REVIEWS

Edinburgh Review: The Day Sam Died, New Town

Theatre
By Tania Nicole Clarke on August 23, 2014 in Reviews

The Day Sam Died   is a brand new

experimental production set in a futuristic
hospital which asks us to think long and hard
about the taboo topic we all fear deep down:
death. But this particular show is no ordinary
Fringe experience; it is performed in
Portuguese by the Armazem Theatre
Company from Brazil, with English subtitles
for non-Portuguese speaking audience
members (including myself). As one of the
biggest arts festivals in the world the Fringe
provides its theatre-goers with a wide variety
of diverse, multicultural performances from
all corners of the globe, and this production
was certainly one of many rewarding, eye-
opening performances to attend.

The Day Sam Died makes fantastic use of its performance space, using hanging screens of
different sizes to feed the English subtitles, as well as using this backdrop to stage
silhouettes and various bold, effective lighting states. It has to be said that the performance
itself is visually stunning: it is beautifully lit, establishing a clinical environment from the
beginning of the production and making full use of strobe lighting. Some seemingly absurd
and brave aesthetic decisions have been made; the message weaved throughout the piece
that everything can be revitalised is poignantly portrayed through the lowering of human-
sized dummies which are carried by characters who appear to have died, as a way of
symbolising that the soul lives on. Strong artistic decisions such as this are what enhance the
overall performance.

The performance features live musical accompaniment throughout, with cast members
hopping on stage to perform as well as dabbling backstage to play in the band, which is in
direct correlation with the action on stage. This works extremely well, and is in keeping
with the non-naturalistic, abstract performance with stylised movements injected between
scenes, including head-banging and rhythmic, pedestrianised walking. The Day Sam Died
creates its own kind of genre which is different, and unlike anything I’ve really seen before;
it integrates the art forms of drama, music and movement in a fragmented kind of fashion,
but I think it just about works as its own unique performance style.

The production could, however, certainly do with being about half an hour shorter. This
might have been inflicted by the language barrier experienced by non-Portuguese speaking
audience members, but it did become difficult to sustain interest in the characters at times,
REVIEWS
especially as the music sections became increasingly longer and failed to make any real
progress of the plot itself. The story spirals towards a bizarre and haunting finale, which I
will refrain from explaining in fear of providing spoilers, but the idea that there is “one rule
of humanity: to survive at any cost” is terrifyingly depicted at the end of the production. The
Day Sam Died is a surreal performance with deeply philosophical undertones to it, and I
would encourage Fringe-goers of any nationality to try it on for size.

The Day Sam Died is at New Town Theatre until 24 August as part of the Edinburgh Fringe.
For tickets and more information visit the Edinburgh Fringe website.

REVIEWS

AUGUST 4, 2015 9:55 AM by The Windows Team

The all new Twitter experience, handcrafted for Windows 10
Connect with people, express yourself, and discover more about the things you love with the Twitter
app for Windows 10. Twitter for Windows 10 is a Universal Windows App that features a new
media rich timeline and shows you photos and Vine videos. You can also see tweets in Live Tiles
right from your Start menu.



Free to download from the Windows Store, the new and improved Twitter app for Windows 10
sports a cleaner, more potent perch for sharing and following along. See it quicker with a media
forward timeline. Share photos privately and upload multiple photos straight from a timeline. And
see what’s happening now on Twitter without being logged in. Get the most interesting Tweets from
the day optimized for your location even when logged out, a Windows 10 first!


Be part of the conversation like never before with Twitter for Windows 10, download it for free
today! You can also read the news Twitter shared on their blog last week.

UPDATED AUGUST 4, 2015 12:36 PM

REVIEWS

Web Exclusive – August 4, 2015

BLACK CHALK
An elaborate game gets out of control
BookPage review by Lizzie Davis

For some college is about fresh starts, new friends and big adventures. When Chad wants to make
the most of his time abroad at Oxford, he befriends Jolyon, a jovial, well-liked first-year student.
The two share great camaraderie, and together they design an innocent game meant to mimic the
inherent risks and consequences of life. Needing six to realize the game, they invite four others to
participate with an enticing reward.

But those closest to you have the ability to use your greatest fear against you, and this harmless
game of dares and consequences evolves into psychological warfare, and after a horrifying incident,
The Game is suspended.

Now, 14 years later, The Game resumes. This lapse in time was enough for the players to mend
from the psychological stress—except for Jolyon, whose neurosis immobilizes him into a
shuddering recluse, damaging his love life and career and impairing the simplest of everyday
physical activities such as dressing, eating and going outside. Now that The Game has even higher
stakes, Jolyon sets out to retell the story of his first year at Oxford so he can get the story straight
and get his life back. More than just a fable of his youthful follies with friends, his story holds
secrets unknown to the final players—but they have hidden confidences, too.

Christopher J. Yates shines with his first book, Black Chalk, a grippingly dark narrative set in 1990s
Oxford and present-day New York. Yates creates calculated threads, knotted with friendship and
romance, and slowly reveals frightening character traits for a thrilling read. One question will
remain with readers: What do your friends know about you, and how far would they take that truth?

REVIEWS

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

305 of 314 people found the following review helpful
GREAT phone, but a couple drawbacks you need to be aware of
By Skipjacks TOP 500 REVIEWER on April 23, 2015
Color: Black
I got a chance to test a Galaxy S6 out and immediately bought one for my wife. I'm
a complete phone nerd (XDA Developers Recognized Contributor, if that means
anything to you) so I massively over analyze these things.

It's a VERY nice phone but it's got some things that I consider drawbacks. For my
wife, all the drawbacks listed below were non issues. She didn't care about these
issues. So understand that my 'drawbacks' are completely subjective to your
personal needs. But they are things that you should be aware of and consider if
they mean anything to you before purchasing.

░░░░░THE UPSIDES░░░░░

❖ The screen is incredible. Like really incredible. The resolution is better than my
eye can see. I use a Galaxy S4 as my regular phone and it has great resolution
where you can't see individual pixels. I thought the S4 screen was as good as you
can get, but the S6 screen takes it to a whole new level. Even though you can't see
pixels on either screen, the higher resolution of the S6 screen makes everything
look so sharp that it's nearly impossible to tell you are looking at a screen. It's that
incredible.

❖ The design of the phone just feels more 'expensive'. I mean that in a good way. It
feels just higher quality than previous models in the Galaxy S line. The S3 and S4
for example are often critiqued for having a plastic shell. The S6 has a metal band
around the outside that just makes it feel 'premium' in your hand. It should also
provide more protection for the device as well.

❖ TouchWiz is HEAVILY scaled back. I hate TouchWiz (Samsung's version of

Android) It adds a layer of UI that is neither helpful nor intuitive. And it's a resource
hog which slows the phone down for important tasks just so it can make the
scrolling smoother, and other such useless tradeoffs. On the S6 TouchWiz was
barely noticeable. The UI looks more like the standard Google Android Lollipop
interface. It was all just much smoother and simpler and better and wonderful.

❖ Camera. 16 MP. And the images it takes look stunning on the super HD screen.
Those photos on a larger high resolution monitor are simply stunning.

░░░░░THE DOWNSIDES░░░░░

❖ The battery is not removable or easily replaceable. A cell phone battery has a life
of about 500 charge cycles. I tend to keep my phones for 2 years as daily users,
then I keep my old phones for a variety of other purposes around the house. (My
old HTC Sensation is hooked up to my stereo for use as a nice wifi streaming
REVIEWS
media player with a touchscreen UI, for example) I eventually have a need to
replace batteries because I wear them out. I like being able to go on Amazon, spent
$20 on a replacement battery, pop it in and be done. Additionally, even if you don't
keep your phones that long, batteries fail sometimes. The stock batteries on the
Galaxy S4 had some problems. They were minimal, but for those affected the
battery absolutely had to be replaced. On the S4 it took 8 seconds and the problem
was solved. On the S6 I'm sure it would be covered by warranty but it'd be a pain to
take it somewhere to have it worked on should the issue come up. So no
replaceable battery is a deal killer for me. This might not be an issue for you. If not,
great! But be aware of the issue before making purchase decisions.

❖ You can't expand the storage with an SD Card. I don't want to live in the cloud. I
hate the cloud. Sometimes I'm not on an LTE network. Sometimes I'm in the middle
of nowhere but still want to show someone pictures of my kids. I got my wife the
32GB model. That sounds like a lot, but keep in mind that some of that is dedicated
for the operating system and user apps. So you don't get to use all 32GB. The S6 is
going to be available in up to 128GB, which ends my problem with not liking the
cloud option. Again, you might not care. If not, great! My wife doesn't keep a lot of
stuff on her phone. She moves all her pictures to her computer and never loaded
video to watch on her phone, so the storage thing wasn't a big deal to her at all
even at the 32GB base model. But it would drive me crazy. So this is another matter
of personal opinion.

I would bet HEAVILY that Samsung put a lot of money into researching consumers
and figured out that MOST people don't care about these two 'downsides'. And
that's backed up by early reports that the launch day sales and pre-orders of the S6
have already doubled the total sales of the S5. of So I expect that most people
reading this review won't care about the battery or storage. But you should still be
aware of them in case one or both of them is an issue for you.

░░░░░THE NEUTRAL░░░░░

❖ The screen is probably at the upper limits of size you'd want to go for a phone.
Any bigger and it's too large for one handed operation. But the S6 is just at that limit
where you can still use it with one hand.

❖ It's not waterproof like the previous S5 model. How often does that really come in
handy though? Do you often find yourself unexpectedly waste deep in water so
quickly that you don't even have a chance to take your phone out of your pocket
and get it to higher ground? Me either.

❖ The camera juts out from the back a little. It also does this on the S4. I haven't
noticed it in 2 years on that phone. I can't imaging you'd care about it on the S6. But
I've heard that complaint about it. It sticks out a LITTLE further than on the S4, but
it's really not that big of a deal. My wife didn't even notice.

❖ The general design looks like all the other phones in the Galaxy S line. It's a
sleek design. It has the physical home button and the capacitive back and menu
REVIEWS
buttons to either side of it so you are not reliant on the Android "bottom of the
screen" navigation bar. I don't care for that navigation bar as it takes up screen real
estate. I like the buttons I need most being off the screen. The S6 continues that
trend.

░░░░░THE BOTTOM LINE░░░░░

If you can deal with the non removable battery and non upgradable storage, the S6
is an insanely sleek phone that I can't imaging you'd be unhappy with. The thing
looks cool even when the screen is off. It feels great in your hand. The image clarity
is insane. The UI is incredibly smooth and easy to use.

If the battery and SD card issues are deal killers for you, you won't like the S6.

That's what this comes down to. If those aren't a big deal, buy it and you will be
SUPER happy. If those are a big deal, you will not be happy. Though I have to
admit I think that I'd get used to the non upgradable storage. I just don't like it right
now. The battery thing might be something I could get used to as well....but Id' need
proof of "this isn't a hindrance" for quite a while before I liked it.

If you completely take the battery and SD out of the equation it's not a contest. The
S6 is a GREAT phone.
27 Comments Was this review helpful to you?
Yes/No