Spring 2023

The Boomerang

Spring 2023

Running For a Student Board? Here Is Your Guide To Victory

by Indigo Tjan

Elections at UCU are huge. Election events, posters, campaign videos, a group of suddenly extremely friendly students, and not to forget, the controversies. The weeks after Spring Break are marked by the extravert election periods for CAR, Student Council and the UCSA Board. Having loved campaigning but not being able to run again for a student board, I have decided to help you win.

Tip 1: Prepare well

Firstly, look critically at yourself. Why do you want to run? What makes you valuable? What do you want to improve or change? What are your strengths and weaknesses (both for campaigning and being on a board - two very diferent things)? Do people know you? What is your reputation, and how can you use it? Get a pen and paper and take your time to answer these crucial questions.

Furthermore, actively reach out to relevant people based on your priorities. Current and former student board members can give you information about the job itself. Also impor tant are members of interest groups such as the Wellbeing Team, the Diversity Committee, track representatives (if running for Student Council), and UCSA committees (if running for the UCSA Board). This will help you understand campus and will perhaps shed light on what you want to change. It also shows them that you actually take the topic, and them, seriously.

Lastly, it is good to have thought on all important issues on campus. Mental well-being, diversity and inclusivity, and student representation are relevant topics for all boards. Regarding Student Council and UCSA Board specifcally, I suggest looking at earlier campaign pages on Facebook and talking with current and former board members. Regarding CAR, I think that the main issue is the role that it should play. Should it be more of an activist body (aka housing union) or a communication tool between Lekstede/Diederix/College Hall and students?

Tip 2: Have an election team

You don’t need a big team but you increase your chances by having people help you. You need one or two close friends that will be 100% honest with you. Get together with them to discuss your strategy, brainstorm campaign ideas, proofread all of your correspondence, and practise your election speech. They should tell you

well and have gathered input from as many stakeholders as possible. Sensitive topics are more something to have prepared well in advance in case you get questions. Discussing your running points with others in advance can also help discover weaknesses or even reveal their irrelevance.

Tip 4: Create a memorable PR token

People have to remember you. When voting, students go over the list, not knowing most candidates. Having just completed a group project together can be the reason to either vote or not vote for a particular candidate. In other words, you sometimes don’t need a lot to win. This is where the PR token comes in. By ‘PR token’, I mean a recognisable thing that makes people remember you.

what sucks but also help motivate you. My advice is to look critically at what you are lacking and see if their talents can be utilised to help you in these areas. For example, I am pretty mediocre at speech writing. Luckily my good friend writes insanely well and could give me very valuable feedback on my texts.

Tip 3: Get an easy-to-campaign political agenda

Candidates need to have running points. These running points often stem from a passion but can also result from a (long) process of identifying issues at UCU. I suggest having a couple of issues (about 3) that you can campaign very well. These issues should be relevant, realistic, easy to understand and, preferably, not controversial. What is controversial? In general sensitive topics and ‘radical’ plans such as removing the whole committee structure.

Radical plans can work (and can even be an asset), but only if you have thought it through very

The PR token can be a video, a strong slogan, a song, a rap: whatever works and stays in the mind of voters. The token should embody how people ought to look at you (remember my point on reputation). It should not only show the hard work you put into creating it; it should impress the whole of campus. If done well, the token can be the deciding factor in getting enough votes. I have many examples but also a word limit: I suggest asking your unit mates what they remember from earlier elections.

Is this the only way?

All candidates have their own way of campaigning. However, having talked with many other former (winning) candidates, I am sure that all of them can agree that good preparation and having an election team are key. The agenda-tip is more personal, but it helps make the elections more about content instead of just popularity. The fourth tip is my favourite because it makes the campaigns fun.

The election week is extremely exhausting but also an amazing and unique experience. Both campaigns, even the second one, which I lost, defnitely belong in my UCU highlights. One last tip: plan something fun for the day after election night. To either celebrate your victory or get distracted from your defeat.

Illustration © Ella Darshi

On Partying with White People, Deconstructing Gender, and Being Called "Exotic" by Trisha Bhaya

“My frst week at UCU, there were white people partying in my unit, and all I could say was ‘woah’,” said Rania, a second-year student from Pakistan, with a short laugh.

For Rania, being born and raised in Pakistan meant that arriving in Utrecht and being surrounded by white people was incredibly alien to her. Not to mention the fact that they were partying where she lived. This newfound awareness of diferences between home and this new place underscored many other aspects of her experience moving abroad.

Leaving behind familiar rural landscapes and urban streets, friends she’d grown up with, transport she knew how to navigate, and rich, spice-laden food associated with home, to settle into an unfamiliar environment, completely alone, was not easy. But this is the experience of many international, especially brown, students that come to the Netherlands for higher education.

One such place where international students come to is University College Utrecht (UCU). It's known for a diverse student body, made up of students from 67 diferent countries, as advertised in their 2020 Annual Review. In academic institutions such as UCU, conversations centred around topics of diversity, inclusion, belonging, and decoloniality have become the norm, no doubt spurred on by such high international student numbers.

With these important, fundamental issues circulating the campus, it can be easy to overlook how often minoritized, international students feel and experience everyday life here. Being an international student at UCU means being defned as a foreigner, as someone from somewhere else. Perhaps listening to these student’s experiences can lead to a better understanding of how best to help them feel more at home, especially somewhere that is decisively unfamiliar to them.

class, [the teacher] said we were not going to discuss anything outside of Western art, except for in our own fnal papers,” said Prerna, a frst-year student from Pakistan. While there has been an evident efort to make course curriculums at UCU more inclusive, in many courses, just like in Prerna’s experience, it doesn’t seem to be quite enough. Even when conversations centre around broader, pertinent issues, there does seem to exist, in some way, a gap. “Like, in my class we’ll talk about deconstructing gender, right, but practically that concept is so diferent here than it would be back home,” said Rania. “It can be discussed super theoretically, but how do I even conceive of this idea over there?”

It appears that even in an attempt to consider diferent issues and topics, and broaden the curriculum, there exists some kind of disconnect between classroom theory and the reality for many international students.

These issues, unique to the academic environment, are not the only experience these students have had that have made them feel alienated. It appears that being on a university campus does not excuse some international students from encountering stereotypes during their interactions with other students.

“I’ve even been asked ‘You’re from Pakistan? But your English is so good!’,” said Prerna. Such a question comes completely by surprise to her, having grown up speaking English and having attended a British school in Pakistan. “I’ve even been called exotic,” said Kanrani, another frst-year student from Pakistan. Even an environment flled with educated and critically engaged students appears susceptible to stereotyping and asking inane questions, such as the ones asked during the interactions that Prerna and Kanrani expirenced.

lonesomeness, isolation, alienation, feeling divorced from the reality of other students, whether it is fnancial or ethnic or cultural,” Prerna said. “There seem to be microsocial networks that are already existent and somehow I slip through all of them.”

On the surface, diversity and inclusivity conjure up images of a harmonious, inclusive utopia but it seems as if even in the microcosm that is UCU, many brown students still feel isolated. Prerna, Kanrani, and Rania even all agreed that there was a social disadvantage that came with being a brown student on this campus. Through no fault of their own, the new community international students enter simply is not built with their needs in mind, and eforts to help sometimes come across as paying lip service.

Outside of tangible, physical diferences, for students of colour, being on such a campus means acutely experiencing the difference between the culture you’ve left at home, and the culture that you’ve entered. It also means being exposed to incredibly novel ideas, situations, and people, and can make some students feel out of sorts.

“In my art history course, in the very frst

Despite some potential faws in overarching curriculum plans, discussions, and structures, Kanrani and Prerna both had positive things to say about their professors, agreeing that they were considerate and do deserve credit for trying to teach more broadly. Outside of the classroom, these students face the challenge of making this new place feel like ‘home,’ while often feeling completely foreign to it. Settling in, fnding their place, and navigating new social situations pose similar challenges to them.

“Some of the words recurrent in conversations with friends tend to revolve around

“There seem to be micro social networks that are already existent and somehow I slip through all of them.”

So, what can actually be done to help?

Neither Prerna, Kanrani, nor Rania were unoptimistic about the fact that steps can be taken in the right direction, and it seems that it’s quite simple, really.

“Listen. They just need to listen,” said Prerna. Allowing the experiences and perspectives of these students to infuence support systems and plans, making space by showing empathy and understanding for students with diferent backgrounds, and being respectful of diferences are all things that can be improved upon. But ultimately, removing the veneer of inclusivity and diversity in order to really listen to student experiences is of utmost importance. Maybe this way, everyone parties together.

“I’ve even been asked ‘You’re from Pakistan? But your English is so good!’”

Illustration ©

Trisha Bhaya

If Bulls Could Speak Spanish

by Pablo Ruiz Delgado

A few years ago, me and my dad were sitting in my uncle’s living room while he watched a bullfght on TV. As my uncle cheered on like a football hooligan, my dad and I were trying our hardest to ignore the live spectacle of torture happening on that screen. As the trumpets and applause drowned out the squealing of the dying bull, my dad turned to me and said: “if bulls could speak Spanish, this shit would have been made illegal a century ago”. But it turns out that the criteria for animals to be worthy of our consideration is not their ability to speak Spanish, but how cute they are.

Just a few weeks ago, the Spanish government passed the ‘Animal Welfare Act’, which in many ways is a massive leap forward. It mandates that pet owners must go through a training program before they can have an animal at home, to ensure that they’ll actually know how to take care of one. In cases of divorce, the custody of pets is now decided on the same grounds as the custody of children – fnancial stability, emotional considerations, etc. – to ensure that the animal will have the best life possible.

The law also provides extensive funds for local and regional authorities to sterilize stray animal populations in order to prevent their growth, as well as to take them into shelters and possibly fnd them a home. The fne for abandoning a pet has been increased from 60€ to 60,000€, and animal abuse and murder are now punishable with up to 12 years in prison. All in all, this law is the frst piece of legislation in the history of the country to lay out comprehensive programs and regulations to promote the wellbeing of animals.

The issue, however, is that this Act cares almost exclusively about cute animals. The text draws explicit exceptions from most of its protections for animals “of special interest”, a category so broad that it includes virtually every animal that isn’t a pet. For example, no protections whatsoever are given to animals killed for food consumption. Farm pigs are kept in cages and gassed to death on a daily basis to produce our beloved Iberian ham, but this law has nothing in it to improve their living conditions or to ensure a painless death.

The law also has nothing to say about the treatment of hunting dogs, who are starved for months so that they’ll chase after prey out of hunger. They’re then abandoned or shot en-masse when hunting season is over (it’s

cheaper to get rid of them and buy new ones later than to feed them until the next season). And of course, bullfghting is ‘too political’ and ‘too culturally relevant’ for the Spanish government to do absolutely anything about it. These bulls are drugged to be extra aggressive before being thrown into the ring, then stabbed in the neck with two spears bearing the Spanish fag, and fnally thrown around for half an hour until they bleed out or get a sword through their heart. The Animal Welfare Act considers these animals ‘too important’ for us to care about their sufering.

feel. They also sufer. Take responsibility."

What absolutely perplexes me is that the main element of all these posters is either a puppy or a kitten with massive eyes and foppy ears. Are we only meant to take responsibility for the welfare of animals we fnd cute? Is an animal worthy of our mercy only if they keep us company at home? Does an animal suddenly lose its ability to think, feel and sufer the moment we can’t see their pitiful and adorable face? Worse still is that these posters can regularly be seen alongside ads for the weekly bullfght agenda. Truly a masterpiece in cynical irony.

To be clear, no one expected this legislation to ban meat consumption, hunting and bullfghting overnight. But after years of struggle, animal rights protests, and lofty promises by politicians, the result has been so underwhelming that it feels like mockery. The Act is now colloquially known as ‘la ley perrogatista’, or ‘the dog-and-cat law’, because it only seems to care about the welfare of the cute animals that live in our homes. Almost all its legal protections are limited to those animals that already have it easiest, while those who sufer most are tossed aside.

Nothing captures this absurdity better than the awareness campaigns funded by the Act. In my home city, every bus stop and billboard has been plastered with strongly-worded ads to raise awareness about the new law and the importance of animal wellbeing. One ad in particular has the following caption: “They also think. They also

The good news is that there are examples of better legislation that Spain (and basically every country) can learn from. In the United Kingdom, the similarly-named Animal Welfare Act of 2022, also known as the Sentience Act, recognizes the sentience – that is, the ability to feel – of all animals, which by extent has endowed them with some amount of legal personhood and certain inalienable rights. Though this Act also has many shortcomings, its approach can ensure that no animal is arbitrarily disqualifed from our consideration, and it sets a precedent of equality between humans and animals on which to build moving forward.

If bulls could speak Spanish, perhaps I could wake up tomorrow with a serious piece of legislation in place to stop the sadistic traditions that my country holds so dear. But for the time being, pigs, bulls and hunting dogs will have to rely on the will of the average Spaniard – people like my uncle – who cheer on animal cruelty as if it were a football game.

"Are we only meant to take responsibility for the welfare of animals we fnd cute?"

How to Love Someone Who Posts “No Internationals” in a Facebook Housing Ad? Thoughts from the UCU International Ofce

by Julia Gasperik

Last August, three years after graduating from university, I started working in the International Ofce of UCU. Having been on exchange four diferent times during my studies, I was able to make a convincing argument to my interviewer that I was motivated about internationalization.

Besides meeting amazing people, walking through great cities, eating delicious food and winning social media for fve-months, these experiences are way more than that. Going on exchange helps people see beyond their own reality, understand problems and issues in context, and relate to new people and situations. It leads to a deeper appreciation and understanding of other cultures and ways of life. Besides, it improves intercultural confdence and in a way, it makes you feel at home in a lot of places. It's an amazing experience but, it's also important to acknowledge that going international is a privilege that is not to be taken for granted.

Now, I don’t think that UCU's student newspaper is the place where I need to convince people that internationalization is great and that it's an amazing opportunity for students. Having spent six months in College Hall, one of the best parts of my job is just talking to students and feeling reassured that the next generation is doing fne in terms of self-awareness, intercultural conf-

dence and empathy. Internationalization becomes a more controversial topic behind the closed doors of academia.

The student housing crisis is an evergreen topic in the Netherlands, but it seems to emerge in the daily news of a lot of student cities worldwide. Last year, Dublin and Amsterdam made the headlines of several higher education news platforms with articles about homeless international students. Limiting the number of international students has been often proposed as a solution to this problem for a long time, but concrete policy initiatives have been emerging since last year in the Netherlands. Indeed, admitting more international students while not being able to provide suitable housing is not the way to go.

There's no doubt that there is a student housing crisis that needs to be fxed, but as with most things in life, we need to consider the larger context of this problem and what we can do about it as passionate defenders of internationalization.

"Indeed, admitting more international students while not being able to provide suitable housing is not the way to go."

There's a big gap in terms of how we see internationalization. As mentioned above, in academic circles internationalization is widely seen as an added value. Besides the cultural exposure, personal growth, career opportunities and educational improvement it has a huge economic beneft, direct and indirect. Moreover, it's one of the easiest ways to attract talent to a country. These are benefts that students, teachers, administrative staf and policy-makers understand. So what about the rest of people?

“No internationals!”we have all seen these posts on Facebook while looking for a place in

Utrecht or other international student cities. These warnings are often not posted by landlords but by other students. At this point, we may ask how the larger public sees internationalization, even if a student following courses in English wouldn’t share a bathroom with their own classmate from abroad.

If we step beyond our own bubble the value of internationalization is not as clear to a lot of people as it is to us, and that's understandable. At the end of the day, what positives do they see coming from all of this?

“'No internationals!'- we have all seen these posts on Facebook while looking for a place in Utrecht or other international student cities. These warnings are often not posted by landlords but by other students."

I would like to mention a personal example from my student years. While I was an international student renting an overpriced room in the periphery of Groningen, I worked parttime in a bar. The owner tried everything to attract international students and expats as he felt most at home among them. Part of his plan to bring in these customers was to hire mostly international staf. In my time there we had ten international students from all over the world working at the bar, but this did not seem to attract international customers.

Most of the people spending their evenings at this place were locals. Many were senior citizens who did not attend university. However, they still loved coming and talking to us. For them, this was the frst time talking to an international student, and some of them just came to practice English. Having contact with us also helped us in spreading the spirit of internationalization, and sharing this amazing experience with someone from a diferent context.

Limiting international students or decreasing English-taught programs would defnitely feel like going back in time and renouncing the progress we have made. At the same time, we need to consider other people’s realities and decide what our role and responsibility is in this conversation. It’s February, it’s Valentine’s day, so it can be a nice opportunity to connect with someone in Jan Primus, Nobelstraat or in the Woolloomooloo.

Illustration © Clara Mikellides De Chiaro

When Did Self-Care Turn into Self-Destruction?

by Alicja Anna Chojnacka

As a stereotypical teenager, I spent a considerable amount of my time using the internet, especially social media. Nowadays, self-care and beauty routines tend to come up frequently across many social media platforms, which I don’t believe to be a necessarily negative thing. However, I recently started observing a concerning trend, not only within the beauty community but quite literally everywhere. The fear of getting old, or rather, of looking old.

Looking old has been maligned to the point where people as young as 25 seem to believe themselves old, and a singular wrinkle on their forehead is a tragedy. With the current cultural narrative concerning aging, I can easily understand why. At frst, I thought it might just be my algorithm. However, whenever I brought up my annoyance to my friends, I noticed that almost all of them had seen this type of content. And the most concerning part is that it is impossible to escape. No matter how many times we click "not interested", it seems to fnd its way back to us.

Preventative botox! Don’t use a straw, you are gonna get wrinkles! Don’t smile! Don’t frown! Actually, just don’t express any emotions whatsoever, because being eternally youthful is more important than being human! Yay! Spend 5 hours a day massaging your face to avoid wrinkles, you are only worth something when you are young and beautiful! Oh, and remember, old men are sexy, but women have an expiration date. Have a nice day! This bizarre obsession with viewing your frst wrinkle as foreshadowing for your own personal doomsday is concerning for so many reasons.

First of all, I would like everyone to consider why we consider ageing as something horrifying and nothing short of a failure. Sure, at some point the body starts to deteriorate biologically, but what is so wrong with external signs of age? Yes, you might get an extra smile line, but you also get many years of experience, wisdom and — hopefully — happiness. How did we manage to reduce years of emotions and adventures to something to cry about the moment you see evidence of it in your bathroom mirror?

"Don’t use a straw, you are gonna get wrinkles! Don’t smile! Don’t frown! Actually, just don’t express any emotions whatsoever, because being eternally youthful is more important than being human!"

tic standards of society. But with this new plague of anti-ageing, this collective delusion of trying to look twenty while turning ffty, takes away that peace from women.

I would also like to point out the diference in the amount of anti-ageing products when comparing men and women’s cosmetics. Let’s not even fxate on the fact that such a division of beauty products is quite confusing and unnecessary in the frst place. But on top of that, I have not seen a single advertisement for an anti-ageing cream for men, the only anti-ageing campaign I’ve actually glimpsed is one brand of shampoo for grey hair. That is it. But I can name about a dozen anti-ageing products for women that were advertised to me, against my will. And while I am aware that some of them are objectively benefcial, there is no reason for anyone to use retinol the second they are out of the womb.

Even after numerous critical discussions about these unrealistic beauty standards, I believe its negative infuence on women is still underestimated. Because what is realistic and achievable in looking twenty-fve while being ffty? And what is so wrong about simply looking your age? I think it is dangerous to advertise an ideal of airbrushed models. There is no magical cream that’s going to turn you into Dorian Gray and there never will be. Our society’s unreachable beauty standards are known to lead to numerous mental illnesses, including eating disorders, anxiety and depression. Can we not just let women be?

Second of all, research shows that women tend to score higher on neuroticism tests — the psychological tendency to experience emotional anxiety, insecurity and instability — than men. Interestingly enough, this is only the case when they are young; the older women get, the lower the observed signs of neuroticism are. And there is no biological explanation. One of the hypotheses is that neuroticism is due to the high standards placed on women, and as they get older, they begin to let go of our weirdly child-like beauty standards. Only at that point in their lives can they fnally be at peace, no longer feeling the pressure to reach the unrealis-

"Our society’s unreachable beauty standards are known to lead to numerous mental illnesses, including eating disorders, anxiety and depression. Can we not just let women be?"

Finally, I would like to address all women reading this. You are not your body, you are not your wrinkles. Ageing is beautiful, natural and quite frankly, unavoidable. Imagine all the things you’ll get to experience before you’re thirty, let alone ffty! Wrinkles are like little diary entries from your whole life, documenting all the beautiful moments you have experienced. So please, do age. Do it out of pure spite.

Exchange Student Do’s and Don’ts: How to Survive life at UCU

by MC Claverie

When I frst arrived in Utrecht after a frankly humbling journey—my fight got delayed and my bags got lost for four days—I felt bruised, battered, and worn down. After I was dropped of at the front gates of UCU by my Uber driver, and I trudeged across the quad to Dining Hall—yet another somewhat humiliating and humbling experience—I didn’t really know what to think. I was exhausted from several hours of traveling, stressed about adapting to life at UCU, and nervous about being alone in a new place.

to Utrecht, but also by how aggressive bikers are—yes, I did almost get hit by cyclists several times on my frst days in the Netherlands.

When I trekked downtown to fnally pick up the bike I’m renting for the semester, I was faced with a daunting task—riding it back to UCU. Honestly, I was pretty terrifed. The combination of pedestrians, cars, buses, and other bikers all whizzing around the city not only flled me with anxiety but also extreme fear. Luckily, along with some fellow exchange students, we successfully navigated back home in one piece.

Now, several weeks later after many trials and even more errors, I’ve got a hold on the UCU ropes and feel confdent in my ability to thrive here for the next few weeks. If you are a fellow exchange student, or even a frst year student still trying to fnd your way, I hope that my tips and tricks can help you embrace all the wonderful things UCU has to ofer and fully integrate into the “Dutchie” lifestyle.

It’s okay to be a bad biker

If you’ve ever been to Tennessee, where I’m originally from, or Boston, where I attend college, then you know that both places have a lot of hills. While in the U.S. I consider my-

"I know that I’ll be boarding a plane back to the United States in a couple of months, but while I am here at UCU I want to make the most of it."

At frst, I was pretty embarrassed when other bikers would pass me. However, after speaking with my orientation group parents who also admitted that they aren’t the best bikers, I felt more confdent. The more I bike the less afraid and faster I become. Biking has now become my number one form of transportation and I’ve come to really admire the Dutch cycling culture. So, don’t be afraid to start out a little slow, you can only improve from there.

While getting free food/free snacks is defnitely a plus, we’ve really enjoyed meeting other full time students and integrating into UCU through these events. So if you are ever bored and want a way to make some new friends, I recommend checking out these events, you won’t regret it.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help

To me, nothing is worse than being the person who has no idea what’s going on. Yet that’s pretty much impossible to avoid if you are an exchange student or a frst year student moving to a new country. Not only are you faced with cultural shocks and diferences, but you also have to learn how to navigate life away from your friends and family which can be difcult.

One thing that I’ve come to value while on exchange is the importance of asking for help. Whether it’s asking a bus driver or train station employee which bus to take or even stopping to ask someone on the street for directions, asking for help is always better than not. Sure it may seem embarrassing at the time but in the end it’s worth it, especially in this period of adjustment.

Enjoy the ride

Though it may sound cliché, college is a wonderful time where you have the freedom and opportunity to learn and grow in an entirely new environment. Whether you are on exchange for the semester, a frst year student, or preparing to graduate soon, each day provides a new chance to broaden your horizons so you might as well enjoy i GastronomyCo t. For me, I know that I’ll be boarding a plane back to the United States in a couple of months, but while I am here at UCU I want to make the most of it. I hope these tips and advice can help you here at UCU and make your semester a little easier.

"don’t be afraid to start out a little slow, you can only improve from there."

Illustration © Jamilya

Illustration © Clara Mikellides De Chiaro

Finding Home

by Sèren Carmody-Hendriks

For the frst time since beginning UCU, I fnally felt at peace with being home.

I began writing this piece in the beginning of January. I was at my parents’ house, but I had almost never considered their house my home — and then I did. It shocked me. I came back and my muscles relaxed, my mind softened, and the spots on my skin cleared — it soothed all my wounds inficted by 2022. Why now? How? Those were the questions I wanted answered, but at the top of this list was: what makes a home?

"How can my home be a home when returning to it meant being confronted with aspects of myself and my upbringing that I simply did not have the emotional strength or maturity to face?"

If made to answer this question quickly and succinctly, the reply would be unquestionably simple: “the house in which a person or family lives” (thank you Merriam-Webster). However, when given deeper thought, this simplicity is in fact very questionable. If ruminated upon, the defnition slowly transforms into a vague and abstract concept, wholly dependent on the values, behaviours, and culture(s) one has been brought up with. With these social ised conditions, a set of non-tangible re quirements also appear, fuid in nature.

Throughout my childhood and teenage years, despite having always lived in the same area, home to me was everywhere and nowhere. It was the sofa, the car, a friend’s house, my grandmother’s house, a random hotel room — anywhere that allowed the needs of sleep, hunger, and thirst to be met. Yet home, in the most sincere and honest context, had a gravity to it I felt I could never understand. How can my home be a home when returning to it meant being confronted with aspects of myself and my upbringing that I simply did not have the emotional strength or maturity to face?

In my ffth semester, I thought I had fnally developed my own individual defnition. In those months, my campus home was characterised by morning cofees with my unitmates, window chats with friends, and nights on the sofa making art. Yet, as always, with an up there

is a down, and soon enough I realised my UCU home also meant coming to terms with all my self-perceived faults and failures.

In dismay, I quickly withdrew back into myself like a hand singed by a fre, and rashly discarded this defnition. I swiftly began reminiscing about my parents’ and grandmother’s homes — the routine, the stability, the familiarity of being a daughter rather than a student housemate, despite my previous hesitations. My wonderings then spiralled. I found myself unconsciously looking to the work of others to fgure out what the hell a home actually was.

“home does not necessarily have to be a place — and defnitely not a person — it can always be within yourself... I found that if you feel at home within yourself, and do things that make you feel at home, you can be home anywhere.”

One common theme was the home not being a house, but a country and/or culture. In addition to this, a home was a verb to be practised — a religion of sorts. For instance, cooking certain meals (read ‘Crying in H Mart’ by Michelle Zauner), or a more general example, the act of re- living nostalgic memories from one’s

To the poets and writers, home could be found within another, despite the potential feetingness and fragility. See this quote from Marlowe Granados’ ‘Happy Hour’: “seeing someone you used to love is like visiting a house you once lived in. Everything about them is familiar yet strange.” Even to some philosophers this was the case. Albert Camus wrote to María Casares confessing that “I have no other homeland but you.”

Even with these few examples, home quickly twisted itself into a convoluted mess. It was more than a space — it transcended those boundaries by being dependent on our own individual upbringings based upon our own social, political, cultural, and economic backgrounds (I highly recommend reading Shelley Mallet’s essay ‘Understanding Home: A Critical Review of the Literature’).

Unfortunately, none of this explained my unexpected relief that welcomed me at my parents’ house over the winter break. So, I discussed it with them. However, the gratitude I felt soon became a fowing ramble that revealed all my fears concerning the underbelly of home — its power to confront. Due to it, I developed a will to not want to settle in either the UK or the Netherlands. I wanted to be everywhere and nowhere instead, experiencing anything that was diferent.

My mum, a psychologist, stared at me after my mouth fnally grew tired, pondering in silence for a few beats before she commented, “home does not necessarily have to be a place — and defnitely not a person — it can always be within yourself. None of us can physically run away from our problems, they will always remain in us. I found that if you feel at home within yourself, and do things that make you feel at home, you can be home anywhere.”

I liked it. Of course, this is only a short and vague (and somewhat cliche) refection of what a home can be, but out of them all, I found the most peace within this particular answer. I admit, things change, and maybe my thoughts about what a home is will as well, but for now, I think I will trust the psychologist, and try to construct a home within myself.

Illustration © Ella Darshi

The Life and Wisdom of our (House) Master, Part 2

by Ida van Zwetselaar

This is a continuation of our interview with Maarten Diederix, half of which was published in our last edition. Sophie Hudson and I sat down with him in November to ask him about his life at and before UCU. So far, he has talked about his past growing up in multiple African countries, going through military training, women at work, and all sorts of other complaints about campus. Now, the Boomerang is back to give you the rest of the story. Disclaimer: the original article has been edited according to the interviewee’s wishes.

"Maarten believes we should stop being so sensitive to his yelling and just go get things done, which - according to himis not UCU students' speciality."

Those who fail to follow COVID-19 guidelines tend to irritate Maarten. He told us proudly about how he yelled at an alleged student superspreader, “fresh of the plane from India”, to stop hugging all of her friends. He’s in fact not very fond of physical contact at all: “I do not like touching!’. When someone made a Facebook event called ‘Hug Maarten Day’ some years ago, prompting many people to spontaneously hug him during the day, he was not particularly happy. I think we can all picture this giant man screaming angrily, but would rather not be around when it happens.

“I can understand that a lot of students are frightened of me. Especially in their frst year. I have a loud voice”. But please do not be afraid of his authoritarian aura. Diederix is normally carrying out a thousand tasks all at once, so he fnds that “it’s not interesting how I transfer information - it’s about the contents! Shall we stick to why I’m shouting at you in the frst place?”. In other words, Maarten believes we should stop being so sensitive to his yelling and just go get things done, which - according to him - is not UCU students' speciality. I’m starting to feel like someone should remind him that, while we may be living on the old Kromhoutkazerne’s grounds, this place is no longer an actual army base. You could treat university students as inhabitants, then maybe we would respect you more as well.

As has happened several times during the interview so far, his phone rings, but this time he actually picks up. “Let me get this out of the way”. He winks and immediately puts on a much sweeter voice to greet his wife, whereafter complaining to us about missed her lunch due to our interview. They have been together for 29 years. And happily so, despite Maarten not being the easiest person to deal with (his words, not mine). They’ve stayed together because they accepted cer-

tain roles within the relationship, and have never run out of topics to talk about. He fnds modern divorce rates atrocious; “I go to birthday parties of young children, for example, and there are like four parents there and three granddaddies. What is that? Hell?!”

Nowadays, everybody is too lazy, whether it comes to upholding relationships or ordering everything online. Apparently his son comes by when he runs out of money to take food from the freezer, but never asks his dad for any cash. Maarten staunchly maintains that our generation lacks “the element of zelfredzaamheid [self-sustainability],” which “brings back the creativity in you”. By the time he began referring to his daughter as a “wench” for ordering pizza without free discounts, I decided to backtrack the long talk to UCU.

“I heard a rumour that you’re an honorary member of Primus?” I pried, and he immediately replied, “and UCSA!”. He has the board’s same voting power, but chooses to abstain from it. “I’m heavily disappointed when things get organised, by UCSA or UCSC, or students on campus, and nothing shows up. An event, or a meeting, or a get-together or whatever. No interest!”. He attended two formal dinners with Primus, because he told us that, way back, he found their manifesto in a bin on campus, and returned these papers to the fraternity's founding fathers. Technically, he’s an honorary member of campus itself.

"According to Diederix, living a stressfree UCU life is actually easier than we make it out to be. “Many of you think you work voraciously hard. Wrong."

If you haven’t seen (let alone heard) him bike around, or read his emails, you must’ve been living under a rock. Or, in his words, be one of UCU’s “shadow people”. By this he refers to students who focus on nothing but their education and literally lock themselves in their rooms, basically a more extreme case of ‘campus ghosts’. Maarten estimates that around 15% of campus could belong to this “hardcore I-don’t-give-a-shit, I-neverparticipate-in-any-part-of-it” group, which has been growing over time. “You’re living in a country where practically everyone speaks English. And yet you are incapable of making contact? Shouldn’t you change that?

[...] There’s no reason to be lonely. How can you be lonely with 700 people? Your age?”

I don’t know, it sounds obvious to me, but maybe boomers do not see that young people that have just endured a wave of

worldwide lockdowns probably struggle to make social connections, or maybe they genuinely just enjoy learning.

"He thinks we should stop using this as a weapon, “to get out of class, to get good grades, I don’t know, for excuses”."

On the other hand, he believes there’s a “UCU light”, which encourages students to do the bare minimum of breadth requirements, selecting only the easiest credits, and getting passing grades. For example, “group work is usually one working very hard, one following the queen bee, and two doing fuck-all”. As long as you are always one of those getting away with it, you can have a stress-free experience here.

According to Diederix, living a stress-free UCU life is actually easier than we make it out to be. “Many of you think you work voraciously hard. Wrong. You do the same amount of work as other students, just in a little shorter time”. He says the problem lies in the “unreasonably long” holidays we enjoy twice a year, so in order to cope, “you’re going to have to work a little harder (he says, imitating a baby voice)”. He shrugs theatrically and laughs at himself.

He likes students with a plan, as well as those who build up something outside of the college’s bubble. “Don’t try and change yourself here. Don’t hope to become a better person”. Instead of looking for answers at UCU, we should have changed enough beforehand in order to be ready to be here. In general, he advises everyone to make backup plans, and to not “crash and crumble when the shit hits the fan”. It appears that he’s had to help out some of us in difcult situations too often to sympathise with us anymore; “There are also students that just cry and insist that someone comes and helps you. That’s not a backup plan”.

It seems like he’s a bit sick of the inhabitants of campus, but alumni and the third years “see, or fnally understand” what he’s trying to achieve here. He claims to know all the tricks in the book; “Your lies are so evident, so shameful. There’s not a student that can lie well”. Nonetheless, he fghts for our campus every single day, a battle to save it from UU protocols and from having it moved to Science Park. If that eventually happens (he doesn’t think it will!), it’s unsure whether he’ll follow the college there, as his pension will be met by then.

"When someone made a Facebook event called ‘Hug Maarten Day’ some years ago, prompting many people to spontaneously hug him during the day, he was not particularly happy."

Maarten Diederix certainly is someone who has been there and seen all the gnarly and glorious sides of UCU, and thus has infuence over how things get done.

He does not understand how increasing numbers of young people throw around “mental health issues” as if it were equal to having a bad day. He thinks we should stop using this as a weapon, “to get out of class, to get good grades, I don’t know, for excuses”. As friends who are in class together and who both have our fair share of personal problems, Sophie and I eye-signal each other to change topics again…

We could not resist asking about his Instagram account, which has been gaining attention lately. “I have never ‘liked’ anything in my life,” he boasts, “not even my own wife’s pictures”. While he doesn’t understand the concept of reacting to others’ social media posts and counting views, he does enjoy

EDITORIAL

Dear everyone,

spending time designing perfectly bitter and sarcastic posts, such as the mythical “spoiled brats” post of our entrance gates. “For me, that’s not my fnest one. But I do hear a lot of people like it. I think it was more the concept that I spent an hour trying to fgure out how to. I liked that challenge.” In order for content to end up on @ucu_housemaster, however, it needs to be exceptionally funny. “I am amazed by people who are capable of pulling up to Instagram every day with something that is funny [...] I fnd it very difcult to fll it up”. “With pessimistic things?”, I asked. “Well, one day I said I’d do a positive month, and I couldn’t even fnd anything positive enough to put on Instagram”. We all laughed. “I set high standards for myself”.

Many people think that Maarten Diederix’s mentality is not aligned with our college’s community values. As a former military and oil rig employee, his sentiments and jokes about some people on campus are outdated, biassed, and stereotyped. As we understood it, Diederix knows the ins and outs of our bubble and has a complicated range of valuable life experiences, but the views he expresses are questionable and could hurt several members of our community.

I wish I had asked him what exactly he has to say about that. But paradoxically, the way he speaks about his marriage, childhood on the African continent, and hopes for the future of UCU, is quite endearing. “You guys feel at home the moment you go through the gate. It’s not your house you come from, it’s the gate you come home”.

"Nonetheless, he fghts for our campus every single day, a battle to save it from UU protocols and from having it moved to Science Park."

So, as we stand to protect diversity of opinions, shouldn’t we embrace the devil’s advocate biking around on campus as well? In the end, our housemaster is only human. A very Dutch, incredibly loud, and very controversial human, who ultimately is the one to wake up in the middle of the night to help you into your unit when your keys are lost. Still he says that - on occasion - he gets nothing but disrespect and ungratefulness from students in return. Luckily enough for him though, “sticks and stones hurt, words don’t”. Right, Maarten?

I like to tell myself that days are fnally getting longer, and that the sun’s light is getting brighter and happier by the day. It may just be wishful thinking, or it may just be that my sunlight-deprived brain can no longer tell light apart from gloom. Wishful thinking or not, the slow coming of Spring has helped me get through my frst edition as Editor-in-Chief of The Boomerang.

This edition is brought to you after many weeks of stress and uncertainty. With an abruptly understafed board, many of us have had to transition ourselves into new responsibilities, and we’ve had to learn how to carry a newspaper forward along the way. Mistakes have been made, but alas, we have pulled through - here’s The Boomerang’s Spring Edition, with precisely zero spring-related articles in it :D

This edition also comes to you after many weeks of efort, love, and dedication from our current and past board members. First I want to thank everyone who recently left the board. Kitty, Isa and Hilde were with us during Fall semester, and their spirit still lives on with us. I also want to thank Sophie, who quit just some days ago, but helped me out with budgeting for the past few weeks (she also came up with the prompt for Quad Queries).

In their place, I’d like to introduce you to our new editors, Mila and Alicja, and to our new layout manager, Jasmine. Welcome to this perpetual group project, I hope you enjoy your time in it. I’d also like to give a special mention to Noor and Avantika, who were on the board a while ago, but still helped out immensely with layout and transitioning. Thank you so so much <3

And fnally, I want to thank every writer and illustrator who contributed to this edition. I leave you now to continue looking at the products of your hard work - be it an article about fnding home, a handbook for exchange students, or a beautiful drawing of a bull protesting against animal cruelty.

With the kindest of regards,

Pablo

BOOMERANG BOARD

Pablo Ruiz Delgado | Editor-in-Chief

Katrina Joy Funk | Editor

Alicja Anna Chojnacka | Editor

Mila Maria Grazia Frattini | Editor

Ida van Zwetselaar | Art & PR Manager

Jasmine Yi Carder | Layout Manager

€26,000

by Penelope van der Meer

Disclaimer: this article is based on the author's own research. She is not a legal expert and this article may contain factual errors.

At the end of November, most of us were hit with a room charge. Some units were charged over €200 per person. Of course, we were outraged. Not only are we subject ed to living in units that violate some basic standards of living, but even then we are unfairly (over) charged for regular wear and tear, for the unnecessary replacement of items, and for “missing” items that nev er were. The summed charges exceeded a whopping €26,000. Of course we were out raged, but we were also too busy to fght it.

"We move into units without doing a walkthrough with the landlord, get charged without proof of damage, pay €11 for a €1.50 trash can, and have no system to dispute any of it."

Before delving into the intricacies of how and why the system works, let’s frst recap what the housing arrangement at UCU entails. I’m not a lawyer and this recount is simply the information I gathered from the web site. The company Lekstede Wonen owns the housing on campus and seems to rent it out to UCU. UCU then rents it to us, but without an actual rental contract and only a “Campus Agreement” that states many responsibilities of the tenant, but none of the landlord. Without a written rental contract, students cannot know their rights without knowing the law. Thus, students are given units and charged in ways that are not legal under the default contract law.

We move into units without doing a walkthrough with the landlord, get charged without proof of damage, pay €11 for a €1.50 trash can, and have no system to dispute any of it. On top of this, frst and second years are required to live on campus. Of course, when these issues are raised, UCU housing argues that the burden of proof is on the tenant according to “rental law,” but can this even apply to students who haven’t even signed a rental contract? Thus, we are in a complex system with unclear rules that ultimately harms the students.

UCU housing uses two strategies to continue acting this way: they wait until you graduate and they hope you’re too busy to fght. Firstly, UCU keeps its (probably) borderline illegal housing practices by letting

you graduate. This facilitates the collective amnesia of students. No one is at this school long enough to pass on the memories and anger at the way student housing works. In a few years, no one will know the number €26,000 because we’ll all have graduated. This collective amnesia is why none

mice, reminding ourselves that it’s only temporary. UCU then further exacerbates the fact that you can’t fnd the space to protest their housing arrangement by creating such a convoluted arrangement that it becomes nearly impossible to navigate.

Thus far, it appears that I’m blaming “UCU housing,” but what, or who, is UCU housing? Is it the landlady, Management Team, or Lekstede Wonen? Could it be the UU real estate team? With these four options, and many people within the latter three, all parties can pass around the blame while the students are ultimately burdened with paying the costs. Further playing with semantics, some members of management insist that we cannot call the charges “fnes,” thereby utterly missing the point of our complaints. Eventually, student fervor will die out and, even if they can’t charge us this year, they can overcharge again in two more.

"UCU maintains this system is by hoping you’re too busy to fght"

ed charges? If the precedent is there, we don’t know it. Therefore, any path forward to dispute outrageous charges is uncharted territory. Uncharted territory means current students have no blueprint to follow, so fghting charges takes even more efort. Additionally, we have no way of warning incoming students that they should not sign the campus agreement before they come to UCU, thereby entrapping a new generation of students into this system each year.

"UCU is taking advantage of us. This is not our fault. Our problem is that we let them."

The second way UCU maintains this system is by hoping you’re too busy to fght. We mostly live through it because we do not have the bandwidth to fght it. Even if we did have the energy to fght it, it’s only three years. “What’s one more year?” third years say, focusing on fguring out life for the year after. Younger students can blissfully hope they can fnd of-campus housing after just another one or two years. We endure Maarten Diederix’s verbal abuse and move into units which already have

So, it is clear that the system is a ploy to extract money and bypass the law, even if we don’t necessarily know who is responsible. So how can we fx this system? We can use sustained collective action. This year, we’ve already started collective action, and now we need to sustain it. The process is not over when students get their full deposits back. It is only over when we have created checks and balances to ensure that, frstly, we are all clear about the responsibilities of Lekstede, UCU, and the students; secondly, that the system of checking and charging units is transparent and abides by the law; and thirdly, that students have a mechanism with which to dispute unfair charges.

On a more individual level, you can combat the collective amnesia by passing the story of last year’s charges on to your younger unitmates. Beyond this, I don’t have a fashy response that will defnitely make our voices heard. But I do know that our voices will never be heard if we do not speak. UCU is taking advantage of us. This is not our fault. Our problem is that we let them. Both together and individually we can ensure that our rights as tenants are being respected. We don’t need luxury housing, but we do need legal housing.

Illustration © Avantika Bhowmik

From Home, With Love

by Katrina Joy Funk

Most mornings, after I’ve silenced my alarm and had a few moments for the grogginess of sleep to fade from my head, I open the New York Times app on my phone. Usually, I like to read the cooking blog or Modern Love, but I also like to know what’s going on in the world. For some reason, I hate to think of starting my morning and going about my day without knowing about some major news event that has just occurred.

However, it feels like the headlines are almost always the same in the U.S. section. Another shooting. In California. Not at a church this time, but at a nightclub. Now it’s Texas, but at a concert. Then at a farm. I feel shattered every time, but perhaps even worse, I rarely feel surprised. My mind goes to the motive. “What was it this time?” Untreated mental illness? Someone in the grips of bigoted hatred or conspiracy theories? I once read a quote that said every country struggles with racism, sexism, and disputes among its citizens. The diference is that Americans have guns.

a black bandana hidden in his back pocket.

"I’m not going to defend the ways of my countrymen and women... I will, however, defend the world of my childhood, the culture in which I was raised."

Like a worn cloth, the United States often appears as though it is unraveling. Bit by bit, acts of senseless violence tug at the threads. It’s easy to feel angered and discouraged by a country that appears to turn a blind eye to its inner turmoil and elements of its infrastructure that ultimately are not only non-functional but destructive (I’m looking at you, American healthcare system).

But I feel it is incredibly important to separate the disease of violence that has taken root and the essence of the country itself. I still get teary every time I board the plane to leave. It’s not a case of Stockholm syndrome, but the feeling of leaving a part of myself halfway across the world. I miss the landscapes, rugged mountains, snowy felds, and dense forests. I miss being able to disappear into the wilderness to camp or hike, feeling totally removed from the rest of the world.

A couple summers ago, I made the forty-fve mile drive with friends up an almost entirely dirt road to the town of Polebridge, Montana. The town only contains a mercantile which doubles as a bakery and a bar with a stage for live music. My friend was performing that evening and as people began to gather, making friendly chit-chat, strangers became friends. Dusk was beginning to fall and the dramatic peaks surrounding us became silhouettes. I remember thinking, “this is my favorite place on Earth.”

My relationship with my country ebbs and fows like the tides. Watching its recent decline sometimes feels like watching a beloved family member with self-destructive tendencies. It’s heartbreaking, and I’m not going to defend the ways of my countrymen and women, or those who fail to implement the laws that would save lives. I will, however, defend the world of my childhood, the culture in which I was raised. I’ll defend the creativity, courage, and passion shown by those who want to fght injustice, corruption, and hatred. And I will continue to drag friends and partners halfway across the world to my home and point out landmarks, natural beauty, my old stomping grounds, and say “look at this! This is a part of me.”

Last summer, I was working at a local store in my hometown. One afternoon, a man came in with a pistol strapped to his hip. Despite his warm smile, I felt uneasy. He started making small talk, asking me what kind of honey I’d recommend he get. His wife loves the kind we sell, he told me, and he wanted to surprise her with a new jar. I relaxed a bit. This man was clearly not a threat to me.

Unfortunately, the open-carrying of weapons is all too common in my home state of Montana. I’ve always pondered the reason why someone would feel the need to be armed at all times in public. I assume these individuals feel that they could come to the aid of others in the case of a shooting. However, research has told us that reaction times are usually not quick enough in these types of situations.

"Every country struggles with racism, sexism, and disputes among its citizens. The diference is that Americans have guns."

After the man left, I realized the absurdity of the situation. Here was a perfect stranger essentially expecting me to trust that he was the “good guy” - that he would protect me in the face of danger, not be a danger to me. However, unlike the hero’s of old spaghetti Westerns, he wore no white cowboy hat to signify his goodness. For all I know, he could’ve had

"I feel it is incredibly important to separate the disease of violence that has taken root and the essence of the country itself."

Movie Monster Babylon

by Alejandra Monerri Revuelta

It was the most uncomfortable 30 minutes of my life. The opening scene is a party set in the 1920s, with celebrities, all sorts of drugs, elephants, and lots of orgy sex. Context: After paying 16€, I never expected to be watching porn in a movie theatre full of strangers.

Babylon is a three-hour long movie. So long, that when I watched it in the cinema we had a little break in between. The frst half was about the magical, yet slightly problematic, world of silent flms. The upbeat, chaotic environment of flming; one scene features a true love’s kiss being flmed no further than 50 meters away from a great battle scene. The second half is about the transition from silent flms to ‘talkies’, and the efect that had on the world of cinema.

The flm mainly follows the story of flm director Manny. It starts and ends with him, but also explores the lives of the people he meets along the way. The movie highlights the dark side of cinema, which makes the fact that it was based on a true story especially unsettling.

Babylon’s own director described it as a “love letter to cinema, but hate mail to Hollywood.”

Manny frst meets Nellie LaRoy. The two seem to be polar opposites. He’s calm and collected. She’s crazy. But, like him, she has big dreams. Hers is to be an actress. And, post orgy-party, by some stroke of luck, she is given an opportunity and her career booms. Her story is the typical ‘dream becomes reality’, but also delves into what happens after a dream comes true. She starts to face problems; her voice being too loud or too quiet for the microphones, forgetting lines, or her New Jersey accent not being elegant enough. And, suddenly, she is not elegant enough. She’s not poised, she’s not educated or well-mannered. She doesn’t ft in.

Another character Manny encounters is Jack Conrad. His story starts at the peak of his career. However, he quickly discovers that his success in silent movies does not translate to the talkies. My favourite scene in the movie (yes, it tops the orgy!) is one in which

Katrina's Playlist

by Katrina Joy Funk

Music has the ability to transport us. Maybe that’s why we love it so much. It has the ability to transform a mundane task such as doing laundry or getting groceries into something magical, and dare I say, cinematic. As we put our headphones on and push play, the walk doesn’t seem as dreary. All the colors seem brighter, the people, friendlier…wait, what am I describing again? Ah yes, a good song.

This is often what I feel when I listen to Weyes Blood’s song “Movies” from her 2019 album Titanic Rising. It’s hard to describe her music or ft it into a genre. Think of a woman from the Victorian age, a romantic who lives alone in a cottage flled with books and spends the day writing love poems and reminiscing about former fames. Now imagine she somehow manages to time-travel to 1980s NYC and joins an electro pop group. Maybe that’s a bit vague.

Anyway, I was lucky enough to be able to catch her concert at Paradiso at the beginning of February. It was my frst time at the main Paradiso and I was instantly charmed by the gorgeous old church. The building was packed. We went up fight after fight of stairs, hoping we could fnd a place near the railing on one

of the three balconies. Being around 5’3, my view is often blocked by the tall and lanky, especially in the Netherlands. Luckily, we found a small clearing and if I stood slightly up on my tip-toes, I had a clear view of the stage.

One of my favorite things about concerts is seeing what kind of aesthetic the artist has chosen to create on stage for the night. The color of the lights, stage decoration, lack of stage decoration, all of these things send a message about what the artist is trying to convey to their audience. At Paradiso, giant candelabras adorned the stage, complete with burning fames. A grand piano, basking in purple light, sat of to one corner. Weyes Blood, real name Natalie Laura Mering, made her entrance dressed in a long white gown, complete with a matching cape, which she twirled and spun as she danced around the stage.

Her songs were tinged with melancholy and emotion, but her voice was soaring. As I looked around at the audience, it seemed as if everyone was mouthing the words. Something in the music seemed to speak to everyone. In addition to providing a little bit of cinematic quality to our lives, music also helps make us

he confronts a critic about yet another negative review of his acting. Her response, in the form of a monologue, is that it’s over for him. “In a hundred years, when you and I are long gone, anytime someone threads a frame of yours through a sprocket, you’ll be alive again. [...] Your time today is through. But you’ll spend eternity with angels and ghosts.”

Yet the talkies weren’t the demise of everyone’s careers. Some gained fame, like black musician Sidney Palmer. At frst, Sidney is happy to be recognized for doing what he loves. However, this kind of happiness soon fades away. Just like Nelly, Sidney starts having issues in his life outside of the flms. But rather than breaking him, being himself is what makes him; he’s black, which happens to correspond with everyone’s sudden desire to be open-minded, making his success not about his talent but about who he is.

I’d love to continue, but I have a 500 word limit. Watch the movie and/or ask me about it!

feel less alone. Whether it be a bad breakup or just an emotionally gray day, it reassures us that someone has braved this before and lived to tell the tale. The two hours few by (time really fies when you realize you’ve situated yourself in the direct path to the bar and you’re nearly trampled by beer-thirsty audience members every few minutes).

The last song was “Andromeda”, also from Titanic Rising, and coincidentally my favorite Weyes song. It features a slide guitar, giving it an Americana fair, which I love. I listened to it on repeat last summer after I discovered it. Hearing it took me back to my summer, full of sunshine and trips to mountain lakes, though at times bittersweet. “Andromeda” kept me company or served as a shot of inspiration during more than one gray day. Looking around at the audience that night, I realized that they too had found something in the music to give them solace and keep them company on their gray days. I know everyone there that night will be forever grateful for the presence of Weyes Blood in our musical lives, and hopefully, when you hear a song or two, you will too.

Settling it over a cup of tea

by Pieter Dolmans

Whenever I hear new music that I like, the frst thing I do is share it with my friends. Partly because I hope they’ll like it too, and partly to check that my taste hasn’t gone completely of the rails. Usually they’ll like it, but every now and then there’s something that’s just too strange, even for their fucked-up tastes. Last time the song in question was Beautiful and Tragic by Adam Neely, Ben Levin, and Justice Cow. One friend told me they didn’t know whether they liked it or found it extremely annoying. This was mainly because of the vocals, which were slightly arhythmic and out of tune, and sounded like the singer was crying. I do think this was all intentional, to highlight how emotional the singer is, but it does present a bit of a conundrum.

Music is a form of artistic and emotional expression. What if you want to express something ugly? Will the music have to be ugly too? Do you need a singer to sound like she’s in anguish to make a song that expresses it? There are several diferent ways musicians handle this problem of emotional expression.

An easy way to avoid the problem is, of course, by only expressing positive emotions. Some genres have lyrics that only concern themselves with how much fun it is to play music and to dance to it. Look at how many funk and disco songs contain the word ‘funky’ within their lyrics. This is not to say that funk and disco are easy to make or play, but their main challenge is certainly not emotional expression.

It is also possible to work the emotional expression into the composition. For reasons that aren’t even entirely clear to experts, some ways of writing harmony will evoke certain emotions. Music that’s in a minor key will often sound sad (at least for people who are used to western har mony). By writing music that is made to sound sad, you leave more room for the musicians to put their technical skill to use without having to exude sadness throughout the entire performance. I be lieve this approach is the most common.

The fnal approach is to make the singer act out the emotion the mu sic is supposed to express, like done in

Beautiful and Tragic. This might turn of some listeners, since it’ll sound ugly or annoying to them; someone who is acting overexcited, bored, or whiny is probably not going to sing with the most beautiful delicate voice. But this approach is certainly not unprecedented, as it’s frequently employed in musicals. It’s only natural, as musicals contain elements of both music and theatre, and acting is presentthroughout their entirety. The existence and popularity of musicals does show that audiences are able to deal with music that is a bit ‘ugly’ just fne. And perhaps my friend just needs to shut the fuck up.

For All Vegans on Campus: We Have Been Blessed by the Frikandel Spirits

by GastronomyCo

ed to try, but was never able to. I saw it in the stores. I saw it in people’s hands. They called it “frikandelbroodje”. This mysterious meat-and-curry-flled pastry really intrigued me, there was just so much to it. When Albert Heijn released their vegan frikandelbroodje, it made my eyes sparkle. Finally, my opportunity to try some more Dutch food has come. And oh boy was it good.

So good that I made it a habit to study at the city centre library just so I could fll my lunch breaks with an Albert Heijn frikandelbroodje.

Let me tell you all about it. The vegan frikandel, which is a type of deep-fried sausage, is wrapped nicely into a puf pastry. This roll is cut at its surface, which creates a beautiful braided pattern almost resembling a fshbone. But then someone came up with the marvellous idea of flling the space in between the frikandel and

the pastry with curry ketchup. It tastes so good it makes me want to cry. Anyways, I think you should give it a try. Sometimes it's even on sale, what a blessing.

Now, I can just sit and patiently wait for Albert Heijn to release their vegan saucijzenbroodje, another strangely flled Dutch pastry.

Illustration © Veronika Semenov a

Illustration © Avantika Bhowmik

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