tn2 issue 5, 2015/2016

FEBRUARY 2016

Interview with the founders of NotAnother Agency

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CONTENTS 04 06 07 27 32 34

JUMBLE SEX HOMEGROWN REVIEWS CALENDAR STAFF PICKS

EDITORIAL TEAM Head editor EOIN MOORE Deputy Editor SORCHA GANNON Art SARAH MOREL HANNAH AMADAEUS HARTE fashion MEGAN BURNS JOHN TIERNEY FILM RACHEL GRAHAM CONOR SCULLY FOOD RACHEL CUNNINGHAM ANNA GORDON GAMES & TECH NICHOLAS KENNY BUD McLOUGHLIN LITERATURE TANYA SHEEHAN MICHAEL MULLOOLY music Finnán Tobin Josh Kenny THEATRE Elisabeth Rochford RORY O’REGAN tv J. Finbar Lynch Oisín Vince Coulter DESIGN BY EOIN MOORE, una harty, KELLY CONLON & SORCHA GANNON copy-edited by orla king & emily smith cover pHOTO BY Katie o’neill PRINTED BY GREHAN PRINTERS

KEVIN MCGAHERN “So just take out your trombone. Play the Pink Panther theme.”

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TIPPED SCALES “Voters are over 90% white, 75% male and have an average age of sixty-three.”

CRITICAL HITS “Mainstream media has tended to focus on only one side of the gaming community” NOTANOTHER AGENCY

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“It was definitely a conscious decision that we wanted to work with all different types of clients.”

OM NOM NOM

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“Asylum seekers are denied their freedom to choose, their right to cook.”

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RUA SOUND “We have slightly different tastes in music but we share the same vision.”

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STRANGE FRUIT This issue’s orignal art spread is collage work by Maia Nunes.

20 ANNE CLARK “The quality of Irish theatre is up there with the best in the world.”

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BLOOD ART “I think there’s a lot of possibilities with a piece when a medium behaves that way.”

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PUBLIC SPACE: CENTRAL BANK

IN THE GAME: REACT WORLD Popular YouTubers Benny and Rafi Fine, better known as the Fine Brothers (or the Fine Bros), recently faced a severe backlash from the YouTube community over their plans to trademark the word “React” and license the “reaction video” format.The brothers announced a new system called "React World", which would allow users to post videos using the company's templates and have them distributed through the company's Youtube account, in exchange for a portion of ad revenue.

The incensed reaction to the Fine Brothers’ proposal was driven by the fear that they would use those trademark claims and their copyright over their existing reaction videos to smother competition and monopolise the genre. The Fines had previously hit out at Ellen Degeneres after she did a segment showing kids reacting to old technology, and had also used YouTube’s Content ID copyright protection system to have others’ videos pulled down in the past, fuelling these fears.

Begun in 1975, Sam Stephenson’s Central Bank is a building which is no stranger to controversy. Previously, the Central Bank had been spread throughout a number of premises across the city but in 1972, Dublin City Council decided that these scattered locations would be unified into one new bank on Dame Street. Stephenson’s original height and roofline far exceeded what was permitted under the planning laws granted by Dublin City Council and the brash, unadorned style which contrasted its historic surroundings also served to cause contention. Commercial buildings, designed by Edward Parke and dating back to the eighteenth century , were demolished to accommodate for the Central Bank. The bank is a striking, assertive building which creates a dramatic silhouette in the skyline over old Temple Bar. Its structure is created from eight “tiers” loaded onto two service cores. The floors are supported by steel suspension held from the centre of the structure. This building is one of the few structures in the world to utilise such a technique. The modular design was greatly enhanced by the new SISK computer technology used in the building’s construction. The offices of the building are lit by broad floor to ceiling windows, which further emphasise the building’s strong, geometric facade.A new building to house the Central Bank is currently under development on North Wall Quay.

WORDS BY ALEXANDRA DAY

INTRODUCING: SAHEL SOUNDS Sahel Sounds is a blog and record label which explores the music of West Africa, particularly the Sahel region of Mauritania, Mali and Niger. It is run by Christopher Kirkley, who is described on their blog as an “explorer, music archivist, curator and occasional DJ.” His aim is to examine the effect that technology and local traditions have had on the popular music of that region. Sahel Sounds began in 2009 as a way of sharing field recordings and has evolved into a record label showcasing the different artists Kirkley has come across. Music from Saharan Cellphones is a compilation of the most popular music circulating the Sahara on the unofficial network of mobile phones, where mp3s are stored, played and traded via Bluetooth transfers. More recent releases include Isswat by Fadimoutou Wallet Inamoud, a Tuareg drone recording from the Azawad region. Released on either vinyl or cassette, the music really highlights how incredibly complex and diverse music traditions can thrive without a multinational system of promotion or distribution. Sahel Sounds, and other blogs and labels like it, are an amazing opportunity to get a little taste of a musical culture which is as astounding as it is plural.

WORDS BY JOSH KENNY 4

In the wake of the backlash to their announcement - which saw their channel hemorrhaging subscribers - the brothers accepted that they communicated their intent poorly, and have since rescinded their "React" trademark claims and canceled the React World initiative. The brothers wrote in their apology, “it makes perfect sense for people to distrust our motives here, but we are confident that our actions will speak louder than these words moving forward.”

WORDS BY NICHOLAS KENNY

DUBLIN IN FILM: LEAP YEAR

GLOBE-TASTING: ROTANA CAFE Rotana Cafe, just a stone’s throw from Portobello Bridge on Richmond Street serves up authentic Lebanese food in a warm atmospheric surrounding. The cosy dining area features dimly lit lamps, candles, and a welcoming electric fire to warm you up on even the wettest of Dublin nights. At times the extensive menu can feel more confusing than helpful, as they offer several of the same dishes for different prices depending on what time of day you order. However, the large menu allows Rotana to offer a variety of classic Lebanese food at a reasonable price (most mains are between €10- €14). While the prices might be deemed a bit out of reach for an average student dinner, the dishes are large and easily sharable.

Leap Year (Anand Tucker, 2010) falls into the trap associated with films set in Ireland, made by people who aren’t Irish. These films either depict Ireland as a country caught up in a never-ending cycle of violence (see Odd Man Out) or as a mythologised rural utopia (The Quiet Man). Leap Year follows the latter path. As Anna (Amy Adams) embarks on her epic journey from Kerry to Dublin in search of her boyfriend, she hears superstitions and folk-tales about the mystical capital city. The sheer difficulty she has in reaching Dublin adds to the Arthurian quality of her quest. The romance with which Dublin is presented in this film dislodges it from any reality.

For example, the train from Tipperary (played by Enniskerry) drops Anna off by the beautiful Georgian buildings of Merrion Square. This creative geography sees the film trying to create the best possible image of Dublin.

The problem with this strategy is that it produces only an image. This isn’t like Gossip Girl, where New York is a character of its own. In Leap Year Dublin isn’t a character but a clown. As long as Dublin is depicted as a onesided stereotype in international film, the city and the country can never be taken seriously as a burgeoning creative hub for filmmaking. It is time for cinema to see Dublin as more than just a pretty face.

The falafel sandwich comprised of two large wraps stuffed full of falafel, mixed vegetables, pickles, tahini, with the option of five further fillings for a euro more each. The falafel was well seasoned and the addition of hummus complemented the tart taste of the pickles. In addition, Rotana offers an outdoor shisha area and a bring your own beer and wine option with free corkage for two courses or more.

WORDS BY MEGAN KLEEMAN

WORDS BY REBECCA WYNNE-WALSH

FRONT SQUARE FASHION We caught Salters Stirling, former Academic Secretary of Trinity, striding across Front Square on a cold, damp afternoon, although his sharp hat and coat combination seemed to equip him well against the elements.

When asked about his hat he tells us: “This hat is nearly fifty years old, I got it in Russia. It’s mink.” An impressive sartorial investment.

WORDS BY MEGAN BURNS PHOTOS BY HUDA AWAN

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CAMERA shy I have twice been in long distance relationships, both of which resulted in several rather humiliating “Skype-sex” episodes. It seems to me that, in this day and age of limitless technology and continuous virtual contact with one another, distance in relationships often equates to sex via a computer or phone screen.

Based on my own experiences, I won’t be recommending it anytime soon.

The first time it occurred almost by accident. There had been a build up of course: I had not seen my boyfriend for over two months, and I was definitely sexually frustrated at this point. A few cheeky snaps were sent, mainly at his request (a distorted picture of a pale erect penis did not really excite). When he casually brought up that rather than send him another picture of my shy body in an unnatural stance, and thong reserved only for very special occasions, we should simply get on Skype, I couldn’t really avoid it. He knew I was home and he knew I was in a thong (damn). The experience was, to say the least, disappointing. It was very difficult to position the computers; the images were only of our bodies, and this facelessness made it extremely difficult not to feel disconnected from him. It was not right standing up, and when lying down, I had to lie on my side so as to reveal all to the computer screen on my desk. I was neither comfortable nor attracted to the enlarged picture of his paraphernalia.

He seemed to be having fun though, so I felt obliged to go along with it.

He moaned, so I moaned - or rather, I whispered as my many flat mates walked past my flimsy door (at this point I lived in a nine person student accommodation flat). He eventually finished after what seemed like an age.

I, unsurprisingly, did not, though I pretended to, if only to end this rather comical experience (don’t forget that he could not see my face, nor the confused expressions on it).

More than that, it was absolutely mortifying. The grey computer light was unflattering, not that there was much of a tan to pick up on. The silence in both his and my room was deafening, and my computer screen reflected every single supposedly sexy move that I made (they were not). I was embarrassed by my body and by my “moves”. In my honest opinion (for anyone reading this and not for him), it was all extremely awkward and

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insincere on my part. It did not make me feel closer to him, much more the opposite. He was reduced to a penis on a screen, and I felt as if my body was the only thing he valued.

But how could it ever feel genuine? How could an image on a screen ever replace the real thing? Surely the feel of the other person, their smell and their grip are what make a sexual experience? Even he felt this way I am sure, though he seemed to enjoy these times anyway.

Why then, did I allow this repeatedly throughout our time apart? Simply because I felt obliged to, I felt under pressure. I knew he watched porn, and I knew that he was undoubtedly meeting new girls all the time whilst I was stuck in Germany. So not only was I competing with prettier, older, bigger busted, funnier women in Dublin (or however I imagined them), but the whole of the Internet world.

Surely I would rather he stare at my rather poor and reluctant attempt at screen sex than a more willing, more attractive professional.

Is this something we need to get used to?

Is it ultimately inevitable? Our generation seem to be travelling more and more. Long distance relationships are increasingly becoming a part of our lives, and why not let programs like Skype facilitate them?

(Although in my case, hinder them.)

Skype sex aside, why do we feel the need to constantly be in contact? I felt more than anything that there was a flaw in the screen relationship that we had. It was almost too easy, and therefore meaningless. Surely there are more significant acts and gestures. For example, I would have appreciated a slightly less frequent exchange of letters far more, thinking back to past generations. To buy a card, a stamp, write carefully crafted words of affection and post it. Granted it takes more time, but that only makes it more significant in my mind. The communication would have been less frequent, but the anticipation to the next letter and the build up till the next time we saw each other would have been worth it.

WORDS BY ANONYMOUS IMAGE BY DANIEL TATLOW

Luka Palm is a Dublin rapper with Swedish roots, something he takes great pride in. He speaks admirably of his Swedish grandfather, after whom he took Palm as his stage name. His grandfather played in a jazz band from the age of twelve, playing with such luminaries as Benny Carter, and “he used to always have his guitar in our summer house in Sweden. There was always nice music going around, real jazzy vibes.”

Pink Lady, thus far the only track that Luka has released, definitely reflects this jazzy influence, its mellow beat being matched however with Luka’s strikingly sincere lyrics. Luka generally writes about “when something with a girl is happening”, and he is definitely of the new brand of rappers who aren’t afraid to wear their hearts on their sleeves. He cites Chance the Rapper, Loyle Carner, and Rejjie Snow as influences.

Luka’s decision to remain measured in his output has very much been a conscious one, and despite rapping for a number of years now he decided to wait until last year for his initial release. “You just hear so many people who just release their first track, and it’s just not good - that’s so mean, but you get me. But then they release stuff like two years later and it’s like really good. So I just wanted to wait until I was at that stage, where nobody would think ‘this is shit, I’ll wait until he releases something good in a few years’.” Luka could be forgiven for not wanting to rush, and despite the maturity he displays both in his lyrics and in the business of releasing music he is still only seventeen.

HOM EGR OWN He comes across as a perfectionist, and he recounts how he agonized over Pink Lady just before its release: “I messaged this sound engineer, because I wasn’t happy with the mix.

And he made 11 new mixes in the space of three weeks, but then in the end I chose just to use the original mix. And that was a hundred euro out the window. The second chorus would have a tiny bit of distortion and it would be driving me crazy, almost to the point where there would be tears coming out of my eyes. Absolutely killing me.”

Luka got into hip hop at a very young age, picking up his first album when he was “six or seven.” “My first album was Reasonable Doubt, Jay-Z’s first album. I had to put a sticker over the parental advisory sign so my mam would get it for me. She thought it was just some little pop CD.” It wasn’t long after this before he was trying his hand at rapping himself, writing his first raps at the age of nine. It wasn’t until he was in secondary school however that he began to take it seriously, at around the same time that Bobby Basil (one half of Dah Jevu) started rapping. “He was in sixth year when I was in first year, and we used to just sit in the back of the bus, and he’d put a beat on his phone, like a little shitty Nokia, and he’d do a verse over it. And then I used to go home and write these little verses and

he’d tell me how good I was, and tell me to keep writing and stuff.” Bobby played an important role in encouraging Luka to rap, and while they consider each other equals now, Luka is happy to concede that their relationship is “60/40”. He also acknowledges the role that his brother, Paddy Harkin of Welcome, plays: “Whenever I have a track written, it’s not like complete without his approval. So I’ll go into his room and I’ll rap it for him, and if I don’t get the response I want it’s not good enough. So there’s been at least three verses in the past couple of months I’ve written, and he’ll be like ‘Yeah that’s actually class’. His words might not be honest but his tone will, and I’ll know.” Bobby and Paddy are just two names from the circle of friends that Luka says he is “blessed” to know. “When I think about it, if I’d grown up somewhere else I wouldn’t have that like, that circle that have inspired me so much.

And I hopefully inspire them as well.”

Luka has a couple of new projects in the works: he’s currently hoping to have a collaborative single with Bobby Basil and produced by rising producer Wastefellow out next month with an accompanying video, as well as a new solo track, Regina George. With this double whammy of new music soon to arrive, and a move to London with Bobby on the horizon, 2016 looks set to be a big year for Luka Palm.

WORDS BY FINNÁN TOBIN PHOTO BY MIKE O’HANRAHAN 7

Staying in Daddy’s Town

TV Editor J. Finbar Lynch sits down with Kevin McGahern, host of Republic of Telly, to talk about television, politics, and the comedy scene in Ireland.

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Since Father Ted, there’s been this perception that if you’re funny and you’re Irish, you go to England. But you’ve decided to stay here. Was this always your intention?

When I was younger I probably thought more about getting the hell out of “Daddy’s Town,” but as you get older you get kinda comfortable and you realise you could forge a life for yourself here. It’s kinda nice. Being a medium-sized fish in a tiny pond, as opposed to being a minnow in an ocean.

What’s your background in? How do you end up going into comedy?

I wanted to do animation. So I studied animation in college and then just could not deal with the sheer amount of work that goes into it. Then, when the recession hit, I thought, this is the perfect time to be unemployed.

There would be no judgement whatsoever, so I quit my job. I was working in the International bar. Even subconsciously, I suppose I was veering towards comedy without even realising it. I chose to work in a bar where comedy started in Dublin. So yeah, recession hit, I quit and then started comedy more as a hobby than anything else and then it just sort of luckily turned into a job.

You probably have a bit of stability that a lot of comedians and actors don’t have, with your slot on the Republic of Telly, but where does your future lie?

I would have plans beyond it. Like, the big dream is to get into film. That’s something I’ve always been interested in. But I’d be happy enough with a reasonably good sitcom. If I could pen a good six-episode series, that is the ultimate dream. But Republic of Telly is great because it means you can get more gigs first of all and you’re constantly gigging. There is a stability there.

Yeah, because you lend your name to a lot of projects. You’re a stand up, you write and perform in sketches, you’ve co-written a play called The Devil’s Céilí with Philip Doherty…

You try lots of things and see what you’re good at, I suppose. The play was interesting. Actually, I think it was the most fun I ever had on anything. It didn’t have the monotony of working on a film. A film is fucking boring when you’re making it. Whereas, with a play, there’s a huge amount of pressure. The audience is right there. Everything has to happen in an hour.

And if something goes wrong, you can’t just stop and start again. So there’s a huge amount of pressure but it’s way more rewarding. But I’ve never been focussed. And I tend to say yes to a lot of things. And it’s usually worked out. I think saying yes to stuff, it ends up helping you rather than hindering you. You rarely regret a project unless it’s fucking terrible.

There’s one particular sketch you wrote and performed with Tara Flynn called Armagayddon, which was put out in the run up to the same-sex marriage referendum.

Tara was asked to do it because she has built up a relationship in the “comedy activists” circles. So she was approached about doing it and she asked me would I help her and she was amazing. I just threw out ideas at her and she formed it into a script. We had a lot of fun coming up with stuff and shooting it was a dream.

Was it unusual for you to take a more political stance with your comedy?

Not really. I don’t do too much political stuff, but socio-political stuff I find easy. I could not parody politics at all because I do not understand it. But social politics I’ve always had an interest in and I found it easy to make fun of them. In the lead up to the same-sex marriage referendum, there were so many ridiculous characters who were coming out of the woodwork who just gave you so much fodder. I still follow David Quinn because he entertains me on a daily basis. God love them, they didn’t have

“I feel like we’re the musicians on the Titanic. The ship is going down and you’re not getting on those lifeboats.

So just take out your trombone.

Play the Pink Panther theme.” great spokespeople, the No side. David Quinn looks like a child shitting in every photograph. Breda O’Brien looks like a babysitter coming out of court after a child-murder case. And Jon Walters looks like a hunchback who would open a door to a scary castle in an old Hammer horror film.

You cannot hitch your wagon to those stars.

How do you feel about Ireland’s future?

I feel like we’re the musicians on the Titanic. The ship is going down and you’re not getting on those lifeboats. So just take out your trombone. Play the Pink Panther theme. That’s all you can really do. Every year I feel like there’s gonna be a revolution coming but it doesn’t arrive. I think we will reach a tipping point. They’ll bring a tax for something really, really stupid.

They’ll bring in a tax for Moros. And people will just go “No, that is the fucking last straw” and wreck the Dáil.

And Irish television?

In interviews, the first thing you’re asked is “When was the last time you were in Ireland? Why don’t you visit us more often?” We tend to think way too much about what other countries think of us. It shatters the image that they have of us, these fun-loving, lackadaisical, nudge-and-a-wink tricksters, because it just seems incredibly insecure. I think we need to not care what other people think of us because they don’t give a fuck. At all. We are the smallest child on the playground but that’s fine. It’s weird because Americans have this image of us and in general we live up to that, but when it comes to TV it just feels like we’re desperately seeking approval.

When you watch British TV shows, they don’t ask “What do you think of the UK?” They don’t seek approval. I think we need to care less about identity.

WORDS BY J. FINBAR LYNCH PHOTOS COURTESY OF RTÉ 9

Tipped Scales In the light of recent controversy surrounding the racial bias at the Oscars, Conor Scully reflects on how our tendency to consider the Academy an objective source of aesthetic truth can exacerbate all forms of inequality.

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n February 28th, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences will, for the 88th time, award Oscars to the films they deem to have been the best released in 2015 (in America, at any rate - due to obscure norms around showing films in Europe, many of them have only recently graced our shores). According to the bookies, the Best Picture race seems to be a close contest between Spotlight and The Big Short, while most of the other major races are more or less decided: prepare to see Leonardo DiCaprio pick up an overdue gong for The Revenant, and Brie Larson take one home for her fantastic turn in Lenny Abrahamson’s Room.

There has been much controversy around this year’s ceremony due to the lack of racial diversity among the nominees - every single one of the 20 shortlisted actors is white, while none of the films nominated for Best Picture have any black actors in leading roles. The only thing even coming close to a silver lining is a Best Original Screenplay nomination for Straight Outta Compton. Prominent actors have criticised the Academy for their systemic racism, and this has shed light on the composition of the voting membership: voters are over 90% white, 75% male and have an average age of sixty-three. It’s no wonder exceedingly dull films like The Danish Girl and The Revenant do so well with voters. If The Revenant does indeed win, it will sit comfortably alongside other inoffensive films such as A Beautiful Mind, Crash, and The King’s Speech, films that seem almost specifically catered to appeal to the milquetoast Academy.

The symbolic effects of this lack of diversity seem reasonably obvious, even to those not especially attuned to the racial homogeneity of the Academy.

When awards are only given to white artists, it sends the message that art produced by people of colour is somehow not as valuable as the art made by white people, which, as anyone who has seen A Beautiful Mind can attest, is probably not the case. Additionally, it creates a dearth of black role models, and strips the platform of the ceremony from black actors after all, the ceremony is still watched by millions worldwide, despite the endless parade of bland hosts (hopefully Chris Rock will shake things up a bit this year). When Halle Berry won the Best Actress award back in 2001 for Monster’s Ball, she gave an emotional acceptance speech in which she spoke of the “nameless, faceless women of colour” who would be inspired by her win. Yet almost fifteen years on, these women have had no one else to be inspired by. Berry remains the only non-white woman to have won the award. Three black actors have since won the Best Supporting Actress prize, yet their roles are ones into which black actors in Hollywood

“When Halle Berry won the Best Actress award back in 2001 for Monster’s Ball, she gave an emotional acceptance speech in which she spoke of the ‘nameless, faceless women of colour’ who would be inspired by her win.”

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“A large contingent of cinemagoers are influenced by the perceived merit of what’s on offer at the movies, and as long as the Oscars bestow this merit, mediocre films will get released at the expense of more exciting ones.” often get pigeonholed: a Motown singer (Jennifer Hudson in Dreamgirls), a maid (Octavia Spencer in The Help), and a slave (Lupita Nyong’o in 12 Years a Slave). This is not to say the recognition these women received was undeserved, but it underscores the propensity of the Academy to award people of colour only when their performances conform to certain stereotypes.

yet another way in which working-class people become disenfranchised and otherized by the mainstream. Holding the Academy up as some kind of bastion of quality allows us to perpetuate cultural inequalities that privilege the narratives and experiences of white, middle-class people, and then tells us we are correct in doing so.

Beyond the cultural effects of this lack of recognition, its more tangible impact on the film industry is just as nefarious. By and large, films in Hollywood get produced in order to make money, and awards have a huge impact on this - films that win, or even get nominated for, Oscars tend to receive a boost in revenue. This is particularly true for the middlebrow, “Oscar movies” discussed before - my dad might go to see The Revenant because it got twelve nominations, but it’s unlikely the ten nominations for Mad Max: Fury Road will change his opinion that “it looks a bit much”.

As such, there exists an incentive for movie studios to finance projects that they think will appeal to Oscar voters. So, mundane films by the likes of Tom Hooper, who continues to turn out tripe like The Danish Girl and Les Miserables, will get made, whereas filmmakers like Sean S. Baker (Tangerine - which, like The Danish Girl, features a transgender protagonist, but which unlike The Danish Girl, cast a transgender actor to play the leading role) are forced to operate outside the mainstream. Studios say they merely respond to consumer trends, but it’s not as if black people don’t go to the cinema, and it’s not as if white people refuse to see films that have black actors in them - 12 Years A Slave made almost $200 million at the box office, in part due to its nine Oscar nominations and three wins. A large contingent of cinemagoers are influenced by the perceived merit of what’s on offer at the movies, and as long as the Oscars bestow this merit, mediocre films will get released at the expense of more exciting ones.

WORDS BY CONOR SCULLY ILLUSTRATIONS BY MUBASHIR SULTAN

Leaving the racial undertones aside for a moment, there exists another problem with the Oscars - what gives them the authority to decide that a certain film is the “Best” in a given year? Yes, the voting body is made up of expert actors, writers, directors, and technicians, but why does this group get to bestow an objective honour? Movies, like all forms of art, are inherently subjective - they mean different things to different people, and no two people can experience them in the same way. I may have wanted to suffocate myself during Les Miserables, but there were scores of people crying during the screening I was at, and that’s perfectly reasonable. I found The Big Short tremendously entertaining, but my friend who came with me could not look past its sexism, and hated the whole thing. It may seem pointless or obvious to decry the Oscars for this reason, but because of their stature, this veil of objectivity has very real impacts. The experiences of some people become delegitimised - people who find The Big Short sexist are either wrong, or else they’re right, but the sexism they perceive is somehow lessened by the fact that the film is also really funny.

The Academy gave three nominations to The Hateful Eight, apparently unperturbed by the fact that Quentin Tarantino takes obvious glee in having male characters repeatedly punch Jennifer Jason Leigh in the face.

Similarly, people who enjoy films that are deemed to be “lowbrow”, and therefore ignored by the Oscars, become subject to snobbery and classism (in which I have absolutely been complicit). I may not have any particular inclination to go see the new Adam Sandler movie, but millions of people do, and when critics ridicule them because they are “stupid”, they determine that the people who like these movies are stupid too. Cultural snobbery is 11

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an indie gaming anthology Games Editor Nicholas Kenny talks to Zoë Jellicoe of Liberties Press about her collection of videogame criticism, Critical Hits.

ideogame criticism is a relatively underdeveloped genre, with most of the notable work having been done in the United States; however, this is beginning to change. Arguably the modern day’s most prolific new art form, gaming needs a critical language through which players can discuss their experiences. Similarly, it needs a language that allows people who don’t play videogames to gain an appreciation for the form, just as other genres have in the past. Just as we have always had literary critics, music critics, and film critics, the prevalence of videogames in modern culture is starting to get people to realise just how important it is that we start paying serious attention to videogame critics too.

The description that Jellicoe has put out about the book on the Liberties Press website largely reflects the lack of videogame criticism available today, stressing its importance in light of gaming culture and game development taking a front-seat in popular media. “The children that grew up on Atari [70s-era gaming consoles] now have children of their own - a generational bridge that has certainly played a part in the growing credibility of gaming culture,” the webpage acknowledges, going on to state that, “more and more, the aesthetic potential of games is being explored and realised within other media, as interactive art installations grow in prevalence and publishers look to digital storytelling.” This collection sees itself as a continuation of this exploration.

Over the last year, Zoë Jellicoe of Liberties Press has been working on a collection of essays on video criticism, with work from a variety of journalists and developers involved in the independent gaming world featuring within it. Promising to deliver a range of criticism varying from “spatial design and existential fear, to the popularisation of roguelike games, to the representation of dating and the (in)complete history of walking sims”, the collection represents a great undertaking on Jellicoe’s part, and may well be the first of its kind amongst Irish criticism.

When asked why she had decided to put the collection together, Jellicoe replies that she had actually decided that she wanted to put together an anthology of writing about video games two years or so ago. “Sam Tranum [a previous Liberties Press editor] had just finished working on Silicon Docks, a collection of essays on Dublin’s tech culture,” she explains. “There’s so much fantastic video game writing online and in magazines, but all I could find in the way of books were Minecraft handbooks. I’m putting the collection together because nothing like it exists yet, and because I want to spread the word about all the exciting developments in indie design and gameplay, to gamers and non-gamers alike.”

The pool of writers involved include Totally Dublin contributor Leo Devlin, the writer, game critic and videogame narrative designer Cara Ellison, freelance games designer Holly Gramazio, and Soba Kareem, codirector of Dames Making Games. Also involved are Alone in the Park creator Katherine Neil, Rock, Paper, Shotgun contributor Adam Smith, The Arcade Review founding editor Zolani Stewart, giantbomb.com editor Austin Walker, and Totally Dublin Art Director Aidan Wall. Jellicoe was also able to draft in the talents of Imogen Oh of Oh Hey Friend for the collection’s artwork, and Steve O’Connor will be creating the Kickstarter video. As Jellicoe explains, the collection swiftly became far more than just Jellicoe’s passion, it became the combined effort of this team of dedicated writers and artists.

Ellison was the first person Jellicoe had gotten in touch with. “I love her writing and she’s also incredibly cool,” Jellicoe declares. “She was super enthusiastic and got back in touch immediately with a list of other writers and developers that she thought could be interested in getting involved.

I badgered everybody over email - and even one writer on Tinder - with surprising success. A few writers had to pull out but almost everyone was really into the project, and even people who didn’t have the time to contribute a chapter asked to be kept updated and promised to plug it.”

Despite noting that nothing like the collection currently exists in the Irish scene, Jellicoe doesn’t necessarily view videogame criticism as a neglected genre, but rather as a misrepresented one. “Perhaps rather than neglected, mainstream media has tended to focus on only one side of the gaming community and video game development,” she clarifies, highlighting the divide in awareness between AAA, studio-backed games, and those made by indie developers. “A lot of newspapers don’t even really know where to put video game writing, if they include it at all, while radio tends to be more open-minded. Maybe that’s because radio has been more recently accepted as an art form. While there’s a lack of essay-length criticism, there’s more every day.”

In order to fund the collection, Jellicoe and Liberties Press will be launching a crowdfunding campaign on the 15th of February on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. They have a target goal of €3,500 that they’re hoping to raise in order to cover the fees for the writers, editorial, in-house design and production, publication and distribution. When asked why she had decided to go through Kickstarter to fund the collection, the answer was simple: connectivity. After all, the book is a collection of essays written by writers connected by their passion for videogames, so hoping that their audience will share that passion and help make the book a reality isn’t that much of a leap.

“more and more, the aesthetic potential of games is being explored and realised within other media.”

“I want to make books that I feel a connection to,” Jellicoe states, “but I also want to make books that other people are excited about, and what better way to gauge interest than through a crowdfunding campaign? If successful, it’s also essentially free publicity. Free, stressful, sleep-depriving publicity. Some very talented friends worked on the video, and Imogen from Oh Hey Friend has created some incredible artwork so I’m confident we’re putting our best foot forward.”

As for what she hopes to achieve with the collection, Jellicoe keeps her expectations modest. “One thing I’m hoping all the essays will have in common is an appeal to readers who might not be hardcore gamers themselves but have an interest in digital media,” she claims. “I’d love for the collection to break down some perceived barriers between other types of media, and it would be incredible if it helped foster a deeper and wider appreciation of independent games.”

WORDS BY NICHOLAS KENNY BACKGROUND ART BY IMOGEN OH OF OH HEY FRIEND

The Kickstarter for Critical Hits: An Indie Gaming Anthology will launch on February 15th.

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not another

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Fashion Editor John Tierney speaks to the founders of NotAnother Agency, an agency committed to bringing diversity to the Irish fashion and modelling industries.

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ounded in 2015 by the owners of Dublin vintage store Nine Crows, Dean McDaid and Emma Frazer, NotAnother Agency represents models, photographers, make up artists and stylists who don’t necessarily fit the constraints of the Irish fashion industry. “We always had it in our minds that it was something we wanted to do. [With Nine Crows] We have worked with agencies here in Dublin and didn’t always have the best experiences with them. That, coupled, with the fact that there just wasn’t enough diversity in the models here made us decide to start when we did.” These experiences, mixed with a serious frustration over Ireland’s misrepresentation spurred the pair on. “There is this weird gap in Ireland; you walk down the street and you see these amazingly dressed young people who have a fashion sense beyond their years; you also see international brands using really unusual, interesting models and creating such fresh interesting work. Then you look at some of the work that is produced in Ireland and it doesn’t match up.”

NotAnother has certainly garnered quite a lot of attention recently for their diverse list of models. “It was definitely a conscious decision that we wanted to work with all different types of clients. That is our aim with the agency, to have a model that will suit any brand or client.” The agency also coincides with a shift in global tastes surrounding our concept of beauty, something the pair see as an “exciting” move in fashion. “The world has opened its eyes up more. We’ve become so overexposed to people who have the typical ‘perfect’ look that we have become bored with it. We want to be intrigued by the models we see in ads and campaigns.”

Of course, you can also see the agency’s ethos as having a political dimension, especially as discussions surrounding representation gain traction in mainstream media. When asked whether they plan on representing race, size and different types of gender identities more in the future, McDaid and Frazer reply: “YES YES YES! It’s so important to represent all different types of people. We are starting a Street Cast division in our agency, where we will be representing all shapes, sizes, heights that wouldn’t work for every type of job a standard model would have to do but would definitely work for certain brands. We also have quite a diverse range of models when it comes to race which we believe is so important and we are definitely hoping to build on that even more.” Clearly race and size are major concerns for the company, but our discussion of gender identity is not elaborated on. The agency’s primary goal is to build careers for their models, assigning them to brands who will work well with their look. Perhaps there is a lack of such commercial opportunities for models who express a non-binary gender identity. If this is the case, surely this is something that needs to be addressed. Nevertheless, McDaid and Frazer agree that “Ireland is definitely changing for the better and it is great to be a part of it.”

Ireland’s fashion community has always been viewed as a very small and traditional group of industry professionals. As a result the scope for radical change has always been limited. “The industry here seemed to have got stuck and not caught up to the rest of the world. Yet we have some of the most amazing designers, stylists, photographers and other creatives here, and the industry in Ireland thus far has been letting them down and forces many to end up emigrating.” In July 2015, i-D published an

article entitled “dublin...wish you were here” outlining an emerging design community based in Dublin. The pair view the internet as the biggest factor contributing to Dublin’s new status as a growing fashion hotspot. “People nowadays are so clued-in to what is happening in the world, especially this generation. You can sit at home and be inspired by things from all around the world without having to even move. Now our generation is growing up and they’re stepping into roles that had before been filled by people who had gotten comfortable and stopped pushing boundaries. The fashion industry is ever changing yet here there was a big lull. We definitely see it changing and it’s so refreshing and a very exciting time for Dublin and Ireland.”

Clearly for NotAnother the internet is a source of inspiration and connectivity. However, it also presents new challenges and opportunities which must be properly understood in order to thrive. “We see [social media] as being very positive and something we really make sure our models make the most of. Any client hiring a model now wants to see their instagram account. A model with a large following may get picked over a model who isn’t active on social media so we try and help them with their online identities.” It also helps that McDaid and Frazer are quite young themselves, growing up with the same forces and demands that their clients are put under. They also see these generational ties as something which aids in their relationship with the models they represent. “What it comes down to is that we think we are far more relatable than the other agencies here. We are also a lot closer in age to our models so I think that helps people feel comfortable with us.”

2015 was a big year for Irish fashion and for NotAnother. So what’s next for the agency? “We have been so shocked at the creative talent we have found in Ireland. It’s been exciting working with these amazing people and we are putting a lot of time into trying to help these people get work here [...] This whole journey so far has happened very naturally. We don’t have any set goals other than to help brands and clients create the best work they can in Ireland and to not have to go overseas to do so.”

NotAnother Agency can be found on instagram @notanotheragency. Their website is www.notanothertheagency.com. NotAnother regularly holds casting calls and street castings. Check their social media channels for details.

WORDS BY JOHN TIERNEY PHOTOS BY KATIE O’NEILL MODELS CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: LEE SHERLOCK, ÁINE TUBRIDY, MANNY AIVO, SAMUEL AWE

“You walk down the street and you see these amazingly dressed young people who have a fashion sense beyond their years.”

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When Cooking is Food for Thought T

Food Editor Rachel Cunningham checks out Om Nom Nom, a group organising events which offer an alternative to the catering services provided by the Direct Provision scheme for refugees and asylum seekers in Ireland.

he right to cook seems like a basic aspect of human survival, yet for those seeking asylum in Ireland, this is not the case. The topic of refugees, and the manner in which they are treated, has become increasingly prevalent in light of Europe’s struggle to cope with the effects of the Syrian war. Although Ireland has been slightly more removed from the steady influx of refugees, last year still saw a total of 3,276 people applying for asylum.

The Direct Provision scheme has been in place since the 10th of April, 2000, ensuring that “basic needs of food and shelter for asylum seekers” are met by the RIA (Reception and Integration Agency). In the 34 centres, located in 16 counties, adults are given an allowance of €19.10 per adult and of €9.60 per child per week. Only a small number of these locations permit self-catering, meaning that some attempt to go without daily essentials so that they can put their money towards better food for themselves or their family.

In September 2014, asylum seekers took to the streets of Athlone to protest the poor food provisions in one of the largest centres in the country. In May of the same year, a report on the matter was written on behalf of Nasc by Keelin Barry entitled “What’s Food Got to Do With It?” Although the report, which describes the Direct Provisions scheme as “a stain on Ireland’s human rights record”, was published almost two years ago, it would appear that little change has been made to the scheme since.

Although in theory the RIA’s provision of food and accommodation is a positive thing, the issue that arises as a result of this is that asylum seekers

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are prohibited from cooking and even storing food for themselves and their children. While food may only scratch the surface of things that need to change in the country’s approach to asylum seekers, as a basic human requirement it is a good place to start, as it can be an added stress in an already bewildering environment.

Many claim that what they are given is inedible, unhealthy, unsuitable for children, and fails to cater to various religious practices, as well as being a general culture shock. Nonetheless, the issue that some find in the Direct Provision scheme is not so much the food in question as it is the active removal of the asylum seeker’s authority in an everyday task that the average Irish citizen takes for granted. The problem is that asylum seekers are denied their freedom to choose, their right to cook.

Om Nom Nom held their first pilot event in collaboration with those seeking asylum in Dublin on January 22nd. It took place in the atmospheric location of NCAD’s Luncheonette basement café, where asylum seekers and volunteers alike were encouraged to cross the threshold of the kitchen, under the attentive eye of Brazilian chef Wagner Dos Santos, before taking their places at the dinner table.

The description that prefaced the event claimed that their aim was “To bridge the gap between ‘them’ as asylum seekers and ‘us’ as Irish Citizens” through a united effort of preparing, cooking and eating food donated by Avoca. * While hunger strikes have for years been used as an entryway into political dialogue, on this day the act of eating proved to be a stand in itself. Although the organisers state that “our event is self-consciously unpolitical in its manifestation”, they acknowledge that “the act of cooking with people seeking asylum is an inherently political act”.

At the helm of the project are two NCAD students, Leonie and Maia.

Leonie’s interest in working with migration issues was sparked in her childhood when she attended the Dun Laoghaire Refugee project with her mum. Equally, Maia is also “interested in all things multicultural”, her interest stemming “from a strong sense of social justice as well as the mixed-ness of her own ethnic background”. They explained that both of their families have “moved and mixed cross-continentally” and hope to use their experiences to cultivate cross-cultural dialogue and acceptance within their current Dublin setting.

When asked what impact they feel such an event can truly have, they responded: “We would hope that it has an empowering impact, as well as encouraging integration and cross-cultural understanding; the hope is

“For events such as Om Nom Nom, cooking and eating are simply tools used to highlight the fundamental rights that are being withheld from asylum seekers.” to primarily provide a safe and unprejudiced space for everyone”. Those looking to get involved can rest assured that this was no standalone occasion. Based on the success of their initial event, Om Nom Nom aims to expand and flourish and is busy planning its next event, fully intending to engage in such activities “for the long haul”.

The experience was, overall, a positive one, blended with a hint of scepticism on the part of the attendees that soon disappeared as the communal cooking effort commenced. Many in attendance had been in the country for a number of years and were now working or studying, glad to have put the asylum seeker status behind them. Admittedly, the right to cook was not considered a great loss by all those who attended the event. One Somali woman, who entered the country as a refugee over a decade ago, stated that cooking had been her main responsibility before she moved to Ireland and she had promised herself to avoid it at all costs when forging a new life for herself. In keeping with her word, she exercised her right not to cook, with a promise to help with the washing up instead.

For events such as Om Nom Nom, cooking and eating are simply tools used to highlight the fundamental rights that are withheld from asylum seekers.

Events such as these provide food for thought. They are an opportunity for volunteers to meet our country’s asylum seekers, not in collective terms, but as individual people with separate stories, interests and inspiring plans for the future that they hope to build in Ireland. *Avoca was purchased by Aramark in 2015, a private international company based in the US, which runs three Direct Provision centres in Ireland.

According to the Irish executive of Aramark, Donal O’Brien, Avoca is independently run within Aramark.

WORDS BY RACHEL CUNNINGHAM PHOTOS BY ALAN GILSENAN

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BASS CULTURE C

Music Editor Josh Kenny interviews Cormac McMahon, half of Rua Sound, about starting a record label and the success of their debut EP.

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ormac McMahon DJs under the name Welfare and, together with Rob Flynn, now runs Ireland’s newest bass music label Rua Sound. Originally from Monaghan, he lived in Dublin for ten years before moving to Galway five years ago. He works three days a week with university students with disabilities and spends the rest of his time as a promoter, soundsystem operator, producer and DJ. McMahon explains how he got started: “I got decks when I was twentythree and spent two years pricking around, playing at house parties. I was playing techno but was also into breakbeat.” In 2007, McMahon cofounded a music crew made up of leftist radicals: Electronic Resistance: “We ran nights in alternative spaces and the money we raised we’d give to various leftist groups. We’d do squat parties, we used to have our own small soundsystem and generator and we’d rock up to protests and do street parties.” McMahon then got involved in Ireland’s first Dubstep label, DubCulture. He expands: “the label was ran by a friend of mine Stephen Concannon, who’s since passed away. He was releasing music by Irish and British artists and putting on nights in Galway.” After Dubstep began to fizzle out around 2010, McMahon switched his focus to Jungle, “that’s when we started Jungle Boogie which is just basically a crew of five DJs based in different cities in Ireland, each member putting on a party in their city, we’d do a tour each year.”

“If you’re selling records, you’ve got to be able to know what DJs are going to buy.”

McMahon met label co-owner Rob Flynn when Rob booked him to play in Cork in early 2009. “We have slightly different tastes in music but we share the same vision. We have enough experience to take on a project like this, which is on the business end. If you’re selling records, you’ve got to be able to know what DJs are going to buy.” Elucidating on the experience which has equipped him for setting up a label McMahon says, “I’ve made some really good contacts in the UK over the years and this is vital because to start a label you need to have the right music. To get that music you need trust and to know people who can vouch for you. I’d brought enough guys over for shows that I had a good reputation. You’ve just got to be prepared to put up with a lot of emails and time spent trawling through music looking for new producers.” McMahon touches on some of the difficulties of running an Irish bass music label: “you’re disconnected physically from the scene [in the UK], because let’s face it, it’s UK dance music, influenced strongly by it’s Caribbean roots”, but he adds, “now with social media and the like, the barriers are becoming smaller, once you’ve got some get up and go.” The debut release on the label features Sully, a producer who is very low-key but at the cutting edge of bass music. Sully’s two tracks on the EP are a sublime mixture of rolling jungle beats and sharp synths; the third track on the record is a Sam Binga remix. McMahon explains how the release came about, “I brought Sully over and we did two shows, one in Belfast and the other in Dublin. He had a really good time and a couple of weeks later I pitched the idea of releasing some music on the label to him and he said yes.”

He goes on to expand on the process of getting the music to the point where it has been pressed on vinyl saying, “A lot of times you’ll get tracks which aren’t finished and you as a label have to know what you want your sound to be, you listen to those and give a little feedback to the artist. After you get the tracks finished, then there’s long process of getting the record manufactured because there is a lot of demand for vinyl production at the moment and not much supply.” Rua Sound have a press and distribution contract with Kudos, “a major player in underground distribution”, and the records themselves are pressed in France by a company called MPO. McMahon continues, “once the tunes are ready to go , it’s about getting

them mastered, getting test-presses done to make sure there’s no problems with the press - in all you’re talking about up to three months lead-time.”

McMahon cautions that distributors will not even talk to you unless you have a clear plan that shows that they are going to make something from the project. Since the release of the EP almost three weeks ago, the record has sold out and McMahon is quick to praise the artists involved, “It’s a great start, Sully made it and getting Sam Binga on the remix, all these things count.” When asked about the type of music that Rua Sound are going to release McMahon explains that “it’s about releasing music that you like, but while I like techno, it’s not something we’re focusing on because we don’t have a strong knowledge of it. Broken-beat bass music is the area in which we know what’s coming, who’s doing what and you kind of have to know this - you need to be well informed.”

Building on this success he talks about the plans for Rua Sound going forward, “our plan is to release a record every three months and initially we plan on having a launch party for each one, but maybe pull back on those once we’re more established,” later adding, “although we’re starting with established names, we want to dig deep and see what going on [in the music scene].” McMahon is tight-lipped about the specifics of their future releases but does say that, “obviously the first release was jungle-y but the Sam Binga remix was a nod to the fact that we’re interested in half-time manipulations and weird time signatures at 160 BPM. The next release will be from that 160/170 uptempo melting pot...it’s just what excites us at the moment.” It’s always good to see Irish record labels being set up but Rua Sound are especially exciting because of their enthusiasm for more experimental higher tempo bass music and the success of their debut EP surely shows that there is an appetite for this music as well. 2016 has already started in a big way from them, but with three more releases due this year, it will be a frantic and hopefully successful freshman year for Rua Sound.

WORDS BY JOSH KENNY PHOTOS COURTESY OF D.I.E. MONTHLY STUDENT NIGHT, LIMERICK

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Strange Fruit by Maia Nunes

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Photo by Ste Murray

Theatre Editor Rory O’Regan speaks with Anne Clarke, co-founder of Landmark Productions about the company’s grwoth, the future of Irish theatre, and working with the Gleesons.

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he winner of this year’s Special Tribute Award at the Irish Times Irish Theatre Awards 2015 is Anne Clarke of Landmark Productions. The company was founded in 2003, with Clarke being the guiding light behind its success. It has grown to produce shows such as Ross O’Carroll Kelly’s Breaking Dad, and Enda Walsh’s The Walworth Farce, starring Brendan, Brian and Domhnall Gleeson. It is one of Ireland’s leading theatre producers and has had productions staged as far afield as New York and Korea.

Asking how it feels to join the likes of Stephen Rea and Marie Mullen in receiving the award, Clarke remains modest, despite her company’s repertoire. “I didn’t know where to place myself,” she jokingly admits and confesses most of her surprise at winning the accolade derived from her profession itself – producers do not generally win this award. Academy Award-nominated actor Stephen Rea was last year’s winner and Clarke cites his acceptance speech as the highlight of the evening. This year’s ceremony will take place on March 6th at the National Concert Hall in Dublin and Clarke’s excitement is palpable: “I will be following in the footsteps of one of my biggest heroes”. The winner is chosen by a specially comprised organising team, including Irish Times editors and writers.

Looking back at establishing the company over a decade ago, it must be hard to fathom how far the company has come in that period, in becoming one of Ireland’s largest theatre producers. “Not in a million years did I expect this,” she explains. “It started out doing a few separate things: managing tours, a bit of consulting and casting, with only a bit of

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l a n d m a r k s

producing. But then the producing grew. Everything was quite organic”.

Since its establishment, the company has produced eighteen plays, all over the world, and continues to grow.

“Organic” is another word Clarke uses when describing how the company has adapted itself to produce such a wide variety of shows. From operas to musicals to comedy, the company has covered all sorts of genres. So, does Clarke have a favourite genre? “No,” she says simply. “We work on a production to production basis. It is more about the people and the collaborators rather than the genre”. The company’s most recent production, an opera by Donnacha Dennehy and Enda Walsh called The Last Hotel, had popular stints in London and New York. Clarke confides that such was the popularity of the production, it is being adapted into a film for broadcast by Sky Arts, directed by Enda Walsh.

The respect held for Walsh by Clarke is obvious, emphasised by the volume of productions the two have worked on together. “Enda can do anything,” she explains. “He is an absolutely brilliant collaborator and makes things happen”. The pair have collaborated on Misterman, Ballyturk and The Walworth Farce, to name but a few.

The Walworth Farce in the Olympia Theatre was one of the most sought after tickets of 2015. Starring Brian, Brendan and Domhnall Gleeson, it tells the story of a father and his two sons after moving to London. Clarke described working with the Gleesons as a fantastic experience: “What made it special was it was their project. It was something they really wanted to do.” Such is a mark of the hard-working nature of the family – Clarke tells us Domhnall started rehearsing the day after he returned home from filming The Revenant. As such, it is not surprising the Olympia was packed out every night. Despite having travelled to various theatres all over the world, Clarke admits a “full house at the Olympia really is something special.”

The Olympia is where the multi-award-winning musical Once returns to Dublin this coming July. The show has had stints in New York, London and Korea, and boasts eight Tony awards. Clarke calls its appearance on the Korean stage “a happy accident,” but is adamant its success comes down

to its adaptability all over the world: “The quality of Irish theatre is up there with the best in the world. Once just screams authenticity.” Ten out of the original twelve strong cast will be reprising their role for its return this summer. Ross O’Carroll’s Kelly Breaking Dad also returns this year, appearing in the Gaiety and University Concert Hall, Limerick.

On the future of the company, Clarke is understandably upbeat: “I just hope we continue what we are doing, and continue to find an international platform to show our work”. She is equally hopeful for the future of Irish theatre, and with a tinge of pride argues that Ireland continually punches above its weight worldwide. “Ireland has so much to offer,” she explains.

“We need to harness this by emphasising the importance for artists to be as ambitious as anyone from any country. It is important for us to get our work out”. She acknowledges that often artists of all forms, regardless of talent, do not get the opportunities for whatever reason. As such, apprehensive about the upcoming election, she hopes that the forthcoming government is “enlightened in that the arts needs far more support that it has been getting”.

Like many, she was deeply disappointed by the Abbey’s Waking the Nation programme. The programme is completely gender imbalanced – one of its ten programmed plays is written by a woman, despite hopes the programme would be representative of society. Nevertheless, Clarke sees it as a “watershed moment” and believes only good things will come of it.

“Within the next few years, everything will change and there will be far more female representation across theatre”.

A conversation with Anne Clarke is inspiring. With her growing company, and collaborations with brilliant individuals such as Enda Walsh, the opportunities are endless. The future looks bright for Irish theatre, and with companies like Landmark Productions out there, perhaps the best is yet to come.

Ross O’Carroll Kelly’s Breaking Dad runs 14 - 26 March at the Gaiety Theatre, and 29 March - 2 April at the University Concert Hall, Limerick.

Photo of Once: The Musical courtesy of Landmark Productions

WORDS BY RORY O’REGAN

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drawing Marc Quinn’s cast of his own head, consisting of 10 pints of his own blood.

blood Art Editor Sarah Morel considers the power of blood when used in art, in conversation with experimental painter Conor Collins.

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I

n the month of November, 2015, a work by artist Conor Collins appeared on social media outlets around the globe. Thousands of people were captivated by the ordered streaks of red which formed the likeness of the late Alan Turing, the British mathematician and World War Two codebreaker. There may be a few discernible reasons for the reaction this portrait incited. The portrait was an incredible display of skill and attention to detail, capitalising on the reinvigoration of Turing’s fame that came with the release of The Imitation Game. However, it was the medium - that is, human blood - that seemed to transfix the portrait’s vast audience above all other factors, or rather, it was the feature most commented upon by critics and fans alike.

Of course, art is no stranger to the substance. Aside from blood, other bodily fluids have found their way into the world of art, examples being the highly controversial Piss Christ by the photographer Andres Serrano, or the spit art performances of Albert Reyes. However, regarding mediums, it is blood that seems to have retained an almost sacred status, creating both awe and fear in a work of art’s audience.

Without a doubt, blood maintains an ancient cultural significance. Going as far back as the blood sacrifices of the Aztecs,almost every culture on earth reveres the substance as something incredibly powerful. It is seen by certain religions, such as Judaism, as the essential essence of life - something much more sanctified than a composition of plasma and cells. Therefore, when it is used in art, it could be seen as something akin to sacrifice, and perhaps this is why it grants a certain strength to art which is rarely seen with other artistic mediums.

“Blood is so primarily related to life that we cannot see it as just a red liquid, it’s the life I have drawn from a person.” life and a person. If you compare a skull to a thigh bone for example, both are bones. However, in one all you really see is a bone, but in the other you see a person and you start to lay into it different thoughts about their life, their love and their death. The same goes with blood. It’s so primarily related to life that we cannot see it as just a red liquid, it’s the life I have drawn from a person.”

However, on occasion, this same significance serves to overshadow the subject matter itself due to what some describe as the medium’s “shock value”. In some cases, when pieces created in human-blood (especially the artist’s own blood) are released to the public, the medium is the first point of interest. In these instances, arguably, the painting loses its intended substance to the Of course, artists such as overpowering, shocking Marc Quinn have literally presence of its medium. sacrificed their bodies for The art becomes Kitsch, art. Quinn’s ongoing series somewhat meaningless - an Self, which began in 1991, observation which has been Conor Collins’ portrait of Alan Turing, painted with blood donated consists of five sculptures applied to the work of Marc by gay medical professionals. depicting a cast of Quinn’s Quinn. Whether this is the head. Each piece contains case or not, is up for debate. at least four or five litres of In certain ways, blood as a the artist’s frozen blood, extracted over a period of five months in each medium has become rather problematic, and so artists have had to take instance. Similarly, Phil Hansen’s pointillist-esque portrait of Kim Jong Il certain precautions when using it. also uses the artist’s own blood. In some severe cases, such as with New York based painter Vincent Castiglia (who paints exclusively in blood), the When speaking to Collins on using his own blood for future pieces (the health of the artist has been compromised due to improper bloodletting Alan Turing portrait relied on blood donations), he expressed his concern practices. In cases where the artist uses their own blood, the line between for the “shock” aspect of blood. He went on to say, “I would use my own art and artist becomes blurred and the work itself becomes comparable to blood, however only for the right piece. If I keep using blood I think the a body part. paintings will start to rely on a shock value that I’ve always hated. […]

There was a fad of being shocking in art which has since passed, […] but Speaking on the Alan Turing portrait, Collins described his own views it’s not enough to be shocking anymore, it needs to have substance.” on the significance of blood: “There are certain things we associate with 25

“I think there’s a lot of possibilities with a piece when a medium behaves that way.”

Indeed, the Alan Turing portrait is certainly lauded as an art work with substance by critics and general audiences alike. The portrait was commissioned by the UK-based Freedom to Donate organization as part of its 2015 Awareness Week. The organisation campaigns for the freedom of sexually active homosexual men to donate blood, which, under current UK law, is banned. For the creation of the portrait, Collin’s took donations from gay men - most of them in the health profession - who are unable to donate blood according to UK regulations. Of course, Turing himself, who is arguably responsible for saving thousands of lives thanks to his contributions in the war effort, was completely ostracized for his sexuality.

Having been sentenced to chemical castration following prosecution for homosexual acts in 1952, Turing died two years later in what is suspected to be a suicide.

In this light, the use of blood in the portrait exudes an element of protest, perhaps reflecting the life lost due to stigmas which still survive in society today. There certainly seems to be a trend existent in human-blood art, that being the genre of portraiture. Other artists use blood in depictions of non-human subjects, one example being Jordan Eagles, whose swirling abstract designs are created using cow’s blood, usually the run-off from slaughterhouses. However, when it comes to human blood, portraiture appears to be the genre of choice.

There may be many reasons for this trend. Possibly, it is the combination of the blood, a substance shared amongst all humankind, with the face, a bodily feature which differs in every individual. Together they create an image which is both powerfully universal and yet incredibly personal at the same time. It is for this reason that blood-portraiture often conveys undertones of human mortality in some instances, as with Marc Quinn’s Self, and strong messages of protest in others, as is the case with Collins’ recent portrait.

Of course, the colour red, in itself, is commonly known as a colour used to represent violence or passion. In a nutshell, it is a colour which communicates power, whether or not it derives from evil or from virtuous sources. Perhaps this is because red is the colour of blood. Across all artistic mediums of protest, be it posters, banners or logos, red is the colour that has become commonplace. It is possible therefore, that when blood replaces the mere pigment, a conceivably more primal, human element is introduced. When it was revealed that the Alan Turing portrait was rendered in blood, as opposed to streaks of red ink, it garnered a strength, a resonance with its audience, that may not have occurred had Collins opted for a more conventional medium.

26

Phil Hanson’s pointillism-inspired portrait of Kim Jong Il

On the other hand, blood undermines the immortalizing aspect of portraiture. Since its inception as a genre, portraiture has been used to record a certain period of a sitter’s life, thereby immortalizing them within the realms of the canvas. In the series Self, by using blood, as opposed to stone or some other conventional medium of sculpture, Quinn attempts to remind the viewer of their own mortality. Though his likeness will be forever enshrined in his own frozen blood, it is this very substance that keeps him alive, and eventually, he, like all living things, will succumb to death and decay as the blood ceases to circulate. Through his series, Quinn has played on, and indeed exploited, the morbid fascination with death, a fascination which seems to be innate in human nature.

paint, but then in a few seconds begins to behave like ink, then after a few minutes behaves like oil paint. I think there’s a lot of possibilities with a piece when a medium behaves that way.” Perhaps, if blood was easier to come by, it would become a popular artistic medium. Indeed, it is rarely used in art due to the ethical issues of harvesting. However, blood could lose its symbolic significance if this became the case. Arguably, it is simply the rarity of this medium which lends it this “sacred” status in human culture. Perhaps the art world will never know, especially given the constant need for blood supplies for medical purposes. What we can be sure of is that blood, when used for art’s sake, takes on a personality, a significance of its own, and as if by magic, the face on the page becomes a human in its own right.

As for the quality of the medium itself, Collins describes it as encompassing qualities of numerous conventional mediums: “It goes on like acrylic

WORDS BY SARAH MOREL

REVIEWS NOWHERE

64 AUNGIER ST. ●●●●●

Occupying an inconspicuous location on 64 Aungier Street, one could easily walk past Nowhere. What cannot be ignored, however, is the impact that this relatively small store has had on revisioning Dublin’s menswear. Since its inception Nowhere has strived to collate and curate the best of international menswear,

particularly those styles that you may not find in other luxury retailers. The store is also admirable in how it places recent Irish designers like Rory Parnell Mooney alongside more established names. “It was always going to be a risk to open something like Nowhere in a traditionally conservative market like Ireland”, Brian Teeling, the store’s owner, tells me. This risk has obviously paid off with the opening of a new Nowhere store, just next door at number 65.

The new space is significantly larger than its predecessor, with white walls and bespoke lighting offering a strong alternative to the moody interior of number 64. In fact, this store feels more like a gallery space than a straight

retail environment, an attitude that is matched

by Teeling’s approach to selecting garments for the Nowhere man. “Curation fascinates me… the personal touch… I guess I want to reflect that in Nowhere with my selection. Questioning how the clothing in my store would affect Dublin as it is, does it have an impact, and more importantly does it fit?” This is certainly something the consumer feels upon entering the store. While the selection works together to produce a cohesive vision, there seems to be a piece for anyone willing to invest in a truly individual, high end product.

At once a statement of personal style and also a reflection of the contemporary Dublin man, the selection available at Nowhere will continue to expand with the new space allotted by the expansion of Teeling’s business. This season the stock includes Raf Simons, Tim Coppens, Achilles Ion Gabriel, Adidas Consortium and Y-3 with more to be added for AW16. In terms of when we can see the collections in-store, Craig Green’s Spring / Summer designs are currently available with the rest to be added by mid February.

With this expansion Teeling has proven that menswear is no longer a niche interest or a passing trend, hence it is fitting that Nowhere enjoys a truly contemporary space for an equally contemporary vision of Irish menswear.

WORDS BY JOHN TIERNEY

TENDER WOUNDS GALLERYX ●●●●○

Christina Tzani’s first solo exhibition “Tender Wounds” combines innocence and suffering to create an astounding collection of portraits.

Through ink, oils and watercolours, this Greek artist confronts the cruelty of child abuse.

All of the pieces are single portraits on white backgrounds. Each tells a story: some of the poisoned children are refugees or myths, and some aren’t even children at all, but babies or three legged-angels. Tzani consistently blurs the lines between reality and imagination.

The faces of these subjects are carefully sculpted with paint to create three-dimensional optical blending that bring them alive. Tzani contrasts this detail with simple hair and clothes— challenging what may be suggested by plain outward appearances. However, with several pieces this can seem careless, as if Tzani’s skill lies in facial features alone.

The artist utilises vivid red, purple and green colours on her subjects to desensitise the viewer into forgetting what they represent:

blood, bruises and mental scarring. Tzani isn’t afraid to experiment further by using thick layers of salt to create a teary lustre on several works. She also applies paint straight out of the tube to the canvas, which aligns with how her young subjects might paint. All of these subtle techniques complement the theme.

A folder displays more of Tzani’s ink works, and it’s clear that she is a master of the medium. Her brushwork (and lack thereof) shows detailed human forms even from seemingly unworked ink.

This exhibition is grotesque, unique and emotionally challenging.

Tzani never romanticises her theme, only the viewer, who is lulled into a false sense of security. The audience is forced to separate her colourful execution from her entrapped subjects. Even the sheer number and variety of young people featured serves as a stark reminder that child abuse cannot be forgotten as an issue in society, despite being disguised with playful colours.

Tzani’s exploration of different mediums and her portrayal of a difficult subject make this demanding exhibition well worth a visit to GalleryX. WORDS BY CHOY-PING CLARKE-NG 27

A ‘Firewatch’ or ‘Fire Lookout’ was a job favoured by rugged mountain men and poets of the Beat generation, now favoured by people who wish they had been poets of the Beat generation, those trying to get over bad breakups, and recovering alcoholics. This Firewatch in particular is the first game by Campo Santo, a new studio made up of veteran game designers from the likes of Telltale Games (The Walking Dead series), Klei Entertainment (Mark of the Ninja, Don’t Starve, Invisible Inc.) and 2K Marin (Bioshock 2). With such venerable institutional knowledge behind them, and Firewatch’s deliberate attempts to be something of an ‘art game’, Firewatch could very much be the closest thing indie games have had to ‘Oscar bait’. Thankfully the fledgling studio have managed to create something heartfelt and affecting out of the hype.

Firewatch is something of a light puzzler and walk-’em-up in the vein of (and heavily indebted to) Dear Esther and Gone Home. Players control (although ‘inhabit’ may be a better term) the character of Henry, a schlubby guy approaching middle-age, who takes a summer job as a Fire lookout in the Wyoming wilds of 1989. Henry is running away from his life, for reasons that become apparent in the beautifully crafted introductory sequence. Combining a text-based adventure and a lightweight introduction to the game mechanics, players pick and choose some of the choice moments of Henry’s life, interspersed with his hike to the eponymous Firewatch. It’s a bold opening, offering little in the way of “gaming”, but managing to pack an emotional punch as memorable and melancholy as Up’s heartbreaking introduction. The rest of the game 28

FIREWATCH CAMPO SANTO ●●●●○

follows the flow of Henry’s brief hike; you walk, you climb a bit, and you take in the delightful, almost cartoon-like vistas of the National Park.

Players looking for an adrenaline pounding action-adventure like Uncharted will have to look elsewhere, as Firewatch’s charm lies in its gentle pace, warm landscapes, and emotionally charged narrative.

Once you arrive at the Firewatch, you’re greeted by Delilah, your sole companion throughout the game. Delilah is staying in the other lookout; a small beacon of light on the distant mountain top, but the distance between you doesn’t diminish her presence. Delilah (video game voice acting veteran Cissy Jones) is hard to summarise as a character; she’s your boss, your mentor in the wilderness, your guide through the game, but also your friend, and an important presence for Henry during this strange summer in the wilds. A voice at the other end of a radio has rarely meant more, and the developing relationship between her and Henry (voiced by Rich Sommer, who Mad Men fans will recognise as the irrepressibly slimey Harry Crane, taking a wonderful left turn here) is the emotional core to Firewatch’s twisty, eerie plot and lightly-adventurous gameplay. It’s hard to understate how central this relationship is to Firewatch without giving much away, but it’s rare that a game has devoted this much energy to developing a relationship between its characters, and rarer still that that

relationship feels as natural and genuine as Harry’s and Delilah’s.

However, this moving centrepoint is let down

by Firewatch’s plot. It’s a well trodden path; you’re in the woods, isolated from civilisation and telephones, and weird stuff starts happening. Again, it is hard to delve into this plot without giving too much away, but when strange occurrences begin, they are a welcome interruption to the otherwise mundane duties of the lookout. Unfortunately, as the plot begins to build in momentum, these events - while staying credible and interesting, but increasingly weird - begin to overwhelm the much more relatable, personal relationship at the centre of the game. The ending manages to avoid Twilight Zone cliche, and goes for something much more human. Whether or not the mystery-packed plot will satisfy will probably rely on how invested you were in it, and for many I imagine it will leave them feeling a little short-changed. That said, over its all-toobrief six or so hour running time, Firewatch manages to do something astonishing. In a gaming landscape packed with cold-blooded super-soldiers, hyper-violent twitch shooters and bloated open world mayhem simulators, Campo Santo have crafted something gentle, warm and incredibly human. Firewatch won’t be for everyone, but for those who give it their time, they may find something bittersweet and beautiful out in the woods.

Reviewed on PS4, also available on PC.

WORDS BY BUD MCLOUGHLIN

THE BLACK CALHOUNS

key issues at the time. It also allows for the story of this point in history to be told in a manner that does not centre on a white perspective.

GAIL LUMET BUCKLEY ●●●●○

The concept is executed effectively. The chapters focusing on the period between the abolition of slavery and the Civil Rights movement are particularly interesting, as this period is often discussed in a manner that ignores black experiences of the time.

There is also a conscious effort to avoid oversimplifying African-American experiences.

For instance, the book takes great care to point out how geographical location, education and class could intersect with race, resulting in different black individuals having radically different experiences.

The Black Calhouns by Gail Lumet Buckley is a fascinating insight into the life of the Calhoun family, recently released by Atlantic Monthly Press. By examining the fortunes of the Calhoun clan over a span of more than a century, this book provides a fascinating insight in the life of an African-American family.

Part family history, part memoir, this detailed book provides an engaging account of the Calhoun family starting from shortly after the abolition of slavery and continuing to the present day. Buckley manages to balance telling the story of the family and its individual members, and explaining the context in which they lived. Approaching this period in history through the story of a particular family is an interesting approach, not least because the Calhoun family was deeply involved in many

The Black Calhouns is a detailed, fascinating book, and definitely worth checking out.

However, the depth of the research does not make it a suitable choice for a quick read.

WORDS BY TANYA SHEEHAN

A BIGGER SPLASH LUCA GUADAGNIO ●●●●○

Luca Guadagnino follows up his critically acclaimed I Am Love (2010) with a comically cynical offering, A Bigger Splash. The title refers to David Hockney’s pop art painting of the same name (1967), in which an out-of-sight figure has produced an enormous eruption on the surface of an otherwise tranquil swimming pool, presumably by diving in headfirst. This nod nicely incorporates the fact that the film’s structure is loosely based on that of Jacques Deray’s cult French classic, La Piscine (1969), which saw Alain Page’s psychosexual thriller novel interpreted on screen. Page directly contributed to the story for Guadagnino’s updated version, in which a striking collection of characters collide and shatter after a deluge of devastatingly unexpected twists.

Tilda Swinton plays Ziggy Stardust-esque rockstar Marianne Lane. Lane is on vocal rest while holidaying on the Sicilian island of Pantelleria, accompanied by her filmmaker boyfriend Paul (Matthias Schoenaerts). The idyllic calm of the first few scenes is ruptured by the unanticipated arrival of an obnoxious figure from Marianne’s past, Harry (Ralph Fiennes). An ex-lover/producer, Harry has brought his newly-discovered wild-child daughter, Penelope (Dakota Johnson), along for the ride.

Unsurprisingly, the film’s conflict stems primarily from this spontaneous visit/ambush.

The result is a stunning two hours of hot

sun on stones, full-frontal heavy breathing, potential incest, an award-winning Rolling Stones soundtrack, and Swinton’s array of unbelievably gorgeous outfits designed by Raf Simons for Dior. Swinton herself is superb, once again proving her acting chops, her talent only bolstered by having to stay mute for most of the film, while Fiennes excellently straddles the boundary between annoyingly likeable and diabolically creepy. Johnson succeeds in making you momentarily forget that she played the lead role in a multi-million dollar erotic movie franchise that found its origins in fan fiction, and Schoenaerts goes some way to cementing his position as more than a sensitive Belgian hunk.

While background references to the Tunisian migrant crisis help to define the island setting as more than a nondescript hot climate, it is really the swimming pool which constitutes the central location of the film, and where the crucial action takes place. Hockney has said that his painting is a comment on the fact that it takes two weeks to construct an image of a splash that lasted two seconds. By the end of A Bigger Splash, it is all but impossible to misinterpret the enormity of those submerged seconds.

WORDS BY elizabeth hollingsworth 29

CHELSEA DRUGSTORE SOUTH GREAT GEORGES STREET ●●○○○

Newly opened in November, the Chelsea Drugstore has been on my radar and to do list for quite some time. Entering on a Friday night, the upstairs bar was packed, so my friend and I opted to go downstairs, which proved to have a better atmosphere. It certainly felt like we were underground, with the exposed red brick walls and low hanging lights.

The staff offered warm smiles and my friend and I immediately asked for the cocktail menu.

Despite a positive first impression, it all took a turn when I actually tried the drinks. My first drink was the For Rita, which had a rum base.

If anything, it was entertaining to watch it being made. It was topped with a lime, which served as a miniature bowl for a shot of Havana 3 year rum, with pomegranate seeds swimming in it. Unexpectedly, the top of the lime got set on fire. I was lightly instructed to wait until it went out, and then tip the rum into my drink.

It tasted very fiery and zesty with a strange bite to it. I was bemused and entertained by its creation, but ultimately disappointed by its taste. My friend went for the Raimunda, which had Illegal Mezcal, Olmeca Blanco, Aperol and

Grapefruit, and was garnished with a jalapeno.

It was spicy, smoky and the grapefruit bitters made it tart.

My second round was the Cnuas, with a Jameson base, which the Chelsea Drugstore describes as malty, seasonal and creamy. With Pistachio syrup and an overwhelming amount of nutmeg, it tasted like Christmas, but not in a good way. Taking a break from this, I tried my friend’s new drink, the Fay Ray. While deciding that I also wasn’t mad about this, I had a minor revelation. Somehow, despite their different spirits and ingredients, all the drinks we had tried managed to taste the same. They were

BIG MAGGIE

with Keane, The Gaiety is Big Maggie’s newest home.

●●●●○

Set in 1960s rural Kerry, Big Maggie shocks in its portrayal of the dark side of the Irish mammy, replete with money, sex, and expletives. After the death of her husband, Maggie quickly begins the methodical reorganisation of her family’s assets under her own control. The mother of two sons and two daughters, Maggie makes no allusions about her unhappy and repressive life as wife to her late husband. Her children, anxious to hear what has been left to them in their father’s will, are shocked when they discover that everything has been signed over to their mother and any promises they may have received are now redundant.

THE GAIETY

Druid’s newest production, Big Maggie, currently runs at The Gaiety Theatre. Known for their groundbreaking twists on both classic and new plays, Druid have done phenomenally well at bringing an Irish theatrical repertoire to a global audience, and have won over fifty awards at home and abroad. Big Maggie continues their exploration of John B. Keane’s work in a return of their acclaimed production from 2011/2012 with Aisling O’Sullivan, John Olohan and Keith Duffy recast in its lead roles.

It is fitting that as a theatre long associated

all overly spicy and tart, with an unwelcome aftertaste. Upon returning home, and eating a bag of salt and vinegar crisps, my friend realised that all the drinks tasted like smoky vinegar, which echoed my sentiments exactly.

All of the cocktails are priced highly at 11.50 or 12.50. If you’re not looking for cocktails, they do have a fair selection of beers and wines.

However, with the Market Bar in such close proximity, you’d be better off going there to get your money’s worth.

WORDS BY ANNA GORDON Aisling O’Sullivan delivers once again a remarkable performance as the domineering matriarch doing all in her power to keep her family, home, and shop in working order.

With a thick Kerry accent, O’Sullivan spurts ultimatums and retorts across the Gaiety stage.

Strong performances from Duffy and Olohan fall to the wayside in O’Sullivan’s shadow.

As the authoritarian crux of the play, she completely dominates the production. Yet the brief glimpses she reveals into the desperate emotion at her heart remind us of the woman behind the overbearing glare, whose harsh manners and rigid opinions may be good intentions, terribly miscalculated.

Tony award-winning director Hynes does well to reimagine the play on the Gaiety stage. Francis O’Connor is once again highly impressive as set designer. With perfectly timed lines and Keane’s sharp wit it is hard not to laugh immensely at Maggie and her children’s exploits. Big Maggie’s success has been such that its run has been extended for three more weeks. With this achievement it is possible this is not the last of O’Sullivan’s Maggie. However one might wonder whether something a little more innovative might be needed from Druid to carry Big Maggie further than O’Sullivan’s continued exhilarating performance.

Big Maggie runs at The Gaiety Theatre until 12th March. Tickets start from €31.

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WORDS BY ELISABETH ROCHFORD

ANTI

credits presumably it’s a replica thereof. By and large the first half of the album seems throwntogether and lacks cohesion.

RHIANNA ●●○○○

After a four year wait following Unapologetic, fans expected Rihanna’s unsubtly titled eighth album to be a departure from the mainstream - a project from the left-field, an example of unshackled creativity. What becomes quickly apparent is that it is not, if anything her producers were very much in control and less than ambitious in scope. Always vacillating between BadGalRiRi and a more delicate persona in her music, ANTI lands her right in the middle of that spectrum. However, there is no new Rihanna to be heard apart from a throwback to female Motown legends found in the impressive track Love On the Brain, then again, that oeuvre is borrowed at best.

Work is meant to be the classic single yet it has no structure, no chorus, just the lyrics ‘work, work, work’ being repeated to the point of being irritating. Drake’s all important feature is underwhelming. Woo, produced by Travis Scott, is categorically awful and shouldn’t have been included. Same Ol’ Mistakes is literally the Tame Impala song with Rihanna singing over it. The interceding tracks are all fine if forgettable.

The last bit is more adventurous: Never Ending, produced by Dido, is a genuinely heartfelt acoustic number that is catchy and moving.

Higher entertains a jazzy vibe, perhaps a little would-be-Winehouse but certainly different. The bonus tracks add some flavour to ANTI with Pose, a rough-hewn acid-ragga track that has some fresh appeal. Otherwise, unfortunately ANTI doesn’t live up to the hype.

The first track Consideration (feat. SZA) sets the record up nicely with a sparse boom-bap and Ri’s patois-laden vocals introducing what has the potential to be something interesting.

Next is James Joint, an homage to ganja which boasts an instrumental that screams Thundercat, yet since he has no production

WORDS BY SAM MARRIOT

BETTER CALL SAUL NETFLIX ●●●●○

Descending into a life of crime is not always inexorable, nor is it always easy. The return of Jimmy McGill (Bob Odenkirk) to television depicts seemingly momentous decisions that fail to have true impact, and continues a fascinating portrayal of middle-aged frustration, indecision, and regret.

The second season premiere of ‘Better Call Saul’ begins with a flash-forward to Jimmy (later Saul Goodman)’s dreary post-Breaking Bad life. Following this, the show repeats the conclusion of last season’s finale, where a defiant Jimmy, betrayed by his brother, decides to abandon his efforts to build a career in the law and turns down a lucrative job offer. He also decides to abandon his attachment to his brother’s morality- committing to only looking out for himself. However, where Walter White found almost immediate success in building a criminal career as ‘Heisenberg’, Jimmy is not yet the silver-tongued Saul. The creators have shown considerable restraint up to now in stretching out the road to the inevitable payoff, and this episode is no different.

Viewers who were hoping that the second season would quickly see the emergence of the fully-formed crooked lawyer may be disappointed, but the show is all the better for it. Much of Jimmy’s world may have

been shattered, but his favoured criminal methods remain rooted in the low-level con artistry of his youth, and his relationship with Kim Wexler (Rhea Seehorn) remains an important chain keeping him attached to his old life. The show portrays the uncertainty of a man wondering whether it is better to move forwards or backwards. It is more faithful to Jimmy’s character that we see him struggle to abandon what until now he has seen as his way forward. Simultaneously, the secondary plot, in which amateur drug-dealer Pryce (Mark Proksch) makes a series of extremely careless decisions, reminds us of how risky the world Jimmy flirts with actually is.

The episode concludes with Jimmy finding a light switch with a label indicating that it should always be left on. He removes the sticker and flicks the switch off, before several seconds later switching it back on again. In this conclusion to an ultimately excellent episode we see the character face his indecision over risk and rebellion- whether to return to a good life that has been tainted for him, or to lash out and take a dangerous path.

WORDS BY PETER GOWAN 31

until feb 20

FEB 16

Tender Wounds Juno and the Paycock

Feb 20

Audi Film Festival

Slum Village

Gallery X, 65 South William Street, free entry

The Gate Theatre, tickets from €27

Dublin, €6.50-25

The Sugar Club, €15/20

Gallery X, Dublin’s newest gallery specialising in surrealist art, presents an exhibition by Greek Artist Christina Tzani. Like other Gallery X shows, Tzani’s exhibition focussing on the horrors of child abuse is sure to unsettle, disquiet, and probe in uncomfortable ways.

Bizzarely beautiful bright colours will lure you in, only to dislocate your sense of security when the nature of the content becomes clear.

The raw tone of her work is sometimes accompanied by tongue in cheek satanic iconography, a kind of awkward contrast that serves to beg the question concerning her conceptual motives.

Sean O’Casey’s masterpiece, Juno and the Paycock, opens at the Gate Theatre on 16 February. First staged at the Abbey in 1924, the pivotal play offers an exploration of life in the tenements during the Irish Civil War. It is the second in O’Casey’s Dublin Trilogy, after Shadow of a Gunman and preceding The Plough and the Stars.

Directed by Mark O’Rowe, the play follows the Boyle family’s lives in the Dublin tenements. While Jack Boyle, the father, and his old friend Joxer Daly spend what little money they have in the pub, avoiding work, Juno, Jack’s wife, works hard to support the family. As life starts to unravel for the Boyles, it is Juno who must struggle to hold it all together. With a cast that includes Declan Conlon, Peter Coonan and Ingrid Craigie, the Gate’s Juno and the Paycock promises to be great.

The biggest event on Dublin’s film calendar is taking place from the 18-28 February.

DIFF is Ireland’s largest film festival with a focus on new Irish and international feature films. Films to look out for this year include John Carney’s portrait of the 1980s Dublin music scene, Sing Street, the beguilinglooking Our Little Sister, from Japanese director Hirokazu Koreeda and Green Room, an American crimehorror about a murder at a punk gig. In addition to the festival’s extensive selection of screenings there are some children’s events, interviews, panel discussions and Q & A’s on offer.

Slum Village, a quintessential hip hop act formed in Detroit in the early 90s, will be hosted in the Sugar Club this coming February 20 by ChoiceCuts. Originally they were a trio consisting of J Dilla, Baatin, and T3, but T3 remains the only surviving member of the original lineup. As such, he performs today alongside Young RJ as part of a duo. Support on the night will be provided

by Dublin’s own Dah Jevu and Souletiquette, and their performance will be preceded by a screening of Fresh Dressed, a documentary about the influence of hip hop on popular fashion.

WORDS BY HANNAH AMADEUS HART

WORDS BY ELISABETH ROCHFORD

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FEB 18

For a full schedule and to book tickets visit www.diff.ie or call 016877974.

WORDS BY RACHEL GRAHAM

WORDS BY FINNÁN TOBIN

feb 22-28

MAR 4

MAR 9-13

MAR 11-13

Dine in Dublin

House of Cards Season 4

MOUNTAINS TO SEA

LEPRECON 37

Dublin, prices vary

Available on Netflix

Dun Leoghaire, From €13

Goldsmith Hall, TCD, €5-€30

If you love sampling new restaurants but don’t have the funds to do so, then this is a week to note down in your diary. This bi-annual scrumptious celebration will be scattering around the city for its 8th year at the end of February. Dine in Dublin is the festival that offers foodies the chance to sample everything from street vendor food to fine cuisine at a discounted price. See the website for the full list of over sixty-five participating and the promotional menu offers that will be available over the course of this week.

It’s that time of year again!

Frank Underwood is set to come back to our (computer) screens with all of his Machiavellian swagger and pithy soliloquies. House of Cards’ long anticipated return represents an interesting milestone in that it is the first of Netflix’s shows to reach its fourth season. With Netflix now churning out a plethora of original content, the Old Faithfuls of House of Cards and Orange is the New Black will face their greatest challenge yet in convincing their viewers to remain faithful to the franchise.

There’s no reason to suggest that the show won’t be able to deliver on its promise.

Season 3 finally saw Frank come up against a feasible adversary in the form of thinly-veiled Putin caricature, Viktor Petrov. It also saw Claire Underwood reveal that she is, in fact, a real human person, the fallout from which will be fascinating. All episodes of House of Cards will be released on Friday March 4.

From March 9-13, Dun Laoghaire will host the Mountains to Sea Book Festival. There will be a wide range of events on offer, from poetry masterclasses, to panel discussions on children’s literature, to the award ceremony for The Irish Times/Poetry Now Award.

The festival will also host an exciting range of authors, including Patrick Ness, Louise O’Neill, Paul Muldoon and PJ Lynch. While this festival has something to satisfy every literature fan, it aims to cater to a wide range of interests, with several film screenings and a historical walking tour on offer. The festival will also include some events outside of Dun Laoghaire, such as a Readers’ Day at Airfield House and Farm, and film screenings in Movies@Dundrum. Events are beginning to sell out, so booking in advance is advisable.

Gearing up for its 37th annual event, Leprecon is Ireland’s oldest gaming convention.

Held every year in Trinity College, it plays host to numerous role-playing games, wargames, and card games, and this year will take place in Goldsmith Hall. Leprecon is a great introduction to gaming conventions for both those looking to see what they’re all about and those with more experience, covering many of the different aspects of gaming conventions in a convenient location at a great price.

WORDS BY FINBAR LYNCH

WORDS BY TANYA SHEEHAN

WORDS BY RACHEL CUNNINGHAM

WORDS BY NICHOLAS KENNY

For more information and bookings, visit mountainstosea.ie

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STAFF PICKS

Chase away those February Blues with a selection of Fringe entertainment.

FILM BLUE “In the pandemonium of image I present you with the universal Blue. Blue, an open door to soul.

An infinite possibility becoming tangible”. So says Derek Jarman in his 1993 audiovisual homage to Yves Klein’s famous hue: International Klein Blue. Blue is Jarman’s last film, released just four months before the filmmaker and artist died of AIDs-related illness. I first saw Blue at a 20th Anniversary showing in the Tate Modern, quite unexpectedly. I shared the incredibly immersive experience with a man who, so hypnotised by the unchanging ultramarine light coming from the screen, snored loudly for most of its 75 minute duration. The form of the piece, which is essentially a radio-play accompanied by a constant vivid blue, is meditative. Denied a point of focus, your eyes swim and relax, allowing your mind to become engrossed in the sound. Mythical tales and farcical choral music pepper a loose narrative which follows Jarman’s increasingly dour hospital visits as he loses his sight. His slow deterioration provides a background for a discussion of the impact of the AIDS epidemic on the gay community. Intermittently you are released from the artist’s unflinchingly direct words about homophobia, friends’ suicides, and the realities of physical decline by the ring of a gong which pulls your attention back to the blue. These moments of silent sensation provide a calm oasis, but also conjure a sense of intense vitality. While Blue is very moving for sombre reasons, it is also a brilliant evocation of the richness of experience.

WORDS BY RACHEL GRAHAM

TV FRINGE Conceived and produced by JJ Abrams at the height of his Lost-related fame, Fringe was an attempt to meld the procedural cop drama and the sci-fi serial. Less X-Files than a blend of Criminal Minds and The Twilight Zone, it spent its first season mashing up gruesome monster-of-the-week episodes against a pile-up of “what the hell is going on?” mysteries. Luckily, its writers seemed to realise that their show wasn’t working, and after an unsure start to the second season (following an admittedly incredible season one cliff-hanger), Fringe settled down into a fast-paced, pulpy sci-fi spectacle.

Fringe’s overarching plot ended up a hugely entertaining, parallel-earth spanning conspiracy, but what anchored this often insane storyline was a solid focus on its fantastic characters and confidence not usually seen in mainstream shows. Fringe managed to balance its self-serious sci-fi with a huge dose of silliness, including the often stoned scientist Walter, a pet cow called Gene, large amounts of LSD, and even a musical episode. However, at the core of Fringe was a heartfelt relationship betweens its main characters. This was bolstered by a uniformly stellar cast - including a great turn from former Dawson’s Creek dreamboat Joshua Jackson, and an award winning performance from Lord of the Rings alumn John Noble. No matter how weird Fringe became (often very) its characters always felt real, and we always cared about what might happen to them in their world gone mad. Now available on Netflix, you have no excuse to miss out on this cult hit and sometime critical darling.

WORDS BY BUD MCLOUGHLIN

LITERATURE BLUETS Maggie Nelson has acquired something of a cult status since publishing Bluets (2009) and The Argonauts (2015). Bluets is a short book written in a series of numbered prose fragments - which is pronounced by the author as “bluettes”, a personal joke on the feminization of words - which each fall into one of the book’s major categories of love, language, sex, divinity, alcohol, pain, death, and the problems of veracity/perception. The colour proliferates in allusions and accumulates in significance; the fragments are citations, memories, and leftovers, and are a collection of blue words, things (like paints and tauplin), facts, anecdotes and musings: “As if we could scrape the color off the iris and still see.” This seemingly fractured book is synthesised by colour as well as borne by narrative momentum of its autobiographical dimension: “Suppose I were to begin by saying I had fallen in love with a colour?” Bluets is also a love letter to prose. The singular elements both stand by themselves and weave into a whole. The book entails a meditation on how our ideas are cohered by form and on the process of thoughts distilling into shapes on the page. Fragments as a literary form are often when prose tips into poetry (check out Frank O’Hara’s You Are Gorgeous and I’m Coming or Mallarmé’s prose poems), and are organised in Nelson’s book by blue, which here is, like the sky or the sea, allenveloping. As how the author experiences the colour, Bluets is beautiful and fascinating, a beguiling short read which lingers in the mind long after, as if the aftertaste of blue.

34 WORDS BY SORCHA GANNON 34

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