Features - The Cambridge Student

TCS
The Cambridge Student
9 February 2006
Volume 7 Issue 13
Join Cilla on the sofa
ADDICTION
We look at the science behind cravings PAGE 6
Yet more about RAG Blind Date inside PAGES 8&9
RAG Blind Date - well, they say love is
Dark matter
finally sees the
light
University astronomers have
made a dramatic breakthrough
in the study of ‘dark matter’
and the properties of galaxies
using specialist equipment
which includes the aptly
named Very Big Telescope.
NEWS page 3
America tries
to reign in its
animal houses
American Universities are
cracking down on traditional
fraternity houses following
a spate of alcohol poisoning
incidents have left students
dead or comatose.
NEWS page 4
George
Galloway on
Bob Dylan
See how we stretch a sixty
second conversation into half
a page.
INTERVIEWS page 11
Student paper pulped for the Prophet
INSIDE
Still There:
TCSUDOKU
Please do it.
Page 15
Mixed batch
of results for
Cambridge
runners
Run Forrest Run
SPORT page 28
Features
6
Interviews 10
Focus
12
Take that stupid stick out of your mouth. Rag blind daters hooked up with total strangers with varying degrees of success at the annual event on
Tuesday evening. Over 2,000 students took part, raising over £11,000 for charity. Couples met up all over Cambridge, in bars, pubs, firework displays, erotic book sections and even beside the cucumbers in Sainsbury’s. Charlotte Whitaker and Sophie Bennett, who organised the evening, said,
“we tried our hardest to make sure all bribes were accommodated, although finding a “pirate like guy” proved a bit tricky. People were sceptical
about how Facebook would affect Blind Date but we’re confident that it actually worked to our advantage as so many students were bribing for
people whose profiles they’d seen. It’s fantastic the extra money we’ve raised through bribes.The charities which untagged RAG money goes to this
year can be found at www.cambridgerag.org.uk. We’d like to thank everyone involved for all their hard work, especially the college RAG reps”.
Editorial 13
Arts
16
Sport
27
Amanda Akass
THOUSANDS of copies of a
Cardiff student newspaper have
been recalled after it published
one of the cartoons of the Prophet
Muhammad that have sparked
worldwide rioting. Saturday’s edition of Gair Rhydd reproduced
an image which portrayed the
founder of Islam as a terrorist
with a bomb in his turban. No
other British publication has
printed any of the 12 Danish
drawings, despite their proliferation in European newspapers
since they were first published last
September.
Editor Tom Wellingham
has been sacked by the Student
Union. Gair Rhydd, which means
“Free Word” in Welsh, was forced
to recall all copies soon after it
was first published on Saturday.
Around 200 copies are still
believed to be in circulation.
Three other student journalists
on the paper, which won the 2005
Guardian Student Newspaper of
the Year award, have also been suspended from the Student’s Union.
The offending image was printed
on page six in a World News
section to illustrate an article discussing the recent international
furore over the cartoons’ publication. The report described how
“any depictions of Muhammad or
Allah are considered blasphemous
in Islam”.
Sally Jaques, Cardiff University
Student’s Union spokesperson,
said: “The opinions expressed in
Gair Rhydd are those of the editorial team independently of the
Students’ Union or University.
The editorial team enjoy the normal freedoms and independence
associated with the press in the
UK, and are expected to exercise
those freedoms with responsibility, due care and judgement.
The Student’s Union very much
regrets any upset caused or disrespect shown by the publication
of the controversial cartoon and
has taken immediate action by
promptly withdrawing all copies of this week’s edition of Gair
Rhydd”.
Cardiff students were somewhat bemused by the outcry. Alex
Gannon, a Second Year Ancient
Historian at the University, said:
“No one really cares. On the front
page this week was a story about a
first year girl who died of Malaria
in Talybont. This student tragedy
seems much more important and
relevant to us – the whole thing
has been blown out of proportion”.
Ashgar Ali, Chairman of a
Cardiff mosque and a Liberal
Democrat councillor, told TCS:
“Every Muslim was very upset
and sad to see it in the paper. It
was really bad and very insulting
to someone’s religion. It has never
been printed anywhere else in
Britain which was the responsible
way to deal with the issue. We are
pleased that the papers were taken
out of circulation so quickly. The
reaction here in Cardiff hasn’t
been that inflammatory as it has
been dealt with responsibility and
the Editor has been terminated
from his job”.
Dr Sophie Gilliat-Ray, director of the Centre for the study of
Islam in the UK, which is based
at Cardiff University, said, “it was
thoughtless and insensitive, and
very alienating for the Muslim
students here, of which there are
several thousand”.
However a spokesman from
the South Wales Islamic Centre
said, “I don’t take any notice of
them. They’re rubbish as far as
I’m concerned”.
Cardiff University released
the following statement: “The
University very much regrets any
upset caused or disrespect shown
by the publication of the controversial cartoon and supports the
actions of the Students’ Union in
promptly withdrawing all copies.
Cardiff University is very proud
of its history as a campus where
continued on page 2
2
The Cambridge Student February 2, 2006
News
News in Brief
Gair Rhydd
CUSU LBGT
Elections
Continued from the front page
CUSU LBGT Executive
elections were held on
Tuesday. A LBGT president
has been elected for the
first time following constitutional changes last term.
Christ’s Jordan Holland and
Churchill’s James Campbell
were elected as the new
LBGT President and Chair
respectively.
Jordan and Campbell
commented: “We’re both
really pleased that the elections received so much
interest, and we look forward to working with the
new exec to build on the
successes that the campaign
has achieved over the past
year.”
Josh
Black
(Campaigns),
Alex
Wilshaw (Comms), Mike
Horridge (Computing),
Noel
Cochrane
and
James Trafford (Ents),
Ingrid Nelson (Reps CoOrdinator), Kaur Adamson
(Treasurer), Colin Ferguson
(Welfare), Luke Andrews
(No Definition Editor), Josh
Robinson and Carol (Grads
Reps), Cate Setterfield and
Emma (Women’s) were
also elected.
Vase smashing visitor
banned from museum
Nick Flynne, the 42 year old
man who broke two Chinese
vases reputedly worth over
£100,000 when he tripped
over a shoelace, has been
sent a letter banning him
from the Fitzwilliam by
director Duncan Robertson
for “the near future”.
Anne Widdecombe
preaches
Widdecombe spoke of
“the gospell according
to Widdecombe, not the
Conservatives” at the Union
yesterday evening. A passionate advocate of the private sector, she said the
state “should get its house
in order’ and was ‘in need
of a jolly good kick in the
posterior”.
The Conservative MP
commented that as Shadow
Health Secretary under
William Hague she had
told the truth and this was
“probably why (she) was
only kept in the job for a
year”. Christianity is tightly
linked to her politics and
she revealed that she regularly preaches a sermon in
city churches with the title
“God bless the money-makers”.
Meg Graham
where members of many faiths
work, study and socialise together
in harmony.
“The University welcomes students and staff from all over the
world and with more than 3,000
international students currently
studying at Cardiff, representing more than 100 countries, the
University has a unique multi-cultural environment.
“Cardiff University has excellent relationships with both local
and national Muslim communities and is proud in 2005 to have
launched the unique Centre for
the Study of Islam in the UK
(CSI-UK) which aims to promote
a greater understanding of Islam
and the life of Muslim communities in the UK.”
No one at Gair Rhydd was
available for comment yesterday
and their website has been shut
down. The paper has a circulation
of 25, 000 and is the only student
paper in Cardiff, distributed in
both Cardiff University and the
University of Wales Institute.
Violent protests were spawned
all over the world following
European editorial decisions to
publish the images. Ambassadors
from Islamic countries complained
but were ignored by newspapers in
Norway, France, Germany, Italy
and Spain.
Ten people were killed during
riots in Afghanistan after police
shot into a crowd trying to march
on a US Military base on Monday.
There has been a complete diplomatic withdrawal by Denmark
and Norway from several Islamic
countries. Their embassies in
Damascus were torched by angry
crowds of Syrians on Saturday
followed by the total sacking of
the Danish embassy in Beirut on
Sunday. Over 700 Muslims protested on the streets of London
over the weekend, some brandishing signs with slogans saying
“freedom go to hell” and “Europe
you will pay your 3/11 is on its
The offending page from Gair Ryhdd
way”.
Whilst the original Danish
newspaper, Jyllands-Posten, has
apologised for the offence caused
to Muslims but defended its right
to free speech, Danish products
are still being boycotted in Islamic
countries. However, their chief
exports are bacon and beer, neither of which are best sellers in
countries where the state religion
forbids the consumption of alcohol
or pork.
Some of the cartoons are far
less provocative with the Prophet
just shown wandering through
the desert. Others however depict
Muhammad brandishing a sword
and standing on a cloud holding
back a line of suicide bombers,
saying “stop, we have run out of
virgins”.
Mohsin Badat, Cambridge
Islamic Society President, said, “I
definitely agree with the decision
to recall the papers. It is about a
serious question of identity and
belonging. People from Islamic
communities were really starting
to feel proud to be British, and
issues like this are really detrimental to that good will. It really
makes people feel very insecure,
especially with the Guardian survey
a few months ago which said that
there were extremist groups in many
university campuses, both Islamic
and BNP. All Muslims disagree
with the cartoons – freedom of
speech should be curtailed if it is
going to incite people to violence.
“The Prophet always respected
ambassadors and so the actions of
protesters burning embassies is particularly perverse, and some of the
slogans of the London protesters
were disgusting. We have to make
efforts to integrate as well – we
are holding a talk next week called
‘1000 years of Islam in Britain’ on
Saturday night to help Muslims
feel at home and settled in Britain.
If TCS or Varsity were to print the
cartoons Muslim students would
feel betrayed. Being a Muslim in
Cambridge is a positive experience, there are far fewer tensions
here than in some big cities”.
“Experience Islam Week” starts
on February 11.
Mark Ferguson thinks the world has gone bomb-kers
I’m a big fan of freedom of speech
– mainly because without it (and
its erstwhile sidekick freedom of
the press) I wouldn’t be able to read
the variety of views that I see in
the press each week, or expound
my views on a variety of subjects in
these pages every week. Freedom
of speech is a fundamental right
in this country, and across the
Western world and one we should
endeavour to preserve, especially
against recent attempts to curb civil
liberties in this country. That I
may ridicule a religion, or a religious figure, is my right as a free
individual, and it is to the credit of
our usually weak and out-of-sorts
Parliamentary democracy that a
law seeking to curb this right has
been rejected.
However, although I often revel
in the unadulterated pleasure of
unqualified statements, freedom of
speech is a right that should be
used carefully. The last few weeks
have focussed on individuals who
abuse that right – Abu Hamza,
Nick Griffin, and perhaps most
explosively, Danish cartoonists.
The cartoon which has caused
so much outrage in the Middle
East of late features an image of
the prophet Mohammed wearing
a turban with a fuse – it is, if
nothing else, a crude attempt at
satire. At first, I did not see the
logic behind the demonstrations
against this cartoon. I mean how
weak must an individual’s faith be
to have it challenged by a cartoon?
Isn’t this just an example of free
speech? Shouldn’t individuals have
the right to criticise religion? Why
won’t these individuals allow people freedom of expression?
This feeling of confusion, and
even, shamefully, anger towards
aspects of the Muslim world that
I felt soon subsided. I began to
consider the implications of the
cartoon, and the damaging belief
that its image reflects – the claim,
now almost an assumption in certain circles, that to be Muslim is to
be Islamist, anti-secular, regressive,
anti-western, and worst of all, a
terrorist. It was at this point that
my view changed entirely. This
cartoon is not an example of the
Western world’s freedoms in contrast to the repressive nature of the
Middle East – this is an example of
the West’s inability to have measured views, to avoid hyperbole, and
to see the big picture – especially
with regards to cultures that it fears
or merely does not understand.
Islam is not, by its very nature,
a violent religion, any more than
Christianity is. When we say Jihad,
we should say crusade – although
of course we don’t, as that word
has connotations for the West that
we’d rather not consider, connotations that are perhaps the root
cause of the worldwide tensions
that are so clear to see today.
In short, this cartoon is not
a brave example of freedom of
expression, or freedom of the press.
On the contrary, it is an embarrassing example of a notion that,
although unspoken in polite circles,
still prevails today – that Islam is
our enemy. Islam is not our enemy,
and neither, may I say, is unrestricted freedom of speech. Religious
tolerance and understanding are
vital for the survival of humanity,
but such things will only be possible when we live in a time when we
are not motivated by fear, and our
fear cannot be misused against us,
to serve the ends of others.
P.S – If anyone wants to see
religious satire, I recommend
“The Life of Brian”. It’s actually
very funny, and doesn’t criticise
Christianity at all. Plus, they
all went to Cambridge you
know……
February 9, 2006 The Cambridge Student
3
News
Galloway/Benn vs Duncan Smith
Nienke Venema
IAIN
DUNCAN-SMITH,
George Galloway and Tony Benn
were watched by over 400 students when they came to speak
at the Union last Thursday. After
an impressive debate, the motion,
“This House believes that military action is counterproductive
in the fight against terrorism”, was
defeated by 50 votes - 161 Ayes,
211 Noes, and 36 Abstentions.
Anas Altikriti, spokesman for
AMICA DALL
Benn takes on Duncan-Smith’s very shiny head
Muslim Association of Britain,
opened the case for the proposition by arguing that the bases of
terrorism are the double standards
and fragile base of the West. He
stressed the point that “terrorism is
not a new concept”. Besides Israel
and the IRA there were also “terrorists” amongst those who protested against the Nazi regime
and even Nelson Mandela was
considered a terrorist by many
for years. “Terrorists are impoverished people who are deprived
of living a normal life with their
loved ones, like us,” he said, and
therefore “we should provide
hope for people that are forced to
love without hope.”
He was followed by Charles
Skinner from the US Embassy,
who claimed it was “too late to
back out” once he had found out
who the other speakers were. It
was not an easy task to defend
George Bush’s sincerity to the
sceptical crowd, although he
claimed that the administration does not actually believe it
should “solve every problem with
military action”. He ended his
speech by stating that although
military action is never the “final
solution”, at least the people in
Iraq are “on their way to democracy”.
Galloway was the next speaker for the proposition and spoke
in a flamboyant style which was
not always appreciated by his
audience. Although he began
by reassuring Mr Skinner that
nobody was “anti-USA, or pacifist”, his subsequent speech gave
a completely different impression. With his loud voice and
preaching tone he roared that
“Bush can call himself an emperor, but there is no difference
when men are killed in Tora Bora
then in the World Trade Centre.”
America, he claimed, has taken
the wrong approach to 9/11 and
“created ten more Bin Ladens
by making terrorism proliferate
all over the world.” The USA is
“addicted to Saudi Arabic oil”, he
claimed. In his view the principle
cause for terrorism is the situation in Palestine, not Al Qaeda.
“There was no Al Qaeda in Iraq
when we went in, but there is
plenty now.”
Much more subtle but no
less impressive was Colonel Tim
Collins, who fought terrorism
in both Belfast and Iraq. “I’ve
seen ‘em alive, I’ve seen ‘em dead
and I’ve seen ‘em captured,” he
said. Collins’s main argument
was that although the war on
Terrorism was not a successful, military action is crucially
important nevertheless. - “violence begets violence, but sometimes it’s necessary.” He claimed
that the proposition was fundamentally flawed.
Tony Benn, who spoke in
favour of the motion but ultimately voted to abstain, also described
America as “an empire”, comparing it to colonial Britain - “we
were fighting all over our empire,
and it only ended when we ended
it.” To Benn, religion is the main
problem, and since “religion is
culture, we need to build links.”
Iain Duncan Smith ended the
debate by reminding the public of the absoluteness of the
motion. “I hate war, but I hate
tyranny, suppression, torture and
murder even more.” “Instead”,
he claimed, “the real debate
should be about what kind of
military action is necessary.” He
gave a grave and tightly argued
speech, but still ended up mocking Galloway in commenting it
was nice to see him after his
“tough time in the Big Brother
house…Let me solute you on
your courage!”.
Very Large Telescope sheds light on dark matter
David Beckett
A TEAM from the Cambridge
Institute of Astronomy have
taken a huge step towards
explaining the existence of dark
matter. The scientists have managed to place some limits on
its existence and therefore are
closer to piecing together how
the greatest enigma of modern
science fits into our Universe
as a whole. Previously the only
thing scientists knew about dark
matter was that it existed, and
that was only through inference
from the odd behaviour of stars
and other celestial bodies.
Professor Gerry Gilmore said:
“It’s the first clue of what this
stuff might be. For the first time
ever, we’re actually dealing with
its physics.” The team used some
of the most advanced telescopes
and astronomical research centres
in the world in order to build up
detailed maps of the cosmos and
trace the paths left by particles of
dark matter. The aptly named Very
Large Telescope facility in Chile
was particularly instrumental.
The team were able to measure
the approximate ratio of dark matter to baryonic matter, the ‘normal matter’ that the earth and
people are made of, and found
that dark matter made up about
80-85% of the universe. Professor
Gilmore explained that “it comes
in a ‘magic volume’ which happens
to correspond to an amount which
is 30 million times the mass of the
Sun. It looks like you cannot ever
pack it smaller than about 300
parsecs – 1,000 light-years; this
stuff will not let you. That tells
you a speed actually – about 9 km/
s – at which the dark matter particles are moving because they are
moving too fast to be compressed
into a smaller scale.”
From these figures scientists
are also able to extrapolate a temperature for dark matter of 10,000
degrees, far warmer than originally thought. This temperature
and speed data will help in all
future searches for dark matter,
as Professor Bob Nichol, from
the Institute of Cosmology and
Gravitation at the University of
Portsmouth, says: “it seems science may [have been] looking in
the wrong place for… these mysterious particles”.
The research has also led to
scientists being able to ‘weigh’ the
Milky Way more accurately. It
was believed until few months
ago that our own galaxy was
only medium sized in comparison with the larger Andromeda
galaxy, for instance, but the new
research reveals that we are living
in the “biggest galaxy in the local
Universe”.
Pump out the killer mussels MP swaps jobs
Tom Hensby
CA MBR IDGE
SCIENTISTS have discovered a new
way to deal with one of the
world’s biggest aquatic pests:
the zebra mussel.
The stratagem devised by
Dr Richard Aldridge and his
team, involves releasing fatty
globules dosed with potassium chloride into rivers. The
molluscs suck in the tasty
morsels, which then release
their deadly cargo. And since
potassium chloride is only
Pernicious creatures
harmful to the zebra mollusc, there is no risk of poison accumulating up the food
chain.
The zebra mussel is native
to the Baltics and Russia, but
has spread around the world:
first into Europe via the canal
networks in the 1700s, and as
far as America, stowed away
on ships. They were released
into the Great Lake system in
1985, and arrived in Northern
Ireland in 1996. Once settled,
they colonise every f lat surface, fouling up ship motors,
and blocking pipes connected to power stations. The
cumulative cost to industry
has been estimated at $3bn
in North America, and the
market for solutions dealing
with the problem is worth
$46 million every year. Like
some kind of underwater grey
squirrel, the mollusc can also
crowd out native species of
mussel.
Dr Aldridge and his team
from the Cambridge Zoology
Department are not first to
try and find ways of dealing
with the problem. In 2001 a
team from Purdue University,
Indiana, tried exposing the
“I have never
met one, on
the boats or
otherwise”
zebra mussel to electromagnetic radiation. At the testing
stage, it was found that 20
days or more were needed
to kill the creatures, so the
most commonly used method
remains to dose the water
with chlorine. However with
this method there is a significant risk of poisoning other
creatures in the water. The
mussels can also sense the
presence of chlorine, closing
their valves and clamming up
for days on end to avoid taking it in.
This new solution is being
marketed by a spin-off company – “Biobullets” – which is
ambitious to broaden the use
of the technology. Speaking
of the possibilities of attacking other pests, Dr Aldridge
has said ‘We have a broad
patent that could be applicable to blackf ly larvae, bryozoans, the Asian clam, and
sponges.’
Investigating the local
impact of this species,
TCS asked another one of
Cambridge’s water-pests- a
rower- whether she had ever
seen a zebra mussel, or whether they had ever colonised
one of the university boats?
The reply was good news for
scholars and other local species: “I have never met one,
on the boats or otherwise.”
Grace Capel
CAMBRIDGE MP David
Howarth spent a day with Dr
Tamsin Mather of the Earth
Sciences Department last week
as part of a scheme developed
by The Royal Society in order to
create links between the political and scientific communities,.
Dr Mather had previously spent
a week in Westminster with her
MP in order to gain an insight into
how science policy is formed.
In an effort to foster better
understanding between scientists
and politicians the Royal Society
set up the MP Scientist Pairing
Scheme, now in its fifth year,
in which over 100 scientists and
MPs have participated.
Dr Mather said that spending
a week in Westminster encouraged scientists to learn the ways
in which they can “engage with
the political process”.
Having
previously worked for the
Parliamentary Office for Science
and Technology, she main-
tained that “the political process is designed to be very open,
for example, research scientists
are very welcome to contribute
to select committees which are
advertised on the internet”.
Her partner in the scheme,
Mr Howarth, is a Fellow of Clare
College and a former lecturer in
law and economics at the university. However, he explained that
he was still highly enthusiastic
to get involved with the scheme
since “university lecturers very
rarely visit each other’s departments”.
During his day with Dr
Mather at the Earth Science
department the main focus was
on “the science of studying long
term climate change”. As a
member of ‘Friends of the Earth’,
climate change is an issue the
MP feels is of critical importance.
While spending some time in the
laboratories with the scientists at
work, Mr Howarth was pleased
to report that he was “even able to
separate a few samples.”
4
The Cambridge Student February 9, 2006
News
Miss Jesus 2006 crowned in drag
Rich Saunders
EIGHT MALE freshers paraded
around the Jesus forum in drag last
Sunday to compete for the annual
Miss Jesus title. The first years
donned various items of female
clothing, plastered themselves in
make-up, drank heavily for several
hours and proceeded to perform
an eclectic series of tasks before a
packed crowd.
Miss Jesus is one of the main
events hosted by Jesus RAG and
raises money through £4 entry
tickets and contestant sponsorship.
Entrance tickets alone raised over
£600 whilst Jesus RAG Chairman
Ed Young-Lidard expects the
money collected from sponsorship
to reach “£1,000 if not more”.
Contestants traditionally vie
with each other to find the most
outrageous costumes and this
year’s entrants did not disappoint.
Ridiculously short skirts and fishnet stockings were very much in
evidence, with one contestant donning a wedding dress and another
bleaching his hair blonde.
The event itself comprised of
several challenges undertaken
by each of the contestants. The
entrants each took part in a solo
dance to the likes of Shania Twain
and the Pussycat Dolls, followed
by a closely fought race to put
a condom on a cucumber. The
highlight of the evening was
undoubtedly the final challenge
to give Steve the Barman a lap
dance. More often than not it fell
to hosts Charlie Williamson and
Tim Willot to keep the contestants
standing. Occasionally they failed.
At the end of the evening, the
audience were invited to vocally
demonstrate their support for their
favourite candidate. Nick Hall was
duly crowned Miss Jesus 2006.
The following day, he said: “Our
aim in life should not be to advance
through it, gaining dignity and
honour, but merely retreat without
losing it. That was my motto for
Miss Jesus, I had no desire to win
or earn respect, just not lose it by
the bucket-load”.
Miss Jesus 2005 Charlie
Williamson, said, “as sad as it was
to see my crown passing over to the
next generation I have great expectations that Nick will keep it in the
style to which it is accustomed...i.e.
in the back of his cupboard where
no self respecting person will ever
find it”.
CLAUDIA COMBERTI
Richard Erlank
I’m ready for my close up...
Animal Houses to be shut down
Alice Palmer
A SPATE of drink-related deaths,
accidents and violence has led to a
crackdown on American universities’ fraternities.
University authorities across
the States are clamping down
on students’ drinking, particularly given that most students are
below the legal drinking age of 21.
At Coastal Carolina University
in South Carolina last week,
officials suspended the Pi Kappa
Alpha fraternity following a party
in which alcohol poisoning left
two members of the fraternity in
comas.
Students at the University of
Massachusetts - UMass - were
shocked to return on Tuesday for
the new term to face a host of
new rules regarding on-campus
alcohol consumption. The new
rules implemented at UMass forbid gatherings of more than 10
students in a room where alcohol
is present and ban all drinking
games. The university authorities
are still dealing with the fallout
of a 2003 drink-fuelled riot in
which drunken students turned
cars over, started fires and threw
bottles at the police after a baseball game. UMass spokesman
Ed Blaguszewski commented,
“Alcohol abuse is an enduring
problem. It turns up in different
ways and drinking games seem to
have taken on a greater prevalence
in recent years.”
Alcohol-fuelled fraternity life
is seen as a rite of passage for
young American men, with notorious former fraternity stalwarts
including George W. Bush.
TOGA TOGA - John Belushi as Bluto in Animal House
The heavy-drinking fraternity
culture was parodied in the film
Animal House, which starred the
late John Belushi. His chant “We
can do anything we want – we’re
college students!” captured on cel-
“We can do
anything we want
- we’re college
students!”
luloid the chaotic frat house world
of toga parties, food fights and
road trips. According to former
Yale peers, President Bush’s time
at the prestigious institution mirrored this lifestyle. One alumnus claimed that the President
“majored in beer drinking”. Bush
is now a born-again Christian teetotaller.
The shrouded culture of fraternities and their private houses
both encourages binge drinking;
and makes it all the more dangerous. The initiation practice of
‘hazing’ is particularly dangerous.
Initiates are traditionally made
to undertake various humiliating
tasks under the influence of alcohol in order to become a fraternity
member. In recent years, parents
of hazing victims have taken
legal action against fraternities.
The family of Daniel Reardon, a
University of Maryland student,
sued the Phi Sigma Kappa fraternity after his death in a drinking
ritual. Other fraternity members
had put the unconscious 19-yearold in a separate room, but only
called an ambulance when he
stopped breathing.
Colorado has also changed
state law to allow legal immunity
to anyone who calls the emergency
services after drinking illegally.
The move came after University
of Colorado fresher Lynn Gordon
Bailey died from an alcohol overdose in late 2004. He was found in
the Chi Psi fraternity house after a
party, with obscene sexual comments scribbled across his face.
National fraternity leaders
have also urged students to call for
help if drinking sessions become
unmanageable. Geoff Brown,
who runs alcohol-education programmes for the North America
Interfraternity Conference, said
“One of the biggest problems out
there is students are afraid to call
for help. Our groups are taking
a more pro-active posture these
days”.
Binge drinking is also rampant
in many British universities, with
student unions serving incredibly
cheap alcohol. Many Oxbridge
drinking societies have similar initiation ceremonies, with unconfirmed reports of far too much
vodka, urinating into pint glasses,
and general naked antics.
Medics at the University of
Southampton have launched
a website to help students
monitor excessive drinking
levels.
“The drinkulator” calculates
“alcoholism ratings” to show
how much a person’s health
is effected by drink.
www.drinkulator.org
Men and women think differently. Fact.
John Burman
AN ARTICLE which claims
women’s biological difference from
men has hampered their success in
scientific research was censored
from publication in a leading academic journal. Science’s refusal to
publish an essay by a distinguished
Cambridge scientist last week on
why women are underrepresented
in top science positions has pro-
voked claims that scientists are
being stopped from debating the
issue openly.
Peter Lawrence, a leading developmental biologist in
Cambridge and a Fellow of the
Royal Society, wrote an essay entitled “Men, Women, and Ghosts in
Science.” According to Lawrence,
“Science rejected it at the last
minute, after having apparently
accepted it twice.”
In his essay Lawrence refutes
the feminist notion that men and
women have roughly the same
abilities. He argues that men and
women are born different and that
a cult of political correctness is
sustaining the idea that if only
all discrimination ended men and
women would be equally successful professionally.
Lawrence argues that it is a
result of natural differences that
Controversial
Rabbi speaks
women tend to under-perform in
selection processes for science jobs.
The testing and interview process
inherently favours men since they
tend to demonstrate more traits of
analysis and self confidence.
Science cited simple editorial reasons for not publishing
the essay,had already been well
covered. Science receives 12,000
submissions a year, of which less
than 8 % see publication.
“ANTI-ZIONISM IS not
Anti-Semitism” was Rabbi
Ahron Cohen’s argument at
the Union on Monday evening.
Cohen, dressed in orthodox
black, introducing himself and
his group the Neturei Karta as
‘the Guardians of the Faith’, a
group of “Orthodox Jews who
completely sympathise with
the cause of the Palestinians
in their struggle against the
Zionist State”.
His central message was
that “Anti-Semitism is not
something to be applauded, but
Anti-Zionism is...Judaism and
Zionism are incompatible concepts and mutually exclusive.”
The Rabbi defined Zionism
as a “secular, irreligious philosophy engineered around
100 years ago” which “f louts
entirely the basic Jewish value
of humanitarianism in its
treatment of the Palestinians.”
Confusion, he maintained,
extends to the highest levels of
government with Britain and
the US claiming to be friends
with Israel when in his opinion,
“the whole concept of Israel
is flawed, unjust and blatantly
undemocratic.”
Rabbi Cohen said the
Jews must “obey the will of
the Almighty and must not
oppose their exile” but wait
till the time when all mankind
are united in peace under God
and the holy land is returned
to them. He concluded with
the hopeful message that Arabs
and Jews can and have lived
together peacefully, prayed “for
an end to bloodshed and the
suffering of all people and of
the dismantling of the Zionist
State”.
Once applauded, Rabbi
Cohen encountered a barrage
of carefully prepared and emotionally charged questions. His
introductory wish, “I pray that
our words are correct and true”,
proved highly contentious with
a number of members who
challenged his historical accu-
racy. He was accused of being
“disingenuous”, “inaccurate”
and “hypocritical”.
Challenged on the point
that after the Holocaust Jews
had no where to live, Cohen
maintained that “Zionism is a
sudden, modern idea of a solution” to the problem of exile
which had existed for “2000
years”. He said Jews would
have all been allowed into the
US had it not been for secular
Zionists who were “so strong”
in America and “would not
allow it”.
The sharpest criticisms centred on the Neturei Karta’s
“hypocritical” support of Hamas
who are the “same thing” as
suicide bombers and “who blow
up kids.” Rabbi Cohen defended his position, claiming that it
is “not our duty to judge how
Hamas go about their actions”
and that the “only reason violence exists is because there
is confrontation because the
Zionists insist on their state”.
Other union members sought
to discredit Cohen by quoting
a widely published article in
which Jewish Organisations
condemn the Neturei Karta
and call for their excommunication. Cohen’s counterclaim that the article was simply “not true” was met with
incredulous laughter from the
questioners.
CUSU Anti-Racism officer Jenni Woolf expressed her
disapproval of Cohen’s talk,
as “there were a number of
concerning inaccuracies and
it’s an affront to the people
claiming he supports mainstream views.” One member
affirmed “not in my name”
and others called his speech
“despicable and offensive”
or simply unproductive in
the resolution of the IsraelPalestine conf lict. Many of
those present expressed surprise at the Union, with at
least one student arguing that
they “should not be inviting
individuals who support terrorist organisations.”
February 9, 2006 The Cambridge Student
5
Boris election Amnesty campaign launches
AMICA DALL
Rich Saunders
BORIS JOHNSON’S campaign
to be elected Edinburgh University’s
rector is being strenuously opposed
by protests organised by the Students’ Union. He has also received
keen support from certain parts
of the student body. Last week he
went out to sample the Edinburgh
nightlife, joined by both screaming
fans on the one hand and a forcefully vocal protest on the other.
The election takes place on the
15th and 16th of February, and
the candidates are Boris Johnson
MP, Mark Ballard MSP, former
‘Scotsman’ editor Magnus Linklater
and journalist John Pilger.
A prospective candidate needs
the signatures of at least 40 students to stand for election. Johnson’s
nomination paper was signed by
275 students before it was formally logged by the university in
January. Pete Harris, Vice President
of Services from the Students’
Association, said “I am a huge fan
of Boris’s and fully expect him to
be an active and student friendly
rector”. This is certainly the image
that Mr Johnson is trying to portray prior to the election held on
February 15-16.
Johnson said “I am deadly serious about becoming Rector…I
believe I have a lot to offer as an
ambassador for the students, the
staff and the university – and I
believe I can give a big voice to their
concerns”. The Conservative MP,
who resigned from his position as
Editor of The Spectator to become
Tory Higher Education Minister in
January, has expressed his support
for courses such as Media studies and surf science as “one man’s
Mickey Mouse course is another
man’s literae humaniores”. The
Edinburgh University Students’
Association has recently voted to
campaign against Johnson due to
his support for top-up fees. Ruth
Cameron, the association’s president, believes that it would be “a
national embarrassment if Boris
Johnson were elected. With his
recent U-turn on top-up fees, the
students’ association has an obligation to campaign against him and
what he represents”. Whilst visiting some of Edinburgh’s clubs and
bars on Thursday night, Johnson
was met with chants of “Bollocks
to Boris”, “Free Education for
All”, “Blood on your hands” and
“Top-Up Tories” every time he
tried to speak to the crowd of
students. In addition, he then
had his pint unceremoniously
poured over him by an angry
demonstrator. However, it
seems that Johnson was undeterred by the protests as he continued to talk to his supporters
and even remarked that he was
“grateful” for his soaking as “it
was the first of many drinks I
received one way or another that
evening”.
Emily Byrne
HUNDREDS OF Amnesty
International supporters and
comedy fans crammed into the
Michaelhouse Cafe on Friday
evening to witness the launch
of Amnesty’s Stop Violence
Against Women campaign
(SVAW).
Ta l k s
f rom
Dav id
Howarth MP, Deputy Mayor
Robert Drydon and Susanna
Rickard, Cambridge Amnesty
International chair, kicked off
proceedings.
Drydon called violence
against women “the greatest
human rights scandal of our
times”. He voiced his support for Amnesty’s campaign,
urging all present to raise
awareness of this “undercover
crime”.
Rickard def ined violence
against woman by quoting UN Secretary-General
Kofi Annan. She went on to
talk about violence against
women across the globe, citing particular examples in the
Philippines and China.
Howarth brought the
debate closer to home, highlighting that nearly one half
of all women in Britain will
suffer violence at some point
in their lives, and that prosecution rates are abysmally
low.
Howarth echoed the sentiments of all the speakers, saying, “this is a fun night but it
has a very serious purpose.”
Two hours of comedy
followed from Footlights
President Tom Sharpe, Matt
Bethnal, Oli Robinson and
BBC New Comedy Awards
Finalist Luke Roberts.
The crowd gathered raised
over £300 pounds for the
SVAW campaign. There has
already been overwhelming
support for the campaign,
with coverage on BBC Radio
Cambridgeshire, Q103 and
Star107. Rickard hopes that
the SVAW campaign will
attract as much support as
Amnesty’s anti-torture campaign last term which was
supported by over 3,000 student signatories.
The campaign has also
made progress in parliament.
Howarth recently signed the
EDM, which calls the UK
government to honour its
1995 Beijing Platform for
Action agreement and commit
to tackling violence against
women. CUAI is calling for
students to come to letter
writing meetings on February
17th and 24th to write to their
MPs to request that they sign
the EDM.
The SWAV campaign continued with panel discussion in
the Union Chamber on “The
Causes and Consequences of
Violence against Women”.
Fundraising events include
a night of indie decadence
and dance at King’s Cellars
on Saturday February 11th,
and screenings of Monster at
St. John’s Films on Thursday
February 16th and Lilya4-eva at Corpus Films on
Tuesday February 21st. See
w w w.cuamnest y.org.uk for
further details of all events.
6
The Cambridge Student February 9, 2006
Features
Addiction
Sui Seng Tee gets hooked on craving and explains how it works...
Phil Freeman
D
id you swear to abstain
from alcohol this
year? Would 2006
be cigarette free?
Perhaps this year you thought you
would rise, like a phoenix from the
ashes, a sprightly version of your
former self as a result of refraining from after dinner puddings.
It has only been a month into the
New Year, but how many of those
resolutions have been broken? At
one end of the scale, one could
just heave a heavy sigh and think,
‘maybe next year’, but on the other
end, it could have implications for
your career, as a certain politician
found out earlier this year or even
worse, your life, as George Best so
tragically proved. What is it that
makes something addictive to the
point of no return? Is there hard
science behind addiction, or is it
just a case of weak minds giving
into temptation?
It would be good to start with
the big question: what is it that
makes something so powerful that
“There is little
in common
for addictive
substances;
alcohol is no
more like cocaine
chemically than
cabbage is to
blue cheese
”
we cannot resist its temptations
- alcohol, for example - but others
such as a well-meaning cabbage
or broccoli, less desirable? There
is little in common for addictive
substances; alcohol is no more like
cocaine chemically than cabbage is
to blue cheese. What links alcohol,
cocaine and simpler pleasures such
as chocolates and ice cream, is that
people find their effect pleasurable, something psychologists term
‘hedonic stimuli’. After experiencing the initial effects, a craving
could ensue to repeat the stimulus,
while for aversive substances, the
opposite happens. It is believed
that what controls this desire is a
combination of the inner-workings
of our brains and a phenomenon
known as conditioning, where an
external stimulus becomes associated with the pleasurable effects
of a substance. This is the same
concept that explains why Pavlov’s
dogs began to salivate when hearing a bell that became associated
with the presentation of food.
The comforting news for all
resolution-breakers (yes, that does
include myself), is that scientists
themselves are not entirely certain
of the science of addiction. Even
classifying an addiction has proven
to be rather awkward. It is generally agreed that addictions can take
two forms - physical dependency
and psychological addiction.
Physical dependency is characterised by those symptoms
of withdrawal so familiar to us
through the power of movies and
media. Typically, these symptoms
are physically disabling, affecting
the physiology of an individual as
demonstrated by withdrawal from
smoking and drinking. Sudden
removal of the substance would
cause ‘cold turkey’ in the former
and ‘the shakes’ for the latter.
Harsh as they may seem, these
descriptions are particularly apt.
Quitting smokers bear resemblance
to turkey carcasses, as they experience goose-bumps and cold sweats,
while alcoholics display uncontrollable tremors of the extremities and
intense hallucinations.
In contrast, psychological addictions are pursued for the hedonic
properties of the substance and not
to relieve the physically manifested
symptoms of withdrawal. This is a
dependency of the mind, and any
psychological withdrawal symptom
would affect mood and behaviour.
Such substances include the opiate
family of drugs, which cause few
withdrawal symptoms even after
repeated use, but still cause an
addiction as users become accustomed to the pleasurable effects
as essential for a normal existence.
Psychological addictions are not
limited to substance abuse – even
lifestyles and patterns of behaviour
can also be addictive such as eating
or gambling.
Nevertheless, clinicians and
researchers agree that most addictions do tend to have both physical and psychological components,
and so are difficult to distinguish.
Others argue that addictions
should only be diagnosed when
psychoactive substances can leave
the blood and enter the brain tissue,
a property displayed by remarkably
few substances.
Most studies have indicated
that a reward pathway known
as the ‘mesolimbic dopaminergic pathway’ plays a big role in
addiction. This system of nerve
cells constitutes one of the most
primitive parts of the brain and
activation of this pathway by the
chemical dopamine is able to evoke
sensations of pleasure and desire.
Dopamine is just one example of a
neurotransmitter, chemicals in the
brain that relay, amplify and modulate information through electrical signals between one nerve cell
and the next.
It is through using animal models and drugs like heroin and morphine which increase dopaminergic
activity that has shed most light on
addiction. When drugs that impart
a positive effect, such as morphine,
were used in laboratory trials, even
rats were recorded to self-administer drugs. For rats at least, it seems
that there is a positive reinforcement signal to administer progressively higher doses of these drugs
as tolerance builds up, requiring
more of a stimulus to produce the
same effect.
Although most of our cravings and desires are a little less
potent than derivatives of opium
(for your own sake, it better be),
some researchers believe that the
force that governs our yearning is
endorphins. Endorphins are the
body’s natural pain-killers (colloquially called our ‘happy hormones’) and function by activating
the same dopaminergic pathways
that control substance abuse.
Several studies have shown links
between increased endorphin levels with activities such as eating,
drinking, sex, and even exercise.
Nevertheless, as always, science
is never so straight-forward, and
other neurotransmitters are also
indicated, so a direct link between
compulsive behaviour and endorphins is, at best, optimistic.
To add another twist, it seems
that addictive behaviour could in
fact be genetic. In a study published by Nature in 2005, researchers have identified a slew of genes
that increase the risk of addiction. Using various techniques
from family-based linkage studies,
to scanning the chromosome for
defects in pathways for substances
that cause an addiction, the genes
that have been identified include
those for the metabolism of alcohol,
receptors for nicotine and receptors
for a number of neurotransmitters
in the brain. It was concluded that
these genes might mean that there
is an enhanced vulnerability to
addiction, though it does not mean
that one will indefinitely grow up
to be a cocaine snorting addict.
Furthermore, labs have long bred
well-characterised genetic strains
of rats that have a tendency to
self-administer alcohol. Although
this proves once and for all, that
even household pets know how to
have a good time, the same can’t be
said on the link between addictive
behaviour and genes. Once again,
we are verging on the natures versus
nurture debate.
There is no denying that addiction is a medical condition with
dire consequences, and for some
substances, it is essential to seek
professional help to kick the habit.
Alcoholism, smoking and the use of
recreational drugs, amongst others,
are disorders that cause much suffering, not only for the individual,
but for the family, and on a larger
scale, for society as whole. In this
situation, it has gone beyond a battle of mind over matter, and if one
is physically dependent, it might
even be dangerous to just stop.
Withdrawal symptoms can be very
acute and intense, not merely psychological, and sudden withdrawal
“Scientists
themselves are
not entirely
certain of the
science of
addiction.
”
without medical help might even
prove to be fatal.
But looking on the less macabre
side of things, the possibility of
actually kicking an addiction and
keeping to those resolutions isn’t
so bleak after all. Most studies
in addiction have been based on
animal models, and needless to say,
there are more than a few differences between a lab rat and an enigmatic Cambridge undergraduate.
There are many facets to addiction,
and although it would be convenient
to blame neurotransmitters and our
parents for bad genes that cause
addiction, it would be a cowardly
means of approaching one’s problems. Through a greater understanding of environmental stimuli,
personality traits and psychological
cues, science could definitely help
people kick a bad habit.
So we’ll have fewer excuses for
not keeping those resolutions in
check. And who needs a new year
to make new resolutions, they can
just as easily be made in February
or any other month for that matter
- your mind might just be stronger
than you believe.
February 9, 2006 The Cambridge Student
7
Features
Uptight about Food?
Ben Dickins looks at how diet can affect body and mind...
“ Our rule of
thumb during
the weekly
grocery shop
should be to
shop like the
Flintstones
”
Dirty editor Ben (Not Dickins) indulges his dirty dirty cravings.
F
ood is like sex: people
get very uptight about
it. In traditional societies, this anxiety manifests itself in a variety of food
taboos from injunctions against
eating particular foods through
to detailed instructions on how to
prepare food at the abattoir or in
the kitchen. Modern societies are
not immune from the same fears,
although these are expressed rather
differently. For example, the recent
past has witnessed fears over the
human form of mad-cow disease in
the UK and the furore surrounding the proposed introduction of
genetically modified (GM) crops
in Europe.
So why is food like sex? Why
are they both such taboo-laden and
delicate topics? We require both
food and reproductive opportunities to pass our genes onto the next
generation, but historically these
have entailed potentially life- or
fertility-threatening infective risks
and we should have evolved to be
particularly alert to these.
So is this all we can learn from
our evolutionary past? That we
are hair-trigger hypochondriacs?
The puritan mindset may well be
destructive but our gluttonous tendencies are also problematic. While
the risks of infection from foods
have undoubtedly decreased due to
more scientifically-informed vigilance, our cravings for fatty, sugary and salty foods, combined with
their unprecedented availability and
“The increasing
burden of mental
disorders could
be a consequence
of imbalances in
modern diet
”
a decrease in physical activity, have
arguably led to a more serious problem.
Now a new concern has been
added to this list: mental health.
Last month Sustain, a mental
health charity, and the Mental
Health Foundation jointly launched
reports reviewing the scientific literature for links between diet and
mental well-being (available online
at http://www.sustainweb.org/
mhealth_index.asp). After describing the basic connection between
brain development and nutrition,
both reports assemble evidence for
the role of malnutrition in specific
mental disorders. The implication
is that the increasing burden of
mental disorders is a consequence
of imbalances in the modern diet.
How plausible is this idea?
One problem with these reports
is that they make only passing reference to other possible causes of
mental illness without investigating
their relative importance. Perceived
increases in mental illness may be
down the on going breakdown in
the traditional family unit or alternatively changing trends in diagnosis
and, moreover, one might describe a
trend towards ‘pathologising’ otherwise ‘normal’ behaviours.
Despite these limitations, these
reports do point to a link between
specific mental disorders and dietary
deficiencies. In summarising a chapter on specific mental disorders, the
report refers to ‘the range of nutrients implicated’ in mental health and
acknowledges ‘that no single nutrient
can be considered the panacea to [sic]
good brain development and mental
well being’. In an effort to overcome this, the author extols ‘a generally healthy diet, as recommended
for the physical health of the body’
and refers to the ‘necessary range’
of micronutrients. But is there any
shortcut for determining what the
correct range and levels of intake are
for healthy individuals? What should
we be buying in the supermarket?
Perhaps the most interesting way
to address this is to look at what our
ancestors, in the Palaeolithic, ate.
Recent dietary changes have been
rapid and it seems reasonable to suppose that we are adapted to the diet
of our hunter-gatherer forebears.
First, it seems there are substan-
tial differences between Western
and prehistoric diets, and these
corroborate independent findings.
For example, it seems that ratio of
Omega 3 to Omega 6 fatty acids is
dramatically different in these two
diets, with a substantial decrease in
Omega 3 intake in modern diets due
to changed animal feeding practices
and reduced fish consumption. This
chimes well with the evidence that
Omega 3 rich fish or cod liver oil
has health benefits and should be
consumed regularly (avocados are
also a rich source for vegetarians).
As one of the reports makes very
clear, the two different types of fat
are both involved in separate biochemical pathways in the brain and
consumption of both is crucial to
good brain development. Another
example is that hunter-gatherer diets
are based more on seeds, nuts and
berries, which are good sources of
so-called “complex” carbohydrates
that have a lower glycaemic index,
i.e. they break down into sugars more
slowly in the bloodstream. These
are recommended for the control of
blood sugar levels in diabetes and
as part of a healthy diet in place of
the more refined carbohydrates commonly consumed such as pasta and
white rice. Finally, a hunter-gatherer
diet would be richer in fruit and vegetables than a modern diet – probably
exceeding current UK government
guidelines and approximating not to
five, but to eight portions of fruit and
vegetables a day.
An evolutionary perspective also
supports the link between diet and
mental health. The most striking
trend during human evolution was
the enormous increase in brain size
coincidental with decreases in gut
size. These facts have been linked
(originally by the palaeoanthropologist Leslie Aiello) to a shift in the
energy allocation from the gut to the
brain facilitated by the consumption
of fat-rich meat (or tubers). In general, it seems that humans’ relatively
enormous brain to body size ratio
compared with other animals, places
a particular demand on humans to
acquire a rich diet to feed this greedy
organ. A strong link between diet
and mental health is hardly surprising.
Despite these insights, there are
at least two caveats. The first is that
there has been sufficient time since
the Neolithic transition for some
evolution in human metabolism
in response to diet. Some Asian
populations switching to a more
Western style diet are more vulnerable to metabolic defects such as
diabetes suggesting that exposure
to high carbohydrate levels may
be better tolerated in populations
which have had a longer period
to adapt to them. Recent evidence
also points to a weakened selection
in folate-supplemented populations
against a gene variant which is less
efficient in handling this nutrient perhaps meaning that folate
supplementation has become an
irreversible step, though one originally introduced to decrease the
risk of neural tube defects during
pregnancy.
The second caveat is that it is
difficult to establish exactly what
our ancestors did eat. Diets can be
inferred from fossils by looking at
micro-wear patterns on teeth and
by looking for tools and animal
bones in the vicinity. It appears
that modern variations in diets,
even between traditional cultures,
are no exception with different
populations at different times in
human evolution having quite different diets. For example it seems
that Homo erectus was consuming
a diet very rich in meat while, after
an episode of climate change, early
Homo sapiens had a diet much
richer in plant matter and similar to
modern hunter-gatherer diets. So,
given that we share ancestors with
both these groups and with more
modern post-farming communities it does not quite make sense to
label any particular diet as the
“prototypical” human diet.
In short then, then there is
no substitute for painstaking
research looking at the effects
of specific nutrients and trying
to trace together a more complete history of the changing
diets of prehistoric humans.
But, given our evolutionary
history, and the rapid changes
brought by modernity, the links
between food and health ought to
remain a high priority for us in
the next century and we should
keep our critical faculties active
in this domain.
“
The Frenzied
Fresher
Charly is in a Diet-Coke and Twix induced
nervous hysteria about starting at Cambridge.
She has already read the Freshers’ guide seven
or eight times, unpacked her George Forman
grill, Kettle, mini Fridge and crate of cheap wine
she’s raided from her parent’s drinks cabinet,
and is nervously hoping no one else has looked
at their reading list. (“Chaz, no one does any
work in their first term – you’ll need a bottle
opener more than a laptop, trust me sweetie”
purred her ultra cool cousin Claudia on the
phone from her ensuite at Durham Uni). Daddy
is now unloading the student’s essential supply
of pasta and tuna fish, whilst Mum explains to
her, for the millionth time, how the travel iron
works. “Darling you will promise me you won’t
go and spend all your money in these wretched
clubs? And stay away from Drugs, one puff of
that Marajana-stuff can leave you scarred for
life – I know I was a child of the 60’s”. Cringing
slightly she hastily kisses her parents goodbye,
and tries to extricate her new floor mates
from the predatory clutches of her mother’s
embarrassing method of socialising, “So anyway I told my dear Charly-warly that it simply
doesn’t matter if she cries in Freshers’ week, it
is difficult being away from Mummy and Daddy
for the first time, of course she will be sending
her laundry home, goodness only knows what
havoc she will cause with a washing machine…”.
Charly has memorised the programme for the
next few days and is terribly anxious about
the organised pub-crawls… rumours of vomitinducing soy sauce downing, permanent-marker
face-graffiti, drunken wet T-shirt competitions
and naked jelly wrestling have haunted her for
weeks. Taking a deep breath, and wishing that
her ‘Complete Works of Shakespeare’ didn’t
looked so unread, she plunges into the torrent
of Cila-Black-esque ‘Hi I’m Charly, what’s your
name and where do you come from? ”
”
8
The Cambridge Student February 9, 2006
Features
2006 RAG
Ah RAG Blind Date: that memorable time of year when people,
in the name of love and charitable silliness, offer their hearts on a
plate to a complete stranger. Aside from forging new friendships,
instigating drunken debauchery at Cindies, and causing, in some
causes, alcohol-saturated embarrassment, the amount of money
raised for charity by the blind dates is immense. This year around
2,000 people took part, and an estimated £11,000 profit has been
made, all of which will go to 25 charities, which is not bad for one
evening of chit-chat. It was feared that Facebook, the electronic
bane of every Cambridge student’s academic life, would affect the
success of RAG Blind date. However people, in fits of over excited
procrastination, searched potential dates online and consequently
bribed RAG reps to the extreme. Oh yes, I mean to the extreme.
The record breaking bribe was apparently £100 for a Trinity boy.
We are yet to know the success of the date, but for that kind of
money he had better have paid for the whole night and probably
married her. Apparently RAG tried their hardest to be accommodating with the bribes, nevertheless trying to find a “pirate like
guy” (don’t ask – I worry about Cambridge) proved to be quite a
difficult task.
The infl uence that RAG Blind Date donations have on the charities chosen is considerable. The top charity chosen by the RAG
committee, Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre, has an annual income
of approximately £5,500; last year RAG awarded them £3,000. I
think that it is true to say that the warm fuzzy glow you feel as you
sit in a cosy pub, indulging in pleasant conversation with a new and
interesting person, is made all the more syrupy because your blind
date gives thousands of pounds to charity. Bel Trew
“The Date” - Single Male
“The Date” - Single Female
“
On Tuesday afternoon, I officially became the wicked witch of Pembroke
College. Just as I had bribed my college RAG rep for, my date was from
Trinity: I was a woman on a mission. There was very little my desperation
for tickets to the fabled Trinity Ball would stop me from doing. Yet it was
not this rather worrying single-mindedness that made me, in the eyes of
my friends, a cold-hearted hag. I only got that label when people read my
assigned blue form. My date appeared to be a Genuinely Nice Boy. All
eyes turned accusingly to me, the one who was going to destroy the Nice
Boy’s dreams of finding true love, the one who was only in it for the money
(or the tickets, as it was). He described himself as a ‘chap’, he had baby blue
eyes and blond hair and he wanted meet under the stars - how could I be
so callous as to just use him for his ticket-buying potential, they cried? But
my single-mindedness won through, I was going to the ball! Yet on date
night itself everything fell through. Just my luck, my date really was a Nice
Guy, sweet and funny, he have even brought me chocolate. My hope to
be showered with as many tickets to balls as there are days in May Weeks
was crushed - I just couldn’t ask him. My mission failed - I am still ticketless - but at least I have a clearer conscience, and hopefully, in time, people
at college will realise that I’m not a wicked, chap-killing witch - I’m just a
girl looking for a boy to take her to the ball. Any takers?
”
“
My worst fear was that I would be paired up with someone who was difficult to
talk to. Ideally I wanted someone attractive, but being on the same wavelength
was more important. Another concern was that I might not be able to find
my date. In the few minutes I was waiting I saw several RAG couples pair up
around me as I stood alone feeling desperate and dateless. I was very relieved
when I found my date and first impressions were good, she seemed like a
bubbly and talkative person. Even the formulaic subjects were appraoched
with a reasonable amount of flair and soon we branched off into other topics
and one or two off-the-wall anecdotes. My main complaint was that she had
several friends with her in the same bar. I strongly believe that the point of
RAG Blind Date is to try to spend an evening getting to know someone new
and seeing where it leads. My date seemed like an interesting person who I
wanted to find out more about, but it was impossible to have a long conversation because her friends were a constant distraction. Girls, you can go to the
pub and chat to your friends any other night of the year. What can anyone who
goes on a blind date and spends half of it talking to their friends be hoping to
achieve? At the end of the evening I felt disappointed. There was the potential
for a good date because she was an interesting person and we got on well when
it was just the two of us. But in the end it was not much of a date because she
treated it as more of an opportunity to go out with her friends.
”
The Winners:
“ She ate that carrot like
nobody’s business. They don’t
call her a bunny girl for nothing”
Ben Gibson, St Johns
“ I can’t believe it, this is so
awesome. I have the hottest guy
in Cambridge in a hotel!! Ah
someone up there likes me ”
Freya, Magdelane
The winners of Ballare’s Blind Date couple
competition celebrate after the eating-a-carrot
out-of-the-man’s-trousers competition.
Yes, that is carrot on her face
February 9, 2006, The Cambridge Student
9
Features
Blind Date
“
“The Date” - Single Male
No-one escapes the grip of the RAG committee member. Not being too
keen on the sensation of falling ruled me out of parachuting or bungee
jumping, and so, in exchange for a mere fiver, I had thrust upon me a
small blue form (blue because I’m a boy, see what they did there?), along
with the promise of falling in a different way. Falling in love. Ahh. Before
I could so much as locate a pen, my form was snatched away from me, by
an inebriated female friend who promptly began smothering it in lip-gloss
soaked kisses. The bars had come down on my rollercoaster of love, and I
had no control over what twists or turns it might take. The day of my date
held many a question. Would a girl with a form like hers like a guy with
a form like mine? Would she realise it really wasn’t my idea to nickname
myself David “Gorgeous AS” Hodgson? Would she even turn up at all? If
she does, should I eat before I go, or will I take her for a meal if we get on?
Has she ‘facebooked’ me? Evening came and there I was, sitting at a table,
edgily sipping my drink and eyeing up everyone who came through the
door for an identifying pink rose. After a slightly embarrassing conversation
with a bemused by-stander along the lines of “Hi, are you Sophie?... No. Oh
well bye then”, my date walked into the room. Suffice to say the worrying
had been for nothing, as my date proved to be charming and lovely, nothing like the aged hags that had appeared in my nightmares. We talked, we
laughed, we drank, just as you’d expect to on a regular date. In fact, I’d be
as bold as to end with a very cheesy advert-like testimonial - I don’t know
if it was really love (you haven’t called me yet Sophie! Why?!), but it was a
thoroughly enjoyable evening and one that I shall be repeating next year.
“The Date” - Single Male
“The Date” - Attached Female
“
For a start I was late, very late. I ran from a play rehearsal, fell into the
Eagle (quite Bridget-Jones-esque) managed to stammer “sorry… play…
waiting… rubbish… money… bye” before sprinting out of the pub to get
some cash. It was not the most successful of entrances. Admittedly Facebook
helped me out, but I was still nervous as I wasn’t sure how much an English
student and mathmo would have in common. The first difficultly was that,
as we both had other-halves, there was the unspoken question of why the
hell are we were here. The truth came out eventually: I was doing the blind
date for the sole reason of writing a feature, and he had been bullied into it by
his RAG rep mate. Well at least we were both gratuitously using each other.
At first mindless niceties and forced polite chatter was all we could manage.
However as the Guinness smoothly slipped down our gullets, conversation
loosed and inhibitions dissolved. Unpredictably we didn’t monologue each
other about boyfriends or girlfriends, but talked as if we had been friends for
years. Deep in conversation we decided not to subject ourselves to the carrotmunching, crotch grabbing drunkenness of Cindies, instead we wondered
through Cambridge, just talking. Cycling home, I realised it was 2 am: I had
been chatting since eight and hadn’t been bored for a second of it. RAG blind
date was thoroughly enjoyable. I now not only have another face to add to my
hopefully ever-growing facebook page, but a really great new friend.
”
“
”
The term ‘blind date’ is slightly erroneous in my case as I had seen the guy I
wanted to date in lectures and tracked him down on the Facebook, then bribed
my reps to get him. I chose an out-of-the-way pub for two reasons: firstly I
didn’t want to be seen by anyone I knew and then have one of those awkward
conversations along the lines of “Oh hi, Dave, what are you doing here?”
(subtext: “Oh bugger he’s going to ask me who this is”) “Oh, I’m just here for a
drink with my mates...” (subtext: “I’m not sad enough to have gone on a blind
date to meet someone”) “...what about you?” (subtext: I know exactly why you’re
here but I’m going to watch you squirm) etc. The second reason was that then
hopefully there wouldn’t be hoards of single people, looking like they’re waiting
for a date, standing outside, so I could say “Oh you must be such-and-such”
without him being suspicious I’d known of his existence before hand. Sadly it
didn’t work. I’d had a couple of drinks before I left to give me a confidenceboost but unfortunately that, combined with nervousness, meant that I babbled
out “...yeah I recognised you from Facebook”. He didn’t ask how. I have this
habit of rambling on incessantly whenever there’s any kind of silence if I’m
nervous so I did most of the talking, only stopping to take more dangerous sips
of wine, but, all-in-all I think it went okay. We’ve agreed to meet up again (his
decision) and who knows maybe with RAG Blind Date I will find ‘true love’.
Or maybe I’ll get a snog out of it at least.
Top Bribes
”
* Hot pirate-like girl
* Muscular but not an insane
boatie
* Ginger arts student
* Hot girl who drinks beer
* Rugged, Tattoos and piercings
would be good
* Reasonably attractive girl
who likes clean cut, slightly
Harry
Potteresque
types
and is into classical music, or
music in general, and left wing
politics
Graphics and photos by Amica Dall and Rachel Miller
10
The Cambridge Student February 9. 2006
Interview
R-E-S-P-E-C-T Me
Chris Clarke plays “Just a Minute” with George Galloway
G
eorge Galloway had just addressed the
Cambridge Union audience with characteristic bombast and fervent conviction on the topic ‘This house believes
that military action is counterproductive in the fight
against terrorism.’ Whereas Tony Benn, his colleague on the proposition, exuded warmth, good
humour and socialist passion, Galloway’s authority
was drawn more from his combative style and unrelenting egotism.
It is impossible to blame him for choosing witty
anecdote and polemic rather than arguing from
historical examples and observations. If it were not
so common in Union debates, it would be shocking
to note how a little intuition dressed up rhetorically
seems to suffice. In fact, of the six debaters that
evening, only Col. Tim Collins had sought to offer
any convincing evidence (albeit limited to personal
experience) about the nature of warfare and terrorism. But you come to the Union to be entertained,
much less to be informed. The cardinal sin is not
vacuousness but dulness.
And so it was in the spirit of entertainment - a
concept not at all lost on the former Celebrity Big
Brother contestant - that I sought a short interview
with the Glaswegian iconoclast on perhaps one of
the few subjects about which we might agree… Bob
Dylan.
‘To each and every underdog soldier in the night’
was the quotation from Dylan’s ‘Chimes of Freedom’
that Galloway had used as the dedication to his
recent autobiography. Could this be just coincidence,
or rather a sign that he too harboured a passion for
Dylan’s music? ‘Oh, very much so’, was the loud
reply. Why Dylan? What does Galloway get out of
him? ‘He’s greater than Shakespeare.’ (He is relishing every word, perhaps requesting acknowledgement for this hyperbole, but also seeming genuinely sincere.) Politically? ‘Oh, politically much
better than Shakespeare.’ (This is a surprise.)
Had Dylan not betrayed his conventional political commitments to focus more exclusively on
the personal? ‘But life is not only about politics.’
He pauses. ‘Dylan speaks to the meaning of life:
love, hate, fear, loneliness, insecurity, all of these
things are part of the human picture.’ (There is
something utterly disarming about this politician
discussing the desires and passions he experiences
in lyrics and music. For a moment, the mask of
the politician seems replaced by a proud, but also
vulnerable, human being.) Would you have been a
singer yourself? ‘I am a singer. I’ll sing you some
Bob Dylan if you like.’ But at this point, tantalisingly and unfortunately, Mr Galloway is led away.
His evident passion for Dylan is both heartening
and saddening. ‘Chimes of Freedom’, from which
he had chosen the dedication for his book, compares the thunder surrounding two characters,
who are taking shelter under a doorway, to chimes
ringing out for the freedom of ‘the gentle’ ‘the
kind’ and ‘each and every underdog soldier in the
night’. And it is this, his chosen line, that points
to the poignant failing of Galloway’s politics to
maintain and live up to this aspiration. ‘For each
and every underdog’.
For Galloway, in challenging the horrors of
capitalism, had been happy to ignore the underdogs unlucky enough to find themselves on the
wrong sides of communist regimes, whether it be
Castro’s Cuba or the Soviet Union; in fighting for
AMICA DALL
George Galloway ignoring a question at the debate last week
the rights of the Palestinians, he has come close to
advocating terror as a political tool; in his 1990s fight
to lift the devastating sanctions on Iraq, he turned
from Saddam’s harshest critic to a sycophantic apologist for brutality-just so long as it wasn’t US ‘imperialist’ brutality. Now that Saddam has gone, he has
made several visits to Syria, extending lavish praise
to the despotic Syrian leader, and enraging pro-
democracy campaigners. Domestically, he dumped
gay rights last summer from his RESPECT election manifesto in order to widen his voter appeal.
And, on a personal level, there is his bullying and
petulant performance in the Big Brother house.
Bob Dylan’s voice may be suffering these days;
but, for Galloway likewise, the voice of freedom is
sounding a little hoarse.
February 9, 2006 The Cambridge Student
11
Interview
A survivor speaks...
Holocaust survivor Freddie Knoller tells Elly Shepherd his story
Freddie Knoller speaking at King’s College last Thursday about his horrific treatment at the hands of the Nazis
I
t started when my daughters asked me to talk”
Freddie Knoller explains. ‘I had a lot of nightmares but once I started talking to my children about what happened there were no more
nightmares. One night, they told me that they knew
I was in Auschwitz and they wanted to know what
had happened to me. I stayed up until four in the
morning telling them my story and since that time,
I thought I want to do something to remind people
what has happened. Six million Jews died, just because they were Jews. We were in Austria, we looked
like Austrians, we didn’t look any different. Six million. Exterminated. And it was done by a ‘cultured’
people.’
‘I was born in Vienna. Austria was annexed on
the 11th of March 1938. I was seventeen years old.
Jews were not allowed to be in school with non-Jews.
The Nazis put a decree out that every Jew had to
declare exactly how much money they had and what
property they owned. My father had to declare his
earnings, even his cravat pin with a little diamond,
and his gold wedding ring. The Nazis knew immediately exactly how many assets every Jew had. My
father, who was an eternal optimist, said Hitler got
in, but he would leave and we would be alright.’
‘His optimism lasted until the night of November
9th...A Jew living in Paris had assassinated a
German diplomat because his family, who had lived
in Germany for thirty-five years, had been deported
to Poland without a single penny, they had lost
everything. They wrote to their son in Paris and he
was so angry he bought a gun and shot vom Rath.
Immediately, any Jew in the street was arrested. They
burnt down the synagogues; they broke the windows
of Jewish shops. The SS went into Jewish homes and
plundered anything they could. Vienna had fifty
synagogues and prayer houses, of which forty-nine
were burnt down. Over four thousand Jewish shops
were destroyed. Seven thousand eight-hundred Jews
were arrested. Eighty Jews committed suicide; they
couldn’t cope with it anymore. Ninety-one Jews were
murdered in Police Stations. This is just Vienna.
My synagogue was such a beautiful building and it
doesn’t exist anymore. It was burnt down.’
‘This was when my father took us together and
told us we had to leave. My brother Eric was the
first, he went to Florida. My brother Otto went to
Holland and got himself a boat to England. I went
to Antwerp. When I said goodbye to my parents,
I begged them to come with me to Belgium. They
thought nothing would happen to them because
they were old. It did. In 1944 they were taken to
Auschwitz, where they were gassed. I was there at
that time but naturally I didn’t see them. I will never
forget that goodbye.’
‘The Belgium government had refugee camps
for children and young people. It was really very
fun, until the 9th of May 1940 when the Germans
invaded Belgium. I had to run again. I had a dream
of Paris. So I headed for France. As I was coming
from Germany, despite the big red ‘J’ on my passport,
they arrested me and took me to an internment camp
all the way south on the Spanish border. In June
1940, France capitulated, immediately the real Nazis
in the camp were freed, but we Jews had to remain
in the camp. People in the camp started to die. Two
of my friends, who’d been refugees with me died, so
I escaped and went to Gaillac, where my aunt, uncle
and cousins lived. It was wonderful to be with family
again. But I still had this dream of Paris. I told my
cousin, he said I was mad, Paris was in the occupied
zone.’
‘I bought myself some false identification, I
became a Frenchman from Alsace-Lorraine. I made
my way illegally to Paris. I was broke, eventually
I began working taking German soldiers around
Paris, to the nightclubs and getting commission on
what they spent. I wasn’t happy, I felt like a traitor.
Me, working with the Germans, earning money
with them. It was horrible, especially when I saw
other Jews walking around with their yellow stars.
I felt terrible.’
‘One day I was brought in by the Gestapo, they
interrogated me. They had a plaster cast of a head on
his desk; he told me it was the head of a Jew. He got
up while he was talking and put my head between
his hands. I wet my pants. Then he said, ‘Ah yes, I
can see you are from a good German background’.
I ran. I went to a resistance group in Figeac. I really
felt this was wonderful, I was doing something. I
met a girl in Figeac. She didn’t know I was a Jew, but
she suspected I was in the resistance. One day I had
enough of her, two days later I was arrested by the
French gendarme, she gave me away because she was
angry. They kept asking me which resistance group
I was with. I said I had nothing to do with the resistance. They smashed my face in and burnt me with
cigarettes. When I couldn’t continue, I said stop,
my name in Freddie Knoller, I’m a Jew, this is why I
am hiding in the mountains, nothing to do with the
resistance.’
‘They took me from Figeac to Drancy, the infamous transit camp for the east. There was five-thousand Jews living here. On the 6th October my name
came up for deportation to the east, along with onethousand others. They didn’t tell us where we were
going. We were herded into cattle-wagons. There
were one-hundred people in each wagon. It was
impossible for everyone to sit down. We organised a
system so those who needed to could sit down, and
everyone else changed places, standing and sitting.
We had two aluminium buckets in the carriage. One
for water, one for sanitary purposes, everyone had to
relieve themselves in public. Soon the drinking water
was empty and we used the other bucket for sanitary
purposes too. This is something I will never forget,
the atmosphere was horrendous. The buckets were
overflowing with urine and excrement. The stench.
The shouting and screaming of children and mothers shouting at the children. Then, a woman shouts,
‘my baby is dead, my baby is dead’ and next to me
was a French doctor, who became a very good friend
of mine, he went to the baby and it was dead.’
‘When we arrived we had to undress, they put
chemicals on our body, we had to take a shower,
all our hair was cut off, from all over our bodies.
We were tattooed, and told we would only ever be
called by our number. We were dressed in the striped
pyjama uniform.’
‘The next day we lined up to get a job. My first
job was carrying 25-kilo cement bags from trucks
into a factory. We had to run with it and if we didn’t
run fast enough we got whipped. I knew that with
the amount of food we were getting I wouldn’t be
able to survive for more than two weeks.’
‘One day when I was coming back I saw my
friend, the French doctor, Robert, he was in charge
of the hospital. ‘Come to the hospital and I will try
to find you some extra food’ he said. I’m so sure I’m
alive today because of the extra food he gave me. He
also got me out of the cement commando into an
indoor job in the factory. I was very lucky’
‘In winter in Poland it was -10 degrees in our
thin clothes. We heard a lot of rumours, about
the Allied progress. It gave us so much hope.
Also because of my optimistic attitude I was able
to survive. In December 1944 we heard artillery,
Russian troops approaching from the east. In
January, we were lined up in rows of five and the
camp was evacuated. We had to march, in the
bitter cold. We walked all day, in wooden shoes.
When someone slipped, they were shot. If someone collapsed, they were shot. If people tried to
escape they were shot. Only half of us survived.’
‘In the morning they roused us, the guy next to
me was dead. He had a red triangle, not a yellow
star, indicating he was a French political prisoner.
I ripped off that red triangle. At my next camp,
Dora-Nordhausen, I got an easier job because I
was a French political prisoner. The Jews always
had the hardest work. So many died. One day the
Germans picked fifty Jews at random, lined them
up against the wall and put ropes around their
neck and put them onto electric lifts. They lifted
them up and it took them about fifteen minutes
to die.’
‘Soon, in March 1945, the Americans
approached Dora-Nordhausen. So we were lined
up again and taken to Bergen-Belson. This was
the worst camp. There was no food anymore, one
tap for the whole camp, I pulled out grass roots and
ate those because we had no food. I saw, with my
own eyes, people going to the bodies, there were
bodies everywhere, and people came with sharp
stones and ripped the f lesh from the bodies and
took it behind the barracks to make a fire and
roasted the flesh and ate it. Cannibalism was rife in
the camp. 15th April 1945, we were liberated.’
‘I kept my faith. Because you have to hold on to
something. I held on to my faith.’
12
The Cambridge Student February 9, 2006
Focus
Has the West failed Russia?
Since the fall of Communism the people of Russia have seen massive changes in their way of life, as Western-style
capitalist democracy makes inroads across their vast nation. But with power and wealth increasingly in the hands
of the oligarchical few, and public services and civil rights in decline, we ask, “has the West failed Russia? ”
Tom Ding
Joshua Riley
“The only reason the world has
traditionally taken Russian claims
to great power status seriously”
“
The idea that Russia
is a failing state irreparably doomed to collapse
is a widespread and longheld one in the West. This
doom has failed to materialize thus far. The misperception that the West
has failed Russia rests on
the notion that Russia has
been a failure in some way,
a notion that is simply not
well-supported by anything
like the empirical facts of
the case. Fundamentally,
this misperception is the
result of the mistaken idea,
much trumpeted by successive Russian governments
themselves, that Russia is a
great power.
Certainly, by the standards of great powers, Russia
is in terrible shape – but
Russia has never been a
great power by economic
standards. Massively agricultural pre-Revolution, 80
years of Marxist-Leninist
command economies did
not improve matters. The
last 15 years of capitalism
have improved the Russian
economy enormously, but
Russia started from a much
weaker position than any
of the other G-8 nations.
Economically, Russia is a
midd le-income count r y ;
the appropriate comparison
is not Britain or Germany,
but the Netherlands or
Turkey.
T he on ly reason t he
world ha s t rad it iona l ly
taken Russian claims to
great power status seriously is its military capabilities. Ultimately, however,
this is a weakness, since
those military capabilities
were developed by government diktat beyond what
the economy could support.
Contemporary Russia does
not have that level of controlled national economy,
and the Russian defense
establishment will necessarily continue to decay
until it reaches levels commensurate with comparable
middle-income nations.
T he c u r rent g ener ation of Russian leaders is
a product of the Soviet
system, and their natural
instinct is to attempt to
solve these problems by the
bludgeon of bureaucratic
fiat. This must be strenuously resisted. The West
will fail Russia in the decades to come if it does not
expect from it the same
standards of political and
economic behavior that it
would expect from a nation
of the same stature – like
Argentina.
Morag McIvor
“Only in the areas in which our
way of life is threatened do we
care about the Russians”
“
Surely this question should
be the other way round considering Russia’s history. Russia
failed the West by its decisive rejection of Wilsonian
democracy in favour of expansionist totalitarianism ostensibly legitimised by a pseudoMarxist ideology. By winning
the Cold War, the West, as
Reagan claimed, saved Russia
from this tyranny. From this
perspective how can it be the
other way round: how can
the West have failed Russia
if it were Western military
superiority and US dollars
that made the Soviet Union
bow down in submission and
finally collapse? But perhaps
this US-centric interpretation
leaves out some little details;
have we forgotten the inconsequential factor of Gorbachev’s
influence on the collapse of
the Soviet Union?
This is how the West has
failed, and continues to fail,
Russia: the end of the Cold
War was not a triumph for
US foreign policy, but a triumph for democracy, for the
end of tyranny and oppression. The West’s indifference
towards post-Soviet Russia is
representative of its insular
attitude; so long as Russia
doesn’t directly endanger us,
why should we care that it
is still not democratic and is
heading back down the perilous road to absolutism?
Admittedly, the West has
shown concern about some of
Russia’s affairs: the recent oil
crisis in Ukraine and the controversy over Yukos to name
a few. Not to sound like
Michael Moore, but perhaps
there is a connection here?
Only in the areas in which our
way of life is threatened do we
care about the Russians. The
West seems to have totally
forgotten about Chechnya,
ignored the fact that the
Russian media is effectively
under state control, and wantonly brushed away as mere
speculation any suggestions
that Putin may try to retain
his increasingly autocratic
power by changing the state
constitution and running for
a third term.
Russia may have failed the
West in the past, but now
it can make amends: it has
the capability to once again
become a superpower, this
time on democratic lines. So
why does the West do nothing, why does it just stand
by and watch Russia fall
back into old habits? The
West needs to step out of its
indifference and once again
become a champion for freedom and democratic values
across the world.
Matthew Bennett
“ The media has, in effect, been turned
into a latter day, and more sophisticated
piece of propaganda for the state”
“
What exactly is ‘the West’
supposed to be failing to
do to help Russia? Russia’s
political and financial elite
though have failed to act in
a way commensurate with
such a liberal republic. The
rise of the so called oligarchs such as Kordokovsky
or Abramovitch who managed to gain control over
the heights of the Russian
economy after the collapse
of the Soviet Union demonstrated the way in which the
state was not at all in control
of the nation. The rise thus
of a powerful state machine
under Putin is not wholly
unexpected as the state tries
to reassert itself against the
weaknesses of the 1990s.
However, that reassertion
has left liberal democratic
Russia as nothing more than
promises in her constitution.
The Kremlin’s new autocratic
controls over the nation have
seen the loss of local democracy as the Kremlin now
appoints governors rather
than having them be elected
by the people that, in name
at least, they should be serving. The media has, in effect,
been turned into a latter
day, and more sophisticated
piece of propaganda for the
state than Pravda ever could
have been. Further, the new
heavy handedness of Putin’s
Kremlin extends beyond
her own borders. The recent
gas crisis with the Ukraine
where, in the depths of winter, Russia turned of the gas
supply was indicative of the
problem that the world now
finds itself facing when dealing with Russia. Of course it
is difficult, even with hindsight to see how ‘the West’
could have done anything differently.
Would intervention on a
grand scale have worked? I
doubt it: imagine the backlash if Russians who had
been raised on the premise
that ‘the West’ was out to
ruin Russia, suddenly started telling them what to do.
The result would have either
been a return to power for
the Communists (as almost
happened in 1996) or a rise
in support for the equally
unnerving ultra nationalists.
Given the turmoil of the past
decade for Russia it is not
surprising that her footing is
not quite steady yet. Indeed,
the way that she has acted in
Chechnya and towards her
former dominions has been a
disgrace. But I still ask how
we could have really done
anything differently without
forcing an even worse outcome.
February 9, 2006 The Cambridge Student
13
Editorial
TCS
Keltie Louise Dall
The Photographer
11-12 Trumpington St
Cambridge CB2 1QA
Good Gair-Rhyddance
The sacking of those on the editorial team reponsible for printing
the controversial cartoon in Cardiff University’s student newspaper, Gair-Rhydd, this week, is a wise move. The question of
freedom of speech - and frankly TCS believes there should be
some limits to such a notion - does not come into the debate. All
publications should avoid printing the provocative cartoons for
the reason that the controversy risks alienting further sections of
society, and indirectly terroist threats. A student paper might seem
insignificant and unimportant compared to a professional daily
paper - and of course they all are, including this humble weekly
- but this is not true when it becomes the focus of national media
attention.
Jealousy and rivalry have nothing to do with it, of course. TCS’
condemnation of Cardiff University’s Guardian-student-mediaaward winning newspaper’s actions is purely because of their editors’ insensitive decisions. Definitely not because TCS would quite
like the attention of national media once in a while. And frankly
it’s just a scandal rag anyway, unlike this high quality, broadsheetminded paper...
Letter of the Week
Charity is blind
Over two thousand students turned out for RAG Blind Date on
Tuesday. Whether looking for love, friendship or simply to help RAG
whilst having a good night out, they should be commended for braving embarrassment or boredom for a good cause.
The gender imbalance that until the last moment threatened the
evenings of many female students is interesting however. Whether
women are simply more keen to meet new people, or more eager to
find love at this age, it is a striking point in the light of the latest scientific findings, as reported by TCS this week, that men and women
really do think differently. Here’s hoping that more men can overcome
their inhibitions - even if they are genetic - in future years to make
RAG Blind Date, even bigger, better and happier than this year’s.
TCSUDOKU
Sudoku with a twist (Well, not really...)
9 4 5
6
1
8
4
3 7 4
5
9
1
5
6
9
1
6
9
2
6 7
2
3
8 4 7
Dear Sir,
I turned to James Shepherd’s
article on Intelligent Design
(ID) with slight trepidation, yet
I was confident that TCS would
produce an educated account of
how ridiculous the whole idea
is rather than give it any more
credibility.
Oh dear. Instead we were
treated to column after column
of wooly insinuation and vacuous waffle. Perhaps we should
be thankful that the ID claims
themselves were consigned to a
non-existent adjacent box for to
focus on them would give the
false impression that there is a
genuine scientific controversy.
There isn’t and, unlike James, I
will cut straight to the chase: no
the ID proponents do not have
a point.
Several points need to be
made about the sorry affair
though, and all were missed
by James who instead made the
rather strange claim that we
currently “wilfully misinform
people of the weight of science”
and that modern views are “representative of the overbearing
scientific education”.
Such remarks, I believe, are
unfounded. Science is a wonderful discipline that has produced extraordinary progress in
both understanding and technology. Indeed, as the level of
scientific ignorance in society
shows, if the weight of science is
misinformed, it is through not
emphasising it anywhere near
enough! It should be embraced
and cherished and protected
from the sloppy reasoning and
irrationality of religious fundamentalists. Comments like
those of James do not help.
James was also concerned
that science “imposes itself on
theological belief ”. Well I’m
very sorry if scientific observations and rigorously deduced
theories contradict bronze-age
notions of creation. That’s not
the scientists’ fault. Take it or
leave it that’s the way nature is.
As for the questions “to what
extent does science… end up
implicitly instilling theological beliefs” and “to what extent
should we teach science to dictate theological belief? ” I think
it’s quite simple. Science is not
implicitly instilling anything.
It is explicitly presenting the
evidence and the thoroughly
tested theories which explain it.
Science should inform theology.
It should keep it in check and
theologians should be grateful
for it. I am not a Christian but
the vast majority of sophisticated Christians (and members
of other religions) would agree
with this and are as dismayed
by literalist creationism as atheists are.
By the end of James’s article
I was left wondering just what
he was suggesting. What is this
problem he has with evidence
that is tangible and thought
that is rational? How exactly
would Shepherd-schools go
about teaching science? Perhaps
Letters to The Cambridge Student
Dear Sir,
On Monday night, a “Rabbi”
spoke at the Union. This
man, Aharon Cohen, belongs
to a tiny, extremist organisation that has been excommunicated from a great many
Jewish communities for its
activities. His stance includes
open support for the terrorist organisation Hamas - the
senders of dozens of suicide
bombers against innocent
civilians, with the aim of
destroying the people and
state of Israel. In an open letter dated January 27th 2006,
Mr Cohen offers unreservedly “blessings and congratulations to you leaders, followers and supporters of the
Hamas organization”. This is
on behalf of his organisation
I can picture the scene now:
“OK class we’ve examined the
massive weight of tangible evidence which overwhelmingly
supports neo-Darwinian theory
to explain the evolution of complex life on earth… now let’s see
what all this lovely intangible
evidence has to say on the matter.” If all that is being suggested
is that we keep an open mind,
no one would disagree. Keeping
an open mind is an integral part
of the scientific process but, as
Arthur Hays Sulzberger once
famously said, “not so open that
your brains fall out”.
Ben Hope
Each week, the lucky writer
of the most coherent or
entertaining letter will win
the grand prize of whatever
we can fi nd lying around of
some monetary value. This
week, Ben wins a brand new
copy of Thomas Hardy’s A
Pair of Blue Eyes, which we
got sent for no apparent reason. Sure it’ll cheer you up
on a rainy day.
[email protected]
Neturei Karta.
I was part of the ambulance crew that evacuated two
of the sixteen corpses from a
double suicide bombing in
Beer Sheba in August 2004.
Hamas claimed responsibility
for these attacks. Mr Cohen’s
open support of this organisation made me sick.
No such man should have
been invited to Cambridge
under the pretence of
Orthodox Judaism: that he
tried to represent his views
as “authentic Torah Judaism”
is laughable. His arguments
distorted the meanings of
both Judaism and Zionism, to
my disgust, and to his shame.
I am proud to be both Jewish
and Zionist.
Laurie Scher
Editor-in-Chief Ben Sillis [email protected] Photos editor Amica Dall [email protected] News Editor Amanda Akass [email protected] Deputy News Abigail Duggan Focus
Editor Dave Chapman [email protected] Interviews Editors Yasemin Hazine and Elly Shepherd [email protected] Features Annabel Trew [email protected] Cartoonist
Helen Fitzhugh Food and Drink Editor Elaine Craig [email protected] ArtsFront Editor Catherine Spencer [email protected] Film Editor Jack Sommers fi[email protected] Theatre
Editors Issy McCann and Megan Prosser [email protected] Music Editor Sasha Nicholl [email protected] Fashion Editor Lucy Allen [email protected] Sports Editors Sarah
Walker and Anton Yavorsky [email protected] Crossword Thomas Williams Science Editor Amy Sangam [email protected] Travel Editor Samantha Pearson [email protected]
Financial Administrator (CUSU) Natalie Rice Business Manager (CUSU) Jenny Scudamore [email protected] Services officer (CUSU) Jennifer Cooper [email protected]
Board of directors Jennifer Cooper, Donnacha Kirk, Beth McEvoy, Jenny Scudamore, Ben Sillis, Pamela Welsh
14
The Cambridge Student February 9, 2006
Food and drink
Fast, Cheap and Easy (so you’re hoping)
OK, DUCK meat’s not so
cheap. But it’s for Valentine’s
– think of it as an investment.
If you’ve left it a bit too
late to book a table for next
Tuesday, or if you want to
impress that boy or girl with
your culinary skills, this is
your chance. Both of these
recipes - a main course and
a dessert, are easy for anyone
to make, and look impressive.
Both serve 2.
Duck with Mandarin Salsa
2 duck breasts
2 tbsp soy sauce
1 mandarin
½ a fresh red chilli
½ a small red onion
1 handful fresh coriander
A few sprigs of fresh
thyme
Juice of ½ a lime
2 ½ inch chunk of
cucumber
Salt and pepper
Pre-heat the oven to
220°C.
Take the duck breasts and
score the skin diagonally with
a sharp knife.
Heat a non-stick frying pan
over a medium-high heat, add
the duck breasts, skin-side
down, and fry for 4 minutes,
to brown the skin.
Remove from the pan, turn
the meat over and sprinkle
a tablespoonful of soy sauce
over each. Place on a rack in
the oven and cook for 10-15
minutes. (Timing will depend
a little on how well you like
it done and how thick the
meat is).
While they’re cooking,
make the salsa – peel, depith and remove the f lesh
of the mandarin and place
it in a bowl along with the
juice. Finely chop the chilli,
onion and cucumber into very
small pieces and add to the
mandarin. Chop the coriander
and thyme and mix in with
the rest of the salsa then add
lime juice, salt and pepper to
taste.
Remove the duck breasts
from the oven and place on
plates, with the salsa. Serve
with whatever you like –
thick-cut homemade potato
wedges and salad are good
with this.
Henry Cook
W hite
Chocolate
Cardamom Mousse
and
I have stolen this from Nigel
Slater because it’s just so good,
and easy. It can be made the
day before if needed and so
saves a lot of time. The edible
gold dust is added as a nice
touch for Valentine’s Day.
3 green cardamom pods
2 bay leaves
1 large egg white
35 ml milk
80g good-quality white
chocolate (not cooking
chocolate)
100 ml double cream
Edible gold dust, to
decorate
mixture then gently fold in
the remaining egg whites
using a large metal spoon.
Next,
fold in the soft
whipped cream.
Spoon into 2 containers
(or one large one with 2
spoons) and refrigerate for at
least 4 hours. Before serving,
sprinkle over the edible gold
dust.
Em Parry
Crack open the cardamom
pods and extract the seeds.
Crush them lightly and place
them with the milk and bay
leaves in a small saucepan.
Gently warm the milk until
it is close to boiling point,
then remove from the heat
and set aside to infuse.
Cut the chocolate into
pieces and melt in a heatproof
bowl suspended over a
saucepan of barely simmering
water.
Whip the cream to form
soft mounds; it should not
be stiff.
W hisk the egg whites
until stiff peaks form. Once
the chocolate has melted,
remove from the heat and
sieve the warm milk mixture
into it.
Mi x the chocolate and
milk together until velvety.
Stir a spoonful of the egg
whites into the chocolate
Save yourself a plane ticket
Elizabeth Lloyd and Barnaby Seaborn go to Efes on King Street, instead of Turkey
EFES (pronounced Ef-es) is
a Turkish restaurant named
after the ancient Greek city
Ephesus which is believed
to be the final resting place
of the Virgin Mary. It is also
the name of a popular Turkish
lager (available in the restaurant).
We were greeted to an almost empty restaurant, but it
still managed to have a warm
welcoming feel with rugs
draped on the walls, red patterned table cloths and matching chair upholstery, and an
impressive open charcoal grill
all adding to the Mediterra-
AMICA DALL
nean, almost Middle Eastern
air.
The menu has a large selection of starters (c. £3.50); the
main courses are mostly variations on a chicken or lamb kebab theme (c. £9.50). We opted
for the set menu “a selection of
almost everything” (£16.50).
Immediately a plate of
green chillies (Greek) and
black olives (Turkish) arrived.
The olives were delicious: soft
and ripe, reminiscent of good
Kalamata olives.
Our first course was warmed
pitta bread and a generous
platter of spinach and garlic
yoghurt dip, tzatziki, houmous, taramaslata, cous cous
with pepper, tomato and onion, Turkish beans and stuffed
vine leaves. All were excellent,
especially the tzatziki and taramasalata. The only disappointment was an ill-placed
prawn cocktail, which stood
out like a Leeds supporter in
Istanabul. No need.
Next were the hot starters
(by now the restaurant had
filled): Lamb’s liver and cheese
in pastry. The liver was exceptional; tender inside but with
some crunch on the outside.
It was cooked to perfection.
The cheese in pastry (classic
Greek/Tukish fare) looked a
little greasy but the pastrycheese ratio was spot on; they
were light and crispy, as good
as any I’ve tasted Greece. We
were also served “Imam Bayildi” (not included in the set
menu) which means Imam
fainted - apparently he did at
the taste of this aubergine dish.
Neither of us fainted but it was
good, a cold, peppery take on
ratatouille, an excellent foil to
the liver, probably more suited
to hot weather.
The main course consisted
of lamb cutlets, saddle of lamb,
lamb shish and kofte kebabs,
and chicken kebabs. In addition we asked for a few kidneys. The meat was served on
a platter to share with plenty of
rice. On the side was a Turkish salad (tomatoes, cucumber,
onions and olives) and sauces:
chilli sauce (made with carrots and celery), yoghurt sauce
and halep (aubergine) sauce.
The meat was all cooked extremely well, never overdone
or the slightest bit dry, even
the chicken (what I would normally consider a bland meat)
was tender and f lavoursome.
The kidneys were a delight, it
is a shame these are not usually included, but the accom-
modating staff might throw
some in on request. The sauces
complemented the meats well,
though I found the chilli sauce
was better suited to the chicken than lamb.
To round off the meal we
were served baklava with a
selection of fruit and a strong
Turkish coffee. This was a refreshing end to a hearty meal
and left us contented and revived.
Efes is a simple meat oriented restaurant (they butcher
their meat on the premises).
The service is attentive without being overbearing and the
knowledgeable staff are friendly enough to make you believe
you are on holiday. The menu
is authentic, the food uncomplicated and the cooks really
know what they are doing. We
did not see any other students
and I can’t think why not. Go
to Efes; it costs more than it
would in Turkey, but it saves
you a plane ticket.
Efes Restaurant
78-80 King St
(01223) 350491
February 9, 2006 The Cambridge Student
15
Food and drink
It’s a tough job but someone’s got to do it...
Morna Cannon and Elaine Craig test out what chocolates Cambridge has to offer for this Valentine’s Day
Bellina’s
All Saint’s Passage
BELLINA’S is proud to point
out that it was the f irst chocolate shop in Cambridge and
has been going for 21 yea rs.
They clea rly put some
thought into presentation,
and can produce handmade, persona l ised boxes
for the chocolates on request.
The champagne tr uff les
a re appa rent ly ver y popula r, but were distinct ly unchampagne-ish.
Passion
fr uit w ith white chocolate
is a more unusua l combination and cer ta in ly looked
good but cou ldn’t compa re
w ith the excel lent Valrhona
fruit centres from Fitzbillies.
A 250g box of your own
selection costs £8 (so about
£3.20 per 100g)
Variety – 8/10
Presentation – 8/10
Taste – 4/10
DeVeres
56 Burleigh Street
Hotel Chocolat Fitzbillies
3 Petty Cury
HOTEL CHOCOLAT is Cambridge’s newest addition. The shop
is as sleek and well presented as its
chocolates. They’re quick to emphasise that the chocolate is ‘ethical’, although it’s not completely
clear what this comprises.
Perhaps if anything they fall
down on the fact that there’s
no selection counter but nonetheless, there’s a good enough
choice.
The slabs of chocolate are
generally nice quality and the
DEVERES, a more recent addition to the chocolates shops of
Cambridge than Bellina’s, is located on Burleigh Street next to
the Grafton Shopping Centre and
stocks chocolates from the same
company in Belgium as the shop
in All Saint’s Passage, and so there
is a fair amount of overlap in their
selections.
However, DeVeres has a larger
shop (which comprises a tea
room), and consequently more
variety, with a wider selection of
crème centres.
Understandably therefore, quality is more or less consistent across
the two, although we were on the
whole a little more impressed with
some of the crèmes.
We particularly liked a tangy
lemon in dark chocolate.
Others however, disappointed,
with some over-sweet fillings and
occasionally grainy textures.
A 250g box of your own selection
costs £8 (so about £3.20 per 100g)
Variety – 9/10
Presentation – 8/10
Taste – 5/10
Texture – 4/10
strawberry pieces certainly
added something. Champagne
truffles were strongly flavoured
and we were both pleasantly
surprised when the macadamia
truffle did not contain a whole
nut but a sweetly flavoured nutty
paste. Yum.
A 155g bag costs £3.95
Variety – 7/10
Presentation – 10/10
Taste – 8 /10
Texture – 7/10
52 Trumpington
FITZBILLIES is no doubt
better known for its cakes, but
they also stock the French-made
Valrhona chocolate.
Of all the chocolates we’ve
tried, it’s the most expensive but
also has the most interesting flavours – our favourites being apricot, pear, and a very fresh tasting
mint. Some don’t taste quite like
what they claim they are - in particular, we couldn’t really identify
much caramel in the white-chocolate coated cherry and caramel,
but nonetheless they do taste
good.
Thorntons
34 Grafton Centre
NEEDING less of an introduction than other, Thorntons have
a shop at 20 Petty Cury and
are available in supermarkets
– so if it’s reliability you’re
looking for, this is your place.
They seem to have the widest selection, extending to toffees, fudge
and cakes.
The centres of these were gen-
erally lighter than others, flavours
were nice and the shells were crisp
and of the right consistency.
A 100g bag of your own selection
costs £2.15
Variety – 10/10
Presentation – 6/10
Taste – 7/10
Texture – 8/10
Textures were definitely the
best, the shell of each chocolate
was thin and unobtrusive and the
dark chocolate ganache in particular boasted a deep and flavoursome middle.
A 100g bag of your own selection
costs £4.95
Variety – 5/10
(but what is there is unusual and
worth trying)
Presentation – 5/10
Taste – 9/10
Texture – 9/10
Winner?
Well... it’s all chocolate isn’t
it? And we think most people
would be in agreement that
any chocolate is better than no
chocolate at all, particularly on
Valentine’s Day...
But we do have our favourites - the Valrhona chocolates
from Fitzbillies as far as taste and
texture go, although they didn’t
win high marks for they way in
which they were presented (in
terms of boxes etc that is - we
didn’t find any chocolate that
didn’t look appetising). Hotel
Chocolat looked great, and we
felt they were pretty good value
for money. Equally, Bellina’s and
DeVeres have well-presented
gift-boxes you couldn’t not be
happy to find on in your pigeonhole on the 14th.
And finally, while Thorntons
may be the only one not to emphasise the fact that they use
no hydrogenated vegetable fats
or other ‘nasties’, they’re an old
favourite, you know what you’re
getting and you know you like it.
16
The Cambridge Student February 9, 2006
Artsfront
Art by the book
Emily Gray on reading the visible language of Dante
I
n the austere corridors and dark caverns of the
UL, the bright tearoom becomes my habitual,
and increasingly frequented, sanctuary from
the threatening gloom of dusty scholarship. At
least here I can feel vaguely satisfied that I am not
yet again on Facebook and can pretend to think wise
thoughts. This week, however, I was delighted to discover the far too neglected exhibition space, which
lets you feel cultured whilst escaping essay work.
From 17th January to 1st July there is a small exhibition here about the interpretation of Dante in text
and image, called Visible Language. The works on
display are a range of prints, commentaries, and illustrations, from the fourteenth century right through
to last year, of Dante’s Commedia (his epic journey
through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven), his Vita Nova
and his lesser-known texts.
The exhibition is not only of interest to the
Dante-obsessed; it is worth seeing just to appreciate
the developments of illustration, book art and style in
the history of European culture. For Dante has had
an enormous impact on the Italian and British imagination, and this display reflects the fact with Italian
Renaissance commentaries, Victorian sentimental
illustration and post-modern graphics. Dante really
did write with a ‘visible language’ (visibile parlare):
his use of words is vibrantly pictorial. Arranged in
chronological order, the exhibition begins with some
sumptuous illuminated manuscripts capturing the
innocent delight in the divine splendour of Dante’s
Paradise. But it is, of course, the images in Dante’s
Hell that have most powerfully provoked the visual
imagination: grotesque devils chewing on the flesh
of sinners, blazing flames, psychological torment,
muscular giants, victims of lust and passion have
allowed successive generations to explore the savage
and the tender aspects of human imagination and
emotion. The responses are in vivid colour, mono-
chrome drawings, sentimental and brutal.
The highlights of the exhibition were, for me,
the twentieth century illustrations and texts that
have created fresh and challenging interpretations
of Dante’s medieval vision. There are poetic manuscripts from Seamus Heaney and Anne Stevenson,
a calendar, a diary, an almanac, a prayer book and
children’s books, all indicating that the cult of Dante
has not suffered with the arrival of mass agnosticism.
There is a fantastic surrealist print of a scene from
Hell by Salvador Dali, and three jubilee books made
in 2000 with bindings covered with enamel, silver
and brass, geometric shapes and bright colours. It is
Tom Phillips, though, who has produced the most
original and post-modern illustrations of Dante’s
works in the past few decades. He has used pop art,
pastiche, abstract pieces and even film – though not
on display here - to make Hell strikingly contemporary. In one illustration shown in this display he has
depicted King Kong as Antaeus - a giant of Dante’s
Hell - overlooking Manhattan and a superimposed
medieval city. The concept is amusingly relevant and
astutely, perhaps frighteningly, apt.
The exhibition is naturally limited by the scope
of the UL’s collections – there are conspicuous
absences of the great illustrators of Dante like Blake
and Rossetti. But I still love this collection, and it is
worth visiting just for Tom Phillips’ pictures alone.
It is short, and you can quickly whirl through the
images and you get a lovely free catalogue at the
end. And then you hopefully feel refreshed enough
to descend back into the infernal Reading Room, if
you dare.
For more information visit www.lib.cam.
ac.uk/exhibitions/Dante/index.html
Seeing is Believing: Adapting Angela Carter
Y
ears ago, before I began gradually hardening into the jaded, disillusioned cynic
I am today, my most cherished wish, like
that of countless other young victims of
bright-eyed naivety, was to be able to fly. The thing
is, I truly believed at one stage I had cracked it, by
developing an elaborately scientific process which
involved leaping, oh-so-gracefully between chair
and bed, whilst thrashing all available limbs about
in a manner that may or may not have resembled
the breast-stroke. Of course, I soon realised I was
mistaken (and the hardening of my heart began),
but those brief seconds in which my aerodynamicism
seemed irrefutable were truly glorious. It just goes to
prove the modern adage; with a bit of confidence and
faith, most things seem possible; most tricks can be
pulled off.
As a maxim, the sentiment is eminently applicable to the creative daring of both Angela Carter’s
novel Nights at the Circus, and the current stage
adaptation of the work by Kneehigh Theatre at the
Lyric Hammersmith. Described by close friend and
constant champion of her talent Salman Rushdie as
a ‘burlesque artist of genius and antic grace’, Carter’s
narratives, such as Nights at the Circus and Wise
Children, which tramp joyously through the trawdry glitz and seamy underside of theatre and circus
worlds, provide an alluring but challenging, opportunity for translation to the stage.
In Nights at the Circus Carter hatched her bionic
heroine Fevvers, a self-styled ‘Cockney Venus’, with
a mass of blond locks surmounting her statuesque
figure, a bawdy goddess endowed with an impressive
wing span. For Fevvers is a winged victory, with two
dazzling feathered pinions sprouting triumphantly
from her back, a visual representation of freedom.
Fevvers has become the toast of fin-de-siecle Europe
with her highwire act, and by tantalizing her audience with a flagrant challenge to belief: ‘when the
curtain went up, there she was . . . She rose up on
tiptoe and slowly twirled round, giving the spectators
a comprehensive view of her back: seeing is believing.’ The book opens with an interview between
the prodigy and journalist Jack Walser, who starts
determined to expose her as a fake, but soon becomes
entangled in the thick magic exuded not merely
by Fevvers herself, but the entire circus troupe to
which she belongs, ultimately attaining self discov-
ery through his love for the heroine.
Whilst the potential for a stage show is immediately clear in such a plethora of theatrical subject
matter, Nights at the Circus is a work in which
Carter takes an especial delight in the hypnotic
power of narrative, exploring the function of language in constructions of self and world, of illusion
and reality. It is a work which, in her own words,
encourages the reader to ‘take one further step into
the fictionality of the narrative, instead of coming
out of it and looking at it as if it were an artifact.’
Carter’s voice rings out with the voluptuous, idiosyncratic individuality which sets the tone throughout
her writing, perhaps most vibrantly in her shorter
fiction of The Bloody Chamber, where the accumulation of extended metaphor, double entendre and
atmospheric generation attains all-engulfing proportions. The trajectory of her oeuvre exhibits a constant
love for Chinese-box style narrative, in which stories
encircle stories, yet it is in these later narratives that
the fascination with the individual, unreliable narrative voice comes to the fore. And this is precisely
where any theatre adaptation of Carter’s work treads
a dangerous highwire; it would be all too easy to lose
the rich wit and play of both her language and form, the
tricks that in the act of reading create thrills of pleasure.
But you get the feeling that Carter was interested in the
expression of the voice in all its forms. She collaborated
with writing the screenplay for film versions of The
Company of Wolves and The Magic Toyshop, and
also wrote a collection of radio plays. Whilst the Lyric’s
production may inevitably lose something in translation,
it stays true to the celebration of inventiveness, creativity
and freedom which Carter’s writing expresses. The production overflows accordingly with theatricality, and is a
fine tribute to a writer whose work constantly exhibits an
unafraid confidence in literary attempt and execution.
‘What a joy it is to dance and sing!’ Carter declares at the
end of Wise Children, a phrase which exemplifies her
commitment to faith and belief without conceding to
mawkish sentimentality.
Catherine Spencer
Flying without wings at the Lyric
Nights at the Circus is at the Lyric,
Hammersmith, until February 18.
www.lyric.co.uk
February 9, 2006 The Cambridge Student
17
“That couldn’t happen...”
Theatre
...in the U.S.A, we’d never treat a man that way.” Sarah Wilkinson asks if Cambridge is like a different land...
THE SETTING is eerily familiar. Intellectual debate, a
wooden desk occupied by a
candle-burning workaholic
and there in the corner is the
requisite bursting bookcase.
Yes, this week at the ADC,
thanks to set designer Jonny
Yarker, you could be forgiven
for mistaking the stage for
your supervision room.
Set in a 1930’s Eton-esque
public boy’s school, Julian
Mitchell ’s play is loosely
based on the adolescent years
of the Cambridge spy, Guy
Burgess. The focus is primarily on the inf luences in
his formative years on our
ideologies as an adult. Guy
Bennett, (Burgess’ f ictive
counterpart), for example, is
overtly homosexual and faces
his peers constant attempts
to inf luence his decision to
follow his feelings. They
demand that he conceal his
activities in order to uphold
the good name of the house.
The audience learns just how
diff icult it is to go against the
norm in an institution that
thrives image. A lesson, perhaps, some of us have learnt
before.
James Norton squeezes
every ounce of potential out
of his role as Bennett. What
started out on the opening
night as a somewhat hesi-
tant performance, became
increasingly assured, so that
by the f inal act we believed
in his anguish, frustration
and even, in his impassioned
declarations of love. Almost
all cast members relaxed into
their roles as though they
were sliding on pieces of an
old school uniform scene by
scene. Tim Smith-Laing, as
the pro-Communist workaholic Judd, stumbled over the
f irst few lines before adjusting his metaphorical tie and
producing a well-measured,
crisp performance in a part
that could easily have been
overplayed. Owen Holland,
as the uptight, conservative
conformist Devenish, also
lost a lot of his words in the
f irst scene or two, but was
so absorbed by his character
later that it was easy to believe
that he secretly enjoyed doling out belt strokes to the
young transgressors. It is,
however, the subsidiary characters who stole the show
in their brief appearances.
Alastair Roberts as the pacif ist Vaughan Cunningham
was marvelous. He appeared
on stage in a blaze of wit, sarcasm and comic timing, leaving the audience disappointed
at his premature departure. It
seems a shame that Mitchell
should have only inserted
Cunningham to
tantalize
Bennett with glimpses in to
the potentially glamorous
world of adult homosexuality.
His appearance changes the
dynamics of the stage hierarchy.
I longed for him to linger just
that little bit longer on stage.
In the small role of Wharton,
Stuart Cohen lived up to the
stereotype of neurotic young
boys waiting hand and foot
upon the older boys in public
schools. He also demonstrated
how the boys have learnt to
accept archaic practices purely
for the sake of upholding tradition.
This Production is amust
for any student whom has
questioned the contemporary relevance of antiquated
Cantabrian practices, or
indeed has been schooled in
an institution which imposes
similar values. Though the
questioning of these is far
from subtle in this play, the
witty script and f ine quality acting ensure that it rises
above its didactic message to
both teach and delight.
‘Another Country’ by
Julian Mitchell
ADC Theatre
7.45pm 7th- 11th Feb
Tue - Thu £7/£5, Fri & Sat
£8/£6
Hung-up
Bang- bang
Ellie Decamp is unnerved by The Lover...
Joe Fowler and Gareth Divitini have a bash
at the Playroom...
Photograph by Matt Leach
“THE LOVER” is a squalid
depiction of the necessity and danger of fantasy. Struggling to exoticise a limited domestic lifestyle,
spouses Richard and Sarah engage
in a system of lovers’ role-plays,
in which they exercise suppressed
desires. However, this gaming,
which creates the fabric of the couple’s relationship, quickly becomes
the drama’s inner threat as roleplays prove inherently ambiguous.
Director Susie Batey’s set is
marked by its startling whiteness,
achieved by uncomplicated lighting, which proves an ironic background to the attempted seediness throughout. A polite china
teapot, sugar bowl and uneaten
cold salad are placed on a table,
underneath which becomes the
play-pen of the lovers. A central sofa is the location for both
mundane chat and erotic playfulness, themes which persistently
attempt to triumph over the other.
Vikki Newton, playing Sarah, and
David Walton, playing Richard,
are sensitive to the shifting demands
placed on their characters. Together
on stage, Vikki and David ensure a
maturely balanced deliverance of
script, sustaining Pinter’s pauses
and showing awareness of the necessary dialogic changes in speed.
Vikki successfully portrays Sarah
as a bored and icy wife, although
perhaps is somewhat too tentative at times. She absently replies
to Richard’s opening interrogations, unphased by his ironic tone.
Head in the paper, or intent on
morning ablutions, Vikki avoids
eye contact with David, emphasising the frustrating lack of basic
communication between the
married couple. Playing a lover,
however, Vikki’s sultriness is carefully exacted; actual physical contact is kept to a minimum which
is effective as the fantasy world
becomes just as restricting and
frustrating as the daily realities.
Vikki’s controlled opening attitude
becomes hampered by a growing
impetuosity, which is eventually
regulated by a return to the lovers’
gaming, in which she searches for
release from neurotic insecurities.
David Walton executes
Richard’s blend of jest and bullying brilliantly. David superbly peels
away Richard’s arrogant and confident exterior to reveal a man who is
not as comfortable with the idea of
cuckoldry as we are initially led to
believe. David gradually develops
Richard’s tactics of torment, exposing the man’s diseased character;
the audience begins to shudder
rather than snigger, as David’s previously amusing wide-eyed dynamism becomes more like frenzied
raving. Gesticulating, particularly
when expounding on “voluminous
great uddered feminine bullocks”,
becomes, for David, a tool of control.
Susie Batey has mastered
Pinter’s transitions between tepidity and fever to produce a slick
rendition of this fascinating, if
unnerving play. She has chosen a
selection of Jazz themes, which are
used to great effect throughout,
but particularly during the fantasy
games. The Jazz rhythms become
David’s seductive drumming: the
tap tap tap of expectancy. The
production finishes with “Fever”,
the well-known jazz song which
opens with an echoic drum riff.
“The Lover” is only running until tomorrow night, and
it would be foolish to miss out
on this gem of a production.
‘The Lover’ by Harold
Pinter
Jesus College Forum
9pm
7th- 10th Feb
Tickets £5/£4
THE MINIMALIST set of
Bash makes an impression as
soom at you see it; it implies the
focus is going to be placed on the
script and action.
This action was somewhat
patchy. The fact that I did not
know whether the first act was
supposed to be delivered in
American or Australian was so
distracting that the meaning
of the monologue was somewhat lost on me. Indeed, the
monotone speech and abrupt
nature of the script made it
difficult to even listen to the
dialogue, and, keep focus on
the action in places.
Most of the time the
intensity and meaning of the
script was lost in the lengthy
nature of the monologues
and the rhetorical questions
constantly posed, which is a
shame because otherwise the
script is clearly an interesting
one, with a pleasing tendency to
save major revelations about the
characters for the final quarter of
the monologues. Fittingly for
a play which constantly made
reference to the outside world
and pop-culture, it reminded
me of the first time anyone
watched Donnie Darko. Not
necessarily a feeling of disappointment or displeasure, but
the idea that you might need
to see it again in order to fully
understand the play wright’s
intentions. My major objection with the script however
would be the fact that it has
clearly been Anglo-cised by
the cast in order to make the
play’s exophoric references
more obvious to an English
audience. Does it really make
any difference if the characters
get their milk from Safeways
(which this version of the script
proposed) or Wal-Mart (as
I imagine the original script
might have suggested)? Are we
not intelligent enough to make
the deduction that people usually buy their milk from a supermarket?!
The monologues are certainly emotional and dramatic,
but some of the actors fail to
convey their energy and gravitas. That is, apart from Caroline
Williams, who delivers an emotionally visceral performance,
which was not only realistic and
genuinely felt, but also totally
gripping. She was, for me, the
only actor who fully felt her role,
giving it that certain je ne sais
quoi which was somewhat lacking elsewhere. It is her performance which makes the show, as
well as serving for a nice metaphor
as to how the audience might feel
on their first viewing of Bash:
handcuffed to the chair. Wanting
desperately to understand.
‘Bash’ by Neil Labute
ADC Theatre
11.00 pm
8th- 11th Feb
£5/£3
Photograph by Megan Prosser
18
The Cambridge Student February 9, 2006
‘We women have been crying
for two thousand years...
A quick guide to:
Dario Fo
&
Franca Rame
...so let’s laugh now, even at ourselves.’ Robyn Hill enjoys gutsy drama
A WOMAN ALONE is a
set of four monologues from
two of Italy’s most eminent
playwrights, performers and
political activists - Dario
Fo and Franca Rame. Sarah
Brocklehurst’s production at
the ADC, coinciding with the
Amnesty Internationals Stop
Violence Against Women
Campaign, acts as a wonderful illustration of the struggles
women face worldwide. The
format of this production was
simple - the four monologues
were delivered in turn by Holly
Morgan, Isabelle Schoelcher,
Tabitha Becker-Kahn and Alexandra Guelff, each of which
addressed a different issue.
Impact would have to be
the key word associated with
this production of A Woman
Alone because everything, from
the costumes to text and direction to the content, hits you
at full speed smack in the face
from beginning to end. The audience is shocked from the outset – as the opening monologue
admits none of these women are
‘sentimental, Mills and Boon
reading cows.’ It tackles many
issues – abortion, child abuse,
domestic violence and gang rape
to name a few and although the
content sounds heavy the production manages to stay watchable and importantly enjoyable
and this is down to some gutsy
performances.
The set was simple, a sofa
draped in a multitude of different fabrics and the floor scattered with metallic confetti- but
it was a feast for the eyes as it
was full of texture and colour.
The great use of lighting also
enhanced the vibrancy of the
set but it was the costumes
along with the acting that was
the triumph of the evening.
The costumes were an eclectic
mixed of bohemian chic meets
Rocky Horror show with each
actor wearing a variation on
this same theme. Each of the
women gave a heartfelt performance but not one that
suggested that they wanted
Lose yourself
Look, if you had one shot, or one opportunity, would
you let it slip? Marianna Sanjurjo thinks not...
BASED ON Ranjit Bolt’s homonymous verse novel, Losing
It delivers just what its programme promises: “an adult
fairy-tale for those who are
tired of fairy-tales”. If the big
bed placed in the centre of the
scene may not on its own spell
out the theme, the multiple
and rhyming narrators will
soon enough disclose it: this
is a story of a young woman’s
quest to be “deflowered”. The
cherry pattern of the heroine’s
dress may be pushing the motif a little too far, but because
of its tongue-in-cheek quality
this Pembroke Players production can get away with it. And
more.
At the time of publication,
Bolt’s novel was described by
The Guardian as “154 pages of
poetically postponed consummation”. This stage version,
abridged by the company with
the advice of the author, manages to stay fresh throughout
this young lady’s journey of
repeated deferral across geographical, time and literary
genre barriers by virtue of
close attention to rhythm and
fine interpretation. As Lucy,
the young lady in question,
sets out into the world to lose
her virginity, the audience is
treated to a series of humorously (un)resolved sexual encounters with an array of potential deflowerers, including
a geek genius, a melancholy
airhead, a ghost, and Casanova
himself, to say nothing of the
sexually ambiguous Mungo.
There are nicely understated
bittersweet moments thrown
in there, too.
The cast are at their best
when they do not play the
lines for the laugh, but let it
creep inadvertently on the audience, which is most of the
time. They do a great job of
sliding through the text morphing from third person narrators into characters and back
and forth between characters.
There is plenty in the material
for them to flex their acting
muscles, and they oblige.
The use of space and objects
is integral to way the story is
told. With all props displayed
virtually within sight, the actors assemble and disassemble
the audiences’ sympathy, instead that they wanted to draw
attention to some taboo subjects.
This is a black comedy
and at the core of it there is
something quite tragic – this
is particularly reinforced by
the last monologue. The three
preceding performances, despite addressing some harrowing issues, manage to maintain
an element of comedy. The
closing monologue, however,
is quite different – it seems
stripped bare of pretence and
simply explores the devastation
of gang rape. It is here that the
main weakness lies as the pace
began to lag and the humour
evaporated. Although this may
simply have been the point, it
is the interaction of comedy
with sadness that makes the
other performances so poignant and ultimately successful,
so the absence of this in the last
is regrettable. However, this is
the only criticism of an otherwise well-rounded production
that was thought provoking and
daring.
settings as they speak from
the wooden blocks that at the
beginning of the play are arranged as the bed. They also
compose their different characters by shedding or wearing
a vast range of accessories. Although at times this technique
makes the stage look messy
and cluttered, for the most
part it is employed to good effect, punctuating the pace of
the story.
For Losing It, as is often the
case with good comedy, lack of
self-importance is ultimately
one of its most valuable assets.
Not taking itself too seriously
renders it refreshing and thoroughly enjoyable.
This production is over
but look out for the cast
and director in ‘Richard
III’, ‘Be My Baby’, ‘Sweeney
Todd’ and more over the
coming weeks.
Tues 7th - Sat 11th
February
Corpus Playroom 9.30pm
‘Losing it’ by Ranjit Bolt
Tickets £5/£4
Photo:graph by Amica Dall
Igor Guryashkin would bee happy to have more tea and less grimness...
able existence briefly lit up by
the companionship of a homosexual arts student. But things
are looking bleak. Will she
ever find her ‘taste of honey’?
While undoubtedly this
may have been provocative material for 1950s British theatre,
it is too tame for the modern
theatregoer. Perhaps more importantly it simply has nothing fresh or incisive to say on
the contemporary multi-cultural utopia that is the United
Kingdom. In the directorial
notes we are told that the asy-
lum seeker is a character that
has replaced a black one, thus
giving a modern feel. In reality though, this could not be
further from the truth. What
promises to be a journey of an
innocent soul against societies
prejudices, simply materialises
into an agoraphobic mess. Jo
locks herself away, with her
equally fragile gay companion
and refuses to venture outside,
afraid of the reception she
might get.
Today, it is far more likely
that we will see a teenager
Who’s his lady friend?
That’s Franca Rame, his leading actress who has assisted
in and collaborated to the
writing of many of the plays
they have produced during
their 45 years of theatre
together. They had similar
rootless and theatre based
backgrounds. She was part
of a travelling acting troupe
and went onstage for the
first time when she was 8
days old., he grew up with
the oral tradition of the fabulatore, where glass-blowers and fishermen would
swap tall tales steeped in
pungeant political satire.
Was it romantic?
Very. They met in 1951 when
they were both working on
a production in Milan. He
decided to seduce her by
ignoring her until finally, after
a few weeks, she grabbed
him and pushed up against
a wall backstage and kissed
him. They became engaged
immediately and were never
apart again.
So they lived happily
ever after?
Sugar, aw, Honey Honey
BY ‘ECK its grim up north!
Plucky 17 year-old Jo, is living with an alcoholic mother
Helen, who sleeps around to
scrape together cash to buy the
next drink. Jo hopes for something better, but we wouldn’t
necessarily say she has dreams.
These have long been extinguished. Jo’s only friend in the
world is an asylum seeker, who
proceeds to leave her pregnant,
leading to fears that Jo might
just turn out to be her worst
nightmare: her own mother.
The pregnancy sees her miser-
“A theatre, a literature,
an artistic expression that
does not speak for its own
time has no relevance.” (Fo,
Nobel Prize Speech 1997)
mother on the Jeremy Kyle
show, while switching channels and seeing Graham Norton lighting up our evenings
with a dildo or two. The two
glowing performances f rom
Hannah Lee and Joanna Lee,
and the cast in general, are
simply small highlights in a
weak production. The script
serves to let down a cast that
have shown in the past they
are more than capable actors.
If the piece truly wanted us
to consider the society we
live in today, they could have
done so by wheeling out a
television and switching to
news. If there was a message
it was not clear. There was
no ‘taste of honey’ here, only
a bitter taste of disappointment. I went for a cup of tea
afterwards.
Wed 8th - Sat 11th
February
Corpus Playroom 7pm
‘A Taste Of Honey’ by
Shelagh Delaney
Tickets £5/£4
Not exactly... in 1962 Fo and
Rame were invited to write
and present ‘Canzonissima’,
a popular Italian television
show. Fo’s and Rame’s
sketches become an issue
for the entire nation, provoking wild controversy. For
the first time, television is
used to portray the lives
and difficulties and deaths
of common people: But Fo
and Rame began to receive
death threats, written with
blood and delivered with the
typical miniature, wooden
coffin and the entire family is
placed under police protection. But everything was fine
in the end, due to opart to
Fo’s optimistic nature:
“I felt like an extraordinary hero... I had
the whole of life in my
hands. Even if I had been
driving the carriage of
the sun I could not have
felt any better.”
February 9, 2006 The Cambridge Student
19
“Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it”
Ian Felce meets Cambridge graduate Tom Cornford, and learns why it’s always good to pick things up as you go along...
TOM COR N FOR D has
returned to direct Richard
III, this year’s Marlowe at
t he A r t s T he at re. W h i le
at Cambridge Tom acted a
lot but never thought about
directing. He played Hamlet
in the ETG tour and went
to do the one-year course at
LAMDA when he graduated.
His first ambition was to
be an actor but after a couple
of years in the business he
found himself sitting in a pub
complaining about the state
of British theatre one too
many times and when a friend
suggested that he should be a
director he thought it sounded
like a good idea. ‘Being an
actor is not just about being
good ’, he says, ‘ it ’s about
being good at being an actor.
You have to be happy with
what comes along with the
job’.
Still interested in the process of making theatre, Tom
went along to Shakespeare’s
Globe, where he had been
at tend ing work shops, a nd
asked them how to go about
becoming a theatre director.
A f ter d i rec t i ng rehea r sed
read i ng s a nd a ssist i ng at
My horse, my horse
The Globe, assisting at The
Gate, teaching and directing at Rose Br uford, The
Actors Centre and the Tyrone
Guthrie Center, Minneapolis,
he applied to the Marlowe
Society to direct Richard III
because he thought it was a
youthful, immediate play that
would suit a youthful cast.
He describes the experience as an apprenticeship for
everyone and a great opportunity to take on a big theatre and work with a creative team that includes the
designer Lucy Osborne who
is currently working at the
Sheffield Crucible. There is
also the challenge of how to
pull off a big production on
a budget of only £4,000. He
is excited by the possibility of
theatre in big spaces, knowing
that young directors are usually offered studios. ‘Theatre
insists on the pre-eminence
of the individual in society.
Theatre allows him to fill the
whole world with his life’.
To m t h i n k s t h a t h i s
Ca mbr id g e teac h i n g g ave
him an excellent grounding
in the simple questions that
need asking: ‘What is hap-
pening? How is it happening? Why is it interesting?’
His training at LAMDA gave
him a knowledge of physicality and the theatrical environment that he did not learn
from university. He now uses
a lot of movement-based exercises in rehearsal that he has
picked up from other people
and books along the way. He
sees problems positively, saying that there are only good
things to come from them
since they pose challenges to
creativity. ‘There are always
compromises as an emerging
director and you just have to
make the good bits bigger’.
For those who are considering a career in the theatre
he suggests that they should
f ind something that really
inspires them and pursue it,
regardless of other considerations. ‘Stick to what you like.
Go and find the person you
are most excited by and learn
from them.’ He knows that so
far this year he does not know
what he will be doing after
March and this is part of the
up and down-ness of the job.
This week he is giving two
lectures introducing attendees
to the basics of theatre direction in general and directing
Shakespea re in pa r ticu la r.
He will also be speaking and
answering questions on how
to get into directing as a professional career.
ising pieces on Sundays, before giving a
small presentation on
the results of the exercise to the playwrights
friends. Playwrighting
is a craft; discussion
with practitioners is
the only A to learn the
skills and to make the
contacts you need to
write great work and
see it put into production. So if you have
a play, finished, firstdrafted or in-progress
send it to Issy, ijm32,
with the characters
listed on the front
page. Don’t miss out.
‘Directing Shakespeare: an
interactive lecture’
Thursday 9th February
4-6 pm
The English Faculty
FREE
‘Why Teach Shakespeare’
Friday 10th February
7pm
Homerton College Small
Studio (TBC)
FREE
and there may be wine...
RICHARD III
Cambridge Arts Theatre
Tuesday 7th – Saturday,
11th March
7.45pm and Saturday,
2.30pm: £10/£15/£20
Thursday, 2.30pm: £10/£15
Half a llama, twice
the llama, not a
llama, farmer, llama...
James Halliday previews an evening of off-the wall
baorque opera...
“OPERA… THE aim of this
spectacle is to keep soul, eyes
and ears in an equal enchantment…’: so wrote the French
writer Jean de La Bruyère
towards the end of the 17th
century. Opera in the French
Baroque was all about spectacle, and the composer JeanPhilippe Rameau certainly
kept this in mind as he penned
the Les Incas du Pérou. It’s a
45-minute roller coaster ride
of a piece, featuring amorous
rivalry and an all-singing and
-dancing festival to the Sun
god, all under the ominous
eye of a very active volcano.
The stor y in brief: the
Incas have been conquered by
the Spanish invaders, one of
whom, Don Carlos, is in love
with Phani, an Inca princess.
But the high priest of the sun,
Huascar, is angered by this
interracial love-match and in
fact desires Phani himself. He
leads the Incas in a large scale
festival for the Sun god, which
is dramatically interrupted by
an earthquake. Phani is terrified, as Huascar claims that
the earthquake is a sign from
the Sun god that Phani is
destined to marry him. His
advances become more violent, but at the last minute
Don Carlos arrives and reveals
the truth: Huascar is really
the culprit, who triggered the
earthquake by throwing rocks
into the volcano’s crater. As
Phani leaps into the arms of
her beloved Carlos, the volcano erupts once more, this
time engulfing the treacherous villain Huascar.
We s t R o a d C o n c e r t
Hall will be energised with
vibrantly costumed singers,
musicians and dancers tak-
ing on a score that has never
been hea rd in Ca mbr idge
before, and seldom ever in
Britain. Huascar is played
by Cambridge opera veteran
Jonat ha n Sel ls ; t he suave
Carlos is Gerald Beatty; and
Trinit y Col lege newcomer
Katy Watson plays Phani. In
the first half of the evening,
t he l e a d e r of Ca mbr id g e
University Baroque Ensemble,
David Irving, gives a dazzling
recital of baroque violin sonatas.
Don’t miss this electrifying
evening of colour, dance and
incredible vocal and orchestral music – prepare all your
senses for instant enchantment.
Rameau - Les Incas du Pérou
Friday 10 February 2006, 8pm
West Road Concert Hall
Tickets can be booked from [email protected]
£7, £3 (students)
Do You Write?
The Marlowe Society
Scriptlab is A for playwrights who want to
work with professional
directors, literary
managers or writers
on their literary ideas.
They workshop prom-
20
The Cambridge Student February 9, 2006
Film
Just to watch him die...
Johnny Cash nut Harry Joll sees Walk The Line
WALK THE LINE had a lot of hurdles to
jump as far as I was concerned. I’m a confessed
Johnny Cash geek and, despite my determination
to be fair-minded, I was apprehensive about a
Hollywood version of the Man in Black. This is
an institution that not only produced Titanic but
gave it eleven Oscars. Potentially worse, Cash was
being played by Joaquin Phoenix – the guy who
whined his way through Gladiator – who did his
own singing and guitar playing, both of which he
learned from scratch. Emperor Commodus trying to sound like Johnny…fucking…Cash. Even
worse, the screening I went to was for charity so
we were treated to the spectacle of a middle-aged
Cambridge women’s line dancing group tearing it
up (well, gently creasing it anyway) at the front of
the cinema. Could any film live up to the creative,
kinetic magic we had just borne witness to?
The answer is yes. The movie’s two hours-plus
takes us from Cash’s childhood picking cotton in
rural Arkansas and through short-lived careers
in the air force and a salesman, before arriving at
his launch into country music stardom. There’s
a drug problem along the way, but what drives
Walk The Line, apart from the music, is the
burgeoning love affair with Reese Witherspoon’s
talented singer and comedienne June Carter. The
attraction is credible as being a whole lot more
than just physical, as is the bumpy ride they have
before providing the climax. More importantly,
the tenderness that develops between them seems
strong enough to justify the relationship that both
stayed in for the rest of their lives. So who gets
the credit?
My scepticism about the casting and their
handling of the music was given the sound beat-
ing it probably deserved by an actor and actress
at the top of their game. I should have had more
faith in the decision of the man himself: Johnny
Cash had, after all, given Phoenix his blessing.
He’s earned it, both in the dramatic and the
musical scenes. My disbelief swiftly turned to
admiration after one excellent rendition followed
another, and somehow Phoenix just channels
Cash physically and vocally while putting his
own stamp on it. He even lets the crooked set
of Cash’s lips subtly come out as the film went
on. However, pride of place goes to Miss Legally
Blonde herself, who makes you wonder why she
sells herself short so often. Witherspoon’s critics
are going to have to walk the line after this one.
The leads had six months of intensive vocal training, with music producer T-Bone Burnett no less,
and had to learn the guitar and autoharp respectively. The pay-off is in the foot-tapping musical
performances – a good soundtrack is elevated to
a great one, as lesser known songs are also given
a deserved airing in the interests of keeping the
tempo up.
My only criticisms are obvious, and small,
enough. Biopics are big business these days, a
good way to cash in on the cinematic lives of reallife mavericks and superstars – it sometimes seems
the bodies have hardly had time to cool. The
material is ready-made and often stranger than
fiction, something that tends to encourage lazy,
generic filmmaking. The devices are so familiar
that a brief list will do: montages, flashbacks to
key childhood events, dramatic downfalls and
redemptions, serendipitous moments of inspiration, disembodied echoes of key lines. Director
James Mangold isn’t a run of the mill studio hack,
Joaquin Phoenix as the Man in Black at his famous Folsom Prison concertback Mountain
so in a way it’s disappointing he strayed so little
from The Formula. Then again, a major studio
treatment of Cash’s life was never going to worry
too much about subtlety or the facts, and nor
should it. This is not deep stuff; it’s big, bold colours and solid entertainment. The clichés rarely
cross over into the subject matter. Thankfully,
Mangold sidesteps the straw-chewing country
hick stereotype and the archetypal rock star and
gives us Johnny Cash and June Carter instead. He
also gives us Elvis, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison and
Jerry Lee Lewis and it makes for an entertaining
group. Incredible to imagine such explosive talent
all driving in cars together from one show to the
next but, apart from a little too much mythology
where old blue suede hips is concerned, Walk
The Line brings showbiz back down to earth
quite refreshingly. After another long ride, Jerry
Lee observes, “That boy Elvis sure talks a lot of
poon.”
The decision to end the film at the end of the
‘60s shaves over 30 years off the whole story, and
is the better for it. Not only does it make for a
more cohesive narrative, but it allows for more
concentration on the best music and the most
fascinating aspects of Cash’s life. Get rhythm.
So you wanna win an Oscar?
Lottie Oram takes a look at one of the favourite genres of judging panels - the Biopic
central character with a ‘ journey’ to
make, good looking male lead, in
this case good looking male lead who
pulls seemingly out of no-where a
knock out musical impersonation of
said troubled star. This is what we
call in professional circles the “Oh
my god he/she really can sing” factor
(again see Nicole Kidman), which
can’t hurt none in the awards race.
The real appeal of a successful
Biopic is that it focuses on a hugely
inf luential individual who can’t help
The inherent
“
tension between
‘No - I Walk The Line’ Jamie Foxx as Ray Charles in 2004’s Ray
IT’S THAT TIME of year again,
when the entire movie industry gets
itself whipped up into a frenzy akin
to the sugar induced rampage of a
fat kid in a cake shop. Of course
I’m talking about the Oscars and
the swathe of ‘imitation Oscars’ that
have sprung up in recent years to
precede the main show. There’s a
formula to winning awards, and to
return to the cake metaphor, there’s
only a few types that ever really
sell. So, for every organic lemon and
pine needle tart/ low budget indie
film, you get a thousand chocolate
cakes. Along with movies covering disability, mental illness, any
aspect of the Second World War
or Nicole Kidman, Biopics are one
of those chocolatey films that the
judges just can’t resist. In previous years the Oscars have rewarded
Ghandi, Amadeus and Lawrence of
Arabia. Last year it was the Aviator
and Ray, and this year, the contenders are Capote and Walk the Line. The
new Jonny Cash retrospective, in
particular already checks a lot of the
formulaic boxes for making a great
biopic: The outsider, the troubled
biographies and
films is that
reality doesn’t
sell straight
”
but be interesting for the contribution they have made during their
life time, to art, science, politics
or society. For instance, Martin
Scorsese’s film, The Aviator, recreates the early life of the businessman,
womaniser, f lyboy, movie mogul
Howard Hughes, played by Leonardo
DiCaprio. Hughes was at the heart
of swinging 20’s and 30’s society and
this allows the film makers scope to
rub shoulders with other sparkling
personalities of the time including
Katherine Hepburn, uncannily portrayed by Cate Blanchett and a wonderful, heartfelt cameo from Jude
Law as a very sleazy Errol Flynn.
Hughes provides the key to opening
up an idealised period in history and
bringing to life revered figures in a
more personal context. The icing on
the cake is that Hughes also suffered
from chronic obsessive Compulsive
Disorder, which makes him an outsider. The f lawed individual is always
more fascinating, believable, and in
this case Scorcese was able to off load
some of Hughes’s genuine unpleasantness onto his mental illness.
We must take everything included
in any biopic ever with a pinch
of salt. Accuracy in movie terms
involves a lot of artistic licence. For a
start the figure portrayed is rarely as
good looking as the actor portraying
them. Let’s not forget that Russell
Crowe appeared as John Nash, the
brilliant and, wait for it, troubled
mathematician in A beautiful mind.
This film is also another example of
a director taking the truth out for
a long walk. Ron Howard chose to
focus on a saccharine interpretation
of Nash’s early marriage and descent
into schizophrenia. He conveniently
leaves Nash at the height of his mental instability in the late 50’s, bypassing the wayward period where he
left his wife, roamed around Europe
and returned to Princeton as a sad,
ghostly character on the campus.
All we see at the end of the film
is a charmingly greyed up Crowe
accepting Nash’s 1994 Nobel Prize
with his adoring wife by his side, and
then getting given a load of fountain
pens by other grey haired men at
Princeton.
The inherent tension between
biographies and films is that reality
doesn’t sell straight. Should we be
angry that these figures are often
portrayed differently to how they
were? One way of diffusing this problem is to portray someone deceased.
To put it bluntly, at least they can’t
argue with you about content and
arguably a good biography shouldn’t
be produced until the subject’s life
story has ended. With Johnny Cash
you face the problem, as with many
other music legends, that they carry
a frighteningly loyal fan base. These
living ambassadors know their hero’s
histories inside out and can kick up a
real fuss about inaccuracies. However,
we can’t forget that most of us only
have a mythical idea of the figures
portrayed on our movie screens and are
happy accept these abstract portraits.
There’s perhaps a kind of comfort in
these formulaic treatments of character that neither shatter our dreams
nor destroy the person concerned. To
return finally, to the scene towards the
end of A Beautiful Mind in which Nash
is presented with pens by his colleagues
as a sign of their respect, I prefer to
read this as a silent, tender affirmation of the Nash myth; a recognition
of the sometimes need to preserve a
person’s reputation, rather than the
schmaltzy ending it so clearly is.
February 9, 2006 The Cambridge Student
21
Good Luck Mr. Clooney
Sam Law sees a directorial triumph - Good Night and Good Luck
GEORGE CLOONEY :
ACTOR, heartthrob, director,
rebel. That just about sums up
the past decade for perhaps the
most unpredictable leading man
in Hollywood, and his career
shifts again with Good Night, and
Good Luck as he drops his romantic lead credentials (he claims
he’s too old to do love scenes any
more) and picks up the megaphone as director for the first
time since 2003’s Confessions of a
Dangerous Mind.
Controversy is not something
Clooney is unfamiliar with; in
2003 he appeared on the cover
of a rabid right-wing American
magazine, his face emblazoned
with the word ‘traitor’ for having
questioned the validity of the war
in Iraq. Undeterred, he returns
this month with two politically
charged movies, and where the
first, Syriana, will undoubtedly
be a direct jab at the war profiteering in Iraq, Good Night is his
sucker punch – a thinly veiled
attack on the submissiveness of
the current American media perpetrated by the latter day icon
of docile American distraction.
Concentrating mainly on
the newsroom politics of CBS
between 1954 and 1958, the
film traces the remarkable on
air crusade of broadcast journalist Edward R Murrow (David
Strathairn on excellent form)
to bring down the tyrannical
Senator Joe McCarthy and his
‘witch hunts’ for communists in
the US live on air. The newscaster’s dignified outrage and
the senator’s infuriated insistence
that civil liberties are the price
to be paid in the war with communism (images uncomfortably
familiar in the contemporary
world) are showcased through
a series of ‘See it Now’ TV specials. But the war of words comes
at the cost of the careers of both
men.
Shot wholly in monochrome
and seemingly confined to the
interior of the CBS studios, this
had the potential to be a self
important, dull, lecture of a film
but Clooney pulls it off. Soaking
the story in the jazzy culture of
50s America, confining himself
to an inconspicuous supporting
role, and packing the admittedly short running time with an
impressively eclectic collection of
other supporting performances
(Robert Downy Jr, Jeff Daniels),
like the man himself, the film is
an exercise in cool. But perhaps
his most impressive achievement, in a movie with neither
sex nor violence, is the steady
sense of urgency and tension.
Built upon the constant pressure
of the newsroom environment
and punctuated by the tense and
unpredictable live broadcasts, we
feel the importance of both men’s
causes, and the complete lack of
political ambiguity (a rarity in
Hollywood today), shocks you
onto the edge of your seat.
This is not to say that this is
College Film Choice
City Of God
Tonight 9pm
Robinson College
Auditorium
CITY OF GOD is a masterpiece.
It really is that simple. It skillfully
blends grit and style, pace and
meaning, triumph and tragedy like
none before. Daring. Innovative.
Surprising. Devastating. It is the
overlooked gem of the past five
years.
Set in the sun-scorched favelas
of Rio de Janeiro, it follows the rise
and fall of a group of youths, from
the 60s youthful innocence through
the rites of passage of the 70s to
the 80s drug fuelled corruption and
the boys’ eventual self-destruction.
Multiple storylines thread together
effortlessly, creating a rich and textured film, skilfully bound by the
knowing narrative of Rocket, the
conflicted protagonist of the piece.
Inhabiting a world ruled by vice, he
is surrounded on all sides by drugs,
sex and death and by scores of other
characters, like himself, trying to
survive.
The film is extremely authentic.
Casting 200 locals in all the major
roles paid off wonders with each face
onscreen telling its own, haunted,
city story and not an unconvincing
performance in sight. The camer-
awork is both daring and revolutionary, the lens roaming the streets,
like a character in itself, and the
frequent handheld sequences capturing the character and the chaos
of the crowded streets. Based on
8 years of research, the script is an
uncompromising vision – director
Fernando Meirelles has remarked
many times that this is the story of
the favela boys and he will not sell
them short. We are spared no small
detail; theft is an industry, rape is a
pastime, and murder is a way of life.
There are no concessions.
This of course would be empty
praise if there were not an emotional
core to the story, but Meirelles is
too assured a director to allow any
side to slip and there are no panto-
a perfect film. If you yourself are
stubbornly politically indistinct,
there is little more of interest,
aside from some fine performances, and inevitably many more
will be irritated by Clooney’s
unashamed focus on the bully
tactics of the American right – an
aggressively personal approach.
Also, many will be unimpressed
by the lack of personal insight
into the characters, particularly
considering the great contrast in
this department with Spielberg’s
textured Munich.
Perhaps the most amusing
criticism however, apparently
cited by many test audiences, is
that the actor playing McCarthy
overplays. His ‘performance’ is
ingeniously composed entirely
from archive news footage of the
man himself.
However, in the end, this is
Clooney’s film, and he’s going
to do it as he wants. Inevitably
we’re left with a cinematic statement, stripped of all excess flab.
mime heroes and villains on show
here. Crime means loss, and loss
breeds crime. Every character loves,
lusts and hurts and we sympathise
with them all. Anyone could fall
to the temptation of violence at any
time, and many likeable characters
do. This unpredictability is characterised perfectly in the relationship
between Rocket and Li’l Ze, a boy
he grew up with who becomes a
crime lord and one of the most
dominant characters in the slum.
But Rocket encounters a hundred
different stories and a different heart
beats at the centre of each one.
Meirelles may be the current
poster boy for the arthouse scene
with his English language debut
The Constant Gardener, but this
remains his best, most vital and
uncompromising work.
Sam Law
Auteuil (right) in Haneke’s new thriller
‘But my mother gave me these suspenders’ - Strathairn
(far right) as legendary broadcaster Ed Murrow
Walking a line closer to the work
of firebrand filmmakers like
Michael Moore than most of the
other neutered output of today,
the director still manages to
avoid gawdy blatancy while turning in one of the most unique
films I’ve seen for a long time. In
the end, for all the art and nostalgia of the piece, it’s the politics
that will stick. Clooney’s ethos is
perhaps best justified by a quote
from Murrow himself: ‘Excuse
me, but I just can’t accept that
every important issue has two
equally reasonable sides to it.’
Kids With Guns - City of God’s uncomprimising dealer’seye-view of the Rio slums
A look into the future...
The TCS Team kisses and tells what we’re watching over the next month...
THIS MONTH I’M feeding my
Asian Cinema compulsion with
Old Boy and 3Iron. The former
involves a man being kept in a
prison without ever knowing the
crime he has committed before
his tormentor releases him so he
can find out. The latter deals with
the romantic relationship that
arises between two characters
who never even speak until the
last few scenes – a drifter who
sleeps in people’s houses while
they’re away only to find one day
that the house he chooses is not
entirely empty, and the abused
wife whose house he unwittingly
enters. Both involve action – in
Old Boy commonly violent, dark
and even agonisingly painful to
watch, and in 3Iron beautifully
symbolic, what the characters do
being all the more poignant in the
face of how little they say.
Bryony Markwick
The next month brings many
cinematic treats. Final Destination
3, near guaranteed to mirror the
bloody pyrotechnics of its two
predecessors; it may not be a
prestige piece, but it is sure to
be a lot of fun. George Clooney
makes his return in Syriana, a
political powder keg of a film
taking in everything from blood
for oil politics to suicide bombers.
But I’m most looking forward to
the DVD release of Homecoming.
Directed by Gremlins’ Joe Dante,
it puts a new slant on the Dale
Bailey ‘Monkey’s Paw’ short
story, with dead soldiers returning
from the grave to vote the current
warmongering government out of
power and has already kicked up a
storm in America.
Sam Law
I’m eagerly awaiting the DVD
release of my favourite film of
2005 - Fernando Mereilles’ The
Constant Gardener. Ralph Fiennes
and Rachel Weisz both offered
outstanding performances as the
film wormed its way towards a
very moving conclusion. Weisz
has subsequently been nominated
for a deserved academy award
for her supporting role. Having
recently read John Le Carre’s book
from which the film was adapted,
and taking an interest in AIDS
across Africa, I’m still completely
hooked by the storyline and can’t
wait to get to HMV and open the
packaging.
Jamie Mangan
Joe Wright’s 2005 adaptation of Jane Austen’s Pride and
Prejudice comes to DVD this
month. This release is much
awaited by many European
viewers as it contains the controversial American ending. The
British version was deemed to be
too ambiguous for the American
public so an extra seen, after
Darcy and Elizabeth’s marriage,
was added which has never been
seen outside of the USA before.
Although this version has come in
for much criticism it is charming,
fast moving, well written adaptation and a perfect present for
Valentine ’s Day.
Robyn Hill
Where better to set a soap
opera than in a gang-ruled shanty
town on the outskirts of Rio de
Janeiro? Think about it - guns,
love between enemy lines, stubborn teenagers with identity
issues, and of course resplendently
beautiful Brazilian beaches and
bodies, it is the ideal combination for the genre, ending effortlessly on a cliffhanger after every
episode. Fernando Mereilles
and Katia Lund, directors of the
explosive City of God, saw this
potential when they created City
of Men, a grittily, realistic yet
humorous exposition of teenage
life in one of the world’s toughest
slums. Be warned, this is highly
emotive and addictive viewing.
Moreover, the first two seasons
are just the right length to see you
through until the end of term.
The first 9 episodes are available
on DVD.
Tanya Filer
Sometimes, it’s nice to watch
a film when you can be sure that
its makers are steeped in the virtuosic traditions of Fellini and
Renoir, and yet can take their
own talents somewhere new. And
sometimes, it’s nice to hear this.
Chong: “You wanna get high
man? ” Cheech: “Does Howdy
Doody got wooden balls man?”
As the dialogue and names speak
for themselves, it’s hardly necessary to explain why I’m looking
forward to working through the
Cheech & Chong multi-DVD I
just ordered so much. And no, I
have no idea who Howdy Doody
is either (know what I’m naming
my kid though).
Harry Joll
With large sweet popcorn
and twenty minutes of trailers per f lick on offer, Vue and
the Picturehouse have always
been Class-A hang-outs. But
with Good Luck and Good
Night, Lady Vengeance, Capote,
Syriana and V for Vendetta they
really will be the places to
be for the rest of term. In a
perfect world, cinema attendance would be mandatory on
Orange Wednesdays. Any
person who does not cream
their pants at the thought of such
films should be considered a danger to themselves and administered appropriate treatment.
Jack Sommers
22
The Cambridge Student February 9, 2006
Music
The Synergetic Universe of Psytrance
An anonymous raver’s journey through Music and Conscience
SE1 Club, London
February 3
WHEN SYNERGY takes over
SE1 – a large club hidden under
the railway arches of London
Bridge – the main room is reserved
for Psytrance: the deepest, most
energising and mentally enriching
dance music in existence. The other
four rooms are transformed into a
mini-festival featuring live world
music, poetry and conscious hiphop, and stands for food, charities
and pressure groups such as Stop
the War, Greenpeace, Oxfam and
War on Want.
Trapped inside SE1 was
boundless freedom to think, to
dance, to talk. The main arena
seemed a cyber fairy palace of
illumination and colour, alive
with UV lighting and strange
decorations. As the night warmed,
the trancefloor filled up, and an
electrifying energy started beating.
The air took on the texture and
heat of the music, and we began to
journey into the realms where only
Psytrance can take you: we danced
like we were the music. There
is a strange beauty in the tribal
vibrations created as hundreds of
people stomp away, all facing their
leader: the omnipotent DJ. The
church of dance is truly alive and
well; it felt like we were at the heart
Psychadelic interiors
of it.
Psytrance, or Psychedelic
Trance, is also called Goa trance
due to its origins on the Goa
beaches of India. It contains strong
unbroken baselines, intricate
synthesised melodies and is full of
strange sounds and samples; often
the wackiest become the most
popular. It is not to be confused
with mainstream trance, which is
completely soulless and unexciting
in comparison.
The quality of music at Synergy
Mary Ann Meets the
Grave Diggers and
Other Short Stories
ARGUABLY THE best thing to
come out of Russia since vodka,
Regina Spektor was born in Moscow
in 1980 and later moved to New
York where she discovered the
anti-folk scene and gave performances at the East Village’s Sidewalk
Café. Signed by the legendary Sire
in 2004, she has performed sell
out shows worldwide, and toured
with The Strokes. This is her first
release with London Indie label
Transgressive Records (Bloc Party,
The Rakes, The Subways): a greatest hits compilation of highlights
from her previous three albums.
With classical, folk, blues and
hip-hop influences, Spektor works
hard to ensure each of her songs
has its own musical style. Her
voice contorts and twists, morphing from sweet gurgles to raw
cries, punctuated with beat boxstyle flourishes and impulsive,
playful affectations. She has been
known to giggle, murmur and feed
the crowd chocolates during her
live performances. Offbeat songs
combined with percussive pianopounding and drumstick-tapping
exhibit the quirky songstress’
impressive artistic range.
Much of Spektor’s charm
can be found in her song writing, which depicts desolate, impish scenarios in tales of intrigue,
covering everything from chemotherapy to bar-room floors covered
in broken glass. Regina Spektor is
a singing anecdotist, encompassing the idiosyncratic and peculiar
to create an astonishing multitude
of personalities: the sultry ‘Mary
Ann’, the sombre ‘Lacrimosa’, the
rowdy ‘Sailor Song’, and the bleak
‘Daniel Cowman’. The result is
an enchanting and challenging
album, gushing with innocence
and full of personal reflections and
irony.
The combination of provoking
lyrics, erratic vocals and unique
piano skills leaves the listener in no
doubt of Spektor’s talents. Despite
the absence of standout tracks
‘Carbon Monoxide’ and ‘Somedays’
from her latest album, Soviet Kitsch,
for the uninitiated ‘Mary
Ann Meets
the
Grave
Diggers’ is
sure to make
an excellent
introduction
to one of the
most enticing artists of
today.
Eleanor
Houghton
electronic melodies that massaged
the brain. By 8am there were still
almost six hundred devoted funseekers on the floor, refusing to
leave the music.
Synergy is an umbrella
organisation that seeks to bring
together a wide variety of nongovernmental organisations in the
fields of cultural, environmental
and
development
education
to work in unison. It believes
that global issues such as the
environment and warfare can
be tackled at a community level,
by stimulating and facilitating
creativity and independence. Thus
Synergy harnesses the appeal of
creative media to connect with
audiences’ emotions as well as their
rational minds. Their parties are
a part of this ethos: they remind
you of the beauty of life and the
potential within all of us to change
the world by influencing those
around us. The Psytrance scene
complements this to perfection, full
as it is of conscious and uplifting
ideas on spirituality, life, creativity
and beauty.
The next Synergy event is 10th
March. Rave on. Rave strong.
Graham Coxon
and Brit-pop heritage. Standout
tracks ‘You & I’ and ‘I Don’t
Wanna Go Out’ demonstrate
how well-suited Coxon’s lessthan-perfect voice is to energetic punkery, and the highlight of the album is undoubtedly when Coxon screams his
way through anger-ridden ‘You
Always Let Me Down’.
It is during these fast songs
that the brilliance of Coxon
shines through, but when not
driven by spiky riffage the
writing is left a little bland and
unimaginative. Several of the
songs outstay their welcome,
floating past casually without
giving the listener anything to
hang on to. Even some of the
faster songs begin to sound suspiciously similar to each other.
Despite having previously
dabbled in other genres, ‘Love
Travels At Illegal Speeds’ plays
it safe throughout: the only real
variation is between fast and
slow. Coxon’s inherently repetitive style does not detract too
much from the overall success
of the album, however you may
find yourself skipping past one
or two of the calmer songs after
a couple of listens.
Photo by Alice Clough
Album Reviews
Regina Spektor
was incredibly high, including
livesets from S>Range, Fromen,
Ory and Voice of Cod – all on the
Liquid Records label. S>Range in
particular blew the floor away with
his sci-fi inspired psytrance, full
of clean, pounding bass lines and
Love Travels at
Illegal Speeds
The Research
Breaking Up
I DISCOVERED The Research
in 2004, and soon after I put
them on at my club night.
They’re from Wakefield (not
Leeds: they get very tetchy
about that).The lead singer,
Russell (THE DISASTER)
Searle, plays a Casio keyboard
which can sound like a creepy
circus organ, or pub organ, or
an Amstrad/Spectrum game
like ‘Jet Set Willy’ (can anyone think of a time before
laptops?). Georgia has black
hair, plays bass and sings.
Sarah has blonde hair, an
elfin face, and ‘does a Karen
Carpenter’ – singing and playing drums. But instead of saying The Research are ‘twee’,
‘cute’, or even ‘cute-sey’, let’s
call them ‘conflicted’, ‘addictive’
and ‘fit’.
Under the happy ‘ooh-la lala’s, there’s a hint of dry, bitter
wit. You could take lines such
as “I bet if I put my mind to
it I could love you” in a number of ways. Whether Russell
is charming or insulting his
muse, you don’t know. But he
knows what he likes in women:
“Everybody says you’re a heartless cow, but I say yeh yeh that’s
what I’m talking about”.
The harmonies on Breaking
Up sound like early Beach Boys,
the hooks are out of Motown,
the girls’ vocals from an English
Galaxie 500, with heartache
courtesy of Jonathan Richman
and blokes who can’t get love
right, and an outlook of acidbitter-cola-bottle-sweetness
from Jim O’Rourke’s classic
break-up album Insignificance.
The high point is “I Love
You, But…”, which would be
top of the pops were it not
for an expletive. You can hear
the chorus across playgrounds
and bars alike: “I love you,
but I’m scared of fucking up”.
They are soon to play at
Vice magazine’s own pub, The
Old Blue Last – an endorsement that will see the band
drag new dance-moves out of
any East-Londoner who isn’t
out solely for the house of
cool. Whatever your relationship status. Breaking Up has
never been such a thrill.
Simon Pomery
WHEN GRAHAM Coxon
released
‘Happiness
In
Magazines’ in 2004 it was
a major turning point of
his career. After earlier solo
albums troubled with unexcitement, lead single ‘Freakin’
Out’ proved to the public that
they should still care about
Graham Coxon now that
he was safely away from the
clutches of Damon Albarn.
When contrasting ‘Happiness
In Magazines’ with Blur’s
‘Think Tank’ it quickly became
clear just how much his old
mates still needed him.
If you bought ‘Happiness
in Magazines’ then you know
exactly what you are going
to get from ‘Love Travels At
Illegal Speeds’. The album kicks
off with fantastic first single
‘Standing On My Own Again’,
an irresistible power-pop gem
flavoured with Coxon’s patented messy riffs and bawling vocals. Much of the album
continues in the same vein, a
union of The Buzzcock punk
Wil Mossop
February 9, 2006 The Cambridge Student
23
Live Review: Belle and Sebastian - February 2
A HECKLER at the back of
the Corn Exchange sounds off:
“I can’t hear what you’re saying”; lead-singer Stevie replies,
“But it sounds like poetry,” and
it is somehow impossible not
to be charmed. Belle and the
Sebastian speak to a particular
part of my adolescence. Not the
part that shouted at my parents when they wouldn’t let me
paint my bedroom black, but
the nicer part that came a little
later and liked decorating folders with rainbow stickers and
volunteered to help in a Care
Home (and went twice).
The gig is peppered with
frequent calls for lighting
changes, and it’s impossible to
tell whether it’s part of the
show, or the band are really that
unconcerned with maintaining
a veneer of cool aloofness – the
one they’ve never really had…
There’s something about
B&S, a certain normality perhaps, which reminds me of
the Magic Numbers – infinitely huggable, but somehow
more intelligent. The lights are
shone directly into the audi-
ROWAN HUPPERT
ence, revealing faces framed,
for some obscure reason, by
countless little woolly hats, as
the show joyously descends into
a free forum for requests.
Much of the gig was a little like listening to the voice
of God: whilst I could hear
Belle and Sebastian, I was not
permitted to look upon them.
They break off the set and contemplate the male-female ratio
of the audience, and accordingly request that all men crouch
down on the floor, and suddenly all is clear, though the
lights are a little blinding. B&S
are ever an equal-opportunities
band, and they are terribly nice
with it.
Indeed, ‘Nice’ is a word
that adequately sums it up.
The greatest controversy of
the gig was requests for Boy
with the Arab Strap: “we agreed
not to play that for a while,”
they admit awkwardly. Whilst
B&S are inoffensively delightful, they are, for the most part
not dancing music (despite the
presence of a certain hardcore
who refused to be deterred by
the restrictions twee pop can
sometimes place upon expression of movement). During
Funny Little Frog the Corn
Exchange erupted into a giant
field of plastic sunflowers, the
ones with shades and guitars
that people put on the top of
their stereos in the early 90s,
heads happily bobbing around
in time to the music. Oh the
innocent pleasures of the average
B&S fan: we are such funny little frogs.
Vicky Flood
Live Review: Mew - February 5
THERE ARE a few things
that need to be out in the
open before this review can
properly begin. Firstly, Mew
have appa l l ingly bad ly rics (“Tall, just like a giraffe,
you have to climb to find it’s
head”), and equally horrible
song titles (‘Apocalypso’, ‘She
Came Home For Christmas’).
In fact everything about Mew
can pretty much be summed
up as ‘weird’, from the singer’s
voice (approximately 15 keys
higher than his nearest rival),
to the live visuals (featuring,
amongst other oddities, cats
in military uniform playing
the violin). But none of this
should detract from the undeniable fact that Mew are absofuckin-lutely INCREDIBLE
live.
Opening with the pop genius of recent single ‘Special’,
Mew are sounding heavier
and more melodic than ever.
But the music is just one
part of the Mew experience.
The band perform in front of
blinding white lights which
throb in time with powerful
basslines, and projected onto
the wall are impressive visuals dreamt up by singer Jonas.
All this light from behind
leaves the band lurking in the
shadows, which is probably
where Jonas feels most comfortable. He has a bizarrely
mesmerising stage presence,
keeping his feet firmly rooted
to one spot, only ever making slow calculated glances
upwards. These timid movements are in stark contrast
with his powerful, unfaltering voice which reaches pierc-
ing heights that most of us
couldn’t have dreamt of managing even before puberty.
Most of the set consists of
songs taken from recent release
‘A nd T he Gl a s s H a nde d
Kites’, a concept album which
can only ever be described
as ‘prog’. But while on CD
this is a true masterpiece,
there are only a few tracks
which really blow you away
when performed live. All the
best songs during the set are
taken from 2003’s ‘Frengers’
(Mew’s British debut), with
‘SheSpider’ and ‘Am I Wry?
No’ sending shivers down the
spine in particular. The band
manage to f low the songs
t o g e t h e r s e a m l e s s l y, à
la ‘And the Glass Handed
Kites’, with only occasional
breaks allowing for some less
than inspiring between song
banter (“This next song is a
bit dancey, so errr… you can
dance to this one”). But it
doesn’t matter, for this band
is clearly not about the banter, and certainly not about
the lyrics: it’s all about the
audio-visual assault of their
performance. For this reason
‘Comforting Sounds’ is the
perfect set closer, its perpetual crescendos leaving the
audience in a state of awe, and
reminding everyone exactly
why they came.
Wil Mossop
Why-pod: the future of our parties?
EV ERYON E K NOWS ipods: the me-box, that corporate-linked music grinder, that
highly convenient method of
portable music that complies
with the digitalised internet-led
future. But do they really know
i-pods?. Last year, around late
March, “trend-watchers” (such
as David Rowan in The Times),
highlighted a new trend bringing DIY back to the dance floor
that stretched ‘from Melbourne
to Manchester’. What the hell
was going on? Fears of a U2sponsored black and red takeover of the free-capitalist-youth’s
good night out abated when
it became apparent what was
going on. Monthly clubs such
as Playlist in North London and
www.ipod-dj.com harnessed the
i-pod to the clubbing scene as
early as 2004, allowing punters
to bring their i-pods along, and
have their precious minutes of
fame. Wannabe DJs could play
fifteen minutes of their “fave”
records and let everyone else
deal with that slightly uncomfortable feeling that arises when
having to listen to someone
else’s music. Worse, there were
panels of ‘volunteer drunken
judges’ who beerily decided who
the best DJs were: if you didn’t
‘cut it’, they ‘hooked you off’.
I’m surprised it didn’t feature in
Nathan Barley.
OK. So they meant well.
Www.ipod-dj.com even has an
ethical slant: ‘Music matters;
it’s the way we use it that is
changing. It’s not genres that
count, its great tunes; not uniform taste but diversity, art
meets individualism’. Wise
words, take heed. But can you
actually imagine dealing, to pick
an example, with an apparent
transvestite whose own musical creation lasts around eight
minutes before groans from the
crowd force the judges to call
“Next!”. And I didn’t just make
that up, before an irate letter
from the LGBT club wings it’s
way into the TCS mailbag: this
was but one of February’s participants at Playlist.
An isolated trend you might
think, but apparently such clubs
now operate in New York,
Philadelphia, Paris, and recently up and down Britain, reflecting regional music tastes. Clubs
in the North have (predictably)
a Mancunian, indie-leaning
emphasis in their variations,
whereas London leans to mash-
ups and house music orientated
affairs. There’s a very specialist
dissertation somewhere in that.
But allow me my cynicism for
the idea that these parties will
become the future.
Soulwax wrote in a song that
“everyone wants to be the DJ”.
But not everyone wants to listen. Discounting the generic
Cindies-type clubbing (which
contrary to popular opinion is
not clubbing at all, but a macabre dance of the pissed-up in
honour of musical banality),
i-pods haven’t, and won’t, be
taking over the dance floors
unilaterally. They’re too annoying. I own one, and it annoys
me. Alongside the usefulness
of having all my music in one
place, the possibility of expanding my music collection and
taste, and the sheer delight in
cheating artists out of a living, there lies a nagging feeling
that I’m being cheated. Let’s
talk formats. “Video killed the
radio star”, sang Buggles on
MTV, and how much they
knew. My point is that vinyl,
the heart of every real DJ, will
never die, even though it may
be encroached on by the CD,
which in turn is encroached on
by the MP3. I-pods may proliferate to amazing popularity, as
demonstrated by the eponymous
black shadows that always have
them on the adverts. But the
heart of every party? Really!
At the risk of descending
into an angsty, paranoid rant,
founded on a tedious anticorporate message (see rest
of article), who really can be
arsed with what is essentially
another fad?
Maybe I just don’t understand its relevance. Clubbing
is designed to enjoy the music
you want to listen to, entailing for many the use of drugs
and alcohol. But the sheer
contrived nature of a night
out based on a concept such
as this beggar’s belief. I-pod
parties have a place no doubt
- in the bedrooms of hipsters
and stoners, and of course in
those shared gatherings of no
more than 10 people in a room
where alcohol is present. But
down in the Kambar, covered
in grease-black security paint?
Wouldn’t be very fashionable
then… And besides, if I’m not
there on principle, it can’t rightly be called a party…
Brian D Cantwell
24
Fashion
The Cambridge Student February 9, 2006
Love me, love my clothes
Valentine’s gestures come in all
shapes and sizes. Unfortunately, so
do secret admirers. Harriet Walker
gets just slightly bitter about the
black hole of taste that is Valentine’s Day...
C
ommercial strategists sell this holiest of days as an occasion when
everybody looks good naked. Shops
are crammed with sexy basques
and posing pouches, not to mention whipped
cream and strawberries. Of course, there will
be a small minority who give in to their carnal
urges and purchase a gummy bear thong, but
for the rest of us it’s time to make Valentine’s
Day classy again.
Be well-heeled, in terms of behaviour and of
footwear. An ill-considered lewd joke will ruin
a tender moment; similarly, a stinky old pair of
trainers will detract considerably from a romantic embrace. Imitate old Hollywood glamour
Photographer and
Stylist:
Lucy Allen
Model:
Anna Keyes
Anna
wears top, Coast, £45,
skirt, Gap,
£29.50,
necklace, Harriet Kelsall
Jewellery,
£49,
Tights, Topshop,
£7,
shoes,
model’s own.
Let’s hear it for
the boys
Fiona Roberts does fashion for the men
M
en, it has to be
said, never have
it easy when it
comes to fashion.
Trousers an inch too high and
they’re condemned as Simon
Cowell, yet most attempts at
something approaching style
and they’re immediately suspected of being gay. Worst of
all though, is the male plea
for ignorance; claiming not to
care what they look like, men
will quite happily tug on a
pair of joggers (even the word
invites wincing) last washed
in 1998, topped off with a
greying school t-shirt, and
consider themselves ready for
any occasion. It’s about time
they were shaken out of their
complacency and their eaude-garçon infused trainers.
A large part of the problem
is psychological; male style is
far too often associated with
David Beckham’s now infamous sarong or, worse, the
flamboyance of Elton John.
And although Brad Pitt can
get away with shoving on last
night’s ripped jeans and little else, for most Angelina
Jolie-less guys, more effort
is required. It’s not difficult
to find inspiration; you don’t
have to be Jean-Paul Gaultier
to pick up GQ or, if you must,
FHM, for some much-needed
style tips, but if you’re unwilling to progress further than
the pages of TCS, here’s a
sixty second guide on how to
avoid an appearance on What
Not to Wear.
Sportswear, as a rule, has
to be ditched, and left where
it belongs; in the mysterious
world of the boys’ changing
room. Instead of dingy Adidas, try the equally comfortable but far funkier Converse,
and swap holey, slowly dying
trackies for a pair of decent
jeans. Boxers are good to see,
but, please, only the tops;
publicising the whole bum is
the preserve of builders and
should remain so.
Tight white t-shirts may
look wonderful on a Spanish
underwear model called José,
but for anyone else, replace
them with the sexiest thing
a man can wear, unless it’s in
Hawaiian print; a really wellcut shirt. Teamed with a blazer, you can’t go far wrong, but
go careful if you add a jumper;
stay the right side of preppy
and avoid pink, yellow or a
buttoned-up collar.
It’s not hard for a man in
2006 to possess style; magazines and shops cater more
and more for that growing
breed, the fashionable male.
And style doesn’t necessarily translate as expensive,
effeminate or, worse, David
Beckham; if you’re unwilling to relinquish your ‘alpha
male’ status, bear in mind
that, along with the ability
to cook, being able to dress
is infinitely more attractive
than a ten minute explanation of the offside rule. And
as for the world’s twin evils,
Burberry and the dreaded
socks-and-sandals
combo;
just don’t. Please. For the
good of us all.
and get ladylike in this season’s pencil skirts and
round toed stilettos. Boys, make like Cary Grant
and get yourself a trilby under which you can
hide diamond necklaces for your lady love.
On the presents front, nothing says ‘I love
you’ to a girl like some scarlet lace underwear
and a nurse’s costume. At least, that what the
gents seem to think. Boys, be subtle and think
feminine rather than FHM – Topshop has
some great heart shaped beads at the moment,
which err on the right side of schmaltzy. Gorgeous jewellery is classic, whether it’s funky or
understated. And flowers will never get boring.
Meanwhile ladies, this is your opportunity to
make him read / wear / listen to whatever he
has refused recently. He can’t say no to S Club 7
when it’s a gift.
Naturally, there are some of us who won’t be
receiving anything on the 14th February. I won’t
lie – you will feel abnormal and inadequate. You
will wonder what you have done wrong and
whether you need a face transplant. Buy yourself
a present, and congratulate yourself on not falling for cheap marketing ploys that turn love into
an economic entity. Be happy alone, and buy a
romantic film that will make you cry. Of course,
there are more, shall we say, ‘stimulating’ purchases available for the lonely Valentine’s victim
- you’ll find them right next to the gummy bear
thongs.
February 9, 2006 The Cambridge Student
25
26
The Cambridge Student February 9, 2006
Listings
Film
To list your event here email [email protected]
Theatre
Music & Ents
Comedy Club: “The Thursday Night Live
Show”
Minimum of three live acts + compere.
Thursday 9 February
8pm, Footlights Bar and Restaurant, the Grafton
Centre
Robinson Film Society
City of God
Thursday February 9
Robinson College Auditorium
9pm, £2
Pride and Prejudice
Sunday February 12
Robinson College Auditorium
6pm and 9pm, £2
St John’s Film Society
Touching the Void
Thursday February 9
9pm, Fisher Building, St John’s College,
£2.50
Pride and Prejudice
Sunday February 12,
7pm and 10pm Fisher Building, St John’s College
£2.50
Bash - Three plays by Neil Labute
Presented by the Pembroke Players
11pm ADC Theatre
Until Saturday 11 February
Thu £4/£3, Fri & Sat £5/£4
‘Losing It’ by Ranjit Bolt
Until Saturday February 11
9.30pm Corpus Playroom
‘Another Country’ by Julian Mitchell
ADC Theatre
7.45pm 7th- 11th Feb
Tue - Thu £7/£5, Fri & Sat £8/£6
Bedbound by Enda Walsh
Pembroke New Cellars
11pm, Tuesday 14 to Saturday 18 February
£4
Applications for
Employment at
Pembroke June Event
- 21.06.2006
For more information,
or to apply visit
www.pembrokejuneevent.com/
staff
Deadline for applications:
23.02.2006
Societies
Cambridge Series Poetry Readings
Alice Notley/Anthony Barnett/Ralph Hawkins
Thursday February 9
8pm, New Music Room, First Court
St John’s College
£3/2 donations hoped for
Cambridge Inter-Collegiate Christian Union
IDENTITY
Jesus asked ‘Who do you say I am?’ Luke 9v20
6th-11th February
EVENING TALKS
8pm St Andrew the Great Church
Thursday 9 - Saturday 11 February
CUSU “Students’ Question Time”
Speaker: David Howarth MP - ‘How I Have
Represented You in Westminster so far...’
Friday 10 February
8pm, McCrum Lecture Theatre, Corpus Christi
(behind the Eagle pub)
Admission free
Transport for London
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a modern, responsive service for everyone who uses the network.
To find out more, visit our stand at The Works Careers Fair today in the
Examinations Halls, The New Museums Site, Pembroke Street,
Cambridge.
To apply visit www.tfl.gov.uk/graduates
We want to be as diverse as the city we represent and
welcome applications from everyone, regardless of
gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, faith or disability.
MAYOR OF LONDON
February 9, 2006 The Cambridge Student
27
Sport
Cambridge take revenge on Trent Golf
Rugby
Cambridge
Nottingham Trent
Kirsten Sibbit
WITH VARSITY looming in
the not too distant future, the
Cambridge University Women’s
Rugby Team is approaching
every match as a chance to refine
the game plan, and for its players
to stake their claim for a place in
the Blues starting line-up. The
first BUSA match of the term
was, therefore, an important
match, against the only team to
have beaten the Cambridge side
this season, Nottingham Trent.
Feeling more confident than
their former selves, and with
a strong team on the field,
Cambridge took the game to
Trent and thoroughly dominated what should have been a
tough encounter. Scoring four
Rowing
Gillian McFarland
LAST SUNDAY CUWBC
triallists travelled to Henley
upon Thames, the venue for the
women’s boat race v Oxford on
the 1st April. With just over 7
weeks now remaining until the
big race, the day was intended to
provide some good opportunities for practice races between
the Cambridge boats. A warmup outing was followed by two
side-by-side races between the
heavyweight A and B crews. By
the time the races were due to
start, the weather conditions were
22
0
tries, Cambridge won the game
22 points to nil.
The game began with
Cambridge in the ascendancy.
The fact that Trent had been
victorious months before only
made Cambridge more determined to win the contest, and
to win it well. Some powerful
running directly from Trent’s
kick-off put Cambridge firmly
into the opposition half, and this
is where they stayed. The first
period of pressure was turned
into points not long into the
game. Despite a missed attempt
at goal, Cambridge received
another penalty which was
kicked to touch about 10 metres
out. A well-taken lineout and
drive put the forwards into a
good position for Kirsten Sibbit
nearly perfect and a number of
spectators were watching from
the bank. The course was 1500m
- just 500m short of the actual race. Both boats raced well,
with the A crew, unsurprisingly
coming out ahead each time.
Training now continues back
in Ely at the relentless pace of
12 sessions a week for both the
heavy and lightweight crews, and
further trips are planned to the
Head of the Trent in Nottingham
and Women’s Head of the River
Race on the Tideway. Each of
these sessions, both on and off
the water, takes Cambridge even
closer to fulfilling their dream of
winning all 3 boat races against
the dark blues come April fool’s
day.
to roll off the maul and score the
first try of the afternoon.
The second and third tries
came before half time as
Cambridge dominated their
opposition all over the pitch.
After another successful lineout
in the opposition 22, the ball
made its way out to the wing,
where Kosi Abdulai sprinted
toward the try line to score on
her return from injury. Trent
tried to get back into the game,
but despite some invasive kicking from their fly-half, they were
unable to convert any pressure
into points. They were unable to
win the ball back in the rucks,
and Cambridge’s lineout was so
solid they were unable to compete, often losing their own ball
to the hands of Herbie Cooper.
The opposition defence was unable to cope with the running of
backs and forwards alike and
Cambridge exploited this, cleverly picking holes in the line.
Cambridge’s third try came from
a surging set of runs culminating
in fly half Kim Stephens breaking a series of tackles to score in
Pentathlon
Jon Wright
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY
modern Pentathlon Club competed at Millfield School in a
Tetrathlon of air pistol shooting, a 3km run, fencing and a
200m swim. The competition
ranged from GB team members
to complete novices. In the shoot,
women’s captain Sabrina Verjee
and Ailanore Harper led the way
with impressive scores, whilst in
the run men’s captain Jon Wright
battled Cardiff University’s Toby
Ryan to come in at 9min 56.
The fencing provided an excel-
the corner. The second half continued in much the same way.
Trent’s influential fly half and
full back were unable to cause
any damage due to the hardworking Cambridge defence.
Throughout the half Cambridge
showed flashes of class, with
both the forwards and the backs
stringing together flowing passing moves. Cambridge got the
ball to within 5 metres of the
try line, and after a series of
forwards drove for the line to
no avail, the ball was popped to
Jo Bradley who rushed through
a gap to score her first try for
the University. This revenge for
the previous defeat at the hands
of Nottingham Trent showed
the best of the Cambridge side,
especially the versatility inf players and skills. As well as doing
what they did best, the backs
rucked the ball brilliantly, and
the forwards created try-scoring opportunities with efficient
passing moves. With another
month to improve, Cambridge
are confident that Varsity victory
can be theirs.
lent example of overcoming difficulties, with equipment problems and lack of organisation,
although it eventually provided
notable results for Nick England
and Dan James. The swim provided a show case for the competitors of Millfield School and
CUMPC were unable to keep up
with heat after heat of national
level swimmers. Even so, competitors produced several times
close to their personal best, with
Cat Wilson beating her previous best time by several seconds.
CUMPC athletes won both the
senior males (Dan James) and
females (Sabrina Verjee) and
came second in the junior age
group events (Jon Wright and
Cat Wilson).
James Nierinck
LITTLE IS known by the average Cambridge student about
the activities of the Cambridge
University Golf Club. Apart
from the odd raucous formal
during the week, the University
golfers are rarely seen to stray
from the comfort of their
home, Royal Worlington
and Newmarket Golf Club.
However, the CUGC is one of
the most active sports clubs in
Cambridge, playing 46 clubs
across the country, and one university. Oxford.
After a heavy defeat at the
hands of a strong Sunningdale
team last weekend, the Blues
Team, captained by Duncan
Reid (Fitzwilliam), travelled
firstly to Woking Golf Club
on the Saturday and then onto
West Sussex Golf Club on the
Sunday, in search of the second
win of the Lent term.
Having halved the morning
foursomes and lunched well,
Cambridge narrowly lost the top
three singles games. However,
a lower order comeback, with
notable wins from Ed Zaayman
(Magdalene), Chris Bellingham
(Christs), Gerald Powell
(Churchill) and James Nierinck
(Sidney Sussex), who birdied
the last to win one up, allowed
Cambridge to salvage a half, the
final result being 7.5-7.5.
On Sunday the blues then
travelled south to Pulborough,
the home of one of the finest
heath-land courses in country,
the West Sussex Golf Club.
The blues again struggled in the
early morning foursomes, finding themselves a point down at
lunch. However, an afternoon
fightback seemed a real possibility as Amir Habibi (Queens),
Chris Bellingham and Duncan
Reid all won handsomely, all
shooting level par or better.
Unfortunately the University
was held off by a strong West
Sussex team, littered with experienced Sussex County men’s
players, loosing by a single point
9.5-8.5.
Blues flying high after services win
James Fish
THE ANNUAL f ixtures
between Cambridge’s Blues
sides and Britain’s armed forces provide the student journalist with a most convenient
selection of puns from which
to draw. Since last weekend’s
meeting of Cambridge’s footballers and the Royal Air
Force was the final game for
the Blues in the ‘Services
Series’ it seems fair to treat
the interested reader to a punless effort. There will be no
wings clipped here, though
a high class Blues performance was good enough to provide a thrilling win at R.A.F.
Cosford.
Two and a half hours on
the road gave Cambridge
plenty of encouragement to
not spend the return journey
pondering what might have
been, and this encouragement
manifested itself in an early
defensive ferociousness early
on. Cambridge fought hard for
the ball all over the pitch, but
could not prevent the R.A.F.
from getting f irst sight of
goal, as a driven effort from
the edge of the box required
an excellent goal-line clearance from centre-back Nick
Pantelides to keep the scores
level. Whilst the alarm bells
rung occasionally in the
Cambridge defence, ominous
clouds were gathering over
their R.A.F. counterparts.
Brendan Threlfall and Alex
Mugan led an attacking line
that threatened a deluge of
goals at any point, and both
came close in the opening
minutes.
On f ifteen minutes that
forecast proved accurate, as
the increasingly composed
Blues linked a move down
the left to provide Threlfall
“
with the space to release
Girtonian Mike Dankis into
space on the right. The selfstyled ‘Danger Dankis’ took
his first touch a little wide
before rif ling a superb finish
into the bottom corner from
twenty yards. The Blues grew
in confidence with the lead,
putting their opponents under
increasing pressure and providing truth in the adage that
when it rains, it pours. Five
minutes later, Mugan caught
the R.A.F. keeper on the ball
to steal a simple goal from
f ive yards, and despite the
Air Force’s rolling substitution policy and plethora of
players, they could not stem
the f low of goals, as Threlfall
outpaced the defence and cut
the ball back for Mugan to
slot home his second.
The Blues cruised into the
break three goals to the good,
and shouts rang out as the
second half began to maintain the levels of composure,
professionalism and commitment into the second period.
Despite the R.A.F.’s audible
desire to restore some pride,
it took only two minutes
before the Blues won possession in midfield and Mugan
latched on to the loose ball
to beat one and slide home
the fourth Cambridge goal.
Surprisingly, this goal did not
provide the signal for either
side to relax, as the Blues
forwards, ably supported by
the industrious and exciting
James Lockwood in midfield,
continued to press forwards,
only to be regularly thwarted
by the linesman. The R.A.F.
there’ll be no wings clipped here
”
Football
Cambridge
R.A.F.
too stepped up a gear, putting
a sustained pressure on the
Blues backline that required
James Dean in goal to be at
his best to preserve his clean
sheet.
Whilst the Air Force
refused to accept defeat, the
Blues continued to probe, and
Threlfall, whose efforts all
day had deserved a goal, burst
into the box to fire past the
keeper for Cambridge’s fifth,
allowing a rare opportunity
for Blues defenders Pantelides
and Stevenson to play in more
advanced roles than they normally would, as Cambridge
reverted to a relaxed style to
5
0
close out the game.
The f inal whistle completed an excellent result
for the Blues, who go into a
tough week of BUSA competition in search of a place
in the national knock-outs.
The result also bodes well for
Varsity, as the Blues continue
to out-perform their rivals in
the traditional fixtures.
Blues
Versus
R . A .F. :
Dean; Stevenson, Brown,
Pa ntelides ,
Mur phy ;
Dankis, Lockwood, Devine,
Chavkin; Threlfall, Mugan;
Subs, Ellis (on 45) Lalande
(on 45)
28
The Cambridge Student February 9, 2006
Sport
Rugby
Golf
The university
womens’ team flatten Nottingham Trent
opposition. Literally.
Whatever, it makes for
pretty pictures
Page 27
Page 27
Mixed fortunes for Cambridge at BUSA
Tricia Peters battles in to 66th place to put the Cambridge team in 15th overall
Cross Country
an opportunity to do battle
against top universities like
Loughborough and Birmingham
and have a second shot at settling the score with our dark
blue foes. This year the event
Owain Bristow
LAST SATURDAY a large
number of enthusiastic Cantab
runners took part in the annual University Championships,
was hosted by the University of
Stirling and took place in the
green, hilly and somewhat misty
grounds of the campus, overlooked by the William Wallace
memorial.
The first race off was the
Men’s 4km Short Course, the
preferred event for middle-distance cross-country types. Blues
800m runner Steve Benson ran
extremely well in a lightning
fast race to finish 16th, while
fresher and steeplechase specialist Matt Grant placed 32nd of
73, indicating that with further
training he could have a bright
track season ahead. This race was
won by Varsity Cross Country
Champion Jon Blackledge, of
Cambridge Student Crossword no. 13
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Set by Madison
14. The correct ritual? (4)
15. Appearances of pain, a
Tripos examination? (11)
17. Metalworkers upon boy
found in Washington D.C.
(11)
19. Care about Canadian
plant (4)
22. Ruined bins used to
identify books (1,1,1,1)
23. Captain, I have become
a prisoner! (7)
24. Push aside barbarian
found in the street (5)
25. Conifer Street? That’s
at the beginning (5)
26. Hurl 6 balls and remove
4? (9)
DOWN
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ACROSS
1. Touch down on a cricket
ground? They’ll demand
money (9)
4. The Queen, for instance,
often found with a pencil
case (5)
8. Mischievous activity
associated with curries and
other saucy foods (5)
9. Those who work in the
wilderness: Georges and
Jeb, but not Barbara (7)
10. Great Dane isn’t
interesting, we hear (4)
12. Pop duo murdered:
Shot by Popes! (3,4,4)
1. Tree cutters walk heavily
before cards (11)
2. Beloved mammal, we
hear (4)
3. Exaggerated, I have.
After a little bit of cricket
and a newspaper (14)
5. Habitus destroyed to
create Egyptian statues (7)
6. Yemen produces a rival
(5)
8. Mansion where the
French keep cat water? (7)
11. Two donkeys in the
south are killers (9)
13. A nun becomes a
lawyer? She’s a new
addition to the family (62-3)
16. Reveal actors are gay create one who is excluded
from society (7)
18. Writes it down: “Art
galleries banned”?
21. Note a foreign friend is
found in Florida (5)
22. Unit used in Spain,
Chile and Portugal (4)
SOLUTION TO CROSSWORD No. 12
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Oxford.
Next up was the Men’s A
race, 11.3km of savage mudchurning action featuring more
than two hundred and twenty
actors in starring roles. Pride
of place went to Italian superstar Paolo Natali, who finished
17th overall, an improvement
of eleven places on last year.
Matt Armstrong also moved
up around fifty places to finish
strongly in 40th. Will George
came in 36th, despite having
missed the last three weeks
of training due to injury, and
Pat Ward was the last scorer
in 59th. Closely following the
American post grad for much
of the race was Owain Bristow
(66th), and Matt Sims kept up
his recent run of good form to
make his A Team debut in 83rd
place. The team performance
was good enough to achieve the
ranking of sixth best university,
thirty points adrift of Oxford.
Realistically, a bronze medal
was there for the taking, our
efforts thwarted only by illness
and injury.
In the Women’s Long Race,
fresher Charlotte Forbes demonstrated why she is on the
S c ot t i s h Ta l e nt e d Yo u n g
Athletes programme, coming in
as top light blue in 52nd in a
very tough field that included
a number of GB internationals. Blues 800/1500m runner
Claire Day halved her performance from last year to finish
61st and the scoring team was
completed by Varsity 4th placer
Tricia Peters in 66th to give
Cambridge 15th overall out of
36 teams. Women’s Captain
Catharine also dipped inside
the top one hundred, completing the 6.4km course to finish
in 85th place.
The last event of the day
saw one hundred and sixty five
competitors limber up for the
keenly contested Men’s B race,
run in bright sunlight and reasonably warm conditions. The
Cambridge posse performed
very well, ably represented by
three complete teams and gained
the prestige of being the first
non-St. Mary/Birmingham/
Loughborough team to finish,
beating the Oxford second team
out of sight in the process. Top
individuals were Alex “transport dude” McIntosh (21st) and
Diarmuid O’Seaghdha (26th)
with able backing support from
Lee Harper (34th) and Richard
Hewitt (37th). Tom Offord (47th)
and Manx man Andrew Duncan
(49th) broke into the top fifty too,
and in the Varsity Club Captains’
Race 2006, Si Rutherford inflicted a crushing defeat on Oxford’s
Paddy Wallace.
With BUSA now over and
Varsity long gone, the remainder
of the season will see individuals
and institutions duke it out in the
last two college league races. The
next event is the Coe Fen Relays
on February 26th.
Churchill 5 - Downing 1
Hannah Galton
THIS W EEK END saw a
decisive win for Churchill
women over Downing in the
quarter final of the Plate.
Fired up after their 2-1 league
defeat away at the hands of
Downing the week before,
Churchill looked strong and
determined from the outset.
The visiting team put on a sterling performance but they were
clearly missing their unwell
vice-captain Liza Mirelman
and Churchill took advantage,
securing themselves a place in
the semi finals of the Plate
competition.
Wit h D ow n i n g u nde rmanned to begin with, the ladies
in pink and brown pushed forward with several shots at goal
before Saskia Payne, who was
solid throughout, shot home
the first winner from the edge
of the box. Accurate passing
and some good feeds meant
that not long later, Catriona
MacDonald, Churchill’s high
scorer of old, also found the
back of the net. The Downing
defence put up a very good
fight, however, keeping their
heads and avoiding concession
as former captain Nic Kane
took three dangerous-looking
corners in a row.
Staying focused after having seen their half-time lead
against Downing slip away
the previous week, Churchill
maintaining the majority of the
possession, ensuring the play
remained firmly in Downing’s
half. Further goals came from
Tess Khoo who made some
great runs and two more from
MacDonald to complete her
hattrick.
Towards the end of the
match Downing seemed to
shift it up a gear with a couple
of good breaks down the wing.
Their only serious chance came
minutes before the end but a
wide shot sealed Churchill’s
clean sheet. Downing battled
hard but it was Churchill’s day
as a strong team performance
secured their deserved place
in the semi-finals.