Glasgow University

11th May 2009 Scottish Student Newspaper of the Year

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Lecturers
Music Film

University of Glasgow
Student
presidents

ballot on
issue letter
of protest

job cuts
Ross Mathers

SRC PRESIDENT, GAVIN LEE,

Craig MacLellan
GRADUATING STUDENTS FACE
an uncertain summer as univer-
sity lecturers ballot on strike action
over redundancies.
The Universities and College
Union (UCU) has made the move
following anger over a growing
number of proposed redundancies
in higher education institutions,
claiming that one hundred univer-
sities have already signalled their
intention to make job cuts.
UCU are seeking a national
agreement which would ensure that
any institution looking to axe jobs
would have to make the case clearly
and transparently.
The outcome of the ballot could
bring higher education to a stand-
still, as was seen in 2006, when
lecturers boycotted exams, marking
uations of thousands of final-year
university students.
Sally Hunt, UCU General
Secretary, believes that employers
have failed to react to the current situ-
ation, believing that a national agree-
ment is needed to stop job losses and
protect the higher education sector.
She said: “It is the failure of the
employers to react to the growing
crisis that has forced our hand.
“We need to get an agreement
sorted now to stop a wide ranging
cull of academic jobs without proper
alternatives being considered.”
“We remain bewildered that
the employers are opposed to the
proposal which is in the interest
of students, staff and the sector as
a whole.
The action comes whilst negotia-
tions are taking place over a new pay
settlement for lecturers.
has joined with politicians and other
student presidents in condemning
the Scottish Government’s failure to
improve funding.
The open letter, sent to Education
Secretary Fiona Hyslop, detailed
alternative suggestions for student
funding, after a recent parliamentary
consultation resulted in no action.
Signed by representatives from
25 Scottish universities and colleges,
the letter argues that students across
Scotland have been let down by
the Government.
It reads: “We believe the Scottish
Government, by limiting the scope of
its consultation on student support,
has let down students and failed to
listen or react to their needs.
“With student hardship levels
increasing and the economic down-
turn beginning to impact on students,
it is time for a re-think.
“This letter should act as a
wake-up call for Scotland.”
Sir Muir Russell reflects on his tenure at the University In addition to the student repre-
of Glasgow >>Page 4 sentatives, members of the major

“Gloomy” outlook for ’09 graduates

and assessment, threatening the grad- (continued on page 2) (continued on page 2)

A MAJOR NEW STUDY HAS FOUND THAT
final year students are apprehensive about their
employment prospects when they graduate
this summer.
The UK Graduate Careers Survey 2009,
which has conducted interviews with 16,357
final year students, shows that just 36% expect
to find a graduate job on completion of their
degree, with 26% planning to remain at univer-
sity to study for a post-graduate degree.
The research also reveals that the number
of finalists who have already secured a defi-
Craig MacLellan
nite job offer has dropped by a third this year
compared to 2008.
Half also fear that even if they do find
a graduate position, their job offer may be
withdrawn before they begin work or they
will be made redundant during their first year
of employment.
The survey also shows a dramatic fall
in applications for graduate jobs in banking,
finance and property this year, with more
leavers applying for work in the public sector:
teaching; engineering; charity work; and the
Armed Forces.
Martin Birchall, Managing Director of High
Fliers Research, the company which carried out
the research, found that many students are
pessimistic about their chances of securing
employment once they have graduated.
He said: “Our latest survey shows that final
year students due to leave UK universities this
summer are gloomy and frustrated about their
employment prospects.”
Mr Birchall also pointed out that despite
making increased efforts this year, fewer
students have been able to secure employment.
He explained: “Although many students
began their job search earlier than usual and
made an increased number of applications
to employers, noticeably fewer have been
successful in securing a graduate position than
last year.”
However, figures from the Association
of Graduate Careers Advisory Services
(AGCAS), (continued on page 3)
2 NEWS
IN BRIEF
Glasgow falls in
league table
THE UNIVERSITY OF GLASGOW HAS
dropped ten places in this years university
league tables, falling ten places from 16th
to 26th.
The research, compiled by The Complete
University Guide, also sees Glasgow
drop from second to third in the Scottish
league table, having been overtaken by
Edinburgh University.
St Andrews remains the top Scottish
university and is placed seventh nationally.
A spokesman for Glasgow University
warned that care should be taken when
reading university league tables, and pointed
to the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE)
and the current increase in applications as
a better way of judging the University’s
current reputation.
“Most recently, undergraduate applica-
tions to study at University of Glasgow have
leapt up by 14.4% compared with last year.
“The figure is almost double the national
average which is a clear indication that the
outstanding quality of teaching and student
experience offered at Glasgow is widely
recognised among prospective students.”
Glasgow set for
fundraising win
GLASGOW UNIVERSITY’S AMNESTY
International group are leading in this year’s
Amnesty International Raise Off.
The year-long event sees student
Amnesty groups from all over the UK go
head to head, with the university or college
which raised the most money being crowned
winner in June.
As the only Scottish university amongst
the 36 competitors, Glasgow University
is currently in the lead with over £2,500
already raised.
Rachel Laming, President of Glasgow’s
Amnesty group, told Guardian her hopes
of winning.
She said: “We deserve to win as we
have held consistently good, fun, student-
orientated and informative events high-
lighting many of Amnesty International’s
campaigns.
“With the help of the student body we
can win and we can prove that, although
small, Scotland has the potential to come
out on top.”
Camilla Kinchin, Amnesty UK’s
Community Fundraising Coordinator,
recognised Glasgow’s achievement in main-
taining its position ahead of some of the
UK’s most prestigious institutions.
She told Guardian: “The Glasgow group
in particular have been absolutely amazing.
The amount raised this year is exceeding
our expectations.”
news@glasgowguardian.co.uk
Students send “wake-up call” to SNP
(continued from front page)
opposition parties, and the President of the
NUS Scotland, Gurjit Singh, also signed.
Claire Baker, Labour’s Shadow Further
and Higher Education Minister, believes that
the letter highlights the levels of dissatisfaction
with the government’s stance.
She said: “This is a damning indictment of
the SNP’s first two years in power.
“We all stand ready to work together
with the government to deliver for students
who deserve to go through college or univer-
sity without such a heavy financial burden.
The SNP would be foolish to ignore this
clear message”
Gavin Lee, who is also convenor of the
Coalition of Higher Education Students in
Scotland, explained his reasons for signing the
letter to Hyslop.
The Scottish Government
Ballot threatens students’ graduations
(continued from front page)
UCU are looking for an 8% pay rise for its
members, whilst the Universities and Colleges
Employer Association (UCEA) has only offered
a rise of 0.3%.
The UCEA says it is “bewildered” that the
UCU intends to ballot its members.
Jocelyn Prudence, UCEA Chief Executive,
described the campaign for industrial action
as “wholly disingenuous”, as the UCU is
misleading its own members as to the nature
of the ballot.
She said: “Attempts to conflate pay nego-
tiations with scaremongering about local job
losses in the sector are seriously misleading.”
The Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher
Education Staff (JNCHES), which is currently
negotiating the lecturer’s pay settlement, has no
jurisdiction to negotiate or regulate jobs in the
sector, as the employment of staff is a matter
for each higher education institution.
UCEA’s position was supported by Sir
Muir Russell, Principal and Vice-Chancellor
of Glasgow University, who pointed out that
He told Guardian: “Any increase in student
funding is a positive step, but the consulta-
tion has not addressed any of the changes
that are imperative to improving the current
funding system.
“Hyslop has shown contempt for the Higher
Education sector and has poured scorn on
requests for students to be properly supported.
I’d like to see Fiona Hyslop survive on the
£4,510 students are expected to live on
each year.”
Speaking to Guardian, Murdo Fraser, Deputy
Leader of the Conservatives and Spokesman
for Education and Lifelong Learning, justified
his signing of the letter.
He explained: “The Government have allo-
cated some £30million for student support,
but we in the Scottish Conservatives believe
that the way they are proposing to spend it
is misguided.”
The SNP initially promised a shift from a
loans-based system to one focused on grants in
an attempt to alleviate student debt. However
the letter argues that this would have cost at
least £2 billion to implement - of which only
£30 million has been set aside as part of the
consultation that ran from December.
It is now being proposed that the Government
should use this money not to end student debts
after university, but to tackle hardship faced by
students whilst studying.
Gurjit Singh, NUS President, explained
to Guardian why dealing with hardship has
become the priority.
He said: “This is not something the NUS
is leading from – it’s actually coming from our
membership. We are being told time and time
again that students are stuck for cash and need
more money, that they’re facing hardship and
can’t get jobs.”
Margaret Smith, Liberal Democrat
Spokesperson for Education and Young People,
also expressed concern over the issue of student
poverty whilst at university.
UCEA had no jurisdiction in the area of univer-
sity employment.
In an open letter to staff, he said: “UCEA,
the employer’s negotiating body, has no power
to negotiate on this issue [redundancies] because
the number of people a university employs is a
decision for that institution.
“It is difficult to see the mechanism
by which a national dispute on this could
be resolved.”
However, Hunt said that nothing is stopping
the employer’s association from negotiating
an agreement.
She said: “There is nothing to prevent
UCEA negotiating a national agreement to
prevent job losses. In fact, in these exceptional
financial circumstances, we think it is abso-
lutely essential.”
UCU have described the 0.3% pay offer as
‘derisory’, whereas UCEA believe it is “a real-
istic, responsible and credible figure under the
current circumstances”.
The current pay agreement for lecturers
expires at the end of July, a deal under which
11th May 2009
She told Guardian: “I am aware that debt is
an issue of concern for students, and that some
may argue against increasing the burden of debt
on students.
“However, I do feel that forcing students to
live in poverty or to rely on risky and expensive
commercial, credit card-type loans is wrong,
when we could increase their income and avoid
hardship with Government supported loans.”
In particular the letter proposes a guaran-
teed £7000 minimum income for students, a
greater availability of loans and a focus on not
only tackling hardship, but funding for child-
care too.
A spokesperson for the Scottish Government
argues that the inability to deliver a comprehen-
sive reform package is down to lack of avail-
able finances.
She said: “Given the tightest spending
settlement received from the UK Government
since devolution, we have had to make difficult
choices and are focusing on reducing student
debt at source through the many policies we
are introducing to tackle hardship and improve
student support.”
Opposition parties, whilst admitting that the
current financial situation does prevent certain
changes from being enforced, are demanding
that what is available is spent in the best way.
Margaret Smith said: “A full reform of
student support is not possible at this time
we will not be able to ensure the minimum
income guarantee of £7,000 for every student
overnight, not with the money the Government
has set aside.
“This is why we have advocated starting
with the poorest students, supporting those
students currently in receipt of the Young
Students’ Bursary.”
With the closure of the consultation on
student funding, the Government now
plans to review all of the responses with
the aim of announcing a funding decision in
due course.
employees have seen an overall pay rise of at
least 15%.
Prudence believes that the pay demands
of lecturers are unattainable considering the
current financial situation of the country.
She said: “The HE sector is not immune
from the exceptional economic environment.
“Like any other employment sector, HE
institutions can only pay what can be afforded
– meeting immoderate pay demands can only
result in job losses and will not be understood
by students or the general public.”
Sir Muir described the pay demands as
“unaffordable and unrealistic” and believed
strike action would have little support.
He said: “At this time of recession, when
many in the UK are losing jobs, or seeing their
hours and salaries reduced, industrial action
in support of an 8% pay claim will gain little
sympathy from the public and is likely to
damage the reputation of our universities.”
Furthermore, he warned that any staff
taking part in the strike would have their
salaries withheld.
‘The Scream’ comes to Glasgow
11th May 2009 news@glasgowguardian.co.uk NEWS 3

Craig MacLellan
EDVARD MUNCH’S MOST FAMOUS ARTWORK, ‘THE
Scream’, is due to go on display at the Hunterian Art Gallery
this summer.
The print arrives in Glasgow in June as part of a major loan
exhibition from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway.
The exhibition will be the largest of its kind to be exhibited
in the UK for over 35 years and will feature 40 of Munch’s finest
prints, etchings and woodcuts.
The works have been chosen to illustrate his development as
a graphic artist and includes examples of work from throughout
his career.
The show will include the black and white lithograph of
Munch’s ‘The Scream’.
Munch’s two original colour versions of ‘The Scream’ are
no longer lent outside Norway and have been kept under tight
security after the theft and later return of one of the paintings.
This will be the final chance for visitors to see this print
outside Norway, as the Hunterian will be the last ever art gallery
to receive the work on loan.
Other works in the exhibition include his lithographs
‘Madonna’ and ‘Self-portrait’ and the woodcut ‘Melancholy’.
The exhibition is part of a loan agreement that will see
works by James McNeill Whistler, currently on display at the
Hunterian Art Gallery, travel to Oslo.
Mungo Campbell, Deputy Director of the Hunterian Museum
and Art Gallery, believes that the exhibition demonstrates the
influence carried by the gallery.
He explained: “This is truly a unique opportunity and
would not have come about without the extraordinary inter-
national reputation of the Hunterian for its collections and
exhibition programme.
“Munch is one of the very few artists whose work can be
truly said to be globally recognised; they are images that belong
to us all and, whatever your interest in art, this is a unique oppor-
tunity to engage with these masterpieces on your doorstep.
“Much of his influence as an artist has come down to us
through his printmaking; these are often the most powerful
versions of his most widely recognised images.”
Magne Bruteig, Senior Curator of Prints and Drawings at
the Munch Museum, Oslo, also believes that the Scottish people
will benefit greatly from the exhibition.
He explained: “Many people worldwide find something
meaningful and fascinating in Munch’s art – I believe the Scots
will too.
“He was a groundbreaking graphic artist, developing further
the work of Whistler in this medium.
“Since the Scottish public should be well acquainted with
Whistler, it will hopefully appreciate a key figure of the next
generation of graphic artists.”
Mr Bruteig also explained that Glasgow would be the final
city to host ‘The Scream’ as it will no longer be allowed to be
displayed outside of Norway after concerns were raised that the
travelling could cause damage.
He said: “All our Scream works are executed on paper or
cardboard, which are light sensitive materials. To protect them
from further damage due to light exposure, our policy now is
that none of these works should be shown outside the Munch
Edvard Munch, 'The Scream', 1895, (Munch Museum, Oslo)
museum in the future.” (c) Munch Museum/Munch - Ellingsen Group, BONO,
The exhibition, which is expected to attract in the region of Oslo/DACS, London 2009
30,000 visitors, will run from June 12 until September 5.

SRC by-election sparks interest Uncertain future

Sarah Smith
THE BY-ELECTION FOR A NUMBER OF
positions on the Student Representative Council
(SRC) took place on May 6, with eight students
elected in total.
The SRC was forced to hold a by-election
after the elections in March resulted in a lack of
interested candidates.
With this in mind, President of the SRC,
Gavin Lee, was delighted with the level of
participation and interest sparked by the elec-
tion this time.
He said: “Considering the timing of the
by-election in the midst of exams, and the
weather on polling day, we are pleased with the
number of voters. We were especially pleased
with the number of candidates standing in the
election, and the level of debate and discussion
they provided.
Students voted to elect new officers for
Charities, Women’s Interests, Students with
Tom Bonnick
Disabilities, Mature Students and LGBT
Students. There were also two convenor posi-
tions available, for the Engineering Faculty and
for postgraduates.
The election that saw the most competi-
tion was that for the position of Vice-President
(Media and Communications) with five students
standing. This election also received the highest
number of votes, with a total of 650 cast. Jim
Wilson won by almost 50% with 323 votes cast
in his favour.
Speaking to Guardian, Wilson explained
the factors that he think helped him to win by
such a margin.
He said: “It was a really chaotic few days
in the run-up to the elections and the weather
wasn’t the best either! I couldn’t have done it
without the help from my friends and all the
other students who voted for me so I really
appreciate all of their support.
“I’ve enjoyed working with the SRC over
the past few years and to be elected as VP
Media and Communications is really exciting.
“It’s going to be a challenging year but
I’m looking forward to developing and
promoting the work of the SRC across campus
and beyond.”
Lee also commented on Wilson’s land-
slide win, adding that, with its newly elected
members, the SRC would be able to continue
to work for students.
He said: “Jim’s result was certainly impres-
sive, and we look forward to working with all
of the Council next year to continue to improve
student life at Glasgow.”
for graduates
(continued from front page)
who surveyed 124 graduate recruiters, found
that employers only predicated a 5.4% decrease
in the number of graduate jobs for 2009.
Furthermore, one third of employers said
that they were still actively seeking applica-
tions from graduate in 2009.
Carl Gilleard, Chief Executive of AGCAS,
was keen to point out that there is still hope for
this year’s graduates.
He said: “As today’s snapshot survey shows,
though there is certainly nervousness amongst
recruiters about the impact of the recession on
their business, not all have shut up shop by any
means and a very significant number are still
looking for bright graduate to take on.”
Linda Murdoch, Deputy Director of
Glasgow University Careers Service, advised
students to remain positive.
She said: “There are certainly going to be
less jobs but there are still lots of jobs.
“Our recession beating tips advise students
not to despair as there are jobs out there – stay
focused, use the Careers Service and come
along to the Summer Graduate Fair.”
Murdoch added that universities are working
with the Government to help support students.
She said: “University careers service
throughout Scotland are pooling their expe-
rience of work with those graduating this
summer and will be meeting with representa-
tives from the Scottish Government this week
to discuss how we can best support graduates in
these challenging time.”
Q&A with Sir Muir Russell
4 NEWS FOCUS news@glasgowguardian.co.uk 11th May 2009

As he prepares to say goodbye to Glasgow University, Sir Muir Russell looks back on six years as Principal and Vice-Chancellor with Sarah Smith

How does it feel to be at the end of your time

at Glasgow University?

It feels as though a lot has been done.

I’m pleased with a lot of the things that have
happened but I’m still working pretty hard. It’s
not one of those things where you can close
down towards the end – there are new chal-
lenges every five minutes and the job is still
absolutely full-time.
In that sense it seems in one way as though
I’m just going ahead quite normally but, of
course, there are things that happen for the
last time. Various things have gone on that
are happening for the last time for me so I’m
conscious of that.

Why have you decided to leave this year?

When I came here I signed up for a six-year

term to take me to when I turned sixty. This is
the end of the term so it just feels the natural
thing to do. I’m not moving on to another
executive job – I’ve been doing things like this
since about 1995, which is quite a long time to
have been doing this sort of thing. It feels right
to retire and move on to a different world.

What do you feel has been your greatest
achievement as Principal?
I’m very proud of the way in which the
whole learning and teaching activity of the
University has developed. When I came I
talked to the interview selection board about
teaching and about the student experience. It’s
been great to see all of the support and profes-
sionalism strengthened there.
Other big achievements have been helping
to get the University more focused with more
direction and more strategy. We’ve developed
a feeling of people really pulling together and
communicating more with the outside world.
I get the impression that people know rather
more about Glasgow University and what it’s
doing so I’m proud about that.
I’m also proud that the University is back in
the black – it had been operating in deficits for
over ten years and it’s now in a position where
it’s much more stable. We now have what we
call a ‘small but sustainable surplus’, which
makes it much easier for people to plan ahead
and make responsible decisions.
Has there been anything you have been disa-
pointed with?
There have been no big failure-style disap-
pointments. When you do a job like this there
are some times when you say ‘I wish that little
thing had happened better’ like if a colleague
misses out on a grant or somebody goes for a
prize and doesn’t win it.
You do think ‘that’s a pity, could we have
handled that better?’ but really the disappoint-
ments are at that kind of level rather than some
big strategic objective that I had that didn’t
work. I hope that doesn’t sound too smug but
things have gone quite well.
What do you feel has been your biggest chal-
lenge?
Getting and sustaining the strategic focus of
the University, remembering what it’s for and
having people operate on a basis that really aims
at the excellence of the teaching and research,
the good facilities and experience. When you’re
doing stuff like that you need to be watching
almost everything that’s happening to make
sure it goes with the strategy. You’re watching
and cajoling and moving things forward all the
time – that’s the essence of the way you go
about it, which is the challenge really.
What is the strategic focus?
The whole strap-line has been ‘building on
excellence’ so we’re saying this was a good
place; let’s make it great. The focus has then
been to drive up standards to make sure that
the focus is on teaching and the student experi-
ence. There has been a tremendous increase
in the number of post-graduate offerings and
that’s part of the business of raising the quality,
standard and content of what we do.
You mentioned your aims to ‘build on excel-
lence’ with a particular focus on teaching.
Earlier in the year, Graduate Teaching
Assistants claimed that they weren’t being
paid enough to ensure quality of teaching.
How have you addressed this?
The essence of the approach has been to
provide proper training and induction in the
techniques of teaching and that’s something
that we will continue to work on. As far as
the issues that the GTAs raised, I know that
the Human Resources people are trying to get
together some of the facts of the background
and the information to work with them there. It
looked quite a complicated set of propositions
about hours and times and what the hourly
rate actually turned out to be and we’ll have to
go through that. I don’t know quite where the
discussions have got to but there are people on
the case.
The UCU have warned that there may be
strike action over job cuts. In 2006 you were
criticised over your handling of the indus-
trial action. What advice would you offer the
new principal if he faces a similar situation?
I think the key thing with actual or potential
disputes is to communicate as clearly as you
can to people and to make sure you tell them
the truth, tell them straight and tell them often.
You must adopt policies that are evidence-
based, defensible and explicable. With the last
industrial action, which was in ’06, the criti-
cism was really about the fact that folk were
being told how it was.
You have also faced recent criticism over
the revelation that you are the highest paid
university principal in Scotland – what is
your response to this?
I don’t decide my pay – a committee decides
it and although I am on that committee for the
purposes of other people’s salaries, when they
are talking about me I am asked to leave. It’s
a completely independent process and they
have evidence of what are the going rates and
the trends across the sector. My salary may be
high in Scotland but it’s well within the normal
University of Glasgow
average for the big universities like us. It’s a
very responsible job: the budget here is about
£400 million; there are pushing 6000 members
of staff; and 24,000 students. It’s quite a big
business with a lot of representational and
corporate activity. There’s a huge amount that
you do in this job so I think it’s a pretty reason-
able salary.
Do you have any advice for your successor,
Professor Anton Muscatelli?
The advice is keep on doing what you’re
doing. He’s been a good principal at Heriot
Watt and he’ll do a good job here. He’s getting
a fair start with a stable foundation that I’m
quite proud to hand on to him.
When you first started was that foundation
not as stable?
I’ve said the things that needed to be done
about strategy and money and some of the
changes that I had wanted see around the excel-
lence in teaching particularly. I wouldn’t say it
was unstable but there were things that needed
to be improved on.
What will you miss most?
People like me say universities are their
people but it’s actually true and it’s been a
great privilege to meet so many folk with so
many ideas. You can fill a room with the most
amazing people and I shall miss that. I will miss
the friendships that come with those relation-
ships. I also like the graduation ceremony and
people saying how proud they are. I’ll miss that
really rather a lot.
11th May 2009
The thorn in China’s side
Flickr: Sirensongs
Hannah Millar marks the 50th anniversary of the Tibetan uprising
M
arch 10th 2009 marked the 50-year anniversary of
the Tibetan uprising against the Chinese occupation.
Tibet, or rather the Tibet Autonomous Region, has
been progressively assimilated into the People’s Republic of
China. Its unique beauty and traditions are little known, as is
their enduring erosion the past 50 years have seen.
In 1949, as the People’s Republic of China was established
with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) at the helm, China
invaded Tibet, asserting its ownership on the remote Himalayan
country. Throughout its history, Tibet has maintained a distinc-
tive linguistic, cultural, religious and ethnic identity to its
Chinese neighbours. In 1951, China promised preservation of
Tibet’s autonomy and political institutions through its Seventeen
Point Agreement but it became clear in the latter half of the
decade that China was not going to honour this agreement.
Fear amongst the Tibetan people that the Dalai Lama, Tibet’s
spiritual and political leader, was to be kidnapped sparked
revolt amongst the populace and on March 10th 1959, 300 000
Tibetans surrounded the Potala Palace in Lhasa, Tibet’s capital.
In the following days, the uprising escalated and tens of
thousands of Tibetans were killed by Chinese forces with
thousands more feared to have died in the subsequent guerrilla
fighting. The Dalai Lama fled to Northern India where today he
remains with the Tibetan government in exile, maintaining his
role as Tibet’s voice in the international arena.
Today the Chinese military is ever present and threatening
in Lhasa. Thousands of Tibetans have attempted the treacherous
journey across the Himalayas in order to escape; many with
tragic consequences. Those who remain are denied basic rights
as the Chinese culture and CCP regime is heavily imposed upon
the Tibetan’s in their own land.
One strategy employed by the CCP has been to move a large
number of the Chinese ethnic group of Han people into the
region. This action means that ethnic Tibetans are a minority in
parts of their own country. The struggle continues behind closed
doors for fear of arrest, torture and even death but recent years
have seen a re-ignition of violence on the streets of Tibet as a
result of what the Dalai Lama remarks as being “long, pent-up
physical and mental anguish.”
The Beijing Olympics in 2008 were an event surrounded
with hype, contention and global media interest. The games
were of particular importance to China in its bid not only to host
a successful Games, but perhaps more so in its desire to present
itself to the rest of the world as a dominant player on the global
stage and to enhance its international regard as a modern, civi-
lised nation. For the people of Tibet and their supporters across
the world, the games provided the opportunity to appeal to the
world and expose the ongoing oppression of a population’s
culture, religion and way of life.
Although received with animosity by human rights activists
across the world, the Olympics themselves are generally deemed
features@glasgowguardian.co.uk
Flickr: sfthqphotos
to have been a success. However, an increase in worldwide
awareness of China’s history and continuing violation of human
rights has been raised, which in the wake of the games has been
reported to be worsening. Despite the further targeting of Tibet’s
population, supporters and foreign journalists, who attempted to
highlight details of the situation, the Olympics provided Tibet
with fresh impetus publicity.
The protests that occurred along the Olympic torch route
prior to the games aroused a unifying spirit amongst supporters
of Tibet and human rights. In Tibet itself, violence started
in Lhasa on the day of the 49th anniversary of the uprising
and spread to regions outwith the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Journalists’ movements were heavily restricted at this time and
no official figures can be placed on those shot, arrested and
imprisoned.
Many have become increasingly frustrated with
the failure in the Dalai Lama’s ‘middle way’ to
make any progress for his people.
The ‘Great Firewall of China’ neatly sums up the intensive
censorship measures and media constraints implemented not
only within China but also enforced upon foreign media outlets.
The Western media continue to bow to the propaganda machine
of the CCP, concealing the plight of Tibetans.
In 2006, it was widely reported that the search engine
Google was adapting its service in China in order to comply
with Beijing’s regulations. This involved censoring what were
considered to be sensitive topics like the issue of Tibet and inde-
pendence and the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre.
Furthermore, earlier this year the Chinese government was
linked to an electronic spy network that had been suspected
of hacking into government computer systems across the
world; Tibetan IT systems of the government in exile reported
a discovery of real-time spyware and extraction of important
documents from the Dalai Lama’s personal office. These find-
ings are contested and China denies the allegations, suggesting
that this may be a tool of a propaganda campaign employed by
the Tibetan government in exile.
Tashi Dhondup Tsering, a Tibetan now living in exile in
Sweden, works closely with Chinese human rights activists
whom he has discovered desire the same rights and freedoms as
the Tibetan people.
He argues that the regime imposed by the CCP has created a
climate of fear whereby the Chinese are so oppressed that they
are unable to express their appetite for change. He asserts, after
speaking to many Chinese citizens, that the Chinese government
are rapidly losing support from their own people and it remains
only those who benefit economically and those who willingly
work in conjunction with the regime who remain loyal advo-
cates for the Chinese communist propaganda.
FEATURES 5
Flickr: sfthqphotos Flickr: d70focus
He said: “Tibetans should keep close relations with the
Chinese human rights and freedom fighters because we both
want the same thing – that’s why I think if we work together we
could get freedom for both the Chinese and Tibetans faster.”
As for the future of Tibet, the Tibetans are now torn between
their love for their leader and their lifelong dream for indepen-
dence. Tibet’s Cry for Freedom – a film recently shown at the
Glasgow Film Theatre, as part of the Tibet Film Festival, high-
lights this conflict of belief.
Many have become increasingly frustrated with the failure
in the Dalai Lama’s ‘middle way’ to make any progress for his
people. The ‘middle way’ proposed by the Dalai Lama seeks to
negotiate with China for the recognition of Tibetan autonomy in
association with the People’s Republic of China.
Tashi openly admits; “I don’t mind to have just recognized
autonomy, as long as the Chinese Government don’t bother us,
but in my heart I want full independence.” This opinion seems
to be shared by so many Tibetans who would rather settle for the
lesser degree of freedom than simply remain under occupation.
The situation between Tibet and China is just one example
of many strained relations between world nations; where one
ideology asserts a sense of superiority over another and gradu-
ally destroys a people, their land and their culture. However, as
China’s dominance in the world economy continues to expand, it
appears that no international law or foreign state will, or is able
to, intervene in their domestic regime.
The future of Tibet looks to remain firmly in the hands of the
Chinese government. The wealth that Tibet is bringing to China
through its mineral resources was a catalyst for the 1949 inva-
sion and its continued development and exploitation of resources
is altering an environment that once brought sustenance into a
landscape of destruction. As the Dalai Lama has commented, the
reality of today’s world is that sometimes money and power are
more important than ethics or principles.
It has been assumed that China believes that the ‘problem’
of Tibet will simply disappear with the death of the Dalai Lama,
now aged 73, but the Tibetans in exile remain confident that
the reincarnation of the Dalai Lama will continue to lead the
Tibetans in exile and those who remain on their land to regain
their autonomy once again.
Tashi told me that the younger generation are emerging
stronger and more defiant for a future of full independence for
Tibet and so the struggle will not end. China’s actions may have
had physically destructive effects in Tibet but it cannot destroy
the memory and spirit of a people and their legacy.
Tashi’s final words to me encompass the undying spirit of the
people on the roof of the world when he states: “We will get our
freedom but the only question is when. It will take time but we
will get our freedom back with the support from people around
the world. India got its freedom after 100 years of Occupation, I
do believe that we will get our country back one day.”
In and out of print: th
6 FEATURES
Tom Leonard, who retires as Professor of Creative Writing in September, r
I
t’s forty years ago in 1969 that I was student editor of
Glasgow University Magazine and attempted to publish in
its pages a little group of dialect poems I had newly written
called Six Glasgow Poems. But the university printer
refused to print them, probably because the language used by the
characters in the poems included swearwords. So I xeroxed the
poems onto sheets using the SRC photocopying machine, and
put Six Glasgow Poems as an insert into every single copy of the
new GUM that went out. Shortly after their clandestine appear-
ance between the pages of GUM, the poems were published as
a booklet which went into reprint after a couple of months, and
Six Glasgow Poems have remained in print in one publication or
another more or less ever since.
The poems at the outset met with a strong positive response.
But it was an equally strong negative response from some self-
appointed guardians of the nation’s literary culture that actu-
ally astonished me. Not only were these poems “bad English”
according to these snooty outraged ones, they were “bad Scots”
into the bargain—which apparently was even worse.
I didn’t at all realise the full political nature of what I had
become involved in, and the forces that I had now engaged with
and would be engaged with over the next four decades, about the
hierarchy of different language varieties in Britain in terms of
“It would be a more ethically appropriate
and efficient way of finding out what was
happening in the Middle East if one stuck
one’s head in an aluminium bucket, than it
would be if one listened to the BBC news.
With one’s head in a bucket one would at
least be aware that all one could hear was
silence”
power and status; and the politics of the society that this situation
reflected.
Editing GUM had introduced me a little to the world of
student politics. At any rate I attended a couple of SRC meetings,
though my only memory is of being wholly taken aback by the
way people would stand in a debate and totally slag somebody off,
which accused might be sitting a few yards away nonchalantly
reading a newspaper or talking to a pal. It seemed an extraordi-
nary way of behaving.
Politics as generally understood by the term didn’t mean much
to me at the time, I was much more interested in the exciting
things that had been happening in American poetry in the sixties,
developments that influenced me in finding my own voice as a
writer. I did as editor of GUM try to get some kind of political
debate going about the Middle East, as much to enlighten myself
as anybody else. I let it be known I would give equal space to two
students if they could put the separate Israeli and Arab points of
view regarding the latest events of war there and its aftermath, to
explain what it was all about. Nobody took me up on the offer.
The end of my editorship of GUM after a year was also the end
of my first spell at Glasgow University. I hadn’t passed enough
exams to be able to continue. I loathed the exam system and had
parodied it in a GUM editorial with a collage of quotes implicitly
comparing the university exam system in Literature with one
whereby as one psychologist had written “mental hospitals actu-
ally make people worse, by classifying harmless eccentrics as
lunatics and teaching them the appropriate role behaviour”. Later
I analysed the metaphor “the language of the gutter” and what
attitudes that metaphor stood for and perpetuated.
features@glasgowguardian.co.uk
The culture and linguistic expression of university exams I
thought not only intrinsically and narrowly middle-class in a way
as to make someone like myself from a working class background
feel alienated; it was a structured defence-formation against
the subversion nature of the creative spirit itself: “Being versus
Having, that’s the battle that’s been going on since the year dot;
and every time an artist’s scored to win the match for Being, the
shouts haven’t died down but the critics have equalised. But the
critics still have to fight it out amongst themselves to decide who
scored the equaliser, and the university functions by “training”
people in spotting who did.”
I was trying just to work things out about my own language
and culture and its evident oil and water conflict with the
language and culture of official institutions. Language was a
political matter; I was forced to confront, and to try to articulate
more clearly.
I had begun to be aware of “the news” as the most omni-
present language construction in people’s everyday lives, effort-
lessly forming their casual opinion of what was going on in
“the world”. I began to listen to different broadcasters. With the
outbreak of the Troubles in Ireland, Bloody Sunday found me
comparing the language and choice of words used by different
reporters in different newsbulletins from the BBC, from RTE
— Irish Radio — and from AFN, the American forces network.
Different broadcasters focused on different primary images: one
of a priest trying to save a shot victim, another of crowds suppos-
edly starting the trouble.
The different effects created by these choices were clear
evidence that the notion of an “objective” news presentation was
baloney. A news bulletin was, and is, a language construct. It is
not a sort of vacuum in the aether into which Truth rushes and
sorts itself out in order of moral and political significance. But
that cosy legend has an attractive pull. After all the BBC is the
best broadcasting company in the world. Doesn’t the BBC itself
say so?
I had moved on. I had come to recognise that “managing
the language environment” is a crucial and central function of
government, and that the idea of genuine separation does not
stand up to scrutiny. That trusty old friend, the “objective voice
of truth” had a part to play in instilling confidence, as a poem of
1976 I wrote sent up:
this is thi
six a clock
news thi
man said n
thi reason
a talk wia
BBC accent
iz coz yi
widny wahnt
mi ti talk
aboot thi
trooth wia
voice lik
wanna yoo
scruff. if
a toktaboot
11th Ma
thi trooth
lik wanna yoo
scruff yi
widny thingk
it wuz troo.
jist wanna yoo
scruff tokn.
That was how the poem began. The full poem has been in
the GCSE syllabus in England and Wales now for about nine
years. I sometimes joke when introducing it at readings, that if I
had realised this poem was going to make me the money it has, I
would have written one about the one o’clock news as well.
The English syllabus at least recognises the poem as part of
a debate about the status and power of nonstandard languages in
Britain, of region and/or class; in Scotland it would never have
made it onto the syllabus without disappearing into some sterile
treadmill about “the Scots language”.
“Managing the language environment” reminds me of a trip I
made with my wife and family to the then Soviet Union in 1989,
a year before the Communist system was destined to collapse.
We had a couple of days in Moscow, three days in what was
then called Leningrad, and nine days in Yalta in the Ukraine. The
airport used in the Ukraine was at Simferaporol—the place from
“I sometimes joke that if I had realised this
poem was going to make me the money it
has, I would have written one about the one
o’clock news as well”
where, about 84 years earlier, my wife’s Jewish forebears, on her
mother’s side, had fled the progroms.
We didn’t get the chance to explore Simferaporol. But what
I do mostly remember about that holiday, apart from a visit to
Chekhov’s house, was my attempt in Leningrad to listen to the
hotel radio. From one end of the radio wave band to the other
there was only one station to be heard, which I gathered to be
Radio Moscow. The rest of the band was silent, as creepy and
eloquent a silence as one could ever hear.
How different in our own country. The airwaves awash with
“rolling news”, the most popular radio stations interrupted every
fifteen minutes by “news updates”. It is virtually impossible to
get away from “the news”. Even standing in a bank or post office
queue, a plasma screen as likely as not is likely to be bearing
down on one with the rolling 24x7 output of Sky News, or BBC
24. And yet — what do I hear?
I hear silence.
Recently at a benefit for the displaced and injured in the
bombing of Gaza this January, I told the audience it would be a
more ethically appropriate and efficient way of finding out what
was happening in the Middle East if one stuck one’s head in an
aluminium bucket, than it would be if one listened to the BBC
news. With one’s head in a bucket one would at least be aware
that all one could hear was silence—whereas listening to “the”
news, or reading our valiant Fourth Estate, the real silence about
what was going on would be one of which the reader would be
unaware—indeed presentation would be such as to obscure the
fact that “silence” was the principle most relevant ingredient.
But things have changed, again. We have the Internet, and
there is an amount of power to bypass and even ignore the Official
Word, and the official absence of word. There are other sources of
he politics of language
ay 2009 features@glasgowguardian.co.uk FEATURES 7

recalls his editorship of GUM and gives his views on news reporting
information. Such access one can be certain that some people in
power do not welcome. The criminilisation of such access would
only continue that policy of suppression of dissent whose history
comfortably extends back into the nineteenth century and beyond.
“The Mob” (ie the populace) is not to be trusted. More databases!!
More DNA!!
Always there is the simple decisive courage of ordinary
people, who just will not have it. The courage of the creative
against the negative, of people putting others before themselves,
knowing and believing that all other people are as fully human as
they are. It’s quite a simple thing, in a way.
Such is the example of the Israeli Mordechai Vanunu, who,
being totally opposed to nuclear arms and finding that the nuclear
plant he was a technician in was making them, exposed this state
secret to British journalists. For this he ended up serving eighteen
years in jail, much of it in solitary.
The students of Glasgow University to their great credit
elected him Rector, though he was unable to attend the installa-
tion ceremony in 2005, still being refused permission to travel
abroad. So there was a ceremony of appointment “in absentia”,
his rectorial robe draped over an empty chair. I wrote a poem
for the occasion and read it from the platform. I dedicated it to
Mordechai Vanunu, but it’s not just about him, it’s about all of us
as human, I think.

Being a Human Being

for Mordechai Vanunu

not to be complicit
not to accept everyone else is silent it must be
alright

not to keep one’s mouth shut to hold onto

one’s job
not to accept public language as cover and
decoy

not to put friends and family before the rest of

the world
not to say I am wrong when you know the
government is wrong

not to be just a bought behaviour pattern to

accept the moment and fact of choice

I am a human being
and I exist

a human being
and a citizen of the world

responsible to that world

—and responsible for that world
8 FEATURES
Past, present and future imperfect
Postmodernism: where did it come from where is it going? James Foley discusses
Six years ago I met my first academic at Glasgow University.
Thinning tousled hair, wonky spectacles, false teeth mysteri-
ously detached from the gums, and wearing a robe that had seen
better days, you might have thought this man was immune to
fashionable considerations. Indeed, if you didn’t know better
you might have thought he’d crashed through the ceiling into
the props department of the latest Harry Potter movie. But on the
contrary, this would-be don was quite the academic dandy, for he
followed postmodernism. Academics have their own crazy fads:
fads of the intellect, not fads of the worldly body.
I was immediately impressed by the bulbous language
of postmodernism, and adopted its vocabulary as my own. I
quickly learned that it was mostly a matter of adding unlikely
prefixes and suffixes to words. So you might have something
like “post-Heideggerian metaphysics” or, if you are feeling
saucy, “phallogocentric rationality”. Some phrases, like “auto-
erotic asphyxiation”, sound postmodern but are not. A PhD
student once ticked me off for using the phrase “repressive
desublimation”, which derives from Herbert Marcuse, who was,
so I was told, “consumed by a Freudo-Marxist problematic”.
A lot of people dismiss postmodernism as a theory that uses
arcane words to describe the detritus of consumer society. If
anyone is to blame for this, it is the postmodernists themselves.
However, the generalisation is unfair as a description of the
theory as a whole. If every theory was assessed by the routinised
habits of its latterday apostles, you would think Marxism was all
about selling papers and Christianity was all about organising
bake sales. ­­Like these worldviews, postmodernism grew up in
specific circumstances that deserve of generous consideration.
The modern ideologies, Marxism and liberalism, share one
feature in common: faith that human reason can overcome super-
stitious idols and administer the world by rational criteria. Both
philosophies claimed to be legitimate heirs to the Enlightenment
tradition. However, remnants of supposedly “pre-modern”
barbarism – war, poverty, religion, sexual violence and oppres-
sion – persisted in human conduct. Paradoxically, as capitalism,
democracy, and socialist politics were entrenched in modern
society, these remnants did not diminish but took on new and
violent forms: nationalism, world war, and finally fascism.
Fin de siècle liberal intellectuals like Sigmund Freud and
Max Weber issued stern warnings about the “return of the
repressed” in mass civilization, while neo-conservatives like
Schopenhauer and Nietzsche revelled in a primordial “politics
of the will”. The disorientation of modern society, and the terror
of “irrational” mass politics, consumed the greatest intellectual
minds of the early twentieth century. For the upper classes, the
alternative to socialism and democracy was a defensive liber-
alism, or a decadent festival of aristocratic barbarism.
The rise of fascism in Italy and Germany confirmed the
deepest fears and darkest fantasies of the upper classes. An
aristocratic leadership with a mass base: at home, a force to
take back the streets from the socialists; abroad, a philosophy
of expansion and conquest that threatened weaker neighbours
and promised hegemony over rivals. Combining the vertiginous
thrill of modernity and the savage barbarism of pre-modernity,
for déclassé intellectuals fascism was the realisation of mass
politics in all its destructive glory.
After the Holocaust, the phrase “never again” is right-
fully applied to fascist politics. However, the psychological
effects of fascism have varied considerably. For the working
class, socialism still embodied their desire to rule the world
and administer it for their own ends. This also applied to those
sections of the intelligentsia who, perhaps unwittingly, accepted
the authority of the Stalinist Communist Party. But large sections
of the intelligentsia had never found a home in the modern
world. Modernity tended to extinguish patronage, and they were
squeezed between passive subservience to technological society
and the ever present threat of the masses.
features@glasgowguardian.co.uk 11th May 2009
In 1956, two events prompted a mass exodus from the them apologists for a quixotic and very American ideology of
Western communist parties and swelled the ranks of the disaf- free-market capitalism.
fected. On February 24-5 1956, Stalin’s successor Nikita Po-mos of the Anglo-American variety are, like Nietzsche’s
Khrushchev came clean about some of the horrors of the Soviet English psychologists, “interesting in themselves”. They are
regime: in particular, the cult of personality surrounding Stalin a sociological phenomenon worthy of contemplation. Alas,
and the purge of the party’s upper echelons. Later that year, like many tribes who worship idols, they are dying out. It is a
tanks entered Budapest to crush a spontaneous workers’ uprising long time since I encountered a self-declared post-modernist.
against the Soviet-backed regime in Hungary. If you meet one on the bus or in the Queen Margaret Union,
Jean-Francois Lyotard, who popularised the term “post- be generous. Their obscurantist ideas might seem outdated, but
modernism”, came onto the scene at this moment. Like many remember, they are not long for this world. Very soon, you might
post-modernists, he started out on the radical left as a member of wake up in the morning and ask yourself, with wistful nostalgia:
Socialisme ou Barbarie, a small anti-Stalinist Marxist grouping “Can we risk a hermeneutic of Hannah Montana?”
in France. As the group’s politics became increasingly wayward,
with a tendency towards jeremiads against “totalitarianism of
the left and right”, Lyotard abandoned party politics in the early
‘60s. Like many of his generation, he flirted with mysticism and
considered becoming a Pagan.
1968 was a pivotal moment. Starting with a student rebel-
lion, most of France was consumed with a spontaneous political
uprising against Charles De Gaulle’s government, whose author-
itarian nationalism had dominated French politics since the
Second World War. The movement prompted the largest general
strike in history, with 10 million French workers downing tools
to bring down the government. Around the world, struggles
against imperialism, racism, sexism, and homophobia seemed
to mingle freely in an intoxicating festival of human creativity
and potential.
Alas, the movement ended in defeat. For French intellectuals
who had participated in the struggles, it was back to the drawing
board. But one thing was clear: Marxism, the philosophy of
inevitable human progress, was dead.
What was to replace it? Any new outline of human develop-
ment risked descending into the same “totalitarian” mentality
that led to fascism and Stalinism. For disaffected intellectuals,
who had experienced great hope and catastrophic defeat, a theo-
retical worldview was replaced by a mood.
The mood of post-modernism is quite distinct. It accepts,
fatalistically, the post-War settlement of rising consumerism
under the general rubric of capitalism as an irreversible social
development. It cautions against any attempt to counterpose
the desirability of social systems and is wildly opposed to any
conception of political leadership. Its revelry, and its resistance,
stems either from the wild excesses of consumer society or the
marginal figures excluded from “rising prosperity” (prisoners,
practitioners of “deviant” sexuality, etc).
Like other déclassé intellectual movements, it is possessed
by an ethic of authenticity; except that this can only ever be
ironic, since the social basis of authenticity has vanished. This
is the strange paradox at the heart of postmodernism: it mourns
the loss of authenticity. Hence, the characteristic method of post-
modernists is to look for gaps and absences in a “reality” formed
by manipulated signs and symbols.
Some French inventions look slightly out of place in an
Anglo-American context. In my trips to the Dordogne, I have
observed that sometimes people really do wear onions round
their neck while wearing a striped shirt and riding a 1960s
bicycle. And that is fine, for the Dordogne. But repeating the
trick on an American college campus would make you a preten-
tious prick, and on Sauchiehall Street it would get you battered.
The same could be said for postmodernism. Its vocabu-
lary, its method, and its gloomy mood might look cool in a
Godard movie. But that is because it grew out of the culture
of revolutionary hopes and defeats on the French political left.
Anglo-Americans who flirt with postmodernism, like Richard
Rorty and Stanley Fish, are different. They are a generation
who cheerfully bought into the rising prosperity of the profes-
sional middle classes. Their characteristic mood is vivacious,
rambunctious, and cheerfully liberal. It is not too strong to call Sean Anderson
11th May 2009
To the Editors…
Taken from glasgowguardian.co.uk, in
response to the story ‘US students choosing
exile over debts’:
I’m an American living in Scotland and I have
consolidated student loans with Sallie Mae.
The student who chose to exile himself instead
of being financially responsible is madness.
Can’t feel sorry for you there, buddy. You’re
making the rest of us pay for you. If more
borrowers 1) read the fine print, 2) understood
the terms and 3) did their homework, they
might not be in the position they are today.
It’s because of people defaulting on loans
and thereby making it harder (or impossible)
for others to get loans and making everybody
else pay for the borrower’s mistake/greed/
naievety/whatever. It’s one of the reasons
the world economy is how it is today–in
ADDITION to predatory lending practices and
greedy financiers and other factors.
Variable interest rate?? 14%? Man, they saw
you coming. I got a flat 6%, which may be
working against me because of how things
have tanked, but at least it’s not variable or
14+%. And living here where the pound is
still stronger than the dollar, if only slightly,
helps.
I’ve dealt with student loans for years and
lenders ARE flexible and there to help–if you
ask! I’ve defered my loans because of finan-
cial hardship several times, or arranged to
make smaller payments just to pay something
towards my debt. I’d rather deal with student
loan lenders than private bank lenders ANY
day.
Lenders are quick to jump on students in
order for them to get into debt. I hate seeing
companies offering credit cards on universi-
ties. But no one is forcing you to take a loan.
You may need it, but there’s no gun pointed
at your head. Yes. Reforms are needed, but in
the meantime, grow up, accept your responsi-
bility, and pay your debt.
Z Brown
glasgowguardian.co.uk
The Glasgow University Guardian’s new website is now on-line,
allowing you to discuss and comment on anything we print, and the reactions of others.
You’ll also be able to read the full paper before it’s available in print, without even having to leave your
home, and catch up on any issues you’ve missed during the year.
We relish a heated debate, so the site is your chance to have your say on current news, sports events, and
a wealth of features and lifestyle content.
Guardian’s gone global — Join in now.
Glasgow University
27th April 2009
Swede Sounds
Catriona Reilly delves into the
surprisingly quirky Swedish pop scene
Residents
Music
question
Murano
safety
Sarah Smith
STUDENTS LIVING AT MURANO
Street Student Village have voiced
their concern at the relative lack
of information given to them about
crimes in the nearby area.
Over the past year, Guardian has
reported on a number of incidences
involving the student halls, including
students mugged at knifepoint during
Freshers’ Week and the failure of
police to inform Murano residents
about an indecent assault, which took
place on the footbridge entrance.
Guardian spoke to a number of
students who expressed their worry
US students choosing exile over debts
about safety at Murano Street, partic-
As student debt in the US hits $700 billion
American international students are resorting to
self-imposed exile rather than paying off their
“exploitative” student loans.
Sallie Mae is the primary student loan
company in the US with over 10 million
borrowers holding a total debt of over $126.9
billion. The company has attracted extensive
criticism from borrowers across the world, with
accusations of predatory lending practices.
Andrew Wilbur, an American PhD Candidate
in the Department of Geographical and Earth
Editors: Tom Bonnick & Sarah
Smith
News Editors: Craig MacLellan
& Ross Mathers
Features Editor: George
Binning
Sports Editor: Harry Tattersall
Smith
Music Editor: Oisín Kealy
The Glasgow University Guardian is editorially independent of the SRC and University. All
complaints should be adressed to the editors, who can be reached via the contact details above.
letters@glasgowguardian.co.uk
Scottish Student Newspaper of the Year
ularly with regards to the information
they are given.
Emails are sent to residents with
safety advice but many of the students
Guardian spoke to felt that the impor-
tant emails became lost within the
numerous other emails sent to them
about the halls.
Claire Adams, a first-year English
Literature student, told Guardian: “A
lot of what you hear is gossip and
it would be good to be told some
facts because you hear all sorts of
horror stories.
“I think they should let you know
what is going properly – not just
by email.”
Cirque du Soleil raise the roof at the SECC
(Continued on page 5)
George Binning
Sciences, graduated from Glasgow University
in 2005 with total balance of $29,048.52 on his
Sallie Mae student loan.
Since then he has made over $5,000 dollars
in payments but his current balance stands at
$33,227.90.
The variable interest rate on Wilbur’s loan
has been as high as 14%. He has since decided
to stop making payments, even though this
means he cannot return to the US.
Arts Editor: Dominic Maxwell-
Lewis
Film Editors: Emily McQueen-
Govan & Lewis Porteous
Lifestyle Editors: Michelle
Williams & David Fitzpatrick
Picture Editor: Jim Wilson
Columnists: Jamie Ross
Photography: James Porteous,
This newspaper is funded through and supported by the
Glasgow University Students' Representitive Council.
Pit Ponies
Pete Ramand commemorates the
25th anniversary of the Miners’ Strike
Features
Insight
He explained: “I took the loan and have
tried to pay it back in good faith, though I now
feel like it was sold to me in bad faith, with the
conditions so difficult that I'll never get on top
of it. For that reason, I can't return to America
to work or buy a house. My credit rating will
be ruined and any income I make will be swal-
lowed up by loan repayments. It's just not
worth putting up with that – paying Sallie Mae
to make my life a misery.”
The U.S. Department of Education recently
reported a rise in the student loan default rate
Luke Winter, Sean Anderson
Contributors: Leon Weber,
Ian Robertson, Laura Cernis,
Catriona Reilly, Neil Cowan,
James Foley, Hannah Millar,
Ross McNab
Thanks to: Tom Leonard,
Richard Campbell, Students for
a Free Tibet
LETTERS 9
Zoe Grams
GUSA ball
loses £4000
Sarah Smith Term is speeding to an end, and with each
GLASGOW UNIVERSITY SPORTS day being marked off the whiteboard in the
Association (GUSA) lost a total of
Sabbatical officers’ office – West Wing style
£4135.47 through its annual ball and
Blues awards reception.
The majority of the loss was due
to the free tickets and drinks made
– comes a feeling of excitement, nostalgia,
available to Blues winners and half-
and pride. Over the year we’ve worked on
price entry for half Blues.
The ball itself lost £1400 chiefly
through unsold tickets and a desire to
a variety of projects and plans to ensure
keep ticket prices at £35.
Newly elected GUSA President, that you can enjoy your time even more
Stephen Flavahan, told Guardian
that the event is not designed to at Glasgow, whether that’s through small
improvements such as being able to take the
make a profit and that there were
other considerations, which were
bus into University in the morning, or big
not financial.
He explained: “The biggest thing
improvements such as having enough funding
for GUSA was keeping the ticket
price at £35 so that it was still afford-
able for students. If we were a busi-
ness it would be considered a profit
loss but we’re not so it is considered
to ensure you can study.
an expenditure.
“It was a very successful event
Here, we take a look at the previous
that was designed to be of high
quality whilst remaining affordable.
academic year, not solely to brag, but to
It is about honouring high sporting
achievers at the University of
show you just how the SRC can help you. We
Glasgow – we didn’t set out for it to
break even.” always need your help and input to do this.
Flavahan claimed that, because
the loss was expected, it will not have Whether you’d like to run for council, help
with one of our events, or just have an idea
any affect on next year’s spending.
(Continued on page 5)
of what we should focus on, let us know. Our
email is at the bottom of the page.
from 5.2% to 6.9% in the past year. Wilbur
went on to criticise Sallie Mae’s practice of
This year saw a number of themed weeks,
running its own debt collection agency.
He said: “The fact that Sallie Mae actually
designed to get you knowing a bit more about
owns its own debt collection agencies who
profit when you default on your loan shows
particular issues, helping you with your future
how exploitative the system is.”
Patricia Nash Christel, a spokesperson for career, and making sure you have a whole lot
Sallie Mae, pointed out that the company
was able to be flexible on repayments when of fun.
Mental Health Week, Green Week, RAG
borrowers were in difficulty.
(Continued on page 2)
week, SHAG Week and Media Week saw
everything from condom fairies handing out
protection in green tutus to over four-hundred
of you getting tips from some of the best
professionals in the communications industry
to raising over £5000 for charity.
Behind the scenes, we were campaigning
hard – and continue to do so – for students
to receive adequate funding from the Scottish
government. We want to ensure that students
from all backgrounds can attend university
without having to worry about finances. The
SRC have been working with a number of
politicians and organisations throughout the
country to encourage a mininum income guar-
antee from the government for all students.
This means that as a student you would be
able to receive £7,000 each year: the amount it
costs, on average, to live as a student.
We’ve also worked with the University
to implement a Maternity/Paternity policy so
that if you have a family you can receive the
support that you need.
Of course, the Advice Centre, Minibus
Service, Second Hand Bookshop are always
there when you need them. This column is
too short a space to talk about all our achieve-
ments this year.
We’ll leave you with this: we’re very
grateful for everyone’s help, and very excited
about the coming year. Enjoy your summer.
vp-comms@src.gla.ac.uk
10 EDITORIAL
Glasgow University
glasgowguardian.co.uk
Within striking distance
Sir Muir Russell’s response to the UCU’s
demand of an 8% pay rise for its members
seemed a little odd considering he showed no
qualms about accepting a salary increase of
12.1% for himself last year.
The Principal, who now earns £230,000
per year, described the UCU’s expectations
as “unaffordable and unrealistic” and warned
that, if lecturers do decide to strike, they could
damage the reputation of universities.
It is interesting, then, that Russell has not
asked for his own pay to be reduced in order
to selflessly protect the University’s reputation.
This is despite the fact that many have spoken
out against his pay rise, citing, as Russell does
when condemning the UCU’s request, the fact
that the country is currently in a recession and
people everywhere are losing their jobs.
The ability to go on strike to demand fair
treatment is important and should be protected,
but those who would have it taken away are
given ammunition when a strike disproportion-
ately affects those who are not at fault. If the
editors@glasgowguardian.co.uk
UCU members vote to take industrial action
this summer and consequently prevent students
from graduating, they will lose a large amount
of support. If the UCU recognises the fact that
their pay disputes are not the fault of students
and adjust their actions accordingly, there is no
reason why they shouldn’t do what they feel is
necessary to achieve their goals.
There will be criticism — all those who
go on strike are accused of selfishness and
overreaction — but the reason strike action is
so feared and maligned by those in power is
because it can be so effective. Industrial action
is one of the few truly powerful tools available
to employees and unions should not be afraid to
use it if nothing else has worked.
Of course, there will always be those who
receive pay rises wildly above the rate of infla-
tion, just as there will always be those who
can retire on huge pensions after recklessly
damaging the national economy. In light of this,
why shouldn’t everyone else be doing all they
can to redress the balance?
Short-selling students
The news that only slightly over a third of
students graduating this summer expect to be
able to find a job in the current fiscal climate is
a starkly depressing reminder that, contrary to
the protestations of a myriad finance ministers
and free market advocates, UK and international
job prospects are not yet on the recovery.
And, whereas many of our financial woes
— dating back to the collapse of Northern
Rock — are ultimately a case of markets
responding to drops in consumer confidence,
the UK Graduate Careers Survey has confirmed
that the number of graduates to have already
been offered employment has also dropped by
a third.
The unenviable position this will put those
who have been unable to secure employment
— and consequently, the national infrastruc-
ture in general — into, surely demands action
from government greater than merely acknowl-
edging the gap and offering commiserations
and a few words of encouragement or “chin
up” platitudes.
The summer graduate fair in Scotland 2009
at the SECC Glasgow
27th May 12pm-7pm & 28th May 10am-3pm
Jobs, Postgraduate Study, Careers Advice
www.glasgow.ac.uk/careers
11th May 2009
John McIntyre Building
University Avenue
Glasgow G12 8QQ
0141 341 6215
editors@glasgowguardian.co.uk
www.glasgowguardian.co.uk
Something much more significant is
required to avoid a scenario in which a growing
proportion of alumni leave university without
future prospects, disincentivising young people
from entering further education and paralysing
the existing workforce in a perpetual state of
middle-aged complacency.
The survey’s findings are also a reminder —
and undoubtedly a far more real and alarming
one — for the rest of the existing student body
that they are not immune to the conditions of
the recession, no matter how robust the bubble
of university living seems in the meantime.
Whether work opportunities will have
improved by this time next year, or the
following one, is a question to which any sort
of credible answer seems unlikely to exist for
some time. Until then, it remains imperative
that future graduates rely on more than just
the conventional means when seeking employ-
ment — because if higher education becomes
perceived as poor value, then students’ employ-
ment options will only decrease further.
FREE to attend
11th May 2009

Counting down the seconds

sport@glasgowguardian.co.uk SPORT 11

Ross MacNab talks about the need to see continued investment in all levels of University sport
Recently the Mens’ Hockey Club 3rd XI
brought the curtain down on their season with
an impressive 4-1 win over Helensburgh. The
result secured the team’s remarkable 100%
win rate at home; never before has the term
‘Fortress Garscube’ been more apt. The success
of the team reflects their growing importance
to the club as a whole and serves as a reminder
that reserve team sport should not be forgotten
at Glasgow.
With Scotland stuck in the doom and gloom
of both an obesity epidemic and an economic
downturn, sport can step up to play an impor-
tant role in improving our physical and mental
wellbeing. The University is rightly proud of
its high participation rates but must not rest
on its laurels. Certainly the 46 Sports clubs
affiliated with GUSA offer a fantastic variety
of activities, from the traditional to the extreme. Jim Wilson
Nevertheless opportunities to participate can, different abilities and backgrounds — from a an anxious wait to see whether they have done Clearly, despite the hard times we find
and should, be increased by improving the Canadian Ice Hockey convert to a Malaysian enough to secure promotion. ourselves in, the value of getting students to
quality of these clubs, as opposed to estab- ex-internationalist. Truly, players are at many Team captain, Joe Fitzgibbon, knows that play sport should not be forgotten.
lishing more and more obscure teams. different levels but with enjoyment of sport the team will always have to work hard to build On a competitive level, reinforcements
And quality does not just mean elite sport. as the key concept, even beginners are turned on their success. He appreciates the inclusive- below will force the quality at the top to keep
Increased involvement within reserve teams into stars. Freshers have played a key role in ness that a 3rd XI team can offer, having never improving. University sport often suffers from
will bring many benefits — healthier, happier the team’s success, with Harry Tattersall Smith played hockey before coming to university. a lack of consistency and this must be coun-
students anyone? This can be achieved by notching up a sensational 24 goals, in a debut Speaking to him, his enthusiasm is clear: “It’s tered by GUSA continuing to support club
avoiding ruthless competitiveness and instead season that has seen the striker rewrite Glasgow been a fantastic year for us and I feel lucky to targets. Bitter rivals Edinburgh have 7 hockey
placing emphasis on the enjoyment and the hockey history… be part of the biggest club on campus.” teams competing weekly. Whilst it would be
social appeal offered by clubs. The team ply their trade in the deep depths He added: “Funding however remains a overly ambitious to suggest a similar structure
The Mens’ Hockey 3rd XI is an exemplary of Scottish Hockey, otherwise known as West constant issue for us and we have been lucky is viable at Glasgow, if we want success at the
case in point. Formed just two years ago, it District Division 4. But with away-days to such that GUSA have helped out with our travel top level we must build from the bottom.
offers a regular Saturday match to players with glamourous locations as Carluke, Helensburgh expenses this year. If we are to be able to A lack of strength and depth is the crippling
different levels of experience in the game. This and Newton Mearns, team spirit remains high. continue to attract more students to the sport factor in many sports teams; let’s not let that be

Glasgow gets fast and furious

season the team has blended a multitude of It has been a good season but the team still face then this support must continue.” the case at Glasgow.

(Continued from back page)
an advantage of a fraction of a second — the starting pole was
fixed by heat five.
In speedway the rider quickest off the starting block is
usually the winner and so rigorous starting procedures are
essential for a level playing field. There were in fact only two
successful overtaking attempts that day.
Heat eight provided a seminal turning point in
the game … from then on Sheffield were just
wiping the dust from their eyes in the wake of
Glasgow’s stampede to victory.
Sean Parker, Glasgow’s esteemed captain and veteran of
the sport, took the first heat with a savagely quick 58.7-second
run, the fastest time set for the day and almost his track record.
He might have been quicker if his bike hadn’t started billowing
smoke on his last lap; it was clear that the machine couldn’t
handle it’s rider’s grit. Unsurprisingly, lap times deteriorated as
track conditions wore down over the afternoon.
Sheffield’s Joel Parsons slid off dramatically in heat three,
pushing just a little too hard for the lead and paying for it dearly
when he was excluded from the restart. In spite of Parsons’ fall
and Parker’s early victory, Sheffield held the lead for the first
few heats.
Heat eight provided a seminal turning point in the game
when Glasgow’s Josh Grajczonek came first, pushing Glasgow
Sean Anderson ahead of Sheffield. Another highlight was Chris Mills’ overtake
of teammate Paul Cooper in Sheffield’s doomed battle for third
place. From then on Sheffield were just wiping the dust from
their eyes in the wake of Glasgow’s stampede to victory.
The crowd exploded when James Grieves roared past
Sheffield’s captain Ricky Ashworth. Overtaking is rare, risky
and very difficult, but always well received.
By the fifteenth and final heat Sheffield needed the full five
points available just to pull a draw out of the hat. Unfortunately
an over eager Ritchie Hawkins snapped the starting tape and was
given a 15-metre penalty effectively scuppering Sheffield’s last
chance to claw one back.
Over the course of the competition, it was James Grieves
who gave the most distinguished performance, winning all five
of his races and picking up the maximum fifteen points. The
whole of the Glasgow side did their fans proud.
Parker described his pride to the fans saying: “It’s a good
feeling to win, that’s why we ride. When we won I saw someone
jumping up and down like it was Christmas.”
He cheerfully dismissed rumours of his retirement to the
amusement of the crowd, saying: “This is definitely, possibly,
maybe my last year.”
On Friday, May 8, the Tigers suffered a narrow 46-44 defeat
to the endearingly named Somerset Rebels in the first leg of
their two-part duel and there is a good old-fashioned derby to
look forward to when Glasgow race Edinburgh on the May 17.
Although the University of Glasgow has yet to field its own
speedway team, an afternoon up at the track certainly provides
a wholesome diversion.
 sport
Inside: Ross MacNab discusses the
unsung heroes of lower team sport
guardian
and their importance in pursuing
overall sporting excellence.
11th May 2009

A need for speed-way

Sean Anderson

You might think it’s a bit crazy to race anticlockwise
around an oval dirt track on a motorbike that does 0-60 in
2.5 seconds, only turns to the right and has no brakes or
gears. But this is exactly what Glasgow’s speedway racers
do for the benefit of enthralled crowds every Sunday at
Ashfield Stadium.
Sunday, May 3, saw Glasgow Tigers take on the Sheffield
Tigers, with both sides fighting for a place in the semi-final
of the British Speedway League. Fans of all ages packed the
stadium, not that there was a crowd of thousands, but that
Ashfield is a stadium in the humblest sense of the word. In
fact, unlike most motor sports, the proceedings as a whole
were cheerfully low key.
The commentator would have looked more at home
calling out bingo numbers on Phoenix Nights as he appealed
to the crowd for sponsorship deals and politely asked people
not to sit with their legs over the safety barriers. Between
heats the track was raked and sprayed with two antique trac-
Glasgow 52 - 38 Sheffield
George Binning
tors, and the Tiger’s mascot was behaving as though he had just
got out of bed with a near fatal hangover.
If you were standing on one of the corners you would be
treated to a refreshing spray of red dirt with each circuit of
If you were standing on one of the corners you
would be treated to a refreshing spray of red
dirt with each circuit of the bikes.
the bikes. Aside from the racing, the Ashfield proprietors kept
everyone entertained with a bar, tombola, some fairly basic
merchandise and a small chip shop, which proved so popular the
queue was never less than half an hour long, though worth
the wait..
An unusual, sweet smell of exhaust fumes hung in
the air, not too dissimilar to vegetable oil, evidence of the
methanol, or wood alcohol, fuel the bikes must run on. The
use of this biofuel makes speedway one of the most environ-
mentally friendly motor sports in the world, and although it
is quite toxic I couldn't be sure that my chips had not been
cooked in it as well.
Each team put forward seven riders who raced four at a
time over fifteen three-lap heats. Three points were awarded
to first place, two to second and one to third. The start was
delayed by the malfunctioning of the starting mechanism
and it was eventually decided to use a long elastic band
to start the first few heats: the traditional method, as the
commentator told the crowd. Though the elastic was far
from satisfactory — the riders nearest the release point had
(Continued on page 14)
 Jenny Soep | Coraline | 3D cinema | Zoey van Goey | Javascotia

11/05/09
’Tis folly to be wise
inSIGHT
Dominic Maxwell-Lewis
reviews Bliss + Mud

guardian
Glasgow University

Photo: Richard Campbell

 inSIGHT arts
11/05/09
Celebrity plague
>> Jamie Ross
W
ithout celebrities, our lives would be
vapid and soulless. Even the most
worthless and unassuming object
can instantly fetch a king’s ransom on
eBay if any celebrity so much as excretes a bodily
fluid on it, and this is by no means a modern phe-
nomenon. In the first century, a giddy teenage fan
thought she had secured the winning bid on Jesus’
blood-sodden Shroud of Turin only to be cruelly ga-
zumped in the dying seconds by the mysteriously
monikered ‘Pope_3lol’.
With the dawn of the Internet, our celebrity
stalking has reached dizzy new heights and has
made costly expenses like night-vision goggles and
specimen bags a thing of the past. Every self-re-
specting celebrity has set up his or her own website
complete with a tediously extensive biography, a
furiously bitter blog and thousands of photographs
of the celebrity‘s own face contorted into various
unsightly gurns. However, some celebrity websites
exceed all expectations.
For example, one day you might stumble
across William Roache’s website if you ever happen
to repeatedly batter your clenched fist onto your
keyboard and mistakenly google William Roache.
Better known as Ken from Coronation Street,
William has inadvertently produced one of the
most incredible multimedia experiences of our
generation. At first glance, it looks like any normal
shit celebrity website — a picture of his beaming
face, biographies, latest news — but, after a few
seconds, his picture begins to move and speak like
an enchanted corpse.
“Hello, welcome to my website!” he enthuses,
as we all look on in wide-eyed astonishment. After
the pleasantries, he masks his obvious fury towards
anyone who calls him Bill or Ken with a forced
grimace and appeases his legions of fans with
some brief Coronation Street information before
speaking, at length, about his more artistic projects
such as his nationwide ‘An Evening With William
Roache‘ tour. All of this whilst standing at a bizarre
angle which suggests he’s suffered a debilitating
stroke mid-pace. As if all of this wasn’t enough, you
also have the opportunity to print out a photo-
graph that William has signed and scanned - it’s just
like an autograph, but without all the tedious hassle
of actually having to meet the person.
Elsewhere on your internet, there’s gremlin-
faced breakfast television moron Matthew Wright’s
offering. As soon as you enter his site and see a
section proudly devoted to ‘Matthew and Hawk-
wind’ it quickly becomes apparent that Matthew
Wright has the self-awareness of a dead para-
mecium. Apparently, he’s inexplicably joined the
terrible 70s space rock band on stage a number of
times as a singer — surely it would be just as effec-
tive to stomp around a town centre, clanging a bell
and bellowing ‘I wish I was young again’ in tears?
Delving deeper in to the site, in ‘When he’s not at
work…’ you’ll find a massive picture of Matthew
Wright, naked but for a blue neckerchief and khaki
shorts, holding aloft a giant, dead fish with a trium-
phant grin on his stupid face.
Honourable mentions go to a complete list
of books ever read by Art Garfunkel, Paul Daniels’
deeply depressing blog of right-wing despair, and
Kanye West’s infantile ramblings written exclusively
in capital letters. Have a look.
Blissfully ignorant
Bliss + Mud at The Tron is a superb double act, writes Dominic Maxwell-Lewis
T
he double bill of Bliss and Mud at the Tron theatre showed a pair of
sharp, adept performances that challenged the audience to engage
their own grasp of sense within human nature.
The first play, Bliss, is a tale of celebrity obsession in contemporary
culture, in which three supermarket workers spend their lunch hour recounting
the latest news of their favourite singer, Celine. The characters stand facing the
One more cup of coffee
T
he irony of Benjamin Obler’s debut novel
Javascotia is that the very aspects that
made it seem so promising a literary de-
but — a novel about coffee! In Glasgow!
With sexy art students! — are, in fact, amongst its
most negligible qualities. Apart from the descrip-
tions of java, that is.
Melvin Podorski is a young American and coffee
aficionado who comes to Scotland hoping to open a
branch of US chain “Burback’s”, and Obler’s obvious
love for coffee becomes a second, parallel journey:
a sort of glorious epicurean landscape that Melvin
must navigate: “These were my remembrances of
that American elixir, that bitter pick-me-up, the true
breakfast of champions … In the black grounds, in
the smell of roasted beans…”
The descriptions of coffee amount to more
than indulgent gastronomical flourish, however.
Melvin is also fleeing his Chicago home, where
divorce, unpleasantness and the crushing boredom
of suburbia await, and he uses coffee as a catalyst
for his adventure.
In this sense, Javascotia is like a great many
novels — and a pretty good example, at that —
which track the progression of a life in need of
escape. Unfortunately, Obler gives Podorski a past
audience, each within their own spotlight, basking in the imagery of Celine’s
final concert.
The stream of speech is fraught with constant interruptions as the charac-
ters battle to narrate the story verbatim, showing a real strength of ensemble
amongst the actors with precise execution of the dialogue’s natural rhythm,
overlapping and obstructing superbly. The text, translated by Caryl Churchill,
benefited tremendously from this style.
As the content of Celine’s recent news turns to her miscarriage in graphic
detail, the tempo and excitement of the story remains the same, eerily
exposing the lack of distinction between real-life tragedy and banal celebrity
“The tempo and excitement of the story eerily
expose the lack of distinction between real-life
tragedy and banal celebrity worship”
worship. This is blended with an unnerving subtlety with the events of one of
the employee’s actual life that takes the play into unexpected territory. Bliss is
an uncomfortable look at the veneer of others’ lives and the detachment that it
creates within our own when its observation substantiates actual existence.
The second part of Andy Arnold’s double bill, Mud is a look at a ‘red-neck’
love triangle where the central woman, Mae, tries to escape the confines of a
relationship with her “sort-of-step-brother Lloyd”. The allure of educated Henry
seems to be an escape from the asinine existence she has with Lloyd. This tran-
spires to be untrue and the dream of escape becomes stronger.
The performance displays the entrapment of Mae within the farmhouse
Richard Campbell
shack as she battles to better herself and battles the impotent advances of
Lloyd. It is both tragic and at times very funny, without too much emphasis
being placed on the lumbering idiocy of the characters.
At the heart of the play is essentially a battle of the sexes; Mae repre-
sents the struggle against male dominance with an alarming candour that is
beguiling to watch.
The pairing of the plays seemed to balance each other very well and
certainly left me excited as to what the Tron would be offering in the future.
that is much more interesting than his present —
that is to say, the scenes which take place in the
author’s native land are far more enjoyable.
In Glasgow, both Obler and Podorski feel a bit
too much like tourists. Locations are obligingly
name-checked, and there is a decent stab made at
Scots dialect, but not particularly convincingly, and
not with the natural flair for dialogue that Obler
“Obler’s love for coffee becomes
a glorious epicurean landscape”
demonstrates elsewhere. The Glasgow passages
never quite descend into a Da Vinci Code-esque
maelstrom of cultural anachronisms and stilted
local slang, but nor do they really do the rest of
novel much justice.
Still, Obler seems keen to stress that this isn’t
just a story about one thing (coffee) or another
(Glasgow), and Podorski and the orbiting members
of his life — the sexy art student aside, who is
neither particularly appealing nor well-developed
— are depicted with enough honesty and devotion
for Javascotia to be a success, and furthermore, a
small triumph for a first book. Javascotia is out now in paperback by Hamish
(Tom Bonnick) Hamilton, R.R.P. £10.49

music
Making noise together Gigs
Zoey Van Goey’s MJ McCarthy talks to Oisín Kealy
How long has the band been together and how did you meet?
We’ve been together almost exactly three years. We all met in and around
Glasgow Uni. Kim and I met whilst studying in the Film & TV department late
2004, then I might met Matt shortly after he moved to Glasgow in March 2006
and by May the three of us were making noise together. We played our first
show, under the name The Lost Marbles, in the Liquid Ship in June ‘06. After
we realised that there were a number of other bands with that name scattered
around the world (mostly wedding bands as it happens), we changed to Zoey
Van Goey in September ‘06.
How would you describe your sound?
In a live setting there’s a lot of instrument swapping, usually some mixture
of guitar, drums, casio, korgs, viola and girl/boy vocals. In terms of other bands,
reference points while we recorded our debut album included Mercury Rev,
Cocteau Twins, Flaming Lips, Fairport Covention, and a hundred others.
What can you tell me about the new album?
The earliest tracks used in the final mix of the album were recorded in
December ‘06 and the final mixing happened in January ‘08 so just over two
years all told, with most of the work happening during the summer of 2008. The
majority of the record was recorded in Chem 19 and in terms of engineering,
mixing and production in general, Paul Savage contributed massively to the
finished product. Working with him was a fantastic experience.
Stuart Murdoch worked with you on an early release, how did he
become involved? Have you had any further involvement with him?
I met Stuart through a friend of mine and he came to see a show in early
2007, liked what he heard and came to see another. After a bit we cheekily
asked him if he’d produce our first single and much to our surprise he said yes.
The session was great fun and Stuart’s advice and support in all kinds of ways
ever since has been invaluable. He’s about to release an album of songs sung
by girl singers, entitled God Help The Girl, and Kim has some backing vocals
on that I think. Also, in a different kind of collaboration, we recently modelled
t-shirts for the B&S webshop.
The Maccabees
Wall of Arms
Fiction - 04/05/09
The Maccabees carry on in much the same
vein with their new offering ‘Wall of Arms’ as with
2007’s ‘Colour It In’. Although showcasing a some-
what softer, more multi-instrumental sound than
previously displayed, the band don’t seem to have
troubled themselves with attempting any actual
musical progression. Single ‘Love You Better’ could
easily slip into their first album, while closing track
‘Bag of Bones’ continues the we’re-being-quiet;
we’re-emotionally-strained pattern recurrent throughout their discography.
The Maccabees are a band who do whimsical well, and although seemingly
unable to transpose this onto other emotional waters, ‘Wall of Arms’ charts the
progress of the band from over-discussed art-rock darlings to slightly more
grown-up media darlings. Production duties were delegated to ‘Neon Bible’
engineer Markus Dravs and this shows; although a well-constructed album,
the production reeks of Arcade Fire, comprising echo-distorted voices and
expanding melodies — see ‘Young Lions’ anthemic swell from sober delicacy to
vast crescendo. Jerky guitar and jagged lyrics are very much where the band’s
interests lie; the young, playful romance of ‘Colour It In’ taking a turn for the
darker this album as singer Orlando Weeks wails “Why would you kill it, kill it,
kill it before it dies?” across new track ‘One Hand Holding’.
Supposedly, their debut album represented the band’s adolescence. If so,
this album presents rather a sorry tale for maturity, Its themes run from relation-
ship difficulties to adultery, cheating partners and, just for the banter, death:
like the last album, the draw lies in the subtlety of the lyrics. While ‘Young Lions’
and the title track imply a band able to move beyond their experiences, the
majority of the album reads as residue from their debut. It has its moments, but
as an album, is fairly repetitive and ultimately forgettable. (Laura Cernis)
Marisa Privitera
You seem to keep busy with other projects. Any irons in the fire now?
We’re all lucky enough to have some element of music in our day jobs.
Matt’s a researcher on a project studying the promotion of live music in the UK
(partly run by Glasgow Uni), and Kim and I are both freelance musicians. Kim’s
currently putting together a string quartet and I’ll be performing in The Art of
Swimming by Lynda Radley at the Citizen’s Theatre from May 12th - 16th.
What is it that you like about the Glasgow music scene? Any highlights
of the festival?
I think the sheer amount and variety of music being performed live every
night, and the sense of community, a willingness on the part of more estab-
lished bands to listen to up-and-coming musicians. Being the least rock and
roll member of the band I headed for bed pretty soon after we finished but I
hear from the others that Jeffrey Lewis and We Were Promised Jetpacks both
played great sets.
(The Cage Was Unlocked All Along is out now on Left in the Dark)
Peaches
I Feel Cream
XL - 04/05/09
Her fourth release under the moniker of
Peaches, the album opens ominously with ‘Serpen-
tine’. Merrill Nisker displays her priority for rhyme
over reason, spitting out spunky couplets that sacri-
fice making sense for being sensory (“Fuck matu-
rity got a big bad brain like a champagne stain as I
yank your chain’). The hushed urgency she delivers
these nuggets with does render the song enjoyable,
but often it sounds too much like a Mighty Boosh
parody of itself as the lazily repetitive and tuneless excuse for a hook begins
to grate. By the second track, Soulwax produced ‘Talk To Me’, you are ready to
forgive her though. This first single, co-written by Gonzales (sometime writing
partner of Feist), is a screaming, strutting monument of a Peaches song. It’s Suzi
Quatro turned techno, Ike & Tina’s Nutbush City Limits given an electro clash
makeover, and it orders you to listen as much as the lyrics implore otherwise.
While the rest of the album fails to hold on to the authority exhibited by this
track, there are a few gems between the Peaches-by-numbers filler. ‘I Feel Cream’
seems every inch the 21st century update of Donna Summer’s ‘I Feel Love’, the
sweetly soaring chorus underpinned by stilted synth has the drum machine
set unshakeably to ‘disco’, with a brief injection of her white girl rap to sustain
interest in the bridge. ‘Billionaire’ is a song which sees the ex-schoolteacher
busting rhymes again, this time about manginas and salty diets. She adopts a
sort of ghetto slur which amounts to her sounding as if she is rapping through a
mouth guard, but the chorus of “Fuck you like a billionaire” is hard to fault.
Having turned forty, it might be telling that there is nothing so brash as ‘Fuck
The Pain Away’ on show. You may miss the potty mouth punk that jolted you
into listening as the album loses momentum, but the confidence of this release
proves Nisker is under no threat of losing her crown for now. (Oisín Kealy)
inSIGHT
3
PA G E
Stag and Dagger Festival
23/05/09
Another city-wide music event hard on the legs
but easy on the pocket, an absolute smattering of
bands will be playing at the usual venues. Black
Lips will be lending their flower punk to the
festival, and Cold War Kids their soul-inflected
rock. Formed from the ashes of Beta Band, The
Aliens will be visiting for the festival, as will New
York’s The Gay Blades, dealing in swaggering
trash pop as arrogant as it is catchy. For bands
from closer to home, Dananananaykroyd will be
playing their only planned Glasgow date which
could be worth the wristband alone and The
Twilight Sad will be present to serve up some
plugged in shoegaze. Hopefully just in time to
celebrate the end of your exams, and a great way
to get geared up for a summer of festivals.
OTHER EVENTS THIS MONTH....
Metric
12/05/09
Oran Mor
Riding high on the criticial acclaim for latest
album ‘Fantasies’, Haines and co bring their high
energy indie-rock to the UK, heavy on the keys
and bursting at the seams with melody. Slick
and catchy on record, expect them to rip it up on
stage. (Keep up to date with glasgowguardian.
co.uk in the next week for our exclusive interview
with the band.)
Andrew Bird
14/05/09
Oran Mor
Singer and multi-instrumentalist Andrew Bird
is a captivating and versatile live performer. His
latest album ‘Noble Beast’ has been well received
but expect a career-spanning set. With a voice
sometimes touching on Jeff Buckley, prodi-
gious talent on the violin and a whistle as clear
as crystal, this man has enough talent to feed an
entire Orange Unsigned dressing room for the
rest of their lives.
Maximo Park
15/05/09
O2 Academy
Touring on the back of new album ‘Quicken The
Heart’, Maximo Park will be showcasing fresh
material of the kind that will no doubt become
staples of the ABC2 playlist — and hey, there’s
nothing wrong with that. Receiving support
from Noisettes, you know this is going to be a
good night.
The Breeders
19/05/09 and 20/05/09
King Tut’s Wah Wah Hut
The Deal sisters return to Glasgow in support of
their recently released ‘Fate to Fatal’ EP. At the
vanguard of alternative rock in the nineties, they
haven’t lost their edge with age, as their newer
material will attest. This two night stint is a great
chance to see the coolest twins in rock before
Kim Deal reunites with the Pixies for a one-off at
Isle of Wight next month.
 inSIGHT music
11/05/09
A Hinter-wonderland
We check out the host of bands playing Glasgow’s first Hinterland festival
>> Oisín Kealy
My relationship with Hinterland begins a rocky one, heading to
Stereo to see Three Trapped Tigers on Thursday when in fact they had
cancelled. Not a stellar start, but I’m the forgiving sort, so a brisk walk
up to Nice ‘n’ Sleazy it was — whether or not I needed the exercise, I
had to get used to such nomadic wandering for the rest of the festival.
Leeds four-piece Wintermute were busy entertaining the basement
as it slowly filled up — most people seemingly expecting to find
Remember Remember on at this time, but despite the departure from
the arranged timetable, the band managed to convince the entrants
to stay. Their songs ring clear and catchy, and while they cannot be
faulted for the energy put into their performance, they do lack the
sense of fun exuded by bands such as Dananananaykroyd, who deal
in the same kind of wide-mouthed, angular riot pop.
Expecting an oasis of calm after the plugged in performance
of the previous set, the inhabitants of the Sleazy basement instead
find themselves dancing to the first song by Remember Remember;
funnily enough, entitled ‘The Dancing’. Frontman Graeme Ronald joins
in as the rhythm picks up, jumping and bobbing with barely restrained
glee that becomes infectious. He makes full use of his loop pedals and
what can only be described as a wizardy box (because I don’t know
how else to describe it) on the floor to flesh out the texture of his
songs, but he is not alone tonight, accompanied by piano, saxophone,
violin and guitarists. This adds a much appreciated organic element
to the set and saves him from becoming another static knob twiddler.
The only problem is that he stays for a mere three songs. These may be
three beautifully unfolding, subtly epic songs which reach beyond the
seven minute mark, but it leaves the audience looking very bemused
as he says goodnight. Not as bemused as the audience whom he
leaves on the second night at The Arches, however, when he spills his
water over the much coveted wizardy box leading to a dramatic pop
from the speakers; a smooth exit indeed.
The first full set I manage to catch on Friday is Slow Club’s spot
at The Arches. The cavernous venue seems too large for them as they
wander onto the stage, but launching straight into the almost Johnny
and June sounding ‘Giving Up On Love’, they fill the space tenfold.
Becky gets surprised by the delay effect applied to her vocals as the
slow burning ’I Was Unconscious, It Was a Dream’ echoes back on itself,
and both she and Charles play with the fact as they deliberately repeat
their words to draw a laugh from the crowd. The unpolished set is not
Luke Winter
marred by lyrics spluttered through laughter, but breeds an intimacy
that wouldn’t be expected in this cave. This is compounded upon by
an acoustic version of ‘Wild Blue Milk’ played from the audience as
the battery pack on Becky’s guitar dies. With an album coming out
in July there are big things predicted for this band, and I managed to
get a quick chat with them earlier in the day, asking them their plans
and what they think of the music scene up here. “It’s great, people
really seem to enjoy the music instead of standing there and judging
you” Charles reckons, and while I often find the Glasgow crowds to be
happy standing still with a pint of Tennents in their hands, I have to
say he is right about the audience attending this gig.
I then trek uphill to the The Flying Duck to catch The Voluntary
Butler Scheme, aka Rob Jones, for what may be the most undeserv-
edly thin crowd of festival. Another industrious chap, he loops himself
on vocals, drums, guitar and uses various knick knacks to conjure a
phantom band to aid him. That is, when he isn’t playing solo piano
songs, a medium which he believes makes him look like “Myleene
Klass battling demons” despite their jovial nature. Comparisons could
be drawn with Jim Noir or Noah and the Whale, and even back to The
Beatles in their more lighthearted moments. As much as such cross-
referencing often suggests nothing new to offer, the opposite is in
fact true and every new tune is a summer hit waiting to be found; if
only more people found their way to his set.
Braving the rain and cursing my distinct lack of an umbrella, I dash
to King Tuts to make Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard. The set is mostly
comprised of new material, but the audience laps it up. A highlight
is their full band performance of runaway Youtube hit, ‘A Complete
History of Punk Rock’. The crowd becomes more of a congregation,
no one being told anything they haven’t already heard but all too
eager to have it affirmed by Lewis in person. It is a mostly upbeat set
despite the dips into suicidal and existential subject matter on songs
like ‘I Couldn’t Take It Anymore’ and ‘If Life Exists’; Somehow, ‘Broken
Broken Broken Heart’ is the most uplifting song of the night. The
ability to step outside of himself and appraise his life with a wry smile
is what makes Lewis’ canon an endlessly enjoyable one. He finishes by
showing us a “low budget movie’” a film noir narrative told over about
fifteen pages of ink on a sketch pad, complete with double-crossing
dames and a cliffhanger ending that leaves the crowd clapping their
hands raw for an encore that isn’t to come. I don’t mind, my legs are
just glad to finally get a rest.
Sucioperro / We Were Promised
Jetpacks
>> Neil Cowan
It seems lazy and all too easy to compare Sucioperro with Biffy
Clyro, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t warranted. Both tread the same
musical ground, with quiet/loud guitars, soaring melodies, and a few
screams thrown in for good measure. Both emerged around the same
time, and both involve three hairy Scotsmen. Whilst Biffy have been
rocketed into the big-time world of arenas and the obligatory Jo Wiley
sessions, though, Sucioperro have yet to make the breakthrough.
Which is maybe why there was such a thin crowd to see them
power through an enjoyable, if a little repetitive, set at the Classic
Grand. ‘The Final Confessions of Mabel Stark’ is a highlight, along
with a barely there version of ‘Apathy=Inaction’. Newer material like
‘You Can’t Lose’ is well received, but too many songs simply blended
together to make a sometimes rousing but ultimately interchangeable
hour or so of sweaty rock. Whilst ‘Dialog on the 2’ provided a thrilling
climax, somehow resembling Weezer on a disco-metal freak-out but
without being the musical armageddon that it sounds, it was hard to
shake the feeling that you’ve seen and heard it all before.
The same can’t be said for We Were Promised Jetpacks, who
played a packed ABC2 on the second night on through to the a.m.
From opener ‘Keeping Warm’, it’s easy to see why so much excite-
ment surrounds the Glasgow-based four piece. Dense atmospherics,
rich melody and urgent vocals combine to make a thrilling sound
that shows off exactly why they have recently been signed to FatCat
Records, home of Frightened Rabbit and Twilight Sad. They draw
comparison to both in terms of the former’s ear for a tune and the
latter’s wonderful cacophony, but walk their own distinctive path.
Recently released single ‘Quiet Little Voices’ is like a glorious,
post-punk punch to the gut, whilst ‘It’s Thunder and Lightning’ has a
patient build up, culminating in a wonderful Mogwai-esque racket.
With debut album ‘These Four Walls’ out in June, this served as a tanta-
lising taster of what is to come.
The Fall
>> Catriona Reilly
The Arches appears to be fairly full, with a bipolar audience of
balding older men and jaunty students with fake glasses. When the
band finally takes to the stage, Mark E Smith lurching in their wake,
the audience emits a gentle roar rather than furious screams of
admiration. Opening with ‘Strange Town’, it becomes apparent that
Mark’s legendary acerbic snarl has faded to an unintelligible slur. This
continues song after song, fired at the audience in furiously quick
succession with no interaction, small talk or even pause for breath.
This is no surprise as The Fall are not celebrated for their stage banter,
but it creates a cynical atmosphere of performance by numbers and
fails to get the crowd moving.
As they continue to plough through a selection of tracks from
2008’s Imperial Wax Solvent, such as a shortened version of ‘50 Year
Old Man’ and ‘Tommy Shooter’, a general sense of dissatisfaction
grows , with many people leaving in search of better quality entertain-
ment from the festival’s other offerings. This is further exacerbated by
the deteriorating sound quality, which stifles Mark’s vocals under a
wall of noise, making the performance seem even more apathetic,
albeit through no fault of their own. However, the night has some
saving grace with an energetic and musically flawless performance,
displaying impressive musicality on the instrumental ‘Senior Twilight
Stock Replacer’. Even from behind the keyboards Elena usurps her
husband Mark, barking out vocals. Unfortunately, this has little overall
effect in dispelling the feeling that Mr Smith didn’t really want to be
there and especially did not want to entertain anyone. After forty
minutes The Fall left the stage, having completed a set list devoid of
classics and passion, while the crowds left devoid of satisfaction.

Sketching the scenesters
Oisín Kealy has a word with Hinterland’s resident live drawer Jenny Soep
How did you get started on sketching live bands? What is it about the Glasgow music scene that
inspired you?
I started sketching live bands in 2000 when I was studying illustration at Duncan of Jordanstone,
Dundee. At the time it was the Dundee Jazz Festival and I drew Randy Brecker’s band. I was sitting at the
front and while playing his trumpet he sauntered over to the front of the stage to check it out and gave
me a thumbs up!
I once heard the writer Rody Gorman stating he was just a frustrated musician, and I feel the same. I
don’t play an instrument, but I do sing, and always wanted to do something that was different from the
norm, so I guess I translate my love for original alternative music into visuals.
My aim is for people to get a sense of the experience of each live gig through the style of drawing. I also
love the intrinsic qualities of text and feel the lyrics I hear, and embed into the picture, catch the viewers
attention invoking memories, nostalgia or the imagination of what it could have been like.
Glasgow has such a rich tradition of contemporary and traditional music, art, creativity and innova-
tion. It’s also a very welcoming and open minded place. I moved to Glasgow last year to be immersed in
it, but I moved from a tiny village where not much happens and nearly went nuts trying to draw all the
weird, wonderful and exciting goings on. I’ve taken a big step back and am aiming to be a bit more selec-
tive. Glasgow is also a fantastic base to work from as regards travelling around the rest of the country
and beyond.
At the start did you have to fight the urge to edit your work post-gig? How often will a rowdy
crowd interfere with your work?
Sometimes I’ll accentuate the drawings after a gig or add a few minor details I remember. I often have
to go over words I’ve written down as they can tend to dissipate into the picture. I’m very lucky that I’m
often in the press pit at major gigs, but doing more intimate smaller gigs with no barriers makes for some
knocks and shoving, beer and wine spillage, but it all adds to the final image. It’s evidence of the situation
I was drawing in.
Press pits are still accessible to audience ‘interference’ though — drawing MIA at Connect, she encour-
aged an impromptu stage invasion so I had to scarper with my picture which still got some mud flung on
it, as did my pictures of Bjork who played after, one of them getting some generous splashes of red wine
incorporated. I actually had to add more rouge as the stains dried a bit grey: once you know they’re wine
stains they’re very noticeable.
I want the drawings to look like a human being drew and experienced them, and not some unemo-
tional machine. Photos tend to show you what you already know: drawings illuminate what’s special.
Do the bands always know you are there, or do you ever get a few worried looks from lead
singers?
I’d be disappointed if they weren’t a bit curious, but I tend to try and look friendly so they don’t think
I’m writing a shit review of their music. I also don’t want to put them off their stride. David Byrne was aware
I was sketching him which he alluded to at the beginning of his gig. I’m waiting for the day when I get told
to take my pens and fuck off.
inSIGHT
5
music
PA G E
To what extent does your enjoyment or lack thereof of the gig affect your document of the night?
Does a good gig necessarily mean a good picture?
Most of the time. I draw theatre shows as well though, and one of my favourite acts, Al Seed was really
difficult as it was deathly quiet and I felt I couldn’t really use my pencils and watercolours as they would
have been too noisy and distracting for the audience. Gigs are definitely easier!
I use my art to learn about music, but usually do a bit of groundwork to see if the music is going to be
something I’ll like. However drawing at the Futures stage at T in the Park, for some reason, I felt violently
bored by a particular band, but though I felt really irritated I produced a pretty good picture, which they
saw afterwards and really liked. I don’t really know what to say when a band I didn’t enjoy, like the picture.
Apart from, ‘It’s yours for only a thousand quid!’.
Off the top of your head can you think of any band that has been particularly hard to draw and
why?
The Second Hand Marching Band because there’s so flipping many of them and they swap around
during their performance. This becomes evident in the drawings I do of them as somebody’s face will be
hovering above someone else’s body. Zoey Van Goey are another band that do a bit of swapping around.
The drawing I did of the Week That Was (which is currently up in my show at Mono) ‘unfeatures’ the lead
singer as I started drawing him in one position planning on finishing it when he returned, which he didn’t.
So the colourful suggestion of him has been written over with lyrics, in particular ‘Where do I begin’ which
I get a big kick out of. That picture was bought at my preview which was nice.
What has been the highlight of your work sketching live music?
That’s hard - there’s quite a few highlights, but getting to draw David Byrne was really cool especially
as I met him afterwards and he’s put my images and blog comment on his website. Big Kudos there!
Drawing Bjork was amazing, then Sigur Ros last year at Connect which I was on stage for (at the side, but
still onstage!). They’re lovely folks. Another biggie was being involved with Ballads of the Book, doing a
one day exhibition at Tramway that grew during the day’s gigs. Because of that gig, I also got invited to
draw the ‘Scottish Night’ at the Crossing Borders festival in Holland and rub shoulders with some amazing
musicians - though I chose not to say anything to Patti Smith when I saw her, because I would have come
out with something I’d probably regret.
What bands did you get a chance to see at Hinterland?
Well, it was really difficult as there were a lot of bands I would have liked to have seen like Slow Club,
This Will Destroy You, and Sons and Daughters but it was brilliant to see and draw The Wave Pictures, the
legendary Mark E Smith regardless, Foxface and Jeffrey Lewis. I have drawn Remember Remember, Zoey
Van Goey, Popup, De Rosa and Punch & The Apostles, and in the future want to draw Desalvo, Mitchell
Museum, Meursalt and Y’All is Fantasy Island. There’s a whole host of others I’ll learn about. So many
bands, so little time! I turned 30 on Friday the 1st of May - wasn’t a bad way to enjoy it drawing two of my
favourite bands.
(Jenny’s exhibition is running at Mono until mid June)
 inSIGHT film
11/05/09

Curiouser and curiouser

Coraline
Dir: Henry Selick
On general release now

>> Tom Bonnick

A
daptations of Neil Gaiman books are always encouraging
prospects, and so the lure of a Nightmare Before Christmas-
inspired film of Coraline, the award-winning novella, by di-
rector Henry Selick — in 3D, no less — seemed incredibly
promising. It is somewhat strange, then, that the very reasons for the
film’s success are the ones for which Gaiman can take the least credit.
Dakota Fanning — evidently now the go-to girl for any film in need
of a plucky pre-adolescent — provides the voice of Coraline, a young
adventurer who finds herself in a new house, bored and neglected
by her parents (Teri Hatcher and John Hodgman; whose faintly nasal,
suburban drawls fit the roles perfectly).
The uncovering of a secret doorway leads to a parallel world,
wherein lies — naturally — a family of doppelgangers, who tempt
Coraline into leaving the real world forever in favour of their own,
apparently superior, one.
The picture is beautifully produced with a mixture of stop-motion
animation and CGI in a style familiar to every fan of Jack Skellington,
and the incorporation of 3D technology takes place in a manner far
less jarring than that of other recent attempts — indeed, it feels befit-
ting of the fantastical, dreamlike nature. Aside from the obvious debt

“Beautifully rendered with a mixture of stop-

motion animation and CGI in a style familiar
to every fan of Jack Skellington”
owed to Alice in Wonderland, Coraline pays homage to recent films
like Pan’s Labyrinth and Spirited Away, whose senses of mystical, child-
like wonder are lovingly replicated — with some help from supremely
weird performances by Ian McShane and Jennifer Saunders.
Selick may be responsible for a triumphant aesthetic quality, but midsection trundles along nicely, the writing pair appear to realise Still, it would take a true grinch not to take some pleasure from
his and Gaiman’s efforts at re-writing the original short story are a three-quarters of the way through that all of a sudden there’s an Selick’s shrewd ability to meld modern contrivances — mobile phones,
far lesser accomplishment. The undeniably entertaining conceit of awful lot of action to dispense with, and the whole affair takes on the a new model VW Beetle — and old-fashioned relics — cabaret shows,
Coraline’s discovery and its consequences is marred by uneven — feel of a videogame: overly task-oriented and slightly repetitive, with vaudeville performers, and a Stepford-esque alternate reality — with
and, at times, truly dismal — pacing. The first third or so seems overly Coraline dashing from one location to the next in search of items to such a daring insouciance. Coraline may be flawed, but it’s still the
preoccupied with rather self-indulgent visual display, and whilst the complete her quest like Lara Croft-lite. most inventive piece of animation to be released this year.

Fighting mercy just to make a quick buck — but look! He
holds doors open for old ladies on the subway!
Dir: Dito Montiel After the authenticity of his Southern manners
Released 13th May has been firmly established — a process that
demands from its audience a degree of patience far
>> Tom Bonnick
There is a much more interesting film to be
made about Harvey and his sometime-nemesis
Martinez, the wonderful, perpetually underused
Luis Guzman, who along with Howard, seems to
have simply arrived at the wrong set one day and
gamely played along. Fighting is not that film,
however: it is a dumb, brutish and chronically
formulaic picture whose only redeeming quality is
that perhaps it might wipe the smile from Matthew
McConaughey’s face.

F
ighting, the latest venture in former model
Channing Tatum’s bid to be more shirtless
than Matthew McConaughey, is possibly
the closest cinema can come to replicating
the sensation of chewing the cud.
The same three scenes are repeated ad
nauseam, and then your brain throws up a little,
except there’s still a half hour left, so you have to
start back at step one.
Tatum plays Shawn MacArthur, a naïve young
man who’s moved his small-town life to New York,
rendered in a weird early-90s pastiche, when the
city really was just a cesspit of gangs and violence,
as director Dito Montiel presents it as being today.
Invariably, the first of the three-scene formula
involves Shawn committing some act of gentle-
manly kindness, usually directed towards someone
either disadvantaged in some way, or smoking hot
— presumably as a rather cheap way of excusing his
later actions. Sure, he beats up other guys without
greater than is reasonable — Shawn meets Harvey, a
desperate street hustler looking to become a man of
real means, portrayed with infinite cool by Terrence
Howard. Every second scene involves Harvey giving
Shawn a pep talk: You can do this! I believe in you!
I don’t believe in you, and you probably can’t do
this, but we’re still going to make a helluva lot of
money betting on your opponent! And then, finally,
comes the third stage: the eponymous Fighting.
It might be reasonable to expect from a film that
so unabashedly glorifies violence either excellent
choreography, or some imagination, or charismatic
performances. Fighting has none of these. In fact, it
is almost unbelievable how boring the bouts that
take place are — of the calibre one might see on a
Friday night on Sauchiehall Street.
Tatum remains remarkably unblemished
throughout, despite being regularly pummelled
in the face and through walls, which adds a further
layer of stupidity to proceedings, conveniently
without threatening his good looks in the slightest.
 inSIGHT

7
film

PA G E
Do not adjust your sets
Ian Robertson and Leon Weber report on the past, present and future of 3D technology in cinema

W
hat do Japanese citizen Tomoji Tanabe and cinema have
in common? They were both born in 1895 and are still
going strong. It has been 114 years since the French Lu-
mière brothers made the first ever film, and since then
the technology of cinema has evolved dramatically, from the advent
of the colour feature length in 1918, to the first use of synchronised
sound in 1927’s The Jazz Singer. The 1950s brought widescreen tech-
nology, and the 1990s achieved significant advances in computer-
generated effects.
The biggest technological innovations in recent times have been
in 3D cinema. Surprisingly, 3D technology was invented in the 1920s
by Britain’s William Friese Green, but like widescreen and colour, was
not commonly introduced until the industry saw a profitable market
for it.
Its history and popularity has certainly been hesitant. In the 1920s,
3D was mainly used in B-movie production, and merely considered a
gimmick. The technology itself was underdeveloped, with washed out
colours, and it had a nauseating effect on some audiences, causing
headaches and vomiting.
However, modern 3D runs much faster, at 144 frames per second,
and has a much smoother image through the use of ‘triple flash tech-
nique’, which shows each frame three times, rather than once. New
three-dimensional technology is therefore less likely to create nausea
— but nevertheless, this still ultimately depends on an individual’s
tolerance for the technology.
In general, it could be said that these recent technological
improvements have made 3D cinema more popular than ever. The
’90s saw nature documentaries and short animated films capital-
ising on the 3D experience and theme parks and museums screened

“Like widescreen and colour, 3D was not

commonly introduced until the industry saw
a profitable market for it”

3D films on IMAX screens reaching a gigantic eight stories high, but

whilst these exhibitions offer an impressive spectacle, the emphasis is
not on the film’s narrative.
At the turn of the century a number of feature length narrative
films attempted to integrate 3D technology into the storyline. The
3D IMAX versions of Beowulf and The Polar Express are examples
of such; the latter earning more than fourteen times the box office
revenue compared to its 2D counterpart. Bolt and Monsters vs Aliens
are recent examples of fully computer generated 3D films that have
drawn in large audiences.
This year My Bloody Valentine took another technological step
forward by being one of the first successful live action 3D films. The
film was poorly written and executed, but it was a big box office
success, grossing seven million pounds in the UK, only one million
less than the Oscar-winning The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. My
Bloody Valentine may have lacked an engaging story, but it proved
that 3D cinema makes for a lucrative market.
The film industry is sensing this extraordinary demand for 3D
cinema, and is investing large sums of money into the technology.
Cineworld has installed many 3D film projectors in their cinemas
across the UK, and during this year’s Superbowl, 150 million Ameri-
cans where given 3D glasses to watch the Monsters vs Alien trailer on
TV. Do the advantages offered by 3D justify Hollywood going to such
great lengths?
Not only are ticket prices higher than for regular 2D films, but
increasing problems involving movie piracy mean three dimen-
sional images also serve as a convenient protection against illegal
recording. 3D movies need to be watched with 3D glasses and cannot
be recorded by a camera without blurring the image considerably.
And, cynicism aside, there remains the romantic idea of Hollywood's
everlasting pursuit for a more entertaining cinema experience.
James Cameron on the set of Avatar
While 3D is popular with Hollywood and audiences alike, what if
its technology and popularity has already reached its peak? Director
James Cameron sees 3D as a format for the future rather than a
fleeting novelty. He has already set a technological milestone in 1991,
when Terminator 2 revolutionised special effects and he believes that
he can do it again, in 3D. Cameron’s new film Avatar — his first since
Titanic, in 1997 — will be released worldwide at the end of 2009 and
is considered one of the most anticipated films of this year, not only
because of the twelve years since his work was last seen on screen,
but also thanks to the film's 300 million dollar budget; money largely
spent investing in creating an allegedly new and overwhelming
3D experience.
Set 200 years in the future, Avatar tells the story of an ex-marine
sent on a mission to exploit the resources of an exotic planet, where he
encounters its hostile inhabitants who fear for their survival. Cameron
seems keener on revealing information about the film’s technology
rather than its story: not only will the boundaries between CGI and
actual footage be blurred entirely, to create one seemingly real
universe, but the director also developed his own 3D camera which
will, apparently, take the three dimensional images to another level
of realism.
While the prospect of these new technological advances and the
trend cinema is taking towards a three-dimensional future is certainly
exciting, it is uncertain how exactly people will react. A main concern
is whether 3D will complement the narrative in a shared effort to draw
the audience into the film, or whether the accentuation of the tech-
nology will alienate us from it.
Supposing that 3D will be widely popular among filmgoers, will
we have to get accustomed to wearing glasses on every trip to the
cinema, even to see a romantic comedy? For the answer to this ques-
tion, and the question of 3D’s future, we’ll have to wait for the release
of the biggest three-dimensional venture to date. At 1.2 million
dollars per minute to build, render and execute, Avatar could either be
a major financial debacle or the advent of a new cinema-going experi-
ence. Either way it will mark a pivotal moment in the long history of
3D cinema.
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