Friday 8th August 2025
Blog Page 2179

1st Week: Things kick off

Oskar
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1st Week: Things kick off

In a brief break from writing a 10,000-word self-nomination for these OSPL talent awards that have got all of this website buzzing, I bring you new singles. None are as exciting as the fact that the new Antony album’s out today and sitting temptingly to my left, screaming/warbling out to be played, but then I’m not going to win any awards by neglecting this blog now, am I?

Bon Iver – Blood Bank ****

This new release comes as a four-track EP that is well worth £2.49 of anyone’s money. Except possibly Alastair Darling’s. Fleet Foxes’ laid-back, stripped-down cousins are back, boosted by end-of-year acclaim for 2008’s For Emma, Forever Ago, and on the title track at least have sensibly changed absolutely nothing. B-sides ‘Babys’ and ‘Woods’ experiment with piano and Imogen Heap-styled vocal layering respectively. But ‘Blood Bank’ gives you a strong chorus, chugging reverb-drenched acoustic guitars, and some of the smoothest singing on record. Ace.

Franz Ferdinand – Ulysses ***

Sounds like we’ll have to wait for the album to hear those ‘new influences’ come through: this sounds exactly like old Franz, with minor concessions to the current penchant for occasional falsetto and underlying beats. Still, at least its attention span is longer than former lead singles, so it only tries to be one song, not two. That single song is a little stodgy, a little uninspired, but there’s a genuine sense of progression and building over the three minutes: you emerge from the warped mid-8 into a darker, more menacing chorus than you’d first encountered. So the jury’s still out…

Pink – Sober **

Did you know Pink was still going? Exciting, isn’t it? Well, not really. The mashing of genres here – flamenco/funk acoustic guitar twiddles, ’80s drums, garage distortion and arch strings – would be more impressive if they didn’t sound like a No Doubt release from the late ’90s. The breakdown’s quite pleasant, but the tune has none of the aggression or pop nous of her earlier work, and her voice is clearly deteriorating. Shame.

Kid British – Lost In London ***

Close your eyes, and it’s The Kooks’ Luke Pritchard, kidnapped by a Jamaican steel band and forced to cod-rap in an embarrassing West Indian accent. Which is more fun than looking at these baseball-capped youths. They’re just not very pretty. But the song’s oddly enjoyable, referencing tube stops and rattling kettledrums. Has that terrace-appeal of yob-indie bands whilst being a half-decent piece of music along with it.

Something Old, Something New

Elbow – Cast Of Thousands

OK, so it’s not very old, but amazon are offering all of Elbow’s back catalogue for £2.98 per album, and this sophomore effort is their masterpiece, from the soul explosion of ‘Ribcage’, through the swoonsome romance of ‘Not A Job’, ‘Switching Off’, and ‘Buttons and Zips’, to the festival percussion ecstacy of ‘Grace Under Pressure’. Beats The Seldom Seen Kid hands down.

Patrick Wolf – Battle

That scamp, young Patrick, has taken to playing the markets. Or he just can’t find a record deal. In any case, he’s offering YOU the chance to become a stockholder in his forthcoming fourth album, with all kinds of perks besides the profits which, quite honestly, aren’t going to be massive. But with Tilda Swinton on the album, maybe the extra publicity will make your fortune…go invest.

That’s all, folks. Back to self-promotion…

OSPL ‘Talent’

Aldate
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OSPL ‘Talent’

“All you need to do to nominate an individual (or, for that matter, yourself)”

Please don’t nominate yourself. Writing 50 words on how brilliant you are is not really a skill and is likely to blow your ego into the stratosphere. Oh, your ‘best mate in the world ever’ did it ‘entirely without your knowledge and you’re so embarrassed’, well that’s OK then.

Then again, the prize is amazing. Membership of the poshest hackery in town, and a ticket to a huge mutual back-slapping OSPL party. Just careful you don’t get overwhelmed by the speeches – surely to make Kate Winslet seem modest and brief.

Fake nominanting people who are rubbish, on the other hand, is heartily approved of by this Saint. 

OSPL talent awards: http://www.cherwell.org/content/8284  

 

 

Pictures for Peace?

Aisha Mirza
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Pictures for Peace?

Three years ago Marco Berrebi an Arab-Jewish mathematician, writer and activist orchestrated the biggest illegal photo exhibition the world had ever seen as a contribution to the Middle East peace process. He is the co-founder of Face2Face, a co-existence project that began in 2005. Marco teamed up with JR, a street photographer from Paris to create Face2Face, aimed at promoting dialogue and ultimately peace between Israelis and Palestinians, Muslims and Jews, “I had a long history of doing useless things with peace groups, so when this idea came along we had nothing to lose.”

In 2006 Marco and JR shot civilians from many cities in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories. “We wanted to change the notion of limits, even if that’s by 1 cm. People have internalised the idea that they are powerless. We did it. And it’s a small thing, but people assumed it undoable.” They found Palestinians and Israelis who do the same job and posted their portraits face to face, a far cry from the polarized and stereotyped stock images projected by the media. The pictures are beautiful and the subjects were eased to the point of jollity despite JR’s intrusive weapon of choice, a 28-millimeter lens. JR and Marco went on to blow up the images, pasting them on Palestinian and Israeli walls, houses and shops. “We played on the symbolic gesture of taking pictures to where you cannot take people”. They even pasted on the separating wall, also known as the apartheid wall that lies between Israel and the West Bank. “We used the wall as a projection of the inner wall everybody has. The posters were temporary, they could be written on, painted on, ripped or peed on – we didn’t care what happened afterwards. The art was in placing them. I’d consider that a colonialist view, to put something there that’s permanent, whether people like it or not.” The irony of that last statement is resounding.

I had contacted Marco months prior to our meeting to ask advice on the best way for Oxford’s societies to promote co-existence rather than simulating the hostilities of the conflict. “I honestly feel that art is the best way to talk without quarrelling. Starting with political discussion is doomed to fail.” I met him in London for the premier of his documentary film, ‘Faces’ made from footage of the weeks he spent in the Middle East. “We got arrested a few times, and got some posters ripped down but more or less managed the task flawlessly.” The film was honest and moving, taking time to hear the stories of citizens such as a Palestinian girl who said she agreed to take part in Fac

e2Face so she could show the world her home. She proceeded to show us around Deheishe refugee camp and spoke of her passion for basketball. We also saw a Rabbi condemning an Israeli soldier who had ripped down a picture of a Palestinian boy, and a group of young boys looking at photographs JR had taken and guessing which one was the Arab, usually incorrectly. The humanity displayed in the film was poignant, especially to this theatre where Jews and Muslims were sitting, united. Faces won the prize for best documentary at the International Islamic Film Festival while simultaneously being hosted by the UK Jewish Film Festival. The complexity of co-existence makes this a huge achievement, and when I mentioned this to Marco he smiled, “as an Arab Jew I am very proud of it. It proves we don’t have to choose a single identity – that is a way of neglecting yourself, locking yourself in a drawer. It’s my best achievement to date.”

While being amazed by the good work of Face2Face, I couldn’t help but question whether in a bid to be objective it was missing an important point. I understand the ethos that once the Israeli and Palestinian people recognise that regardless of race they are all human, there will be peace. However, this assumes that both sides are equally to blame and have equal power. This is obviously not true in the case of Israel and Palestine where Israel holds far greater power and therefore responsibility, and so however hopeful the Face2Face project is, it is still far removed from any reality. After all, it is not necessarily an inner wall which must be confronted, but indeed a 40 foot high one.

My thoughts intensified when on the morning of December 27th 2008, the nation awoke, bleary-eyed to scenes of terrorism in Gaza. What place do the looming happy images of Face2Face have in a conflict which is so far from any kind of peace? The truth is, we are far from harmony in the Middle East because the aim is not for peace, but rather for territorial expansion and ethnic cleansing, and the rest of the world is blinded with a plethora of propaganda and barefaced lies used to try and convince us otherwise.

For Israel to claim that in 2005 they left Gaza unoccupied is a lie. The Gaza Strip continued to be blockaded by Israel via air, land and sea resulting in over 80% of the population surviving on insufficient UN handouts. Under International Humanitarian Law, this constitutes an occupation and furthermore, collective punishment – a war crime. Israel’s claim that the invasion is in the interests of its Israeli citizens is false. This war will create more desperation, frustration and further humanitarian crisis, a deadly cocktail brewing death and extremism. Israel is not lying when it says rockets have been fired from Gaza into Southern Israel, forcing people to live their lives in 15-second increments. These acts are utterly reprehensible. However, terrorising the Palestinian population even further, pushing them so far past what is acceptable under humanitarian law and all the while claiming that “there is no humanitarian crisis in Gaza” as Tzipi Livni, Israel’s Foreign Minister had the audacity to do, is not going to stop the rockets falling. The Qassam attacks are not simply a result of needless terrorism by Hamas, but rather a resistance to the violence of the unremitting blockade imposed on the Palestinian people. Refusing to accept that is dishonest and detrimental to the security of all concerned.

Face2Face is not going to change policies, dismantle blockades, deliver aid to starving Gazans or negotiate a ceasefire. Face2Face is not going to stop the lies spewed by the Israeli government and the Western media or the massacre of innocent people. Face2Face provides a stark and moving contrast to the faces we have seen on the news and some of the faces I saw at the London protests. Faces which exude frustration, despair and fury. Are these the faces of future peace or further polarization?

Marco and JR are confident they will be back for ‘Hand in Hand’. Such optimism in the current climate could be seen as naïve and futile but I defend Face2Face and I praise the sanguinity emanated by those who made it happen. The current situation is one of unrelenting and unjust tragedy – sickeningly in the name of a future peace. This is why the message of Face2Face so important. “We met Palestinians and Israelis who were dedicating their lives to working on reconciliation. They’re the real demonstrators for a just and real peace. They’re the search-light. The beacon. The only way Face2Face materialised was through dialogue and negotiation.” Granted, that negotiation involved convincing an Israeli shop owner to allow a massive picture of a Palestinian sticking their tongue out to be pasted on his wall, but I believe in that one act, Face2Face did more to promote peace in the Middle East than Israel have done for a harrowingly long time. It is co-existence projects such as these that quietly but as relentlessly as the violence, pave the only way to a true peace.

From Interzone to Atlantis

Miguel Gately
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From Interzone to Atlantis

Exhibitions about writers are difficult to pull off, but when they do work, they tend to work very well. Barcelona recently hosted a brilliant exploration of the life and mind of J.G. Ballard, the Shanghai-born British sci-fi author—through a mixture of audio, video and photography, the exhibition’s designers managed to create an environment entirely in-keeping with dystopian spirit of Ballard’s novels and stories, which owe more than a little to the influence of William S. Burroughs. ‘Burroughs Live’ at the Royal Academy is, by all accounts, rather less successful—I don’t intend to visit and find out.

Part of the RA’s GSK Contemporary season, funded by GlaxoSmithKline (the people who brought you Dexedrine, Ventolin and NicoDerm), ‘Burroughs Live’ seems to consist largely of portraits: the press release mentions photographs by Annie Liebovitz, a painting by Hockney, a collage by Damien Hirst. For a writer whose inflated media image is by now more famous than anything he wrote, it’s an appropriate theme.

Author of Naked Lunch, perhaps the last great banned book, William S. Burroughs shifted in a matter of decades from drugged-up obscurity, through counter-cultural iconicity, to outmoded cliché—that he should become the object of an exhibition at this country’s most prestigious artistic institution, sponsored by a multi-billion dollar pharmaceutical company, is only the logical extension of an assimilative process that began with his induction into the American Academy of Arts and Letters in 1983. Reviewing the RA exhibition on The Guardian’s art blog, Jonathan Jones refers to Burroughs as ‘[t]he most overrated cultural icon of the late 20th century’ and is not far off the mark.

And yet, there’s a difference—a crucial one—between being an overrated cultural icon and an overrated writer. Jones disregards this, moving from a lazy comparison with Pynchon (junkie and paranoiac are far from interchangeable) to a general denunciation of Burroughs’s work, but the distinction needs to be maintained. ‘Burroughs is’, according to Jones’s sneering assessment, ‘the modern writer adored by people who don’t read enough modern writing’—an overcharged druggie stereotype, shooting smack and wives with equal abandon. A tendency to pop up in his own work certainly doesn’t help matters—as Will Self puts it, ‘there was never a writer like Bill Burroughs for self-mythologizing …’

But what Jones seems to forget is the sheer visceral texture of Burroughs’s junk-obsession. The whole point of his straight-dope grotesquerie is that it isn’t some glamourized image: ‘Since Naked Lunch treats this health problem [i.e. the problem of drug addiction], it is necessarily brutal, obscene and disgusting. Sickness is often repulsive details not for weak stomachs.’ Burroughs’s work points directly to a real critique of ‘the pyramid of junk’ which succumbs neither to government-sponsored anti-drug hysteria nor to the laminated heroin chic of the international catwalk. Years before postmodern theorists of destabilization and fragmentation appeared on the scene, Bill Burroughs was literally cutting up his manuscripts, splicing in newspaper clippings and extracts from his ‘Word Hoard’ in a deliberate blurring of text and context.

Like Hunter S. Thompson, that other great mythical figure, William S. Burroughs forgot to burn out until it was too late. But along with the trail of bad films and embarrassing portraits, he left some pretty excellent novels: just as persistent as his stupid media persona is a real and lasting influence on the American literary avant-garde. In fact, perhaps Jones’s comparison isn’t so bad after all: without Burroughs’s narcotized, class-A imagination—his junk-corroded voice and exponential proliferation of characters—we might never have had Pynchon. If that’s not reason enough to keep reading him, then I don’t know what is.

 

Interview: Robert Guest

Theo Brainin
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Interview: Robert Guest

TB: How would you summarise your personal experience as a Washington correspondent during this historic election?

RG: Hard work. I followed the candidates at least intermittently for two years–long before they formally declared that they were running. From January 2008 it was utterly frenetic.
John McCain was more fun to cover than Barack Obama. He would chat for hours in the back of the bus, tell bad jokes, wander off-message, hold small rallies and knock off in time for a civilised dinner. Obama, by contrast, seldom answered questions, never said anything unscripted and held enormous rallies on freezing fairgrounds that would drag on past mid-night. Of course, the things that made McCain more fun to report on also made it pretty obvious that he was going to lose.
But he would have lost even if he had been a disciplined campaigner. George Bush has seriously tarnished the Republican brand. People felt it was time for a change. Given an unpopular war, a recession and financial collapse, a stick of celery with a Democratic label on it could have won. And McCain didn’t help his case by sounding clueless about economics.

TB: What would you say were the defining features of the Obama campaign?

RG: People wanted something new, and Obama had almost no track record at all. He spoke eloquently, but mostly in such general terms that people projected their own beliefs onto him. He has a knack for making people with conflicting views think he agrees with them.
He also ran a brilliant ground campaign. I recall chatting to McCain’s people in North Carolina, who had barely mastered email, and contrasting them with the armies of earnest Obama-ites who were organising their door-knocking schedules via their own social networking site.

TB: Obama rose from obscurity to the Presidency almost within a single election cycle – is this typical of Washington politics, if not how do you explain it?

RG: It’s unprecedented. I can’t think of another president who has risen so fast from such obscurity. I don’t think he could have won the Democratic nomination without the internet. Hot new things go viral much quicker than they used to.

TB: What does this Inauguration mean to America, and to African Americans?

RG: I’ve talked to a lot of black southerners who grew up knowing they could get their house burned down if they tried to register to vote. Obviously, they’re elated.

TB: Do you feel the election and the Inauguration mark a significant shift in race relations in America, or is this a freak event?

RG: It’s a symptom of a steady improvement in race relations over the past half-century. I’d guess that Americans were ready to elect a black president 20 years ago. They just weren’t ready to vote for a buffoon like Jesse Jackson. So it’s not a freak event. Young Americans have relatively few hang-ups about race. Some older folk are still bigots, but their prejudices won’t outlive them.

TB: It’s often remarked that there is a paradoxically high level of expectation upon American Presidents given the limitations of the office – this seems especially true for Obama. Do you think he has a chance of living up to these expectations?

RG: People who think he is the Messiah are going to be disappointed-and it never ceases to amaze me how many such people there are. The same goes for people who think he is going to govern like he’s president of the world rather than a politician answerable to an American electorate.
That said, he has a huge mandate. An American president has surprisingly little formal power, but he can set the agenda and get laws through Congress so long as he remains popular.
First he has to enact a stimulus package to soften the recession. That will happen quickly. Then he has to grapple with health care and climate change. Those are immense challenges. I have no idea if he’s up to the job. The signs are good so far: he’s making all the right noises and surrounding himself with clever, centrist advisers. But his only previous executive experience was his campaign. He did that well, but the federal government is a bit bigger than a campaign. And whereas campaign staffers have to do what you tell them, Congress can tell you to get stuffed.

TB: Many of Obama’s campaign promises, such as universal health care, are set to be incredibly costly- do you think they are viable given the current economic climate?

RG: It’s going to be hard. Obama himself admits that a lot of his promises will have to be delayed. Whether that means by a year or a decade, I can’t say.

TB: Though you are currently Washington Correspondent, you covered Africa for seven years. Africans, and in particular Kenyans, seem to have high hopes for Obama. However, Africa was not a campaign issue. Is it likely that Obama will make Africa any more of a priority than the Bush administration?

RG: Africa is never a campaign issue. Why would it be? Nothing that happens there is likely to affect Americans.
I’d expect Obama’s Africa policy to be quite similar to George Bush’s, which was actually not bad. He massively increased funding for AIDS, for example. One area where Obama might improve matters is by getting rid of the foolish emphasis on abstinence-only education to curb the spread of HIV.

TB: Before taking office, Obama was already under fire from some quarters for his response (or lack thereof) to the conflict in Gaza- do you feel his approach to the situation was reasonable?

RG: I think he was wisely keeping his powder dry. I expect he’ll appoint a Middle East peace emissary to do the hard work and only step in personally if it looks like a deal is possible. Right now, I don’t think it is.

TB: President Lincoln has been a recurring symbolic theme for Obama – in the Inauguration he will be sworn in using the same bible as Lincoln. Do you feel there are links to Lincoln beyond the symbolic that might come out during the Obama Presidency?

RG: Steady on. Lincoln freed the slaves and won the civil war. Obama’s main accomplishment so far is to have been elected. It’s good to set ambitious goals, but the time to carve a guy’s face on Mount Rushmore is after he’s achieved them.

TB: Do you feel there will be a significant difference, as a member of the press, in covering the Obama administration, as opposed to the Bush administration?

RG: Bush seldom answered questions. Obama seldom answers questions. On that score, there’s not much difference. But a president is judged by how well he governs, not by whether he makes life easy for hacks like me.

 

 

Los tres mosqueteros strike again

Jack Pitt-Brooke
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Los tres mosqueteros strike again

Barcelona have reached the half way point of this year’s La Liga on course for a phenomenal haul of goals and points.  Yesterday they cruised to a 5-0 win over Deportivo La Coruña with the goals shared between Thierry Henry, Samuel Eto’o and Lionel Messi.

Those three – now referred to as ‘los tres mosqueteros’ (the three musketeers) by Catalan paper el Mundo Deportivo – surely constitute the best front line in football this year.  So far this season Eto’o has 18 league goals, Messi 12 and Henry 11.  Their total – 41 – is as many as second highest scoring team in the league – Atletico Madrid – has scored so far. 

In total, Barcelona now have 59 goals and 50 points with half the season left to play.  If Messi, Henry and Eto’o stay fit they should comfortably reach 100 goals – and could even break the record of 107, got by John Toshack’s Real Madrid side of 1989/90.  Much harder will be 100 points – something very rarely seen in 20 team top flights: Chelsea got 95 in 2004/05, Internazionale got 97 in 2006/07.  But as Manchester City are about to show in a different field, records are there to be broken.

Oxide’s Back! Or is it?

Aldate
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Oxide’s Back! Or is it?

Oxide relaunched at 12pm today. Supposedly.

Despite having launched the Oxide website in 3 different browsers (firefox, safari, internet explorer), no over-excited tones or average music have reached my eager ears.

 

Perhaps using a picture of a train crash to mock their predecessors in their promo material wasn’t the best idea. No one likes an arrogant know-it-all.

 

Do let me know if you’ve had better luck on your computers.

 

The Saint. x

A Christmas Turkey

Margarite Dumas
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A Christmas Turkey

A Christmas Tale is exactly the sort of film to try the patience of any French cinéphile, and for those already prejudiced against Europe’s biggest film-making nation this would only confirm their suspicions that all the French can do with their films is explore the anxieties and foibles of the bourgeoisie at great length and with complete disregard for the world inhabited by the rest of us.

For two and a half hours Arnaud Depleschin examines the lives of a family haunted by a rare and degenerative blood condition that has seemingly doomed their matriarch, Catherine Deneuve.

Severe rifts that have torn the family apart for years have to be mended to get La Famille Marreau-Donneur together to swap DNA and see if death can be cheated and their Christmas pass without murder, adultery or getting food poisoning from the oysters.

A Christmas Tale appealed to half a million film goers in France, and on the back of its star studded cast that includes Catherine Deneuve, Mathieu Amalric (so effective in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly but completely toothless in Quantum of Solace), Melvil Poupaud and Emmanuelle Devos the film has been released overseas. But in the end, despite literary references from Joyce to Kafka (via Zola), and a furiously unconventional structure it is largely a shallow series of increasingly frantic vignettes with the odd pause for one of the characters to talk directly to camera to bring us up to date with who has done what to whom and how the family bloodline and blood tests are faring. Imagine Amelie with Asperger’s Syndrome.

It is a film that ticks the boxes: suicidal teenager, check; femme fatale, check; drunk uncle, check; frigid daughter, check; artistic type, check etc. With his film Comment je me suis disputé… (ma vie sexuelle) in 1996 Despleschin proved himself to be an adept manipulator of complicated themes and multi-character stories, but in that film he had something to say.  A Christmas Tale sadly takes its place in the long tradition of vacuous films about French families with fur coats and will be quickly forgotten and moth eaten at the back of the seventh grade’s arts wardrobe.

Winter Warmers

Nina Fitton &Amp; Julia Fitzpatrick
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Winter Warmers

So when did it suddenly get so cold? Autumn’s jackets are no longing holding up against the bitter January winds, and with the arrival of student loans, what better time to invest in a new coat?

The catwalk’s penchant for sharp tailoring and button embellishments, as seen at Michael Kors and Sonia Rykiel, assures us of one thing -the military trend is here to stay. Timeless, chic and silhouette defining – this classic cut makes for a great investment.

Equally iconic is the oh so ‘in’ cape coat – less of a statement piece, it allows accessories to take centre stage – let your creative juices flow when selecting thick-knit scarves, cosy mittens and snug bonnets to keep out the frost! Topping our wish-list are these steel grey fingerless gloves from La Redoute (£9) – cute and casual, they dress down even the smartest of coats.

And don’t let the dark winter days get you down – never before have coats been so colourful. Think bold, primary colours (avoiding FCUK’s somewhat offensive acid yellow creations…) with shiny brass fastenings to brighten your mood – race to Primark for this snazzy cherry red number – instant style at a pinch!

For the guys, the duffel’s making a big comeback this season, gracing the A/W 2009 shows with Paddington Bear-esque toggles, nodding to the nautical trend. For practical, comfy and effortless chic, head to Urban Outfitters who’s navy duffel is £79.99 in the sale! Colour-wise, allow the girls to shine, sticking to earthy and autumn hues of beige, brown and navy. Think you’re too macho for knitted accessories? Forecasted minus temperatures might force you to rethink…head to Topman for this understated cable-knit scarf (only £12). Alternatively, for the patriotic among us, dig out your college scarf.

Above all do not underestimate the air of sophistication that such bold coats bestow upon even the scruffiest of wearers – shoulder defining and waist nipping, they truly can disguise a multitude of sins.

So what with soldiers and marines joining their ranks, total Oxford domination is within our grasp…

Credentials

Aimee:  Navy pea coat, Petit Bateau, £189; Cashmere scarf, Toast, £122; Long cream scarf, Republic; Fingerless Mittens, Toast, £24.47; Red Coat, FCUK, £140; Grey gloves, GAP, £19; Grey hat, American Eagle

Callum:  Check Jacket, Hollister; Black duffel, GAP, £109.50; Red scarf, GAP, £16.50; Grey scarf, H&M, £14.99

Models: Aimee Salata, Callum Tikly
Stylists: Julia Fitzpatrick, Nina Fitton

Photographer: Julia Fitzpatrick

The OSPL Talent Awards 2009

Ospl
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The OSPL Talent Awards 2009

UPDATE: DEADLINE EXTENDED! You can keep sending nominations in until Monday of 3rd Week.

UPDATE: Tennis legend TIM HENMAN will be judging the Sport category! Get nominating!

Oxford Student Publications (the owners of Cherwell and The Isis), in association with The Corner Club, is looking to celebrate the best of Oxford talent for 2009. Therefore, we are asking for nominations of outstanding individuals in the five categories listed below. The 10 winners from each category will be awarded with the fantastic prize of a year’s membership (worth £125) of The Corner Club, Oxford’s foremost private members’ club.

Categories:

*Performing Arts

*Creativity & Entrepreneurship

*Politics & Charity

*Journalism & Writing

*Sport

All you need to do to nominate an individual (or, for that matter, yourself), is to send the details of the person you are nominating, the category you are nominating them for, and a minimum of 50 words detailing why they are worthy of being awarded in that particular category to [email protected] by Monday of THIRD Week.

We will then roll out the awards on a weekly basis in the Cherwell, category by category. And, at the end of the competition (Eighth Week), we will hold an exclusive and smashing party for the winners and guests at The Blue Bar, The Corner Club’s funky new public bar on the ground floor.

In total, we have a massive 50 Awards and memberships to give out, worth £6,250! So, if you think someone you know (or yourself) excels in a particular field of student life, get nominating!

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