The University Times Magazine Vol 2 Issue 1

18.09.12

The University Times

Magazine

The University Times Magazine

FEATURES. 5

EDITORIAL.

ABSOLUT FRINGE

MICHELLE O’ CONNOR INTRODUCES THIS YEAR’S DUBLIN FRINGE FESTIVAL 6

AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN CABRERA

MICHELLE O’CONNOR INTERVIEWS THE CO-CREATER, WRITER AND PRODUCER OF NEW DIGITAL SERIES H+ ABOUT TRANSHUMANISM, AND THE SHOW’S THREAT TO TELEVISION

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THE MYSTERIOUS WORLD OF PIGEON RACING

TOMMY GAVIN INVESTIGATES THE LITTLE KNOWN SPORT OF RACING PIGEONS 12

AMANDLA, AMEN

DAVID WALL DISCOVERS THE LINK BETWEEN RELIGIOUS ORDERS AND THE BLACK CONSCIOUSNESS MOVEMENT IN SOUTH AFRICA

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it up and pay attention, this is important. This is the fourth year there has been a The University Times, the third year there has been a magazine with The University Times, and the second year of The University Times Magazine. Last year we put a new emphasis on long form feature journalism and brought you an undercover investigation from inside Wezz in Donnybrook, an on-the-ground report from the first major protests against Vladimir Putin in Moscow, and started our recurring infocus segment where we showcase the photographic talent of Trinity students.

This year, we’re maintaining that focus, but expanding it online, and through The University Times Podcast, which you’ll be able to access on our facebook page and download from the magazine’s new website.

This is an exciting time to be in student journalism. We have access to resources most professional media outlets could merely dream of only a few years ago, and we’re chasing the wave of a radically changing industry, changing so fast that we have an opportunity to compete with national media, and even innovate. We get the chance to research and tell the stories that we want to hear, the way we want to hear them. If that sounds hyperbolic, it should, because it’s bizarre, but it’s also true.

What we need, is people who agree that it’s exciting. People who have ideas, people who like having fun and like going on adventures. If you think that sounds like you, then I would urge you to get in touch and get involved. It’s the greatest.

Tommy Gavin, Editor

REGULATION. 4

LOITERING WITH INTENT

CULTURE. 14

MUSIC REVIEWS Eoin Hennessy and Liam Maher review all the latest albums and EP’s.

Ciara Heneghen ar cúltur agus teicneolaíochta

THE 50TH HOUR

Caroline Egan discusses the disappointing summer blockbuster

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IN FOCUS

By Ana Araceli Lezcano Cadwallader

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[SIGH] Tommy Gavin learns to be careful of what you pretend to be

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FILM REVIEWS

Oliver Nolan and Diarmuid Cushen on cinema. Reviews and a tasty list of road films.

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FASHION

Aoife Considine on dyeing another day

@UTzine // magazine@universitytimes.ie

CONTRIBUTORS Editor: Tommy Gavin Creative Director: Caelan Rush Culture Editor: Maria Giulia Agostini Music Editor: Eoin Hennessy Film Editor: Robert O’ Reilly Fashion Editor: Aoife Considine Photographers: Ana Lezcano Cadwallader, Tommy Gavin Illustrator: Oisin Miliano Contributors: Ciara Heneghan, Caroline Egan, Liam Maher, Oliver Nolan, Diarmuid Cushen

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LOITERING WITH INTENT...

THE 50th HOUR...

LAZY SUMMER AUDIENCES

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here were a few successful blockbusters this summer that were pretty decent. The Dark Knight Rises, although not the best of Nolan’s work, still stood head and shoulders above the majority of mainstream releases. The Avengers was well worth a look with a safe recognisable cast and upbeat Joss Whedon dialogue. Ted was a fun and unusual comed but that is where the creativity and fun really ends. Other than these three I have really had to think about anything else that was anything other than a complete piece of tripe.

I still can’t think of anything.

http://protowilson.deviantart.com/

Ciara Heneghan ar cúltur agus teicneolaíochtaw

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unaíodh TG4 i 1996 agus í mar aidhm aici céim eile a thogáil ar son caomhnú ár dteanga. Ba chéim í i dtreo ré an eolais, a bhí ar na bacáin. Bhí Raidió na Gaeltachta agus staisiúin eile ann, chomh maith le litríocht, nuachtáin agus foilsiúcháin eile i nGaeilge agus ba é an teilifís an cuid deireanach den mheán a bhí fágtha. Go luath i ndiaidh sin, afách, thosaigh an tidirlíon ag fás agus ag forbairt sa tír agus d’athraigh gach rud arís. Anois is é an t-idirlíon an príomhfhoinse eolais agus príomhmodh teaghmhála ag tromlach daoine óga in Éirinn.

Nascann an t-idirlíon daoine i mbealaí nach raibh indéanta riamh. Fiú le Facebook, an diabhal poll ama sin, tá naisc déanta go laethúil a bheadh dochreidte fiú fiche bliain ó shin. Fadó, nuair a bhíodh daoine imithe ar imirce ní raibh mórán deis acu a gcuid Gaeilge a úsáid, ach ní mar atá sé inniu.

Anuraidh tar éis rath an “TCD Memes” leathanach a fheiceáil, bheartaigh mé “Memes na Gaeilge” a chruthú, chun méimeanna a chur ar fáil trí Ghaeilge. Anois, cúpla mí níos déanaí, tá níos mó ná 3,200 leantóirí ag an leathanach, le daoine ar fud an domhan ag glacadh pairt sa spraoi. Sin ach bealach amháin a tagann Gaelgeoirí le chéile ar líne.

Is áis iontach é chun píosa spraoi agus greann a bheith againn trí an teanga ársa, seans a thaispeáint nach bhfuilimid go léir ag fanacht sa bhaile, lenár sróna sa Dinneen ag foghlaim de ghlan mheabhair. Agus ní ghá é sin ar aon nós - mar sa lá atá inniu ann tá an Dinneen ar Twitter (@ AnDuinnineach) rud atá ancabhrach má tá seanfhocail aisteacha ag teastáil uait. Má tá nuafocail aisteacha ag teastáil uait tá Coiste Focal Nua (@ coistenabhfocal) ag tweetáil faoi Béarlagair agus nuafhocail i nGaeilge do ghlúin an phitmhaisithe (for the vajazzle gen-

eration!).

Ach má tá suíomh go hiomlán dírithe ag Gaeilgeoirí ag teastáil uait, téigh go AbairLeat.com. Is é an céad suíomh sóisialta ar an domhan atá cruthaithe i mionteanga, agus tá jab iontach déanta acu. Ina theannta sin, le tamall anuas tá Facebook ar fail trí Ghaeilge agus is de bhuíoch sin atá an foclóir tearmaíochta, focail cosúil le “clib”, “déan trácht” agus“roinn”, (tag, comment and share) in úsáid go rialta. Chuir é sin le Firefox trí Ghaeilge (atá le fáil saor in aisce ar ndóigh) agus beidh tú ag “brabhsáil” gan moille!

Mar a fheicimse é, mar gheall ar an méid daoine atá ag tweetáil, ag postáil agus ag úsáid an idirlíon in aon bhealach trí Ghaeilge, is léir go bhfuil sí beo beathach sa lá atá inniu ann, agus go mbeidh feidhm lárnach ag an idirlíon i dtodhchaí na Gaeilge.

It has recently occurred to me that movies have become lazy. They are usually sequels or remakes, with the same rehashed formula, that are guaranteed to generate profits. There is no risk involved and what succeeds in the US is what the mainstream films in Ireland get. Unfortunately, there is a reason for several Fast and the Furious films and the Pirates of the Caribbean series – they make money and are easy to sell. If you actually view a film as a product it makes sense but perhaps in my naivety I always assumed that they were pieces of art. That is obviously not the case with the utterly pointless remake of Total Recall (which was a perfect film to begin with). Riding on the back of a director’s success is another thing proven by the complete drivel of Tim Burton’s Dark Shadows (what’s that you say Johnny Depp in another Burton film?!! Who would have thought it?!)

Disappointing is not really an adequate enough word to describe the stifling atmosphere in mainstream cinema at the moment. It looks like the target market audience for adult film are men under the age of thirty and whilst I like explosions, puerile humour and car chases as much as the next guy I would like a few options for a Saturday night.

Are these the films that test audiences actually like? It beggars belief that these are the only options (bar children’s films) that really do well in the box office.

Possibly the most disappointing film for me this year which I waited for with bated breath was Prometheus. The only real saving grace for this film was Michael Fassbender and his character David.

I have never been as hurt by a film when I saw it.

It is not that it was a particularly bad film, but as a massive fan of the Alien films, I found it inconsistent and frankly a bit thrown together. There were a few plot holes I could not get over and some of it made no sense, aside from the obvious fact that it was set up for another money making sequel. At best it was an adequate film, where special effects took precedence over plot.

We need more challenging films. Mediocrity should not be rewarded with profits. In fact mediocrity is nearly worse than a terrible film – at least you will remember a terrible film. It is a sad day when you look up the cinema listings and sigh.

The Dublin Fringe & you T Michelle O’Connor

his is the eighteenth year of the Dublin Fringe Festival, tracing its origin to the grim spectre that was Ireland in the 1980s, when the economic climate soured to a far greater level of despair than it did after the fall of the Celtic Tiger. Perhaps then there is truth in that old adage that creativity flourishes during times of recession; hope and inspiration are normally found in the dark, not the light, and the 1980s in Dublin was certainly not a shiny or a happy place.

This is my second year working behind the scenes as part of The ABSOLUT Fringe and although it’s not my first time working in theatre or as part of a theatre festival, The ABSOLUT Fringe is definitely unlike any others. “You really can’t compare traditional theatre and The ABSOLUT Fringe theatre; they are the two opposite spectrums of Irish theatre.

The audience, material and venues are much more experimental, they are completely different animals.” said Andrew Adamson, founder of The Collective Theatre Company and director of one of this year’s productions, DISCOnnected.

One of the most striking features about this festival is how there’s something for

everyone, both theatre traditionalists and those who have never set foot in a theatre before. Although The ABSOLUT Fringe is primarily focused though on performance art such as theatre and dance; there are barely any boundaries.

“Both audience and performers are more willing to take risks during The ABSOLUT Fringe. They expect something edgy, so when the audience members buy a ticket, they’re expecting to see and experience something different”, said Andrew. “Also, because each production has already gone through a selection process and been approved, audiences know they’re going to something promising.”

The ABSOLUT Fringe does not fund the productions, but it does provide some subsidised performance spaces, along with free rehearsal spaces and access to WiFi and printing facilities for each production company. What the ABSOLUT Fringe does is give a platform to performers of all creeds, specifically Irish performers, to showcase their original ideas. “Without the ABSOLUT Fringe, producing shows in venues like The Kitchen Nightclub, like we are this

year, would have proved very difficult.

The festival board encourage and support the use of off-site venues.”

Filmbase in Temple Bar is where you can find the centrally controlled box office for the ABSOLUT Fringe. “The entire festival support system is brilliant,” said Mr Adamson, “It takes saves the companies a lot of stress, time and money. The volunteers provided for each show are a great help, because it means we have extra hands before the show.”

The ABSOLUT Fringe is about passion, not profit and everyone who attends, volunteers, performs or is a part of the full time ABSOLUT Fringe crew is passionate about creativity. The slogan for ABSOLUT Fringe 2012 is OCCUPY YOUR IMAGINATION and that’s exactly what the festival does.

This year’s ABSOLUT Fringe festival began on September 8 and will run until September 23. With over six hundred events taking place in over thirty venues across Dublin, this is a huge festival.

Ticket prices are very reasonable, so even on a tight budget; it’s not to be missed.

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FEATURE

PIGEON RACING: THE SPORT OF KINGS op What did Mike Tyson, the General, and the Queen have in common?

Tommy Gavin investigates...

It is nine thirty AM in Mallow, Cork, and a Grondelaer pigeon with powerful yellow eyes and a brilliant green nape with trailing shades of violet, is smoothly pulling and dipping his puissant wings through the cold morning air, generating lift and thrust.

Bound for Dublin, the journey will take between two and four hours, depending on the weather, and it is not by chance that he takes it, nor is he alone. Approximately seven thousand nine-hundred and ninety nine other pigeons will be making a similar trip at potential speeds of up to 100MPH, all in competition with each other, having been bred specifically for this very purpose.

They are racing back to their respective lofts, where their keepers are eagerly await-

ing their return, so that they can calculate who was fastest in their homecoming and claim the coveted victory. Twenty to thirty percent of the birds may not even make it back, and for those who do, it will be extremely close. Since they are racing to get home, and their homes are different distances from the point of release, the winner is determined by their velocity; whoever arrived home the fastest relative to the other competitors. As with the Olympics, the standard of excellence is parried for and measured by the decimal point.

Contemporary pigeon racing began in Belgium in the 1800’s, and was an unofficial sport in the 1900 Olympic games in Paris,

spreading across England and France. In Ireland, clubs operate under federations, which operate under the Irish Homing Union, which has regulated and promoted the sport in Ireland since 1895.

The Sarsfield Racing Pigeon Club on Lally Road in Ballyfermot is one of the biggest clubs in its federation, with 55 active members. There is a pool table, several televisions, a bar, and ample seating with lots of space. It had the intimate feeling of a local about it, because it was immediately obvious how comfortable its members were while there. I was there on a Friday, the evening before a race. The pigeons would be flying from Mallow, and all the birds

would have to be tagged and registered, before being taken away to the trucks owned by the federation, to bring them across the country to the point of release in the morning. Up until a couple of years ago, the way to register a pigeon for a race would be to fix a band onto one of its legs, which would be retrieved when the pigeon returned, and slipped into a tamper-proof box, which would record the time and pigeon number.

Now however, it’s done with GPS, which makes things much easier, and also fairer.

Before now, if your pigeon decided to do a few circles of the loft before swooping in, precious seconds could be lost, which could mean all the difference in a race judged on decimal points.

comes moulting season, which requires a different kind of care and diet. Why then are people willing to devote such time and effort to keeping and racing pigeons?

I arrived just as things were getting started.

As people began arriving with their pigeons, each of which needed to be adorned with a band containing a chip to be scanned by a GPS reader, a palpably giddy atmosphere of urgency developed, and there was a flurry of movement back and forth as transport crates of pigeons began to pile up in the middle of the room. There was work to be done, but there was also common purpose.

Everyone knew why they were there, and there was an excited efficiency about it all.

The only lull in activity occurred when the match between Ireland and Kazakhstan in a World Cup qualifier, which had been on in the background, began to heat up, distracting the attention of almost everybody present and bringing pigeon related activities to an abrupt halt. Eventually though, someone shouted “ah here, will somebody mark a pigeon?” and the business of the day resumed.

“I wouldn’t be into any kind of motor sport, I couldn’t see the appeal of it, but I can understand any sport being appealing because I’m in this sport. I can understand people looking at me and saying why would you be looking at pigeons or racing pigeons? But it’s very similar to horseracing. The guys at the top would be putting in every bit as much work in terms of man hours”.

It is true as well, keeping pigeons takes a hell of a lot of work. Between April and September is racing season, which requires a lot of oversight to make sure that your birds are fit, healthy, and well nourished.

“How many hours? You wouldn’t want to admit it on the record”. After racing season, there is the breeding season where preferred lines of pigeons will be crossed to spawn the next generation of racers, and new chicks have to be looked after. Then

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Either your pigeons are the best, or they aren’t. Either you can stand behind your own skill and talent as a trainer and racer, or you can’t. If you’re serious, then you’ll do anything to be able to say that you can.

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Most of the members would have started keeping pigeons when they were quite young. That was certainly the case with the club’s secretary Thomas Daniels. He was eight when he first developed an interest, which emerged independently of his family, unlike other members who might have started through their father or older brother.

When put in those terms it seems almost absurd. Keeping pigeons to race pigeons, to breed pigeons, to keep pigeons, to race pigeons. Everyone I talked to used the word fanatic or fanaticism at least once to describe either pigeon racing or other pigeon racers. Thomas said that the appeal is “indescribable”. There is no attempt to try and convince other people of the joys and miseries of pigeon racing, because it would be pointless. Either you get it or you don’t. I was welcomed into the fold with open arms for expressing an interest, but they don’t care if other people don’t get it.

In that respect, I don’t find it absurd at all.

Pigeon racing is its own deep and separate subculture. It’s like live action role playing, where people meet up in a field and go to war with foam swords over imaginary territory. There are clearly defined rules and rivalries, but if the comparison with LARP’ing makes it sound like escapism, then that just depends on your terms of reference. Escapism implies that you are retreating from the real world, but the pigeons are real. The races are real. The care and the breeding is real. Either your pigeons are the best, or they aren’t. Either you can stand behind your own skill and talent as a trainer and racer, or you can’t. If you’re serious, then you’ll do anything to be able to say that you can.

One of the main ways the sport has changed since the Sarsfield club was set up, is that practice of the sport has became a lot more serious in its approach. Where birds would be fed peas and beans back in the sixties and seventies, now there are different kinds of feed based on what kind of vitamins and minerals the pigeons may need more depending on what time of year it is. Around fifteen years ago also, racers in Ireland caught on to a practice that had already taken Belgium, called widowing, where the racing pigeon is allowed to share a grated wall with it’s mate, but not a loft.

The idea being that once taken away to race then, the bird will be far more motivated to

fly back to its mate, giving the potential for a sappy love metaphor, which I will leave on the table.

There is a perception about pigeon racing that it is a cloth-cap pursuit, and to a large extent it’s true. However, it is such an insular subculture that it doesn’t matter.

The pigeon racers of the world have included Mike Tyson, Martin ‘The General’ Cahill, Pablo Picasso, Nikolai Tesla and Queen Elizabeth II. It literally is like another world, one that transcends class. The only thing that matters in this world is your mettle as a racer and as a trainer, and your take on certain aspects of the sport. Padner Byrne, veteran Sarsfield RPC member, and generally recognised as one of the top pigeon racers in the country, told me that “racing is silver, breeding is gold. You need to be a great breeder to be a great racer”.

Thomas totally disagrees, and is of the opinion that breeding is mostly about luck.

It is the source of some of the fiercest debates in the club, and indeed the world of pigeon racing at large.

What surprised me most though was the sense of machismo associated with pigeon racing. Most don’t keep them as pets, you’ll generally lose about 20 to 30 percent of your pigeons over a year from racing. You aren’t keeping pets, you’re training athletes.

There are some who might consider the practice to be somewhat cruel, but it’s hardly crueller than horseracing or greyhound racing. A lot of care and attention goes into looking after your pigeons, you want them to be at their best.

Its 7PM, the night before the race. There are two trucks parked in Walkinstown, belonging to the Irish South Road federation, and they will be taking the pigeons from 30 clubs different clubs to Mallow to compete in the weekly race. People from different clubs arrive, waiting for their turn to get their birds on the truck. Once they’re on, a sense of nervous anticipation sets in.

The birds will be released at half nine the next morning, and it’ll all be down to the stamina and determination of a Grondelaer pigeon, with powerful yellow eyes and a brilliant green nape with trailing shades of violet.

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H+ MICHELLE O’CONNOR

AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN CABRERA CO-CREATOR OF THE HIT WEB SERIES

H+

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When technology is stripped from us, what’s left?

Warner Studios’ Digital Division has recently backed a web-series which uploads a new episode every Wednesday on the H+ Digital Series YouTube channel. I spoke with the writer/ creator John Cabrera about the ideology behind H+ The Digital Series, and H+, the cultural movement. H+ is the acronym for the transhumanist movement, which believes that the human experience can be greatly improved through advanced technologies. “..how soon will we be connected 24 hours a day by computers which allow us communicate to people all around the world all day every day? That’s the world we live in today” answered John when asked about how realistic the H+ world was.

The prospect of technology becoming physically embedded within the human body is no longer futuristic, it is present. In 2006 a paralysed man was implanted with a fairly large computer which enabled him to move a computer cursor on a screen using nothing but his thoughts. And to be honest, unless we explicitly turn off our mobile phones and our internet modem, we are constantly connected, even while we are sleeping. “Our smartphones are embedded in our humanity, when you lose your devices you feel the same as when you actually get physically hurt. We wanted to explore that aspect of the human condition.”

In H+ The Digital Series, 33% of the world’s population, the same percentage of people

who own mobile phones, have a device implanted in the top of their spine which allows them to connect to the internet without the use of an external device. Unfortunately, when a computer virus spreads, those implanted with the device ‘shut down’. In the first episode, however, a group of people who are in an underground car park have lost connectivity and survive in a world completely changed to what it was before. The tagline on the H+: The Digital Series website is, ‘Humanity goes offline. Survival goes on.’ This facet of humanity, the ingrained survival mode each of us has, is one of the main focuses of the series. “There is absolutely the opportunity for humanity to regroup and get back to where it was before [the catastrophe] happened. It is an interesting exploration of the apocalypse theory” said John.

The series’ main setting is a dystopian, postapocalyptic world, but this does not mean the world has ended. Fourteenth-century Europe lost between 30-50% of its population due to the spread of the bubonic plague. To those who witnessed it wiping out entire towns, the bubonic plague was the apocalypse. But as with all great tragedies in history, it was not the end.

Progress is reached after many pitfalls. As John said the spread of the Black Death, “in large part was indirectly responsible new methods for trade, new methods for urban planning. We didn’t really abandon those things, we made them better.” It is only after making some mistakes that we learn what works.

The series is most certainly a sci-fi series, but John Cabrera believes that, “ultimately, it is a story about people.” It may be set in a dysto-

JOHN CABRERA WOULD, IF GIVEN THE OPPORTUNITY, GET IMPLANTED

pian world of advanced technology going awry, but the technological aspects of the series soon become peripheral. A negative event occurred due to technology but that does not mean that the technology is completely destructive to society. Just because the man in the first episode ignores his wife to watch a football match using the H+ device, it is not the device that is impacting on his relationship, it is him.

“Technology certainly has the potential to negatively impact relationships, but doesn’t everything? You can say that about anything, really. You can say that about a particular topic of conversation that two people might have when you remove all technology and they decide to talk face to face. Somebody says something the other doesn’t like, then BOOM. They probably should have been on their iPhones because they just got into a big fight. In this series we try not to paint technology as good or bad. Yes something bad happens, that doesn’t neces-

FEATURE

sarily mean the technology is bad. Yes we see somebody behaving in a strange way in the first episode that is probably a bit disrespectful to his wife. That doesn’t necessarily mean the technology is bad, it means that guy is bad, that guy has made a bad decision.”

tive feedback about the series. The reviews and feedback the series has received from the YouTube channel and website is still taken into account but overall, John feels that, “not talking about the dangers of it is just as damaging as not talking about the dangers.”

The implant shown in the series is one that John believes would not be completely dissimilar to one that could and is most likely in the process of being developed today. Yet, while the computer virus spreads through those implanted leading to the loss of a great

The format of the series itself could be viewed as a statement relating to the H+ movement.

The transhumanist ideology is that the human experience will be improved by advanced technologies. By H+ The Digital Series streaming on YouTube, it allows for interaction to occur almost instantaneously with the show’s creators. The audience who watch a television series or a film do not have such an open platform in which to discuss the content of the production with those who conceived it, or those who also watch it. Although the audience of H+ won’t dictate where the story goes or what happens, they can air their opinions to those who have that control through the interactivity which YouTube channels enable.

This interactivity has allowed people involved in the H+ movement to give their feedback directly to John through the use of the comments section and the hplusdigitialseries. com website. When I spoke to John about the reception the series has received from its audience and in particular, transhumanists themselves, he said the feedback has not been positive from those within the H+ community. “The transhumanists fear that the series will scare people away from the idea of implantation as being dangerous and understandably so.” The events in the series are definitely negative, but all new inventions have their problems. Sci-fi is genre that has always explored technological advances, but “cautionary sci-fi has never halted development” said John.

This feedback from the H+ community made John think that, in hindsight, he probably should have spoken to members of the community before developing the series in the beginning, but it is not a major regret. Just as the interactivity that the YouTube channel enables the transhumanists to broadcast their concerns about the portrayal of the H+ movement, the Irish audience are able to give posi-

The short, non-linear episodes provide the audience with a platform to engage on a personal level with both the characters of the show, and those behind it. The concept, although originally pitched to various studios as a film or a television show, only became a web series after Warner’s Digital Division liked the concept and Brian Singer’s company wanted to explore the internet. After that, “it was a match made in heaven,” said John.

When I asked John if a studio approached him now about developing H+ as a television show, would he run with it, he said the entire format would have to be changed. H+ as it is now would not work as a television show. It was written specifically as a non-linear series, “As soon as we put pen to page it was a web series. The format came once we started writing it. We wrote it out of order, we didn’t write it in order and chop it up, we wrote it out of order and it continues on like that.” This format allows for a broader world and timespan in which the story takes place and also for both time and geography to become characters in their own right. Although an Englishlanguage series, it is not just an American series. The company which developed the H+ device is based in Ireland and is a testament that the ‘future’ of embedded technology is fast approaching. Ireland has one of the biggest biotechnology sectors in the world which is constantly breaking new ground. The characters in the series are from many different countries and cultures who interact with each other, showing that technological advances can be positive for human interaction.

Technology can be highly powerful, and therefore should be regulated but sometimes these regulations are introduced after the product has been released. “Companies interests sometimes usurp the interest of the public. Sometimes safety regulations don’t come in fast enough because a corporation is more interested in profit than making sure the product is air-tight. Usually it takes one catastrophe to make them introduce these regulations. We just hope that the catastrophe isn’t that huge that it kills 33% of the population as it does in the series.”

proportion of the world population John Cabrera would, if given the opportunity, get implanted. This is coupled with the belief that most of us who own mobile phones would, too. “Like when people said they would never get cell phones or Facebook. These become a part of humanity, not just you and if you want to remain a part of humanity you have to accept what humanity has decided to embed. I would probably be one of the first. As soon as I knew it would be relatively safe, I would get the implant.”

“Is an arm good or bad? That’s not a question you can answer. If you use that arm to choke someone, then the arm has done something very bad. If you use that arm to give someone a bouquet of flowers, then the arm has done something very good. But the arm didn’t do it, you did.” Without these technological advances, my interview with John would have proved nigh on impossible, as we used Skype.

Just as equally, hacking into someone’s bank account would be very difficult. It boils down to the choices we make, it’s not how technology controls us, but how we control it.

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IN FOCUS MUBENDE, WESTERN UGANDA PHOTOGRAPH BY ANA LEZCANO CADWALLADER

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FEATURE

A s I returned home from South Africa this summer, I was dismayed to see that 34 protesters had been shot by police at a mine outside Johannesburg. Mineworkers striking over poor pay had been fired on by police guarding the protest. The news seemed to announce that the progress made since the end of apartheid 18 years ago had been erased. The atrocity was reminiscent of many others committed by the Security Police against unarmed protestors during the apartheid era, such as the Sharpsville and Soweto massacres in ’60 and ‘76. This time, however, it was not committed by a white minority desperate to hold on to power by any means, but by the legitimate national police force.

I had spent the summer living with the Dominican Sisters of Cabra in Uitenhage, a city some 40km from Port Elizabeth on the south coast of South Africa. While there, I used the peace of the convent to learn all I could about the history of the antiapartheid struggle. I also heard from those around me about the lack of progress in the country since liberation, - the result of corrupt and incompetent governance - and saw the massive poverty first hand. The ANC has been in power for 18 years now, and it is characterised by in-fighting and corruption. I found myself drawn not to the history

AmaNdLA, amEn

BY DAVID WALL of the ANC, but to other histories that had been forgotten or overlooked in favour of the dominant ANC narrative. One such history is that of Steve Biko, philosophical founder of the Black Consciousness movement which became influential in the ‘70’s, and whose life was tragically cut short.

While figures such as Nelson Mandela and Desmond Tutu have become synonymous with the apartheid struggle, Steve Biko has been largely forgotten outside South Africa.

But while Mandela was largely out of action, fighting his own struggle against the guards on Robben Island during the 70’s, Steve Biko reinvigorated a decimated anti-apartheid movement. Biko realised that in order for the black people of South Africa to achieve political freedom, they must first achieve psychological freedom. The black man had become so accustomed to subservience in a system that was designed to make him feel inferior, that he needed to learn again how to be free.

Government policy at the time was represented by then minister for native affairs and later Prime Minister Dr Hendrik Verwoerd when he said, “There is no place for ‘the Bantu’ in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour”. As in all systems of grand injustice, Apartheid relied on the support of a certain amount of the people it had disenfranchised, appealing either to their dishonesty, or more importantly, their fear and belief that things could not be different. As Biko stated, “the most potent weapon of the oppressor is the mind of the oppressed”.

Through the base of the black only South African Students Organisation (SASO), Biko refocused the struggle not only on political freedom and basic rights for South Africans

of colour, but also on unashamedly promoting black pride. Black Consciousness offered support for black only organisations and black communities, and it began a critique of the inferiority complex felt by many blacks. It turned its attention not only on its white oppressors, but also on the liberals who supported the anti-apartheid movement but were strangely ineffectual each time it came to voting against the racist Nationalist government.

If the black people were to become free, Biko realised, they must achieve the freedom by themselves.

Within a short time, the Black Consciousness movement was responsible for the growth of a sense of pride in being black within the country. It also led to a new militancy in the political anti-apartheid movement, which had petered out following the jailing of the ANC leadership at the end of the 60’s. Black Consciousness inspired a new generation to political and non-violent resistance, who had grown impatient with the ineffectual ANC. In June of 1976, students took part in a nonviolent protest in Soweto against being forced to learn Afrikaans. Police opened fire and hundreds were killed. Police quickly clamped down on the leadership of the movement and Biko was repeatedly arrested by the security police. On one such occasion, in September 1977, Biko was killed in police custody. While his voice was prematurely silenced by the regime, his thoughts gave the impetus for a new generation of coloured people to resist the injustice of the apartheid system.

Biko, however, was not only a resistance leader. He was the philosopher of the black liberation movement in South Africa. One of my favourite ideas of his came in his student

stack of books would arrive at my door. But any real insight into the country was gleaned from those around me. Each individual had a unique insight to offer about living through apartheid.

column ‘Frank Talk’, where he discussed what the community. At the time missionaries were Africa has to offer the world. The West, he not allowed to return home, and many would said, had given the world the modern indusnot see Ireland again until after the liberalisatrious man, and with it progress through intion of Vatican II. dustry, effort, greed and material gain. What Africa had to was still to come, he said. What These Sisters lived through all the worst days Africa would give the world would be in the of apartheid, and took an active part in resistrealm of human relations – Africa would ance struggle. Among the Sisters I met some teach us how to relate. And when one visits had been shot, stabbed, robbed at gunpoint Africa, one understands how right he was. and had risked their lives on numerous ocThis came home to me as I was working casions, and yet not one would now considalongside a religious novice Paul, from Preer leaving. In Cape Town, the Dominicans toria, when he asked opened the first me why western peoOpen School (nonAmong the Sisters I met ple weren’t interestsegregated school) ed in other people. some had been shot, stabbed, in the country in In Africa, he told me, 1976 - Springfield robbed at gunpoint and had people want to know Convent School about other people risked their lives on numer- against the governwhen they see somement’s policy and ous occasions, and yet not one on the street, will. In Uitenhague they want to know one would now consider in the 80’s, Sisters about their lives. At would walk the leaving home, when we walk children to school down the street we through the army try to act as if no one else exists. In the west, occupied townships in a type of conga line, the values of community and family barely making sure nobody threw rocks which would register, with the one day of the year we have give the tanks the excuse to open fire. to spend with our family a burden for many.

When I arrived, I was told I was to be just I had the fortune to share some of this sense one more of the community, and yet during of African community with the Dominican my entire stay I was spoiled by my hosts of Sisters in Uitenhage. Numerous Irish Sisters four Irish sisters and one Capetonian. Elizaleft Ireland many decades ago for South Afbeth, the 88 year old sister who still ran the rica and arrived just as the resistance moveschool library, loaded me down with books on ment was spreading across the country. They the history of South Africa. Every time I felt came to run schools and teach all sections of I was beginning to make progress, another

During the days, I would accompany a Canadian Marist brother, Brother Claude, to the townships to help out in the soup kitchens.

He would seek out those in the worst conditions and made sure they were not left with nothing. He would invite me into shacks to meet the occupants, and the conditions I saw were degrading – people living without sanitation or running water, roofs and walls made of old corrugated sheets with the winter wind piercing through golfball-sized holes, children playing barefooted or naked in mucky dirt roads. On numerous occasions he pointed out to me quietly toddlers who had HIV. Without the care and altruism of the religious orders, no one would look after these people.

All this simply reminded me that though South Africa had achieved political freedom 18 year ago, it still remains one of the most unequal societies on the planet.

On the other side of the spectrum, it was eye -opening to meet a group of middle class religious adolescents from Durban, down to work alongside me in the townships. They openly confessed that they had never been in a township before because, they said, there was no need to. The wealthy class could live their lives without ever considering that such places of poverty and filth existed. The comment made it all the more easy to understand how an entire community of good people willingly blinkered themselves from the evil that surrounded them for generations. In fact I think it can rightfully be said that such an attitude still prevails. How else can one explain the lack of progress in such a wealthy country?

Back in the convent , the Sisters I met had reached retirement age, and yet, as they told me, ‘a nun never retires’. Each had their own project, whether teaching sewing in the townships, running soup kitchens, working on school boards or running school libraries. What was striking about the Sisters was their youthfulness and vibrancy, and the importance of their faith. In the evenings their eyes would gleam as they recounted stories of the bad old days, or laughed about the contradictions of the old regime. What was clear was that each had lived a full and exciting life, working with passion for their beliefs. It was an honour to be welcomed into their community and to be reminded by them of the simple values of community and the shared life that are often absent at home.

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MUSIC

Grizzly Bear - Shields

After a three-year gap, Brooklyn four– piece, Grizzly Bear, have returned. Following the success of 2009’s Veckatimest, the group began to tour the world and started recording Shields in late 2010. From the first track, it’s already very clear that Grizzly Bear have tried to change their sound. “Sleeping Ute” starts with a confusing time signa-

How To Dress - Total Loss Corin Tucker may not be a name familiar to all. Having spent most of the ‘80s and ‘90s playing with the all-girl punk group Sleater-Kinney, she has gone on to establish a solo career with The Corin Tucker Band. There are some sonic similarities between her former work and the more recent sections of her oeuvre. The chaotic punk energy of old remains on Kill My Blues, but it is now presented in a more polished and accessible form. This is due in great part to the production quality by band member, Seth Lorinczi, of Tucker’s latest record. Lorinczi applies enough polish to smooth over the rougher edges, while still managing to please traditional

Tucker fans, as well as punk purists.

Musically, each member of the ensemble is strong. The album varies between short punk cuts (“I Don’t Wanna Go”), coupled with lighter, pop-influenced material (“Joey”) and even toys with ballad influences on tracks such as “None Like You” and “Blood, Bones and Sand”.

It is during these ballad-inclined tracks that this reviewer begins to feel frustration. While I always applaud a musician for introducing new influences to their sound, I think that they should be fully fleshed out as ideas before being recorded. The piano progression on “Blood, Bones and Sand” sounds superfluous and consists mostly of

block chords with a little melody interspersed here and there. Things fare better on “None Like You”, with the piano intro slotting nicely into the punk energy of the rest of the song, without, however, adding anything of real worth. As a whole, fans of Tucker’s previous work will likely find something to enjoy on Kill My Blues, and newcomers will find it an easily accessible record. While it contains positive elements, there is little in it that Tucker has not done before, which exposes her to the risk of becoming stagnant on future projects.

Liam Maher

ture followed by a very un-Grizzly-Bearesque clunky guitar. However, lead singer Edward Droste’s vocals haven’t changed a bit in the past eight years since Grizzly Bear was formed. The third track on the album, “Adelma” sounds like something Tim Hecker would produce and also reinforces the reason why Grizzly Bear are signed to the legendary Warp records.

Despite all of this, Grizzly Bear’s newest album, just like their Electric Picnic performance, is extremely monotonous.

While the album is only 48 minutes long, it begins to feel like an eternity once you get half way through the sixth song, “A Simple Answer”. In spite of the fact that the album is beautifully arranged and the production is quite clean, there doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of originality or excitement. Tracks like “Yet Again” and “The Hunt” sound like a really bad Thom Yorke side project, while the second last track “Half Gate” just becomes grinding after hearing so much mopeyness from the album already. That’s not to say that every song is full of melancholy, “Gun-Shy” contains a great ‘70s sounding keyboard and an intricate guitar line. The vocals on the album, while being quite hard to make out, seem to display fairly intelligent lyricism. After the three-year waiting period, Grizzly Bear fans are probably going to love this album despite its averageness. However, to the average Joe it will sound just like another album to toss into the Indie/Folk Rock category.

Grizzly Bear certainly have the potential to do something great, as was seen with Veckatimest, however Shields just can’t live up to that standard.

Eoin Hennessy

From the feedback drenched opening notes of “Wax Face” from Thee Oh Sees latest effort, Putrifiers II, you are engulfed in a garage rock cacophony with a raw power that The Stooges would be proud of. And it is this raw power that the record celebrates. Most modern day rock music fails to impress me. The world has enough landfill indie acts to keep the pop charts populated for the next five years. on the other side of the equation we also have revivalist bands hoping to achieve a retro sound, but in doing so, end up sounding stale and unoriginal. Rock music is about energy, the kind of energy that only comes from bands who are well acquainted with how they want to present their music live.

Thus, bands’ studio albums should be a reflection of their live shows. Those unacquainted with Thee Oh Sees may not realise that they are performing some of the most raucous live shows of any band

going at the minute. What began as a solo project to showcase the more sensitive side of frontman Francis Dwyer, formerly of Coachwhips, has morphed into one of the most exciting garage rock acts of today. Their live shows regularly descend into what can only be described as borderline riots, many of which are setlist free. Putrifiers II captures this live energy on cuts such as the previously mentioned “Wax Face”, and others such as The Knack influenced “Lupine Dominus” and especially the instrumental track “Cloud #1”, which could easily translate as an intro to a live show. Fans of previous albums such as Help will also find some more melodic songs to enjoy like “Goodnight Baby”, “Flood’s New Light” and “Wicked Park” which see the album out on a softer, more melodic note. For anyone looking for genuine rock n’ roll energy in 2012, this album should not be overlooked.

Liam Maher

Thee Oh Sees - Putrifiers II WHAT WE’RE LISTENING TO

The Corin Tucker Band - Kill My Blues

Paleman – Halfout This 19-year-old producer who hails from Manchester has graced us with a lovely African drum beat stomper. The track which was first aired on Maryanne Hobb’s Xfm Show, is still only available as a YouTube rip but is well worth a listen. Paleman plays Kennedy’s on 26th September.

Mala – Change Taken from Mala’s excellent new album, Mala In Cuba, where Mala spent several months in Cuba working with Giles Peterson and numerous Cuban musicians. The track is a perfect crosspollination of Mala’s bass heavy DMZ background and Cuban instrumentation.

JJ DOOM – Guv’nor The metal faced villain, normally know as MF DOOM, is accompanied by supreme producer Jneiro Jarel and the result is pretty decent. One of the standouts of the album, Key To The Kuffs, is “Guv’nor”. The track that contains a sample from Regular Show is accompanied by a fantastic video directed by Ninian Doff.

The world of minimalist electro-R&B saw a massive surge after Tom “How To Dress Well” Krell released his first studio album. Artists like The Weeknd and Frank Ocean started to milk the cash cow that Krell’s first album, Love Remains, created. It’s now 2 years on and Krell has returned to the sound that made him famous. The Brooklyn based brainiac, who once translated a book of post-Kantian philosophy, has recorded 11 tracks which are all equally ghost-like in composition. From the opening track of Total Loss, “When I Was In Trouble”, we are instantly immersed in Krell’s deeply emotional signature sound. When describing

his last album, Krell used words like “deadlocked melancholia” and “unmetabolizable pain”. These phrases still feel fitting for the new album; however, it’s not all doom and gloom as Krell does occasionally drag himself out of despondency. “& It Was You” has an upbeat 4X4 rhythm which is just about club worthy, whilst “Running Back” is a guitar-laden masterpiece which sounds like it came straight out of a ‘90s Ashanti album. That’s not to say that Krell’s woebegone songs have disappeared. With the death of his best friend and uncle and also a relationship breakup, Krell has a lot to get off his chest. The penultimate “Set It

Right” sees Krell list off all the people he has lost over the years while looped and slowed down vocals float underneath. Despite the beautifully clean production, some tracks on the album drift into quite bland territory. “Talking To You” shows no distinction from the rest of the album and contains one too many harmonies for this reviewer to handle. Regardless of this, How To Dress Well does provide us with a great album that makes most other current R&B redundant. His dreamy, poignant music makes for an impressive listen that will only sound better with time.

Eoin Hennessy

The XX – Swept Away The second last track on the XX’s new album Coexist. While the rest of Coexist may not be as good as their first album, “Swept Away” is an exception and could well be the best song the XX have ever made.

Anyone who saw them at Electric Picnic should remember Jamie XX playing phenomenal live drums to this.

Al B. Sure! – Nite And Day (Onra Remix) A classic from French beat maker Onra and available as free download. The track brilliantly blends 80s singer Al B. Sure!’s vocals over a typically funky Onra beat. Perfect for when the sun is shining and the Pav is serving cold ones.

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FILM and its overt metaphor for contemporary America is nothing less than laboured.

Jackie Cogan (Brad Pitt) is hired to sort some people out following the hold-up of a mob-protected poker game by Frankie (Scoot McNairy) and Russell (Ben Mendelsohn), two bottom of the rung criminals who hope to pin the robbery on Markie Trattman (Ray Liotta). These aren’t the romantic gangsters of The Public Enemy or Scarface, but criminals with ‘a corporate mentality’ who are also suffering, in their own way, by the recession and like to let us know about it.

The film is set just before the election of Barack Obama as president in 2008 and its release now is perfectly timed as questions arise regarding the success of the Obama administration. Dominik’s intent is clear from the opening sequence which features tattered Obama and McCain campaign posters. The film is ‘narrated’ by a series of sound bytes from speeches primarily by Bush and Obama and the overriding sense of irony is a little heavy-handed. Cogan himself is directly dismissive of Obama’s message of hope (his ‘yes we can’ attitude and apparent belief that ‘we are one’), as well as the very ‘lies’ of Thomas Jefferson on which America was founded, and the bleak reality of the film tries to justify this reasoning.

Killing Them Softly

Diarmuid Cushen

K

Dominik’s film really shines when the characters interact one-to-one. The Pitt/Galdofini, Pitt/Jenkins and McNairy/ Mendelsohn interchanges are particularly worthy of mention.

The dialogue is sharp and ripe with cynicism and black humour, the kind of which wouldn’t be out of place in a Martin Scorsese or Quentin Tarantino film. The film is, perhaps appropriately then, also punctuated with scenes of graphic violence, often in slow-motion, but the effect is ultimately more theatrical than gritty and thus loses its sense of intensity.

illing Them Softly is director Andrew Dominik’s first feature film since The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford and it bears many of its predecessor’s stylistic and visual trademarks. Despite its several highlights however, it fails to live up to the high bar the director has set for himself

Killing Them Softly is violent, stylish and at times hilariously funny, and while not lacking conviction, it does lack a certain core.

With The Assassination of Jesse James…, the Australian director succeeded in portraying one of America’s great anti-heroes in a brilliantly poetic and aesthetically provocative spectacle.

With this film, tackling that other staple of classic Hollywood cinema, the streetwise gangster, (although Pitt is clearly not portraying a Jimmy Cagney or Al Pacino-esque character), one can’t help but feel we’ve seen it all before. At the end In anticipation pf Walter Salles’ forthof the day, it is what it is: entertaining and worcoming adaptation of Jack Keruac’s thy of analysis for what it has to say about contemporary American society. Dominik, howevseminal novel On the Road (hitting er, with his tight, excellently written script and delicate directing, is the real star of the show, Irish cinemas October 12), Diarmuid and hopefully his next film will not take five Cushen counts down his top 10 road years to see the light of day.

movies of all time.

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8

Premium Rush

Oliver Nolan

A

t one point in Premium Rush, a reckless bike courier approaches a crossroads, swamped by traffic from all sides. Possible scenarios play out before us: Our hero scrapes through but as a result, one unlucky bystander ends up underneath a truck; He flies from his bicycle, totalling a pram and almost certainly killing a child in the process; Finally, he speeds through unscathed, merely pissing everyone off in the process. Success!

On paper it reads like a Think! Road Safety campaign which will never get the green light, but in execution, it’s a darkly hilarious high point. In moments like this, when director David Koepp fully exploits the possibilities inherent within this hard-sell of a movie – ‘Speed on a fixie?’ - Premium Rush succeeds in being all it wants to be, namely brainless fun.

It’s a shame then that it suffers from an occasional need to expand upon its simple premise.

Joseph Gordon-Levitt plays Wilee – yes, like the Coyote – an incredibly reckless New York bike courier who picks up a bit of a bogey package one afternoon, much to the chagrin of Michael Shannon’s Crazy Cop, Bobby Monday, who really, really wants what’s inside. The film’s first act centres around their cat and mouse dynamic – bike versus car – and is tremendous fun, Shannon’s bulging eyes and maniacal laugh further adding to the feel of a live-action cartoon. It’s a shame then that the film’s middle section sees a drop in pace in order to dwell on the contents of its MacGuffin. Without spoiling anything, there is an incredibly convoluted immigration plot afoot, and given that we didn’t particular care what was in the package to begin with, a quick montage would have done nicely. The film never really regains the breakneck pace of the first act, but a climactic set piece in a hangar is impressive enough to make up for it. Over in the ‘ah here’ corner, Sony Pictures’ habit of blatant product placement in their films is nothing new, but an aging, obviously impoverished Chinese woman receiving a call on her shiny new Sony Xperia?

These quibbles aside, Premium Rush still manages to be a fun, undemanding thriller. Gordon-Levitt elevates an unsubstantial lead role through his sheer likability while Shannon unarguably steals the movie. Bobby Monday is a force of nature, a gambling addicted cretin of a man. Shannon, acting chops already proven in more serious fare, visibly relishes the cartoony nature of the role and gives the film the villain it needs. Worth a look.

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6

I WENT DOWN

THE HITCH-HIKER

THELMA AND LOUISE

THE MOTORCYCLE DIARIES

THE SUGARLAND EXPRESS

PADDY BREATHNACH // 1997

IDA LUPO // 1954

RIDLEY SCOTT // 1991

WALTER SALLES // 2004

STEVEN SPIELBERG // 1974

The only film to successfully apply the American road film formula to an Irish context without resorting cliché. this is a hidden gem of Irish cinema.

A little known film noir whose tag-line was “When was the last time you invited death into your car?” Enough said.

Although at times heavy-handed, Thelma and Louise subverts traditional gender roles and remains highly entertaining, feministorientated fare.

The shaping of one of the most important political figures of the 20th Century, Che Guevra, as he experiences the realities of comtemporaneous Latin America.

Spielberg’s début feature follows a young couple pursued across Texas by a convoy of ploice as they attempt to regain custody of their young child.

Looper

Oliver Nolan

W

ith Looper, writer/director Rian Johnson makes a quantum leap into the big league, whilst retaining the indie sensibilities of his earlier work. Rather than attempt to bowl us over with his vision of the future, the director is more concerned with the psychology of his central characters. It’s this sense of focus that separates Looper from the more cluttered, confused sci-fi we’ve become accustomed to of late. It’s a mesmerising work, sure to provoke as much debate as Inception did two years ago.

In the year 2044, time travel has not yet been invented, but by 2074, it will have been. Victims are sent back in time by the mob to be greeted with a bullet to the head by assassins known as ‘loopers’. Johnson wisely avoids clogging our heads with anything as mind boggling as the premise in his vision of the year 2044. Phones are even sleeker and guys use telekinesis to pick up girls, but these details are subtly introduced and rarely feel contrived. In addition, ‘loopers’ face the inevitability that they will one day be sent their future self to kill, thereby ‘closing the loop’, with a handsome retirement fee attached. It’s when Joe (Joseph Gordon Levitt) accidentally lets his future self (Bruce Willis) escape that things get messy.

Rather than being an arbitrary ‘future-be-crazy’ set-up to accommodate cool car chases and shoot outs, the film poses

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4

3

some intriguing ethical questions. While Young Joe sees his illusion of control over past and future crumbling, we are also led to identify with Older Joe. A thirty year montage linking the two is seamless – bar the bizarre sight of Willis with a full head of jet-black hair – allowing us to comprehend his agenda. A standout scene sees Older and Younger Joes face off in a diner, but rather than duke it out - well, not yet - they discuss what’s going on for a moment. The film’s big themes– the power of hindsight, the desire to control fate - are served well by a director who knows when to put the gun down.

This might make Looper sound just a little bit ponderous.

Thankfully, Johnson knows his way around a set piece, but thankfully never allows action to bludgeon character development. The film’s climactic stand-off will be as memorable for its technical splendour as for the questions raised by its jaw-dropping climax. Initially distracting prosthetics aside, Gordon-Levitt ably handles the anxieties of Young Joe, capturing the angered confusion of a man literally facing his future. Willis faces a similarly difficult challenge, to depict a believable older version of the younger Joe, with the character having undergone a remarkable change in outlook over thirty years. Blending his trademark calm collectedness with a surprising vulnerability, he reminds us that he’s one hell of an actor when he needs to be.

The film’s big reveal might borrow from other, not necessarily better films of the genre, but it doesn’t stop Looper from being one of the year’s best films.

See it, love it, argue about it, and then see it again.

2

1

CENTRAL STATION

IT HAPPENED ONE NIGHT

Y TU MAMÁ TAMBIÉN

LA STADA

EASY RIDER

WALTER SALLES // 1998

FRANK CAPRA // 1934

ALFONSO CUARÓN // 2001

FEDRICO FELLINI // 1954

DENNIS HOPPER // 1969

One woman takes a young orphan boy on a journey to reunite him with his family in this deeply moving Brazilian parable.

Capra’s great screwball comedy; the highlight of which is Claudette Colbert showing Clark Gable how to properly ‘thumb’ a ride... by exposing her thighs.

Brilliant.

A very stylish and profound metaphor for Mexico cloaked in one of the most American of film genres.

Clarification that film truly is art; Fellini’s masterpiece is a cornerstone of Italian neo-realism and possibly says more about humanity than anything else ever put on celluloid.

The film which defined the (sub-)genre, Easy Rider captures both the idealism and hopelessness of the counter-culture movement.

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fashion

by Aoife Considine

LIVE FREE OR DYE HARD I got a text from a friend of mine who’s been living in London for the summer the other day asking me somewhere good to get her hair done. I immediately recommended BLEACH, a salon located in Dalston, with another branch in the Topshop flagship store on Oxford Circus that specialise in eclectic dye jobs. Having been away for the past month, I’d picked up the 125thAnniversary edition of Vogue at the airport on my return and was glad to see the trend of dying hair ludicrous colours was still; well, in vogue, if you’ll excuse the pun! There was, in fact, a whole article dedicated to it that heavily featured the London salon. I was happy to have pointed my friend in the right direction.

Dip-Dye

Jessie J- Dip-Dye

This new trend, once adorned only by those who frequent the Central Bank on a Saturday afternoon, has fast become a catwalk staple and street-style and blogger must over the past year or so. Whether it’s simple ombré, pastel hues, block brights or daring dip-dye; there’s something for everyone to help them stand out this college year.

Kelly Osbourne- Pastel

Pastel Hues

Chalking If you’re keen to hop on the bandwagon but have placement or a presentation the next day, an easy, temporary way to get the effect of coloured hair without the longevity is to use chalk. Honestly, trust me on this one! Simply dampen your hair, apply chalk pastel (those ones you used for Leaving Cert Art) in your shade of choice, wait to dry, seal with a hair straightener et violà! Get the look without the lasting damage.

Ombré Think Whitney Port, Rachel Bilson and Lily Aldridge; ombréing gives the faded effect of grown out roots where the hair is graduated from dark roots to a brighter shade at the tips. This is the least daring of the dye jobs and works best on naturally dark or brown hair. What’s more, it’s the easiest look to achieve at home and thus gives catwalk glamour on a student budget. It’s also completely up to you how subtle or bold you want the colour change. For dark brown to black hair, a honey shade works best rather than a complete bleaching of the ends that suits a natural caramel or dirty blonde much more. It’s best to use a quality permanent hair dye about 3/4 shades lighter than your hair colour if you’re doing this at home and work around your natural colour. Be sure not to go overboard at first; remember, you can always add more blonde dye, but it’s much harder to go back if you’ve ended up with yellow tips. This hairstyle is also recession friendly as it means fewer trips to the salon for expensive root touch ups. Great news for the student budget!

If you’ve already tried and tested the ombré trend and are ready for something a little more daring, why not emulate the likes of Abbey Lee Kershaw or Lauren Conrad with pink ends, or, go for coloured tips like Jessie J. If you happen to be blonde already, dip-dying is as simple as applying a bright semi-permanent hair dye to your ends and waiting for it to develop. If you’re naturally dark however, you’ll have to first bleach your ends before dying it with your colour of choice to get that bold two-tone effect. For the best selection of brightly coloured hair dyes in Dublin, check out Asha on the top floor of Stephen’s Green shopping centre or simply buy online. What’s great about using semi-permanent dye is that the look will fade after a few washes. So, you’re free to keep topping up or changing your colour choice as much as you like to suit your outfit; it’s like lipstick for your hair.

Avril Lavigne- Chalking

All Over Colour

Lily Aldridge- Ombré

A few years ago it was platinum blonde like Agyness Deyn, and then it was bright red like Rihanna. Then came the queens of colour; Lady Gaga and Katy Perry who took the all over hair colour bar to a whole new level with blues, purples pinks, yellows and every colour in-between, often all at once. This is the whole hog and requires commitment to the cause if you’re going to pull it off. It’s not for the faint-hearted and unlike hair chalking it’s not going to simply wash out for placement the next day. If you’re doing medicine or anything that involves contact with the world outside of college

students, you should probably steer clear of this trend or else you will be classed as a punk, hooligan, ragamuffin, or general youth who is “up to no good”. Trust me, your supervisor will not buy that it’s actually high fashion these days and more than likely will have never heard of Charlotte Free.

If you’re truly dedicated to the cause however, I’d recommend going to a salon to get it done properly, otherwise you run the risk of actually looking like you do hang out around Central Bank. If you’re not up for the trip across the Irish Sea to go to Bleach, then Style Club on South William Street is your best bet for colouring this precise.

Since Kirsten Dunst’s appearance as Marie Antionette in the 2006 film with pastel pink hair, the trend has been growing exponentially. Kelly Osbourne, Pixie Geldof and even your granny can be seen rocking pastel washes and we all know that granny knows best. If you already get highlights and want to try out a lilac hue without having to actually put lilac dye in your hair, simply ask your stylist to put extra strength toner in after your highlights. Toner already has a silvery purple hue to it and is designed to lift the orangey-yellow tones out of your hair that highlighting often leave. By using a higher strength toner, the highlights are simply lifted to a subtle pale purple that then fades to ash blonde after a week or so, allowing you to try out the colour trend, but eventually leaving you with your usual highlighted look at no extra cost.

So, whether it’s bold block colour, rainbow streaks, or a pastel hue, make sure you have this season’s hottest accessory for back to college; your hair.

Katy Perry- All over colour

THREE RIGHTS AND YOU’RE OUT by Tommy Gavin

K

urt Vonnegut wrote in Mother Night that “we are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be”. In the book, the protagonist acts the part of a Nazi propagandist in Germany during the Third Reich, as a cover for spying on behalf the allies. Nobody knows his true inclinations apart from his handler and the president of the United States. Unfortunately, he does such a good job rhetorically convincing the world he was a Nazi that he ultimately ends up standing trial for war crimes in Israel.

That sentiment resonated with me quite strongly the summer my friend and I pretended to be Nazis on the internet, to troll real life Nazis. We didn’t have any pretentions of doing good, we just figured that if you’re setting out to be a bollocks on the internet, you might as well be a bollocks to Nazis.

Not that we felt the urge be trolls, but after learning of the existence of a forum called Nazi Europe on an online game called Nationstates, it seemed like it would be a diverting way to spend our spare time.

If unfamiliar with Nationstates, the best way to describe it is probably as an “online text based role playing game.” You set up an account; your nation, and answer a series of questions. Based on your answers, your country may be described in two to three paragraphs as a corporate dictatorship, a left leaning college state, and many more in between, depending on your country’s civil rights, economy and political freedoms. That’s basically it.

You can locate your country in a “region” of your choosing, but they’re really just message boards, with people role playing as their nation. As you might imagine, Nazi Europe is a region is populated by Nazis.

Our stated goal was to gain admin privileges through the in-game voting system, ban everyone, and change the regional motto to “where interracial gay marriage is mandatory”. Our first aim then was to make an impact, and it seemed logical that the best way to do this would be to accuse the current admin of not being Nazi enough. Strangely, this didn’t technically work, but it also didn’t fail outright. Therein lies the oddness of Nationstates.

Its not an inherently nerdy game, playing it only involves answering one or two policy questions a day, and watching your country slowly develop. It gets nerdy when people start role playing as their nation, and interacting with other nations. Because all interaction is through role play and nothing is at stake, it tends to get very convoluted, very quickly. We did think it was weird at the time that they were being surprisingly tolerating and engaging with what, looking back, was obvious trolling. To show up in a forum, and demand administrative privileges on the grounds that the current administrators aren’t Nazi enough, using ridiculous language like “people often fear my power and magnetism”, only to be

met with responses like “I believe you think too highly of yourself” and “I would like to add that I have no fear of you”, rather than “fuck off”.

Our arguments, always about how we should be the ones in control, would devolve into minor points of semantics, where we were wearily tolerated rather than banned outright.

This went on for about 4 weeks, but things approached critical mass of weirdness when we were given access to their offsite forum, where they would go to say the kind of thing that they wouldn’t say on the public messageboards of Nationstates. There was one person in particular who engaged us in argument the most, who maintained that while she didn’t agree with the racial prejudice of the Third Reich, believed that national-socialism with a strong militaristic government was the best kind of state, and she was the most willing to accept us at face value.

She seemed to see herself as the big sister in Nazi Europe; she didn’t agree with everyone regarding “the jewish question”, but enjoyed mutual respect with its other denizens.

She liked our go-getter enthusiasm, but thought we needed to curb our impertinence and accept the region as it was. Things got slightly too real for us when we saw that she had an old AOL instant messenger address on her account on the offsite forum.

Through that we were able to find both her Livejournal account and her facebook page. We were suddenly confronted with a real person, studying in a military academy in Canada, who bemoaned unrequited love in her blog.

That, coupled with the growing unease at having pretended to be a Nazi on the internet for weeks at this point, prompted final action. We knew we probably hadn’t done enough to fulfil our goal of taking over the forum and shutting it down, but we had gone as far as we were willing to go. The main activity of Nazi Europe, besides congratulating each other for being Nazis, was performing raids on other regions, basically doing to other regions what we were trying to them.

This involved the vast majority of the Nazi Europe relocating their “nations” to another region, gaining admin powers through the voting system, and shutting it down. Unfortunately, we were impatient, and made our move with our many, many dummy nations while there was still time for the rest of the Nazis to come back and kick us out.

Cathartically, we were afforded enough time before being kicked out to shed our assumed nazi identities and engage them in argument for being Nazis, but ultimately we knew we just wanted to personally disassociate ourselves from them, if only in our own minds. We had pretended for too long, and we didn’t like it.

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