Monday 13th October 2025
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Which TV show has the best intro music?

Cherwell Music
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Which TV show has the best intro music?

Abdul Wajid

Show: Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt

Song: ‘Unbreakable’ – Jeff Richmond

“Unbreakable! They’re alive, dammit! It’s a miracle!” This is something that will be on loop in your head for days if not weeks, mostly as a result of binging all four seasons of Netflix’s Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt. Much like the show itself, the intro mirrors and comments on viral trends, and is one big pop-culture reference. Very much a product of The Office, starring Ellie Kemper whilst written and created by Tina Fey; the show is jammed packed with jokes being delivered before you have even stopped laughing at the previous one. The pilot episode is no exception to this. We open with a news report depicting the titular character and 3 others being rescued from a bunker after being help captive for 15 years in an underground religious cult. This then morphs into the theme – a fucking Songify remix! Not just a social commentary but a hit in its own right, the song was created by Jeff Richmond with the help of viral hit legends the Gregory Brothers, responsible for ‘Bedroom Intruder’ and ‘Songify the News’. At the heart of the show, we have the theme positivity and taking-things-light-heartedly which is apparent from intro, as a report on a horrendous story is moulded into a hilarious and catchy song. If this hasn’t convinced you how great the intro is, take a listen for yourself.

Lydia Stephens

Show: Gilmore Girls

Song: ‘Where You Lead’ – Caroline King

In 2000, Carole King was asked to re-record a version of her song ‘Where You Lead’ for the TV show Gilmore Girls. The song, being a hit from 1971, could not have seemed more incongruous. Though today both the song and the show feel dated. At the time, they seemed made for each other. King’s initial version was one of several love songs from her album Tapestry. ‘Where You Lead’ had been vetoed in the late 70s by the Women’s Liberation Movement given that the lyrics celebrate a woman following – through love – her man’s lead. As a result, King often left the song out of her repertoire. However, three decades later with minor changes to the lyrics, the song was refigured to fit the mother-daughter theme of Gilmore Girls. This is the version most fans of the show will know, and the version King has since performed with her own daughter, Louise Goffin, who makes a cameo as the Town Troubadour in the show’s final follow up season. Despite her success in the 70’s, it’s as though King had to wait for this particular single to be appreciated by a completely different generation with its newer meaning.

Louis Beer

Show: Malcolm in the Middle

Song: ‘Boss of Me’ – They Might be Giants

Unbelievably, this song has a music video. And it’s not just the opening credits – with clips of old cartoons and footage of WWF wrestling – it’s three minutes long! If any theme was perfectly formed at 30 seconds, it was ‘Boss of Me’. Ten seconds of speak-singing, twenty seconds of yelling, and then the phrase ‘life is unfair’. The lyrics perfectly capture being angry at something vague – your family or your school or trigonometry; this whole opening emits a nostalgia for growing up in the early 2000s in middle America, even if you grew up a decade later in The Wirral (you haven’t heard of it). This is because it’s pure pop-punk cheese, reflected by the (again, wholly unnecessary) video in which the members of They Might be Giants are wearing suits and sunglasses and the camera moves far too much. At one point John Flansburgh is eaten by Bryan Cranston. It’s cliché to say something transports you to a simpler time, sure, but ‘Boss of Me’s’ brilliance is in its stupid simplicity.

Tommy Hurst

Show: BoJack Horseman

Song: ‘BoJack’s Theme’ – Patrick Carney, Ralph Carney

‘BoJack Horseman’ is a show that walks a thin line between childish humour and a complex portrayal of the protagonist’s mental state in its depiction of a has-been anthropomorphic horse living in LA, the show’s intro sequence being a perfect encapsulation of this with simple, yet powerful visuals perfectly accompanied by music from Patrick and Ralph Carney.

The intro opens with a jarring synth quasi-arpeggio and a shot panning around and up to BoJack’s solitary house in the hills. A drumbeat kicks in and BoJack rises from bed, the background moving as he remains still, his listless expression never failing; the world is revolving around a static BoJack, yet nothing penetrates his cold solitude. Surrounded by all the things representative of the celebrity that he so craves (parties, fans, paparazzi etc.), BoJack’s expression is still that of misery, this being complimented by a haunting call and response pattern on a distorted guitar as well as a soulful trombone and saxophone combination.mFollowing this climax, the track then closes with a solitary saxophone, powerfully symbolising the sadness and ineffectuality of BoJack’s life; in much the same way that his career moves towards what he wants while only providing him with transient happiness, the track builds and then ends in a sad manner. A shot of BoJack lying alone in his pool then closes a sequence that begins and ends with the horse-man on his own, aptly summarising his struggles with existence.

Isabella Welch

Show: Vikings

Song: ‘If I had a heart’ – Fever Ray

The haunting chant of Fever Ray’s ‘If I had a Heart’ playing over scenes of a wreck of a Viking longship has to be my favourite TV opening. The song features a heavy reverberating bass that still manages to sound calm, which matches the underwater scenes of still artefacts falling from the ship – an axe, plundered gold, the drowning bodies of protagonists shieldmaiden Lagertha and King Ragnar Lothbrok. It is a devastating scene, with glimpses of distant fires and corpses, but oddly tranquil. It suits the theme of the show, a rare portrayal of the Vikings which shows subtler geopolitics between Norse, Anglo-Saxon and French factions, where tension builds from episode to episode, instead of it being a mere slurry of violence. The Icelandic saga ‘The Tale of Ragnar Lodbrok’ is all history has to understand this period in time, and it places King Ragnar between man and myth. This opening – a watery destructive perpetuity situated impossibly between life and death – couldn’t do a better job of creating a mysterious, mythical but gritty atmosphere to set up the show.

Caleb-Daniel Oyekanmi

Show: Power

Song: ‘Big Rich Town’ – 50 Cent, Joe

This opening song simply slaps. It’s fantastic. Power itself is a show revolving around Ghost – a successful drug dealer and business owner, focusing on the troubles that he and his family go through owing to their circumstances, their past actions and their current flaws. The theme tune features beautiful vocal harmonies from artist and songwriter Joe, who serenades watchers with the lyrics “They say this is a big rich town, I just come from the poorest part”. 50 Cent brings a strong performance to the track, effectively summing up main character’s journey without ever having to directly mention it. But the song’s brilliance lies in the fact that it somehow manages to combine the image of a powerful and successful businessman while still touching upon his struggle, as well as the issues of racial inequality and a lack of social mobility in America. Your favourite TV show introduction could never. This is the clear and obvious choice for me, and I’m sure someday you’ll come to see the light too.

Life After A-Levels: Keeping up Languages

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Life After A-Levels: Keeping up Languages

You’ve whittled your three or four A-Level subjects down to one or two, or abandoned them completely in favour of something brand new. About to be thrown into an unfamiliar academic environment, it’s tempting to try to keep your old subjects as part of your studies. Languages in particular seem difficult to let go of, and for good reason. Knowing another language is useful, and if you’ve been through the British education system, unusual. A language needs constant attention whether you want to improve or maintain your level of understanding, and it’s possible, if a tad time-consuming, to do so.

For fairly casual language upkeep, watching films and TV shows in your target language is your best option. Whilst Netflix’s collection of foreign language media is sparse, the Walter Presents section of Channel 4’s on-demand service, All4, boasts eighty shows, including several in French, German, Portuguese and other European languages, plus a few in Hebrew. And if you would rather use films but don’t have access to Netflix, the Language Centre library has a good collection of DVDs available to borrow.

This is the least stressful way to keep up with a language, and there are several ways you can use TV and film. You can watch with or without English subtitles, switch to subtitles in your target language, transcribe the speech to practice your writing skills, pick up new vocabulary and practice using it in sentences.

If you want to brush up your reading skills but don’t feel ready to tackle a book, the Language Centre library also carries magazines and newspapers. Go at the right time, and you may be able to pick one or two up to take home. On top of this, newsagents in Oxford often offer German and French newspapers as well as English publications, and WHSmiths on Cornmarket has a good selection of foreign language magazines too.

Oxford’s Language Centre, located on Banbury Road, offers reading and speaking classes for twelve languages at different levels. These courses aren’t free, but if you prefer learning in a classroom environment may be a worthwhile investment. There are two kinds of course on offer: LASR courses, which are signed up for on a termly basis and are fairly casual, and OPAL courses, which run from Michaelmas to Trinity and are examined. LASR courses are cheaper, and can be joined mid-year, meaning you can assess your workload and timetable in Michaelmas and then sign up in Hilary if you feel you will have the time to attend classes.

Before signing up to a language course, bear in mind that a LASR course will probably mean a time commitment of at least one hour a week and the tutor may set homework. An OPAL course will have a greater time commitment and require more work outside of class. An hour a week doesn’t sound like much, but it can be overwhelming if you’re struggling to balance your regular workload too.

Apps are also worth looking into. Duolingo allows users to take a placement test in, so you can pick up where you left off and develop your language skills at your own pace. Memrise, which is great for learning vocabulary, may be something you have already used, and can continue with. Maintaining the words you have already learnt there might be repetitive, but such activities can be a welcome break from slaving away over an essay.

If the subject you want to keep studying in your own time isn’t a language, SOLO, the online library catalogue, is the best place to start. Many texts are now available online, so you can read them as quickly as your workload allows without worrying about due dates and fines. When your eyes refuse to read any more, the Internet will provide. Podcasts, YouTube crash courses, documentaries – whatever you want to learn, you can find. A particularly good springboard is the BBC’s In Our Time podcast, which covers an almost ridiculous diversity of topics. Host Melvyn Bragg discusses an often very specific topic with two or three specialists in the subject, whose work you could look into afterwards.

Whether you’re maintaining language skills or trying to continue studying another subject, it’s important to not overwhelm yourself. In Michaelmas, make settling in and managing your degree your priority – keeping up the subjects you studied at A-Level is a bonus. A few weeks in, studying something else in your free time might become a fun break from tutorial work. Or you might find that you don’t want to keep going with a subject: it might take up too much time this term, be less enjoyable outside the classroom environment, or it just might not interest you anymore. And that’s fine – something that’s causing unnecessary stress or boredom isn’t worth your time, especially not when you are surrounded by opportunities to try something new.

Iranian hackers steal sensitive Oxford research

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Iranian hackers steal sensitive Oxford research

Iranian hackers have stolen millions of sensitive documents from both Oxbridge universities in a targeted move at many universities worldwide.

The hacked papers are then sold online through WhatsApp to customers in Iran for as little as £2, as part of a global campaign linked to Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, according to The Times.

The hackers, believed to be part of the Colbolt Dickens group operating out of Iran, have targeted 76 universities in 14 countries.

A spokesperson for Oxford University told Cherwell: “The University is aware of the claims, but we have confidence in the robust information security measures already in place.”

The hackers have been targeting unpublished research on sensitive topics including nuclear power, computer file encryption and cyber security, circumventing US sanctions on the sale of academic research to Iran.

The scam creates duplicates of each university’s login page, so students and academics hand over their account name and password believing they are logging in to the actual university website.

The discovery of the attacks by the IT company Secureworks comes just half a year after the US Department of Justice warned of Iranian hackers targeting universities.

A former MI5 and GCHQ officer, Dave Palmer, told The Telegraph: “Universities should be worrying about it.”

‘The Jungle’ Review — a somber celebration of solidarity, hope and resilience

Megan Simmonite
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‘The Jungle’ Review — a somber celebration of solidarity, hope and resilience

Leaving the theatre and walking straight into the first grey downpour of rain we had had in months never felt more fitting an atmosphere through which to hold back tears and fight the angry lump in the back of our throats that Joe Murphy and Joe Robertson’s The Jungle left us with.

The dimming of its lights transforms the playhouse theatre of London’s Embankment into the Afgan Cafe, once the heart of the refugee camp in Calais. Aided by the darkness, we are submerged into an atmosphere of chaos and distortion, emphasised by worried shouts and concerned voices in a multitude of languages.

This play starts at the end, the ruthless demolition of this powerless, yet strong community of people by bulldozers controlled by those so distanced that they think they are doing good. It then goes on to follow the journey of the camps formation, and subsequent demolition, whilst weaving in a few powerful stories of the individual refugees.

Murphy and Robertson persistently emphasise the fact that this camp is right on our doorstep, be this through the use of screens, the repetition of just how short a distance thirty miles is, or through the closeness of the Afgan Cafe and the White Cliffs of Dover. Here, the powerful set is worth paying some attention to. The stalls of the playhouse theatre have all been taken out, and replaced with a scattering of different style tables. The audience could either sit in the ‘Afgan Cafe’, submerged in the drama, sitting next to the actors and being served food, or up in the dress circle, which was renamed ‘The White Cliffs of Dover’.

The set also includes television screens scattered around the theatre, showing the audience real news reporting and images that they may remember seeing in the media. Towards the start of the play the images of Alan Kurdî‎, the three year old Syrian child who was found washed up on a Turkish beach after trying to reach Kos, were shown on these screens. The familiarity of these images, and their showing right at the start of the play, set the emotional tone.

Another powerful moment, that was made even more distinct by the use of the screens, was the reporting of the tragic day in November 2015, the day that terrorists killed 130 people in Paris, and the day that the refugee camp in Calais experienced a massive blaze. The televisions showed real reporting that claimed the two incidents were linked, thus sparking anger within the audience. However, Murphy and Richardson show the solidarity, hope and resilience, holding pray for Paris signs and exclaiming their outrage at the brutal murder of the 130 people, rather than focusing on the distorted and fake headlines.

Inevitably, we all rose to our seats as the play ended, yet this standing ovation was not married with a theatre of smiles and excitement; instead each hard and fierce clap had an angry, crying, or helpless face behind it. The wave of people leaving their seats was not just in appreciation of the play and actors, like it typically is, it was in solidarity. Solidarity with the optimistic yet silently broken refugees, solidarity with the frustrated volunteers, but most of all with each other, the feeling of uselessness, guilt and anger inescapable, compelling the audience to stand with one another. This play makes you feel like somebody has shaken you, simultaneously removing a self-inflicted veil from your eyes — it is not to be missed.

The Summer Movie Season: A Retrospective

Beata Kuczynska
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The Summer Movie Season: A Retrospective

The summer is over, and with it the ‘summer movie season’ has come to an end. From eagerly anticipated sequels, a horror movie dubbed ‘the scariest ever’ and a promising selection of comedies and dramas, there was a lot of potential for a fantastic season of movies, but how did it shape up?

Numerous sequels dominated the box office this summer, but perhaps the most highly anticipated summer sequel was Mamma Mia: Here We Go Again. Despite some apprehension about this release (“Haven’t they used up all the good songs?!”), the movie achieved the fourth biggest opening of the year in the UK, and has received positive reviews from critics and cinemagoers alike. It could have been a massive flop, but its upbeat atmosphere, charming lead performance from Lily James, and feel-good tunes have made it a surprisingly good standalone piece of cinema rather than just a movie to placate die-hard fans of the original.

Pixar’s Incredibles 2 also performed very well at the box office, with adults and children flocking to view the long-awaited sequel. Released 14 years after the first, Incredibles 2 managed to retain the excitement, joy and humour of the original whilst bringing a new exciting story to the screen. Children were delighted and adults who adored the first showered it with praise. And Bao, a short film about a protective Chinese mother and her son which played before each screening, was an added quirky bonus for audiences. 

Avengers: Infinity War and Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom were the big action sequels of the summer. Infinity War took in $640.5 million on its worldwide opening weekend, the biggest of all time, and has gone on to become the fourth highest grossing film of all time and the top grosser of 2018. It might not be my type of movie, but I can admire its sheer ambition, and it’s clear that critics and audiences responded well to it. Fallen Kingdom, the fifth entry in the Jurassic Park series, also raked in impressive amounts of money, grossing over $1.3 billion worldwide, despite the slightly disappointed response from many regular cinemagoers and committed Jurassic fans.

The Meg and Hereditary were the two big horror releases of the summer, but their similarities end there. The Meg is a horror comedy, starring a ginormous shark and Jason Statham. The foolproof combination of Statham’s charisma and a ridiculously large CGI shark makes for great, if slightly ironic, viewing.

On to what I would personally consider one of the best movies of the year, never mind just the summer. Hereditary, directed by Ari Aster, was not only the scariest film of the summer, but produced some of the finest performances of the year. Toni Collette and Alex Wolff were outstanding and turned what was already an excellent piece of cinema into one of the most acclaimed horror movies of the 21st century. No matter your expectations, Hereditary will not disappoint.

Two major dramas released this summer were Adrift, a movie inspired by a real life story of a couple sailing to Hawaii who run into a hurricane, and The Children Act, an adaptation of Ian McEwan’s 2014 novel, and each film squandered their enormous potential. Despite an able and nuanced performance from Woodley at the centre, Adrift was unfortunately neither as riveting nor as moving as I’d hoped. As for The Children Act, Emma Thompson the best thing about the film, but McEwan’s writing does not translate well to screen. Despite a very respectable cast that includes Stanley Tucci and Fionn Whitehead alongside Thompson, it failed to be the dramatic masterpiece it wanted to be. Lacking in pace, clarity and plausibility, The Children Act was possibly the most disappointing film of the summer.

On a lighter note, let’s turn our thoughts to this summer’s most popular comedy. The Festival, directed by The Inbetweeners’ Iain Morris and starring Joe Thomas, was a hit with critics and viewers alike. There’s a reason why The Inbetweeners was so successful, and Morris uses the same crude boyish humour to great effect here. Full of cringe moments and hilariously specific gags involving festival fun, it was certainly a huge hit for the teenage audience, Inbetweeners fans or not.

How to: Lecture Note-taking

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How to: Lecture Note-taking

You’re sitting in a cavernous lecture theatre, laptop open in front of you and hands poised above the keys, ready to type. What did the lecturer just say? Shaking your head you stare back over your notes — a second ago they seemed to be talking about something completely different! Maybe you shouldn’t have checked your messages after all. Tuning back into their monologue, you type down everything verbatim, fingers flying 100 miles per hour to catch each syllable. After all, how else will you remember so much information?

Lectures can seem very different to A-level classes when you first arrive at university, and it’s normal to take a couple of weeks to adjust to the change. Everybody has a different way of taking notes, and that’s fine: it’s important that you avoid the situation described above, and find the way that works best for you. To make the first few weeks that bit easier, I’ve compiled a few top tips for taking notes so that those initial lectures are as useful as possible.

Laptops

Most people tend to take notes on their laptops because typing is generally faster than writing. If you’re keen to use your laptop in lectures, then firstly close all of your other tabs. It’s easy to flick onto Facebook for a second and the next thing you know you’re in a full group-chat debrief about what you were doing last night! So close off Messenger, resist the temptation to scroll through Facebook, and actually pay attention to what’s going on. Trust me, I’ve been there.

Once you’re concentrating on the lecture, try not to take down every word that your lecturer says, as you can often end up falling behind. Take concise notes in bullet points rather than paragraphs, and paraphrase where necessary. It’s easier to go back over notes after lectures and flesh sentences out than try to take it all down and accidentally miss the important parts.

If you are typing notes, then it’s always useful to share notes with friends. Unlike at A-level, you’re not competing for the best grades (there are no set percentages of students who will get an A*, but the top grades go to anybody who the university thinks deserves them). Different people will naturally note down different parts of a lecture, so establishing a google drive or emailing notes to people in your subject can help you all out.

Writing

Plenty of people also write notes by hand. If this is our preferred method then buy a refill pad and take your notes here rather than in a notebook — lectures can get moved around, notes can look messy, and it’s often easier to organise a folder than a notebook of jumbled pages. If you’re keen on your notebooks, however, then try to keep a different notebook for each section of the course: that way you won’t get confused.

As with typing your notes, don’t try to take down every word. Pick and choose carefully, and only write down the important parts. This can make your job a lot easier. Alternatively, notes scribbled in lectures can often be pretty scruffy. When I write notes I often rush to write everything down and then type or write them up in neater versions after. This can save the problem of attempting to decipher your own handwriting months later when it comes to exams. The sooner you write your notes up in neat, the better — this way they are fresh in your mind when you do so.

Using lecture slides

Some subjects make the lecture slides available to download in the 24 hours before the lecture begins. This can really useful for note taking because it means that the important parts have already been written down for you. Students who like typing notes often download the slides before the lecture and add anything extra to the comments section under each slide. Others take separate notes on a split screen and use the powerpoint as useful revision aids.

For those of you who like hand-writing notes, it can also be useful to print off the lecture slides and add any extra pieces of information to those by hand. That way it gives you more time to listen to what the lecturer is saying, rather than rushing to take it all down and not concentrating on the content as much. This allows you to get a better understanding of the lecture material because you’re concentrating much harder.

If writing lecture notes seems strange at first, don’t worry about it. Try a few different methods, from typing or writing to printing out the slides, and see what works the best. After a while, taking notes seems like second nature. Just make sure to stay organised and clearly label folders (online or in the flesh) so that none of your notes go missing.

What does Hollywood’s new diversity trend mean for the industry?

Becky Cook
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What does Hollywood’s new diversity trend mean for the industry?

Hollywood in 1930 saw the historic implementation of the Hays Code: an inventory of cinematic restrictions that aimed to ensure the moral integrity of film. This ramshackle list of demands was a mixture of the laughable and the unsettling, featuring restrictions against instances such as relationships between “the white and black races”.  While such an anxiety surrounding miscegenation has since been delineated in Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner and the horror hit Get Out, the repercussions of these moral guidelines are still felt despite the lapse of its enforcement.

While the dust seems to be settling on the Harvey Weinstein scandal of last year, it prompted a quake in the form of the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements that disturbed the ground beneath the firm feet of the men at the top of the food chain. Now the question remains whether this was a lot of noise, or has resulted in any palpable change in the business, a question that expands beyond the marginalisation of women alone, and strives for a veritable balancing of representation.

A recent UCLA report found that minority groups have a paltry 13.9% representation in film leads, while women hold a mere 31.2% stake. The figures are indisputably low, but the trends in recent film and TV output seems to indicate the industry has decided to inch its skull out from the sand. 

The whispered assertion that ‘black films don’t travel’ between show business heavyweights was hushed by Black Panther earlier this year. It was instantly heralded as a crunch in pop culture for the representation of black identity. The superhero blockbuster was lathered with hype, expectations and interracial optimism. Wakanda became the wistful idyll where audiences could take refuge from the realities of the post-Obama era for a few hours. 

The risk of trumpeting diversity only became apparent months later when A Wrinkle in Time was released. At the time, Mindy Kaling described how the film was a “movement” and Time magazine similarly garnered it with dizzying political expectations. By all accounts, the film is really quite lousy. It currently has a 42% rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Black Panther was a superb Marvel film with a hypnotic sound, mood and villain. While both tried to boost representation in Hollywood, only the latter legitimately succeeded, as it maintained artistic value independent of its status as a cause.

A similar phenomenon at the meeting point of the movement and merit occurred with the 2016 reboot of Ghostbusters with an all-female cast. The decision was met with venom from fans and the film flopped at the box office. It seemed to audiences that the gender-bending of the iconic original was a gratuitous part of a diversity initiative and this both dominated the narrative and ramped up the expectations for what was a limp project to begin with. 

However, this year’s popular Ocean’s 8, another gender-flipped franchise addition, proved such films are not discounted by audiences simply for being female reboots: quality counts. According to the FBI, male thieves operate in groups, while women are more likely to operate with a boyfriend or alone. Yet, this questionable factual accuracy does not hinder the gang of feisty females that band together to carry out a heist, making larceny look sleek and sexy.  

The gender flipping trend has stirred a substantial amount of conversation, most recently when it was announced Doctor Who would next regenerate in the guise of Jodie Whittaker. Peter Davison, the fifth Doctor, bemoaned the decision as the “loss of a role model for boys”. This blinkered opinion does not seem to merit comment, only serving to distinguish Davison himself as a rather feeble role model for boys or girls.

As Ocean’s 8 showed, the choice not only challenges viewers’ perceptions, but allows women the chance to wrestle with roles typically written for men and make attempts to level the distribution of stories among actors. The recent buzz surrounding the potential casting of Idris Elba as James Bond proved to be a lot of hot air. However, the mere possibility of such a seismic change to the role demonstrates the choices that could be made in order to further relieve greedy white male film stars of the taxing task of choosing from a throng of prime roles while others are left without. 

Fuzzy Ducks moves to Emporium

Aditi Arora
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Fuzzy Ducks moves to Emporium

Oxford’s longest-running club night will be moving from Atik to Emporium, making way for Park End, Atik’s new Wednesday event.

The move came about due to a new partnership between Encore Events, the company responsible for Fuzzy Ducks, and the company that owns Emporium, The Bridge, and TVC.

According to Encore CEO, Toby Beers-Baker, Atik was no longer a suitable venue for Fuzzy Ducks due to the decrease in the number of students going out on Wednesday nights.

Last week, the initial new name of the ATIK Wednesday night, Shark End, was changed to ‘Park End’. Cherwell understands that this switch came after objections from university sports teams.

Beers-Baker told Cherwell: “Emporium is a much better size for the amount of students that go out on a Wednesday night nowadays, as over the last few years Atik would quite regularly have closed/empty rooms.”

He also said that Encore’s lineup for the week will be “much stronger” now their events are being exclusively hosted at venues owned by the same company.

He added: “Fuzzys will remain Fuzzys, as it has in its long history at Atik, Wahoo, The O2, Bath SU, The Carling Academy, and the Zodiac.

“It’s the only brand in Oxford that has always moved venues successfully, and we’ll be taking the mentality, the crowd, the music, the DJs and THE DUCK [sic] with us to Emporium.

“The layout of Emporium allows us to continue to provide different music on the different floors, and Emporium’s VIP area works perfectly as the new captains VIP.”

An all-night reduction in the price of VKs, to £1.50, is the main difference to expect at Fuzzys in the coming term.

A new club night at Atik, Shark End Wednesdays, will replace Fuzzy Ducks from Wednesday of freshers’ week (3 October). Shark End organisers Freddie Goodall and Sam Zappi promise to “shake up Oxford nightlife” with the new event.

The pair told The Tab: “We want Oxford University students to get more back from their night with better content, more exciting acts and an overall better experience than what they are getting currently.

“Change is good, and there will be a great amount of energy being put into the night.

“We like working closely with the students, with sports clubs, societies and entz reps being integral part of our event planning.”

However, reactions to the new event have been mixed, with one Oxfess suggesting a “first week boycott of ‘Shark End’”. The student added: “Wtf is that name is this a joke… #bringbackfuzzies.”

#Oxfess22431Anyone for a 1st week boycott of 'shark end'?Wtf is that name is this a joke…#bringbackfuzzies

Posted by Oxfess on Monday, September 3, 2018

 

Another Oxfess called the name “the least funny joke [they’d] heard all year.”

Sophie Kilminster, a regular attendant of Fuzzy Ducks, said the news had “hit [her] hard”.

She told Cherwell: “The news that Fuzzy Ducks, the shining star of my midweeks, has moved to Emporium, the site of the saddest Valentines-evening I have ever had, has hit me hard. 

“Emporium is a fundamentally flawed club, the circular stage blocking off the tiny amount of fun that could happen in a club that seems to purposely play songs that have never been popular. 

“The replacement of something as wholesome as a Fuzzy Duck with a predator demonstrates how the Oxford club scene is literally being eaten alive by such a terrible change.”

BlacKkKlansman review – Spike Lee’s return to form?

Jonnie Barrow
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BlacKkKlansman review – Spike Lee’s return to form?

From the opening proclamation that “Dis joint is based on some fo’ real, fo’ real sh*t,” Spike Lee’s latest incendiary comedy-drama, BlacKkKlansman, promises to provoke – and succeeds in the most profound fashion.

It follows the true story of Ron Stallworth (John David Washington), the first black cop in the Colorado Springs police department, who decides to infiltrate the local branch of the Ku Klux Klan. He telephones them to establish contact, but for obvious reasons must be impersonated by a white colleague, Flip Zimmerman (played with typical quiet intensity by Adam Driver), who in turn must hide that he is Jewish as he operates undercover.

It’s a story that is rendered by turns comic and horrifying, as Ron and Flip respond to the manifold intolerances necessary to navigate their mission. Plenty of fun is poked at white supremacists: from a scathing, hilariously inept opening monologue on “white genocide” delivered in a deliciously repulsive cameo by Alec Baldwin to the Tarentino-esque comic mundanities of Ron and Flip’s attempt to gain their KKK membership.

While Ron phones up David Duke himself (played with pitch-perfect polite bigotry by Topher Grace), who ironically claims he can tell Ron is white by the sound of his voice, Flip finds that “ropes and hoods [cost] extra” on top of his membership fees, to which a fellow KKK member interjects: “Fucking inflation.”

Perhaps one of the most surprising elements of BlacKkKlansman is how cineliterate it is, and how Lee uses the history of cinema to inform the film’s thematic poignancy. Lee has transplanted the events of the film from 1979 to 1972 partly in order to capitalise on the imagery and themes of Blaxploitation films from the 60s and 70s, spiking the film with rallying cries for black empowerment.

When contrasted against sparing but powerful invocations of Gone with the Wind and horrifying footage from D.W. Griffith’s The Birth of a Nation, Lee weaves a complex tapestry that keeps the viewer alert, demonstrating the agency and complicity of cinema and, by extension, the viewing audience, in perpetuating harmful stereotypes of African-Americans through history.

Lee has a lot of fun with the period setting – particularly during a hilarious conversation where three lead characters profess their undying admiration for OJ Simpson – but the setting serves more serious ideas too. Another effect of the film’s slight time shift from the true story’s setting is the concurrent re-election of Nixon, which was widely considered to be aided by support from the Klan.

Subtly placed posters of Nixon throughout the film remind the viewer that tactics such as the Southern Strategy and dog-whistle politics only work if there are swathes of intolerant voters to draw on. This fact is not-so-subtly underscored by reminders that David Duke had serious designs on public office, and on dialogue exchanges that tragi-comically underline how little has changed between Lee’s portrait of 1972 and today.

The film is dedicated to Heather Heyer, a counter-protestor who died during the Charlottesville “Unite The Right” rally last summer. Lee seems to have taken her final Facebook post and made it the mantra around which the whole film is based: “If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.” David Duke in the film talks about what needs to be done “for America to achieve its greatness again”; Ron almost turns to the camera at one point as he says, “America would never elect someone like David Duke President of America.”

Lee’s righteous anger hasn’t diminished over the 30 years he’s been making films; it has simmered in the crucible of systemic injustice long enough for Lee to refine it into a form as seething as it is measured. As in Malcolm X, he ends BlacKkKlansman with a wrecking ball of righteous anger which smashes through the fourth wall and demands that the audience not be lulled into complacency by the film’s period setting.

Drawing a clear line between the white supremacy evident throughout BlacKkKlansman and the neo-Nazi protests we saw a year ago, Lee closes the film with shocking footage from the protest itself, and Trump’s limp condemnation of the violence “on all sides.”

If you’re not outraged, you’re not paying attention.

UK universities issue new suicide prevention guidance

Angus Brown
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UK universities issue new suicide prevention guidance

This article contains reference to suicide.

A new set of suicide-prevention guidelines has been issued to universities at the annual Universities UK (UUK) conference.

The renewed effort to reduce student suicides comes after 95 students at British universities died by suicide in the last academic year.

The conference also laid out new guidelines on the disclosure of confidential data by universities, partly in an effort to increase information sharing between universities and families.

These changes come amidst controversy surrounding restrictions on how universities are allowed to contact families of students at potential risk of suicide.

James Murray, whose son, Ben, died by suicide at Bristol University earlier this year, told the conference that there was “too little sharing” between universities and families. He also argued that universities are “too fixated” on privacy and need to “start giving more priority on information sharing to save lives.”

He said: “If we had had more information maybe we could have intervened, maybe things would have been different.”

Together with the charity Papyrus, UUK has published the new Suicide Safer Universities guide, which includes advice on developing a strategy focused specifically on suicide prevention, covering difficulties, best practice for responding to student suicides and case studies on suicide prevention.

Chief Executive of Papyrus, Nina Clarke, said: “When lives are at risk, normal confidentiality rules can, and should be bypassed.”

Chair of the UUK’s Mental Health Advisory Group, Steve West, added: “When students take their own lives, it has a profound impact on family, friends, staff and students.

“This new guide offers practical advice on understanding and preventing suicide, as well as guidance on how best to support those most affected.

“We urge university leaders to work with their student support services to develop a strategy which focuses on preventing, intervening, and responding to suicide as part of an overall mental health strategy.”

UUK’s new guide also contains steps which university leaders can take to make their communities safer as part of a wider bid to prevent further suicides.

Suicide is one of the most common causes of death for people under 35, with more than 1,600 cases in the UK every year.

If you have been affected by any of the issues raised in this article you can ring or make an appointment with the University counselling service:  https://www.ox.ac.uk/students/welfare/counselling – 01865 270300 – [email protected].

Anonymous support services:
Nightline – http://oxfordnightline.org – 8pm to 8am in term time at 01865 270 270;
The Samaritans – http://www.samaritans.org – 01865 722122.

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