden Globe for Best Screenplay, so maybe the Oscars are next… Charlotte Paige Boulton Best Supporting Actor Most critics seem to agree that Mahershala Ali has the Best Supporting Actor statuette in a bag. I don’t think that Green Book is going to win in any other major category. Therefore, only its acting is going to be awarded, as it was for sure the best part of this movie. The only possible competitor might be Sam Elliot for A Star Is Born, as it is his first Oscar nomination after decades in acting. Jagoda Waszkowiak Best Supporting Actress Upsetting as it is, Rachel Weisz probably won’t win in the Best Supporting Actress category. She was outstanding, however, The Favourite simply cannot receive every award. It will be settled between Vice’s Amy Adams and Regina King for If Beale Street Could Talk. My bet is on King, as it could be the only major award the film gets. If Adams wins, similarly to Elliot, it would be to recompensate for all her other performances. Jagoda Waszkowaik
Do we take the Academy Paegentry Awards too seriously? and politics Jimmy Athey discusses his qualms with the annual ceremony
O
ver the course of the last several years, I have been utterly fascinated with the Oscars. During the course of the year, in the back of my mind I have a focus on what’s Oscar worthy or what’s not. So yes, I certainly take the Oscars too seriously. But I think the movie industry as a whole has become obsessed with the Academy Awards, and we definitely get carried away with what the awards mean.
Many films become too focussed on acquiring these awards
First of all, let us begin with the good things about the Oscars. It has made people aware of some of the best pieces of cinema of all time; Birdman is something I consider the greatest made film of all time, and it won best picture in 2015. Manchester By the Sea is also a tremendous film, and it has one of the best performances by an actor – Casey Affleck – that I have ever seen, and he rightly won the Best Actor award in 2017. It highlights some great movies that some audiences would never have even cared for
and rewards them with arguably the greatest award you can receive in the film industry. However, there is a problem. As the Oscars are considered the most prestigious of awards, perhaps we take them too seriously. The term “Oscar bait” is a phrase that we all have heard, and I think has corrupted the film industry, as we see many films become too focused on acquiring these awards. The film to start this all off was The Deer Hunter, where it was distributed very early on to a limited audience including Academy members in time for the awards season, and then was pulled from distribution. When it was nominated for nine Oscars, it was then released again. A trend, perhaps not as blatant, but still ever so popular today. When it comes down to it, awards should not mean anything. Whether or not something is good is subjective, and whatever you like or don’t like is up to you. A film’s credibility and worth should not be solely down to how many Oscars it has won or been nominated for, and an actor should not be judged on the awards they have received. Films are an art form and it is down to the individual to react however they want to the film, just like a painting. I pay too much attention to what the Oscars choose, and their choices often infuriates me.
Image: Instagram Image: Flickr: Disney/ABC
Harry Parsons weighs in on the awards political nature
T
he Oscars have long been fraught with political tensions and criticisms and not more so than in the last ten years or so. Becoming, perhaps, the embodiment of the so called “liberal elite”. However the problem is slightly more complicated than that. Go all the way back to the 2003 Oscars opening where, in the wake of US troops deployment to Iraq, the academy decided to not have a red carpet. Mocking the decision, host Steve Martin said whilst walking out in a tuxedo, past two giant golden Oscars statues, in the grand Kodak theatre in central Hollywood, “well I’m glad they cut back on all the glitz!”…”That’ll send ‘em a message”. It is impossible for a group of people who are vehement Democrats, many of whom donated to Barack Obama’s presidential campaigns in 2008 and 2012, to gather in a room and it not seem slightly political. It means that when they get a moment to stand on the stage as either presenters or winners they’ll only naturally try and tell an, albeit depleting, audience what they view about the issues of the day. Sometimes it seems to chase an individual issue like Leonardo DiCaprio’s Climate speech, a safe, sane, important and sensible thing. Other times, like Robert De Niro’s “f**k Trump” ‘speech’ at the Tony awards while live on CBS television, who aren’t permitted to air explicit language at any time of day. While film is inherently political it can be argued that they don’t help the case. This year’s best picture nominee “Vice”, whilst an incredibly watchable, exciting and dramatic film, is so blatant about how it wants you to feel about the Republican Party that it might as well be considered a form of political advertising. These political ‘earthquake’ events that keep happening are, in part, taking place because people are sick of being told what to do. Sick of a status quo where they don’t feel like they can sit down watch a awards show and not be told how terrible a person they are for thinking this or that. That being said. If you had a moment in the spotlight, and could tell the world a message about something you thought was wrong, or unjust, you definitely wouldn’t stay silent.
24
culture music
the courier
c2.music@ncl.ac.uk Music Editors Charlotte Boulton, Rory Ellis, Max Hobbs Online Editor Dominic Lee
Monday 25 February 2019
Will they or won’t they? when fame and love collide Lucy Lillystone debates the age-old question of why society is so obsessed with the relationship status updates of popstars and their partners
I
find myself questioning why are we so fascinated with the relationship statuses of musicians? Why do we invest up to 2-3 hours a day scrolling Instagram, reading gossip magazines and web pages and stalking Snapchat to find out about the recent happenings in musicians’ love lives? We are fascinated with the recent declaration from Katy Perry that marriage is “not for her” to then confirming her
It’s impossible not to become invested in their lives
engagement to Orlando Bloom and Miley Cyrus’ exciting news that she has taken Liam Hemsworth’s last name in addition to sharing photographs from her discrete wedding on Valentine’s Day. Subconsciously, I think a lot of us want to be these musicians – we want the fame, the talent and we also want the relationship. I for one would do anything to be in Miley Cyrus’ situation, who wouldn’t? Because of this, we find ourselves stalking their lives, wanting updates on what they’re doing, who they’re dating. Everything and anything. Basically, because our relationships are so utterly dull and boring, why not keep up to date with musicians’ love life? Musicians’ relationships are filtered through the media as scandalous, exciting and thrilling. For example, if you saw the headline: BREAKING NEWS: JAY-Z AND BEYONCE GETTING DIVORCE, how can you not click on that and get the inside gossip? It’s like musicians have the most interesting lives ever and you cannot resist being up to date. Another part of it is just because it is there. You can’t go on Snapchat and not see a gossip account giving updates on the recent musicians caught kissing or the recent break ups in ‘top of the chart’ singers. Ariana Grande’s break up with Pete Davidson proved this. When you’re sat on the sofa, watching some rubbish on TV, scrolling through
your phone, you can’t help but get invested in people’s love lives because they are there for you to stalk. If, say, a musician didn’t have an Instagram and didn’t post pictures of themselves with their significant other, I reckon we would be less invested. And while I am less inclined to know every break up story and scandal on the internet, all I have to do is sit down with my housemates and they’ll have me all clued up. It always comes up as the topic of conversation: hey did you see that Ariana Grande dedicated her song to Mac Miller? It’s impossible to not get invested in these musicians’ lives when they are all over the media. Finally, to some extent, the musicians bring all the attention on themselves. With the explicit kisses on red carpet events to the Instagram selfies of them kissing or being exceptionally cute, how can we not think they are relationship goals? It’s impossible to not become invested in their lives. When it comes down to it, though, our obsession with musician’s relationship status is simply just for entertainment. We don’t have enough drama in our own lives so why not fill it with someone else’s break up, marriage and divorce? It makes life much more interesting.
Image: Flickr - Brook Ward
Image: Twitter @MileyCyrus
Kanye: out with the old, in with the new From melodic pop to experimental hip hop, Jack Gill analyses the how Kanye West’s sound has evolved, and where it might go next...
O
n February 10th 2004, Chicago-born artist Kanye West released his debut album, The College Dropout. Sitting in at twenty-one tracks, spanning over an hour in length, and jampacked full of features including Ludacris (‘Breathe in, Breathe Out’) and Jay-Z (‘Never Let Me Down’), the hip-hop epic announced a new name in the industry. The College Dropout commenced a sequence of hit singles, including the luscious acoustic ballad ‘All Falls Down’ and the polemical protest song ‘Jesus Walks’. The diversity of these tracks, underpinned with production skills that West achieved from his pre-stardom “5 beats a day for 3 summers” lifestyle, further demanded recognition from critics. Such was this critical reception that the album gained itself two Grammy nominees for Best Album and Best Rap Album, the latter of which West was victorious. As is referenced in the final track, ‘Last Call’, Kanye’s journey had been anything but straightforward. Met with rejection from several labels, including notoriously from Capitol Records, the profound success of the album rang sweeter under the notion that it was something West had worked on for many years and with many collaborators. A soulful feather in the Chi-town artist’s cap, The College Dropout is today often bunched alongside West’s ‘old’ persona. By the time Kanye confronted this identity in his playful meta track, ‘The Old Kanye’ from his seventh album The Life of Pablo (2016), comparisons between the artist’s ‘old’ discography and his more recent, experimental releases had already been rife among fans and critics. For West, the “old Kanye” almost exclusively referred to his soul samples (think Lauryn Hill’s ‘Mystery of Iniquity’ guitar sample in ‘All Falls Down’ or Chaka Khan’s powerful vocals featuring in ‘Through the Wire’), and altogether more harmonic rapping style. These archetypal features began loosening around the time of third album Graduation (2007), where Kanye flirted with the computerised sounds of French electro heavyweights Daft Punk, particularly, in his 2007 hit ‘Stronger’. Not only this, but in the release of the sombre 808s & Heartbreaks Kanye dominated his tracks with the instrument cited in the album’s title, the 808 drum machine. Bold, hyper-digitised beats symbolised an artist who had exhausted his musical resources and, by extension, his
emotional palette. In a five-year period, West had faced the death of his mother, Donda West, and the breakdown of his engagement with the model Amber Rose. Whilst 808s reflected on these hardships, West’s fol-
Yeezus continues to divide fans to this day
lowing release, My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy (2009) was a brash and outspoken record that merged a myriad of styles that Ye had built up across his career. Synth, soul piano and hard-hitting drum beats signalled an artist at the height of his powers, and in a space where the lines between experimentation and innovation were forever being crossed. It is perhaps to no surprise that West’s provocative sixth album Yeezus (2013) ramped these pathways to dizzying heights. A self-proclaimed ‘God’, as the fifth track of the album declared, this work pioneered the persona that many see as the ‘new’ Kanye; arrogant, self-aware and, above all, unapologetic. Outspoken genius? Or simply careless provocateur? Yeezus continues to divide fans to this day, as is also the case for West’s most recent releases The Life of Pablo, Kanye’s second longest release to his debut album, and last year’s Ye, the shortest release in the artist’s discography at only twentynine minutes long. What pervades the Image: Flickr
critical reception of these two albums is an unfortunate lack of focus from Mr. West. A potential explanation resides in Kanye’s continual discussions of his mental health challenges, particularly, with bipolar disorder. Though Kanye speaks of this condition as a “sup erpow-
er” in track ‘Yikes’, West’s ambivalent political involvement with Republican President, Donald Trump, has raised warning signs for fans. How can the same Kanye
8
Number of albums Kanye has released since 2004
who declared that former president George W. Bush didn’t care about black people at the wake of Hurricane Katrina now sign himself off to a man who some view as racist? It is with this conflicting brush that Kanye is often tarred. Far gone are the days of the soul samples and narrative skits that characterised ‘old Kanye’ yet, so too have we forgotten a solely hip-hop driven Ye. With recent work being firmly in the production chair, working on hit albums like Pusha T’s Daytona and Nas’ Nasir over the summer, could another ‘new Kanye’ be emerging? Nonetheless, with a diverse discography, spread across both vocal and production credits, West’s legacy reflects an artist who is more complex than two musical personas, but instead one who continues to defy categorisation.
the courier
25
Monday 25 February 2019
Avril Lavigne Head Above Water
F
ollowing a six year break from a studio album release, Avril Lavigne is back with a new sound. Head Above Water provides a more contemplative insight into Lavigne’s life, showcasing a transition from the pop-punk days of ‘Complicated’ and ‘Sk8er Boi’, towards a more emotional soundtrack. Lavigne describes the record as ‘a true emotional journey’, with clear reference to, and inspiration drawn from, her own personal battle with Lyme disease. The album signals a more mature insight into her mind and music, with the vulnerability and depth reminiscent of previous albums, such as that of Goodbye Lullaby. It comes as no surprise that the sound and message of the album has developed, particularly given the journey Lavigne has made before writing this album. The title track is a soaring reverberation of raw and emotional lyricism, defining the album’s message of resilience and setting the listener up with great expectations. In addition, the final track, ‘Warrior’, offers another power ballad but with a different message of self-assurance, closing off the album’s messages of personal growth and strength. The second half of the album differs from the first, in that it transitions from power ballads on inner strength, to a more loose set of tracks considering heartbreak and relationships gone by. Head Above Water is a journey through resilience, heartbreak, and determination, yet the message is somewhat lost by the tracklist. The placing of some of the tracks on the album are a bit awkward, causing the message to be lost in the midst of a couple of less poignant tracks. ‘Dumb Blonde’ is a fun and bouncy tune with a marginally effective message on
female empowerment, yet it loses some of its potency when considered next to the the two songs either side, the emotive Kelly Clarkson-esque tracks of ‘Tell Me It’s Over’ and ‘It Was In Me’. Avril Lavigne came to fame with catchy pop-punk, and has transitioned from the days of camouflage pants to a more mature sound, complete with acoustic guitar and introspection. Listening to the album, Lavigne’s use of high notes and upbeat tracks is demonstrably hers, yet a somewhat confused record has been produced. ‘Bigger Wow’ and ‘Love Me Insane’ are great tracks individually, but are somewhat lost amongst the power balls and whimsical tunes of the rest of the album. Head Above Water may be a relatively conflicted album, but it displays great potential. Each track is an effective message of the struggles Avril Lavigne has faced in the last few years, and are emotive, thoughtful, and uplifting in turn. Lavigne may not have quite found her new musical identity, but the album is a testament to her struggles and provides a message of hope and resilience. Alexandra Sadler
Eurovision: our year? Ally Wilson gives us her opinion on the upcoming Eurovision contest
I
LOVE Eurovision. I am unbelievably excited. What could be better than spending an evening listening to the intelligent wit of Graham Norton taking the piss out of the extravagance and over-seriousness of an event which, to us Brits, is nothing more than a good excuse for a bit of a knees up on a Saturday night in May. Whether it’s the gloriously gaudy costumes or the overly-experimental dance moves, there’s something for everyone in the Eurovision Song Contest. It is an annual ceremony of celebrating togetherness whilst simultaneously maintaining our British stiff-upper-lip, zero-sentimentality identity. On top of this, despite the flamboyant ridiculousness of it all, it’s also a chance to discover some great new music, with bangers like 2012 winner Loreen’s ‘Euphoria’ and 2017’s Portuguese ‘Amar Pelos Dois’ being widely downloaded after the event (myself included). Despite this, every year, the UK is the laughing stock of the contest, usually finishing in the second half of the pecking order, however in our defence we’ve never received the infamous ‘Nil Points’, and we’ve come second a record of fifteen times as a country. We’ve also won five times, admittedly not any time recently, but this really isn’t that bad a statistic. However, the last few years have been pretty poor, with our best result coming from Jade Ewen’s ‘It’s My Time’, which finished in 3rd in 2009. Not bad at all. This year’s entry comes from Michael Rice. Yeah, I haven’t heard of him either, but Eurovision isn’t exactly a haven for bestselling artists now is it. To be fair the song isn’t that bad – in fact if you like Sam Smith then you’ll very much enjoy it because it’s sounds exactly like every song he’s ever recorded. Michael himself is quite a good singer, and the song features all the expected
tropes of a Eurovision classic: a quiet, unaffected introduction, epic lyrics about freedom and world unity, a
whether it’s the gloriously gaudy costumes or the overly-experimental dance moves, there’s something for everyone
gospel choir and a key change. Perfect. I’ll still be surprised if it does well though. It’s in very grave danger of blending into the crowd. After all, there are 26 songs to listen to in a row and you need yours to be something different in order for it to stand out. Also, ballads are always nice but never do very well. Sadly, Michael, I have a feeling you’ll be looking at a low score this year. But we appreciate your effort and we’ll be cheering you from our front rooms nonetheless. My prediction? A 19th place finish.
Image: Youtube
@CourierMusic thecourieronline.co.uk/music
White Lies Five
music culture
T
he brand new album by White Lies, Five, was released on 1st February 2019, and it is one not to be missed. After having never heard of the band, and hearing it was a post punk album, I had low expectations. But I was pleasantly surprised. Despite some of the songs being very similar to each other, I found that listening to most of the album was actually very enjoyable, in fact I would go so far to say I would add them to my playlists for this month! The album includes very talented guitar solos, catchy tunes and an authenticity to the music that is hard to achieve. The band’s album marks a decade of their music, and initially they struggled to write songs that fit their image and their style. But after 10 years of producing music, they have finally found their sound. With their fifth album, the songs all focus on the “human condition”, with the names of the album’s songs centring on everyday aspects of life. The album’s songs include names, ‘Jo?’, situations, ‘Time to Give’ and emotional feelings ‘Denial’. Finally, I think, they have found the type of music they have been searching for, this genre of music seems to come naturally to them. In all albums, there are some songs which are underwhelming compared to the rest, and I connected less to those like ‘Kick Me’. I found this song very repetitive, with little progression, and to be frank, I got quite bored listening to it. However, I thoroughly enjoyed most of the other songs. The musicians are extremely talented, with my favourite solo being the electric guitar in ‘Denial’. It is very simplistic, but it does not try and do an overcomplicated solo. It keeps it authentic, and gently introduces the punk element to the band’s music. ‘Jo?’ is another great song, with the music being uplifting and energetic, providing a contrast to some of the other pieces, like ‘Finish Line’, which are a lot more melancholy, but this contrast is exactly why the album works successfully for me. Sophie Wilson
Nina Nesbitt
The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change
A
s somebody who’s been a Nina Nesbitt fan since the release of her debut album Peroxide in 2014, I waited for the release of her latest album The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change excitedly yet apprehensively. From the few singles she had released prior to the album, such as ‘The Moments I’m Missing’, it was clear that Nesbitt was attempting a Taylor Swift-esque move from upbeat teenage pop to an older, wiser and sassier blend of pop and R&B. It’s a shift not many can manage, as Nesbitt risked losing the innocent charm she’d employed in her earlier music. To my relief, she’s pulled it off. Her earlier style hasn’t completely faded, and is still apparent in songs such as the incredibly catchy ‘Loyal To Me.’ When I went to see Nesbitt back in 2014, she was rarely onstage without her guitar, so it’s nice to see the guitar’s influence throughout the song. ‘Somebody Special’ is another track which sits at the crossroads between Nesbitt’s two styles, with the chorus really showing how much Nesbitt has developed as an artist in recent years. The album works as it is essentially split into two contrasting parts. The first half is packed with catchy chart hits, with the exceptional ‘The Best You Had’ sure to be a crowd pleaser. The second half of the album, however, fades to softer ballads. The lovely ‘Last December’ showcases Nesbitt’s beautiful voice, with the album ending on a high with the emotionally-charged ‘The Sun Will Come Up, The Seasons Will Change.’ Second albums are often where artists fall flat, especially if they’re mixing up their style. Yet Nesbitt has succeeded in creating an album where every song is good. The only small criticism I have is that the album version of ‘The Moments I’m Missing’, cuts out Goody Grace’s verse, meaning the song loses some of its original appeal. Overall, however, this is an exceptional album. Caitlin Disken
What’s In A Name? ‘Runaway’
Linkin Park
This track from Linkin Park’s debut and consensus best album Hybrid Theory showcases the late Chester Bennington’s vocals at their very best. Chester could have both the voce of an angel and a demon in a single song and ‘Runaway’ is no exception, featuring his trademark screams alongside a pitch perfect chorus. Mike Shinoda as usual integrates his rapping perfectly, few bands could match Linkin Park’s nu-metal blend of metal and hip-hop. ‘Runaway’ is a great example of this, with a heavy guitar track mixing perfectly with Joe Hahn’s beat.
Kanye West This 9-minute lead sin-
gle from Kanye’s masterpiece My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy is one of Ye’s most self-reflective songs. Beginning with a beautifully simple piano intro West comments on his own behaviour, using lyrics made up of negative magazine comments after a year where he had interrupted Taylor Swift’s speech at the 2009 VMA’s. ‘Runaway’ is arguably one of Kanye’s most impressive songs and is impeccably produced, particularly in its synth-led breakdown where West’s use of autotune shines through and harkens back to the divisive yet visionary 808’s and Heartbreak.
Ed Sheeran A danceable and catchy track from Sheeran’s sophomore effort Multiply (or “X” if like myself the mathematically inspired titles confuse you), ‘Runaway’ flows beautifully as Ed’s lines cascade effortlessly into each other. The song has an addictive beat and is a classic tale of running away from home, told poetically through Sheeran’s vocals. Ed’s rapping ability also shines on this track and is just as impressive as his singing, which makes for one of the highlights of an impressive album.
J. Cole A classic J. Cole track from Born Sinner, ‘Runaway’ is business as usual featuring J. Cole’s legendary flow. The track is an insight into Cole’s softer side, starting out with what feels like a message to a girl, before he breaks it down into a tragic tale of love lost. Finally, Cole finishes with a story about his struggles in life with racism and how he desperately wants to run away from it all. ‘Runaway’ is one of the highlights on Born Sinner and concludes with a string section which rounds the track off nicely.
Dominic Lee
/The CourierMusic @Courier_Music
26
culture TV
the courier
c2.tv@ncl.ac.uk TV Editors: Jacob Clarke, Tom Cooney, Chloe Mullins Online Editor: Dominic Lee
Monday 25 February 2019
Supernatural hits 300 episodes
Lucy Lillystone explores how this monster-of-the-week series has changed over fifteen years as it celebrates 300 epsiodes
S
upernatural was one of the first TV series I got into properly as a teenager, dedicating 45 minutes every week to watching the new episode. Joining the show when Season Five was airing, I feel as though the Winchester brothers and their adoring angel are a part of my life, especially as the show is now reaching its 300th episode. And despite its downfall in the recent seasons, Supernatural still has and always will have a place in my heart. So in lieu of Supernatural’s milestone, here’s my absolute favourite aspects of the show.
Supernatural still has and always will have a place in my heart
Image: YouTube
Castiel’s Entrance: It’s fair to say that Supernatural was a mediocre show when it began in Season One. However, what really got me into it was the introduction of my favourite character: Castiel. With the most dramatic entrance known to man – the wings, the sigils and of course the infamous trench coat – this episode got me so excited for the upcoming seasons. Ever since this moment, Castiel has been the highlight of this show. There is no doubt that if he left, I would abandon Supernatural. Sam and Dean’s relationship: Any scene where we witness the Winchester brothers pour their hearts out, sell their souls, and make deals with the devil in order to save the other is definitely up there as a reason I love Supernatural. Although it can seem excessive in that how many times are
these brothers going to cheat death (come on writers), it really is heart-warming to see these two brothers go to the end of the world for each other. Especially when the majority of the seasons episodes they’re bickering and arguing. It’s bittersweet. Lucifer: Second from Castiel, Lucifer is probably one of the best characters Supernatural has ever introduced. Despite his evil nature, he brings both humour and sarcasm, and his relationship with Sam (especially when he’s in Sam’s conscience) brings a different side to the show that takes it away from typical hunting and killing and makes it something more entertaining and excitingly thrilling. The fact that Lucifer has lasted all these seasons shows he is a fan favourite. Demon!Dean: As Supernatural was entering its tenth season, a lot of fans wondered exactly what they could bring that was new, original and different. And they did not disappoint. For Season 10, fans were blessed with Demon!Dean: one of the best ideas the writers have ever had. This role definitely tested Jensen Ackles’ acting as he was forced out of his comfort zone to play the villain. And he pulled through. Every single scene had me on the edge of my seat. It was exciting to see a different side to one of the central characters and is definitely up there with the very best plotlines. There are so many other great episodes, characters, moments that I wasn’t able to articulate here and I strongly encourage you, as the show enters into its new phase, to go and watch Supernatural. Although disappointing, infuriating and even boring at times, these moments more than make up for this. Supernatural will always be that show I return to when I’m feeling nostalgic.
Image: YouTube
Disney comes out Trouble in Neverland
Ellie Simmonite reports on the history of LGBTQ+ characters Libby Shaw discusses the controversial new MJ documentary divisive two-part documentary about the late Jackson”. Many defend Jackson on the grounds that he in Disney's repertoire, as the company reaches a new milestone singer Michael Jackson is set to be released has been to trial for child sexual abuse allegations and was
D
espite being a nearly twenty-year-old woman, I will hold my hands up and shamelessly admit that yes, I have a subscription to DisneyLife and yes, I love watching Andi Mack. For those of you not boldly whipping five pounds out of your student loan each month to indulge in this world of tween living, Andi Mack follows a group of teenagers learning both about the world they live in and themselves. In recent weeks the show has placed a particular emphasis on the coming-out journey of Cyrus, a bubbly male lead, and on February 8th an episode aired called “One in a Minyan" which resulted in him becoming the first ever Disney Channel character to come out as gay. Disney has been making a clear and highly progressive decision to include representatives of the LGBTQ+ community across their films and shows over the past few years, ranging from LeFou in 2017’s Beauty and the Beast to Gravity Falls’ favourite police duo Sheriff Blubs and Deputy Durand, but this was their first explicit in-show acknowledgement of a character being a gay. What makes this even more wonderful is the fact that Disney made a conscious decision to introduce their first openly gay character to a Disney Channel show as opposed to a movie, allowing them to tailor their approach to Cyrus’ coming out to Andi Mack’s usual demographic of six to fourteen-year olds in a delicate and receptive manner. The fact that they also chose to introduce Cyrus’ struggles concerning his sexuality at the very start of season two and then give him thirty-four episodes to discover himself, shows both adults and children alike that coming out is something to be done when the individual is ready. Besides this, Disney made the commendable decision to not make Cyrus’ coming out scene, to his long-time crush Jonah, a big blow up moment. There was no dramatic head spinning scandal involved or fifty-piece string orchestra playing in
the background, just Cyrus turning to Jonah, the words “I’m gay” being spoken in a silent room and Jonah’s reply being “Yeah? Pretty cool” with a smile. Such a purer and heart-warming message of acceptance is exactly what needs to presented to young people who may find themselves in Cyrus’ shoes or who may just lack an understanding of the LGBTQ+ world. Joshua Rush who plays Cyrus put this best himself when in a PeopleTV interview he regarded, “the most important thing for [him] when [he] got this part was to do it right […] because [he] knew that people were going to end up seeing this and being like ‘wow that’s me, I identify with that, I can be who I am now”. Rush’s determination and successful achievement in portraying Cyrus in this way gives me so much hope for the continued positive representation of the LGBTQ+ community both by Disney and in other forms of media and I truly believe the world will be all the better for it.
Image: YouTube
A
in the UK, airing on the Wednesday 6th and Thursday 7th of March on Channel 4. Since its first viewing at Sundance festival earlier this year it has been making headlines for its controversial allegations of child sex abuse against Michael Jackson.
The documentary focuses on the allegations made by James Safechuck and Wade Robson, who were both close to Jackson
The documentary focuses on the allegations made by James Safechuck and Wade Robson, who were both close to Jackson in their formative years. The two men tell their respective stories through ‘gut-wrenching’ interviews, focusing on their relationships with Jackson, which allegedly turned predatory and sexual. The programme shows how their lives were affected by the alleged abuse, and for many it has built an undeniable case against the late singer. The creator of the documentary Dan Reed has stated that “It took great courage for these two men to tell their stories and I have no question about their validity… I believe anyone who watches this film will see and feel the emotional toll on the men and their families and will appreciate the strength it takes to confront long-held secrets”. If found to be convincing, this documentary seriously questions the credibility of the late King of Pop and his legacy. Yet, some do not find the documentary convincing, with some fans seeing it as an attempt of character assassination. There have been calls to pull the documentary amid criticism and protest, with many arguing that it is unfair the late singer is unable to defend himself against the allegations. Jackson’s family have branded the programme a ‘public lynching’, and his estate has said that “This is yet another lurid production in an outrageous and pathetic attempt to exploit and cash in on Michael
acquitted of all charges, proving his innocence. Sundance argued against protestations against the documentary, saying that they support ‘artists in enabling them to fully tell bold, independent stories, stories on topics which can be provocative or challenging. We look forward to audiences at the Festival seeing these films and judging the work for themselves and discussing it afterwards.’ They argue that the documentary and Jackson’s alleged victims should not be censored or silenced, and that viewers should be able to see the documentary and make a judgement for themselves. Indeed, in the wake of the MeToo movement, we should be prepared to at least listen to the victims of alleged abuse, whether we find their testimonies convincing or not.
Image: YouTube
the courier
27
Monday 25 February 2019
Review
Preview
Trigger Warning
Big Little Lies
Available on Netflix
Coming soon to HBO
A
Image: YouTube
fter the huge success of Big Little Lies season one in 2017, fans had been eagerly waiting to hear whether the story would continue. With it being originally billed as a seven episode miniseries, a continuation of the mystery drama was not expected. Our wishes were answered when HBO eventually renewed it for a second season after the popularity of the show and the demand from fans to continue it. Here’s everything you need to know about the upcoming Golden Globe and Emmy award winning series. Avoiding any spoilers for those of you yet to watch season one, the initial story follows the troubled lives of three women, played by Reese Witherspoon, Nicole Kidman and Shailene Woodley. They navigate the world of parenthood and relationships, all getting mixed up into a murder investigation. The mystery drama was compelling from start to finish with compelling performances from each of them, along with Zoë Kravitz, Laura Dern, Alexander Skarsgard and Adam Scott. All of these roles are expected to be reprised in one way or another in the upcoming season which will consist of seven new episodes. Oscar-winning and well-loved actress Meryl Streep is joining the Big Little Lies cast for the new season, adding another huge name to the already stellar cast. As with the first season of Big Little Lies, it will be co-produced by Nicole Kidman and Reese Witherspoon.
Meryl Streep is joining the cast for the new season Fans and critics are sure that the next instalment will be snapping up more awards after its release. The preview trailer for the new season was shown at the Golden Globes, if you can call it a trailer. It is a quick three second clip that shows Meryl Streep’s character, along with the main group of characters from the first season. The preview suggests that it will pick up right after the twist of season one, so if you have yet to binge it, get on it now. The first season is a ride of emotions, heartache and mystery and is absolutely deserving of the hype it has received. The release date is expected in June of this year but no final date has been released yet. Keep your eyes out for a full trailer dropping soon. Fans are hopeful that the next instalment will be just as shocking. If we learnt anything from season one, it is to expect the unexpected. Amy Brown
T
Image: YouTube
he Netflix feature of playing a trailer on the homepage is genius. I know that might sound silly, but the shows I may have missed due to that feature not being implemented is frightening. Netflix docuseries’ have become immensely popular and shows like Dark Tourist benefit from a trailer being almost forced upon you as soon as you launch Netflix. Trigger Warning with Killer Mike is no different, and Killer Mike’s powerful statement – “anything that doesn’t help black people needs to be burnt the fuck down now” – instantly had me hooked. Killer Mike in this show aims to create a more equal society for black people using very controversial and outside-the-box methods. Even though he is a rapper, I am more of a fan of his social and political work, including supporting Sanders and Corbyn in their respective campaigns, and passionately arguing black gun ownership on Real Time with Bill Maher (his arguments are hard to disagree with, but that’s another discussion altogether). Trigger Warning is his most daring stunt yet. It opens with an episode of trying to “live black”; going three days in the black economy, only eating and using black sourced things. How challenging that can be is shocking, and even though it may be exaggerated, the message is still clear: this is bad. And it doesn’t stop there. One of my personal favourite endeavours (of possibly anyone ever) is commercialising the Crips. The Crips are a gang in America who are known around the world for the violence and killing they have caused. But what Killer Mike emphasises is their brotherhood; they are a community and it brings young black men together, so creating a business out of them can make them steer away from the public image they have gained over the years. It’s a genius idea, and something that I hope is genuine. The cynics could label Killer Mike as needlessly divisive, and that he only cares about the black community. But the current climate shows bad news for minorities, and he is trying to change the lives of the people he connects with in a positive way. I love dark humour, and many of the jokes come from dangerous subjects, like when Killer Mike refuses a lap dance from an Asian stripper because she isn’t black. Killer Mike’s immense dedication to the black community is inspiring, even going so far as to make educational porn videos and schooling a white ginger kid on white privilege. Sure, its controversial, but the lengths he’s gone to for a more equal world is brave and exciting, and I fully support whatever he does next. So, crack open your Crip-a-Cola and settle in for something truly unique. Jimmy Athey
@CourierTV thecourieronline.co.uk/TV
TV culture
Picard returns to the final frontier Ally Wilson questions if we need any more Star Trek spinoffs
A
s a young girl and with two Trekkers as parents, I used to be sat in front of the telly every Sunday evening to watch Star Trek replays, mostly just to enjoy the funny outfits and the strange juvenile novelty of not really understanding what was going on but attempting to follow the storyline anyway. Eventually these novelties rubbed off as I got older and
There are already about a thousand episodes to indulge in I began to realise that I just didn’t really like it very much. Sorry, Trekkers, but I grew out of it. And having watched the odd repeat on channels like Yesterday and Syfy in recent years, I’m not surprised. Sure, they’re nostalgic, but I fail to be inspired by the poor graphics, terrible costumes and corny one-liners from Kirk and Picard. Having said this, the Cyborgs remained the main villain in whatever fictitious playground game I played in primary school for a very long time, and I still find them absolutely terrifying. And of course, the classic Enterprise zooming off to save some distant planet is iconic, as is the epic credit music and famous lines such
as “beam me up scotty”. However, none of these justify another spin off. Why? Why continue it even more than it already has? There are already about a thousand episodes to indulge in and cinematic remakes with their star-studded casts and out-of-this-world special effects. The franchise has already made an absolute storm. If the motive is money then that is undoubtedly greed. If the motive is to please the fans, then surely a remake with a twenty-year-older Patrick Stewart is not the best way to do that? Spinoffs about the lives of central characters are often popular among hardcore fans, but they can’t be expected to engage new fans who weren’t even twinkles in their mothers’ eyes when the original series came out. I have no doubt that this new series will – for some diehard Trekkers – be exactly what they were hoping for. For others, it will be a trip down memory lane. But for most, it’ll just be another unnecessary sci-fi spinoff which slips by without a moment’s notice.
Image: YouTube
Has TV killed the movie star?
Ellie Simmonite reports on the history of LGBTQ+ characters in Disney's repertoire, as the company reaches a new milestone
I
t’s been undeniable that major movies stars are slowly but surely making their way onto our television screens. It started off slow- BBC miniseries or limited runs on Amazon Prime; but with the rise in streaming comes the persistent move of beloved film actors and actresses onto long format shows, but why? The easy answer would be stability. As much as a larger film paycheque would be great, actors are essentially contractors. Once a film ends they have to start thinking about the next one for fear of losing steam, or worse, relevancy. TV offers an easy solution to that: the long running format of successful shows allows the actors or actresses to stay in the limelight for a much longer time. In terms of exposure, it increases their overall screen-time, and although for limited series the paycheck might be smaller (in line with TV being the ‘small screen’), for those series that end up taking off, it can mean more money, and more stability. Speaking of exposure, although it might not seem like it, television probably has more reach. With movies being passed around the cinemas then waiting a few months be-
fore being available online or on DVD, there’s gaps where the film isn’t available and the producers are just hoping enough people still care about it when it hits general availability to give the film a second life. Meanwhile, especially with the rise of streaming and binge culture, television stays relevant longer. People can either binge them and see more content in a short space of time, or space them out, waiting for new episode releases. Either way, the format means that fans can and will watch the actor more, meaning more exposure for them. Television shows tend to cultivate more dedicated fanbases too, which helps an actors fame maintain itself just by a switch to TV. Especially when going to the cinema can be such an event and staying home to watch a television show on Netflix or Amazon Prime is easy. The rise of streaming has also changed the game a lot, since television and film all coexist on one platform. With all the benefits that come with a longer run, and the fact that most of the content ends up appearing on the same platform anyway, is it any wonder that movies stars are moving to television?
Image: @RWitherspoon (Twitter)
the courier
28
culture film
c2.film@ncl.ac.uk Film Editors: Jimmy Athey, Joe Holloran and Jack Gill Online Editor: Lucy Lillystone
Monday 25 Feburary 2019
The trouble with twosomes
Dominic Sutcliffe discucsses Hollywood constant obsession with sequels, and views how 3D technology affects these releases
S
equels are not new. The New Testament is a sequel to the Old Testament and that’s one of the oldest books around. Do you know what else isn’t new? Complaining about sequels. Friedrich Neiztche considered the “glueing on” of the New Testament to the Old Testament to be ‘perhaps the greatest act of daring and "sin against the spirit" which literary Europe has on its conscience’.
It was recently announced that the sequel to World War Z has been cancelled
However, the long vintage of sequels should not blind us to the fact that the quantity of sequels has been on the rise. It was recently announced that the sequel for World War Z is officially dead, but many sequels do, despite being thematically and soulfully as dead, make it to cinemas. How can we account for this rise? An often-cited reason for this is that the increasing cost of production, labour costs, and marketing has made Hollywood producers more conservatives about the projects they are willing to back. This is coupled with the un-
avoidable fact of decreased revenue because of decreased cinema attendance and increased piracy. We can also thank the relative failure of 3D film to take off commercially for the ubiquity of sequels. The reason that 3D appeared so suddenly in cineplexs was not because the technology crossed a threshold of immersion, but because movie executives were desperate to push a technology that meant films could not be pirated. This is because only cinemas have the capacity for 3D technology. Had 3D become to 2D what colour was to black and white film we may have seen fewer sequels as 3D screening would have been a draw, regardless of whether the film was a sequel or not. This would have enabled the suits in Hollywood to support new projects with less fear. Ultimately consumers have voted with their feet and 2D screenings are considerably more popular than 3D ones. Because it is fundamen-
tally as easy to pirate a film as it is to pay for a cinema ticket or DVD investing in films nowadays is a leaky bucket. Who can blame the suits for trying to plug a few of the holes by sticking to tried-and-true formulas of Hollywood success stories? Indeed, the only major distributor regarded as being ambitious in their support of new projects Netflix- has a unique (for the moment) subscriber model that allows them to accurately predict revenue in the medium term. This level of confidence is something that big Hollywood studios, yet
alone independent studios, can only dream of. The example of Blumhouse Productions also serves as a counter-current to the overall narrative that I have painted. This company has produced recent movies such as Get Out, Split and The Purge. These movies were praised for their original plot and were successful enough to spawn sequels themselves. How have they done this? A look at their filmography list on Wikipedia reveals why. Blumhouse back a huge number of projects, despite being a relatively small studio. The studio spreads its risk by backing films with unusual setups and stories like Get Out, as well as more conventional films, such as sequels and franchises. If we, like Neittzche, want to see fewer sequels we need to see more distibutors like Netflix and Blumhouse.
Images: YouTube
The People's Favourites: BAFTA 2019 Film Editor Joe Holloran gives us a rundown of this year's big winners and losers at this year's British Academy Film Award ceremony
I
ts that time of the year again when critics, moviegoers and industry types take stock of the last twelve-months’ worth of cinematic entertainment. Kicking off the awards season this year was the BAFTA’s ceremony, held on 9 February at the worldfamous Royal Albert Hall in London. The British Academy’s 72nd annual show saw two films dominate proceedings, one actress become a new national treasure and threw up some of the inevitable controversial winners that make these industry gigs worth watching. So, who were the deserving and underserving winners this year? Lets first have a look at the big worth winners. First up, big congratulations to Oliva Coleman and Rachel Weisz gave the performances of their careers in The Favourite and deservedly picked up the Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress trophies respectively. Alfonso Cuaron’s magnificent drama Roma won Best Picture and earned him the Best Director accolade. Once again, Cauron has proven himself to be one of the world’s finest cinematic visionaries. Mahershala Ali picked up the award for Best Supporting Actor for his powerful role in Green Book and last year’s most pleasant surprise-hit SpiderMan: Into the Spider-Verse won Best Animated Film. Youngster Letitia Wright, star of Black Panther and Avengers: Infinity War cemented her place as
one of Britain’s top future stars by picking up the EE Rising Star Award. Watch this space where she is concerned. Now, not all those who won deserved it. Let’s start with the most controversial one first, Remi Malek as King Freddie in Bohemian Rhapsody. Don’t get me wrong, his performance was one of the best things about the movie, however, there simply were more deserving winners of the Best Actor award. Both Vi g g o Mortensen & Christian
Image: YouTube
Bale gave outstanding performances in Green Book and Vice respectively. In my opinion Bale should have secured this award, but when you have a film as financially successful as Malek’s your chances of winning increase massively. Hopefully, this situation would have been fixed at the Oscars a few days ago. Another surprising winner was Spike Lee picking up the Best Adapted Screenplay Award for BlacKkKlansmen Again, a fine film, but Barry Jenkins adaptation of James Baldwins If Beale Street Could Talk should have won for its powerful turn on screen. Another disappointing winner was in the Best Documentary category. The winning film Free Solo about a solo mountain climb won out over the much more beautiful, moving and important Peter Jackson film They Shall Not Grow Old, a colourised archive footage documentary about the British and Colonial forces fighting in WWI. The most predictable, yet undeserved win of the night has to go to Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga for A Star Is Born. Given the success of the film their win was inevitable. However, for me the award should have gone to either BlacKkKlansmen for its perfectly suited music or to Wes Anderson’s Isle of Dogs, a film where the score blends in with and complements the visuals so well it becomes almost unnoticeable. This year’s BAFTA results are the most positive in a long while for the British film industry. Coleman and Weisz showcased their fantastic talents on the international stage, the British made Bohemian Rhapsody blew audiences away, our young actors are breaking out in some of cinema’s biggest films and our highly talented technical crew picked up award after award in
categories such as costume, hair and make-up and production design. Let’s hope that the British film industry can build on this success throughout 2019.
Image: YouTube
the courier
29
Monday 25 Feburary 2019
@Courier_Film thecourieronline.co.uk/film
Boy Erased (15)
The Lego Movie 2 (PG)
Velvet Buzzsaw (15)
film culture Documentary Corner
Image: FreePhotobank
Image: YouTube
Image: YouTube
U
Image: YouTube
V
T
pon seeing Ladybird and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, I was worried that Lucas Hedges had begun to have been typecast in the role of insecure-gay-adolescent. However, despite the similarity of some of the types of characters he plays, Hedges presents a wholly new personality with his portrayal of Jared in Boy Erased. Subverting expectations of gay men as feminine, Jared is an all-american masculine young adult. He plays football and videogames, and lives with a family that do their best to love him. But when a situation occurs, Jared is sent to Love in Action conversion therapy by his parents. Here, each character gives us a fresh perspective on their life at the centre. Some are trying to change their sexuality, some are acting, and some, like Jared, are unsure of how to behave. One of these characters, Gary, is portrayed by youtuber-turned-musician Troye Sivan. I was skeptical to see Sivan on the big screen, however, I was pleasantly surprised at his raw performance of a character trying to numb his emotions to fit into his newfound society. On a side note, however, I doubt that the true Love in Action would let a homosexual client keep their bleach-blond hair upon entrance to the facility. I enjoyed the presentation of toxic masculinity. Nicole Kidman’s stellar performance as Jared’s mother, furthered this idea, particularly, her conflict towards bowing down to her husband (Russell Crowe) and protecting her son. The film also has a strong soundtrack. We are blasted with intensity from the opening, gripping the audience, and Troye Sivan’s song Revelations emcompasses the bittersweet tone of the film. My only criticism of the film is it’s sometimes cliché dialogue, which can remove you from the experience, but it doesn’t distract too much from the film's serious tone. Overall, I highly recommend giving Boy Erased a watch. It brings light to real problems people face in the world, and leaves you questioning your own morality.
elvet Buzzsaw turns an interesting idea into an unimpressive mess. Some aspects of the film are to praise, such as Jake Gyllenhaal’s performance, yet the mix of styles ultimately ends up diluting the film, and taking away from the performances. The main problem is the lack of direction; while the story engages with many genres, including horror and comedy, none of them truly match with each other, and they all end up being diluted. This is especially disappointing, considering that the mix of horror and comedy has been proven to be exhilarating when done well: Rocky Horror Picture Show and Scream are great examples of how these two genres can create engaging, yet wildly different films. Scares and jokes are similarly set up: they both have a build-up and release. Comedy allows the viewer to release tension built up by the horror, making the scares unexpected and therefore, more effective. However this mastery, as shown in Velvet Buzzsaw, is hard to achieve. The horror element is truly inefficient. While offering interesting visuals, the creators fail to build any tension in the viewer. These scenes do not build up tension, but also take away from the story; they always feel either forced or unnecessary. This movie is clear in sending a message about the pretentiousness of art critics, and what the responsibility of the job can end up doing to a person. However, what the actual message might be is unclear. The viewer is unlikely to engage with the movie because of the messy tone and the presence of too many characters, most of which are neither memorable nor impactful. There are some redeeming qualities in this movie. Jake Gyllenhaal and Toni Collette offer fun performances, indicating that the actors knew what kind of movie they were making. In particular, they helpfully enhance the parody aspect, making the entire film more bearable to watch.
he LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part is the sequel to the award winning, critically claimed adventure comedy The LEGO Movie, which was released in 2014. The film is set after a time skip but follows on from the final moments of the first film. Like its predecessors, this film is CGI but continues to do a spectacular job in replicating photorealistic Brickmation. Like the films before it, you very quickly realise this is a film you need to watch and watch again as the animators have painstakingly filled every inch of the screen with background gags, yet masterfully never detract you from the focus of the plot and story. Where the film differs from its predecessor is the occasional leaps in art form. It also has a less clear satirical take, but having established the twist in the last film of the connection between the ‘LEGO world’ and the real world, it utilises this connection more during the plot of the film, with more jumps to the real world peppered throughout. The gags are constant and consistent and the genius of the Miller and Lord writing team shines through in that they never fall flat. There’s also a two-in-one plot twist in the film, the first one is foreshadowed constantly but hidden behind the surreal humour of the film you already expect, the second one is perhaps the only contentious point for me in a film I love with all my heart and fully consider it a worthy successor.
Ruby Osborne
Elisabetta Pulcini
Haaris A.M. Qureshi
7/8/19
The release date of Playmobil: The Movie. This isn't a joke.
Overall, this film proves the LEGO Movie franchise is the fresh breath of animated films we desperately need to combat the cheap unimaginative executive thought process that spawns things like The Emoji Movie… Although, perhaps the pain of irony is that film came out following the success of the first film. And what’s this... PLAYMOBIL: The Movie ? Oh no we’re stuck in a cycle.
Is angel Alita battle ready?
Al Ridley gives us a review of Robert Rodriguez' big screen rerturn in this epic managa adaption
T
here’s one thing that adaptations of written works bring to film: bloat. The sheer information density in your average book, the length of your average manga serial, the complexity of adaptation and the difficulty of making cuts means that film adaptations often struggle to present a dense text in a 24fps format. Alita: Battle Angel is yet another film that suffers because it can’t pare its source material down. It’s hard to sum up Alita in a paragraph. A Westernisation of long-running cyberpunk manga Gunnm, Alita takes place in a world three hundred years after ‘The Fall’, a cataclysmic war that destroyed most of humanity’s technology. The film takes place in Iron City, your standard Blade Runner cyberpunk sprawl beneath the elusive floating city of Zalem, where a sketchy robo-doc finds the broken, impossibly advanced Alita in a trash pile deposited from Zalem’s waste chute. After he fixes her up, Alita spends the film discovering who she is, what she is and her ties to both Zalem and the world before the Fall. Acting-wise, Alita is cohesive, with the exceptions of some notoriously hammy performances by the villains.
Alita's haste in turning into this Death Machine is the films major flaw
Controversy was raised over partially digitising Rosa Salazar’s face in order to give her animé moe-moe eyes, but
it works surprisingly well. She straddles the uncanny valley with mechanistic precision, somehow managing to be both terrifying and vulnerable. Her occasional bursts of strength seem as much a surprise to her as to the audience. It’s a shame that Alita is so pressured to turn her into a self-assured engine of destruction, because the moment she starts spouting stereotypical heroic dialogue (including the most awkward delivery of the word ‘fuck’ I’ve seen in ye ars)
she loses a lot of her likeability. Alita’s haste in turning into this Death Machine is the film’s major flaw, because it’s really at its best when she’s discovering herself. Early in the film, there’s a brilliant scene where Alita instinctively adopts a combat stance in front of a security android and doesn’t entirely realise why or what she’s doing, and is terrified
Image: YouTube
by the implication. But soon, with little real development, she’s tooled up with enough confidence to just walk into a bar and kick a bunch of bounty hunter ass. It reeks of a character development arc accelerated to fit within the 122-minute runtime. The film in general is full of a smattering of different smaller arcs welded together for a hint of cohesiveness, with numerous emotional highs that feel like the climax but just lead into more. It reeks of sloppiness, especially with an ending that’s basically a pile of cliffhangers rather than a conclusion. But that’s not to say that Alita isn’t enjoyable. Aesthetically, it’s an absolute treasure, full of sweeping cyberpunk vistas and some Bay-esque cyborg gore that deeply fulfils me. The soundtrack is passable, though I wish a little more synthwave could have stolen in between the orchestral beats. And you could do worse for a little mindless robot action.
The Act of Killing (2012)
T
he Act of Killing is a 2012 Oscar-nominated documentary made by Joshua Oppenheimer. It focuses on the 1965 purges in Sumatra, Indonesia, whereby more than a million civilians who were considered ‘communists’ by the government were sentenced to death. The documentary centralises around Anwar Congo and his associates, who are some of the involved perpetrators honoured by the government. A typical contemporary documentary reveals a truth concealed from deception and ignorance. The Act of Killing unearths a deeper and surreal truth; it confronts the executioners for their crimes and forces them to face the moral responsibility for their actions. Oppenheimer’s approach to filming is daring, yet remarkably rewarding. He intersperses reportage, reenactments, and kitsch fantasy. Murders are re-enacted with gruesome props, augmented sets, and livers are fed to decapitated heads. Interviews are occasionally contrasted with choreographed musical numbers from the mass murderers. His bold approach pays off to captivating the ironic way the perpetrators face the distressing consequences of their wrongdoings.
Oppenheimer's approach to filming is daring.
The documentary bears disturbing resonance to Hollywood gangster movies to that of Marlon Brando, John Wayne and Al Pacino. This truly captures the demented fantasies of the perpetrators. The merging of fact and fiction leaves one to question whether the subjects are performing or are in fact displaying their true emotions. Nevertheless, Oppenheimer undoubtedly reveals the unresolved traumatic past that continues to haunt the perpetrators until now. A standout moment is when Congo plays the role of one of his tortured victims in an interrogation room. Congo seems emotionally drained from such moments, that he nearly collapses. The role reversal is almost empathetic; it welcomes the killers to ‘experience’ their own actions. Oppenheimer interestingly utilises a television screen in order to playback Congo’s re-enacted scenes in front of him. The result is a disturbing and compelling film. These segments invite Congo to reflect and see his disturbing actions right before his eyes. The Act of Killing is a raw, thrilling, eye-opening documentary. Its experimental approach offers a new tool to documentary filmmaking and demonstrates that even fiction can reveal another truth. Carl SmithValdez
Images: YouTube
/NewcastleCourierFilm @Courier_Film
30
culture arts Jack Lear @ Northern Stage
Image: Nobby Clark
I
f you asked me to tell you the plot to King Lear, I’d do a pretty shoddy job. We weren’t taught it at school or uni, and outside of those bounds I know next to nowt about Shakespeare. I can, however, tell you a thing or two about Yorkshire. As fantastic as the North East has been to me, I cannot bring myself to love it quite as dearly as my gorgeous motherland full of tea and trees and steel. Being away from there is something I find tough, which meant that spending two hours sat in that room with proud, broad Yorkshire slang and mannerisms played out before me was an absolute treat. I absolutely despise the term ‘regional theatre’. Everywhere is a region, who got to decide there was the one theatrical epicentre of the country, and everything outside of that we merely “regional”? The term is relentlessly misapplied to any works of theatrical art that don’t pop straight out of London’s arse. Jack Lear was, however, a proper piece of regional theatre. It took an internationally renowned story and made it speak to a specific corner of the country: Hull. I loved how bawdy, loud and musical the production was. It felt like I was eavesdropping on a conversation on the 98 schoolbus. It felt like I was in a ‘spoons’ back home. It felt like I was passing a family having a rather-too-personal argument in the Sheffield town centre. It felt just like home. Regional theatre isn’t any work from said region, it’s a work that speaks proudly of a place and its people, and that’s just what this production did. Read the full review onlinw at www.thecourieronline. co.uk Carys Rose Thomas
c2.arts@ncl.ac.uk Arts Editors Scarlett Rowland, Julia McGee-Russell, Rosie McCrum Online Editor Sophia Kypriotis
the courier
Monday 25 February 2019
LGBT History of Art
Your Arts sub-editors give a timeline of LGBT artists throughout history for LGBT History Month Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (1475 – 1564) Michelangelo is one of the most acclaimed artists in history. He painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, sculpted the monumental figure of David, and was referred to as ‘The Divine One’. His work typified the Renaissance movement, with focus on natural light and the beauty of nature. His poetry revealed his love of male beauty, and same-sex attraction: The flesh now earth, and here my bones, Bereft of handsome eyes, and jaunty air, Still loyal are to him I joyed in bed, Whom I embraced, in whom my soul now lives
Hannah Höch (1889-1978) Höch was a bisexual German artist in the Dada movement (an anti-establishment movement portraying nonsense and protest in work spanning collage, sculpture and multi-media) and one of the originators of photomontage. Her work actively challenged the role of women at the time, and she was also one of the first artists to include popular culture in her art. Much of her work questions gender, sex, and race, with androgynous bodies included in some works. Unfortunately, her revolutionary work was often pushed aside in favour of her male compatriots, and she was only popularised as an avant-garde icon ten years after her death.
Image: wikimediacommons
Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008) An American artist who was most prominent during the 1950s transition from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art, making his most famous work the ‘Combines’ during this period. In 1953 he also notoriously erased a drawing by de Kooning. In 1964 he was the first American artist to win the Grand Prize at the Venice Biennale. He had an eight-year romantic and professional relationship with Jasper Johns, and a romantic relationship with other fellow artist Cy Twombly after his divorce from painter Susan Weil. His son Christopher Rauschenberg, and partner of 25 years and former assistant, artist Darryl Pottorf, survive him.
Image: Instagram @rauschenbergfoundation Image: Instagram @henitalks
Claude Cahun (1894-1954) One of the few female Surrealists, Cahun was a French photographer, sculptor and writer who challenged traditional views of gender and identity, adopting a gender neutral name and exploring an array of personas in their self-portraits. Along with their life-long partner Suzanne, they were actively involved in resisting the Nazi Occupation, spending almost a year in separate cells.
Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) Kahlo was a Mexican artist, identifiable by her monobrow and colourful style. As a queer icon – she had relationships with men and women – she also dealt with disability for much of her life. Her surrealist self-portraits confront themes of identity, disability, femininity and sexuality, and are clearly influenced by Mexican folk art and global politics.
Marxism and Art
David Hockney (1937-present) One of the most prolific living gay artists, Hockey became famous in the 60s when he helped popularise British pop art. He began displaying his work while at the Royal College of Arts in London in 1949, a time when homosexuality was still criminalised in Britain. Never shying away from the male form, much of Hockney’s art is a dedication to tender moments of queer domesticity. His most famous and popular works use swimming pools as a focal point, one of which - Portrait of an Artist (Pool with Two Figures) – recently broke the auction record for a work by a living artist at $90m (£70m).
T
he Modernist movement holds a large debt to the art and artists that emerged from the Bolshevik revolution in 1917. While Modernism encompasses many styles, it ultimately represents a departure away from the classical and traditional. Indeed, aspects of Marxism mirror this movement, theorising an overthrow of capitalism and end to the traditional hierarchal class systems. On Wednesday evening the Newcastle Marxist Society held a talk at Bar Loco on ‘Marxism and Art’, discussing not just the art of Kandinsky and Malevich that conveyed a new post-revolution optimism, but Stalin’s censorship and manipulation of art to promote the Soviet Union. A Marxism understanding of art recognises a deeprooted economic commentary within the art work. Lissitzky’s Wolkenbugel (Cloud Iron) stood out to me especially in regard to this; the skyscraper-esque structures erected in Moscow were highly reminiscent of the tall buildings rapidly rising up in America. Lissitzky conveys a criticism towards the American capitalist system that puts workers on the same elevated level, above that of those on the ground. In the same realm of Constructivism, Kandinsky’s Composition 8 explores a conflict between the dynamic and calm. The criticism of capitalism can be seen to be extended by Marxist’s to the criticism of placing an artist’s name over the art itself. Both Damien Hirst’s The Physical Impossibility of Death and Tracey Emin’s My Bed were used to exemplify this, with it being argued that these pieces were self-concerned. While I disagree, and view My Bed to represent a sentiment that is widely accessible and relatable, I do acknowledge that art is often exclusively reserved for the elite and can feed the capitalist system.
Sophia Kypriotis
Image: wikimedia commons
Image: Instagram @artgirlrising
Image: Flickr @dalbera
Image: Instagram @haykoff.gallery
The BALTIC Artist Award 2019
Jagoda Waszkowiak reviews the artist led BALTIC Artist Award winners at their 2019 preview
B
ALTIC Artists’ Award started in 2017 and was the first worldwide competition judged only by artists. This year, three critically acclaimed creators each picked one upcoming artist. There is no specific requirements or theme, besides supporting new talent. I really appreciate the BALTIC’s straightforward approach, as it highlighted art that feels personal and relevant, contributing an important perspective on current issues. The second edition of the competition continues to follow an intersectional approach to art. Both in terms of the recipients: their nationalities, techniques and media, as well as the judges, whose picks nicely correspond to their own work. First, Zanzibar-born Lubaina Himid chose Ingrid Pollard, an artist and photographer from Gujana. Himis is a Turner Prize-winning contemporary painter and cultural activist. She’s known for her BALTIC exhibition ‘Our Kisses are Petals’. Her work generally explores issues around African culture and race. Similarly, Pollard in ‘Seventeen of Sixty Eight’ combines photographs, prints and videos to explore signs of UK’s prevailing racism that are hidden in plain sight. It is a great addition to the current debate that takes place mainly in the US. Her artwork aims to point our attention at standard elements of British public space, such as pub names
and signs that still contain racially charged language and imagery. Another winner was selected by a South Korean artist Haegue Yang, known for her reinterpretations of household objects. She picked incredibly multidimensional South Korean artist Kang Jungsuck. His winning exhibition ‘GAME II: The Adventures of A Human, A Selfdriving Car, and A Lilliputian’ combines filmmaking, sculpture, art installation and even video game design. His main inspiration was everyday living in technologically advanced Seoul. In modern art, context is everything, because of that most of the pieces seemed overwhelming and too bizarre to comprehend, forcing the audiences here to explore more than the familiar, Western reality. With his level of visual skill, he delivered the most impressive and diverse selection of art pieces. A crowd favourite seemed to be the work discovered by Michael Rakowitz - an Iraqi American artist best known for his conceptual art, displayed in public places. Interestingly, he picked Aaron Hughes, an American Iraqi veteran, anti-war activist, teacher and artist, who has a more traditional approach. His ‘Poetry Despite/Music Despite (Eternal War Requiem)’ combines classical music with woodblock printing, an old technique originated in Asia, to produce large, black and white prints. His style reminds
me of Art Spiegelman – thick, black lines, reminiscent of classic comics, used to present gruesome scenes. He also explores his own as well as shared, inherited trauma, by reflecting on World War I and current ‘Global war on terror’. What’s different is the more pronounced surrealist influence, which makes his work more expressive and moving. Another addition is the Persian motifs and symbols, which are incredibly beautiful and intricate. In all, the three-part exhibition provides a very interesting and diverse art selection. I highly recommend going, even just to experience Hughes work.
Image; Instagram @balticgateshead
the courier
31
Monday 25 February 2019
A Canny Collective
Scarlett Rowland comments on the recent Valentine’s Day art exhibition by local arts collective
T
here’s a new collective on the scene. During their studies at Newcastle College, four illustation students have started a collective with force. Their first show, held on 11 February, focused on love and relationships. The event was happily stocked with the best alcohol a student budget could offer: box wine and Lambrini. And I honestly could not have asked for anything better. The whole exhibtion was filled with exceptional representations of various bodies, and a menagerie of genders presentations. Having attended other previews of art shows, I’ve seen that it can often be difficult to strike the balance between good art and good atmosphere. However, although this was the first instalation this collective had organised, they managed to create an environment which felt like they had been exhibiting their entire lives. It was clear that everyone in attendance felt like they were in a very safe space, as the gallery was filled with lots of laughter and conversation. Featuring as guest artist to the collective, Sphyfro started the show with a live painting performance which represented two forms kissing. Sadly I missed this portion of the evening, but word reached me of its impressive nature - so this artist is clearly one to be reckoned with. In a conversation with one of the collective, Phil Hughes, he had this to say about his own work and the collective. “In my work, I like to focus on characters and use more cartoonish elements within the visuals. My context is always outlandish and edgy, and I love the stark contrast between the two. In particular, the pieces I created for this Valentines themed Exhibition, where I wanted to show expressionate and bright characters within a romantic and vulnerable setting. I showed a range of different people confident with who they are, the felt crafted couple were especially comfortable with themselves and each others bodies. This exhibition was held by me and three other students under the name “A Canny Collective”. We all took our unique perspective to the holiday and visualised it within our own styles. The ebb was a hit and I look forward to what we do together in the future.” To keep up with this collective, hit them up on Instagram @acannycollective, or to keep up with them as indivudual creators they can be found on Instagram @ vonfrankenstank, @nosticart, @witchita_art, and @ahrow_arts.
Image: ACannyCollective
Rosie McCrum and Sophia Kypriotis review the exhibition on campus at the Hatton Gallery
T
Image: @hatton_gallery
Literature List
Header Image: wikimedia commons
VITA & VIRGINIA BOT (@VitaVirginiaBot on Twitter)
Granted, an automated Twitter bot might not be the most conventional form of literature, but when it’s tweeting excerpts from the love letters of two such literary greats it deserves a place in the list. At times heartbreakingly tender, at others fraught with jealousy, the letters between Virginia Woolf and Vita Sackville-West map the full distance of their decade long extramarital affair, revealing the real passion and turbulence that inspired Woolf’s gender-bending novel Orlando. Their yearning for each other over paper and pen is timelessly romantic, a poignant reminder that love - and love between two women - has always existed in much the same way, even approaching a century since the first letters were written.
GIRL MEETS BOY: ALI SMITH Ali Smith’s 2007 novel transplants the classical myth of Iphis and Ianthe (in which a girl disguised as a boy from birth falls for a girl and is transformed into a boy so they can ‘realise’ their love) into contemporary Scotland. With a sharp sensibility and deft handling of language, Smith Image: Instagram @kasvutarina presents love and sex in a pure, genderless form, whilst acknowledging the homophobic culture that marks non-heterosexual love as deviant. Girl Meets Boy might be a gender theorists’ dream, but above all it’s a witty, beautifully written tale of love and family.
LEE MOKOBE
Francis Bacon @ The Hatton Gallery he exhibition at the Hatton Gallery is centred on the parallels between Francis Bacon’s luminous portraits of twisted, grimacing faces, and Ellen Gallagher’s modernist-style depictions of marine biological phenomena, which offer a multi-disciplinary commentary on race. The two artists are connected through their morphing of the familiar into unsettling, and at times barely recognisable, shapes. Both artists’ work is texturally complex,
arts culture
with Bacon’s thick layering of oil paint, alongside more elusive, wispy lines, acting as an interesting companion to Gallagher’s strong lines and multi-media backgrounds. Bacon’s Study for a Portrait (1952) shows a pale screaming man on a shadowy background, his lapel extending into a cage-like construction around his head, suggesting that his identity is constraining him. Where the density of the dark backgrounds in Bacon’s work establishes a claustrophobic element to his painting, Image: Insta @francis_bacon_daily
the lighter, almost skin-like transparency of the surfaces Gallagher works with are more calming, despite the gritty mark making techniques she adopts. That Gallagher works on both sides of her chosen material, creating ghostlike memories of the work on the primary side, reflects this transparency, simultaneously resulting in illusions produced through her interaction with the marks left behind by the main work. Gallagher’s experimentation with material memory to produce something new, yet familiar, is most apparent in Morphia (2008-2012), her painting of several hearts depicted through different mediums, which features several detailed drawings of ears on the reverse side of the work, the ears nestled into the stains left by the primary work on the other side of the sheet.
Bacon’s distinctive spirited style evokes the memory of movement in each stroke Where Gallagher’s treatment of identity is concerned with ideas relating to race, Bacon’s work is clearly influenced by the atrocities of wartime. Disfigured and warped exclamatory faces scream and wince from large canvases. Apparently influenced by Sergei Eisenstein’s 1925 Soviet silent film Battleship Potemkin, these distressed men are unsettling to look at but equally compelling thanks to Bacon’s distinctive spirited style, which evokes the memory of movement in each stroke. It is definitely worth visiting the exhibition, which is not only free, but also offers an unusual and moving narrative through its conflation of two distinctive, yet surprisingly similar, deservedly well-known artists.
South African transgender poet and activist Lee Mokobe shot to prominence in 2015 with a TED Talk performance of a poem about his trans experience. Spanning religious guilt, the Image: Instagram @leemokobe awkwardness of childhood and claiming ownership of his body, it is a performance that flickers between beautifully crafted images to poignantly prosaic statements, delivered with equal parts confidence, sorrow and wit. Addressing the obscenely high mortality rate for trans people with the devastating line “My mother fears I have named myself after fading things”, he names Mya Hall, Leelah Alcorn and Blake Brockington, trans suicide and police murder victims respectively. As all great poets can, Mokobe links the personal and the political seamlessly, with the effortless charm that comes with genuine talent.
A SINGLE MAN: CHRISTOPHER ISHERWOOD One single day in the life of George, a gay university professor dealing with the death of his partner, is all that’s necessary to propel this odd, short novel. Isherwood’s musings on the isolation and hurt of the queer experience strike a chord, infinitely quotable without ever tipping into cliché, and Image: Insta @intrepidwireless his command of character is compelling. The premise may seem bleak, but ultimately George’s strange interactions with the characters in his little pocket of 1960s California spark a lust for life that transcends his misery. Eve Brady
@TheCourierArts @thecourierarts
32
courier.gaming@ncl.ac.uk Gaming Editors George Boatfield, Shawn Khoo, Kelly South & James Troughton Online Editor Alex Darbyshire
the courier
culture gaming Web of Shadows swings into the spotlight Battlefield V For this week's Blank Slot, James Troughton defends the often unjustly neglected Spidey game
P
Image: YouTube (Activision Official)
eople often refer to Ultimate SpiderMan, Spider-Man 2 and Insomniac’s latest entry when discussing their favourite Spider-Man games. Unfortunately, Web of Shadows is routinely neglected and hauled off to the side, not even succeeding in garnishing hatred as the Amazing Spider-Man games tend to. The lack of appreciation that Web of Shadows has is astonishing because, in the sea of combat-rich open world webswinging games, it's unique in that Shadows proudly embraces features reminiscent of the RPG genre such as the two skill-trees and moral choices; whether Peter Parker will cross the line or embrace traditional boy-scout heroism is up to the player. The two perk trees are present because Spider-Man dons both the symbiote suit and the classic red and blue which allows for a plethora of different abilities to be unlocked, adding depth to the combat. The symbiote suit can shoot tendrils, extend beyond the limits of Parker’s body and lend a hand to a very aggressive playstyle. The base suit, on the other hand, gives you the classic, beloved experience of web shooting, fisticuff, kicks-to-theface-action. The game may be overlooked due to poor graphics and sub-par voice acting, but that hardly matters when the
game sports an incredibly designed combat system with bosses to unleash it upon. As much as I love the new game by Insomniac, nothing compares to facing off against an overgrown, hulking Wolverine and a symbiote-infected Vulture. Even beating up the ordinary thugs on the streets offers an enjoyable experience.
As much as I love the new game by Insomniac, nothing compares to facing off against an overgrown, hulking Wolverine
The story is amazingly basic with, for the most part, cringeworthy cutscenes to carry it along but, in spite of that, Venom’s presence in the game is fantastic and the various heroes Spider-Man encounters on his journey make it all worthwhile. The noble Luke Cage, the vengeful Moon Knight and the grizzly Wolverine all teach SpiderMan life lessons and fighting techniques before sending him on his way to take care of a problem that they’re dealing with. It’s repetitive but helping out some of the more underappreciated heroes makes this feel like a true Spider-Man story. If you’re itching for more Spidey games after the PS4 entry and still have a PlayStation 3 or Xbox 360 lying around, dust it off, get yourself a copy of Web of Shadows, and swing into one of the most overlooked games about the beloved wallcrawler.
Activison-Blizzard lay-off staff
Following continued profits, Al Ridley reports on the desicion to make over 800 staff redundant
Y
ou would be forgiven for thinking it was a good month to work at software conglomerate Activision-Blizzard. Between the interminable Overwatch League and the money-printing machine it calls Hearthstone, the company has made a fortune over the last fiscal year with a record-breaking total of $7.5 billion gross, with $1.8 billion of that being pure profit. So you can understand why many, both within and outside the industry, were shocked and appalled when the company announced around 800 layoffs. The sudden chainsawing of Activision-Blizzard’s bottom line hit an especially sour note in light of CEO Bobby Kotick and CFO Dennis Durkin awarding themselves a
combined $5.5 million salary and a $37.3 million potluck of stock options and miscellaneous equity. Confusion is natural. How can the same company be both so lucrative as to give its directors the GDP of a small country but
$1.8b
Activision-Blizzard's total profit from across 2018
need to leave a decent portion of its ground force jobless? The “safe” answer is the company’s “re-prioritisation” of its current assets. In a memo released to the affected staff, Blizzard’s president, J. Allen Brack, cited that many of its current branches “expanded to support various needs
[…] out of proportion with our current release slate.” The implication is that the advancing growth in the first two quarters of the year lead to unsustainable investments, especially after the failure of Destiny 2: Forsaken. But that cool $1.8 billion profit raises eyebrows about that excuse. The true reason for these layoffs is not that Activision-Blizzard was unsustainably growing, but that it needed to grow more. By artificially shaving cash off the bottom line and improving statistics, Activision-Blizzard’s shareholders see a solid investment, because confidence in the company’s long-term growth has been boosted. Kotick and Durkin took their bonuses because from their perspective they’ve done a good job: these layoffs are just the human cost.
Monster Hunter gets Geralt
Capcom's monster mash has now gotten a whole lot more gruff, and Alex Darbyshire loves it
A
nnounced in December 2018, Capcom’s Monster Hunter: World was revealed to be getting a crossover event with CD Projekt Red’s series The Witcher. A short trailer quickly revealed to players that this would be an event to remember. The plot of the event is easy enough to follow: the titular Witcher, Geralt of Rivia, comes through a portal into the ‘New World’ of C a p c o m’s game along
Image: YouTube (GameSpot)
with several of The Witcher’s nastier monsters, which begin causing trouble in the ecosystem of Monster Hunter: World. Geralt arrives right in front of our main cast of characters, introducing himself with his signature gravelly voice. Geralt then agrees to help out the Fifth Fleet’s hunters, by tracking down this new creature that is terrorising the forests. For a price, of course. This is where the event really comes into its own. Upon embarking on this quest the player will assume the role of Geralt, rather than their own hunter. Along with this, the event’s quests take on many gameplay mechanics of The Witcher 3’s contracts. There’s a lot more talking and using 'Witcher senses' than your average hunt in World. The quest takes on more mechanics of The Witcher in the fact that whilst playing as Geralt, the player will be able to use the magical ‘Signs’ of the Witchers, allowing
them to use combat magics in the style of Geralt himself. The quest will take on open-world aspects, with plenty of mini-quests interspersed throughout the forest for the player to pick up on. And finally, as with any Monster Hunter event, there will be some sweet looking armour and weapons to craft with the parts obtained from the quest.
The player will be able to use the magical 'Signs' of the Witchers, allowing them to use combat magics in the style of Geralt himself
Capcom have just rolled out a second part to this expansion that brings another Witcher character, Ciri, into the mix who also has her own craftable weapons for hunters to use. Now, it remains to be seen if any more of the Witcher cast will make their way across to Monster Hunter World.
Monday 25th February 2018
severely undersells
Haaris Qureshi looks to see if gamers are losing faith in EA
T
he latest iteration of the Battlefield series has fallen short of its target sales after its release in November 2018. Battlefield V sold around 7 million copies (against a target of 8 million), and subsequently cost EA an October-December loss of $1.6 billion, compared to last year’s profits of £1.289 billion raised in 2017’s last few months. This unusually bad Christmas for EA has executives blaming the single player content the game featured, as opposed to a battle royale style game play. The game released with three campaigns and multiplayer, with a fourth campaign later available for free download. The four episodic 'War Stories' that make up the single player campaign all follow different narratives and characters. EA apparently seek to recover from this by releasing a battle royale mode in March, with execs commenting the developers missed a trick by not engaging with the popularity of the mode, as seen in PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite. The battle royale mode in Battlefield V will be named 'Firestorm', after Battlefield’s version of the closing boundary featured in the battle royale mechanic. Other reasons EA executive Blake Jorgensen attributed to the sales loss for Battlefield V include a busy Christmas period, and fans of the series still supposedly playing Battlefield 1 and Battlefield 4. The shortcomings of the game this year echo the disappointing sales of Star Wars: Battlefront II during the 2017 Christmas period.
What I'm
the courier
Monday 25th February 2018
33
@Courier_Gaming thecourieronline.co.uk/gaming
gaming culture
Legendary Apex a or hot mess?
Shawn Khoo reckons Respawn Entertainment have finally hit the peak of the legendary Battle Royale genre with Apex Legends
M
ove over PlayerUnknown’s Battlegrounds and Fortnite make some space – there’s a new battle royale game in town, and it’s already raring for a fight with the titans of the genre. The brainchild of Respawn Entertainment (known for the Titanfall series) Apex Legends has, in its first week, already exceeded 25 million players registered for the game, and over 2 million concurrent players over the first weekend. The gameplay of Apex Legends itself is not too far from the expected norm of battle royale games. Players drop in to an area, find loot, fend for themselves, and attempt to be the last one standing.
The graphics are surprisingly decent... the gunplay is extremely satisfying
Where it differs, however, is in the diversity of characters, or 'Legends', you can choose from before entering a game. Much like Overwatch, players choose from a unique cast of characters with different abilities, which can be used to turn the tides of a battle or even allow a strategic retreat. Since each team consists of three players, it is possible to synergise with your team to create aggressive, highpressure compositions that cater to faster playstyles, or slower, more sustainable characters that allow teammates to play defensively. Apex Legends also utilises combat and mobility systems similar to Titanfall, barring the massive mechanical
constructs aptly named 'Titans'. The guns available in both Titanfall games have also made their reappearance in Apex Legends, much to the delight of Titanfall fans who no doubt appreciate the reference. Additionally, Apex Legends has a key feature in their ping communication system. Looking at someone, somewhere, or something and identifying it with the middle mouse button (or RB/R1 on Xbox One and PlayStation 4 respectively) starts a unique voice-line for each character, notifying teammates about it. This not only bypasses the need for actual vocal communication, but also speeds up gameplay quite significantly, as the characters speak for you instead, allowing you to focus fully on the action. The graphics of the game itself are surprisingly decent, even on low settings, and animations for weapon swapping or reloads may seem awkward from a bystander’s point of view but are crisp and clean in first-person. The gunplay, inclusive of gunshot and damage sounds, is extremely satisfying and rewarding, and the guns themselves are quite well-balanced for a game that has only just released. Despite all this, Apex Legends is far from perfect. In fact, there are multiple bugs that have been reported, mainly due to the connection issues that players have encountered, resulting in disconnections and faulty hit registrations. Respawn Entertainment is a child company of Electronic Arts, infamous for its microtransactions, and this relation is enough to turn some away before they even look at the game, much less play it. However, the fact remains that the game is free to play, with only purely cosmetic microtransactions thus far. With what Respawn Entertainment has already presented in Apex Legends, the game has proven to be exceptionally
enjoyable and certainly worth playing, especially with a couple of friends.
Image: YouTube (Apex Legends Official)
m Playing - Horizon: Zero Dawn
Two years after its original release, gaming sub-editor George Boatfield has finally caught up on what makes Horizon so good
I
f you know me, then you know I’m quite the fan of Sony’s first party studios. The work of Naughty Dog, Sucker Punch and Sony Santa Monica, just to name a few, has always ended up creating some of my most memorable gaming experiences.
Despite all this, there are some problems with how the narrative is delivered
Image: IGDB
But Guerrilla Games, the studio behind the Killzone franchise, had never grabbed my attention with their work on the PS3. It was only when they began showing off the world of Horizon Zero Dawn that I really began to take note of the talent contained within the walls of the Amsterdam-based studio. That’s not to say I was quick in getting to playing the game, mind you. Released in February 2017, playing it almost two years later has certainly allowed for plenty of hype and anticipation to build around it. And while I have some reservations regarding certain aspects of the storytelling specifically, it’s a rare treat to see a successful first attempt at such an ambitious game from a first party studio. Open-world action RPGs exclusive to one platform - save for Nintendo’s Zelda series - just don’t happen! Guerrilla have always made games with a striking art style, beginning with the bleak fields of Killzone populated with the piercing red glow of Helghast foes. In Horizon, these wastelands are replaced with lush cityscapes reclaimed by nature over the course of hundreds of years, and the immense mechanical beasts which now roam the former concrete jungles of our world. The developers often referred to this as the ‘post-post apocalypse’, and it is one of Horizon’s most captivating elements. The way Guerrilla have laid out a breadcrumb trail of compelling lore and story content is also impressive. As a studio who has never had much experience developing story, responsibilities fell onto narrative director John Gonzalez and Benjamin McCaw, writers on Fallout New Vegas and Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor respectively. Naturally, as people who have worked on open-world games previously, it makes sense that Horizon’s story
is paced so expertly, while side quests clearly also had significant consideration from the writing staff. Despite all this, there are some problems with how the narrative is delivered. While the use of voice recordings and text files is a welcome inclusion thanks to the meaningful content they hold, it reaches a point where they almost become the core method of storytelling. It’s disappointing to see a game with such a striking aesthetic not make use of this with amazing cinematic moments. While incredible cutscenes do make appearances throughout the game, they are not utilised nearly enough. The ingame conversations with NPCs are another example of an overused method of delivering the narrative. While there are some genuinely compelling conversations to be had with characters, many bring down the pace of the game and do so with often-ropey facial animation. But it’s the gameplay of Horizon that gives it real longevity. Using arrows, bombs, and harpoons of various different specifications, paired with numerous tiers of weapons to incapacitate and scavenge from the world’s metal machines never stops providing unique combat challenges. The dynamics of the machine AI across their various forms alongside the range of options to approach defeating them gives combat such a dynamic feel. Perhaps this is where Horizon’s real cinematic moments reside. Although things can get a little hectic at times and verge on feeling clumsy, it’s rare when a combat system provides so much depth in an accessible frame. Following that, the variety of the mechanical beasts to hunt is the cherry on top. And that’s why, even though I’ve experienced all the story content the game has to offer, I’m still going to be exploring the game world in the pursuit of collectibles and side quest completion. Compelling gameplay and inviting world design have resulted in an environment that I am eager to explore, and the opportunities to expand on the trappings of Horizon Zero Dawn are numerous... it’s impossible to imagine that Guerrilla are not at work on Horizon 2 right at this moment.
@TheCourier_Gaming
@courier_gaming
the courier
35
Monday 25th February 2019 Science Editors Eleanor Gratton,Cecilia Adamou Online Editor Orestis Katsoulis
science culture Is legalising LSD the key to breakthrough research? @Courier_Science thecourieronline.co.uk/science
Sesha Subramanian on whether we should legalise psychadelics for medical benefits or whether thay should remain illegal
T
he use of psychedelics, drugs that induce altered states of consciousness, for medical purposes has been a long-debated issue. Specifically, the use of Lysergic Acid Diethylamide (more commonly known as LSD or Acid), and research on its use in both medical settings and for medical conditions has been a contentious flashpoint for a lot of scientists.
LSD was discovered in 1943 in a lab in Basel
LSD was discovered in 1943, while war raged all over Europe, in a lab in Basel, Switzerland. Albert Hofmann accidentally touched his hand with his mouth while synthesising a chemical intended to stimulate the respiratory system and the nervous system. Instead, he realised that he had landed upon something far more potent – what would then come to be known as LSD. In the 1950s and 1960s many studies were carried out investigating the use of LSD in psychiatric conditions, following the findings by a group of pioneering psychiatrists that hallucinogenic drugs could have therapeutic effects. It then became the golden age of psychedelics until it got caught up on the wrong side of the law. A backlash in the form of “the war on drugs” halted any scientific progress. In 1971, the UK parliament introduced the Misuse of Drugs Act, classifying LSD along with other drugs as illegal Class A Drugs. However, with the medicinal effects of cannabis (another drug that got caught in the middle of the drug war) coming to the forefront where it has even been legalised in a lot of places around the world, there are questions as to whether LSDs (and by extension, other hallucinogens) should still be subjected to a stringent ban. Personally, I think that the ban ought to be lifted but the
process of research itself be highly regulated. Research could be subject to more ethical control and regular scrutiny than any other normal project, simply because the potential for misuse is a lot more. As such, the legalisation of the use of LSD for medicinal purposes should not occur without proof of medicinal benefits. “It feels like the narrative around these substances is changing very quickly,” says Stephen Reid, the founder of The Psychedelic Society, UK. “We anticipated that now would be a good time to make a serious push for rescheduling,” he continued, “What we didn’t know when we started planning the campaign was that there would be this news around cannabis. It is a further sign of how fast things are changing.” There is also concrete proof from recent times that psychedelics may be of use in treating psychiatric disorders. In a study conducted on 20 patients by Dr Robin Carhart-Harris (head of psychedelic research at Imperial College London), participants went through psilocybin (a psychedelic similar to LSD) and therapy sessions with a “guide”, a therapist who would interact with them when they were taking the drug. After three months, the effects of psilocybin on treating depression were much more profound than when treated with standard anti-depressive medication. Participants also said they felt “connected” to the world from a previous state of disconnect and were now accepting emotions instead of avoiding it. However, there are some pitfalls – the threat of addiction, those administering the therapy need to be trained and they need to be willing to adapt to the new methods. There is also some way to go before LSD as a drug may be culturally acceptable in some parts of the world. Although, with studies such as the one done at Imperial College London strengthening the case for the use of psychedelics in psychiatric disorders, it is imperative that with changing times there is a change in the stigmas that concern psychedelic drugs, and the exploration them being used therapeutically.
Mind reading machines A brain scan machine that could transform communication
S
cientists in the US and Japan have created breakthrough technology that can process human brain activity via brain scans and turn it into synthetic speech. The new device that can read minds by detecting brainwaves via brain scans has primarily been designed to enable people with locked-in syn-
The emerging technology could allow a natural interface of communication for people with disabilities such as locked-in syndrome
drome to communicate. The scientists now plan to develop a brain-computer interface that can recognise words that are merely thought and not spoken. This would allow people that are currently unable to speak, but have full cognitive function, to communicate with others around them. It’s hoped that the emerging technology would allow a natural interface of communication, for people with disabilities such as locked-in sy ndrome, with minimal limitations. In the latest trials, an ‘electroencephalogram’ was used to monitor brain waves whilst participants spoke and their brain waves were matched to syllables and numbers. Although not 100% effective, the machine had a
90% success rate when trying to recognise numbers from zero to nine. The research group plans to develop a version of the device that can be easily operated with fewer electrodes and connected to smartphones within the next five years. This isn’t the only possible application for this technology, however. For example, the car giant Nissan revealed that used as driver assisted technology, it could decrease driver’s reaction times by an entire second and anticipate acceleration, steering and braking by reading brainwaves and could be available in the immediate future. Used in cars, it could detect signs that the driver’s brain is about to start a movement, such as turning the wheel. This could dramatically help to reduce accidents on the road and save many lives. Not only this, but, mind reading artificial intelligence could be used in the future to read the minds of criminals to determine whether they are guilty of knowingly committing a crime. This would be the first-time neurobiological readings alone have been used to determine guilt and it could impact how we judge criminal responsibility in the future. It could also examine whether developmental disorders and mental health conditions could impact upon decisions made by defendants in criminal cases. Even social media giant Facebook has been developing its own mind-reading project. The platform is working on a way for users to send Facebook Messenger messages using thoughts alone. Microsoft is also developing a way to turn down the volume of music based on the mental activity of being irritated by loud noise. It could be used for any number of Microsoft-related products such as enhancing the accuracy of a mouse. Image: Flickr: _DJ_
Eleanor Norton
Image: Wikimedia Commons
Is it time to challenge stigmas?
Gender pay gap - are women discouraged to work in science?
I
n April 2018, Nature published a study which revealed that organisations within the science industry, including pharmaceutical companies and universities, maintain a gender pay gap that is higher than the national average. Gender pay gap refers to the difference in average hourly wage of men and women across a workforce. It’s different from unequal pay where men and women get paid different amounts for the same job – that has been illegal in the
Early researchers feel that there is not much job security in science
UK since 1970. The United Kingdom became, in 2017, one of the few countries where any organisation with more than 250 employees was required to provide details of how much they pay their employees, and what differences exist between men and women in that particular organisation. The study by Nature, which examined the gender pay gap among scientific organisations, had two major findings – firstly, that science employers favoured a median pay difference of 15% in favour of men (the national average is 10%) and secondly, that one of the reasons for the pay gap is the lack of women in senior positions in acdemia. One of the main reasons there is a lack of women in senior positions is that in general, there are less women who are interested in careers in science. That in turn, has its roots in many myths about the industry – the most prevalent one being that science is a male dominated industry. As a child, when there is only the odd female scientist being celebrated as a revolutionary in a sea of male scientists, there is then a slow, creeping feeling that success in science comes much easier for men than it does for women. Hence, girls can become disinterested from an early age when it comes to pursuing a career in science. Another reason for the pay gap could be that early researchers feel that there is not much job security in science fields. “It tends to have an effect on those who feel less confident, or those from more disadvantaged backgrounds, that sense of precariousness and not knowing the next steps will likely push more women, and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, out of science” says Lauren
Couch, head of diversity and inclusion for the Wellcome Trust. Encouraging women to apply for promotions and positions also needs to be a key part of any science company or university strategy for closing down on the gender pay gap. Of course, there are some short term fixes, like bumping up the salaries of women employed by the organisation, but it is the long-term development that matters. Addressing some of the key issues could be a step forward in the right direction. Sesha Subramanian
Image: Unsplash
puzzles We Have ANSWERS This Week Across: 1 Bowie 6 Miaow 7 Demand 9 Chickpea 12 Google 14 Sundance 16 Inflatable 17 Potato 19 Silversmith 21 Moon 22 Lemon
Down: 2 Orange 3 Center 4 Consume 5 Superfluous 8 Redacted 10 Highway 11 Astronaut 13 Pear 15 Ziggy 18 Florist 2 0
Mango 5:Oregon 1: Wyoming 2: New Mexico 4: Ohio 3: Georgia
37
the courier
Monday 25 February 2019
Puzzles Supreme Overlady It ME Puzzle Matriarch Rihanna Puzzles Editor It NOT me Thoughts and Feelings the.courier.puzzluzz@gmail.com
Crossword
I’m not sure whether y’all
really care but last week it was my b-dayyyyyy which is technically unrelated to puzzles beyond the fact that as a migrant woman of colour I not only broke into the music industry but have been smashing it for nearly 15 years and have my own business and all not to mention this puzzle-page side piece. But anyway happy birthday to meeeeee may I continue to smash it for years to come am I rightttt.
Name that Flag
Blue Suede Clues Across 5. A friend who helps you buy things (6) 6. The Duke of Clarance drowned in this wine in 1748 (7) 9. Country famous for waffles 11. Material used to make gloves and balloons (5) 13. Dusty Simpsons town (10) 14. Posh reversible woven fabric (7) 16. Group of invertibrate sea creatures including shrimp, crab and lobster (11) 17. Judith, author and sociologist (6) 18. Writer and activist Audre (5) 19. The smallest or least (7)
Down 1. Aldous, author of Brave New World (6) 2. Not port (9) 3. Non-theistic religion founded in India reaching non-violence to all creatures (7) 4. Thus spoke, Nietsche (12) 7. Dark red, wine (6) 8. Who’s afraid of Virginia (6) 10. Author of On Photography and Regarding the Pain of Others, Susan (6) 12. Wish I could say thank you to (7) 15. Lesser known Hepburn (9) 17. Aphra, poet and Spy (4)
Sudoku: Salty
the courier
39
sport
Monday 25 February 2019
Renegades reign in BBL spoils for 2019 Dominic Lee looks back on a thrilling BBL final between The Renegades and The Stars from Melbourne for the very first time
The Big Bash League- Australia’s answer to the IPL (Indian Premier League) recently came to a thrilling conclusion with the Melbourne Renegades lifting the trophy. The Renegades won a closely fought match against their crosstown rivals the Melbourne Stars, narrowly coming out as victors by 13 runs. Standout performances from Tom Cooper and Dan Christian- who hit 43 not out and 38 not out respectively- helped the Renegades overcome a disappointing start from their opening batsmen who hit
achievement even more impressive is that they only made it into the playoffs in the last round of matches, after battling with the Brisbane Heat for 4th place. The Heat would have been dark horses had they made the playoffs as their star player and New Zealand legend Brendon McCullum announced he would not return to the Big Bash League
next season. The Renegades were the eventual winners but had to get through the Sydney Sixers in the semi-final. In what was another close match in an exciting playoffs, Melbourne won by 3 wickets with 1 ball left. However, while the semis and final were high points for this season, a drop in at-
tendance following an expansion from 43 to 59 matches arguably meant that the public were more happy that the competition was over than they were about the cricket being played. Still, an exciting playoff series means things are looking up for the Big Bash League.
The Hurricanes finished top of the regular season table but came short in the semifinals, losing to the in-form Melbourne Stars
only 25 between the two of them. The same cannot be said for the Stars’ openers Ben Dunk and Marcus Stoinis who accounted for 96 of the Stars’ 132 runs. However, the Stars were let down by their other batsmen, with wickets falling quickly after the Renegades dispatched the openers. Nonetheless, the achievements of both Melbourne teams cannot be overlooked, particularly the Stars- who despite losing the final managed to beat out the competitions most dangerous team in the Hobart Hurricanes. The Hurricanes were the first to book their place in the playoffs and finished top of the regular season table but came up short in the semi-final. What makes the Stars
The Melbourne Renegades won their first ever BBL Image: YouTube
NUAXC look good in Track and Shef-field Shona Haston gives a rundown on proceedings from the annaul national competition, comprising of over 6000 athletes
NUAXC’s athletics team returned to Sheffield last weekend as part of over 6000 athletes across eight sports brought together to compete in the 10th annual BUCS Nationals. The indoor athletics competition, held at the English Institute of Sport, spanned across three days, with events on Friday 15th – Sunday 17th February. Twenty members in total travelled down, setting off early on the Friday morning.
NUAXC had a strong start to the weekend on Friday in the 60m and 60m hurdles... Myles Chrisostomou ran a personal best to finish 3rd in his 60m heat
NUAXC had a strong start to the weekend on Friday which had the 60m and 60m hurdles heats, semi finals and finals as well as the 800m heats. Myles Chrisostomou ran a personal best to finish 3rd in his 60m heat, and Sam Jones and Sophie Thorpe also ran well in theirs. The 60m hurdles races saw Will Seed, Liam Reveley and Paige Mathers all putting in good performances too. Unfortunately, this year Newcastle didn’t have any men racing in the 800m, but the women made up for it in their heats as both Shona Haston and Ilona van der Giessen progressed from the 6 heats to the semi-finals on the following day by running quick enough times to qualify, in 2:17.66 and 2:18.75 respectively. Also taking place on the first day was the triple jump, which saw Harrison Whitfield jump 13.41m to earn his spot in the final. The 1500m races started early on Saturday morning, but nevertheless the whole team was out to support the four members competing in this event. The first of five of the men’s heats saw Sam Hansen running a time of 4:39.33, followed by Bradley Wilsher in the final heat who matched Sam’s 8th place but just beat his time with 4:37.98. It was decided that the women’s 1500m would go to a straight final, missing out the semi-finals, which made
for some quick heats. However, NUAXC’s athletes held their won, and also finishing 8th in her heat was Clara Pettit, and in the following race Megan Driscoll also had a strong run. Next up was the men’s and women’s 400m heats; both Emily Davis and Emily Strickland ran well, finishing 3rd and 2nd respectively, with the latter also doing enough to progress to the semi-finals later that day. The 800m semis finals were after this, with Shona Haston and Ilona van der Giessen getting their spikes back on whilst trying to ignore the tired legs from the heats the day before. Both Shona and Ilona were able to hold their own to finish 4th in their races. Following this was the much-anticipated mascot race, in which athletics coach Chris Kirk (dressed as Newcastle’s mascot Roary the Lion) was preparing to race. Chris comfortably progressed to the final of the 200m (1 lap) race where he then got shown a yellow card before proceeding show boat around the track along with most of the other mascots. After the excitement of the mascot race, the real races resumed, starting with 3000m heats. This was another event that didn’t have any semi-finals, so meant another quick set of heats. NUAXC had Charis Taylor
11
Sunday saw another early start for some of the Newcastle team, with the 200m runners kicking off the final day’s events. There was more success for the club as Hannah Malpass finished 2nd in her heat and Emily Strickland won hers, with both of them running quick enough times to progress to the semi finals later that day. The men’s heats saw more good performances, with Ryan Stacey and Myles Chrisostumou finishing
Myles Chrisostomou ran a personal best to finish 3rd in his heat
2nd and 3rd in their respective heats. Despite having just ran a quick 200m there wasn’t much time for Emily to rest as the 400m semi-finals followed, in which she finished 4th in her race. There still wasn’t time for a break though as Emily was
straight back in action in the 200m semi-finals, along with Hannah. Both ran well once again, with Emily even managing to improve on her time from the heats. Also on the final day was the triple jump final, with Harrison Whitfield in, and the high jump final, with Liam Reveley in. Both of them jumped well to hold their own against strong competition. There was also plenty of other finals to watch throughout the day, which was great to get to see such high-class athletes performing. BUCS athletics championships are big events and for a lot of the newer member’s it was the first time they had competed on such a big scale. Everyone put in great performances though and should be proud of how well they all did. A massive thank you to captain Hannah Malpass for organising such a brilliant weekend and for being one of the drivers, along with Emily, Ryan and Shona. BUCS Indoors might be finished but NUAXC is still training hard, with sights now set on the outdoor season; leading up to BUCS Outdoors in May.
The distance (in metres) Liam Reveley managed to throw his shotput
competing, who ran an impressive time of 10:44.62; just missing out on a spot in the final by five seconds. Also going on were the field events, which was keeping Liam Reveley busy. In the shot put he managed to throw the 7.26kg shot over 11m before also topping his pool in the high jump to earn his place in Sunday’s final. If this wasn’t enough for one day, jumped 4.10m in the pole vault to finish 3rd in his pool. To round off the day was the 4x200m relays. The men’s team was made up of Alex Holdsworth, Will Seed, Liam Reveley and Ryan Stacey who stepped in last minute. Despite running well, they unfortunately got disqualified due to an unlucky late changeover. However, the women’s team, consisting of Hannah Malpass, Emily Davis, Emily Strickland and Sophie Thorpe were able to stay focused to finish 3rd in their race.
The competition in Sheffield saw over 6000 athletes compete across eight sports
the courier
40
sport
Monday 25 February 2019
Should Chelsea stick or twist? Lives on t
Stan Gilyead
“Philosophy” is the managerial buzzword of the decade. The days of a manager finding a system that fits their players, at least at the very highest level, are gone, to be replaced with managers wedded to philosophies to which their players must adapt. Klopp and Guardiola are successful examples of this new type of manager, guiding Liverpool and Manchester City to the top of the table whilst never compromising their distinctive Gurgenpress and Tikka-Takka styles. When Chelsea started the season with a run of six wins playing Mauricio Sarri’s distinctive “Sarriball” style, characterised by quick short
passes and forward-looking, possessionbased football, it looked like the Italian might become the next in an illustrious list of managers to find success in applying their footballing philosophies to the Premier League. But Chelsea’s form has disappeared, replaced with a torrid run of four away defeats, including a demoralising 4-0 loss to Bournemouth and an embarrassing 6-0 defeat to Manchester City. Sarri’s relationship with the Chelsea faithful has soured and he’s now the bookmakers’ favourite to be the next Premier League manager sacked. Sarri’s main flaw has been the very virtue many praised earlier in the season, his unbreakable bond to “Sarriball”. His philosophy was honed at Napoli, where it was a roaring success. Sarri won manager of the year and Napoli fell just short of the title. However, in Naples, Sarri had the players to fit his system. This isn’t the case at Chelsea, where players like Kante, one of the best defensive midfielders in the world, are forced out of position, the Frenchman
wasted in a more advanced right central midfield position. Whilst Guardiola has shown the benefits of sticking to a philosophy, winning the title in his second season with City despite being criticised for an unwillingness to adapt in his first, allowances should be made for players whose quality means they must play in their primary position. But Sarri has shown no will to compromise, so the 2016/17 PFA player of the year is left underperforming out of position. Players playing out of position can be tolerated if it facilitates a successful system. Unfortunately, Sarri’s system is proving far from successful. Used to the slower pace of the Italian game “Sarriball” has been branded pedestrian, predictable and focussed on pointless possession over final product. Chelsea’s early season form has been attributed to the individual brilliance of Hazard, involved in 22 of Chelsea’s 45 Premier League goals this season, and Sarri’s perceived lack of a plan B has left fans calling for his head. This negativity has seemingly infected Chelsea’s dressing room, with Sarri publicly accusing his players of being “difficult to motivate” in an explosive press conference following
Chelsea’s early form has been attributed to the individual brilliance of Hazard, involved in 22 of Chelsea’s 45 Premier League goals Image: Wikimedia Commons
their defeat to Bournemouth. Whatever the cause of Chelsea’s problems Sarri needs to sort it out quickly. Abramovich is famously quick to sack managers, having parted company with 15 in as many years at the club. Chelsea’s poor form surely cannot go on much longer before the axe swings once again.
Ollie Pearce
Sunday’s 6-0 thrashing at the hands of Manchester City saw Chelsea condemned to their worst defeat in Premier League history, coming just two weeks after their embarrassing 4-0 capitulation away to Bournemouth. These results have raised the stakes, the Blues are yet to score an away league goal in 2019 and chants of “we want Sarri out” were audible during Chelsea’s mid-week Europa League victory against Malmö. Initially, everything had come up trumps for Sarri’s Chelsea. After 11 Premier League games they were still undefeated, sitting second in the league on 27 points, above Liverpool and only two points behind rivals Manchester City. Sarri seemed to hold all the aces. However, fast-forward three months and six league defeats later, he now finds find the cards stacked firmly against him. Chelsea have been left in the lurch and now lie sixth in the table, 15 points off leaders Manchester City and facing the realistic prospect of another season without Champions League football. So where did it all go so terribly wrong for Sarri and Chelsea? The problem is multifaceted. Sarri is wedded to his brand of attacking football known simply as ‘Sarri-ball’, an intense, possession-based style that won his Napoli side so many plaudits and initially attracted Chelsea’s attention. It requires his sides to set up in a 4-3-3 formation with summer arrival Jorginho, who played under Sarri at Napoli, operating as a ‘regista’ at the base of midfield- charged to sit and dictate the tempo from deep. This has pushed French World Cup winner, N’Golo Kanté, into an unfamiliar offensive role on the right of Sarri’s midfield three.
One of the enduring images of the tournament is Gianluigi between the sticks, resplendent in gold, sporting his Alice band and trademark short sleeves
Despite the promising start, Chelsea’s football since has been lacklustre at best. Sarri has proved himself dogmatic and inflexible in his refusal to shuffle the pack and bench consistent underperformers, such as Marcos Alonso and Willian. He has also frustrated fans with his seeming lack of ace up his sleeve for when other teams have disrupted Chelsea’s build-up by pressing Jorginho. This coupled, with Sarri’s refusal to regularly blood talented youngsters such as Callum Hudson-Odoi and Ethan Ampadu has left fans feeling irate and disillusioned with the Sarri regime. Additionally, many pundits have called for Kanté to be deployed deeper, in a position he is perceived to be more accustomed- at the expense of Jorginho. In truth however, this is a slight misconception of Kanté’s game. He has never consistently played as a lone holding midfielder, having always previously operated in a dynamic midfield two with Leicester, Chelsea and France. In addition, Sarri does not feel that Kanté possesses the technical qualities to effectively perform the ‘regista’ role that is so integral to how he wants to play. Despite this criticism, Kanté is quietly still having a very good season in his new position, netting four times and providing four assists- a higher tally than many of Chelsea’s more offensivelyminded midfielders. Sarri has also played his hand poorly in his
post-match press conferences and interviews. Some of his comments have suggested a degree of cognitive dissonance; repeating the same old tropes about poor “mentality” and wavering any sense of responsibility by asserting Chelsea are not playing “my football”. This type of remark has led many to call his bluff and question his credentials - Sarri never played professionally and has also never won a trophy as a manager. In isolation, these points perhaps do not surmount to a case for removing Sarri. However, coupled together with Chelsea’s alarming form this season, it has raised serious questions over whether Sarri is cut out for the top level. However, not all the blame should lie at Sarri’s feet. Over the course of the last decade and a half, Chelsea have operated a slash-and-dash mindset with regard to their managers. Failure is not tolerated and it has
Chelsea have lacked the clear structure evident at other top European clubs
not taken much in the past to force the clubs hand and cash in their chips mid-season, as was the case with Mourinho; twice (sacked in September 2007 and December 2015), Scolari (sacked in February 2009), VillasBoas (sacked in March 2012) and Di Matteo (sacked in November 2012). Whilst this approach has brought unrivaled success in this period it has come at a cost. This illustrious managerial graveyard betrays the fact that no manager is safe in their job at Chelsea- this breeds uncertainty as managers consistently fight fires rather than plan for any sort of longevity. Furthermore, since the removal of technical director Michael Emenalo, Chelsea have lacked the clear structure evident at other top European clubs. Sarri reports straight to Marina Granovskaia who operates as a quasidirector-at-large, securing lucrative sponsorship deals with the likes of Nike, whilst at the same time taking charge of transfer dealings and contract renewals. This murky lack of transparency at Chelsea is in contrast to the likes of Manchester City who recruited Txiki Begiristain as Director of football; having previously worked with manager Pep Guardiola at Barcelona, Begiristain comes from a footballing background having played for Barcelona and Spain before moving up to boardroom level. Sarri has stated he is prepared to follow suit and work within a similar structure. He sees himself as more of a ‘head coach’ rather than a traditional manager, stating in December “my problem is to improve my players, to solve the situation.” This is in contrast with previous bosses such as José Mourinho and Antonio Conte who spent much of their tenures fighting for over-arching control on all footballing matters. Following the defeat to Manchester City, Sarri told Sky in Italy “If the president (Abramovich) calls, I’ll be happy, seeing as I never hear from him…. to be honest, I don’t know what to expect.” This statement clearly betrays sentiments that are symptoms of the points raised above. Sarri is concerned for his job and also confused as to whom he is accountable to. There is clearly a lack of communication and chain of command at the top of the club, which leads to this chronic uncertainty that breeds crisis. When the chips are down, my opinion is that Chelsea should stick with Sarri. His style will take time to implement but the start of the season demonstrated the potential Chelsea have. Without the leaders of old, removing the manager at every wobble is not a sustainable model and a change in both mindset and structure is needed at boardroom level. Verdict? Stick.
Our Sports writers pay tribute Edwin va der Sar By Rebecca Johnson
Without a doubt Edwin van der Sar is one of the most iconic players to take up the position between the sticks. Standing at six foot five (ideal goalie height) van der Sar started his senior career at Ajax in his native Netherlands. During his time at Ajax, he won the UEFA Cup and the Champions League. In 1999, van der Sar moved to Serie A club Juventus but after 66 appearances he moved to Fulham in 2001 after losing his place to a keeper from Parma called Gianluigi Buffon. Fulham were newly promoted and purchased the Dutch keeper for around £7 million. Arguably though, van der Sar truly came into his own at Manchester United. At United he won four Premier League titles, three Community Shields. And who could forget that Champions League final in 2008 in the Moscow rain when John Terry fluffed his penalty and van der Sar pulled off an extraordinary penalty save from Nicholas Anelka for United to win the trophy. Internationally, van der Sar played for the Netherlands. Van der Sar showed off his talent on the global stage. He was between the sticks when the Dutch came fourth in the 1998 World Cup and third in Euro 2000. The keeper is one of the most capped Dutch players, with 130 international appearances. His CV only gets better from here. Van der Sar has won all manner of awards, including Golden Glove and UEFA Club Goalkeeper of the Year in 2009, the Best European Goalkeeper in 1995 and 2009 and IFFHS World’s Best Goalkeeper in 2008. Furthermore, van der Sar holds the records for being the oldest player to win the Premier League, the oldest goalkeeper to win the Champions League, being the first goalkeeper to keep fifty clean sheets in the Champions League and arguably the most impressive, the world record for the most minutes without conceding a league goal (1,311 minutes for you keen staticians). The Dutch stopper retired in 2011, finishing his career at United. However, he made a brief appearance for VV Noordwijk in 2016 to play one last game.
the courier
41
sport Wildcats the line: Football’ s greatest keepers e to the goalkeeping contribution of goal-den oldies and some of the biggest super-savers of the present day prevail on the ice Monday 25 February 2019
Gianhuigi Buffon By Adam Williams
In 2016, When Gianluigi Buffon broke the Serie A record for the longest time without conceding a goal, he penned a wistful love letter to the net he defends: “I was 12 when I turned my back on you, denying my past to guarantee you a safe future. I went with my heart. I went with my instinct. But the day I stopped looking you in the face is also the day that I started to love you, to protect you, to be your first and last line of defence” I wonder how many other footballers could get away with such gushing poetry… Although he plays the game with his hands, Gigi is the quintessential Italian footballer: the physical embodiment of reliability and composure, but also of passion and eccentricity. He remains the only goalkeeper to break the world transfer record after his move from Parma to Juve for €52 million in 2001 - an astronomical figure for a goalkeeper, even today. 11 Serie A and 4 Coppa Italia titles later, it’s fair to say it was a bargain. The highlight of Buffon’s career came on the international stage as his Italy side triumphed at the 2006 World Cup – Gigi conceding only through an own-goal and a penalty. One of the enduring images of that tournament is Gianluigi between the sticks, resplendent in gold, sporting his Alice band and trademark short-sleeves. His heroic performances earnt him runnerup in that year’s Ballon D’or, second only to Italy captain Fabio Cannavaro. Like Cannavaro, Buffon is surely one of the finest players never to have won the Champions League. After 17 seasons with the Bianconeri, the 41-year-old Tuscan has moved to Paris in search of European glory. PSG are far from the most universally liked team but there are few who would begrudge Buffon were he to lift the elusive trophy with them after 20 years at the absolute pinnacle of world football.
(Continued from the backpage)
Harry Parsons Sports Editor
The Trautmann culpture is currently at Ethiad stadium, Manchester, which is in the north Image: Wikimedia Commons
Bert Trautman By Stanley Gilyead One of sport’s greatest virtues is its ability to bring people together. Last year North and South Korea entered unified winter Olympics teams and the World Cup proved the Russian people aren’t defined by their government. One of football’s most famous unifying figures is Bert Trautmann. A German soldier in WWII, Trautman spent 4 years in a Prisoner-Of-War Camp before refusing repatria-
tion upon his release to stay in England, still awash with anti-German sentiment, and play for St Helen’s Town. He quickly drew the attention of First Division Manchester City, who signed him in 1949. However he wasn’t welcomed, 20000 protested and the club were bombarded with letters of complaint. But Trautmann’s couragous, gritty performances won fans over. His performance in the 1956 FA Cup Final epitomised Trautmann’s attributes as a keeper. A string of impressive saves from the FWA player of the year helped City to a 3-1 lead when, in the 75th minute, Trautmann
Peter Cech By Dominic Lee Petr Cech is undoubtedly one of the most iconic Goalkeepers of all time and has done incredible work over his career. Cech is arguably the best keeper of the Premier League era- which has featured names such as Peter Schmeichel and Edwin Van Der Sar- winning 13 major trophies at Chelsea and one FA Cup at Arsenal. While many wouldn’t call Cech the best of his generation, there have been few keepers as pivotal to his team’s success as Cech was at Chelsea. This is most clearly shown in the 2011 Champions League Final, in which he made a pivotal penalty save against Arjen Robben in injury time and then saved 2 penalties in injury time- with his tip onto the post from Bastian Schweinsteiger setting up Didier Drogba’s winner. Cech put his body on the line consistently for Chelsea, famously resulting in a horrific head injury which many claim set his career
Cech put his body on the line consistantly for Chelsea
Buffon ready and waiting Image: Wikimedia Commons
back. However, Cech’s greatest achievements came after his injury and those who claim he was never the same aren’t taking into account his importance in Chelsea’s success. Cech’s reflexes were perhaps his greatest advantage allowing for spectacular shot stopping which made him excellent at close range saves. Though his career at Arsenal has been far less impressive, only lifting one major honour for the Gunners, Cech is an incredibly well respected player amongst his peers such
Another one saved Image: Wikimedia Commons
collided with an opposition striker and was knocked unconscious. Unbeknownst to him, Bert had broken his neck, but with no substitutions allowed he played on, making more crucial saves as City won 3-1. The same crowd that’d once cried “Nazi” serenaded the cup final hero with a chorus of “for he’s a jolly good fellow”. Trautmann wasn’t only a great goalkeeper, “world class” according to Lev Yashin, but also paved the way for German sportspeople from Boris Becker to Jurgen Klinsmann to be taken to the nation’s hearts, he’s rightly considered a footballing great.
Newcastle’s goalie, Thompson, got in a scuffle at in the midst of the second half in the process losing his stick and it sliding away from him, being forced to hold back in order to protect the goal solely with his body. A strong Newcastle defence ensured that no damage was done to the score line and his hockey stick was safely recovered. A goal from Newcastle’s Angus Gunn in the 31st minute, with an assist from Zoe Dunnet saw Newcastle equalise. But in the closing moments of the 2nd period the Bears’William Horsfield worked a speedy manoeuvre through a struggling defence to hand Sheffield the lead once more. End of the 2nd period and it stood at 3-2 to Sheffield. Newcastle had a tougher period than their first, and began to look slightly shakier. In the opening 17 seconds of the 3rd and final period and Sheffield put forward a perfected set play out to the left wing, back to the right wing towards the goal, reflected out and forced into the top right of the goal from the left side of the goal. A perfected piece of play that would surprise even the most competent of teams. An eventful following ten minutes with shots on target for Newcastle, and a penalty for Edward Shaw of Sheffield for holding, remained fruitless for the hosts until Holstovs worked his magic once more, taking a route round the left hand side of the ring tucking it into the left corner of the goal. 4-3 and 8 minutes left on the clock. A time out and less than 60 seconds of play later and Angus Gunn manoeuvres his way up the rink directly in line with the centre of the goal, working his defensive opponent into a spin which take his Sheffield rival to the floor. Taking advantage of this, and poor defence from the visitors, He launches a shot over the goalies top right shoulder and scores a colossal equaliser for Newcastle. An equaliser which felt like it could have determined the match. Gunn was slowly proving himself as the MVP for this quarter at least, spending the following minutes seeing space and creating opportunities bamboozling the Sheffield defence on several occasions. It was however not without counter attack, a Newcastle wobble with 2 and half minutes to go that saw a drive into goal that failed but didn’t at least bring a momentary degree of quiet to the Wildcat supporters. Noting the importance of this cup tie the final minute was tense beyond belief. An absolute scramble in Newcastle’s attacking end saw fired shots both towards and away from the goal before the notoriously brilliant Holstovs, assisted by Gunn and Gubbin, gave Newcastle a goal. 5-4 and 18 seconds to play, Sheffield were unable to do anything about it. Flawless entertainment. Newcastle can and should be delighted with how they held on to the final minutes. A deflated Sheffield have nothing to be ashamed of and should be pleased with their 2nd period performance and their early 3rd period stunner. It should be noted, however, that there is something truly spectacular about this sport. It’s relatively unknown in the UK and can easily go unnoticed by those observing university sport due to the fact that it doesn’t play in BUCS. Go and watch this team, at this ungodly hour and enjoy the spectacle that it is.
the courier
42
sport
Monday 25 February 2019
Newcastle Netball 1s knocked out of BUCS
Sports Editor Rebecca Johnson reports on a very frustrating defeat for Newcastle Netball 1s’ as they played Nottingham Trent 1s in NETBALL
Newcastle 1sts 39 Notts Trent 1sts 45
Rebecca Johnson at Newcastle Sports Centre
The 1s are currently 3rd in BUCS Northern 1A League Image: Rebecca Johnson
Last Wednesday saw Newcastle 1s play host to Nottingham Trent 1s in the quarter final of the BUCS Netball trophy. Newcastle found themselves playing against a team who are on form at the minute, having not lost a game in all competitions since early November 2018, when they were narrowly defeated by Nottingham 1s 38-39. Trent play in the Midlands 1A and are currently second in the league after eight wins and one loss this season. Furthermore, the opposition have cruised through the Trophy, beating Edge Hill 1s 68-16 and Sheffield Hallam 1s 74-43.
The opening period saw a lively bit of play from Newcastle’s attack finding bits of space to build up play
Although Trent presented a difficult challenge, Newcastle have also had a decent season. They’re currently third in the Northern 1A league, with five wins and four losses under their belts. Additionally, they’ve had a great cup run, beating Strathclyde 30-72 away and Nottingham 2s 50-39. The first quarter got underway, with Newcastle drawing first blood. The opening period saw a lively bit of play from Newcastle’s attack, with the wing attack, goal attack and goal scorer finding good bits of space to build up a play However, Nottingham were retaliating well, scoring instantly after Newcastle. The clock was stopped early in this quarter due to a scoreboard mix-up. At this point Nottingham were 4-2 up. The Nottingham defence were deploying dirty tactics to prevent Newcastle getting the much needed goals by fouling the Newcastle attack and using their height to block any attempted penalty shots. Newcastle were playing well though, using bounce passes to their advantage against taller players and building up good bits of play. At one point, Newcastle’s goal scorer was unmarked, letting the home side take a 11-7 lead. Although the Newcastle defence were pretty solid, Nottingham weren’t deterred and persisted and took the
score at the end of the first quarter to 11-9. An ideal opening quarter for Newcastle though, who presented a challenge to a strong team. Nottingham must have had a stern pep-talk at the end of the first quarter as they entered the second quarter looking incredibly sharp.
Nottingham had been injected with a lot more confidence and the score kept racking up
In areas, Newcastle looked sluggish and tired compared to the midlands side. Nottingham kept persevering with quick attacks which
fazed Newcastle slightly. Newcastle woke up though, and started to build up their attacks more after falling behind in the opening part of this quarter. The clock was stopped in this period as the Nottingham centre was injured and limped off. This spurred the away side on, as they kept hitting the target constantly. Newcastle failed to capitalise on their chances in this quarter, missing a series of shots. Nottingham had been injected with a lot more confidence and the score kept racking up. The clock was stopped again at 12-19 to the away side when there was confusion from the officials about simultaneous offside. After this, Newcastle were suddenly revived and were suddenly able to hit the target. A thoroughly entertaining end to the second quarter saw the home side regain a lot more
confidence, with their defence seeming unbreakable. After a dominating Nottingham quarter, Newcastle bounced back finish the period 17-21.
The penultimate quarter saw rapid Newcastle attacks with the roar of home crowd behind them
The third quarter was a close affair, with all to play for. The Nottingham defence were still proving to be tricky for the home side, with
their goal defence in particular giving away countless obstructions. However, Newcastle still persisted and performed a beautiful range of passes to keep adding to their tally. The scoring was rapid in this quarter, with Nottingham scoring one after the other, but Newcastle held their own well. Newcastle were building up play very well, but Nottingham were the stronger side and disrupted a lot of plays. Towards the end of the quarter, Newcastle were finding space well again and dealt well with the pressure from Nottingham, finishing the quarter 28-36. The penultimate quarter of this trophy clash was truly heart in the mouth action. Newcastle’s attacks were rapid in the opening minutes, with the roar of home supporters carrying them through. Nottingham were
Smiles lacrosse the board for Newcastle
George Dury reports on a thrilling victory for Newcastle Men’s 1s Lacrosse team against Manchester Met 1s in the quarter final of t
MEN’S LACROSSE
Newcastle 1sts 11 Man Met 1sts 10
George Dury at Platt Lane Sports Complex
Storm clouds gathered over Manchester, the familiar and bleak backdrop of grey drizzle and hooded figures with their heads lowered greeted the Newcastle Men’s Lacrosse 1st team as they disembarked the warm safety and comfort of their coach. Ahead of the squad lay a daunting task which loomed and grew with every passing minute. The quarter-final cup matchup promised to be a well-fought and gritty affair between the two strongest teams in the league. Having suffered a defeat in the weeks earlier at the hands of the hosts, this would be a game which would prove to be fiercely contested and hard fought. The opening whistle sounded, with Manchester gaining initial possession and began controlling the pace of the game. Going down 3-1 in the first quarter, team captain Jack Clo-
hessy gathered his men around him to draw up a new strategy. A back and forward battle ensued between the Northmen and the not so Northmen. Steadfast goalkeeping by Jack Clohessy kept the worst of the Manchester
The quarter-final cup match promised to be a well-fought and gritty affair between the two strongest teams in the league
attack at bay, with the defensive unit of Miles Moran, Josh Brown, Harman Singh and Matthew Rees going to work on the frightened and disheartened Manchester attackers. Taking matters into his own hands, Matthew ‘the Beast’ Rees took the ball from the defensive half of the field to the attacking half, bringing
an unstoppable high heat shot to bear. The midfield unit comprising of Jasper ‘the Underarm Bandit’ Piper, Matthew Tute, Nicholas ‘the Champ’ Beauchamp, Sam ‘the Faithful’ Yates and Jake McNair, not wanting to be outdone by their defensive brothers in arms, decided that they had toyed long enough with the Manchester defensive unit. Jasper decided to play psychological games
7
Newcastle 1s progress to the semi-finals of the BUCs Trophy Image:Newcastle Lacrosse
The amount of wins Newcastle Lacrosse 1s have recorded this season
with the defence, getting too intimate and drawing the penalty. Nicholas couldn’t understand the strange dialect spoken by the midlander referees and lost his cool shortly, forgetting a game was underway, and channelled his inner John McEnroe “you have got to be kidding me”, he protested. Matt Tute, lacking his handbag, used his stick to lay the
the courier
43
sport
Monday 25 February 2019
CS Trophy Raiders beat Mustangs
n a tight quarter-final game
failing to capitalise on the chances given to them, missing penalties and not being able to find the net. Newcastle’s centre had a cracking final quarter, intercepting the ball well and passing well to set up and build plays. New-
Nottingham’s coach piped up questioning the official’s decisions to which she was sharply told to pipe back down
castle’s communication was also spot on, evident through the amount of goals they were scoring. Nottingham were becoming sloppy, conceding daft fouls and losing the ball cheaply, although credit must go to their goal defence, who took the full force of the ball on the chin- literally. The home side were on fire, and clearly gaining more confidence as the quarter progressed- the comeback was on. Nottingham’s coach piped up when things were all square at 38-38, questioning the official’s decisions, to which she was sharply told to pipe back down. Unfortunately for the home team, Nottingham woke back up and surged forward. They were scoring goals for fun. Newcastle’s quick movements were overpowered by a strong Nottingham team. The game finished 39-45. Retrospectively, the score was an unfair reflection on the game which saw two incredibly evenly-matched teams go head to head. Newcastle 1s were excellent, providing an absolutely thrilling match and displaying a wide variety of talent from all the team. The side should not be disheartened from their performance and should take a lot of positives into their next game against Sheffield Netball Northern 1A League
D
L
Pts
1 Leeds 1sts
9
9
0
0
27
2 Durham 1sts
9
7
0
2
21
3 Newcastle 1sts
9
5
0
4
15
4 Sheffield Hallam 1sts
9
3
0
6
9
5 Liverpool 1sts
9
3
0
6
9
6 Edge Hill 1sts
Pld W
9
0
0
9
0
e Mens 1s
the BUCS Lacrosse Trophy
opponent under the cosh in a strange and unsuccessful manner. The attack unit, not wanting to be outdone by their defensive and midfield brothers decided to up the ante further. At this point, the game turned nasty. Down one goal with a minute to spare, a desperate scramble for the short range radio on the side-line. Jasper Piper, with no underarm rockets left, calls in Newcastle’s trump card. ‘Broken arrow, I repeat, broken arrow. Requesting air support with immediate effect.’ At RAF Woodvale, Air Command authorises deployment of Frankie ‘the Lefty Bomber’ Lees. The 192 lb Hercules-class lefty attack-man is deployed with shocking effect. Sending a 100 mph shot from the left wing, Manchester Met’s victory is thwarted along with their will to fight further. Overtime. Two 4 minute quarters. 12 seconds remain. Luke Ramsbottom took aim at the small gaps not covered by the goalkeeper and secured the victory for Newcastle University. A battered but victorious team travel home to plan for their next game in the semifinal of the cup.
to win the league title
BUCS RESULTS BADMINTON
W1 v Cardiff 1sts W2 v Leeds 2nds
7-1 6-2
BASKETBALL
M1 v Brunel 1sts M2 v Leeds 2nds M3 v York 2nds W1 v Cardiff Met 1sts
89-74 93-60 87-35 62-71
M3 v Durham 3rds M4 v York 2nds W1 v Surrey 1sts W3 v Sheffield 1sts
103-134 100-135 43-135 48-135
FENCING
FOOTBALL
M2 v Leeds 1sts M3 v Teeside 3rds W1 v Leeds Beckett 2nds W2 v Durham 3rds
2-1 7-1 4-1 1-2
Mix1 v St Andrews 1s Mix2 v Leeds 1s
2-4 2-4
M2 v York 1sts M3 v Sheffield 3rds W1 v Loughborough 2nds W2 v Leeds 2nds W3 v Teeside 1sts W4 v York 2nds
1-3 1-0 1-2 0-3 6-1 3-2
GOLF
HOCKEY
LACROSSE
M1 v Manchester Met 1sts 11-10 W1 v Durham 3rds 15-4 W2 v Durham 4ths 11-3 W3 v York 2nds 14-5
The Raiders face Edinburgh Napier in their next game Image:Mick Woodruff
AMERICAN FOOTBALL
Newcastle 1sts 21 Northumbria 1sts 9
Nathan Chatterton-Sherburn at Druid Park Sunday 17th finally saw the meeting of the top two in the BUCS 1A North leagueNorthumbria Mustangs v Newcastle Raiders. The win would count for two games due to the inability to reschedule the cancelled game before the end of the season, making it a game of huge stakes that would decide the league title.
The second half was for the defence to shine they held down the Mustang’s offence with big tackles and regular interceptions
Both teams looked ready to go during pre-game but it was the Mustangs that came out of the stocks fighting in the first quarter. Within the first five minutes Newcastle had been pushed right back towards the endzone and conceded an early touchdown. With Northumbria dominating so early on, it looked as though it could be a miserable day for the so far unbeaten Raiders. With the side-line rallying behind the Raiders and a newfound spirit courtesy of an early team talk, it didn’t take long before the Raiders began to take charge as we’ve seen all season, and for Northumbria’s complacency to cost them. The offence began finding gaps in the Mustang defence. There seemed to be an air of deja vu as Michael Atementaka completed
NETBALL a twenty odd yard run which was pulled back for a penalty, only to complete the same run on the next play. Soon after, QB Henry Bulmer completed a pass into the end-zone for James Cross which was again pulled back for a penalty, only to complete the same pass in the following down for the touchdown, levelling the score with the Mustangs. The Raiders only gained more momentum
Receivers were on top form with Josh Burton securing a second touchdown and a third from rookie Lawrence Eastman before halftime
in the second quarter; with the Mustang’s offence unable to really challenge the defence with anything new, they became frustrated, which was reflected in their play with a number of fouls pushing their offence back valuable yards. The Raiders offence consequently found themselves in strong scoring positions on multiple occasions, bettered by Bulmer’s awareness to make yards from QB rushes.
24
The largest score the Raiders have recorded this season against Glasgow
Receivers were on top form with Josh Burton securing a second touchdown and a third from rookie Lawrence Eastman before halftime. Eastman made an impressive seven catches throughout the game, one of which
making 50 yards to get the Raiders offence out of their own end-zone. Kicker Yacine Meziane was on top form converting all three one-point conversions following the touchdowns, making the score 21-7 at half time. The second half was for the defence to
The Raiders gained more momentum in the second quarter with the Mustang’s offence unable to challenge the defence
shine. They held down the Mustang’s offence with big tackles and regular interceptions, Jono Coombes making an admirable three picks. The D-line and line-backers applied pressure on the Mustang’s QB and neutralised any threatening runs through the middle, and DBs denied any yards from the pass. In the third and fourth quarters, the offence continued to apply pressure yet were unable to score despite coming close. Northumbria’s reputation in the league preceded them but when it came to it, the Mustangs had run through their playbook unsuccessfully, exhausting their ability to take anything from the second half but a two-point safety, the game finishing 21-9. The game MVPs were Jono Coombes (S), Matt Dyke (LB/DE), Laurence Eastman (WR) and James Cross (WR). The result ensured Newcastle Raiders will finish top of the league, and with a chance to enjoy an undefeated season after facing Edinburgh Napier on 24th Feb there is huge drive for the result. From there the playoffs approach where the true test will lie for the Raiders.
W1 v Nottingham Trent 1sts W2 v Durham 2nds W3 v Leeds Beckett 4ths W4 v Sheffield 3rds
RUGBY UNION
M5 v D’caster College 1sts W2 v York 2nds
39-45 37-43 42-35 40-32 26-40 15-10
RUGBY LEAGUE
M1 v Nottingham Trent 1sts 32-10 M2 v Liverpool JM 1sts 10-36
SQUASH
M1 v Heriot-Watt 1sts M3 v Sheffield Hallam 2nds W1 v Bristol 1sts W2 v York 1sts
TABLE TENNIS
M1 v Durham 1sts
TENNIS
1-4 2-1 4-1 0-4 9-8
M2 v York 2nds W1 v Loughborough 1sts W2 v Durham 5ths
12-0 12-0 4-8
M1 v Derby 1sts W1 v Bournemouth 1sts
3-0 0-3
VOLLEYBALL WATERPOLO
W1 v Imperial London
20-4
OVERALL BUCS POSITION Pos
University
Pts
8
Birmingham
2207.5
9
Newcastle ■
1871.2
10
Stirling
11
N’ham Trent
1764 1701.5
sport the courier
Monday 25 February 2019 Issue 1384 Free
@Courier_Sport courier.sport@ncl.ac.uk thecourieronline.co.uk/sport Sport Editors Rebecca Johnson, Harry Parsons, Sydney Isaacs, Jack Smillie, Rory Ewart Online Editor Tom Hardwick
Wildcats clinch victory in cup stunner Inside Sport today >>>
The team played in the very early hours of wednesday morning Image: Harry Parsons
MIXED ICE HOCKEY
Newcastle 1sts Sheffield 2nds
5 4
Harry Parsons at Whitley Bay Late Tuesday evening, and by that I mean really late Tuesday evening, in fact so late the game didn’t begin until the earliest minutes of Wednesday morning, at a Skating rink in Whitley Bay, the Newcastle Wildcats made their way out onto the ice. The bright lights, and speakers were ready for the team’s cup clash with the Sheffield Bears. A long late night trip for the visitors gave the home side a slight advantage but I was told the fixture was going to be a tight, all important knock-out cup fixture With an impressive attendance of 40 odd supporters at just gone midnight the Wildcats
started the first 20 minute third, by racing up the ice to Sheffield’s goal, a to and fro up and down the rink in the first 3 minutes reminded those of us not so familiar with the sport that the pace of play in an Ice Hockey game is unlike anything else you’ll see when watching Newcastle University team play.
Holstovs made his way up the left hand side of the rink and fired in a stellar shot
With 3 minutes gone on the clock Wildcats number Holstovs made his way up the left hand side of the rink skirting round defence
Inside Sport today >>>
IS IT TOO LATE NOW TO SAY SARRI?
Will we be saying Sarrivederci following mis-Sarri-ball times at Chelsea? Page 40
and fired in a stellar shot taking Newcastle to an early 1-0 lead. Blaring music followed, as it did every time the whistle blew and clock stopped, further adding to a degree of confidence in a Newcastle side that looked hungry to win. A confident rest of the first third by Newcastle was met by an equally enthused Sheffield side who had no intention of letting Newcastle move away with the victory. The Bears’ Loughton having a far out shot on target which was deflected by Newcastle Goalie Edward Thompson. Joe Gubbins took up multiple opportunities barraging the Sheffield side with two shots in a 30 second period. The nature of playing such a fast paced game on the ice means that time and time again we’d see a player knocked to the ground. In one attempt to keep the puck for hitting the back of their net, Sheffield’s num-
GREATEST GOALKEEPERS
ber 7, Daniel Hromadko, was able to continue playing defensively when on the ground without illegally obstructing play.
Joe Gubbins took up multiple opportunities barraging the Sheffield side with two shots in a thirty second period
Sheffield showed promising plays pushing away from Newcastle when the home side were unable to make an impact on goal. While the pace of the teams were well matched it seemed Sheffield were comfort-
Our writers take a closer look at some of the best ever shot stoppers Page 41
able in pushing fast and quickly away from any real danger. The visitors number 8, Luke Wilson, made an incredible shot which landed firmly in the Newcastle goalies hands. Newcastle had held onto their lead having shown an edge making the most of the opportunities, Sheffield hadn’t quite managed to do the same. After the first break, Sheffield exploded back onto the ice with a goal from Kerekgyarto within less than 2 minutes of the second period; firing a shot into the bottom right of the tightly guarded net. A tousle or two later and Newcastle’s Holstovs found himself facing a 2 minute penalty – in a sin bin – for interference. Within 3 minutes and 2 seconds of the 2nd period Sheffield’s Kerekgyarto, assisted by Edward Shaw on both occasions, had given the lead to the visitors. 2-1 to Sheffield. Continued on page 41
RAIDERS VICTORIES
Raiders are on top form winning their BUCS League Page 43