April by iAston Magazine

.. S T O N

April Edition 2014

INSIDE: Election Results

Page 6

Exam Stress Tips

Page 15

Disney on Ice

Page 29

Aston Students' Union's Official Magazine

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Editor

Letter from the Editor...

This month is obviously a trying time for a great many students. exam prep and assignment deadlines fill a lot of our heads. It's no different for me, not only do I have deadlines in my academic life but the world of the news media doesn't stop either. Nevertheless, here at iAston, we have gathered together a real juicy mix of different things for you this month. Some are here to take your mind off the hard work like Beyonce, Disney and Miranda reviews. Other articles have advice on everything from exam stress to placement worries. The competitions from last month have been drawn and the winners are being notified. Never fear though, there is a new competition this month! Not only that, but we also have a couple of really cool ideas of things to do on your Easter break such as checking out Record Store Day or taking in a photographic exhibition at the Ikon Gallery. Also, prepare to meet the next Union Executive team and (spoiler alert) be ready to read exclusive interviews with them in the next edition! As ever, you can contact union.editor@aston.ac.uk to get your article featured too. Without further ado, please turn over and get stuck in to this month's iAston Magazine!

Ryan

Cover image thanks to Cheeky Rastall Photography

CONTENTS A.S.U News

Page 5

Elections

Page 6

Beyonce Gig Review

Page 7

Miranda review

Page 9

Easter Treats!

Page 11

Relay for Life

Page 12

Ikonic Imagery

Page 13

Back to Reality

Page 15

Record Store Day

Page 17

Ask the ARC

Page 18

English Language Society

Page 20

Placement Hunt

Page 2+

Competiton

Page 23

Muppets Most Wanted

Page 24

Republica and Space Review

Page 25

The top 5 Most Cunning

Page 27

Disney on Ice

Page 29

Please be aware, any views expressed in articles are not necessarily reflective of the view of iAston or Aston Students' Union

The Team

FEATURED WRITERS

The Team: Editor: Ryan Skeet Co-Editor: Alex Rymer Features: Francesca Whittle Chairperson: Olivia Springate Beyonce Review Joy Warmann, Page 7

Media: Becca Smith Chief Photographer: Georgie Rastall This Month's Team: Ryan Skeet Joy Warmann Alex Rymer Francesca Whittle

Nadine and Sam Ask the ARC, Page 18

Becca Smith Nadine Al-Kudcy Sam Suarez David Lowes Ollie Ogden-Barker

See your face here next month! Becca Smith Muppets Most Wanted, Page 24

Email your submissions to:

News

A.S.U. News What's been going on this past month in Aston Students' Union?

One World Week One world week saw students from nearly every religious and/or international society coming together to share events celebrating diversity and union. Events like International Love and the food festival gave people reason to gather together and enjoy eachothers' company. There were also more cultural awareness events such as Aston's Got Talent and the pub quiz. All in all a week where people were able to get together and celebrate uniqueness and the special intercultural nature of Aston.

Awards Events From Students Union and Athletic Union Colours to Astonishing Academics, awards were flying out last month. Congratulations to all those who recieved an award, wear your badges, use your cups/pens/USB sticks and hold your heads high. Achievements should be recognised and you worked hard to get your award. Special mentions go to Jake Delaney for earning a standing ovation at SU colours and to our SU Personality of the year Fandumem Adeoye-Wakama. Also to Sports Person of the year Tom Dakin and Sporting Personality of the year Helen Orr. ...of course, it goes without saying that the SU Election results were annouced at SU colours, but please see them in print here:

Election Results

The positions of Student Engagement Officer and Post-Graduate Officer are still available. Contact steering@aston.ac.uk

Beyoncé Gig Review As many will know, it was extremely difficult and pretty pricey to get a hold of tickets for the most recent Beyoncé tour, during the first sale -‐ knowing how hard it was; I didn’t even try if I’m honest. However, on the 23rd of February, through a series of extremely fortunate events I actually ended up being paid to see Beyoncé at The LG Arena. I'm still trying to fathom how this worked out so well! Either way, it happened and here is what occurred on the night... Before I got into the actual arena I did sadly miss Sam Bailey supporting and I missed the first couple of songs, but "Run The World (Girls)" and "Flawless" sounded glorious from outside. By the time I got inside Beyoncé was singing "Get Me Bodied" and I was just elated. Beyoncé has this crazy effect on me -‐ I just can't help but be in awe of her. I managed to snake my way close to the front of the smaller stage and had a pretty good view. To my surprise however, the crowd was pretty dead. I don't know whether they were just uninterested, didn't know the songs or just simply too awestruck to move but 90% of the people around me were just stood still staring -‐ I couldn't believe it. I danced and leapt about as if I’d lost all my senses -‐ I just wish that the rest of the crowd hadn't been too busy taking photos and videos to dance with me. I digress; Beyoncé performed some older hits before getting to a new album favourite of mine "Blow". She delivered this track with such sass I couldn't help but wave my arms around chanting "I want you to turn that cherry out" to nobody in particular. And then… as the bass line for "Partition" vibrated throughout my entire body a huge smile just spread across my face because I knew what was coming. Beyoncé is just a beautiful, beautiful woman! She did the whole stool-‐or-‐table-‐ seductive-‐flip number from the music video that I’m sure everybody who’s seen it has tried to do at least once, and of course she nailed it. Later on, the song you’d have to be dead not to have heard -‐ "Drunk In Love". That -‐ along with "Single Ladies" -‐ is probably the most that the crowd moved the entire night. That song just does something to people! After arena/stadium favourites "Crazy In Love" and "XO" and solos by most of the all-‐female band and “Les Twins”, she sang another new album favourite of mine -‐ "Heaven". I'm not sure about the crowd near me but I was most certainly in heaven… her vocals on that track are gorgeous and were equally so live. A Beyoncé show is a lot to soak up in the space of just over an hour. She rounded up with "Halo" which had me smiling all the way home. Beyoncé truly is flawless.

Such fun! At Miranda’s What I Call, Live, Show. So after 16 months of waiting, we finally saw Miranda Hart live. Leeds First Direct Arena was home to her tour for the night or her ‘party’ as she heartily referred to it. Despite being sat at the top, in the ‘vertigo inducing’ seats, there was an incredible view of the stage. Booking 16 months in advance meant that Miranda’s opening joke about us poor people so high up, claiming we ‘should have booked our tickets earlier’ did not sit well – how much in advance did you WANT people to book tickets? Regardless, you could tell this was a show people had been waiting for – the audience ranged between teenager (or the ‘bears’ as she referred to them – always asleep, and when they’re not asleep, they’re angry!) to middle-‐aged mums dragging along unenthused husbands and confused children. Her show had an air of realism about it: she spoke to the audience like she knew us, and made us feel as if she was genuinely happy we’d come to support her. Of course, no Miranda Hart show would be complete without food: she brought along her own Doritos and Skips which she tossed into the audience, much to the delight of the front row.

It’s times like that when you do genuinely feel annoyed at yourself for not being as ‘on the ball’ as the front-‐row-‐people, those who have enough control over their life to book their tickets two years in advance. TWO YEARS? Insane. The night focussed heavily on audience participation: much to the audience’s hilarity a 16 year old male became the recipient of a ‘predatory lunge’ on Miranda’s behalf. Needless to say, this caused her much embarrassment when she discovered he was a minor. Most of her jokes focus on ‘real life awkward moments’ – and there was one unfolding right before our eyes. Another real life awkward moment occurred when she attempted to set up two people from the audience: firstly made awkward when the guy was gay, and subsequently made more awkward by the apparently ‘single gay man’ who game running onto stage to embark on an ‘interval date’ with first said man, turned out to have a boyfriend. Miranda’s exclamations of how it had turned into a soap opera version of blind date made us all feel at home with the knowledge that she obviously had no idea what was going on either.

Most of her jokes were recycled from either her book or her nationally famous sitcom, so although these jokes are brilliant in their hilarity, I expected some more unheard stories than occurred. Her desire to be a pop star was evident throughout the show: at one point she had the whole audience singing along to ‘I Will Survive’ and at another point doing the ‘Saturday Night’ dance – which she assumed that teenagers didn’t know – rude – she clearly has never been to Subway City on a Tuesday (90s’s night!).

I do indeed want to live in the world that Miranda envisages: a world not unlike that of musical theatre.

In true Miranda style, she ended her show as her role model – Beyonce -‐ would have done. Strutting down the stage doing the ‘pop star’ walk, dressed in a mini-‐skirt and gold sequinned top, she knows how to be ironic. And although I didn’t leave her show with the buzz or face-‐ache of other comedy shows, I left with a definite fondness for her comedy, and feeling inspired by her ending words. Her final speech summarised her desire to live like a child again: free of judgement and worry, but instead proud to act stupid if we wish.

Seasonal

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Activism

It’s that time of year again! Aston University is once again the only university to become host to Relay for Life: a huge event which aims to raise £20,000 a year for Cancer Research UK. It will be held on the 5th and 6th of April 2014 – and this year it is way before exams so there is no excuse for not getting involved. The event itself involves teams of societies, friends and staff relaying around Aston’s Lake (okay, pond) for 24 hours. Fundraising is going on in the weeks leading up to the event, so each team have been busy fundraising in various ways, Team Dance held a Zumbathon to help them reach their target of £1,000, which was a huge success.

There are so many ways you can get involved – the event wouldn’t be an event without the support of Aston Students! We have so many things to keep you entertained throughout the 24 hours, including 3 live sets from 3 bands from Manchester, who are coming a long way to support our work with Cancer Research UK! We also have many DJs playing throughout the day and evening, as well as performances from Aston Dance Society and Astonishing voices. It’s going to be an amazing weekend full of films, food, performances and of course, celebrating all of the money raised to fight back against cancer. Together we are stronger!

Culture

Ikonic Imagery The Ikon Gallery situated on Brindley Place is hosting a fantastic art exhibition by Jamal Penjweny. Francesca Whittle and Becca Smith went The exhibition is open to the public, free of charge along to bring us this review. until the 21st April 2014.

This modern exhibition named ‘Saddam is Here’ encapsulates how, although the dictator has been removed from the country, he still remains there in memories. The focus of this exhibition consists of twelve photos. These are of Iraqi people holding a life-‐size picture of Saddam Hussain’s face in front of theirs. Jamal Penjweny Photograph from the series Saddam is Here (2009-10) Courtesy the artist

This modern and new way of expression shows how many people still remember the leader for his crimes, how they remember him as a leader and how some wish he was still there. The exhibition shows the audience how as a dictator his influence was mighty. Penjweny says ‘Saddam is here. Iraqi society cannot forget him even after his death because some of us still love him and the rest are still afraid of him…His shadow is still following Iraqi society everywhere.’ This is the way that shows it could be interpreted that by placing Hussain’s face into everyday Iraq situations such as while in a hospital room shows how Hussain has infiltrated their life. It shows, as Penjweny alludes to, that even though he is gone he is still so prominently associated with Iraqis and their culture and no matter who they are or what they do this will long remain the case. Also included in the exhibition ‘Iraq Is Flying’ shows Iraq people jumping in the air. Penjweny used the jump to represent almost the opposite response to the hardship of everyday life. It demonstrates a carefree nature and an attempt to reach beyond usual limitations especially from those who are injured such as the one image that has a gentleman on crutches. It could be seen to show a childishness that children with a heavy exposure to conflict may not have previously seen.

Culture The exhibition also has a hard hitting photo series called ‘Without Soul’. The photos dictate everyday scenes such as those at work, praying and soldiers in ranks. Each photo has a single red line drawn across the neck of the individual in the photo, even including the neck of Jesus pictured on a medallion. The line is intended to mark the Islamic custom that living creatures remain the property of God rather than that of humanity.

Jamal Penjweny Photograph from the series Without Soul (2011) Curtesy the artist

Knowing the terrible warfare that has hit Iraq the pictures are exceptionally deep and incite a feeling of sadness within. By separating the body and head, Penjweny ‘invalidates’ the image, disclaiming his role of creator. Penjweny finishes the exhibition off with a modern take by including a short film. ‘Another Life’ follows an immigrant who once lived in Birmingham but has since returned to Iraq. The film follows him and others on the journey of smuggling alcohol across borders. The film is very matter of fact, with rough editing filmed on camera phones. Jamal Penjweny Photograph from the series Iraq is Flying (2006-10) Curtesy the artist

The use of the camera phones exemplifies the harsh reality of the situation and highlights the physically and mentally stressful lives. It shows a world beyond the art and the art of film producing to demonstrate that no effect is needed to show the nature of the world in which these men live. There are no credits at the end of the film instead you are presented with text explaining how men in the film were killed by border control soldiers a few days after the filming had taken place. The exhibition may seem daunting and maybe not the jolly modern art you would expect from such a modern gallery. However, the exhibition shows how 11 years after the invasion of Iraq, the war torn country is yet to rebuild itself. Jamal Penjweny depicts this perfectly and precisely in this modern art collection.

Advice

Back to Reality! Exams, coursework and everything else we love about Uni(!) Francesca Whittle Exams can be such a stressful time and as it seems with every exam period, someone produces a list of hints and tips to get through it. I’ve teamed up with the Union Welfare team for this one. So here’s the first from us for 2014! Getting started Getting started can be the worst part, make sure you’ve broken your work down into manageable days/hours/however long you have. A timetable is often a useful way of dealing with this. When it comes to essays and projects, work backwards from your deadline, that way you’ll know how long you have to complete each part. Procrastination As most of you will already have started here’s some tips on how to deal with those moments of madness or when you’re losing the will to live. We all have them, I’m using mine to write this article! Read all the back editions of iAston magazine! Sorry -‐ couldn’t resist squeezing a bit of self-‐promotion in. But seriously, if you are going to procrastinate then make use of your time in other ways. Even cleaning or vacuuming can be more interesting than revision at times. Or go and exercise, the fresh air, change of scenery and use of energy should revitalise you ready to get back into it! It’s a great time to break out that student cookbook and work on your cooking or baking skills. You know it’s crucial you keep your energy up and nothing will cheer up your downtrodden, revision delirious mates better than some cookies or cupcakes. Helping others is good right? If nothing’s going in, change your style. Utilise all the ways you know to revise, one will work. Try everything: mind maps, lists, index cards, reading, colour coding: find the one that works.

Advice Maximise your potential When revision is going well, make sure you take regular breaks. Being over 18, 40 minutes of work and 10 minute breaks are recommended to maximise potential. Try not to skim your books. Although you feel you are making progress, the faster you read the less likely you are to take in the text. If you must read fast then make sure you return to the text before your exam to optimise your comprehension ability. Make sure you are summarising. Ideally, all the work is done and exam preparation should be taking place on the run up to the exam, if however, you are doing it for the first time, make sure you are making concise notes so that the remaining time you do have is spent learning not just reading! But whatever you do, do not use dissertation or coursework writers. This is plagiarism. Which as you should be aware can result in severe punishment if found out. If you would like some advice, assistance in writing can be found in at the Learning Development Centre (in the Library). Alternatively, you can contact your School to get more help, including mentors or help from older students. Always remember that it’s always better to write and submit your own work, especially as you have no way of exploring the validity of claims to be able to get a 2:1 or whatever the writing company is claiming to be able to achieve. You have very little right of appeal, you can hardly go up to your lecturer and say “I’m sure that should be a 2:1, I paid someone to get that!” Plus, if you do well, you want to be able to take the credit! At the end of the day you’ll only be cheating yourself. Look after yourself Make sure you still socialise. We’re not talking a heavy sesh, just make time to have a bit of down time and break up the day. Grab a coffee or something, away from your work area just so you can forget about everything work related for an hour or so. But don’t get too distracted, the Bullring can wait for another day! Stay fresh, sleeping is ideal and does help you to function better. Avoid too many energy drinks and coffee. Make sure you’re drinking lots of water and eating healthy meals. Basically all the things your mother tells you. All that’s left to say is good luck, try your best, stay calm and keep everything in perspective. I wish I could take my own advice!

Music

RECORD STORE DAY It’s that time of year again -‐ the unmerciful assault on all vinyl hoarders, hipsters and music lovers’ bank accounts. The seventh annual Record Store Day is coming up on April 19th this year and we have a lot of exclusive old, new and re-‐issued records to keep an eye out for. Record Store Day came about in 2007 when over 700 independent stores in the USA came together to celebrate their unique culture, and the UK has since then followed suit. This year, hundreds of artists across the globe will make special appearances and performances at independent record stores around the country. Festivities include performances, meet & greets with artists, DJ's, in store quizzes and much more. Last year produced rare gems from the likes of The Velvet Underground, Echo & The Bunnymen, Soundgarden, Pulp, Dog Is Dead, Primal Scream and Dio – just to name a few that I had my eye on – and this year it would seem that there are just as many to look forward to, if not more! Names that I’ve already heard around include Joy Division, Radkey, Notorious B.I.G., David Bowie, Dinosaur Jr. and Outkast. Record Store Day over the years has served as a way to maintain the personal element of purchasing music. Now that we have resources like iTunes, Amazon and even Spotify – less and less people put in the effort of going to a store, rifling through the shelves to find the album they want and actually handing over cash face-‐to-‐face for a record. One of the beauties of buying a record on vinyl is that you can’t skip tracks when listening to an album and so people have to listen to the entire record as it was meant to be heard. Now that we can just listen to one or two songs from an album and skip the rest, music has no staying power! An album will stay relevant for about two weeks before we get bored and move onto the next one. If you’re passionate about music and haven’t found anyone near you to nerd out about it with – a record store is a good bet. Find out about new artists and introduce people to some of your favourites. RSD provides a whole day dedicated to listening to great live music, finding and buying rare records by your favourite artists, having a few drinks with your friends and discovering new things about music and ways to listen to it – I’d say that’s a pretty good day. If you need further encouragement, have a watch of this short film on Record Store Day here. Also, to find out what other rare finds you can pick up on the day and locate your closest participating independent record store pop over to www.recordstoreday.co.uk.

Ask the ARC

Ask the Our Receptionist, Sam, is always happy to help. We are located on the first floor in the Students’ Union. Our opening hours are 10 am – 4 pm Monday to Friday. You can book an appointment with one of our Advisers by calling 0121 204 4848 or by email at arc@aston.ac.uk Please bring any relevant documentation with you. If you are unsure about which documents to bring along please contact ARC Reception. If you think your problem might be something that the readers of iAston could relate to, send it in and we will give you advice (anonymously) that might help others in your situation: Dear ARC, I’m feeling the pressure of the second term. I didn’t do as well as I’d hope I would last term and feel that I am lacking the level of knowledge and ability to write a first class dissertation. If I use one of those services that I’ve seen advertised around campus would this improve my chances of getting a really good grade? I know they’re expensive but they look like they’re worth the money, they seem to do a really unique piece every time so I reckon it would get past the plagiarising check software. If I’m paying that much they’ve got to make it first class, right? It’s getting towards submission date and my graduate job that I’ve found is subject to me getting good grades. I really need them. Please help me. Thank you Desperate, Final Year

Ask the ARC Dear Desperate, I’m sorry to hear you are feeling such pressure in your final year. You will notice in the Student Discipline Regulations Reg/12/370 C1.2 that ‘academic offences include cheating, plagiarism, collusion and falsification of data or other research. It is a disciplinary offence to try and gain unfair advantage and students face having a penalty applied to that assessment, which will be kept on record. A record of all informal warnings shall be kept in the Schools. A record of formal admissions and findings of guilt, together with penalties imposed by Academic Offences Officers or the Disciplinary Board, shall be held centrally. The University will inform outside bodies such as accrediting bodies or partner institutions, where relevant.’ Have you spoken with your personal tutor, lecturer or course director? Lecturers have office hours which can be booked by students if you would like to discuss anything specific or would like clarification on anything related to your dissertation. Regardless of how much money the ‘service’ charges, academic work is checked by at least one lecturer/examiner and the Turnitin system. Lecturers will often notice a change in style and writing technique in students’ work whilst Turnitin checks students’ work for potential plagiarism or collusion by comparing it against its extensive database. The Learning Development Centre in the Library offers students academic and research support. They may not be able to answer specific questions in relation to your course subject; however, they offer a number services including tutorials, workshops and peer writing mentors. If you need help with writing technique, referencing or proof-‐reading tips then the LDC is open 10am-‐5pm Monday-‐Friday during term time. You may also wish to visit the Counselling service at the University or speak with a chaplain at the Martin Luther King Multi-‐Faith Centre. You might find talking with someone impartial could help ease the burden you are feeling and alleviate your stress. This may then allow you to concentrate better on your dissertation so that you can focus your attention and work to the best of your ability. The Advice & Representation Centre strongly warns against using external companies who offer to write academic work for students (either for free or for a fee).

Nadine Al-‐Kudcy Student Adviser

Societies

Meet the English Language Society ! By Francesca Whittle ''I spoke to Mika Jensen, the President for one of the newest societies to hit Aston University, the English Language Society. Heâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s spilled the beans on what to expect in the next few weeks as the society develops.''

Why do you want to start an English Language Society? To create unity and a more social side to the course. To make students more aware, especially of placements that are available and to increase the communication between lecturers and students.

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;re you planning to do? Question and answer meetings between students and final years to improve awareness and provoke thought of placements and career paths from English not just LSS and of course social meetings with society members.

Who would recommend joins? Everyone who studies English language and anyone interested in the work that can be carried out through English language from forensics to intercultural communication!

What can we look forward to? Cake, pizza, meeting people and making friends. Sharing ideas (big or small) and planning some great things, getting everyone involved mainly!

Describe the English Language Society in three words. Friendly. Relaxed. Active.

Placement Hunt

Placement Hunt We asked four second year students to tell us how their Placement search is going so far, these are their testimonials. Keep in touch with this on-going feature in upcoming issues to hear more of their stories.

David Lowes Why I’m Not Doing a Placement: The Placement scheme is fundamentally a good idea, however at the cost of £1000 I thought that I would be better served taking my third year at Aston and saving the money to do a Masters in English – hopefully this will improve my chances of getting a job more after university.

Francesca Whittle My placement hunt is one humungous waiting game. It’s all I can think about and there is literally nothing I can do about it. Basically, prepare to feel powerless as soon as that carefully constructed application form rushes out of your inbox. You may feel you have regained some control if and when you hear about an interview but, trust me, you are kidding yourself. You may think that if you prepare your answers well enough you’ll be laughing but if, like me, you have Skype interviews, you’re still out of control. Along with standard interview nerves and stresses you also have the wonderful underlying fear that your internet is going to cut out, your laptop will freeze, or your flatmate is going to burst into the kitchen and start trying to distract you from behind the back of your screen. After the dreaded interview comes, in my experience, weeks and weeks of waiting for a response. Seriously, waiting has become such a skill of mine that I’m going to have to include on my C.V.! The problem is, I know and have known for about eight years that all I want to do is have a job teaching English in Spain. Getting into placement friendly Aston made this dream seem even closer, but, since that application process started five months ago, it now couldn’t seem further away. After applying for any teaching placement I could find, and waiting to hear for months, I sometimes find myself wondering if I should apply for anything else I see that I could possibly do, but I’m so set on teaching that I feel I would be wasting my placement year, so I haven’t. At the moment I’m waiting to hear from three companies (one of which I am embarrassingly desperate to work for) so you’d better all keep your fingers crossed for me!

Placement Hunt

Alex Rymer

My placement search was a lot more stressful than it needed to be. The placement I ended up getting was the first one I ever applied for, the first company that I spoke to at the LHS Job Fair in the Union Hall, and the first cover letter I ever wrote. Upon not hearing back straight away, I went on to apply to other placements for two solid days, sending out over 12 cover letters and CVs and many more application forms. Advice for you: this method works. Get as many people as possible to read over your CV: each time it comes back more concise and easier to read. Within a week I had 8 interview offers, but still not from the one I wanted. I eventually emailed and asked if they were considering interviews yet, and hey presto, they wanted to interview me. Never be afraid to call or email to enquire about an interview: it shows initiative and confidence. Another tip: don’t pay expensive travel costs to get to an interview you don’t want! I ended up paying £80 to get to an interview down in Essex, and I only realised I didn’t want to live there when I had an offer. Even worse when the placement I got was a £2 bus ride away. I can’t stress enough the value of these practise interviews, though, so always make sure you organise one with your placement co-ordinator in the union. I accepted then and there when the one I wanted phoned me with an offer the day after my interview, and suddenly all of the applying, all of the stress, all of the train rides and the preparation, they were all worth it.

Ryan Skeet

For me, placement was a done deal from before I even started at Aston. In fact, the particular placement I want was the reason I chose Aston over the other universities I applied for and got in to. Let me give some background: I am a Japanophile. I love Anime, Manga, J-Rock, Japanese language, culture and architecture. When I came to an Aston open day and someone mentioned the chance to go to Japan for a year, get paid for it and combine that with teaching experience; all I was asking was ‘where do I sign?’ So now that I am in second year: I have attended the information session; handed in my CV for checking by the International Placements Team; sent that off with my cover letter and photo (yes, for international jobs they want to see your face with your CV!); now I wait. Oh the waiting. The agonising waiting! The daily email checks: ‘Have they received it ok?’ ‘Did I include everything they asked for?’ ‘What date did they say we’d hear?’ ‘I wonder how many other people applied, maybe I didn’t even get shortlisted?’ Then finally, that characteristic *ding* of the mailbox: ‘Congratulations Mr Skeet, you have been shortlisted for Skype interview, please choose one of the following dates/times’. Now comes the stress of making sure I do well in that! Wish me luck?

COMPETITION

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Fun

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Music

Baby I'm (Still) Ready to Go! Republica and Space Gig Review

Ryan Skeet SOME of you must remember iconic tracks such as 'Ready to Go' or 'Drop Dead Gorgeous' from Republica and Space's 'Female of the Species'? Well I do, which is why I went all the way to Machester for this 20 year comeback gig! The gig was at the Manchester Academy 3 which, as you may or may not know, is actually housed within the Manchester University Students’ Union building. This gave me the opportunity to snoop around and see how we match up. The performance space itself is a purpose-‐built room with stage at one end and bar at the other (as you walk in, conveniently). True pleasure in performing!

The room is relatively small, no more than 450-‐capacity, which makes for a really intimate experience. I was able to position myself right at the front -‐ as you can see from my photos -‐ meaning I was close enough to touch lead singer, Saffron (and indeed did at one point during the show). All this put together meant I was right in the thick of the atmosphere. Saffron giving it her all!

The crowd was surprisingly diverse considering how long ago these bands fell out of mainstream airplay. There were couples young and old, single guys, families and other students. The show started with Republica at this venue (the bands took alternate turns ‘headlining’ and ‘supporting’ at each stop on the tour). They opened the performance with ‘Out of the Darkness’ from their self-‐titled album released in 1996. So many people were jumping around and singing along – myself included.

Music The crowd truly went wild when the band broke out the amazing Drop Dead Gorgeous, no-‐one could resist that guitar riff. Saffron’s persona really shines when she sings and she gave her all to this track. She has a certain swagger and a command of the stage rarely matched by modern artists and the proximity afforded by the meant I could almost feel the heat of her performance. The band then treated us to an as-‐yet unreleased track called Hallelujah which received great response from the crowd.

Tommy post-‐stagedive!

Calling all Avenging Angels!

The Republica portion of the show finished with the anthemic Ready To Go, which was greeted by rapturous applause as soon as the intro began to play out. Everyone in the building must’ve heard the floor shaking with the whole auditorium jumping up and down, fists pounding the air. Fantastic! You can check out the crowd photo that Saffron took on Republica’s Facebook page. Next up were Space, three of the original members: Tommy (Lead singer), Jamie and Franny plus members of Tommy’s band (Tommy Scott and the Red Scare): Ryan (who wears a fez whilst playing, the Whovian in me nerdgasmed slightly), Allan and Phil. With tracks like ‘Me and You Versus the World’, ‘Neighbourhood’ and ‘Avenging Angels’ sending the crowd into a nostalgic frenzy, it’s no surprise that Tommy dove into the crowd to get a piece of the atmosphere. Tommy’s performance really brought the songs to life and his love for his art really shows. In fact the whole band showed a real passion for the show. Their new track ‘Attack of the Mutant 50ft Kebab’ (title track of their upcoming album) is a work of comedy genius and I recommend giving it a listen. All in all, the gig was great and reminded me what it means to see live music. If only the bands of today would take a page out of these 90’s legends’ books! Seen a gig you really want to shout about? Tweet us @iAstonMagazine or send in your review to union.editor@aston.ac.uk Space bring their own groupie along!

Interest

The Top 5 most cunning people who ever lived By Ollie Ogden-‐Barker April fool’s day. The first of April. Those of us who partake play practical jokes on others for our own entertainment. These range from texting your friend that their flat has been robbed. (‘Dude somebody like, ransacked your flat, it’s a mess and I can’t find that super important memory stick with your entire final year project summary on it. I think it was STOLEN’. They then run home in a panic to see for themselves, only to see you standing at the door when you say ‘APRIL FOOLS’ and laugh hysterically. Or they call the police, in which case things get awkward.) To flooding the kitchen sink full of soap causing the entire room to look like a kitchen foam party. In reality, April fools has more to do with cunning, an attribute that determines a person’s ability to get ahead of the game. Different pranks require different degrees of cunning. Although the following list contains some people who never committed any pranks, the stuff they did do would put a giant mechanical hand covered with shaving cream slapping a poor unsuspecting victim, to shame. 5) Bernie Madoff If there ever was someone who deserved 150 years in prison, it might be this man. Former chairman of NASDAQ stock market. He was very good at playing systems, playing the game someone might say, and his game was stocks. What he did was a classic Ponzi scam that escalated to affect a large portion of the US economy, all for his own personal gain. How a Ponzi scam works is by making people believe that there is more to something than meets the eye, they in turn invest in the stock. However, instead of being paid back in actual profits, you are paid back with other people’s investments, and the profit is kept to the invested party. This goes on until the guilty party disappears, taking all the money with them leaving all the people who invested with nothing. In this case Bernie got away with 64.4 billion USD. The whistle was blown when in, 1999 Harry Markopolos after doing some mathematics discovered that the amount of profit was impossible with the amount of expenses to the investors. However it wasn’t until 2008 that Madoff was finally arrested and sentenced to 150 years in prison. Yes he was cunning and clever, but in reality what he did affected many lives. Leaving many without work, pensions and even healthcare. This event is a prime example to show how one mans greed can affect an entire economy. (See also, The Wolf of Wall Street).

4) Queen Elizabeth I Queen Elizabeth the first was an iconic ruler in history, and set the bench mark on what it meant to be a female ruler. Because she was so good at ruling on her own, she was nicknamed ‘The Virgin Queen’. She was born to King Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn in 1533. She came to power in 1558 when she was 25 years old. On one side of things she was a great ruler, very interested in both local and foreign affairs, and on the other she was certainly not someone you would want to cross. Being one very fond of beheadings, coining the fictional phrase ‘Off with their heads!’ (Though in fact she was nowhere near as bad as her father, or her sister Mary I). At the time of her reign the Spanish had a large empire and had a powerful navy. They sent a navy to conquer England, known as the Spanish Armada consisting of 130 ships, including 22 combat Galleons. England was in crisis, how could they counter such a large force? She, along with Sir Francis Drake and Lord Howard, came up with a genius strategy. What they did was take a ton of little ships, set them on fire, and sailed them into the incoming navy. The result was devastating: half the Spanish ships were destroyed and the rest fled, ending the Spanish invasion. This tactic truly has earned Queen Elizabeth a spot on this list, for what can be more cunning than flame on water?

Interest 3) Galileo Galilei Born in 1564 in Italy, as a young man Galileo wanted to become a Priest. But his father urged him into doing a Medical Degree at the University of Pisa. The rest they say his history as he became one of the most noted scientists of all time, making discoveries such as kinematics of motion and astronomy. Here is when things get interesting. People believed that everything in the universe revolved around the Earth (Ptolemaic), as opposed to Copernican model in which the Earth orbited the sun. Galileo believed in the Copernican model, despite at the time the little supporting evidence. The pope on the other hand believed in the more traditional 'everything revolves around the earth' idea, forcing Galileo to teach the Copernican model as a mere theory. (Obviously we now know that the Copernican model is fact, if not I’d love to have a chat with you as to why we have days and nights). And so in true genius like fashion, he wrote a book called The Dialogue. The book depicted a conversation between three different people, one was a Copernican (Galileo) believer, one was an open minded person, and the third was a Ptolemaic (The pope). The Ptolemaic is written to appear as a complete idiot, the Copernican is written as to be far superior, and the open minded middle man through the book begins siding with the Copernican veiwpoint. At first glance, the Church didn’t notice the ‘Heresy’ and allowed the book to be published. But eventually, the Church found out and placed him under house arrest. Pretty cunning considering at the time, the Inquisition would pluck out your fingernails for not reading the bible at least once a day. 2) Odysseus If you haven’t heard of Odysseus, you would have heard of something he was responsible for, more on that later. He was a legendary Greek ruler during the time of the Trojan war which was meant to have happened between 1260-1240 BC. It was the Greeks against the city of Troy. Obviously as it was so long ago there is very little information on him. What we do know is he was EXTREMELY intelligent, and most of all very cunning. His most cunning moment? After a ten year siege of Troy Odysseus ‘gave up’. He constructed a large wooden horse and gave it to Troy as a gift, and sailed his army away. Troy took the horse and placed it in the middle of the city and rejoiced, the siege was over… However, Odysseus had soldiers HIDE IN THE HORSE and that night they left the horse and opened the city gates, to Odysseus’s waiting army which had sailed back. Just as planned. They ransacked the city, and had conquered Troy. This event known as the Trojan horse, and has been iconised to this very day. 1) Joan Pujol Garcia Joan Pujol Garcia was as much cunning as he was BADASS. Born in 1912 in Spain he did service in the Spanish civil war fighting for the Republican despite being opposed to them. He went AWOL and was arrested living in his girlfriend’s house, but was later rescued and given false papers. He then re-joined the Republican in the intention to desert and join the Nationalists. Pretty complicated already, however this is just the start of Joan’s special talent of appearing on both sides of the conflict. In the early days of World War 2 he set out on a personal mission of helping the British defeat the Nazi regime, but originally the British where not interested. Step one of his plan: Pose as a pro-nazi official and get a job as a Nazi spy, eventually getting a mission to infiltrate England and create a spy network. After arriving in England he created his ‘spy network’, which was entirely fictions. He then began working with the British, and using his army of make believe spies, fed the Nazi’s false information at every corner, causing them to waste valuable military resources. His skill in manipulation was used during the Normandy invasions, during which he told the Germans the Allied forces were meant to be invading about 200 miles north east of Normandy, as told to him by his imaginary spy network. His cover was so convincing that the Nazi’s awarded him the Iron Cross, the highest attainable Nazi service award. In short this man single-handily flooded Nazi intelligence with useless and false information, through the use of an imaginary spy network. Nice going.

Disney on Ice Review For any Disney fan, no matter what age, Disney on ice is a must. From the moment we stepped into the LG arena, it was a dream come true! The venue was the LG arena, which is easy to access from the city centre via train. It’s easy to find and the performance didn’t run on too late to catch a train back into the centre of Birmingham. From Aston University campus, the whole journey would take between half an hour and forty minutes. After the meet and greet we had chance to explore the merchandise stands. There wasn’t much variation when it came to the merchandise. There was a whole room of stands, but all of them were selling exactly the same items. The merchandise was also extremely pricey and definitely not value for money. A bag of popcorn or candyfloss was £8 each! As would be expected, food and drink were very expensive at the arena too. We were starving by the end of the performance having been at the meet and greet since 5.30pm. There were no T-‐shirts or merchandise suited to adults; it was mainly food and toys. Having said this, the show was definitely no expense spared. The money must come from somewhere, and the tickets are reasonably priced at around £15, so they have to charge somewhere to put on a performance like that!

''Full of incredible costumes, amazing skating and the great Disney stories that we all know and love.'' The show itself was spectacular. Even if there were a number of stands without anyone in them. We put this down to it being the opening night and a school night at that. Full of incredible costumes, amazing skating and the great Disney stories that we all know and love. It followed Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse as they went on a journey through many different worlds. Joined by Donald Duck and Goofy their car met the cast of Cars and raced off with them and then away to begin their journey.

We were very fortunate and had passes for the meet and greet event beforehand. We got to pick a toy each and got a bag of merchandize goodies included in the meet and greet ticket. If you have children, or are just very enthusiastic about Disney, the meet and greet event is great fun. The children were so excited and the staff handled the event perfectly. Refreshments were served and everyone got a chance to meet Mickey and Minnie and have their photo taken with them before the event started. This part of the night ran extremely smoothly and was an absolutely stress free time. Waiting for the arrival of Mickey and Minnie was rather hectic and prepare for many extremely hyperactive children with new toys.

''An absolutely stress free time.'' We first dived into the world of The Little Mermaid and under the sea. The fluidity of the skaters made the underwater scenes seem so real. The bright colours and the stunning costumes were a delight for both adults and children. The story was covered in rather a lot of detail, given the short time and although the target audience were probably a little bit young to count Little Mermaid as one of their favourites they were still enthralled (as were we).

''Everything you could ever want from a Disney production'' The next land was that of Tinker bell and the fairies in the mystical Pixie Hollow and even though any Disney is good Disney, this was a bit out of our own Disney experience and out of all the features was the one that struck fewest chords with the audience. Having said that, the costumes were as sparkly as the sparkliest thing anyone could ever dream about and the moving from flying in the air directly to the ice was a feat that was very interesting for all to see. After the interval, where more ludicrously expensive wares were peddled, we all settled in for the final chapter to the magnificent Disney adventure. This, for us, was the best part. It was long and we could be picky and say that fifteen minutes off the end wouldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve made it more enjoyable however, this could just be because we were wasting away in our seats. Here the whole of Toy Story 3 was condensed into the magical ice show format complete with what must have been at least 7 foot absolutely enormous characters such as Hamm and Slinky Dog. These were amazing to us so to a child it mustâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been a total dream come true! The whole experience was everything you could ever want from a Disney production and was definitely the coolest event weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve been to so far!