... to Matthew Holehouse, former Stu editor, who has been nominated for the only interesting category at the NUS Awards 2008. The results come out on Monday 9 June.
Ah, rowing on the OxStu front page.
Which reminds Aldate... wasn't it roughly this time last year that a certain OUSU-sponsored paper pissed away a front page with the headline "UFOs give Summer Eights a go"?
So, it only took five weeks for the two papers to come out with the same front page story. The Friars/governing-body/license talk may have made the story impenetrable for many beyond the first two paragraphs. Aldate reckons that Cherwell's timeline and standfirsts represent a better effort to open the article up to the casual reader. But then maybe I'm biased...
Nonetheless, both here and generally speaking, there's a lot more that both papers should be doing to make stories more enjoyable: infoboxes, definitions, graphs, diagrams, infographics, whatever. The fact is that the traditional combination of picture, copy, headline, standfirst and pullquote is immensely unimaginative and unhelpful in telling the news.
Another good piece by Mr Holehouse on Stu p3 - goes to show that reading dry reports can go a long way.
Gratuitous use of a pretty girl in Cherwell's rent protest coverage. Anything to do with one e
Last night the Coven was host to a new club night in Oxford: Project Eden. It was a strange amalgamation of drum n bass, electro and house. Thursdays at Filth resident DJs Midas and Ivo kicked off the evening with some funky electro tunes, warming up the night for a round of DnB from Hit&Run resident DJ Fu. As always, Fu played an excellent set of upbeat tracks which were perfect for whipping out those outrageous monkey-arm moves. According to the advertisement it was to be a night of “intense beats and one-off concepts.” Not sure I gathered what these concepts were, but the beats were definitely there.
The Coven is a good venue. It’s always a plus having a balcony over the dance-floor, tables in caves in the wall and a well sized courtyard for the socialisers and smoking crowd. It makes the night a little bit more interesting than a large one-roomed club like Filth. There were some very good drinks deals and the entry fee inexpensive. The latter had a qui
Last night the Carling Academy played host to Mr Scruff. The unique character is a Hip Hop DJ, cartoonist and tea maker. A delicious mix.
Scruff proved to be extremely diverse. From a mellow, soulful beginning of the set, he went on to seamlessly merge more upbeat genres. From funky to jazz to dubstep, Scruff covered it all with his typical hip hop overtones. All his classic songs were played: Fish and Jazz Potato in the middle with a perfect transition to Get a Move On near the end.
However, Mr Scruff is not just all about the music. He was located at the centre of the stage, sandwiched between two large screens. These projected Scruff's distinct cartoon drawings and writing during the set. Phrases such as "warning incoming bassline" and "get those knees up" flashed up with perfect timing. There was even a tailor-made reference to the "Oxford Massive"; followed by a list of areas in Oxford. The predominantly stud
Even saints get things wrong sometimes. Mr Omkar insists that he did not ("repeat, not") give the OxStu that Stoppard photo.
Krishna's speedy response comes courtesy of Google News OmkarSearch™, as used by the great man himself:
PS: Aldate now has an RSS feed
Aldate was somewhat underwhelmed by both news sections this week.
Stu
The OxStu’s front page story on the changing status of JCRs might have been vaguely interesting, had it been written in February 2007. The story seems to be based almost entirely on an NUS document published over a year ago . The only ‘news’ – that Queen’s JCR is to address the issue next week - comes halfway down on page 2. Hardly groundbreaking stuff.
John Hood’s address leak is quite an entertaining story, but what’s that banner running across the top: ‘security’? And similarly, ‘health’ and ‘press’ elsewhere. Bizarre. Page 3 makes it look like the meningitis girl has actually died.
'well
Cherwell’s splash is ok, but if you’re going to put something on the front page the copy needs to be tighter and bolder.
The ongoing Chinese/Tibeta
On Tuesday 29th April the Carling Academy played host to the legendary DJ Yoda. I had few preconceived ideas about what to expect. All I knew about DJ Yoda was that he is a ‘Hip Hop Turntablist’ and that this was the first night of his nationwide tour dubbed ‘The Magic Cinema Show’. I was not quite sure how these two briefs would be brought together.
DJ Yoda, real name Duncan Beiny, is a Londoner who specialises in mixing 80s classics in a distinctive Hip Hop style. He is eminent in the Hip Hop world; having been nominated for Best Hip Hop DJ in the UK Hip Hop Awards, and been tipped by Q Magazine as one of the ‘Top Ten DJs to See Before You Die’. What sets Yoda apart from the crowd, however, is that he doesn’t just scratch music. He scratches film.
Why is it that exams are always during the time when you want to be outside the most? Whoever initially made that decision was either malicious or just liked a laugh at all of our expenses. Yesterday epitomised the dilemma that is going to dominate this Trinity term. The sun came out (just) so we all went out (a lot). Aren’t we just English through and through?
First stop was some delightful G and T’s in Trinity Gardens. Small groups lounged on the grass, basking in the sun with Gin and Tonic or Pimms in hand. Others chose to mingle and make some small talk. The outward “How are you?”s probably just about masked the inward: “My sunglasses are definitely bigger than yours.” Delightful. Once my small talk was diminished and my £2s all disappeared it was time to go – definitely in a much improved state from the post-fashion-show mood of the morning.
So what next? I went to the library for the rest of the day. I watched a film.
Despite initial hiccups, I had a very good night on Wednesday. At 11pm I left the college bar and went my separate way from everyone else. They were all off to the first Park End of term (sorrrrry Lava & Ignite) and I was off to Filth for Sex on the Beat. As I entered the delightful Westgate Centre to head to what I thought would be a nice raucous queue I discovered, er, no one. Empty queue. As much as we all moan about being squashed like sardines between metal barriers on the top floor of a shopping centre, the sight of no one is a lot worse. Not looking so good so far. Should I have gone less against the grain and joined the Park End revelries?
While this saint wishes no animosity between our esteemed University and lesser other institutions, is the OXFORD Student not pushing its luck slightly with this week's photoshoot?
It's just that the photographer seems to be at Bristol , while one of the models goes to Loughborough.
(We know, we know, it's all about the fashion darling.)
