OTwo Volume XXVI Issue 3 October 30th 2019
Emma Donoghue
The Proof is in the Passion
OTWO VOL. XXVI ISSUE 3 CONTRIBUTORS
CONTENTS
Agony Aunt Page 4 Staff Recommends
Editor Gavin Tracey Deputy Editor Aoife Mawn Art and Design Editor Alex Fagan Assistant Editor Nathan Young Design Assistant: Orla Keaveney OTwo Co-Editors: Jessica Viola Heather Reynolds Arts and Literature Editor Conor Halion Games Editor Andy Prizeman-Nolan Film and TV Editor Cíara Dempsey Music Editor Sinéad Dunphy Fashion Editor Hannah Pamplin Food Editor Sophie Tevlin Travel Editor Killian Conyngham Online Editor Emma Kiely Chief of Photography Alex Fagan Deputy of Photography Sofia Dragacevac Contributors Joyce Dignam Jordan Murphy Odin O’Sullivan Eoin Keogh Justin Looi Emma Kiely Vanshika Dhyani Robyn Murphy Mike Stebens Riley Fitzpatrick Rebecca Sibley Jessica Darker Stella Alverina Caoimhe Mahon Manasa Bramhanya
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Arts & Literature Pages 6-9 Poetry Page 9 Games Pages 10-12
Trick or Treat, witches!
Film & TV Pages 13-16
We’re back with a spook-tacular issue of OTwo, filled with the highlights of frights and jumpscares. So, let’s get on our broomsticks and go for a ride!
Emma Donoghue Pages 17-20 Music Pages 21-24 Food & Drink Page 25 Fashion Page 29 Travel Page 30 Fatal Fourway Page 31
Let’s start Halloween off right with Jordan Murphy’s Bram Stoker Festival Guide, your go to for the theatre highlight of the spooky season. Flying into games, Justin Looi puts a spotlight on the horror game genre, a staple for any aspiring Let’s Players. Moving on to film and tv, Odin O’Sullivan breaks down the Scorsese v. Marvel feud. Looking to reflect? Mike Stebens looks back at 25 years of MTV Unplugged and the highlights from this iconic show. Hungry for some hangover food post Halloween night? Sophie Tevlin tells us some cheap, easy and tasty ways to make your own food at home. On brand with the season, Stella Alverina elaborates on the cost of Halloween costumes. Looking at travel, Manasa Bramhanya gives tips on sustainable travel and how to reduce your carbon footprint. We’ll meet you in the Mystery Machine next issue, you meddling kids!!
Jessica & Heather
Murderous Mittens Scorpio
It’s finally Scorpio season, and you feel like you could take on the world! But maybe keep your goals reasonable and stick to taking on your assignments first.
Sagittarius
Take it easy hun, you’re in danger of a burnout. Take a reading week, because rest and recuperation is on the cards for you this month.
Capricorn
All eyes are on you, so make the most of it. Career and social life are due to pick up, so grab every opportunity your hands can carry, make the most of it while it’s here.
Aquarius
Time to change things up! Change up your breakfast, treat yourself to that seasonal coffee order you’ve been eyeing, jump naked into the lake, the world’s your oyster!
Pisces
Pay off those fees as soon as you can, the stars command it. They also command that you spend some time on your passions. You’ve got this, the stars believe in you.
Aries
Normally the stars say you do you, but this month it might be best to listen to those around you. They have your best interests at heart, and that shirt is definitely far too obnoxious for a one on one with your lecturer.
Taurus
Cuffing season is here and boy are you feeling it. Try as you might to escape its allure by hiding out in the library until closing, it will find you. You will not escape it’s clutches.
Gemini
You’re feeling so confident in your routine, you’ve finally settled in, and you’ve got so much energy, so stop ignoring your other responsibilities. Your study group misses you and it’s your turn to bring the snacks.
Cancer
Give into the urge to create an obstacle course in your sitting room. The stars say your home life needs a shake up, and that activity is essential. Your housemates will forgive you eventually.
Leo
You’re busy as a bee this month Leo, so try your best to keep your cool. Don’t let a missed bus or miscommunication get you down, you’ve got all the time in the world.
Virgo
This month is for money moves Virgo. You’ve got the cash to splash out on that new KeepCup you’ve had your eye on, and do you know what? You deserve it.
Libra
Your needs are important too, and it looks like you’re finally starting to understand that. Keep moving forward on this trajectory, chase your bliss, and break up with your boyfriend. The stars are bored of him and so are you.
Soapbox Artisan Doughnuts By Killian Conyngham I have a confession to make. I hate artisan doughnuts. I know, it’s shocking. But don’t get me wrong, I certainly don’t hate doughnuts. I have many a delightful memory, of chowing down on some doughy goodness in the glory days of my youth. Back in those recession tinted times, 80 cents might have seemed steep for a pastry, but it was worth it. Those pink-frosted glories were the pinnacle of doughnut quality. Until of course, they weren’t. It happened slowly at first. Whisperings of doughnuts with toppings and flavours you wouldn’t believe began surfacing. I was sure they would be a fad. I was catastrophically wrong. J ust take something that works in America, wait a few years and bring it to Ireland, that was the sage advice of a friend’s father. I think it sadly holds true. The fancy American doughnuts came, and the whole country went mad. Suddenly there were more doughnut shops on O’Connell Street than lost tourists looking for Molly Malone, and to make matters worse, they began appearing in the very places that once housed my cheap and cheerful alternatives, invading such sanctuaries as the Londis on Grafton Street and, eventually, my local Spar, where the pastry section of my childhood was replaced by a tower of artisan awfulness. That was the last straw. I vowed never to buy one of those overpriced abominations, and my boycott has lasted to this day. Recently, however, I happened to be given a voucher for a free artisan doughnut. And so, as I write this, it sits there in its gaudy packaging, taunting me. It was always only a matter of time before I succumbed to the temptation, I knew that. And now that I have, I regretfully have to admit: they do actually taste pretty damn good.
OTwo WHAT’S HOT? Cuffing Season
It’s time to buckle down and find someone to spend those cold autumn nights with. Cuffing season means new relationships and having someone to do all of those cheesy holiday traditions with like couples costumes and pumpkin picking, this will definitely be hot this season! Dear Jerry Mayo, So, I’ve been in UCD for two months now and I still haven’t got the hang of dressing like a college student. I spent 12 years in a uniform in school, so fashion was never on my radar. Walking around Newman is like Paris Fashion Week for me, my Heaton’s jeans just don’t cut it. Can you give me any tips on how to make myself look more like an Arts student? Kind regards, Coco Flannel
Decriminalisation of Abortion and Same Sex Marriage in Northern Ireland
Alas, women are granted the permission to be in charge of their own bodies, revolutionary indeed. Luckily, the MP’s in Westminster have voted for the same sex marriage and abortion laws to be changed, meaning more bodily autonomy for all.
Pulling with my Parents on RTÉ
A TV show about people giving their parents full control of their dating lives? Sounds terrible, but it really isn’t. This RTÉ show is surprisingly enjoyable, especially the part where a mam discovers her son has been sending some rather NSFW pictures to girls he has been dating. Gas.
Coco! Look, I’m flattered you thought of me, I’ve been told I have a pure class sense of shtyle altogether. I understand the stress though, man, when I first moved from Monaghan all I had was my club GAA jersey and a pair of O’Neill’s tracksuit bottoms. Oh, and my Transition year hoodie. In terms of dressing like the lads up there in Newman, I’d tell ya this: don’t. Why would ya wanna dress like that lot? A load of washed up hippies, made more of avocados and acai bowl shite than a good hearty bowl of mash and stew. Shtick to what you know, Coco, sitting in Theatre L is hard enough, wear your comfy jeans from Heaton’s, sure there’s not a thing wrong with them. The best look anyone can wear is their confidence, and if you’re comfortable in your gear, even if it isn’t necessarily ‘fashion’, then feck it, go for it. If I can give you any tips, two staple pieces to have in your wardrobe have to be a Superdry hoodie and a North Face raincoat. Now, it’ll not look as “on trend” as the vintage shite the lads in Newman wear, but it’s practical and fierce comfortable, and that’s all you need to go from lectures on a Friday to the bog on a Saturday. Let me know how you’re getting on, and remember, a rollie will always make you look like you fit in down in Newman. All the best, and up Monaghan! Lots of love,
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WHAT’S NOT? Pumpkin Spice
It’s time for Starbucks to give up the ghost and stop oversaturing their menu with pumpkin spiced drinks. There needs to be drink new flavor that doesn’t taste like artificial pumpkin for suburban teens to persistently post on their snap and Insta stories.
Midterms
Nothing worse than not paying attention for the last 7 weeks of lectures and then having a test on the material. Midterms are unenjoyable, time consuming and overall a lot of stress only to be worth 5% of your overall grade.
Harley Quinn Costumes
At this point, no one should be dressing up as Harley Quinn, it’s the most overplayed and outdated costume of the twenty first century, with Marilyn Monroe being a close second. This trend does not need to stay on top of anyone’s radar.
OTwo
HALLOWEEN FILMS STAFF RECOMMENDS:
Vanshika Dhyani - Deputy Science Editor: Final Destination series
Hannah Pamplin - Fashion Editor: The Blair Witch Project (1999)
Conor Halion - Arts and Literature Editor: Monster House (2006)
Nathan Young - Assistant Editor: The Halloween Tree (1993)
Horror has done to death haunted dolls, sinister little children, flesh eating clowns and phone calls that tell you that you will die in seven days. But can we ever have enough of the personification of death in our favourite splatter movie franchise? This October, let the grand design of death unravel as you watch Final Destination movies, back-to-back.
Some people say it’s not Christmas until you’ve seen the Coca Cola ad, well it ain’t Halloween until you’ve sat down and watched Monster House. Giving off major Stranger Things vibes, it also manages to strike a balance between horror and comedy. A hidden little gem which deserves to be seen by all.
Sinéad Dunphy - Music Editor: Scream (1996)
Scream has something for everyone. It serves as both a fun, campy horror romp and a witty satire of the genre. Even the faint of heart will be able to handle this one. Chock full of twists and turns and hilariously meta quips about scary movie tropes, Scream is a real crowd pleaser.
Write for us! Art and Literature
Editor: Conor Halion (arts@universityobserver.ie) Arts and Literature is everything from books to theatre to poetry. Whether it’s the best shows playing at the Abbey for the next few weeks, or what books you should be grabbing from Books Upstairs, Arts and Literature is the best way to feign cultural superiority.
Games
Editor: Andy Prizeman-Nolan (games@universityobserver.ie) Games is exactly what is says on the tin: reviews and longer pieces on games and what they mean in wider society. Think of it as your guide to what to pick up in GameStop, or what the latest meme dance is all about.
Film and TV
Editor: Cíara Dempsey (film@universityobserver.ie) Film and TV is a Netflix aficionados dream. Here you’ll find thoughtful pieces on the state of the film industry, reviews on the latest showings in cinema and the best (and worst) that television has to offer.
The last testament of a film crew who mysteriously vanish. More conceptual art-piece and marketing phenomenon than film. Using unknown actors, filmmaking techniques inspired by special forces training, and realistic ‘missing’ posters searching for the cast. Suspend your disbelief and imagine a witch as terrifying as the locals do, and you’ll be in for a truly terrifying experience.
The Halloween spirit is spookiness and nostalgia, and the film that most perfectly captures this is The Halloween Tree. Written and narrated by Ray Bradbury, and featuring Lenard Nimoy as the voice of Clavicle Moundshroud, the vintage feel of the soundtrack, story and design all add up to peak Americana, and peak Halloween nostalgia.
Alex Fagan- Art and Design Editor: Hocus Pocus (1993)
For me, Halloween is not complete without my annual rewatch of the 1993 Disney classic Hocus Pocus. Bette Midler’s portrayal of the evil and exasperated Winnifred Sanderson trying to regain her youth is probably her most iconic role (Sorry Beaches) and watching the three sisters navigate 1990’s Salem never fails to make me laugh.
Music
Editor: Sinéad Dunphy (music@universityobserver.ie) Music has everything you need to know about what gigs are on in town, what albums you should be streaming on Spotify and the odd chat with some of your favourite musicians. If you’re lucky there’ll be a ready made playlist of some of the best music this wee island has to offer.
Food
Editor: Sophie Tevlin (food@universityobserver.ie) Food is a wonderful compendium of interesting and easy recipes to try that won’t break your fragile student bank account, cool places in Dublin to grab a bite to eat and a look at different world cuisines.
Fashion
Editor: Hannah Pamplin (fashion@universityobserver.ie) Fashion begins every issue with a fabulous fashion shoot taken around UCD with clothes that you’ll be lusting after for months to come. It also features great takes on different clothing items, Fashion Week and award show red carpet reviews and looks at some of the most stylish people around.
Travel
Editor: Killian Conyngham (travel@universityobserver.ie) Travel is a great way of figuring out where to run away to for the weekend, the best and most sustainable way to do so and how to pack lightly and efficiently while you’re at it. You also might find some Erasmus inspiration from people who have done it all
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OTwo - Arts & Literature
Edgar Allan Poe and the Human Mind as the Source of all Horror Joyce Dignam analyses the tales of Edgar Allan Poe and asks the question: Why does psychological horror still give us the heebie-jeebies? Focusing on the darker sides of the human psyche, psychological horror tends to follow protagonists who are tortured by their own mind or haunted by the darkness of others. Psychological horror remains popular across all forms of literature, but it was the nineteenth century American short story writer and essayist, Edgar Allan Poe, that pioneered the genre with his tales. Poe’s stories remain chilling even to modern readers who are exposed to gore and violence in the media on a daily basis. So, why is it that psychological horror remains so sinister? Psychological horror arguably terrifies the reader more than other genres because it is plausible. When reading about characters who commit acts of violence or torment, we can imagine that they can exist somewhere in the world, even if we have never encountered them. The genre sets itself apart from other types of horror, such as supernatural or weird science, because they have the possibility of existing in the real world. When reading a tale of psychological horror, the reader cannot comfort themselves with the thought that “it’s only a story” because the reader knows that the mind really can create such torment. Poe wrote almost all of his stories with this concept in mind, creating characters who on the surface appear normal, but become manic figures who have lost control. The Black Cat, focuses on an alcoholic who is driven insane by his cat, leading him to commit acts of violence; “The fury of a demon instantly possessed me. I knew myself no longer.” Poe demonstrates that monsters are not the things which live under our bed, but rather the things which live in our heads. The beast lies not without, but within.
“When reading a tale of psychological horror, the reader cannot comfort themselves with the thought that “it’s only a story” because the reader knows that the mind really can create such torment.” Psychological horror reaffirms that it’s not ghosts or goblins that we should fear, but rather losing control of one’s own mind. What would you do if you could no longer trust yourself? Berenice follows the story of Egaeus, a man who suffers from a disorder that makes him fall into periods of intense focus where he often doesn’t remember what has happened. Egaeus is about to marry his cousin Berenice however, his fiance becomes ill, and has her teeth remaining the only healthy part of her body. Egaeus comes to obsess over her teeth, and when Berenice passes away, Egaeus
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awakes one night to a servant who tells him her grave has been disturbed. He finds himself covered in mud, with a spade beside his bed and a box containing “thirty-two small, white and ivory-looking substances.” Aside from the taboo image of the disturbed grave, and the macabre box of teeth, what’s unnerving about this story is that the protagonist doesn’t even know what he has done. He has lost control of his own mind and been driven to perform an act of horror. Poe paints a convincing portrait of seemingly sane characters who commit acts of insanity, demonstrating that psychological horror can strike at any time.
“monsters are not the things which live under our bed, but rather the things which live in our heads. The beast lies not without, but within.” In one of Poe’s most famous short stories, The Tell-Tale Heart, we see a murderer haunted by the beating of the still living heart of his victim. The narrator of this tale is an agitated character who obsesses over the eye of the old man he lives with, so much so that he murders him and hides the body under the floorboards. What’s terrifying about this character is his nonchalant attitude towards what he has done and his lack of remorse. His sense of reality has been so altered by his own mind, that he doesn’t believe he has committed any wrongdoing. He tries to convince the audience that he isn’t mad; “You fancy me mad. Madmen know nothing…You should have seen how wisely I proceeded.” He’s proud of what he has done and only confesses to his crimes because he is haunted by the perceived “beating of his hideous heart,” not because of any guilt over the murder he has committed. Poe’s tales remain chilling because they deny us the comfort of ascribing horror to otherworldly spectres or monsters. Rather, psychological horror reaffirms the fear that the real monsters plague the darkest corners of our minds.
OTwo - Arts & Literature
The Oldest and Strongest Emotion: Cosmic Horror and Fear of the Unknown Conor Halion investigates the origins of cosmic horror and explores why the concept of the unknown is so dread inducing.
We’ve all had that feeling right? That churning sensation in the pit of our stomach when we see something that makes us uncomfortable for reasons we can’t quite explain. You may have felt it the first time you lost your mam or dad in a busy shopping centre, or maybe you feel it every time you look at baked beans. Fear, plain and simple. And as H.P Lovecraft once said, “The oldest and strongest kind of fear, is fear of the unknown.” The genre of literature which plays into fear of the unknown is broadly defined as cosmic horror, or in Lovecraft’s day, “weird stories” , and you can find it referenced in everything from video games, like Bloodborne and Dead Space, to television, like the excellent first season of True Detective. But why does cosmic horror continue to unnerve us so completely, almost a century after its foundation? Howard Philip Lovecraft spent most of his early childhood buried in his grandfather’s crumbling library, immersing himself in everything from Edgar Allan Poe to Nietzche. Perhaps Lovercraft’s greatest influence was Ann Radcliffe, an eminent gothic writer of the nineteenth century whose sweeping landscapes and dark foreboding ruins played heavily into the concept of the sublime. The sublime, for those unfamiliar, refers to something in nature, which is so large and incomprehensible that it transcends human understanding and makes us feel insignificant next to its sheer majesty. Lovecraft took the concept of the sublime and grafted it onto living breathing characters, namely, his sinister pantheon of “Old Ones”, a race of otherworldly creatures whose horrific forms slumber just beneath the Earth’s surface, ready to awaken at any moment and erase humanity with but the bat of an eye. Cthulhu and Dagon to name only two, their contorted forms are often so horrifying to the human senses that they defy comprehension, or even description by Lovecraft himself. It is the inability to make sense of the Old Ones that usually drives Lovecraft’s poor protagonists completely insane. Perhaps the best example of this can be seen in one of Lovecraft’s later stories, The Colour Out of Space written in 1927. The story features a meteorite crashing on the
outskirts of a town called Arkham. The meteorite carries an alien creature which proceeds to infect the surrounding landscape with…colour? However, Lovecraft is careful to describe it as “some diseased, underlying primary tone.”, conveying how truly alien this creature is. While it may seem like an oversight on Lovecraft’s part, his inability to describe the Old Ones is a clever narrative tool used to reflect that these creatures are so otherworldly and terrifying, that there exists no word or syllable in the human language which can adequately describe them. Interestingly, while the Gothic genre often has heavy religious undertones, the Old Ones of Lovecraft’s stories don’t fit into any religious or moral hierarchy. Crucifixes and prayers are useless against the slumbering malevolence of Cthulhu. Lovecraft’s protagonist’s rarely sin against any moral or ethical code, rather, their only transgression is attaining too much knowledge, which is what inevitably leads to their demise. In The Call of Cthulhu, Lovecraft comments that the most merciful thing in the world, “is the inability of the human mind to correlate all of its contents.” Someday, the relentless pursuit of science will lead to “the piecing together of dissociated knowledge” that “will open up such terrifying vistas of reality.” When one glimpses past the terrifying physical descriptions of Lovecraft’s pantheon of Old Ones, what is truly chilling about them is their complete indifference to humanity. One must take into consideration that Lovecraft was a post Darwinian writer. As Freud once argued, Darwin’s Origin of The Species had the effect of shattering the collective human consciousness, stripping us of any illusions of the soul, or a grand human destiny. We were no longer the chosen people of some benevolent deity but merely another link in the evolutionary chain, an anxiety also expressed by his contemporary, H.G Wells, in The Time Machine and The Island of Dr Moreau. Lovecraft’s tales remain chilling not only for their descriptions of the sinister Old Ones, but because they confirm the primal fear of mankind, that which we only dare to whisper to ourselves in the darkest of night. “We live on a placid island of ignorance, in the midst of black seas of infinity.”
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OTwo - Arts & Literature
Bram Stoker Festival Guide Jordan Murphy examines the life and times of one of our national treasures, Bram Stoker, and also gives a brief overview of what events to look out for at the Bram Stoker Festival. Born on the 8th of November 1847, Bram Stoker was a notoriously elusive character and beyond speculations about the exact nature of his relationship with Oscar Wilde, and his alleged membership with the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, an organisation renowned for its dealings with the supernatural, very little detail is known about his personal life. Like Wilde, he was a former student at Trinity College Dublin, before going on to become a civil servant, and after years of diligent work was inspired to write his first book: The Duties of Clerks of Petty Sessions in Ireland. In an attempt to increase his income, Stoker wrote eighteen books, penning and releasing his magnum opus Dracula, in 1897. His novel was believed to have been inspired by the fifteenth century ruler of Transylvania, Prince Vlad Tepes, or as he was also known: “Vlad Dracula”. Despite its reputation today, Dracula was received with mixed reviews upon its initial release, with some stating that it was foolish for Stoker to fill an entire book with such gruesome horror, and others wishing that a warning for the faint-hearted had been administered with each copy. Surprisingly, the book hardly ever receives mention in Stoker’s obituaries, lumped in with the rest of his many novels. Stoker was also a drama critic for the Dublin Evening Mail Newspaper and was well-known for his management of the late-Victorian actor Henry Irving. Stoker would go on to suffer from a stroke later in life, and many bouts of illhealth before his death in April 1912, the cause of which was rumoured to be syphilis. Perhaps now that you know a little more about the man, you’d like to hear about his festival. A gothic extravaganza inspired by his most famous work, the Bram Stoker festival kicks off on the witching hour, October 25th.
Night Watch: October 25th -28th, Grand Canal.
Dublin’s Grand Canal will be lit up with by a spooky ghost ship and other spectacles, on display all day throughout the festival but best enjoyed after sunset, if you dare...
Séance: October 25th-31st, 1-10pm, Wolf Tone Square.
Do spirits live on? Do they linger around us? Is there one watching you now? The Bram Stoker séance plunges you into darkness for a simulated encounter with the spirit world. Available all day this immersive experience is not to be missed!
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Library Tour: October 25th-26th, 6:30-7:45pm, St Patrick’s Close.
Perhaps after the séance you can rest your fearful hearts wandering around Saint Patrick’s close, the very same library that a young Bram Stoker haunted throughout 1866. Some of his best loved books are on display for all to see, while festival goers will also be treated to entrancing tales as they wander the halls of the library.
Stokerland: October 26th-27th, 11-4:30pm, St Patrick’s Park.
Stokerland pops up for family friendly fun, with Victorian fun fair rides and other gothic themed amusements for all ages to enjoy.
Abe’s Story: October 26th, 1pm, Dublin Castle.
Film buffs must be sure to check out Abe’s Story in the Chapel Royal, an exciting tale, reminiscent of the life of Bram Stoker, Abe’s Story tells the tale of a theatre director trying to finish a horror novel that he believes will change his life.
Dracula’s Disco: October 28th, 2-4pm, Temple Bar.
Dracula’s Disco, returns in Temple bar, featuring DJ Will Softly playing all the latest hits, suitable for all ages, fancy dress is encouraged!
Bite of Dublin: October 28th, 3-6pm, Dublin Castle.
If you’re up for a wander, head down to Dublin Castle on the 28th at 3pm, where a walking tour of Dublin begins with some spooky treats inspired by some of Stoker’s works of art. Led by scholar Valeria Cavalli, this tour takes you all around the city, passing through Stoker’s most famous haunts, and sampling some foods inspired by his life and works along the way.
Instaterror: October 28th-31st.
If you can’t make it out to Dublin for all seven days of the festival, you can still enjoy it from home. The 2019 Bram Stoker festival features “Instaterror”, where you can be chilled by a haunting tale told through your smartphone. Further information can be found closer to the date through their social media.
Poetry... Forgotten The darkness that they faced, the faces forgotten, only a name to see in stone. The struggle that I face, one created by my own, but that you made real. A bairn, left to fend off the gunshots and the uniform men in unorganised unison. But you knew. Whispers shared, truths and lies exchanged, and you were kept in the know. Bright blue eyes, that in the night seemed to glow, stars and galaxies, infinite worlds. Hardened skin, well used to it, but never failing to place trust in people who aren’t deserving. He felt the warmth through her uniform, attempting to hush him, shushing him to sleep. And they, falling into bed, feeling cold sheets against their face, seeing only darkness. The wee one slips into a deep sleep, the only sign of life the pacifier moving slowly, as the gunfire continues.
OTwo - Arts & Literature Dublin and I Are No Longer Intimate The welcome is gone from the air Husks and shells, buildings and people A strong sun bleaches the paving stones It brings the Liffey to a boil, sets the glass windows aflame and allows the stench of piss to rise, steaming from the ground. Into vacant buildings, the light leaks A space made homely by its warmth The cranes glint, sluggish and serpentine as they swing through the air Harbingers of progress, tendrils Metallic, that ever-present stench It sneaks around corners Ten stories, all the same Exposed brick Spare some change The river roils white hot and the bridges that span it collapse Back and forth, either side the quays burn, the vultures loom, and their wings blot out the sun Another death A nation of empty promises and pint glasses They tip us in dollars, and can’t pronounce our names The sun still shines, and the streets still smell of piss And the vultures still circle Ready to pick the body clean - Odin O’Sullivan
And the gunfire in my head keeps steadily firing, as a tear is shed, and it’s silently said we’ve parted ways. - Lavender Askew
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OTwo - Games
Git Gud m8
mentality, instead picking something else to play for him to relax. Coupling this with the fact that the game is approximately €70 on release, plus the couple hundred euro needed for the console or PC setup, suddenly the idea of an easy mode sounds like it should be a necessity.
Many games today are marketed by their difficulty. Andy Prizeman Nolan discusses whether “If the game has a wider reach, more such games need to be released with an easy people would be able to invest in the mode, or should the player just “git gud?”
fantastic lore and backstories seen in games like Dark Souls”
While the discussion about the difficulty developers choose to implement into their games seems like a relatively new concept, games programmed to be obscenely difficult have been present for decades. A quick look back on the era of arcade gaming, a generation of games built to seem impossible in order to make the player pay multiple times over to attempt to beat it makes some of today’s games look effortless by comparison. However, one developers games seem to always lead to this discussion reopening. Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice is the latest release from FromSoftware, a company known for releasing games based around difficulty, such as the Souls series and Bloodbourne. Many people insist that such difficulty is unnecessary and can turn away potential players who may feel disheartened or disinterested after their first couple of deaths. So, should these types of games offer an easier difficulty mode, or should they remain a daunting challenge?
“Many would argue that an easier Dark Souls experience isn’t an authentic one” One possible positive about introducing an easier mode would be the new found accessibility to the games’ stories. If the game has a wider reach, more people would be able to invest in the fantastic lore and backstories seen in games like Dark Souls. Opening the game to a fresh audience would also lead to a presumed spike in sales, as more people begin exploring a world previously deemed too intimidating for them. This could be incentive enough for companies to at least consider it. Some may also argue that playing games is a hobby for them, something for them to do after a long day at work or school. Sometimes, you do just want to unwind and play whatever game you want without worrying about a steep learning curve. Someone could love the world and atmosphere of the Souls games, but not be interested in the ‘Git Gud’
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However, I personally believe that the ludicrous difficulty seen in these games is an essential part of the niche. Many would argue that an easier Dark Souls experience isn’t an authentic one. Being annihilated by a boss on your first attempt, only to revisit the area more strategically and better prepared, and finally being prepared enough to beat that previously impossible segment is part of the magic these games provide. For those players that ventured out further into the world of God of War, and finally laid waste to all the Valkyrie bosses after numerous attempts can attest that conquering the final boss would not have felt nearly as satisfying had it been made easier for them. Sure, easier Valkyries would have meant a much quicker completion time, but the visceral reaction a player would have after finally completing the challenge makes all the effort worthwhile. Some games rely on their difficulty to sell their premise, too. For example, games like Super Meat Boy and VVVVVV are made memorable by how stupidly difficult they present themselves to be. Outside of their renowned difficulty, these games are another two indie platformers being released with little to separate them from every other game from that genre being released. Relying on its difficulty as a gimmick, though, Super Meat Boy was a commercial success, hitting the one million copies mark by 2012. The option to lower a game’s difficulty can be a great convenience for those struggling at a certain portion of a game or if they’re going for 100% completion and simply want to get it finished quickly, but with games where the difficulty is a central aspect, easier difficulties shouldn’t be required. They’re built to be difficult in order to force the player to reconsider how they approach certain parts. There are plenty of games that offer a more relaxed gameplay experience for those that would prefer it. And if you find that the game is too difficult, keep playing, and once you eventually overcome the obstacles in your way, it will feel like a genuine achievement.
OTwo - Games
Streamers and the Horror Genre Having adopted horror as their genre of choice for some time, Eoin Keogh looks at the affect streamers have had on the horror genre. When YouTube was created in 2007, nobody could predict the effect it would have on how people interacted with games. Further changes were implemented with the emergence of Twitch in June of 2011. Streaming platforms have become a hub for gamers to share recorded gameplay with a highly attentive audience, and the medium has only increased in popularity. Ninja, who surged to the forefront of streaming, is a case example of the concept’s popularity, sitting comfortably with a following of just over 14.6 million followers on Twitch (at the time of writing). While there are no glaring issues with the idea, there is one particular genre streaming has had a sizeable impact on; story driven horror. For years, many horror games relied on the psychological to unnerve their audience, creating a lingering atmosphere of uncertainty. Games from franchises like Silent Hill provided the player with a grossly uneasy world to be immersed into, with unapparent fears never more than an arm’s reach away. As the genre evolved further, some of this subtlety was lost. Many developers discarded the nuanced approach, opting into building a similarly eerie atmosphere for the player, but rather than unnerve them over time, they chose the easier route of jump-scares and loud crashes, sending the player into a brief frenzy. Said frenzy tends to be over rather quickly, however, before the game calms back down and sets itself up for the formula to be repeated. Streamers and Youtubers have arguably played a substantial role in this evolution. Youtubers would see their views spiking significantly when playing these types of games. For example, PewDiePie’s first video where he plays Slender: The Eight Pages has amassed over 13 million views. Reactions played a huge role in this; watching grown men shriek in abundant terror at the scares played in front of them became a staple for many Youtubers. In turn, many more streamers adopted the formula, played the same games with the same reactions. The demand for this type of content drove developers to create similar pro-
jects designed for such reactions. As this progressed, the idea of carefully implemented scares fell to the wayside. While the original approach was arguably more effective in providing a memorably terrifying experience, it didn’t sell as much as well as the response-oriented template. With horror games finding a pseudo-home on streaming sites, there was a considerable effect on their sales figures. Take Resident Evil 7, for example; a game that returned to the franchise’s horror roots, to the joy of many, complete with a modern reimagining of a previously limited idea. Releasing on January 24th, 2017, it has sold 6.1 million copies universally. While that is by no means a figure to smear, Resident Evil 5, one of the franchise’s most divisive releases, has sold approximately 11 million copies. One of the reasons many cite for this is the fact that many don’t feel the need to buy the game themselves, instead choosing to get their fill by watching playthroughs that captures the terrifying essence of the game just as well. One positive note to come of this is the emergence of independent developers. As the medium stepped away from big budget, open world games rife with impossible levels of interaction, there was an opening for development teams that don’t have access to the same budget to shine. Five Nights at Freddy’s started out like this; a simpler horror experience, taking the freedom of movement away from the player, forcing them to tightly manage their resources in order to survive. While the game divided fans of the horror genre at the time, the heights that Scott Cawthon achieved with such humble beginnings shouldn’t be diminished. Five Nights became a series boasting five instalments, four books, and a lore that became so far evolved, it became the subject for dissection and analysis by many a content creator. Such success would have been considerably more difficult had audiences not grown to love it through YouTube playthroughs. With horror being the streamers genre of choice for some time, it was inevitable it would begin to affect its structure. While they often prefer the games that provide cheap scares, their influence hasn’t been all detrimental. The emergence of independent companies, and games like The Evil Within still providing a psychological experience, the horror genre will continue to evolve and thrive.
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Nostalgia Corner: Shadow the Hedgehog With years of producing colourful games under their belt, Andy Prizeman Nolan revisits one of Sonic’s Gloomier entries; Shadow the Hedgehog. One of my favourite games as a child, Shadow the Hedgehog (2005) is Sonic Team’s alternative take on the typical Sonic formula. Whenever I found my old PlayStation 2 with my old games, I knew I had to play Shadow again. It’s a gold mine of a game; picture what would happen if Sonic the Hedgehog had a Three Days Grace phase, hung around Central Bank, and gave him guns or motorbikes to use in-game. That beautiful mess I’ve just described to you is Shadow the Hedgehog. The game begins with Shadow having lost his memory, and he takes towards the city of Westopolis amid an alien invasion. There are three paths to take once you start the level; side with Sonic and kill the aliens, side with Doom and kill the soldiers, or just ignore both and complete the level normally. This is the case for every level, and means that the game has a grand total of 10 varying endings. If you’re up for 10 playthroughs, that is. I say this as, almost immediately after starting the first
level, I noticed that the controls were so much harder than I remember. The slippery controls made Shadow hard to keep straight, and most of my deaths on the first level came from me falling off the edge after building up good momentum. The addition of the guns and vehicles are implemented well, and they feel natural to use once you get used to it. However, most of the gameplay is carried out through the sliding movement of Shadow, and it was quite detrimental to my replaying of the game. Overall, it was great fun revisiting one of my childhood favourites, even if it didn’t hold up all too well 14 years after its release. I would recommend people who played it when they were younger to revisit it themselves, as things such as the dialogue and the cheesy cutscenes makes for an enjoyable viewing. It’s a fun addition to the franchise, maintaining Sonic’s corny presentation, with a little bit of edge this time around.
Genre Review: The Art of Good Horror In grand Halloween spirit, Justin Looi takes a dive into the horror genre to dissect what makes them so effective. In case you were hiding in a cave somewhere, it is the month of spooks, scares and solitary adventures in questionably lit locations. Horror games have been around for what seems like ages, since Alone in the Dark (1992) and its fixed-camera, slow but tense haunted-house aesthetic, to Doom the year after with its yowling demons and first-person painting of modern 3D assets with pixelated gore. As the medium evolved, so did visuals, music, gameplay and writing – 2019 sees the sequel to the wildly successful nightmare dreamscape Layers of Fear alongside the highly-anticipated Metro: Exodus, both having vastly different takes on stimulating our deepest, darkest instincts. Unpopular opinion: scaring someone is easy. But scaring someone well is hard. The enjoyment of haunted houses and scary movies comes with catharsis, sometimes accompanied by screaming and white knuckles. Some of the best scares aren’t what makes the user jump, but what forces the user into a corner, making them rethink their entire approach. Dead Space (2008) brought a twist to zombie survival games, forcing aside years of conditioning by
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headshot-oriented first person shooters to think fast under pressure (the multitude of gory ways in which one gets murdered possibly helped). Even with the limitations of the hardware, older horror games like Resident Evil 2 used cleverly placed fixed cameras to limit the player’s vision, forcing them to constantly be aware of their surroundings and setting up cinematically intense moments. Lickers would clamber across a window just as the player entered a hallway. Moaning corpses would shamble slowly from off-screen as the player fumbles with reloading. Changing that is by no means inferior: the recent remaster was a full over-the-shoulder action game at heart, but it greatly utilised its powerful engine and graphical capabilities to render creepily lit environments in full glory. Compared to Resident Evil 5 and 6, which took on a more action-heavy approach, RE2 and Resident Evil 7: Biohazard represented a franchise returning to its roots. All in all, it is a glorious month for scaring one’s pants off, and depending on your personal tastes, you would be spoilt for choice for Halloween content. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have an unkillable, faceless being to escape from.
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Scorsese vs. Marvel Martin Scorsese’s recent critiques of the Marvel Cinematic Universe have fans riled up; Odin O’Sullivan takes a hard stance in favour of Scorsese. Recently Martin Scorsese, highly esteemed director, while on the press tour for his upcoming film The Irishman, decried the superhero film; specifically Marvel films. When asked by Empire magazine if he had seen any Marvel movies Scorsese replied “I tried, you know? But that’s not cinema.” He went on to say that “the closest I can think of them, as well made as they are, with actors doing the best they can under the circumstances, is theme parks.” Following Scorsese’s remarks, a number of other renowned directors, including Francis Ford Coppolla, Ken Loach and Pedro Almodóvar have similarly condemned Marvel. This of course generated a white-hot fury in the Marvel fanbase, with many taking to Twitter to vent their unilaterally uninformed opinions about Scorsese and film in general. But the question still stands; is Marvel “Cinema,” with a capital C? In my opinion, no; but there’s nothing wrong with that. What Scorsese means by his comments isn’t that the Marvel films have no worth, or aren’t enjoyable to watch, but rather that in the grand scheme of things they are not cinematic art. They are not cinema made for the love of the craft, or for the need to, as Scorsese puts it “convey emotional, psychological experiences to another human being” through the art of film. They are, and let’s be honest, about making money. They are pure spectacle. There may be some instances in which a director can exert control and stamp their personality onto the film, Taika Waititi and Thor: Ragnarök for example, but these films still exist in a series and must submit to its rules. Art cannot thrive if money is the main goal, regardless of artistic intent. At the centre of many of the online critiques of Scorsese and his comments was one repeated motif of how much Marvel films make at the box office, and Marvel’s “cultural relevance.” Neither of these things prove Marvel’s cinematic worth but many fans seem to think they do. This misconception stems from the capitalistic idea of money as merit and the impression that Marvel’s billion-dollar grosses indicate artistic worth. Tied up in this is the idea that mass-appeal indicates cultural worth, and the nostalgia for childhood characters. Of course, the amount of money a film makes says nothing for its artistic merits. Consider James Cameron’s Avatar: at one point the highest grossing film of all time, collecting an astounding 2.79 billion dollars at the box office, it does not in any way hold up artistically, and is, for all intents and purposes, a despicably mediocre film. We can again look to Avatar when discussing mass-appeal and cultural relevance with how quickly it was forgotten after its incredible mass-appeal and financial success. I implore any reader to try to remember the name of the film’s protagonist. My bet is you can’t.
“There may be some instances in which a director can exert control and stamp their personality onto the film, Taika Waititi and Thor: Ragnarök for example, but these films still exist in a series and must submit to its rules.” Despite this, Marvel films are a different beast to Cameron’s Avatar. They are omnipresent, and at times seem to be the only films that are showing. Disney’s near monopoly of the blockbuster film industry cannot be overstated when studying Marvel’s cultural ubiquity. At last check there has been on average two Marvel films a year since 2008 with twelve more films announced and set to come out over the next five years. Marvel is inescapable, it is literally impossible for it not to have cultural relevance. But as has been discussed above, that does not make it artistically valid, or, as Scorsese said, “Cinema.” You can look throughout history and find pieces of art, books, tv shows, films, or music with a huge amount of cultural relevance that have now faded into obscurity. This doesn’t necessarily mean they weren’t good; it just means that cultural relevance is no way to measure the artistic merit of a work. An argument can be made for enduring cultural relevance as indicating artistic merit. Cult films, for example which have grown in popularity over time after being derided upon their release. And if anyone’s body of work has an enduring cultural relevance its Scorsese’s. Marvel haven’t been around long enough to see if they’ll endure. Martin Scorsese lives and breathes cinema. He has almost an unparalleled devotion to the craft. Not only in making his own films but in unearthing and restoring important pieces of cinematic history. This man is almost indisputably the most well-regarded director in the world; of course, he doesn’t think Marvel is cinema. Because it’s not, its cinematic junk food. It looks great, and it’s easy to consume. But it’s not good for you.
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OTwo - Film & TV
Horror Films: Cheap Thrills or True Cinema?
Why Hollywood gays toe the line
In the spirit of Halloween, Emma Kiely interrogates the value of the horror genre.
In light of recent viral events, Heather Reynolds looks at the role queerness plays in fame and the media.
A lot of people disregard horror films as trash and indulgent algorithmic Hollywood mainstream slop from their ten-foot-high horse. It cannot be denied that there are horrendous horror films out there, but that should not take away from some of the masterpieces hiding among them. Horror takes the most powerful emotions that humans feel, fear, and twists and manipulate it into countless different entities. Clowns, ghosts, serial killers, a man with knives for fingers; there are no limits to the reincarnation of fear and that is the pure magic of horror. This Halloween, if you’re looking for an old school type of terror, look no further than The Silence of The Lambs. With the (unwarranted) hype surrounding Joker, allow Anthony Hopkins to remind you how villainous character acting is properly done with his sadistic charm and nauseating tension. The film delves into how the darkest corners of humanity are hidden deep within our psyche, waiting to burst out. A film that you might have overlooked this year is Ari Aster’s folk-horror, Midsommar. It stars Florence Pugh as a young woman in grieving who, with her toxic boyfriends and his welcoming friends, attend a Swedish Midsommar festival and bear witness to the commune’s barbaric rituals. The film reiterates horror’s ability to take daily issues such as grief, mental health and relationships and illustrate them against the background of torture and violence. Pugh gives a stellar performance and blurs the line between victim, heroine and evil. A must-see but not for the weak-stomached. Lastly, rewinding back to old Hollywood, lies Alfred Hitchcock’s masterpiece, Rear Window. Jimmy Stewart stars as Jeff, an injured man bound to his wheelchair and lead by boredom into spying on his various neighbours from his window. He soon suspects his neighbour of murdering his wife and is adamant to prove it. This is slow-burning tension at its finest. The claustrophobia that Jeff is confined to combined with his helpless state makes for a viewing experience as close to the edge of your seat as possible. It is nothing like the jump-scare filled nonsense churned out today and has truly stood the test of time.
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As we all know, Hollywood is very detached from the rest of the world, both as an industry and as a collection of individuals. Some for instance, seem completely unaware that declining conversation with a war criminal isn’t rude. Others see no harm in openly starting a cult. It’s a weird place. One thing that all media darlings seem to agree upon in that wacky town, is that the pressure of the spotlight put on them by the media is immense, and that the pressure grows exponentially if you are known to be part of a marginalised group. This is what leads to queer celebrities being held to a higher standard, both by the public and by their peers. You become a representation, not just of yourself, but of your community, and as any semi-political queer person can tell you, it’s impossible to keep both the straight, cisgender community and the queer community happy with you. This is factors into how things like the Queer Eye guys casually disregarding leftists candidates happens, despite them holding many left leaning views. They need to keep the side that holds power happy, because if they don’t their social standing can diminish in the eyes of those who sign their contracts. Especially in the early stages of their careers, every stance an LGBTQ+ celebrity takes is a risk, and one that has to be calculated. That being said, celebrities can reach a certain level of influence and wealth that the risk that comes with being openly LGBT diminishes to the point of it not even being a factor anymore. Say, for talks sake, the host of one of the most popular morning talk shows in the country definitely holds enough sway that they would have to murder someone in the street to lose the safety fame and money has afforded them. And can definitely just choose not to make polite conversation with a homophobic war criminal. Just saying.
Review: Sorry We Missed You
OTwo - Film & TV
Robyn Murphy reviews Ken Loach’s newest release, a heart-wrenching portrayal of the realities of living as working-poor. In recent years, acclaimed director Ken Loach has become known for his work detailing the daily struggles of those living below the poverty line in the United Kingdom. In his 2016 film I, Daniel Blake, Loach both examines the benefit system, and how it often fails the most vulnerable. In Sorry We Missed You, Loach and screenwriter Paul Laverty revisit many of the issues raised in I, Daniel Blake, this time depicting the daily strife of those known as the “working poor”. Families which consist of one or both working parents, yet who still fail to make ends meet. Sorry We Missed You tells the story of the Turners, a working-class family living in Newcastle who, in spite of the fact that both parents work, face constant financial and housing insecurity. Ricky (Kris Hitchen), begins the film having just gotten a job for a parcel delivery service, while his wife Abbie (Debbie Honeywood) is a carer, who is frequently seen giving up her own time in order to provide better care for her clients. The film shows the heart-breaking effect that working poverty has on families, and children in particular, with there being scenes of couple’s ten-year-old daughter tidying the house at night whilst her exhausted parents sleep on the couch. The couple also struggle to contain their rebellious teenage son, often unable to attend vital school meetings as a result of
their working life. While the film depicts incredible hardship, Loach finds room for humour, with light-hearted scenes of Ricky’s encounters with the parcel recipients and a wonderful sequence between father and daughter, as they enjoy a day together on one of Ricky’s shifts. The acting, from the largely inexperienced cast, is both heart wrenching and astounding. This, in combination with Loach’s use of on location shooting adds to the intense realism of the film. While the film is not the most upbeat you’ll see this year, it is incredibly necessary viewing and I would recommend it to everyone. At the heart of the film is an incredibly loving family, with two parents doing everything they can to provide a better life for their children. The film’s ending serves to emphasize the immense pressures the family face and critiques the culture of working hard to provide for your children, only in turn to become increasingly unavailable to them.
Review: Zombieland: Double Tap Eoin Keogh reviews the not-very awaited se- albeit sickly sweet moment when Columbus realises the importance of his mismatched family. The introduction of quel to Zombieland. 10 years after the original film, Zombieland: Double Tap arrived in theatres Friday the 17th of October, just in time for Halloween, but is it even worth the price of a cinema ticket? The plot is almost a carbon copy of the first film, with the familiar faces of Jesse Eisenberg, Emma Stone, Woody Harrelson, Abigail Breslin and even Bill Murray, reprising their roles. The film follows the original four, plus two or three new characters. The highlight of the film was possibly Rosario Dawson’s performance as an Elvis fanatic, and even that was just okay. The film itself is just the original Zombieland with updated references to contemporary pop-culture, and still uses tropes that could be easily avoided. Some of the zombies evolve somewhat and are faster and stronger, but some stay either unevolved or even de-evolved, nicknamed the “Homers” in reference to The Simpsons. The plot of the film is almost indistinguishable from the first, and uses almost all memorable references from its predecessor in an attempt to appear relevant. The film features several scenes that directly mirror the first film, including Wichita (Stone) and Little Rock (Breslin) abandoning Tallahassee (Harrelson) and Columbus (Eisenberg), a “hot girl” becoming a zombie, and a somewhat heartwarming,
the character of Maddison (Zoey Deutch) seems to be a trite perpetuation of the “dumb blonde” stereotype, and does little more in the film than drive the audience and the characters mad. Do I have anything positive to say? Yes, actually. The film is a great time waster, if what you look for in a film is some noise in the background, some stale slow-motion shots of mindless gore and violence, or even want to see Jesse Eisenberg reclaim his role as “socially awkward manchild”, it could be the perfect film to stick on while you’re avoiding essays. However, to give credit where it’s due, the film is hyper aware of the audience it’s trying to appeal to, and although the fanbase has worn thin after the ten year wait, it does a good job as a follow up to the original. The film is nothing groundbreaking, and comes well after the zombie craze of the 2000’s, but it does have funny moments, including a somewhat meta scene in which Bill Murray is interviewed for Garfield 3, a nod at the creators awareness of the sequel fatigue we’re beginning to see. In conclusion, although not the absolute worst film, the cost of the cinema ticket likely isn’t worth the 99 minutes of mediocrity. Wait until it comes out on Netflix, I guess.
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OTwo - Film & TV
El Camino, and other tv to film features
Vanshika Dhyani situates the newly released El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie within a long established trend of television to film adaptations.
The X-Files: Fight The Future (1998)
The film acts as a bridge between season five and six, and resumes the investigation of bombing in a building and the destruction of criminal evidence. It follows Mulder and Scully as they try to uncover the truth about an alien colony on Earth. Even though the movie received mixed reviews, a sequel called The X-Files: I Want to Believe was released in 2008. It seems as if Breaking Bad is a television shows that never stops giving. First the spin-off series, Better Call Saul and now the film, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie. Can we hope to see more? Maybe a Broadway show, starring Bryan Cranston and Aaron Paul? El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie picks off where the series finale of Breaking Bad “Felina” left us; heartbroken and alone, for six long years in a 1978 Chevrolet El Camino, with a very dishevelled Jesse Pinkman (Aaron Paul), cry-laughing in relief. Breaking Bad’s finale saw the end of an iconic, yet twisted father-son relationship that Walter White (Bryan Cranston) and Jesse shared. While the American drama series focused on Walter White for five seasons, capturing his beautifully haunting descent into the criminal world, El Camino takes a more reflective tone. It wobbles around Jesse Pinkman’s world and the inner turmoil that afflicts his humanity. In a phone interview with Rolling Stone, show-creator Vince Gilligan stated “this is probably not something I should be saying to you, but this movie, strictly speaking, does not need to exist.” However, despite Gilligan’s assertion, El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie drew audience rating of 6.5 million in the first three days of its release, and boasts 8.2 million U.S. viewers during its opening weekend alone. Although some might agree that the movie was unnecessary, fans of the show, affectionately dubbed “Heisenbergers” seem to be happy. Production companies and movie studios are always on the lookout for a franchise with an already established fan-base, which essentially guarantees viewership. This is primarily the reason why cinema is currently littered with sequels, prequels, re-imaginations and remakes. In the case of television however, there is a long history of television shows inspiring films and although we could criticise the current trend of reboots and remakes, some of these earlier adaptations still provoke some fond memories. With El Camino streaming on Netflix, let’s take a look at other popular TV shows that inspired movies.
“Although some might agree that the movie was unnecessary, fans of the show, affectionately dubbed “Heisenbergers” seem to be happy.”
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Serenity (2005)
Joss Whedon’s short lived TV series: Firefly, inspired the 2005 movie: Serenity. The movie is a continuation of the original show set in the year 2517, and employs the same cast from the show. The premise of the movie was based on the original storyline for the show’s un-filmed second season. The film was well received and even inspired Steven Swanson, a NASA astronaut, to take the DVDs of both Firefly and Serenity to the International Space Station, where they currently reside.
Mission: Impossible (1996)
When it comes to the reboot of an all time favorite TV series, Mission: Impossible immediately comes to mind. The very first Mission Impossible film was released in the year 1996 and was a continuation of both the original television series of the same name and its revived sequel series. It followed Ethan Hunt, six years into the future as he tried to find out who framed him for the murders of his IMF team. Of course, the franchise has by now reached a point of near over-saturation, but you can’t deny the love that it once inspired.
Star Trek-The Original Series
Not one, not two, but twelve movies are based on this science fiction television series created by Gene Roddenberry. It is one of the longest running franchises that aims “to explore strange new worlds, to seek out new life and new civilizations, to boldly go where no man has gone before!“ From Sex And The City to The Simpsons we love to see our binge-worthy tv-series make their big screen debut. The same can be said for El Camino. The film served as an aftermath of criminal calamity, a peek into the psyche of our favorite (surviving) character from Breaking Bad. Through the film, Vince Gilligan is able to give us back a piece of a world that fans fell in love with, without truly altering what remains a fond memory. It really makes you wonder if you can-in fact- have your cake and eat it too.
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Emma Donoghue
The Proof is in the Passion 17
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Heather Reynolds chats with award winning author and UCD alum, Emma Donoghue about everything from her time in UCD to her Halloween plans.
ages ago, but I think they’ve really brought out a fresh angle in it. It’s funny how these fairytales continue to take on interesting new meanings in every generation.”
Keeping with her stage work, one of her current projects is adapting the play of her incredibly popular tale, Room, for the North American stage. Since it’s 2017 debut, the stage adaptation has run in both Ireland and the UK to great success, and so she is working to bring it to North America with all the appropriate edits. “I’m doing some rewrites on that, and tinkering with the language to make it suit Canada. Because you know, the book was set in America but then for As well as it being a milestone birthday, Dono- the play, we began the play in England so I had ghue has also very recently returned home from to rejig the language. In each case I want it to the press tour for her latest book, Akin. Her first sound like the local speech, because I feel like contemporary novel since Room, released in it’s a really universal story.” 2010, Akin follows an elderly man and his great nephew on a journey to his childhood home in Nice.”It’s inspired very much by myself and my “It’s funny how these fairytales conpartner and my kids - we got to spend two sep- tinue to take on interesting new erate years in Nice, and it’s the first book I’ve meanings in every generation” written that’s really impacted by a particular place I was in.” At this point, at the end of her “As you can see, I like to have a lot of different North American tour, the book has gotten very projects on the go. It keeps things lively!” Donopositive reviews, with great praise for how she ghue jokes as she explained her next project, an addressed the generational and class divide be- upcoming film, again based off one of her novtween the two characters throughout the novel. els. The Wonder, published in 2016, is DonoAs for the tour itself, “The travel is a bit tiring, ghue’s first historical novel set in Ireland, and but the actually encounters with readers is very surround the medical mystery of an 11 year old rejuvenating.” who is said to have been able to survive withEmma Donoghue is a prolific, multi award winning author and playwright, who has been constantly churning out spectacular content for over 25 years. She was also kind enough to take time out on her 50th birthday to talk to OTwo about her most recently released work, her upcoming debuts, and her experience studying in UCD in the late 1980’s.
As for upcoming works, Donoghue is thrilled that her play, Kissing the Witch, which had its debut in 2000, is coming to Europe for the first time. It is due to open Dublin’s newest theatre, The Bohemian, a new cabaret style theatre in Phibsboro. Doors will open to the public for the first time on the 29th of October with an adaptation by The Corpse Ensemble. The show began as a collection of short stories published in 1997 under the same name, a collection of “revisionist fairy tales (...) all the classic European fairy tales like Cinderella, Thumbelina, and Beauty and the Beast, kind of a new spin on each of these.” The stories are all linked by having each protagonist narrate each others tale, harkening back to their origins in Oral Tradition. As for the play itself, Donoghue seems very excited about what the Ensemble have planned. “I absolutely love what they’re doing with it. It’s funny, I wrote this play
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out food for months. Based around the historical phenomenon of the ‘Fasting Girl’, the story itself is also Donoghue’s first historical novel to not be based around a factual event, and is instead a work of total fiction. She is adapting it alongside Element Pictures, an Irish company that she worked with to produce Room.
When it comes to scriptwriting, Donoghue can trace her origins back to her BA in UCD. She looks back on her time here fondly, “Because I’d been to an all girls convent school, like so many of us did, I remember walking into UCD on my first day and just feeling this surge of freedom.” Between the lack of uniform, the lack of controlling oversight, and the novel experience of studying alongside men, Donoghue reminisces on those days with a joyful tone. “Just of feeling of having much more individual choice and autonomy than at school was a thrill (...) All the first
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Room, Emma Donoghue’s novel, was adapted into an Oscarwinning film starring Brie Larson and Jacob Tremblay.
friends I made were there were men because I of her time in UCD? Her time with Dramsoc. “I was finally not in this all girl bubble.” really started writing plays cautiously at Dramsoc, first by directing plays, and then adapting Donoghue shared her love for what she had things, like we did a sort of modernised version studied, English and French, “My only regret of The Duchess of Malfi. I would say I took those was that I never really spoke French much. You baby steps there, and if I hadn’t had such an were really meant to go away for a year and exciting theatre setting to be working in, you speak French, but I was just in a hurry and so did know, you got to put on plays in UCD so often. the degree in three years and pushed on with Without that kind of setting I’m not sure I ever graduate studies in English. That’s the one thing would have become a playwright.” She accredI feel I should have done differently, but it wasn’t its this time with her comfort writing plays for their fault.” In fact, the only thing she didn’t like stage, screen and radio, “Those Dramsoc days about her time in UCD was the year of Econom- were probably just as useful as the actual coursics classes she sat, much to her mother’s dismay. es I took. The parties were always good too, you “My mother was really hoping I would do one met lively people there.” useful subject that might get me a job.”
“Those Dramsoc days were proba“I remember walking into UCD on bly just as useful as the actual coursmy first day and just feeling this es I took” surge of freedom.” She then confirmed that while the college in her first novel, Stir Fry, went unnamed, it was definitely UCD. “I think the thing I like about UCD was that it was big and ramshackle. I had friends doing English in Trinity who used to actually worry about what they should wear to tutorials. I liked the shabbiness of UCD, the fact that no one seemed to be watching too closely what you were wearing or doing.” And the highlight
She echoed this sentiment when giving advice to college students who are looking to pursue a career in writing, “You really don’t have to study writing - or rather, you study writing by reading books and by trying to write.” While she enjoyed PhD, and found the research skills she gained while there useful for her historical writing, she very much pushed the practical over theory when it comes to fiction. “I think often nowadays people feel you have to do it in a pro-
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OTwo - Centre
fessionalised way, and they have to go and do a course on creative writing, but plenty of good novels come out of just the lives and thoughts of those who are interested in books.”
for them to come back with a sack of chocolate which I’ll fight over, but this year I have to give a reading on Halloween. The kids are now 12 and 15, so we’re leaving them to roam the streets themselves, and I’ll be giving a reading. There Donoghue stressed not feeling pressured into are worse ways to spend Halloween.” taking course after course on writing, before following up with, “But also don’t chase the mar- Akin is available in all good booksellers now, ket, because unlike, say, YouTubing, you don’t and Kissing the Witch runs from the 29th of Ochave to be of the moment in fiction. Fiction tober to the 9th of November in The Bohemian takes a long time to publish, so there’s no point Theatre in Phibsboro. Tickets are €12, or €20 if in trying to be absolutely of the moment, and you book for both shows. there’s certainly no point in trying to guess what will be in fashion in several years time. I would just always advise people to write what they’re passionately interested in, and hope that they can communicate that enthusiasm to readers.”
“You really don’t have to study writing - or rather, you study writing by reading books and by trying to write.” We concluded the interview by discussing her plans for the upcoming Halloween festivities, which Donoghue seemed to have bittersweet feelings about. “Annoyingly this year, I’m usually either out with the kids or at least waiting
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OTwo - Music
Album Reviews
Credit: Lucy Foster
Singles Too – Screaming Females
Railer – Lagwagon
Without Fear - Dermot Kennedy
Riley Fitzpatrick
Mike Stebens
Conor Halion
Singles Too is the latest release from Screaming Females. It compiles singles, covers, live performances, and other previously unreleased material. The project offers fans a more casual opportunity to delve into some of the band’s lesser known work. The sound of the record changes drastically from song to song as it spans the band’s career; from the burning, almost caustic sounding guitars of ‘Pretty Okay’, to the sonic clarity of ‘Let Me In’. Singles Too has its highs and lows, from less memorable tracks like, ‘I Do’ and ‘Ancient Civilisation,’ to standouts like the energetic ‘Let Me In’ and ‘Skeleton’, which showcase frontwoman Marissa Paternoster’s distinct howl and melodic, speedy solos. The covers are really where the band comes alive. Paternoster radically changes her vocal style from song to song like on their funky rendition of Neil Young’s ‘Cortez the Killer’ and ‘No More I Love You’s’, where Paternoster swaps her raw vocal power for a more gentle, sweet sound, similar to that of Annie Lennox, which in the context of a rock song works phenomenally, just as most of the songs do. Meanwhile, on ‘If It Makes You Happy’, the band absolutely kill it with Paternoster’s forceful vocals demanding your attention, especially during the chorus. In a nutshell: Singles Too is a journey through the evolution of Screaming Females’ sound. It’s worth a listen for diehard and casual fans alike. The shining star of the project is undoubtedly the collection of cover songs it offers.
Railer is Lagwagon’s first release in 5 years. Their last album Hang enjoyed positive reviews, so it could have been a hard act to follow but Railer has exceeded expectations. It will bring joy to fans of melodic punk rock. If you are into bands like Bad Religion, Pennywise or NOFX this one’s for you. ‘Surviving California’ brings vigorous guitar riffs and dazzling soloing reminiscent of Judas Priest and would have fit perfectly on 1994’s Trashed. ‘The Suffering’ opens up with piano and a spoken word quotation of Bertrand Russell, leading into a thrash metal style song with a catchy guitar solo. ‘Pray For Them’ shows off the more thoughtful side of Lagwagon, criticizing politicians’ “thoughts and prayers” after mass shootings. While on ‘Parable’, singer Joey Cape’s daughter sings, “We’d go outside to play, but it’s not safe today” alluding again to school shootings. Lagwagon stick to their usual style on Railer and acknowledge this in ‘Bubble’, which reflects on their career and, feeling stuck in the past or “incapable of change.” The album sounds like it could have been released 20 years ago, but that is the charm it holds for aficionados of the genre. The band is aging well on this album which is definitely one of the best punk albums of the year, topped only by Bad Religion’s Age of Unreason. In a nutshell: Lagwagon are not reinventing the wheel on Railer, but they are still creating the honest punk rock that fans have come to love and expect from them.
Fresh off supporting Mumford and Sons and headlining at both Sea Sessions and Electric Picnic during the summer, Dermot Kennedy’s eagerly anticipated debut album finally dropped on the 4th of October. Kennedy’s unique selling point has always been, and will continue to be the raw emotion which he puts into his work, primarily through his powerful vocals. The 27-year old’s debut album, titled Without Fear, is a compilation of a lot of his newer singles, such as ‘Outnumbered’, ‘Lost’, and ‘Power Over Me’. ‘What Have I Done’, ‘Without Fear’, and ‘Outnumbered’ are all solid tracks in and of themselves, however, many of the songs featured on this album fail to leave much of an impression, featuring the same angsty lyrics and moody beats spliced with electronic effects, which often have unfortunate consequence of blending into one another. Unfortunately, none of the tracks featured on Without Fear have quite the same emotional impact as his earlier work, namely tracks like ‘Glory’. Kennedy is clearly a talented artist with a unique sound. Harsh as it may sound, the overwhelming theme of Without Fear is stagnation. In a nutshell: I was overwhelmingly proud to think that my hometown had produced such a talented artist, whose sound had such a heart-breaking quality but, Without Fear there’s no sense of progression from that initial brilliance.
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The Legacy of MTV Unplugged Mike Stebens takes a look back at some of the most iconic MTV Unplugged performances and breaks down exactly why the show has had such a lasting legacy in pop culture.
November 1st of this year marks the 25th anniversary of Nirvana’s iconic MTV Unplugged performance. To celebrate this, the album will be rereleased on vinyl, including five rehearsal performances that were hitherto only available on DVD. The show was recorded at the height of grunge and when Nirvana was arguably the most influential band on the planet. The release came only months after singer Kurt Cobain’s untimely death. Nirvana’s unplugged performance is perhaps the most iconic, but many other artists have given unforgettable appearances on the show, which have contributed to a lasting legacy, making MTV Unplugged a staple of pop culture and an honour for any artist to take part in. Artists are given the opportunity to perform their songs in an unconventional setting, stripping them down to their bones. Many musicians write their music first on acoustic guitar and agree that a good song can be recognized by the fact that it works acoustically. Here lies what makes MTV Unplugged so important for artists and audiences alike. The singer is accompanied by acoustic instrumentation instead of the usual roaring electric guitars. The audience is sitting, which means that people won’t be dancing and screaming and apart from occasional cheering and applause in between songs, they stay silent, allowing the songs to take centre stage. The artist becomes more accessible and can present a more vulnerable and personal side to themselves, which takes us back to Nirvana and what makes their performance so special. Unplugged presented an ideal opportunity for fame-shy Cobain to demystify the distorted prophetic image people had of him. Cobain was smoking cigarettes between songs, chatting with his bandmates and demonstratively pretending not to care at all about anything hap-
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pening around him. All of this resulted in a vastly different experience to regular Nirvana shows which were known for frantic instrument smashing, howling vocals and a lot of loud feedback. Cobain, not being able to rely on his usual tricks, was sick with nerves before the show but in the end, he seemed more focused than normal, as if taking more care with the words he was singing. Nirvana only played a few of their hits like ‘Come As You Are’, ‘About A Girl’ and ‘All Apologies’ however, nearly half of the album consists of cover songs. Their version of David Bowie’s ‘The Man Who Sold the World’ might now be more famous than the original and has become a fan favourite. Alice in Chains’ 1996 Unplugged is another example of a show that turned out great despite low expectations. Guitarist Jerry Cantrell had food poisoning and singer Layne Staley was in poor health as a result of his heroin addiction, which lead the group to not being able to perform live together in over two years. So, the pressure was on. Yet, the result is a contender for their best release. The unplugged versions of ‘Down in a Hole’ and ‘Rooster’ didn’t differ much from the album versions, but gained more depth from the intimate live setting. Also from 1996 is Oasis’ Unplugged, is significant due to the absence of Liam Gallagher performing on stage. Noel Gallagher explained at the beginning of the show that his brother had a sore throat however, according to an interview with Noel, Liam was actually ‘shitfaced’ when the band walked out, so Liam wasn’t able to join them. Noel had to manage without him, singing his own songs without his brother for the first time. This was possibly the first time Noel realized that he didn’t need Liam and that he could stand on his own, making this one of the most important performances in the band’s career. It’s worth mentioning that Liam Gallagher is responsible for the newest addition to the MTV Unplugged catalogue, which premiered in September. For artists of a previous generation such as Eric Clapton, Unplugged was a way of breathing new life into their established career. In 1992 it seemed like Clapton had passed his zenith, but iconic songs like ‘Tears in Heaven’, and ‘Layla’ made his Unplugged the best-selling release of the series to date. Pearl Jam will be releasing their 1992 session for the first time on vinyl for Record Store Day’s Black Friday on November 29th. It features seven songs, almost all from their debut album, including ‘Black’, ‘Alive’, ‘Even Flow’ and ‘Jeremy’. All these years later, MTV Unplugged still holds a lot of weight in the music industry. It remains relevant and necessary in an industry, which is ever more dominated by technology. Unplugged allows artists to showcase their talent and to connect with audiences on a more personal level.
OTwo - Music
Why Are We So Uncomfortable with Sincerity in Music? given permission by the media to grow up and be respected as the seasoned, adult songwriter she is.
“Why are we more comfortable with artists who use metaphors to veil their emotions than those who lay it all out on the table?”
Sinéad Dunphy investigates our society’s discomfort with honest, no frills displays of emotion in music. There seems to be an inherent dislike and distrust of artists who try to be sincere in their songs and music videos. Artists like Taylor Swift and Hobo Johnson, as well as entire genres like pop punk and country are often written off by music fans as “cringy”, immature or even fake. Whereas, artists who are less straightforward in their lyrics and display a more detached image are praised for being cool and creative. This is symptomatic of a culture that is uncomfortable with shameless displays of emotion. Why are we more comfortable with artists who use metaphors to veil their emotions than those who lay it all out on the table? You could argue that it’s simply because “sincere” lyrics are cliché driven and lacking creativity. However, there are countless artists from Joni Mitchell to Neil Young who used simplistic language and imagery to convey their emotions, who are given a free pass from criticism due to their icon status and legacy in the music game. Yet, artists today aren’t given that same respect. Taylor Swift has long been a divisive figure in music as both her records and her personal life have been subject to much scrutiny since the beginning of her career. It’s undeniable that there is some sort of disconnect between Swift’s personality and the public at large. While her fan base is immense, there are still many who instinctively dislike Swift and her brand of quirky, girl-next-door awkwardness, complete with goofy dance moves and heartfelt lyrics. In reality, apart from her job, Swift is no different than any other white American twenty-something, yet she is a constant punching bag for misogynistic jokes about her dating life and the songs she writes about it. Writing about love and heartbreak is an accepted and pervasive part of music, yet when Swift does it she is accused of a lack of creativity. Furthermore, her fans are often dismissed as teenage girls despite the fact that they span multiple generations and genders. Swift herself has been somewhat immortalised as a perpetual teenage girl, not
Similarly, Hobo Johnson’s music is often mocked as cringey or as some false display of earnestness. It’s interesting that we so often refuse to take someone at face value, insistent that they must have some ulterior motive or that their emotions are solely performative. Johnson’s lyrics read like a diary and his vocals borrow from the standard pop punk style with their whiny quality and tendency towards shouting. Vocals like this are subject to quick dismissal by most adult listeners who deem pop punk to be strictly suitable for teenagers. Bands like Blink 182, New Found Glory, Modern Baseball and The Story So Far give teenagers an outlet for their fears and frustrations with their catchy hooks, relatable lyrics and loud, simple instrumentation. When these teens grow up, they usually leave this music behind, moving on to more socially acceptable interests such as indie rock, only breaking out pop punk every now and then in the name of nostalgia. There is a habit in our culture of dismissing anything we liked as teenagers, often feeling shame over it. There is no need to dislike our teen selves so much. They are a part of us and the music that meant so much to us at the time deserves our respect now. Many of these bands have matured their lyrical content as they’ve aged but they continue to be invalidated simply because of the genre they are in. T he stripped back aesthetic of country music and its championing of accessible, vulnerable lyricism has led to it receiving much the same criticism as pop punk. Displays of earnest emotion that are so characteristic of the genre are seen as cheesy, passé and once again, untrustworthy. If we were just more willing to accept what is delivered to us rather than trying to decipher and outsmart it, we would be much better off. Not everybody needs to reinvent the wheel or write Nobel Prize worthy lyrics. Music is a natural part of human life, and it serves a simple purpose: it’s a form of entertainment and a release of emotion. While it can be fun to over analyse and discuss, it’s not always necessary to do so. Sometimes we need to just let go and let ourselves enjoy things without worrying about what’s cool or not. Yes, we’ve all heard tales of drinking, fighting, falling in love and finding God a million times before. It’s understandable that we might get tired of it, but it’s not going to change to any real degree because at the end of the day, music is all about the universal human experience.
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OTwo - Music
Irish Artists to Watch Rebecca Sibley gives us the run-down of some of the best up and coming acts Ireland has to offer. Æ Mak
Æ Mak’s music is all about dreamy, effervescent sounds, exquisite harmonies and tribal style chanting. Though yet to release a full-length album, they’re making waves in Ireland with their unique art-pop which creates rich soundscapes with singer Aoife McCann’s gorgeous voice at the forefront. Earlier this year, a collaboration with Dublin’s own Le Boom yielded the catchy single ‘Dancing Bug’ as the latest triumph of Æ Mak’s short but impressive discography. Hopefully, a full album will soon follow. Check them out if you like: Tune-Yards, Sleigh Bells, Animal Collective
Spies
Possibly the most under-appreciated band on this list with fewer than 500 monthly listeners on Spotify, Spies have been intermittently releasing feel-good indie rock singles for almost a decade. They finally released their album, Constancy, last year. It boasted several catchy tunes such as ‘Ho Chi Minh,’ a catchy ode to a hostel stay in the Vietnamese city, and ‘Young Dad’, a synthy bop about an encounter with a band way cooler than them. Optimistic, wordy, and slightly self-deprecating, Spies’ music is solid indie-rock. Check them out if you like: The Wombats, Kodaline, Bleachers
Luka Palm
Part of the independent record label Soft Boy Records, Swedish-born Luka Palm is a rising star in Irish hip-hop. Though sometimes overshadowed by his label mate, Kojaque, Luka Palm deserves recognition for both his collaborative successes and the solo work he’s been releasing since his first single ‘Pink Lady’ at 16 years old. His most recent album, Green Diesel, was produced in collaboration with other members of Soft Boy Records and boasts the slow, soulful beats of ‘Paris, Texas’ as well as the more boisterous ‘SPIT DAT OUT’. Check them out if you like: Kojaque, MF DOOM, Slowthai
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Gig Guide– Sinéad Dunphy Giggs
The Olympia, Thursday November 7th, €29 Giggs is a well-established part of the UK grime scene. With his signature deep vocals and slow delivery, he truly is one of a kind. The rapper released his debut album in 2008 and his most recent release, Big Bad retains much of the same qualities but with a little more hip hop styling. After collaborating with artists like Ed Sheeran and Drake, Giggs has earned an international following and his work has received praise from both his peers and critics. You’re guaranteed a great experience all in all.
Tebi Rex
Lost Lane, Saturday November 9th, €16.45 Irish hip hop duo, Tebi Rex have made quite a name for themselves locally, becoming a main staple of the Irish festival and gig scene. Matt O’Baoill’s light, poppy vocals fuse nicely with Max Zanga’s confident, usually chilled out rap delivery. Their songs are fun and don’t take themselves too seriously even when dealing with serious topics. Tebi Rex embody everything that is the contemporary Dublin hip hop scene from their diverse sound to their alternative style and even their prominent social media presence.
Oliver Tree
The Academy, Tuesday November 12th, €17.45 Something of a renaissance man, Oliver Tree is a rapper, singer, director, producer and sketch comedian. He is best known for his viral song, “When I’m Down” and borrows inspiration from several genres including rock and hip hop to make alternative dance music with a comical twist. If his bizarre visuals are anything to go by, this will be an interesting show.
Orla Gartland
Whelans, Friday November 15th, €18.50 Most known for her single, ‘I Go Crazy,’ Irish singer-songwriter, Orla Gartland makes catchy and relatable pop music. Having earned a lot of her following from posting on YouTube and touring with fellow YouTuber and musician, dodie, Gartland has a small but dedicated fanbase due to her accessibility and honesty. Gartland’s music is heavy on synth and full of lyrics about anxiety and other relatable topics. This gig is bound to make for a fun night.
OTwo - Food & Drink
Five Tips To Create Essential Homemade Hangover Brunch Food Sophie Tevlin recommends five ways to make brunch at home as delicious as that hipster place you can’t afford. We’ve all been there: the hangover, the salivating glance at the brunch menu, followed by the aghast double-take at the price. As a general rule, any hipster establishment where the price is written in an inventive font as a single minimalist number without a euro sign is about to shake you down for all you’re worth. But as Anthony Bourdain points out in Kitchen Confidential, brunch is a big scam. You do not need a Michelin star to fry an egg and toast a slice of sourdough. Nor to slice an avocado or open a bag of mixed leaves to have a nice meal. Where they get you is in the trimmings, the little sprinkly bits that make you think, “Well, I may be spending nine euro on a meal I could make in five minutes without having to get out of my pyjamas, but at least it has dukkah on it! Whatever the feck that is!” Certainly it’s ridiculous to blame the housing crisis on avocado toast, but there’s no reason to fall for the blandishments of Big Brunch either. Not when you can craft something just as delicious in the comfort of your own bedsit. Fancy flaked salt and pepper. Essential. Well perhaps not essential, but definitely very nice. Treat yourself.
Get a bag of sesame seeds from Aldi. Shimmy some in a dry frying pan over a medium heat until they start to darken and smell tasty, then pour into a small container with a lid. Sprinkle on eggs, avocado, stir-fries, noodles, salads... Sumac: the tangy, lemony, pinkly instagrammable spice du jour – pick up some in Tesco for under two euro and jazz up eggs or rice. Grate a clove of garlic into some lemon juice and add a good few dollops of natural yoghurt and some salt. Mix. Ta-da! Salad dressing, pasta sauce, drizzle over roasted veg. Be prepared. If Tuesday night is the night you always seems to end up in the pub, do your food shop on Monday. It’s a lot easier for the Fear to convince you that you’re a worthless excuse for a human being whose life is slowly circling the drain when all you have in the fridge is a single can of Prazsky and a mouldy half-eaten jambon. When you have stocked up against the incoming hangover and can fix yourself something tasty, life doesn’t seem so bad.
Creative Veggie Curry In the second part of our Things In Tins series, Jessica Darker presents her mother’s recipe for veggie curry. My mother had gifted me this recipe as I embarked on my second year in college. I cook it every second week because it’s so fast, super easy and comes to a sum total of €4.56 (according to Tesco own brand, per amount of product used.) for FOUR dinners. It lasts 2-3 days in the fridge and can be frozen for up to 3 months! I like to make this on a Sunday evening and portion it out as dinners for the first half of the week, which means I don’t have to start cooking at half past six when I get home from college. It’s very healthy because it is vegetable-based and the beans are a great source of LBV protein. Naturally, chicken can be added for all you carnivores out there, and the curry powder can be replaced with basil and tomato paste to make a pasta sauce! Suitable for vegans, vegetarians and coeliacs. INGREDIENTS 2 cups/400g of rice 1 tablespoon olive oil 1 onion (chopped) 1 clove garlic (crushed)
Vegetables of choice (I use sweetcorn, broccoli and bell pepper) 1 can chopped tomatoes 1 can baked beans 1 can chickpeas 1 can kidney beans 2 dessert spoons curry powder Salt, pepper and chilli flakes (optional) METHOD 1. Cook the rice in six cups of water for 20 minutes or until soft. 2. Heat the oil in a medium-sized saucepan and sauté the garlic, onion and vegetables. 3. Strain and rinse the chickpeas and kidney beans in a sieve. 4. Add the canned ingredients, chilli flakes and curry powder into the saucepan. 5. Stir frequently over a medium heat until hot throughout (approx. 10 minutes). 6. Strain and rinse the rice. 7. Divide it into lunchboxes and leave to cool for an hour without the lid on, before storing the meals in the fridge/ freezer.
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OTwo - Fashion
Woollen Wonderland
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Stylist: Hannah Pamplin Models: Ellen Walters and Bronagh McMullan Photographer: Alex Fagan
Stay snug yet stylish this winter, and do it all while promoting locally-sourced sustainable Irish wool and tweed. What’s in for AW19; oversized blazers, deconstructed and layered knitwear, and ditching coats for capes. Colour-wise, we’re looking at muted tones and neutrals that will carry you into spring. It’s more important than ever to be supportive of independent Irish businesses. Clothing here is sourced from Magee 1866 and House of Ireland, who manage to stay on-trend through seasonal colour pallets, while still keeping true to their nature as heritage brands and suppliers. Clothing: Magee 1866 and House of Ireland. Magee1866.com Houseofireland.com
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OTwo - Fashion
Halloween costumes are killing budgets and nature. Is it worth it? With the growth of the Halloween costume industry each year, Stella Alverina dives deeper into why the fast-fashion option is still preferable to DIYs.
At first, Halloween costumes were exclusively homemade and served the purpose of replicating otherworldly themes. Halloween has since mutated into extravagant masquerade showdowns where people mimic cartoons, comic book characters, and even celebrities or politicians. Based on the 2019 survey done by the National Retail Federation (NRF), US consumers are forecasted to spend $8.8 billion in Halloween preparations, with $3.2 billion invested in costumes alone. One of the main issues in the Halloween costume industry is sustainability. Generally, costumes are not eco-friendly due to materials, skills, and time factors. Take an example of the Batman costume, which has been around since the 1940s. While it was rather easy to assemble yourself at its debut, movie reboots and inspirations posted on social media; mainly Pinterest, Youtube, and Instagram, have raised the stakes. To achieve a modernized Batman costume, different types of plastics, foam and rubber materials need to be incorporated. Said materials are not always recyclable. They often require being bought in bulk and require meticulous skills, as well as time, to construct. This influences people to
prefer fast-fashion productions compared to DIY versions. Ever-changing media trends also make it harder for costumes to be re-worn. From a psychological perspective, we can say that the bottom line of Halloween costume spending is to be the talk of the party. People dress up in one-of-a-kind attire, posting selfies on social media to affirm following the latest trend. Alas, how can we reduce the carbon footprint from Halloween costume productions? With increasing trade war tension in major producing countries, such as Bangladesh and China, people will soon have no choice but to take a zero-waste route. Creative minds and organizations have now started movements of clothes swaps and thrifting. If you are a concerned audience member, try purchasing Halloween-themed clothes that you can wear on other occasions! Or better yet, learn a DIY trick from online tutorials and apply it to your dream costumes. After all, Halloween is about honoring the dead and less impressing the living.
Remembering Peter Lindbergh Caoimhe Mahon remembers Peter Lindbergh by exploring the contributions and changes his art has made to the fashion world.
Photographer, Peter Lindbergh redefined beauty through his timeless portraits. Through simplicity, they demanded respect. He portrayed individuals without a mind to superficial norms and expectations, thus liberating them from the shackles of conventional beauty. Lindbergh showcased natural beauty against his famous black and white backdrops. Using bare-faced models, who remained individual and distinctive, irregardless of age or glossy final product editing and retouching. Instead, Lindbergh freed those he photographed by rejecting the idea of perfection, depicting the uniqueness and value of each subject. Lindbergh’s stylistic career began humbly as a window decorator for a local department store. However, it was evident from the beginning that his artistic talent and the effortless beauty of his work would set him on track for a glowing career, and would eventually earn him the title as one of fashion’s most admired photographers. The scale of his success is evident through the many publications under his moniker, including such giants as ‘The New Yorker’ and ‘Rolling Stone’. The impact that his work made in the fashion world was
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not only for how it empowered natural beauty but also in exploring important themes. Lindbergh established his own path, and in turn created a new form of contemporary art in fashion. Concerns of freedom and realism allowed his photography to be interpreted in a refreshing way. Particularly evident in his portrayal of women, by separating them and their internal value from the garments they wore. Thus, Lindbergh redefined beauty standards by enforcing a perceptual change through his photography. Lindbergh’s influence dared society to change, and continues to, even now, for both those who admire and those who hope to create art worth admiration. His legacy continues to promote a healthy message, encouraging diverse and natural beauty. It is clear that Peter Lindbergh made an impact on the world of fashion and arguably even opened the door for a new beginning in the industry as he encouraged inclusivity and empowerment for all.
OTwo - Fashion
Inclusion in the Industry
Following BoF500 in September, Hannah Pamplin looks at why disability inclusion in the fashion industry needs to do more than tick the diversity boxes. ‘Sustainability’ is the current buzzword for fashion, and it appears that this movement is making great strides. However, in past years diversity and inclusion have been treated as industry trends with only surface-level engagement, and this needs to change. Speakers at the most recent Business of Fashion 500 Symposium spoke to this matter. People who report experiencing some type of disability contribute a global spending power of over $1.2 trillion per annum, yet they are still very much excluded from the mainstream fashion conversation. Artist Chika at BoF500 laments, “To be inclusive doesn’t mean to point at something and be like ‘that’s different, let’s love it’”, it [inclusivity], “literally means existing”. Those with a disability should be able to exist, as everyone else does, in the fashion world. The different/let’s love it approach can result in tokenistic casting, where a brand uses a model for a show or campaign because they chose to use the representation once. If something features in a campaign it should be readily available to the public. As such, a person with a disability should be able to walk into a store and experience the emotional ‘I see it, I need it’ connection, without
giving concern to specialised tailoring or unsuitable and exclusive retail environments. Education through interaction was a point made at BoF500. Collaboration between designers and consumers is what is required so that brands know how to create an adaptive line. “As a society, we are so used to asking ‘Do you have any dietary requirements?’, but we don’t ask ‘Do you have any accessibility requirements?’” says Irish activist Sinéad Burke. Many alterations that are needed to be made are simple; magnetic zippers and buttons or extra material around the kneecaps so fabrics can fall flat for people using chairs, for example. These changes maintain the look of a garment while being ergonomic, ensuring that adaptive lines can still contain brand’s core products and aesthetic. Modification needs to be made at a foundational level, starting with education in design schools, so that all-inclusive lines become the norm from the starting block. By including authentic voices, with lived-experiences, true change can be made.
The History of...Women’s Suits This issue, Cíara Dempsey reflects on the controversial history of the women’s pants suit, both on and off-screen. Nothing ever truly ends in fashion. Trends cyclically come and go, this year was no exception. Women’s blazers and pantsuits are a particularly sartorial recurring favorite, this time dominating the runways of New York Fashion Week, with Kate Spade, Proenza Schouler and Barragan all featuring blazers. Out on the streets, blazers cropped up over and over in fashion week street style, as did the divisive shorts suit. Of course, it seems now that the women’s pantsuit was always en vogue. After all, it isn’t called a power suit for nothing. But its rise to fashion fame has not been easy. As early as 1870, actress Sarah Bernhardt caused scandal on the streets of Paris with custom-tailored pantsuits, referring to them as her “boys clothes.” Bernhardt was known for pushing the confines of gender norms, notable instances include playing the male role of Hamlet on stage. In the 1930s, Marlene Dietrich carried the mantle. In the 1932 film Morocco, she not only wears a famously chic tuxedo but also kisses a woman on screen. Dietrich, like Bernhardt, was known for subverting gender norms, often leaning into androgynous dressing. By the 1930s,
other actresses, including Katherine Hepburn, had begun to wear pantsuits on screen, and designers such as Elsa Schiaparelli were featuring pantsuits in their collections. Despite their popularity on-screen, pantsuits were still widely disputed, and remained so until the late 1960s; even as women joined the workforce in greater numbers, skirts and dresses still prevailed. The pantsuits eventual surge in popularity could be credited to Yves Saint Laurent. The iconic female tuxedo debuted in 1966; Le Smoking. Laurent himself considers it one of the most important pieces he ever designed and continues to feature versions in all collections since. The blazers and pantsuits of today’s fashion have come to signify confidence and power, and have morphed into a variety of silhouettes, including the updated streetwear suit-and-shorts. It stands to reason that the pantsuit remains influential. If nothing else, a woman in a suit truly signifies that anything men can do, we do better.
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OTwo - Travel
Sustainable Travel Travel the Smarter Way
Manasa Bramhanya offers suggestions for how we can experience sustainable travel. Mountains, beaches, adventure holidays, weekend escapes, nature breaks. There are so many holiday options to choose from. Yet this might not always be the case. With the continued commodification of nature, and resulting degradation, the need for sustainable forms of travel is becoming ever clearer. Sustainable travelling is finding effective ways to be a tourist, without harming the natural surroundings and resources of the place you visit. The emphasis is on reducing our so called ‘footprint’, in this context defined as our personal negative effect on the places we visit. So defined, it also involves considering the impact of tourism on the local people and culture. These are evidently lofty goals. Indeed, travelling in this way can be a challenging task, and it can be hard to know where to start, but what is most important is that you start at all. This article will discuss a few effective measures which you can employ to help make your own trips more sustainable. Reduce your carbon footprint: Your carbon footprint refers to the amount of carbon Dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of your personal consumption habits. Minimizing air travel and opting instead for the most sustainable mode of transport is a very effective way of achieving this. One option for this is the International Bicycle Fund, a non-profit organization based in Seattle, which encourages people to travel by bicycle. They organize group bike tours all over the world, providing a great alternative to traditional travel. Invest in reusable utensils: Plastic pollution is a deadly environmental issue. It’s understandable that not everyone can be fully plastic-free yet, but simple steps such as carrying your own refillable water bottles, portable water filters, metal cutlery, basic toiletries, reusable shopping bags and other reusables will have a positive impact. Support eco-friendly organisations: With the recent rise in awareness around issues has come a rise in organizations promoting eco-tourism. The Global Sustainable Tourism Council, for instance, serves as the global accreditation body for sustainability in Travel & Tourism. Another such organization is the Global Ecotourism Network, which encourages social entrepreneurship,
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assists sustainable tourism development and acts as an advocate for protecting biodiversity. Being aware of, and supporting, the activities of these organisations can help put pressure on more of the travel industry to become more sustainable. Indulge in local delicacies: ‘When in Rome, do as the Romans do.’ Eat authentic Baguettes in France and pizzas in Italy, not the other way around. Savour the local cuisine and enjoy the local flavours, as this is a great way to discover the place and support the culture. Be open to interact with the locals: Arrive at least slightly informed on the culture and history of your destination. Then interact with the locals to learn even more. This will help you to recognise the cultural differences and respect them. This also allows you to broaden your horizons. No guidebook can compare to the insights you will get from a truly local guide. Choose eco-friendly places to stay: Ditch luxury resorts and international hotel chains and opt instead for simple stay-in locations like eco-lodges, homestays or guesthouses. Check for green certifications and places that promote eco-friendly tourism. Travel off-beat: Don’t feel you can’t spend money on experiences while travelling, just make sure this money is spent wisely. Opt for ‘off-beat’ travel. Take road trips, go on hikes, go camping, stay in nature reserves or jungle lodges to experience wildlife, rather than the overcrowded places. Take a break from the usual holidays and go on volunteer holidays, taking part in community projects and wildlife conservation for a rich experience which also does some good. Shop Sustainably: This is for all the shopaholics out there. Ditch big brands and choose locally made gifts and handmade options such as handmade jewellery, homemade foods, and local artisan goods as souvenirs. If we keep all the above in mind, we can travel not only with our own leisure in mind, but with our responsibility towards the planet, which adds immense value to our experience. Happy sustainable travels!
OTwo - Fatal Fourway
My Most Underappreciated Halloween Costume Jess Viola- OTwo Co-Editor
Halloween is by far my favorite time of the year, nothing I love more than seeing all of the inventive makeup posts that MUA’s share and the punny costumes that people have been created all over my instagram feed. Naturally, with this spark of inspiration, I myself tried to be revolutionary in my costume for Halloween circa 2016. As a film enthusiast, I decided to put my knowledge to good use and dress up as Mia Wallace from none other than Pulp Fiction. So, I basically looked as rough as you look at the end of a night out at the start of the night, with added blood and smeared lipstick for emphasis. However, Halloween falls on a close friend’s birthday and we were planning on going to town to celebrate both of the night’s festivities. But, I never got the memo that this was not a costume affair, let alone one where you look like a washed up drug addict. So, I showed up, looking like I came straight out of hell, while everyone else looked pristine and clean. I think the part that sucked the most about my costume was the lack of appreciation that I got, as none of my friends understood my reference and I just looked like a messy drunk.
Cíara Dempsey- Film Editor
It was 2016; the year that David Ayer’s absolute cinematic travesty that was Suicide Squad was released. Halloween that year was awash with its lazily designed characters, and none more so than Margot Robbie’s iteration of Harley Quinn. The mess that is Suicide Squad aside, Harley Quinn has always been an iconic character, so the impulse to dress up as one of her various iterations is understandable. This, in combination with the fact that the Margot Robbie version is a fairly easy costume to put together, meant that Halloween that year was wall-to-wall Harley. I had an idea, however. I thought I was funny, and original, and making a cute-but-obvious-but still funny joke. Having never played a sport in my life, I dragged my Arts student self to the GAA section of a JD sports. I pillaged my younger brothers hurl, and I wrapped it in blue and red grip tape. I donned mismatched blue and red GAA socks, I wore red and white GAA shorts, and I handmade the infamous “Daddy’s Little Monster” t-shirt, mostly because I was already broke from having to buy GAA gear. I was Hurley Quinn. Get it? No? Yeah, apparently no one else did either because I spent the night explaining to people that no, I wasn’t just a shit version of Harley Quinn, it was a pun. Yes, annoying man dressed as generic-vampire-number-four, I know she carries a baseball bat, that’s the joke! Honestly, I should have just been a sexy ghost or something. GAA shorts did nothing for my arse anyway.
Sinéad Dunphy- Music Editor
I’ve always played it pretty safe with my Halloween costumes, sticking to the classics: witch, cat and zombie. However the one time I dared to branch out and try something new, it was pretty much a waste of time seeing as zero people could even tell what I was. I think the year was 2009 and I was attending my school’s first year-sixth year Halloween party. My friends and I were obsessed with Gossip Girl at the time so we decided to go as the infamous St. Constance girls as a group costume. I was, of course, queen bee Blair Waldorf with my coloured tights and headband and a little grey pinafore and white blouse. Essentially, on one of the rare occasions I could be in school out of uniform, I decided to wear a uniform. Despite Gossip Girl being a couple of seasons in already, almost no one else in my year had started watching the show yet leaving me having to spend my night repeatedly telling people who I was. I think people really thought I was just a school girl dressed like a schoolgirl for Halloween. I started the night feeling my Blair Waldorf, Upper East Side fantasy but by the end of the party I was ready to throw that damn headband in the bin. I should have just been a cat.
Gavin Tracey - Editor
To say that this particular costume was underappreciated is to assume that the costume itself was worthy of appreciation - which in my case is not a clear cut answer. Did it have any amount of effort or thought put in to it? Well, not really. It was a last minute invitation to what turns out to have been one of the worst parties I have ever attended in my life - I knew next to no one, only half of the people were dressed up, the parents were in attendance (we were seventeen) and so alcohol was out of the picture. A last minute invitation warrants a last minute costume, as so I did my best. Opting, as I so often do, for peak irony-bro humour, I found an old plain white t-shirt, and wrote “GO CEILING!”. I was, dear reader, a ceiling fan. Everybody disliked it. I would have been better off wearing regular clothes. What made it worse was having to explain to anybody who asked (in and around a dozen people) and watch as each and every one of them got the joke, followed by them not laughing, and in some cases calling me dumb. I’ll leave it to you to decide, underappreciated, or appreciated the correct amount, that being not at all?
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