Wednesday, May 7, 2025
Blog Page 954

Are sunscreens letting us down?

Philip Baker
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Are sunscreens letting us down?

People are more sun-aware than ever before, slapping on the sunscreen at every opportunity to protect their skin. So why have we seen increases in the number of people with malignant melanoma, the most dangerous form of sun-induced skin cancer, following the introduction of sunscreens?

Sunscreens were developed to prevent burning with their UVB-blocking formulation. UVB is a type of electromagnetic (light) radiation which comes from the sun but, unlike the visible spectrum, can’t be detected by our eyes. It is this UVB which is the main cause of skin burning. Sun Protection Factor, SPF, is the main measure of a sunscreen’s effectiveness. It indicates the increase in the amount of time a person can spend in the sun before their skin becomes reddened. For example, if a person normally becomes red in 30 minutes then SPF15 will allow them to stay outside for 15 times longer (7.5 hours), and SPF50 will give them 50 times longer (25 hours).

It was logical to assume that skin redness and burning were the causes of skin cancers and evidence available did support this, demonstrating that a person who has a single incidence of sunburn before they are 20 has a doubled lifetime risk of melanoma. There is a particularly strong association between intermittent UV burns and blisters in childhood or adolescence with incidence of melanoma. So why, with the introduction of sunscreens, has incidence of melanoma increased rather than decreased?

In 1999 an Australian study followed two groups of volunteers for 4.5 years, one group with daily SPF16 application versus a no sunscreen control group. They found that sunscreen reduces the incidence of one form of cancer but that there is no significant reduction in the incidence of others, including melanoma. Moreover, reviews of all available evidence into whether sunscreen use prevents melanoma have remained inconclusive.

Let’s consider what might be producing this data.

Using sunscreens affords a false sense of security in the sun. People spend more time in the sun than they would otherwise, feeling protected because of the sunscreen rather than seeking shade. Furthermore, it is likely that people who use sunscreen the most tend to be the people who are most at risk of melanoma due to their skin type. This distorts the data.

And what about the sunscreens themselves? Sunscreens are exceptionally good at blocking UVB and preventing burning, however it is unknown which, if any, frequencies are melanoma causing. This could mean that our skin is still being damaged by something other than UVB. Sunscreens are tested at a specific thickness, yet the average consumer only applies 25–50 percent of the test amount. This therefore reduces the protection they provide. And sunscreens can prevent vitamin D synthesis, which requires UVB. Counterintuitively, VitD deficiency (due to lack of UVB) has been linked to increased melanoma growth. It is speculated that the decreased VitD in the skin could allow melanoma to grow, although the evidence for this is very limited.

Whilst the evidence against sunscreens appears pretty damning, you shouldn’t throw away the bottles just yet. Recent advances in sunscreen development mean they block a broader spectrum of UV radiation (UVA and UVB) even when the thickness applied is closer to the amount consumers actually put on. This means only 20-30 percent of UV radiation reaches the skin in comparison to 70-90 percent as with older sunscreens.

These newer sunscreens haven’t been in use long enough to say for sure that they are better at preventing melanoma and we will only find this out by looking at melanoma incidence in people born after the introduction of modern sunscreens. In the meantime the best advice is the old advice: don’t rely on sunscreen alone for protection.

Backstage with Sharon Yip

Sapphire Shoferpoor
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Backstage with Sharon Yip

How did you first get involved with set design?                                    

The first production which I did was ‘A Doll’s House’ in my first year. I got into it accidentally because my friend who had a minor role asked on the JCR Facebook group if anyone was interested in doing set design. They didn’t need someone with experience, so I thought why not? And it was really fun! We ended up making a huge 6-foot flat for the wall of the doll’s house. We also painted the white walls for the house and bought furniture. In the end we had created a fully furnished house! That’s when I thought this is probably my kind of thing…

How many designers work on each production?                                                                    

With O’Reilly productions, especially if you have a detailed set, you need at least two people, but with my first production there were around four of us. They helped me move all of the staging into the O’Reilly. But then in Much Ado it’s just me, so it also depends on skill.

What is the process behind designing a set?                                     

The first step is just to have a chat with the director and ideally they would come up with a clear idea of what they want and then give you free range to modify it. They tell you what would be realistic and add extra ideas. For example, with ‘Much Ado’ I met up with Jack Bradfield, and we had a chat about what he would like to be in it and he just said ‘lots and lots of snow’. (Laughs) Which was a good beginning but I then I got to add neon colours and UV light. So the director gives you the basic model and then you can make changes and get creative to help convey the message of the production.

Have you only been involved in set design within the theatre?                 

No actually I’ve done a few sets and installations for club nights at The Bullingdon and Warehouse. One time for Halloween a club wanted alien masks to be created, so they commissioned me to make 20 huge sculptured masks that they could hang from the club ceiling which was quite fun, and they paid me £300. Another time I got to decorate Warehouse with boxes!

Did your involvement in club nights lead on from stage design?                 

Surprisingly no- I was the president of the Oxford Art Movement which is a group that does drawing classes, and someone got my attention through that.

Approximately how long does it take to design a set?                                      

I think that it is a process and there’s not necessarily a moment when you think “I’ve finished the design now”. Usually you modify it along the entirety of the run up to the play. For example, in Much Ado I first drew up a very initial idea for the bed, but I had to do another 2 or 3 drawings to show how our image has changed over time. The design has to be altered as we go based on what’s on the market and what turns out to be unrealistic.

Where do you usually get your props from?                                                   

Freecycle and similar websites which offer free exchange of random materials. Otherwise we just order it online or get cheap furniture from the prop store.

Do you have a certain budget you need to stick to?                                                              

Absolutely! I share my budget sometimes with props or whoever is doing the set with me. Usually the producer splits it up, for example £300 would be on set dressings, so that’s what I have to work off. But you also have to work with the other budgets, so if I needed more they could cut money from other areas.

Finally, do you have any advice for people wanting to get involved with set design?       

Yeah – it doesn’t actually require that much experience. I can see why people would think that because it’s people in the drama circuit who usually do it. But I think people should just get stuck in because it’s so much fun! It’s worth dropping someone an email expressing your interest. Even just talking about it is exciting for me. Thinking about how you would design a space which allows movement and is good for the actors- I just love it so much! Even if you’re not sure whether you would like it, get stuck in and try a production or two!

Review: The Skriker

Matt Roberts
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Review: The Skriker

I have known plays lapse into surrealism, absurdism, profound bizarre-ness, and perhaps even sheer illogicalness, however it is rare for a play to do this as smartly, bitingly or frisson-inducing-ly as The Skriker at the Pilch has managed this week. For the uninitiated, Caryl Churchill’s The Skriker is a grimy Rumplestiltskin-esque fairy tale for modernity. The eponymous centuries old spirit, portrayed here by a variously conjoined Will Spence, Anushka Chakravarti and Kate Weir, haunts the mind of a psychologically damaged woman (Imo Allen) and then her close friend (Aleatha Redfern). At a tight hour long run time, this is a whirlwind of a show – refusing to pull any punches and playing on the audience’s perceptions of where the imaginations of characters meet the ‘reality’ of the play-world.

It is testament to director Mary Higgins and the work of the cast just how slickly this terrifying, shape shifting, ancient vampiric creature is rendered. A lot of this comes from the costume design work of Rosie Mullan. The three actors portraying the creature appear in a mish mash of flesh toned fabrics, zips and straps – evoking what I imagine a strait jacket made out of human skin might look like. These nightmarish outfits come in particularly useful in building a cohesive and consistent character across the three individual actors. This sense of cohesion reaches its peaks during a series of raving monologues, where the three actors speak in unison to spine chilling effect – the sharing, interchanging and pacing of these monologues (which are given to an individual actor in the original text) is masterfully done. Churchill’s language is deeply compelling, drawing on a Derridean sense of the inability of words to evoke meaning other than in reference to other words. Spence, Weir and Chakravarti slide flawlessly from aphorism through monomyth to idiom and beyond. As an audience member, it is genuinely possible to lose yourself in the perpetually shifting and self defined language games that the play invites us to partake in – I think this is the great strength in this play’s relationship with issues of mental health because it stresses the dissonance between internal lived experience and external reality.

Physical theatre has become a buzzword in Oxford theatre of late – particularly the work of Gruffdog Theatre, whose production of Rhinoceros last term (also in the Pilch) won such plaudits for its ability to evoke feeling through inventive and stylised movement. Movement is enormously important in Skriker, much of the shape-shifting and magic is evoked primarily through the movement of the three actors. The cast is very good and painting a series of sketches of ideas with their movement – bent over double as the old lady on the bus, Weir imperious and towering and Chakravarti oscillating between wide eyed petulant childlike innocence and filthy mouthed rabidness. Whilst the movement is effective at evoking these broad brush stroke paintings of ideas and feelings, in places it lacked a consistency and rhythm. Largely I think these issues will abate as the run continues, and it is a testament to the production that a few missteps did not jeopardise the veneer of the Skriker.

The issue I had was that whilst I was utterly sucked into the stylised, heightened world of the Skriker and its magic, the depiction of the reality within which this monster operated felt somewhat empty as a result. There was no effective change in the environment in which the action took place, and thus the play lacked the sense of a narrative thread – it darted from emotion to emotion with great efficacy, but when it came to pushing home the actual changes in the lives of Allen and Redfern, I felt disconnected from their suffering and from their reality. This doesn’t undermine the experience of the play, and is a flaw drawn more from the writing than from this production, but it did somewhat dampen a lasting emotional response to the play. Overall this is an impressive production that might have been a little bit rough around the edges in places, but absolutely achieved the fundamental driving purpose of the play by being profoundly surreal and deeply creepy.

Drugs, Childbirth, and Sandwiches: Trojan Women Review

Olivia Cormack
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Drugs, Childbirth, and Sandwiches: Trojan Women Review

Full of drugs, childbirth, and sandwiches this production of Trojan Women offers audiences a tense and darkly funny view of the life of the Trojan women after the fall of Troy. Framing the play as game show come reality TV, the gods Poseidon and Athena (played by Joseph Stevenson and Niamh Simpson respectively) appear on a screen at the back of the stage which buzzes in and out at the beginning of the play with updates about the state of the war. Stevenson and Simpson perfectly portray the detached and almost entitled power with which Caroline Bird’s script imbues the gods. Stevenson’s Poseidon is suave in a way that almost masks his callousness but not quite, and Simpson’s archness and portrayal of fickle vanity make her the perfect choice for a goddess of war who keeps switching sides. Their costumes are the epitome of power dressing, although in different ways, Stevenson wearing a suit and Athena wearing a choker collar and deep purple silk. The only downside to the screening is that the tech team don’t seem able to cue the film properly and there’s a little bit of fumbling around trying to get it to start at first, but this can be attributed to first night hiccups.

The set is fittingly sparse for a play which unfolds in a prison cell, but the few props that are used are a little hit and miss. The bucket full of vomit is a surprising twist, when it first tips over I’m convinced it is an accident on the part of Elizabeth Mobed because her reaction is so realistic, but I quickly learn that this is just good acting because disturbingly realistic fake vomit starts to slowly seep out across the stage floor. Because the vomit bucket provides such a realistic staging of squalid imprisonment I am disappointed by the lack of effort that seems to have gone into the portrayal of babies in the play. The bundle of blankets which Andromache (played by India Phillips) clasps to her chest is falling apart and not properly baby shaped, and the moment when the baby is brought on stage on a sandwich tray is a dramatic move which is let down by the fact that the baby is actually a rag doll. Considering that the production has a specific director for blood as well as a general set designer makes me think that more thought could have been put into staging the baby in the two scenes where it appears.

The acting is generally very strong—Marcus Knight-Adams is one of the two actors who stand out for me and he is a good choice for Talthybius. He strikes a delicate balance between providing comic relief whilst still managing to give the audience glimpses of Talthybius’ more insidious side.

Special mention should be made of Mobed for her performance as the unnamed pregnant prisoner. She consistently maintains her character throughout the play to the point where she catches my eye even whilst other actors perform their monologues. An exceptional actress, she somewhat steals the show and it is her performance that sticks with me most vividly.

The decision to cast Phillips in three separate roles was an interesting one; there’s always a risk when assigning actors multiple roles that they will verge on caricature to distinguish between the characters. Although Phillips’ performance does slightly verge on exaggerated at points the doubling highlights an underlying idea in the play, that there are three types of women; virgin, mother, and whore. Having one actor portray all three stereotypes brings them into sharper juxtaposition with one another and puts pressure on the idea that women can fit into these categories.

The sparse setting, small cast, and monologue-heavy script mean that this is a play in which audiences could easily lose focus, but the captivating performances and spot on comic timing mean that the audience stay enthralled throughout. A well-executed, competent and highly enjoyable production, this is a play that is definitely worth the price of its ticket, if you can get one, that is. From what I’ve heard, they’re selling out fast.

OUSU announce tuition fee win

Cherwell News
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OUSU announce tuition fee win

The University of Oxford has made the decision not to raise tuition fees from 2017-18 for students enrolled in the University before 2016, following a campaign by OUSU.

The University originally expressed an intention to increase fees after the 2016 Higher Education and Research Bill, which raised the tuition fee cap from £9,000 to £9,250.

The University’s Agreement for Fair Access for 2017/2018 states, “The University has set a standard tuition fee of £9,250 in 2017-18 for all undergraduates all full-time Home/EU undergraduates, PGCE, and certificate and diploma in Theological Studies students who started in or after 2012.”

VP for Access and Academic Affairs Eden Bailey, who played a leading role in the campaign, exclusively told Cherwell on behalf of OUSU, “A vote was taken in a University Council meeting in June to indicate to the Office for Fair Access (OFFA) that the University intended to increase fees for all on-course students in the academic year 2017/18.

“When [OUSU’s concerns] weren’t addressed through our direct enquiries, and the usual date for the University to signal fees had passed, we decided that we needed to take our campaigning to another level. Following this, we submitted several Freedom of Information requests to the University, and also several Colleges.

“It appears that the FOI requests were a tipping point, and following the return of these, a potential reversal was put on the papers for the next Council meeting.”

OUSU announced these requests in a video released in mid-September, when they also launched a petition to protest against the University’s plans.

Bailey explained further, “On Monday, there was a meeting of University Council. At the meeting itself, Jack, Marina, and Eden each spoke extensively, expressing our concerns and the strength of feeling from the student body on the matter.

“Whilst this is a significant victory which reduces the debt burden for students by over £2.1 million, we were disappointed that despite our protestations, the University intend to go ahead with their intention to increase fees for students who began their studies this October, for the academic year 2017/18.

“They felt that communication with them had been sufficiently clear for this not to be an issue, and that the University needed the additional revenue it would generate in order to fund high quality provision for students.”

Concerns remain over the decision to maintain an increase in fees for freshers, not least because the HE White Paper was published after these students had applied to Oxford, and therefore they could not have known to expect a fee rise.

A University spokesperson commented, “Under government plans, English universities will have the right to increase UK and EU undergraduate tuition fees in line with inflation from September 2017. The increases can apply both to those who are already at university and those who are about to join. The University of Oxford has announced that the students who will pay the inflationary fee rise from that date onwards are those who begin their studies in 2017, and those who started in 2016.

“For students who began their course in 2016, the University contract explained that tuition fees might rise in future years in response to changes in government policy. The same term will appear in the University contract for students starting in 2017. The University believes the fairest approach is therefore to treat the two year groups in the same way. Previous year groups, who joined the University before the legislation which allows a fee increase was envisaged, were not given the same message so their fees will not be subject to the inflationary rise.

“When the inflationary rise comes in across England, many universities will find themselves charging different amounts to different year groups. Oxford’s approach to that dilemma has been driven by a desire to find the fairest possible basis for its decision.

“Oxford University provides one of the UK’s most generous support packages for students in financial need. Nearly half of the University’s additional fee income will be spend on bursaries, scholarships and outreach work, helping ensure that our world-class education remains available to all, regardless of financial background.”

Stephen Rouse, Head of News and Information at the University of Oxford, added, “As part of September’s OFFA Access Agreement, Oxford University was required to indicate whether it intended to raise fees in line with inflation, subject to Government approval. This week’s Council meeting determined exactly which student groups would be subject to that inflationary rise.”

UKIP hopeful clashes with Oxford students online

Katherine Pye
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UKIP hopeful clashes with Oxford students online

Former UKIP leadership candidate Raheem Kassam has received criticism for verbally abusing Oxford students after withdrawing from UKIP’s leadership race.

The debate started when one Oxford first year posted a link to an article reporting Kassam’s decision to quit the race with the caption “Why are UKIP such a farce?”

On the Facebook group Open Oxford Kassam called students “inbred” and “chinless”, alongside attacking their political views and appearances.

Fierce argument then ensued in the comments section after a second-year student wrote “good riddance” to Kassam in expletive-laden terms.

Kassam responded to the student’s comment a couple hours later with a screenshot of his profile picture. Mocking the student’s appearance, he replied “At least I’ve got a chin” and called him a “Remainiac” and a “child”. When another student joined the argument he commented on a picture of the student “serious amounts of inbreeding going on here”.

One student commented, “It’s quite tragic a ‘professional’ politician and journalist has entered a flame war with an undergrad on an Oxford discussion forum”.

Kassam’s participation ended with, “You guys should learn to have some fun. Lighten up. You’re at university. Stop taking everything, including Facebook, so seriously. Have a laugh, move on. I can’t believe I have to tell kids to relax. Sad times.”

Second year student Tim Foster commented,”Wow, he [Kassam] roasted us. I don’t know how we’re going to recover.”

A student commented, “UKIP is doubtlessly in a death-spiral now that its lost its leader—the fact that a man like Raheem Kassam was considered as one of the frontrunners and a potential successor for Farage speaks volumes about the party. He personifies what was always at the heart of UKIP. His misogyny elsewhere is grotesque, but his behaviour on an online student forum is genuinely tragic. He is truly the British Donald Trump; hilarious and tragic.”

Kassam told Cherwell, “Stop taking everything so seriously […] Facebook groups like Open Oxford were built for trolling.”

Kassam’s political career has not been without controversy as of late. It was reported last week that he called another UKIP leadership contender, Suzanne Evans “a wrinkley old ginger bird,” and was ordered to apologise for saying Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon should have her legs taped shut to stop her reproducing.

During his leadership campaign he also used the slogan “Make UKIP great again”, alluding to the mantra of Donald Trump’s US election campaign.

Earlier on Monday Kassam announced his withdrawal from the UKIP leadership race on Facebook.

He said in a statement, “As of today, I am formally suspending my campaign to be Ukip leader… This was a very difficult decision, and I want to thank everyone who supported me in the process.”

Kassam later complained he had faced “disgraceful treatment” from the media. He commented, “When Times journalists show up at my elderly parents’ house, intimidating them, I draw the line.”

Wahoo opens and closes for the last time

Marianna Spring
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Wahoo opens and closes for the last time

Wahoo closed it doors for the final time in the early hours of November 1 after its Fuzzy ducks “The Exorcist” Halloween Special.

The sold out event, held at both Atik and Wahoo, was the last chance for Oxford students to enjoy a night out at the latter, before the site between Park End Street and Hythe Bridge Street is redeveloped.

Queues for Wahoo began at 9.30pm and continued into the early hours of the morning, with the event finishing at 5am.

Shuffle Nights announced on Facebook at the start of August that Wahoo would be closing around the end of this year.

It also appeared to suggest that plans were being formed to provide an alternative Friday night venue.

Wahoo originally joined the Oxford nightlife scene over six years ago in April 2010.

The description on the event invited “everyone who has ever played a part in this incredible journey to join us for this Halloween spectacular to celebrate the end of an era” and offered prizes for the best dressed.

Third year medic Richard Griffith commented, “This is a very melancholic evening. To have seen Wahoo through this far, it’s nice to be able to end like this. I have enjoyed many a night out in these four walls. However, I think like everything it’ll be replaced and forgotten.”

Jack Harrison, a Pembroke undergraduate, added, “I’m disappointed that an establishment where I have made so many memories has to close, but all good things must come to an end.”

Carl Gergs, a finalist at Pembroke who joined the queue at 12.30am, commented, “I would have loved to have set foot in Wahoo one last time, but alas it was not to be. Our tickets did not guarantee entry as we arrived late and so despite our best efforts, the queue was too long and we didn’t make it in.”

Wahoo Oxford has been contacted for comment.

University commemorates 75th anniversary of first use of Penicillin

Daniel Kodsi
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University commemorates 75th anniversary of first use of Penicillin

Today marks the the 75th anniversary of the first time that penicillin was used to treat a human patient. Although the drug was famously discovered in 1928, it wasn’t until 1941 that Oxford scientists first put penicillin to use on human patients.

The three researchers, Howard Florey, Ernst Chain, and Norman Heatley, who were awarded a Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1945 for their work, applied their results in treating bacterial infection in mice to Albert Alexander who had been admitted to the Radcliffe Infirmary with an infection. Although Alexander died due to a shortage of penicillin, his initial response was positive, sparking the greatest renaissance in modern medical history.

The strong tradition of medicine at Oxford, as exemplified by Florey, Chain, and Heatley continues to this day, with Oxford routinely ranked first in the medical sciences according to international rankings.

According to the University, a Heatley Lecture was held earlier today at the Weston Library to commemorate Oxford’s contribution to antibiotics. The speaker, Wellcome Trust Director Jeremy Farrar, addressed the new medical and scientific challenges that lay ahead whilst also highlighting the great discoveries of modern science.

A case against no-platforming

Myfanwy Craigie
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A case against no-platforming

The Sunday Times recently published an article about the extensive use of ‘trigger warnings’ at leading universities, including Edinburgh, LSE and Goldsmiths. Although this practice has been widely condemned by academics, the epidemic of protecting students from upset continues to grow rapidly.

At Oxford University, trigger warnings have been issued before law lectures to warn students of distressing material and permit them to leave if affected. In The New Yorker, Jeannie Suk, a Harvard Law School professor, writes that, “about a dozen new teachers of criminal law at multiple institutions have told me that they are not including rape law in their courses, arguing that it’s not worth the risk of complaints of discomfort by students.” A culture of avoiding difficult topics means future lawyers will be less well educated about sexual violence than their predecessors and ultimately less able to defend future victims.

Last month, NUS president Malia Bouattia defended the organisation’s no-platform policy and spoke in favour of universities being ‘safe spaces’, which, she claimed, ensure “engagement, inclusion and accessibility for all”. Although, in many cases, the exact opposite is true. It is alarming that these practices, which worsen our education and are so pernicious to critical thinking, are supported by 63 percent of students.

The NUS LGBT campaign no-platforms speakers whom they believe are transphobic, for example Julie Bindel, a journalist, who has been very outspoken about trans issues. Her opinions may be offensive to some in the LGBT community, but as a key figure in the feminist movement, she raises interesting questions about how feminist and transgender agendas can be reconciled. The idea that to give a controversial speaker a platform is to endorse all their views is both simplistic and absurd. Engaging with people whose conclusions we disagree with should be seen as a source of enlightenment, not aversion. If we continue to be quick to say ‘I’m offended!” (as if this is the worst thing that could possibly happen to a person) then we will be slow to offend, slow to question, slow to debate.

Problematically, no-platforming assumes one person or body is in a position of complete righteousness with the authority to decide who is worthy of being heard. If such a position were even possible then I struggle to believe Malia Bouattia, who has been widely accused of anti-Semitism, represents this figure of irrefutable integrity.

As customers of the university, we feel entitled and able to make certain demands. Currently we ask for a safe space, somewhere we feel comfortable. But we should be bolder in our demands. We do not pay £9000 a year to bury our heads in the sand.

We have been labelled Generation Snowflake, “a collective that quivers at the slightest breeze and dissolves at the slightest upset”. While I personally think this is offensive, I do not want protection from such an accusation. I want the freedom to argue against it. Or, perhaps reluctantly admit it may hold some truth.

A night at the clubs: Disco Ma Non Troppo

Jamie Onslow
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A night at the clubs: Disco Ma Non Troppo

Disco Ma Non Troppo made a triumphant return to form last Friday at the Bullingdon. The Bullingdon Club is one of the oldest nightclubs in the world, with a selective membership policy. It is expected of any reveller that they break something whilst inside the club. The party goers were running around the dancefloor and ripping the lights from their fittings.

Not to be outdone, I pole-vaulted onto the decks, seized the vinyl collection from the DJs and began biting each record to pieces, punctuating each mouthful of wax with a jubilant shout of “woi!” It is this sort of behaviour that has established the Bullingdon as Oxford’s coolest venue, although the orgy of destruction is restricted to the main room only. The toilets are out of bounds, and are kept as a quiet study area. The bouncers are often required to evict people from the cubicles for talking too loudly; although, they can be bribed.

Turning away from the orgiastic violence which has become a tradition at Oxford’s disco events, any attendee would have been impressed by the outfits which were sported on the night. My good friend, Robert Dust, wowed the women of Oxford with his trousers, which were made of ketamine. I decided to keep to the spirit of dance music and attended dressed as the Aztec goddess of lust, a role I performed diligently.

The music at Disco Ma Non Troppo was just as suitable, and as we all know, music is only worth listening to if it is loud enough to dissolve your bones. We were not disappointed last Friday as we were shoveled out of the venue at three in the morning and disposed of in plastic bags.

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