Sunday 14th September 2025
Blog Page 2197

Oxford trains were 13 seconds from crash

0

Two trains carrying up to 300 people came within thirteen seconds of crashing into each other just outside Oxford.

The First Great Western services between London Paddington and Oxford came close to disaster in August 2007 after one driver failed to stop at a signal.

A report on the incident discovered that his train continued through Didcot Junction without authorisation, narrowly avoiding another service operating in the opposite direction.

According to investigators, “Had the circumstances been slightly different this event could have resulted in the two trains colliding.”

 

The Pillowman Preview

0

Trying to approach Martin McDonagh’s The Pillowman as the story of the attempt to uncover the culprit of a series of murders will not do. Nor is it adequate to see the play’s protagonist, Katurian, as something equivalent to Hamlet. This play requires a new audience, a new economy of representation, and new tools of critical interpretation.

For a start, the cliché that the play is set in some vaguely ‘Kafkaesque totalitarian state’ needs a definite rethink. Indeed, the idea of Kafka himself as the novelist of the ‘totalitarian state’ is in itself suspect – it is a reading that stinks of the liberal humanist hypocrisy of comfy American college campuses, and in any case, it offers no help in our understanding of McDonagh’s play. A more effective analysis of The Pillowman needs to account for its rhizomatic quality, its multiplicity of fictions that never quite cohere and which always remain out of joint.

Dan Wilner’s production of The Pillowman therefore comes as a great relief. It seriously engages with the play’s many fictions, working hard to establish both the interpersonal web that forms the base of characterisation, and the provisional nature of Katurian (played by Rory Fazen), a children’s author whose tales of infanticide are eerily mirrored in real life events. Although Fazen’s performance can at times feel flat, the moments when he really gets to grips with the character are rewarding.

The highlight of this production, though, has to be Krishna Omkar and Jacob Lloyd’s ‘good cop/bad cop’ double-act. Revealing a biting comprehension of the rhythm underpinning the interrogation scene, Omkar and Lloyd’s performance shows how an intellectual knowledge of the power relations that structure a dramatic dialogue can be translated into affective acting.

The blocking is well thought out, and works to increase the play’s startling tone; likewise the set-design is purposeful. Wilner has made a good fist of the material McDonagh has provided, making The Pillowman an opportunity to end Michaelmas with a rewarding piece of contemporary theatre.

The Pillowman will be showing at the Burton Taylor Studio from Tuesday to Saturday of 8th week, at 7.30pm.

4 Stars

OUSU elections dogged by technical problems

0

Hundreds of students are still waiting to be emailed codes which allow them to vote in OUSU’s annual elections this week.

OUSU staff sent 19,000 emails to students last night, expecting that all would have received the messages (with personalised codes included) by this morning.

However, reports suggest that technical problems have meant that only some emails have been sent out, with hundreds still waiting to be delivered.

The polls close at 6pm on Thursday evening.

Bod aims to save English-language opera

0

The Bodleian Library has launched an appeal to raise £85,000 by 6 January 2009 in order to conserve a manuscript of the first opera written in English.

‘Erismena’ was written by Pietro Franceso Cavalli and was probably performed in England for the first time during the 1670s.

The Bodleian is trying to acquire the manuscript after it was sold from the Music faculty’s collection in 1797.

The aim to raise £85,000 for ‘Erismena’ has become part of the ‘Oxford Thinking’ campaign, which hopes to raise £1.25bn for the University as a whole.

Emma Kirkby, an Honorary Doctor of Music at Oxford University, said, “I am tremendously excited to hear that an entire Cavalli opera manuscript has survived – in an English translation, decades before Handel came to this country, and that there is a chance for the Bodleian Library to acquire this landmark of our musical history. I earnestly hope the means can be found to achieve this.”

Travel: Syria

0

Itravelled to Damascus from Heathrow Airport to start my year abroad in Syria, leaving behind my university, a goldfish called Tony, my girlfriend and a cherished Nectar card. Having accepted the lack of in-flight entertainment offered by SyrianAir, I resigned myself to watching the flies in the plane dance around each other and wondered if they had come on board at Heathrow and they too were going to be surprised by what they would find in Syria. As I pondered the future, the words ‘Islam’, ‘dictatorship’ and ‘axis of evil’ floated politically-incorrectly in my mind.

The first thing that struck me, though, when I reached Syria was the fashion clash, the totally different clothing styles. On the one hand, there was the sea of beige worn by traditional Syrians, blending into the yellowness of the land, the noisy taxis and the dusty architecture. The aura of blandness was even more marked amongst the women, who wore beige or grey trench coats – a la Ian Curtis – or black robes leaving only their faces, their eyes or nothing at all to reveal the individual within. But these same women can be seen shopping in Syria’s many raunchy lingerie shops (revealing all of Victoria’s secrets) – one can’t judge a Burka by its cover.

However, in areas such as the Damascus University or Bab Touma in the Old City, the Syrian fahionistae sport the famous Syrian ‘wet look’ that makes Danny Zuko’s hair in Grease pale in comparison. In these fashion hot spots, Syrians arm themselves with fake D&G tank tops, large fly-eyed sunglasses, and jeans so tight that one wonders whether the men are concerned at all for their fertility.

The conflict between Islamic culture and ‘the West’ is also noticeable in the attitudes of Syrian men in Damascus towards foreign women. There exists in Syria a very distinct form of sexual tourism, allowing Syrian men to indulge in otherwise forbidden sexual practices with female visitors before settling down with their locally-bred virgin brides. The sheer number of Syrian men on the market means that foreign students have a very wide range of good-looking Syrians from which to select a temporary partner with whom they could perfect their Arabic. This version of East meeting West does not help to overcome the prevailingly negative male attitudes towards Western women, as they indulge in a complicated Syrian version of doublethink allowing them simultaneously to find both welcome relief from the rigidities of their own society and evidence that their society is superior to the moral decadence of the West. And of course woe betide any Syrian woman rash enough to have an affair with a foreign student.

Another interesting phenomenon in Syria is the striking amount of physical contact between men. Being a homosexual in Syria can lead to prison. However, on a social level, contact between men is more than accepted; the sight of soldiers holding each other’s hands, and their AK-47s, and of boys caressing each other in the street, laying soft kisses on each other’s cheeks, is commonplace. In the Hammans (baths), men wipe each other down with sponges and lather each other up with soap. The strong sensuous current of such exchanges sits oddly with the strongly religious nature of Syrian society, and allows a level of public same-sex contact which would look out of place on the – supposedly – more liberal streets of London.

The Syrian state’s unrelenting attitude towards homosexuality is a stark reminder of some of the darker sides of the country: the phone tapping, the censoring of the press and internet and the infamous secret police.

However, there is no point coming to Syria and being shocked by the lack of Western democracy – whatever that label means. Syrians do live under dictatorship, but – as it was explained to me – it is their dictatorship. Ever since Al-Asad took over the country in the bloodless coup of 1970, Syria has enjoyed a remarkable period of stability. Bars and nightclubs have popped up around Damascus and the internet is more available than ever before. I also struggle to imagine how democracy would function in a country such as Syria, where France’s colonial ‘divide and rule’ policies did not help to unite the disparate Alawi, Muslim and Christian denominations.

Talking about politics with Syrians, however, is difficult. Little news filters down into the streets. It’s hard to believe that during my time in Damascus, Israeli air planes bombed what appears to have been a secret nuclear site and the assassinations of a Hezbollah leader and a senior Syrian general took place. In any case, when word of any such events does get out on the street, Mossad (the Israeli intelligence agency) is the presumed culprit.

I probed some Syrians about politics and the only answer I could get was – “it’s different here.” This at first felt like a way of avoiding the conversation, but they may in fact have revealed something important. Many Syrians are very conscious of both their country’s flaws and the failings of the West. What, they would ask, is the point of democracy when Tony Blair was still able to drag England into Iraq despite most of his electorate thinking it was a bad idea? Where does Guantanomo Bay fit into democracy?
Fair point, I suppose.

East met West on the Syrian rugby pitch, but even there the gap was much in evidence. During the course of the year I played for a rugby team known as the Zenobians (which rather pretentiously presented itself as the Syrian national team). In the build up to a game against the Lebanese team, our French coach from Toulouse gave a motivating pre-game talk, saying, in a very heavy southern French accent; “There is no questioning the outcome of the game. We will win”. One of the Syrian players said “In shaa’ Allah”: (God willing). The coach responded “No, we WILL win this game.” He then asked the translator to communicate the certainty of victory to the players; the translator said emphatically – “We WILL win this game.” But then he paused, and himself added an instinctive “In shaa’ Allah”. Luckily for us and the coach, Allah did want us to win that day.

When I returned to England, I was shocked by the warmth of my response to everything that England offered: the Tube, the ordered queues and page three. (For the first time, I really did want to know what luscious blonde Debbie from Watford had to say to the troops in Iraq). Above the sound of busy Londoners commuting, the buskers and the screeching of the Tube brakes I could hear an anonymous voice asking me “Please mind the gap”. And you know what?

I did.

 

Interview: Rick Edwards

0

Rick Edwards, along with Alexa Chung, Miquita Oliver and Steve Jones, has become something of a delicious staple in the Channel 4 weekend fix that is ‘T4’. However, far from being just one of four pretty faces that aids one’s digestion of hangover-TV, Rick is fast becoming one of televisions own entrepreneurs, and is a ‘filthy tab’ at that.

A North Londoner at heart, ‘and very happy to be living back there again’, Edwards grew up far from the glaring lights of a Channel 4 studio. ‘My dad got a job down in Portsmouth when I was quite young so, after a period of resistance, me and my mum had to move down there with him. So that’s where I went to school.’

Edwards ruefully admits however, that he has ‘never been much of a fan of curriculums’, only ever really enjoying the subjects that he ‘was interested in’. ‘I was quite easily distracted at school. But then, to juxtapose that, I did a maths project on my own to try and calculate an exact value of pi. I had my moments.’ These moments clearly paid off, as Edwards attended the other Pembroke College reading Natural Sciences. Not the classic path for a ‘pop’ presenter and general pin-up. ‘I had a great time, but wasn’t really focused on academia. I wasn’t especially popular with the Senior Tutor. In fact, he hated me.’ Possibly a reassuring thought for those of us in a similar position.

It was Edwards’ time in the lesser-hallowed-halls that led to his involvement with the performing arts and in particular stand-up, even though entertaining seems like something he was destined to do. ‘My mum and dad say they always knew I’d end up doing something like this. I always loved making people laugh – I was the archetypal disruptive class clown. So when I arrived at university and there was a legitimate opportunity to stand up and make people laugh (Footlights), I took it. I was also lucky enough to do a bit of TV stuff on the god-awful local cable channel.’

By all accounts Edwards’ path to ‘T4’ stardom has been incredibly smooth, with few bumps in the road. ‘I really wanted to do T4. It was my dream job – it still is. I actually auditioned for it when I was 21 and in my last year at uni. I did quite well and got down to the last two – it was me and Colin Murray. In the end they gave the job to Vernon Kay. I did a screentest some years later for E4 Music and from there have graduated onto T4.’

Rather charmingly Rick makes no bones about how much he enjoys his work and how easy it is, although I am not sure that can be completely true as this very interview has been postponed several times due to his other commitments.

‘If anyone ever tells you that TV presenting is hard work they’re
lying. It’s not a proper job, it can’t be, it’s too much fun. I just hang out with people I really get on with and laugh a lot. Alexa’s one of my closest friends. Don’t tell her that though – I want to keep her on her toes.’ Ooops. We will have to assume that she is too busy to pick up this particular student paper!
‘With T4 I’ve been very lucky and done some extraordinary things and travelled to some incredible places. The most amazing experience was when I was doing a global warming special and we filmed in Mali in West Africa. It was a fantastic place, like nowhere I’ve ever been before. And I flew in a tiny plane with a scientist and we went up into the clouds and ‘seeded’ them – we made rain fall. It was breathtaking. Having said that, at the other end of the spectrum, I have very fond memories of filming on a farm in the Cotswolds. I was supposed to be celebrating beating a goat in a pentathlon and shouting at it, “take that, you horny bastard”, all up in its tufty face. But we all got the giggles so badly – me, Alexa, the crew, not the goat actually, she was very professional – that we ended up having to do 31 takes.’

Rick is however a Jack-of-many-trades, and not just an animal-comedian. ‘I used to write comedy stuff with my friend Tom Basden, now a very successful writer/performer. I was commissioned to write a feature-length screenplay once – it was based on a real-life fraud, and was subsequently investigated by the police. Which was exciting, as you can imagine.’ Edwards admits that being good at so many things doesn’t always make it easy to find your direction in life. ‘I’m very competitive, probably too competitive, so I want to be the best at anything and everything I try. I hope I’ve found what I’m best at now. It’s certainly what I enjoy most.’

Despite his status as ‘T4’ hottie and presenter extraordinaire, Edwards seems to bare no ill will to the publicity-juggernaugt that he is a part of. ‘The media glare doesn’t really focus on me, so I’m largely unaffected by it. I don’t really go out to flashy bars or celebrity parties much. That’s not really me. I hang out with my friends in the same places we’ve been hanging out for years. Occasionally someone might recognise me, but all they’re gonna ask is ‘where’s Alexa?’ or ‘how come you’re so tall?’ He really is quite tall, but Alexa wasn’t with him.

Indeed, the flash of the paparazzi’s lightbulb seems to be the last thing that interests Edwards. ‘I’m a film geek. It’s directors mainly that inspire me: The Coen Brothers, Robert Rodriguez, Almodovar, Michael Haneke, Shane Meadows,’ and other equally heavy-hitters are mentioned as he discusses an obvious passion (and perhaps a future career path?). ‘I’m not hugely careerist, so I don’t have any grand plans. I love what I do and hope it continues for a long time – but I’m also realistic enough to accept that, if it ends tomorrow, I’ve still been very privileged to have done it at all. However, I’d really like to host Film 2017, or whatever the year is when it comes up for grabs. I guess Jonathon Ross isn’t going to do that show forever. And maybe the BBC should bring back Tomorrow’s World. Then I could put my degree to good use, finally.’

As much as he revels in his experiences and times on ‘T4′, there is no doubt that they keep him extremely busy. A list of his current projects includes ‘T4’ and his weekend show on XFM. Rick is also hosting the ‘Guardian Student Media Awards’ this weekend as well as having ‘a new show for ‘T4’ called ‘Relentless.’ I’ll tell you about it. There’s one contestant who has to answer 10 questions in a 48 hour period.’ He then boggles me with an explanation of the show, there are crocodiles or something. ‘Honestly, I’d be a rubbish contestant. I wouldn’t run around The Den, Millwall’s ground, at half-time wearing women’s underwear. I wouldn’t fancy rap battling an angry, potty-mouthed MC. But our contestant’s all had cojones – especially the girls.’

By this stage I am slightly mesmerised by Rick’s description of his new show, but am certain that it is something we will all ultimately end up addicted to. There is no denying that this charming, multi-talented presenter has a long career ahead of him – and with Jonathan Ross largely out of any pictures it seems likely we will soon see him hosting ‘Film 2008′. Let’s just hope any Greenroom friendship he might have had with Russell Brand during his Channel 4 affiliation ended at Passport Control.

Green Box

0

In the Nineties, green issues were certainly apparent and in the minds of the general population; logging in the Amazon was a major concern, and who can forget Captain Planet and the Planeteers? Even educational videos designed to teach good spelling were themed around pollution on planet Earth (I can’t have been the only one to watch Earth Warp, surely?).

In the mid-Naughties, however, green campaigning really took off. ‘Global Warming’ became ‘Climate Change,’ pollution and wastefulness became your ‘Carbon Footprint’ and the dangers of Carbon Dioxide were no longer limited to an overflowing soft drink. But are people now, towards the end of the decade, getting a little tired? Jack Wellby argued in the last Greenbox that now is the time to stop trying to convince the sceptics, and I began this year’s OUSU Environment Handbook by saying anyone who didn’t believe in the existence of Climate Change is either misinformed or stubborn.

Whilst this is wholly true, I worry about the effect this will have on green campaigning as a whole. I think by relaxing our efforts, people have begun to forget the message of Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, and especially the order in which those words should come.

I was appalled when I heard of an advert condoning leaving a light on all night because it was fitted with an energy efficient bulb; such a notion is wholly misleading. By reducing the amount of energy we use in our day-to-day lives, we should not therefore start engaging in more energy wasting activities.

The government has now finally agreed to a target for reducing the country’s carbon footprint by 80% by 2050, but there’s only one way to do this. We have to throw out the strategy of showing people little changes they can make to reduce their carbon footprint, and start impressing the importance of the big changes.

Line drying your clothes instead of using a tumble dryer will save much more energy than switching lights off when you leave the room, and I think everyone knows what to do when it comes to air travel. A renewal within the green campaign is necessary to provide the same effervescent campaign of earlier in the decade if we are to convince those that have installed the right lightbulbs that the next step is to unplug their tumble dryer.

7th Week

0

Yes indeed; Christmas singles are starting to appear, or at least the first tentative attempts, like spreading damp or the nibbled leaves that warn gardeners of an imminent infestation of slugs. Ugh. I’m going to avoid treading on those slugs and concentrate on less yule-based offerings.

DodosWinter *****

San Francisco’s Dodos have had the brighter idea of releasing ‘Winter’ from their megalithically good last album, Visiter. Either a very tinny guitar or a ukulele and rattling drums power on this hypnotic, depressive, brilliant paeon to all things wintry, with a horn break that recalls Beirut. Nothing remotely festive here, just a great tune. It’s a little bit like Noah And The Whale‘s ‘Five Years’, except very very good instead of utter drivel.

Estelle – Come Over **

Now she’s had a Mercury nomination, it’s no longer interesting to be indie and love Estelle. Ah well. Her second album was still superb; this offering features Sean Paul and is subsequently not as intelligent as ‘American Boy’, ‘Substitute’ and their ilk, being more of a straight-up sexytune with the usual overtones of female subservience to macho hiphop males. Musically it’s also devoid of excitement and a big chorus. She has great tunes. This is mediocre.

The Streets – Heaven For The Weather ****

This, I suspect, is what Britpop really wanted to sound like. Perky, uplifting, laddish and witty. Jolly background string samples, an insistent and childish piano riff, propulsive beat, various references to the devil, American evangelism and the definition of sin. Shame the original quotation was also heavily referenced by Lostprophets.

The Brighton Port AuthoritySeattle ****

This song doesn’t so much ‘feature’ Emmy the Great, as pin itself entirely upon her. A nice idea, mind, to take her fey folk voice and back it with unobtrusive electronica. The verse is hypnotic and drowsy, whilst the chorus is extremely big indeed. All quite metronomic and boppy. A very nice and simple song, like Kraftwerk dummed down and tarted up.

Take ThatGreatest Day *

This is mildly amusing in a very childish way if you listen to the vocal and imagine some small animal occasionally biting Gary Barlow’s balls at apparently random intervals, thus causing the absurd variations in pitch. Apart from that, this is toxic.

ClinicTomorrow ***

Clinic have been around for a very, very long time. This had made them respected, almost legendary indie cult veterans. It hasn’t, however, made them much money. This won’t change things, but it is at least better than most of their highly credible but frankly crap releases to date. It conjures up an intensely lofi Velvet Underground dirge vibe in a nice, slightly oriental opium-day sort of way. The song itself is a bit difficult, but top marks for persistence in bashing it along as persistently as they do.

Top Of The Ox – Local Tune Of The Week

Youthmovies’ song ‘Magic Diamond’ features repetition of the word ‘lachrymose’ and employs a simile about a Mobius strip. It is also a beautiful, waltzing piece of music that will lull and lap and generally make you a happier person – until two minutes in, when it starts howling and serrating and making savage mechanical noises. It then goes off in self-indulgent prog tangents, but it’s proved its point. Other, more accessible songs accompany it on their new Polyp EP. It will expand your mind and inner ear. That’s not a metaphysical or spiritual ‘inner ear’, like an inner eye, just the bit slightly inside your skull. It’s some kind of hyperbole or something.

Next week: things!

Oxbridge to accept engineering diploma

0

Lacking traditional academic qualifications will no longer be a bar to study at Oxford, as the University will now accept applications from students with new government Diplomas as well as A-levels.

Oxford will now consider students with an Advanced Engineering Diploma for a place on an Engineering course. However Diplomas such as Hospitality, IT or Health and Beauty are still ruled out by the Admissions Office.

Mike Nicholson, Director of Undergraduate Admissions, said that the University recognised some people may be qualified for entry onto Oxford degrees despite lacking A-levels.

He said, “this provides a route for those who opt to study the Advanced Diploma in Engineering to apply to study Engineering at Oxford.” 

He added, “Oxford has always looked at more than just qualifications – academic ability and potential is assessed through a range of measures.”

Nicholson emphasised that Oxford encouraged all appropriately qualified students to apply regardless of their school or college background.

The Advanced Engineering Diploma, which is to be launched in 2010, is worth the equivalent of three and a half A Levels. Oxford applicants must also have a Physics A-level to apply for an Engineering degree.

The new Diplomas designed by the government are largely vocational and include ten days work experience as part of the qualification.

Some students think those with Diplomas will face some academic difficulties. One commented, “no one at Oxford has done anything vocational really. I don’t know if a Diploma would prepare you for the type of work here.” 

However, many students feel this move will not make much difference to the applications system. One student said, “If the Diploma is worth more than 3 A Levels, you’ve still got to be pretty academic.”

Jim Knight, Minister for Schools and Learners, claims the benefit of the Diploma system is that students have, “a genuine choice about where their qualifications take them, be it university or straight towards employment.”

Almost all the Russell Group Universities have responded positively to the new Diploma system. Mike Nicholson maintains that the new qualifications “have the greatest relevance for our courses.”

He said Oxford academics involved in the project are keen to “ensure that the Diplomas can deliver the highly rigorous academic content and study skills that candidates to highly competitive universities need.”

 

Oriel grad replaces Countdown’s Vorderman

0

An Oxford graduate has been selected as Carol Vorderman’s replacement on the popular daytime TV show Countdown.

22 year old Rachel Riley has been selected as the new co-presenter alongside TV sports presenter Jeff Stelling.

Riley, a graduate from Oriel with a Masters Degree in Mathematics, was selected for the Channel 4 programme from over 1,000 applicants.

For the auditions, she and other applicants had to complete an interview and were examined on their maths expertise.

Riley was shortlisted together with 5 other candidates to attend a screen test in Leeds where candidates had to put up several letters selections and tackle various maths games at the numbers board.

Riley announced that she was ecstatic to have been chosen for the job. She said, “this is the best graduate job in the world. There’s only one cool maths job around and I was lucky enough to get it so I’m absolutely thrilled.”

Channel 4 said, “Rachel’s on-screen presence, easy going nature, coupled with fantastic maths skills meant she excelled in all rounds of the auditions.”

Helen Warner, Head of Channel 4 Daytime, said “I’m very excited that Jeff and Rachel will be picking up the Countdown baton from 2009.

“They make a great team and I feel certain that our much-loved words and numbers game will go from strength to strength with them at the helm.”

Long-standing Carol Vorderman announced on the 25th July 2008 that she would be quitting the show after failing to agree with Channel 4’s terms for a new contract.

Reports have suggested that she was told to take a 90% pay cut of her estimated salary of between £900,000 and £1m a year.

Vorderman recorded her last Countdown show on the 13th November 2008 which will be broadcast on the 12th December this year.

Stelling, who will be the new host for Countdown, is best known for presenting Soccer Saturday on Sky Sports and was awarded Sports Broadcaster of the Year by the Sports Journalists’ Association for the third consecutive time earlier this year.

He declared that, “I am delighted to be hosting Countdown and follow in the footsteps of such great broadcasters as Richard Whitely, Des Lynam and Des O’Connor.”

Stelling and Riley are set to present the 60th series of Countdown, which will commence in January 2009.