griffiti - issue 41

Cover by: Tom Morgan

Issue 41December 2010

Editor: Oscar Finn

Sub-Editor: Jonathan Keane

Design: Oscar Finn

Contributers:

Adia Hammer

Alyssa Fleck

Brendan Beagon

Brian O’Donoghue

Clothilde Dumas

Gareth Barry

Ghino de Colle

Ian Donnegan

Ian Fleming

Laura Mullett

Maiken Woll Eide

Martin Agbaso

Marc Dennehy

Matthew Jaffray

Shane Ronan-Duggan

Tom Morgan

Advertising Enquiries:(01) 4150463

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Griffiti Magazine

Griffith College Students’ Union

South Circular Road

Dublin 8

Ireland

Ph: (01) 4151463

Email: [email protected]

www.gcd.ie/griffiti

Griffiti Magazine is a publication of Griffith Col-

lege Students’ Union established in 2004.

All contents copyright of Griffiti, Reproduction of

any part of the magazine without permission

from the publisher is strictly prohibited.

The views expressed in Griffiti do not necessarily

reflect that of the college or the Students’ Union

A Note From the Editor

Hey Everyone,

well the semester is drawing to a close and

assignments are being finished off. It’s been

a busy and productive month but there was

still plenty time to party with the school disco,

International trip and the masquerade ball.

This month we have an issue jam packed

with articles, reviews, photos and the first of

what I hope will be many short stories. I

would like to thank Tom “Danbo” Morgan for

the fantastic cover which he designed espe-

cially for the magazine and to everyone one

who contributed articles, photos and sugges-

tions. In this months magazine Alyssa Fleck

looks back at the international trip to Galway

and the Cliffs of Moher, Ian Fleming inter-

views Nick Dooge about deciding to return

to college to be better prepared for the jobs market, and we have all the usual

SU news, Genuine article, and film reviews inside. We have three more issues

due out in the next semester so if you want to get involved the Christmas break

is the perfect opportuinity to put together ideas for what you would like to see in

Griffiti. I hope you all have a happy and safe Christmas and wish you the best of

luck in your exams. Bye for now.

Oscar Finn - Editor

Contents

3

4 state of the union

6 students union news

11 frustrations with Irish immigration

12 party people

14 international Trip

16 Are video games art?

18 the road to success - interview

22 griffiti at the movies

25 music reviews

26 the genuine article

28 growing up with christmas

30 a short story for christmas

StATE OF THE UNION

Office Opening Hours:Monday - Thursday: 09:30 - 19:30Friday: 09:30 - 17:30email: [email protected]: (01) 415 0418

Graham Butler President

Students’ Union

4

Hi guys,

In the last month we’ve seen people who

attended the college over the past couple

of years graduate. It was a momentous

two days to see so many friends get their

degrees to which they all worked so hard

for. The two consecutive Graduation Balls

were both wonderful occasions and hope

we can build on this for students set to

graduate next year. Some of the other

events were had included the School

Disco on campus, the Poker tournament

which we converted upstairs in the SU for,

and the Masquerade Ball. The best of the

lot was however, the International Trip

which takes place in the first semester

every year. Last month saw us take to the

streets of Galway City and a visit to the

Cliffs of Moher, near Lisdoonvarna in Co.

Clare. You can read all about that in Pages

10 and 11.

Upcoming, we have the end of

semester Christmas Party which

we hope to see everyone out for.

For many of the International stu-

dents, it will be their last chance

to party with all their new friends

they made while studying here in

the college. While it is sad to see

many leave, we hope all of you

that took part in the Study Abroad

program enjoyed it and return to

us again someday soon. Hope-

fully during the next Semester we

will see many new Study Abroad

erasmus students joining us and

willing to get involved in our

events.

Since the previous Issue, we

have had two Student Council

meetings and which the minutes

can be seen in this magazine. It’s

great to see more and more stu-

dents engaging with the SU and

the direction it takes. Some constructive

ideas are brought forward which we hope

to implement over the coming months. In

terms of working with USI, I attended East-

ern Area Council in University College

Dublin and National Council in the National

University of Ireland, Galway. Both of these

forums provided for useful training and de-

veloping how our own SU can work more

effectively for you. The insight into how

other Students’ Union around the country

function is something unique and hopefully

we’ll take some of their already functioning

practices and develop them to adapt to our

own Union. I found it particularly useful

being in the same room as all the other En-

tertainment Officers as the Ents Forum.

From every other college, the Officers

were bouncing ideas off each other provid-

ing useful advice and ideas going forward

that we all learned from.

One of the most exciting things we’ve itro-

duced this year so far has been the brand

new Students’ Union “Membership Card”.

In its introductory year, 2010/2011, it will

entitle you to cheaper entry to all SU or-

ganised events! It’s in the early stages at

the moment but eventually we’ll be rolling

out discounts to shops and stores you all

are interested in. Every poster for an event

we do will advertise a fee for holders of the

card which will be discounted, as well as

non-holder. It is free to obtain so you might

as well pick one up off us. Come by the SU

and we’ll hook you up!

To promote all our events from now also,

a new Ents Crew has been formulated to

push everything we do forward. I’d like to

welcome Eoin McKenna, Ciaran Verso and

Gabbi Steel on-board the team. This crew

will be hassling you all throughout the sec-

ond semester letting you know about

events and all other SU activity. If you’d

like to be part of the Ents Crew, publicising

and plugging the Students’ Union activi-

ties, let us know on [email protected]

Until the next issue in February, we hope

you get some well deserved rest at home,

and we wish you all the best of luck in your

January exams. I hope to see you out at

the Christmas Party before the breakup of

the semester.

As always, even when it snows, we’re in

the Meagher Building if you need us for

anything.

Have a wonderful Merry Christmas and a

Happy New Year!

Your Students’ Union President,

Graham

5

StATE OF THE UNION

Office Opening Hours:Monday - Thursday: 09:30 - 19:30

Friday: 09:30 - 17:30email: [email protected]

Ph: (01) 415 0608

Joseph UzahClubs & Societies OfficerStudents’ Union

Hi guys ,

Firstly, I would like to wish everyone a

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year in

advance. This year has seen many

changes as I am working very hard to take

the clubs & societies to higher levels. I am

glad to announce the start up of 10 new

societies.

The Football Team perhaps the most suc-

cessful team in the college has had a long

stretch of success going almost unbeaten

in the league. With a walk over in the first

round of the Umbro Cup the team seems

set to go far in the competition In light of

this, the team has been recognised for its

success and as a result of this is now

being sponsored by D2 one of the largest

night clubs in Ireland located on Harcourt

Street.

This year has also seen the start up of a

female football team with two players, Mar-

tina Paterson and Johanna Bandgren cho-

sen to play for the Leinster team.

The basketball team this year has also

come along way with the introduction of

coach David Baker. Baker is a coach with

tremendous experience as he has

coached at national level. With his help the

men’s and women’s basketball team will

be shaped and turned in to a successful

team to rival such teams as DBS and

DCU.

It has been quite a rocky ride however the

rugby team has managed to compete in

the Sevens Tournament, though the team

has not been able to complete a full tour-

nament due to injuries, we are hoping to

change that from January.

This year though the clubs has had a pos-

itive start The societies however, have

been slow to start up this is going to

change from January as there are going to

be many changes made.

The first change to be made is going to be

the dance society. Mainly Hip-Hop

but also looking at Salsa, Tango,

Classic and other forms of dance.

There is also going to be an intro-

duction of many new societies and

an improvement on certain soci-

eties such as creative writing, box-

ing, shooting, equestrian and golf

society.

There is now a deal in place where

students can use the golf course at

the Iveagh Grounds for free. Golf

clubs can be collected at the Stu-

dents’ Union before going down.

Upcoming Events

NBA Streets: This tournament is

going to involve teams of 3s and 4s

competing in a basketball tourna-

ment strictly street ball rules (tricks,

jiving, swag the whole lot).

Boxing: The aim here is to get the boxing

society active and running before RAG

week so as to put on a show for the whole

college. It would be a tournament for all

weight classes, both for men and women.

G-Football league: Due to the previous

success of the G-league I have decided to

bring it back. The G league would involve

teams of 5 playing a one day tournament

on the green.

G-Rugby League: This will also be played

on the green except it will involve a team

of 7 with tag rugby rules and full Rugby

rule tournament

All tournaments will involve bigger and bet-

ter prices than previous tournaments held

on the green.

Paint ball Society: Next year I would also

seek to start up a paint ball society which

would take trips once every month.

Surfing society: This society will be brand

new and quite possibly the most exciting

society to be created. It will involve trips to

the like of Galway, Sligo etc. It will be a so-

ciety which will welcome every one of dif-

ferent skill levels.

Concert: The next event I am hoping to

have will be a joint concert performed by

both the choir and music society. Both so-

cieties have been growing and hopefully

will reach a stage where there can be reg-

ular performances in Arthurs bar.

Casino Royal night: With the start of the

New Year I will be looking to launch a

casino night where there will be new

games such as poker, black jack (all

themed nights i.e. Bond)

Your Clubs and Societies Officer

Joe

Students’ Union News

6

Student CouncilThe Student Council met twice in recent

weeks, on November 16th and December

6th respectively. On November 16th, the

council made the Election Supervisory

Committee (ESC) official. Eoin McKenna,

Bernard White, Zhan Sergejev and Ross

McKinley were elected. They will sit on the

committee with the SU President and Man-

ager to oversee any elections throughout

the year.

This class rep gathering also marked the

ratification of the new Griffith College Stu-

dents’ Union constitution. The vote was

won unanimously, with no council member

opposing it. This constitution applies only

to Griffith College Dublin and does not ex-

tend to the Cork or Limerick colleges. All

students can request of the Constitution di-

rectly from the Students’ Union now for

free, either in physical or digital format.

On December 6th Union Of Students Ire-

land (USI) president Gary Redmond and

Eastern Area Officer John Logue were at

the meeting to present their roles and rea-

sons for joining USI. At the first meeting of

the year, it was agreed by the council

agreed to pursue affiliation and again at

the second meeting to include it within the

Constitution.

They ran through the workings of the

Union and answered any questions. A

number of concerns were raised by reps

regarding whether or not the government

higher education maintenance grant cur-

rently unavailable to Griffith students could

be attained with USI’s support.

Also, several concerns were made about

the affiliation fee - €5 per student and how

this may affect the SU’s budget in the com-

ing years.

Head librarian Robert McKenna ad-

dressed concerns over the library. Ques-

tions were asked regarding the opening

hours at weekends. They have been cut

due to low numbers using the library at

such times. Concerns were also raised of

the books being misplaced and computers

being used for non-college work. These is-

sues will be looked into.

If you have any concerns or issues that

you would like to be raised, please contact

your class rep or the Executive Officers at

the Students’ Union.

THe ENTs crewLet us introduce to you the latest additions

to the Students’ Union, our new Ents Crew.

Pictured above are Eoin McKenna (left),

Gabbi Steel (centre), and Ciaran Verso(right).

There are loads of events coming up next

semester like SHAG Week, RAG Week,

International Trip 2, SU House parties, the

annual and end of year spectical; the Grif-

fith Ball and much, much more, so there

will be plenty of things to keep them busy.

If you want to know more about what is

coming up next year these are the first

people along with the SU President to ask

so be sure to stop them and say 'Hey!'.

They will be on hand throughout the year

to help organise and promote Students’

Union events. We here at the SU would

like to wish them the very best of luck with

their new roles and look forward to working

closely with them.

We are delighted to welcome on board

Ulster Bank as the new sponsor of Griffiti

Magazine. We look forward to building a

relationship with Ulster Bank as both the

sponsor of our Students’ Union magazine

but also the role they will play in support-

ing Griffith College students whether it be

financial or advisory services.

If anybody would like to arrange an ap-

pointment with one of the members of Ul-

ster Bank, please contact the SU and we

shall organise a meeting for you.

We here in The Students’ Union were very

sorry to hear about second year photogra-

phy part time student Brian Flynn who

passed away earlier this month. He is sur-

vived by his wife and two daughters and

we would like, on behalf of the students

and staff of Griffith College, to take this

time to extend to them our sincerest con-

dolences


7

New Look JerseysCheck out soccer superstars Martin Ag-

baso and Aishling Clifford sporting the

brand new jerseys for the mens and

womens soccer teams. The new kits are

sponsored by d-two nightclub and we

look forward to seeing them being worn

with pride on the pitch.

Students’ UnionMembership CardsNo doubt that by now you have heard

about the Students' Union Membership

Cards which were launched earlier this

month. The card is free, available from

the SU, and is the best way to ensure

you get discount entry to all events run

and organised by the Students’ Union.

It also gives discounts to d-two nightclub

and Reads of Nassau Street. We are

busy working on getting new partners to

work with to provide you with the best

discounts around. Hopefully this new

iniative will develop over the semesters

and years into more wideranging areas

for the benefit of students.

If you have any ideas to develop the card

or places you would like us to try and get

discounts from, drop in to the SU and talk

to SU President, Graham. You can also

send us an email at [email protected]

Pick up your 2010/2011 Membership

Card for free today!


8

Share the LoveSale Of workWednesday the 8th of December saw the

launch of the 'Share The Love Sale of

Work' organised by the SU to raise much

needed funds for the Pakistan flood relief

efforts. The sale went on over two days

and raised around €1200. On the Wednes-

day we were pleased to welcome Her Ex-

cellency Mrs Naghmana Hashmi, the

Pakistani Ambassador to Ireland (pictured

below). She told ‘Griffiti Magazine’ that she

was extremely grateful to Griffith College

Students’ Union for putting the event to-

gether. And she also thanked all the Pak-

istani Students and for everyone else for

taking the time to do something to help.

She also told Griffiti about the scale of

devastation after the floods and that it will

take between ten and fifteen years to re-

cover what was lost.

The SU would also like to say a special

thank you to Kelkin, Crowne Plaza Dublin

Northwood, Griffith Halls of Residence,

The Paskistan Embassy, Frank Scott-

Lennon, Khamer from Libaas, dTwo night-

club, Graffiti artist Maverick Ross and

everyone else who made a contribution to

the efforts.

9


As Semester one has rolled out and is

nearly over, one of the most prominent

events that has happened during this pe-

riod is the development of the Music So-

ciety and the new music room in the

Students’ Union building. With 40 mem-

bers in the club so far, we foresee that

this society will grow and develop greatly

over the next semester. We will soon be

introducing music workshops, recording

sessions and support acts for the stu-

dents in the upcoming semester. The

passion and drive that the students have

shown thus far has been one of the high-

lights of the year and we’re very excited

about the road ahead and what we know

can be achieved.

So far at least two bands have developed

from this club, and we’re also delighted to

see that two of the members have also

joined the Orchestra and practise with

them on a weekly basis, and soon will

perform with them in our own Conference

centre.

Without a doubt, all students and mem-

bers of staff will get the opportunity to see

some of the best perform over the next

coming semester.

STUDENTS UNIONBUILDING GETS TAGGED

To add diversity to the events we had

over the year, one of the most exciting

occurrences was having an amazing

graffiti artist called Maverick Ross taking

over one of the bare walls in the Stu-

dents’ Union and utilise it as his canvas.

This was a sight to behold, watching

Maverick Ross, aka ‘Dope’; transform this

empty space into a piece of slick art.

Graffiti, an art that has existed since an-

cient times is too often overlooked and

underappreciated, so we would welcome

all to drop by and have a look at this

newly installed piece of art, which al-

though is complete at this moment, will

develop further as the year goes by.

Watch this space......

http://www.flickr.com/photos/maverick-

rossart

Music Room in SUstarts rocking out

10

On the 16th of November the S.U held a

poker tournament upstairs in the Meagher

building, it was a major success. For €5

buy in you got plenty of chips and even

though there were four tables of over six

people everybody, except for those that

were first out, had a right laugh, thanks in

no small part to the allowance of bever-

ages at the converted pool tables.

Poker is a great way to get to know people

as you often have to try and read what a

total stranger is thinking, and naturally un-

less someone’s poker face is down to a tee

conversation is inevitable. By far it was the

French men on the night who stole the

show dominating on three of the four ta-

bles.

Below card-shark Brian O’Donoghuedisplays his poker face. He startedstrong but half way into the tournamenthe was strapped for cash which re-sulted in him getting bailed out moretimes than an Irish bank.

The night did go relatively quickly thanks

to the watchful time keeping and blind up-

ping. The S.U. deserve a pat on the back

for the poker tournament, a great idea, and

everyone who attended especially those

who won money, would all go again!

Griff fmback on the air

Every year in the opening weeks of the

second semester, the 2nd year BA journal-

ism students are thrown in at the deep end

and asked to run a radion station for two

weeks. The station which is licensed as

GRIFF FM is one of the more practical as-

pects of the course.

The station will run on a temporary that will

be issued by the Broadcasting commision

of Ireland (BCI).

This year the station will broadcast for 10

days, launching on Friday January 28th

and winding up on Sunday January 6th.

Content on Griff Fm includes a magazine

style breakfast show with news, music and

competitions, comedy shows, light music

programs, sports shows and foreign lan-

guage programming produced for interna-

tional students.

While live programming will occupy the air-

waves from 8am until midnight, repeats of

earlier programs will be run through the

early morning hours.

Griff FM anticipates a talk/music ratio of

at least 60% - 40%. The Griff FM studios

can be found in the Richmond Buildings

adjacent to the SU building.

For more information stay tuned to Moodle

and Facebook for GRIFF FM updates

Griffith College Poker Tournament

11

Being an American southerner in

Dublin is an adventure of its own,

from the many Irish dialects that dis-

tinctly differ from the slow, southern drawl,

to the depressing weather of overcast days

that is the complete opposite of South Car-

olina, that is enough to get used to by itself,

so forgive me if I don’t appreciate the slow

and inadequate immigration process that

this beautiful country has in place.

Getting my extended visa so that I could

study here for 90 days was an experience

I’d much rather not have to go through

again. Picture if you will, a crowded room

of African women with crying babies in

strollers and Iranian men with small chil-

dren. There were long hard benches for

people to sit on, but the crowdedness

made it impossible for a person to scoot

past someone else without putting some

part of their body in a stranger’s face. To

top it all off there was just the one bath-

room at the very back of the room, and it

looked like a 1970s disco hangover. The

bulbs had this awkward blue light as if to

check people's DNA as they were coming

out of the stalls.

Astonishingly, when I got there at eight on

a Thursday evening, the room was filled

with agitated immigrants who had been

waiting since the early hours that morning.

When I approached several staff members

to ask for our contact, they acted as if they

had no idea who I was talking about and I

was pretty much told take a number and sit

down. Later, I was told that our contact

was their manager. So I’ll just attribute their

ignorance of who their manager was to a

long day of making immigrants feel less

human.

Needless to say, I didn’t get my visa that

night and was told by our liaison at the

GCD International Office that everything

would be taken care of on Friday morning.

At this point no real concern set in, despite

the fact that my green card would expire

on that same Friday and that I had to fly

back to the States the following Wednes-

day.

The next morning I went to the interna-

tional office only to find out that our INIS

contact, was gone for the weekend and

wouldn’t be back until Monday. Now I was

stuck waiting for a vacationing immigration

personnel to talk about my expired green

card with an approaching deadline. Mon-

day finally arrives, and I return to the GCD

International Office to be met with excite-

ment and happily be told that the Ameri-

cans had an appointment with the INIS on

the coming Thursday.

After taking a moment to collect my

thoughts I managed to remind the Interna-

tional Office for the umpteenth time that I

had to leave Wednesday morning, so I

couldn’t wait until Thursday. Fortunately,

he was able to arrange an appointment for

me for Tuesday morning with the manager

from the INIS office, yet again. I was able

to skip the queue (which I sort of felt guilty

about) and get another plastic card with my

face on it. As grateful as I am that my story

had some resolution, I’m still compelled to

mention the lack of organisation, profes-

sionalism, and courtesy that the INIS dis-

played.

“the Department of Educa-tion and Skills wants to in-

crease the number ofinternational students froma €900 million to €1.2 bil-lion sector for economic

profit by 2015”

I later read that the Department of Educa-

tion and Skills wants to increase the num-

ber of international students from a €900

million to €1.2 billion sector for economic

profit by 2015, according to a press re-

lease from late September. It amazes me

how the government desires to make

money off of international students when

they can’t seem to efficiently process them

in order for them to remain in the country.

I asked other international students who

needed to extend their visas to see how

their experiences were. I met Jeng Min

Kang, a Korean exchange student who’s

taking classes at DIT. She said her experi-

ence with the INIS was tough. The wonder-

ful officials at immigration kept sending her

back and forth to her college because of a

simple discrepancy in her paperwork. The

error that her papers possessed was that

the letter of admission from DIT was ad-

dressed to her and not the immigration of-

fice. That could’ve been quickly rectified if

someone had told her that the first time.

She also said she had to wait in the cold

around seven in the morning for the doors

to open before they would begin the queue

which took hours.

Grace Nam had the same experience with

the long queue. Grace is a Korean-Ameri-

can studying at Trinity College who had to

endure the INIS office. Grace said she

stood in the queue all morning and into the

late afternoon to get her visa. She said her

biggest complaint was,

“It seems like a very inefficient way to see

everybody, especially making people wait

in line in the wee cold hours of the morning

for so long.”

In my opinion, the long line is only half of

the problem with immigration.

Fianna Fáil is a party here that supports

the social welfare of all its citizens, suppos-

edly. I emailed the Minister of Justice and

Law Reform, Micheál Martin, to see if the

party was aware of the conditions citizens

face at the INIS office. The response I re-

ceived from Aiden Cronin, the Minister’s

private secretary, was very informative and

diplomatic to say the least. My favorite part

reads,

“Regrettably, the issuing and managing ofstudent visas is a complex area in manycountries. Here in Ireland, it is hoped thatany complications which exist in the cur-rent system might be addressed throughthe mechanisms to be put in place in re-sponse to the Report of the High-LevelGroup on International Education to theTánaiste and Minister for Education andSkills aka Ireland's International EducationStrategy 2010-15.”Then Mr. Cronin included a link in his email

that referred me to the Education Ireland

website that had their Global Report for In-

ternational Students in Higher Education.

Apparently, I am supposed to read this

long and formal document about Ireland’s

international education strategy and that

would explain exactly why the Irish Natu-

ralisation and Immigration Service lacked

professionalism, promptness, and organi-

sation, not to mention its sheer lack of con-

cern for people. Well, at least he bothered

to return my email.

Both students I spoke with regarding their

encounter with the INIS agreed that they

would like for the office to be more accom-

modating. Having people wait out in the

cold before they are given a number and

forced to stand in a queue for hours

doesn’t appear very welcoming. My prac-

tical advice is to organise a day where spe-

cific colleges have their students register

separately from the general public to make

things run smoother. Or they could simply

allot a week when the semester starts for

all immigrating students to register.

After all, I’m sure the Department of Edu-

cation and Skills doesn’t want a bad repu-

tation for having incompetent immigration

procedures to stop them from making a

cash cow out of students coming to Ireland

in pursuit of higher education.

Adia Hamer

Frustrations with Irish ImmigrationFrustrations with Irish ImmigrationInternational student Adia Hammer takes a look at the difficulties in volved with getting an extended Visa andhow the Irish economy is missing out due to an inefficient system

Peering out the window of a long,

white tour bus as we drove through

the small village of Lisdoonvarna on

one of the colder evenings of November, a

very long, overdue feeling of peace came

upon me. I felt, for the first time in three

months of being on this island, that I was

truly seeing Ireland and everything I had

ever imagined it to be. Surrounded by what

seemed to be endless, slightly–frosted

hills, narrow dirt roads and herds of ani-

mals tending to their business, I took a

deep breath and allowed a sense of

melancholy to come over me. The realiza-

tion that I had only three more weeks left

in this beautiful country became a very

fast, and very true, reality.

That sadness quickly disappeared, how-

ever, as I became more aware of my sur-

roundings. 35 eager Griffith College Dublin

students, all peering out the same win-

dows, enjoying the same views, sat

amongst me as the sound of laughter and

quiet chatter filled the bus. We had just fin-

ished spending a sun-kissed day in the

City of Galway and were looking forward

to where the rest of our weekend-long ad-

venture would take us.

The Student’s Union International Trip

began on a Friday afternoon with students

gathering at the gates of the college and

smiling for a group photo that would mark

the beginning of what would prove to be a

fun-filled weekend.

Soon enough the livemusic started to play,

the drinks continued tobe poured and the pub

began to fill up as we satamongst our friends and

sang along to the entertainment.

Charlotte Depoorter, an Erasmus student

from France, said she decided to go on the

trip because she and her friends wanted

to, “discover another piece of the country

and meet other students.”

Similarly, Antje Schurmans, an Erasmus

student from Belgium, and Malte Finnern,

of Germany, both said they attended the

trip because they hadn’t seen the West

Coast yet and heard how beautiful it was.

“I didn’t want to miss out,” Schurmans said.

Four hours after piling onto our bus, we ar-

rived at our destination – a lovely hostel in

the City of Galway that would ultimately

become nothing more than a place to

close our eyes for the few hours we al-

lowed ourselves to sleep that night. Once

settling in and preparing ourselves for the

night’s festivities, the group enjoyed a few

rounds of cocktails at The Porter House, a

quaint, yet entertaining, pub near the city

centre.

Soon enough the live music started to play,

the drinks continued to be poured and the

pub began to fill up as we sat amongst our

friends and sang along to the entertain-

ment. Schurmans considered the time at

the pub to be one of the two best things

she did on the trip, referring to the “nice

glasses” the cocktail specials were served

in and the great, although somewhat shy,

singer, who sometimes needed the audi-

ence’s help to get the songs going.

After a few hours of singing along with the

musician, enjoying an array of beers,

wines and cocktails and playing games to

pass the time, the group moved on to a

club to dance the rest of the night away.

The not-too-early wake-up call for a com-

plimentary breakfast the next day, which

was much-appreciated by many, would

prepare us for our next adventure. Strap-

ping on our skates, attempting to find a bal-

ance and gliding out onto the ice, the

group spent Saturday morning ice skating

in Galway. Laughing along at each other’s

clumsiness and striking poses as our lack

of skill was photographed, many students

said this was a highlight of the trip.

Depoorter said ice skating was the funniest

part of the weekend and Sarah Cools, an

Erasmus student from Belgium, agreed,

saying it was one of the best parts of her

trip.

Before heading to Co. Claire, where we

would spend Saturday night, the group

was given the opportunity to walk around

Galway for the remainder of Saturday af-

ternoon. Strolling through the Christmas

Market, enjoying a pint of Guinness and

window shopping as we explored the city,

much of Galway was soaked up before it

was time to move on.

Arriving in Lisdoonvarna Saturday

evening, the group was thrilled to find out

we would have the hostel to ourselves for

the night. With jokes being passed around

about reliving a Stephen King novel, stu-

dents were set off to pick a room, explore

the hostel and come up with creative ways

to keep themselves warm as we were

quickly informed that the heat was not

working.

Taking in the beauty ofthe West Coast and sip-ping hot chocolate in anunderground café, themost mesmerizing partof the trip was certainly

saved for last.

The lack of warmth, however, would not

keep people from having fun, as the group

gathered at a pub in the village that

evening and sat around tables socializing

and enjoying the “craic.” Many students

would continue the party back at the hos-

tel, as they sat back in the antique furni-

ture, drank some beers and continued to

have a good time.

Finnern said the night in the hostel was his

favourite part of the trip. “Drinking beer in

an ice cold, old hotel in the common room,

hearing the piano … (I) never (did) that be-

fore and it was an awesome mix between

‘The Shining’ and drinking.”

The next day the group would head to the

Cliffs of Moher for one last adventure be-

fore the trip came to a close. Despite the

cold, Depoorter said this was also one of

her favourite parts of the trip. Taking in the

beauty of the West Coast and sipping hot

chocolate in an underground café, the

most mesmerizing part of the trip was cer-

tainly saved for last.

Ready to climb back on the bus to warm

our fingers and toes, the trip would not

have been complete without ending it the

same way it began. The group gathered

atop a hill near the cliffs and smiled at the

camera for one last photo to document the

memorable weekend.

With the well-organized planning, the inex-

pensive price and the endless fun, De-

poorter, Schurmans, Finnern and Cools all

agreed the trip was worth it and would sug-

gest students join the SU in the future.

“(It was) better than I expected,” Finnern

said. “I had (a) really good time.”

Alyssa Fleck

Are Are Video games Video games Art?Art?

According to Merriam-Webster, the

word “art” can be defined as “the

conscious use of skill and creative

imagination, especially in the production

of aesthetic objects”. The Oxford Diction-

ary says art is “the expression or applica-

tion of creative skill and imagination,

typically in visual form such as painting or

sculpture, producing works to be appreci-

ated primarily for their beauty or emo-

tional power”.

So why do so many critics, most notably

Roger Ebert, still assert that video

games, the best of which rank among

today's most visually arresting and touch-

ing experiences, don't fit these defini-

tions? Arguments run the gamut from

games' interactive nature to their goal-dri-

ven mentality, commercial aspirations and

ability to be definitively won, or ended, at

certain key points in the plot.

The logic goes something like this: When

you read a poem, listen to a symphony or

view a painting or a sculpture, you're en-

joying an experience that's inspired by an

artist's vision and prompts limitless reflec-

tion in the viewer.

Sure, the swirls of Van Gogh's “Starry

Night” or the magnificence of Michelan-

gelo's statue of David can prompt awe

and contemplation in onlookers. But

should we think any less of sprawling vir-

tual worlds that marry music, literature

and graphics into a layered aesthetic ex-

perience filled with countless scenes,

scenarios and choices open for individual

interpretation?

each video game is each video game is

arguably its own self-arguably its own self-

contained symphonycontained symphony

of programming andof programming and

graphicsgraphics

From pioneering efforts such as Another

World and Myst to cult classics like

BioShock and Ico, games have long used

eye-catching imagery and compelling

narratives to evoke passion and senti-

ment in viewers. Other titles, including

Flower and Braid, also provide perspec-

tive-changing experiences with ample op-

portunity for introspection.

Touched by the hands of dozens or even

hundreds of talented individuals working

in concert toward a larger creative vision,

each video game is arguably its own self-

contained symphony of programming and

graphics. From the haunting, shadowed

realms of Limbo to the swirling sands

you'll wander in the upcoming Journey,

these games further reflect the larger cre-

ative vision of the designers and directors

who personally oversee these projects.

Nonetheless, some critics still maintain

that controlling the wind's passage as it

blows through the hills or contemplating

one's own mortality while surveying the

tattered remains of a fictional civilization

are experiences cheapened by their

hands-on nature. What these arguments

appear to miss is that the journey can be

just as transformative as the endpoint.

Whether or not you “beat” seamy pot-

boiler Heavy Rain matters less than the

choices made in pursuit of its serial killer,

as each decision can have serious or

even fatal outcomes for the lifelike heroes

you command.

Despite all this criticism video gaming has

one big proponent of their own, director

Guillermo del Toro, who recently gave an

impassioned defence of the medium as a

whole, via gaming news website

1up.com. According to del Toro

“videogames are the comic books of our

time. It's a medium that gains no respect

among the intelligentsia. They say ‘oh,

videogames’ and most people that com-

plain about videogames have never fuck-

ing played them”. He continued by saying

that videogames “are an art form and

anyone saying differently is a little out of

touch because they are a narrative art

form”.

He also listed a few of his favourite

games, professing to be “an absolutely

devoted fan” of Halo, while also citing the

Halo-predecessor Marathon, and calling

Ico and Shadow of the Colossus “master-

pieces”.

people that complainpeople that complain

about videogamesabout videogames

have never fuckinghave never fucking

played themplayed them

Detractors can rightly argue that not

every game technically fits the definition

of art, or aspires to such lofty goals.

Plenty of titles exist purely as profit-gen-

erating vehicles designed to cash in on

TV shows, films and mindless pop culture

artefacts. But by letting us assume a vari-

ety of different roles, experience the world

through new eyes and soak up scenarios

from a fuller range of perspectives, many

of the best games provide room for per-

sonal growth and individual interpretation.

Capable of great import and splendour, at

their best, video games can marry the

aesthetic grace of painting, music and

sculpture with the depth and gravity of

film, literature and stagecraft.

For all the joy and sorrow these titles can

bring, it seems a crime to dismiss them

because we're free to experience and in-

terpret them in our living rooms, not some

musty gallery.

Gareth Barry

Top 5 videogames for Christmas1. Little Big Planet 2If this turns to be half as good as

the original LBP I reckon I can kiss

getting any work done in semester

2 goodbye.

2. Call of Duty: Black OpsCOD:BO is this years Modern

Warfare. it’s all about going online

with your buddies and going on the

rampage in distant warzones and

getting yelled at by American

teenagers with anger management

issues

3. Gran Turismo 5The ultimate driving simulator is

back with graphics so smooth the

real world will look pixelated.

4. Xbox KinectJust like my dad watching the

rugby, now I have a reason to jump

around the telly shouting like a de-

ranged eejit. Kinect uses a camera

mounted on your tv to track your

movements allowing to control the

actions on the screen.

5. LA NOIRELAN is a detective thriller set in

1940’s LA where you must solve a

series of murders. Published by

Rockstar Games this could very

well be the must have game of

2011.

Oscar Finn

18

According to this man yes we can.

This is Nick Dooge, originally from

Cork but now lives in Dublin. Nick

currently attends Smurfit Business Col-

lege. In 2009, the Toyota dealership com-

pany Nick worked for was looking to cut

costs due to the recession. Nick was of-

fered voluntary redundancy and quite

happy to take it. Nick is one of many peo-

ple across the country who are after being

left go or asked to leave their jobs because

of the recession that has hit Ireland. The

four options that face people following re-

dundancy are to join the dole queue, find

another job in another sector, emigrate or

as many have done, go back to eduction.

Nick has joined this migrating herd of peo-

ple that are returning to third level educa-

tion to re-invent themselves academically.

He is determined to come out the other

end and make his mark within a company

when he finishes his masters in Business

in Smurfit College.

I asked Nick about what made him tick and

why he went back to education and what

he intends to do in the future. I hoped this

style of questioning may help me to come

to a conclusion. Whether this immediate fi-

nancial recession is pushing people to

their limit or could there be other possibili-

ties? Can people create their own light to

find a way out of this seemingly bleak eco-

nomic tunnel.

Tell me a little about yourself?

My name is Nick Dooge and I am 29 years

old. I am from Cork and I studied Transport

Management in Cork Institute of Technol-

ogy for four years.

Have you any hobbies/interests?

I enjoy anything to do with computers and

I always worked on cars. It is probably the

reason I did my first course in C.I.T. My car

is the only thing I spend money on other

than college, food and bills.

What course are you doing now andwhat does it involve?

I am studying a Masters in Management in

Smurfit College. It is for people from non-

business backgrounds to learn business

and management skills. I have about 50

hrs a week in college and they recommend

we do more then 10 hours of reading in our

own time. The course is broken down into

Time Management, Economics, Account-

ing, Organisational Behaviour and Market-

ing.

“during the boom, peo-ple were more book-wise than streetwise.

They seemed to have nocop-on and did not savemoney for a rainy day”

Were there any other defining elementswhich helped in your decision to returnto college?

My decision to go back to college was

based both on a tactical and educational

basis. I wanted to educate myself further

and also I am using this opportunity to get

out of the motor industry and move into an-

other industry. To be honest I did not see a

promotion in sight for me in the job I held

and I could not see the future in car main-

tenance going back to the way it was in the

boom time.

How you feel to be going back to col-lege again or is there a difference?

I have enjoyed going back but I found a big

difference in the structure of the college

term as it is now semester-ised. The work

you do is down to you, your attitude affects

your work directly. If you just do the mini-

mum required you will pass. You are in

with other intellectuals and are in the top

bracket of the educated, essentially you

are in competition and you need to stand

out from the rest.

Why Smurfit college in particular?

Smurfit is considered to be the best in the

country to attend for business. It is listed in

the Financial Times Top 100 list of busi-

ness colleges to go to. It will push me to

go as high as I can get. The college gives

a realistic view of the working environment

and what I need to jump into a job after I

leave. It is the starting point in my plan for

the future.

What are your feelings on the reces-sion?

I feel that during the boom, people were

more book-wise than streetwise. They

seemed to have no cop-on and did not

save money for a rainy day. They were not

aware of the price of money. For example

The road to successThe road to successIan Fleming talks to Nick Dooge about his decision to return to college to see if people can create their ownlight to find a way out of this seemingly bleak economic tunnel?

19

when I was working people were changing

their cars nearly every 2 years just be-

cause they thought they could always pay

it off later. In January 2007, 250 new cars

were bought and then in 2009 only about

40 cars were bought new. The recession

brought people who had lost their way,

their sense of value and who had duped

themselves into a false society, back to re-

ality. Here is a quote which sums it up for

me 'A cynic knows the price of everything,

but the value of nothing'.

Have you had to adjust your spendingor lifestyle because of the recession?

Well I was always a person who stayed in

on weekends, I tended not to follow the

trend of going out every weekend and that

has not changed. This was a policy I

brought to work with me in the car dealer-

ship; I did not try to force sales on people

who did not necessarily need what we had

on offer just to boost my sales record. I am

careful about money and I am not too

thrifty with my spending, my biggest indul-

gence would be my car. I would rarely buy

something just because I wanted it there

and then. I am reserved when it comes to

spending and I found this is down to my

upbringing.

What circumstances led to your deci-sion to leave your job?

Pre-recession you could have easily have

had 2-3 people all doing or working on the

same job. The atmosphere was relaxed.

The staff enjoyed their bit of banter and

everybody got along. When the recession

hit, the job changed an awful lot. For in-

stance 2-3 people all worked on the same

work load, which got it done quickly, effi-

ciently and maintained customer satisfac-

tion. Then with the recession those

elements had to be obtained by just one

person doing the same work done by three

people previously. The banter changed to

backstabbing, work colleagues trying to

get the better of each other and huge com-

petition erupted. I found it appalling and I

became disheartened and angry as a re-

sult, stressed going into work. On top of

that the general public were now tightening

their purse strings and looking for more

deals, which they were entitled to do. This

put added pressure on my role as I had to

try to give the customer more value for

their money without giving too much away

for free. I was happy to be working to a

point. There was the constant pressure to

perform the same job with less incentive

and the dog-eat-dog atmosphere became

too much. Within this environment I did not

see myself getting a promotion I was

hoping to get. When the staff were asked

who wished for voluntary redundancy I

took it with both hands. I saw it as an op-

portunity. Even though I was closing one

door, I was at the same time opening a

new door for myself, by making a decision

to leave the job to go back to college.

The banter changed tobackstabbing, work col-leagues trying to get thebetter of each other and

huge competitionerupted.

What do you hope to achieve from re-turning to college?

I want to build skills in order to work in a

company dealing with customer service,

conflict resolution and work delegations is-

sues. I want to be the public face of a com-

pany. My immediate aim after leaving

college is work in an established consult-

ing company and gain some experience.

If you can not get the working experi-ence in Ireland, would you consider em-igrating to another country?

The short answer is yes. London and Eu-

rope are far better places for work oppor-

tunities.

What are you looking for in a job aftercollege?

Smurfit College is just a starting point for

me to begin. Our lecturers predict with the

skills we learn from our time at Smurfit we

can expect to earn above the average

mark of €25,000 per year. I aim to be

higher than this and earn average of

€60,000 per year. On saying that though,

my primary aim is to attain a job where I

can enjoy my job and as a result work hard

and earn a good wage. If I can not achieve

this, I will take any job within my chosen in-

dustry to earn a good wage.

What do see in your future and do yousee light at the end of this recessiontunnel?

I aim to work hard, earn a good living and

enjoy the fruits of my labour – a nice

house, a new car outside and a family of

my own to share this with. For the future I

am cautiously optimistic but would see the

glass as being half full.

Ian Fleming

20

Dying To Be Thin

They call her ‘Ana’. She is a role

model to some, a goddess to others

— the subject of drawings, prayers

and even a creed. She tells them what to

eat and mocks them when they don't lose

weight. And yet, while she is a very real

presence in the lives of many of her follow-

ers, she exists only in their minds.

Ana is short for anorexia, and — to the

alarm of experts — many who suffer from

the potentially fatal eating disorder are part

of an underground movement that pro-

motes self-starvation and, in some cases,

has an almost cult-like appeal.

When confronted about her views on girls,

not only in the modelling industry, but all

over the world, aspiring to be very thin, or

‘thinspired’ as it is known, supermodel

Kate Moss expressed that one of her mot-

tos was ‘nothing tastes as good as skinny

feels’, the fallout was instant, vitriolic and

damning.

The media is not the cause of eating prob-

lems but is a significant socio-cultural de-

terminant of why so many people express

their personal distress through the lan-

guage of food and weight.

One of the most important aspects of pre-

vention of eating disorders is teaching chil-

dren media literacy so that they do not fully

“internalise” thin ideal images. In other

words, they question the importance or

possibility of looking the same as models

and pop stars. Some of this literacy starts

in the home. Although anorexia means

“loss of appetite”, the sufferer does in fact

have an appetite, however the fear of gain-

ing weight creates a need to control the

appetite to the point of eating very little,

and in some cases nothing. Some binge

and purge but maintain a low body weight.

Some hide food, take laxatives or slimming

pills in a bid to reduce the “perceived”

weight. 200,000 people in Ireland suffer

from an eating disorder. Like anorexia suf-

ferers, bulimic sufferers are obsessed with

food and weight. Bulimics often binge eat

and then purge themselves to avoid gain-

ing weight. Many eat large amounts of

food, very rapidly, and with little self con-

trol. Purging may involve vomiting, laxa-

tives, or excessive exercise.

It is troubling to recognise that someone

you care about may be suffering from an

eating disorder. The decision to approach

the individual can provoke much anxiety

since it is difficult to know what to say and

what to expect from the situation. Perhaps

you have broached the subject and got an

angry response.

It is important to understand that they

might not welcome your expression of con-

cern, either because they are ashamed to

admit their behaviour, or they feel “in con-

trol” and don’t want anyone to “make them

fat again.” It will, therefore, be important for

you to be as well educated as possible

about eating disorders. Part of this knowl-

edge is being able to understand the many

reasons why people are reluctant to get

help. Perhaps they feel they “should” be

able to do it by themselves.

Laura Mullett

Turkish CourtImpose Ban OnYoutube AcrossCountry

As of the 5th of November 2010, a

governmentally imposed ban on all

Youtube services throughout

Turkey was introduced. The ban was in-

stalled following the publication of

footage exposing Deniz Baykal, the

leader of the Opposition Republican Peo-

ples Party (CHP) to be involved in sexual

activities with his secretary. The news re-

flects a change in policies regarding inter-

net censorship following the lifting of this

exact ban in a court in Ankara only three

days earlier.

In May 2008, a similar ban was installed

after video footage insulting Mustafa

Kemal Ataturk, the founder of Turkey, was

uploaded onto Youtube by Greek football

fans after the two nations played against

each other for the World Cup qualifiers.

Insulting Ataturk is seen as an illegal of-

fense within the Turkish judicial system

and the matter subsequently led to the

shut down of the services as Google re-

fused to remove the video from their in-

ternational portals.

The new ban created political controversy

and subsequently, Deniz Baykal, political

oppositional leader and man in the pub-

lished footage resigned from his post.

“The new law creates a lot of tension, es-

pecially amongst the younger generation.

Given the circumstances and timing of

events it certainly raises a lot of ques-

tions of why the ban was re-introduced

again,” says Ceyhun Aslan, journalist

working for International Press Associa-

tion in Istanbul.

The ban follows in the path of a recent al-

teration in the Constitution that now en-

ables the Government more access to

citizen’s private information.

Can Surmeli: A Turkish student living in

Ankara, Turkey, declares that: “The new

law does not resemble the economic

growth of Turkey and additionally sets us

back digitally. Our youth should not grow

up living under censorship laws imposed

by our Government, this law gives a clear

message to the rest of the world, it is un-

necessary and humiliating.”

On Monday the 4th of November, the

Turkish officials and the administration of

Google stated that due to differences

over the publication of certain videos the

ban was introduced again.

Current Prime Minister, Recep Tayyip Er-

dogan and the Justice and Development

Party (AKP), the current political party in

power introduced minor forms of internet

censorship in 2006 in order to contain po-

litical debate via the internet. The censor-

ship laws have since proceeded to

various educational websites including

Google Earth and Google Maps, as well

as a list of over 5,000 websites, mostly

relating to pornography.

Can Surmeli mentions, “The images pub-

lished were never actually proven to be

Baykal himself, he never denied the

claims. However his stepping down as

Party leader enabled the wave of laws to

be introduced without opposed political

pressure, which resemble a change of

structure in Turkish Politics.”

“The Turkish Government are on one

hand publicly trying to join the European

Union, on the other hand receiving

money from Arabic investors and subse-

quently restoring a more traditionalist

Turkey rather than a modern Turkey,

which is what the opposition are saying…

internet censorship only supports this

claim,” says Ceyhun Aslan.

A temporary internet censorship act was

introduced in 2007 which became perma-

nent in 2008, revoked in November 2010,

only to be introduced again as a result of

political dispute.

Although Youtube and certain internet

portals are censored, social networking

sites such as Facebook or Twitter are un-

censored, enabling the public to be in-

formed about international happenings.

By allowing such controlled, yet lenient

censorship laws Turkey furthermore dis-

tance themselves from membership of

the European Union.

Ceyhun Aslan declares, “This new law on

Youtube is only a synonym, a symbol of

political oppression towards freedom of

speech within this country.”

The newly confirmed law is not expected

to be revoked in the near future as no ap-

peal or new Court dates were an-

nounced.

Ghino de Colle

Share in the end of Semester Festive Cheer with the Final

Year Students on the BA in Photographic Media. The ex-

hibition will be held in room AF203 in the Conference

Building in Griffith College Dublin on December 16th for

one night only. There will be some light refreshments, do

come along early. You might just find the perfect Christ-

mas gift in the form of a photographic print. It'll be a great

night to round off the semester in style.

All Welcome

Emma Loughran Tom Morgan Oscar Finn

Jose Perez Rory O’Neil

Griffiti At the Movies

22

Title: The AmericanCert: 15aRunning Time: 104 minutesRelease Date: Out Now

Right from the begin-

ning, after a shocking

opening, you know this

film is means business. Made

by Anton Corbijn, a man more

well known for making music

videos than movies, it was

quite hard to gauge whether

this film would be any good. It

puts any doubts you might

have had to bed straight

away.

George Clooney, in a dark

and subdued turn, stars as

the main character, Jack, a

custom arms maker and as-

sassin. He decides to do one

last job before retiring, al-

though his exit proves more

difficult than he anticipates.

While this basic premise

hardly seems original, the di-

rector manages to make it

shine, and seem original and

new.

It's pace is glacial, as so

many reviewers rightly put it,

but it is also realistic, and

more of a character study,

than the action film the trailers

portray it to be. It's been said

that it's more like the Euro-

pean mystery films of the 70's

than a modern thriller, and

while I'm not too familiar with

them, it does have a different

quality to a lot of recent films.

The film is mostly atmos-

phere, sparse and muted, with

very little dialogue and action,

but when something does

happen, it's very skilfully exe-

cuted. It's unpredictable, and

beautifully shot. Clooney is

very closed off in the film, very

intense. He reminds me of

Carey Grant, or maybe Clint

Eastwood's The Man with No

Name in A Fistful of Dollars, in

that he's a lone gun slinger,

who says little, but speaks

volumes.

Unlike a lot of films made

these days, it doesn't explain

absolutely everything. It ex-

pects the audience to have

some intelligence, and that's

yet another aspect that makes

this film great.

It does have some fairly pre-

tentious existential dialogue in

some scenes though, but if

you ignore that, it's a brilliant

film, one of the best of the

year.

Brendan Beagon

Title: PredatorsCert: 15ARunning Time: 107 minutesRelease Date: Out Now onDVD

As a big fan of the Pred-

ator movies I was de-

lighted to hear the

latest movie would take the

series back to its roots.

Predators is the true

successor to Predator 2,

which was released in 1990

and featured our tooled up

anti-hero hunting down its

prey in downtown L.A. The

script was written by producer

Robert Rodriguez back in

1994 but it was not given the

green light until 2009. Fortu-

nately, it has been worth the

wait. Predators has more in

common with the original

Predator film, with the alien

planet where the action takes

place reminiscent of the jun-

gle setting from the first

movie.

The movie follows a

group of people who all have

questionable backgrounds ex-

cept for a doctor (brilliantly

played by Topher Grace).

These include a mercenary

(Adrien Brody) and an es-

caped death row inmate.

These people fall from the sky

onto a strange planet where

they have become the prey

and are being hunted. It be-

comes apparent that they are

all worthy enough to be

hunted, with the doctor thrown

in to spice things up.

The movie is a great

twist on the formula perfected

in the first two Predator films,

with the action taking place on

the Predator’s turf instead of

Earth. This allows the film to

shine by introducing more

strange creatures and eerie

settings which fans of the

franchise will find intriguing.

The development of

the Predators as characters is

also very interesting and the

film throws up quite a few mo-

ments which give an insight

into how these killing ma-

chines work. I won’t give away

too much but let’s just say

there are now different kinds

of Predator and there is some

kind of war going on between

them.

The only thing that

holds the movie back from

greatness is the absence of a

genuine star in the vein of

Arnold Schwarzenegger or

Danny Glover who excelled in

their respective leading roles

in the first two movies. While

Adrien Brody does a good job

as the mercenary who takes

on the Predators, he is not tai-

lor-made for the role like the

original duo that outfought

and outsmarted their hunter in

the admittedly superior origi-

nal films.

Despite this, the movie is still

a blast and fans of action

movies will be more than sat-

isfied. Fans of the Predator

franchise will love this and

everyone else can enjoy it as

the film is accessible to new-

comers as well as hardcore

fan base.

Marc Dennehy


23

Title: MonstersCert: 12aRunning Time: 94 minutesRelease Date: Out Now

An independent film, made

on location and with a

shoestring budget of 500

grand, Monsters has been

hailed as the next Cloverfield or

District 9. Well, it's in the gen-

eral ball park, but it's also quite

different in a lot of ways. It does-

n't pretend to be a documentary

for one thing, and it isn't a found

footage movie either.

The basic premise of the film is

that six years ago, a NASA

probe on it's way back from

somewhere in the solar system,

with samples of possible alien

life, broke up during re-entry

over Mexico. Soon after, new

life forms began to appear, and

a lot of the country was then

sealed off and designated as an

infected zone.

The two main characters, a

photojournalist (Andrew) and

his boss's daughter (Saman-

tha), are played by relative un-

knowns, so this adds a lot of

realism to the story. Andrew has

been ordered to escort the

daughter back to the US, so

various awkwardly done char-

acter development ensues,

along with a ridiculous plot that

forces them to go through the

infected zone to get to the

States.

It gets better from here on, as

the duo trek through mountains

filled with the giant aliens, with

some close encounters along

the way. The soundtrack is

tense, and really adds to the at-

mosphere of the film. There are

large sections of the film where

the actors don't actually talk that

much, and it's all for the better,

as they have absolutely no

chemistry, which is odd consid-

ering they're married in real life.

While the acting is rubbish and

the plot are hiccups irritating, it

really doesn't take away from

the overall film too much. It's still

a very original take on an alien

invasion story, and for that rea-

son, you aren't really able to

predict what's going to happen.

It does turn out a bit preachy to-

wards the end, but it's still a de-

cent movie with an interesting

story, and is definitely worth a

watch if you are a fan of the

genre.

Brendan Beagon

Title: Somewhere (2010)Cert: 12ARunning Time: 98 minutesRelease Date: 22 December

If you are going on a cin-

ema date and your only

plan is to get yourself some

“smoochin” go to see this film.

It won’t blow you away, and

unless your kissing partner is

remarkably bad this film won’t

even catch your attention.

It’s the same old “famous per-

son is missing something,

needs life changing experi-

ence, oh look he actually has

a daughter”, and so on and so

forth.

It takes a long time to get

going, Johnny Marco, played

ably by Stephen Dorff sud-

denly needs to look after his

eleven year old daughter, Elle

Fanning, who plays the part of

Cleo.

The two do have a good on

screen chemistry but they are

forced to vomit out slow

painful dialogue and you can

see just about everything that

is coming. You will be sitting

there waiting for the life

changing experience but it

doesn’t happen in the usual

way that these types of film

do, it happens, in fairness to

director Sofia Coppola, the

way those experiences would

happen in real life.

Chris Pontius features in this

film, “Party Boy” in Jackass

anyone? Perhaps Chris

should have stuck to Jackass

but you can be the judge of

that when you go to see this

run of the mill film.

The best part of the film is the

very realistic way the Pa-

parazzi are shown, and the

ending. After saying all of that

it’s not the worst film I have

ever seen and if I had the flu

and wasn’t in college and

found myself watching day-

time movies it is one I could

stomach

Brian O’Donoghue


The Christmas period is always jam

packed with big budget films looking

to capitalise on the festive season,

mixed in with more serious fare looking for

Oscar glory in February. It’s typically a

fairly jammed release schedule so it’s

about time the upcoming films were broken

down to see what we can expect.

The 9th of December see the release of

the third Narnia film, Voyage of the DawnTreader. It’s hard to know what to expect

given the large void that exists between

the first two movies. The Lion , the Witch

and the Wardrobe, grossed 750 million dol-

lars worldwide as was received well by crit-

ics, the second film grossed just over half

that amount and divided critics and fans

alike. This film could see the franchise sink

or swim.

The next day see the release of TheTourist. Johnny Depp and Angelina star,

giving this film serious marquee value. It is

a remake of French film Anthony Zimmer,

which was a box office bomb in its home

country. The story is familiar mistaken

identity stuff, so the draw here is clearly to

see the chemistry between the two leads.

The following week sees the release of

Tron Legacy. It’s been almost thirty years

since the release of the first movie and it

seems unlikely source material for a mod-

ern blockbuster. Jeff Bridges returns in his

dual role as Kevin Flynn, and Flynn’s cre-

ation, the computer program Klu. The in-

ternet is buzzing with negative feedback

after the release of the trailer. This is aimed

at the seemingly dodgy use of CGI to

make Klu look like Bridges did when he

first played the part. In the film, Flynn has

been stuck in the computer world for

twenty years and follows his son, Sam, as

he attempts to find him and return home.

The 22nd sees Little Fockers unleashed

on the world. While the first two were

barmy fun, the trailer for this makes the for-

mula look very tired indeed. I would say

this one is only for diehard fans of the se-

ries, if any exist.

The 26th of December sees the tradition of

dumb but fun family films being released.

This year it’s a big budget retelling of

Jonathon Swifts classic Gulliver's Trav-els. Jack Black stars as Lemuel Gulliver, a

travel writer who finds himself among a civ-

ilization of tiny people after a trip to

Bermuda triangle.

For those looking for something with a little

more meat on its bones, the 26th also see

the release of Truman Show director Peter

Weir’s epic The Way Back. The story cen-

tres on a group of prisoners who escape a

Russian gulag in Siberia during world war

two, and the 4,000 mile walk they must

make to freedom. It stars Jim Sturgess, Ed

Harris, and Colin Farrell. No early word on

this yet but there’s no denying the pedigree

in front and behind the camera. It wouldn’t

be a bad bet to expect an Oscar nod for

Weir while Colin Farrell might snatch his

first nomination in the catagory of best sup-

porting actor.

127 Hours Danny Boyle’s follow up to

Slumdog Millionaire is out on the 7th of

January. Already making controversial

headlines, this one is apparently not for the

faint of heart, leaving a trail of people pass-

ing out and walking out of theatres during

its run on the festival circuit. It follows the

true story of Aron Rolstan, who became

trapped by a boulder while climbing and

had to endure the elements for five days

before cutting off his arm to escape. James

Franco is being hotly tipped for best actor

as the trapped climber.

Arguably the most anticipated release is

the Coen Brothers interpretation of the

classic western novel True Grit. Adapted

before as a vehicle for John Wayne, it was

the film that finally bagged him an Oscar.

The new film however promises to be quite

a different animal, sticking far closer to the

Charles Portis book. This should prove to

work well for the Coen brothers as the

novel is laced with wry black humour and

is seen through the eyes of a 14 year old

girl who hires ageing US marshal Rooster

Cogburn(Jeff Bridges).

It sounds like a match made in heaven for

them. The impressive supporting cast in-

cludes Matt Damon as Cogburn's would be

partner, Josh Brolin as the fugitive mur-

derer, and what promises to be a breakout

performance by Hailee Steinfeld as re-

venge fuelled 14 year old Mattie Ross.

There’s already serious Oscar buzz

around so if you want to know what all the

fuss is about, check it out when it’s re-

leased on the 14th of January.

Matthew Jaffray

Matthew Jaffray takes a look ahead at the films we can look forwardto over the Christmas holidays

25

music Reviews

Butterfly Explosion Academy 2, 25/11/10

The Academy 2 is void of much activ-

ity initially, so it means support act

Overhead, The Albatross are playing

to only a handful of people that braved the

shitstorm outside to be in early. It’s unfor-

tunate but they make the best of it.

Equipped with three guitars their sound is

an expansive one of affecting peaks and

troughs. The instrumental passages range

from hypnotic ambience to towering and

whirring clamours. Supposedly releasing

an EP in the coming weeks, it should be

something more than worthy of your atten-

tion

By the time Butterfly Explosion arrive on

stage the crowd has thickened greatly.

Even though, they play for just around an

hour it’s an hour of density, airing much of

the Lost Trails album, their debut released

in March. After a year of heady touring in

support of the record, the whole cycle has

come to a head here. It’s their year end

show, encompassing much of the Lost

Trails material as well as other bits and

pieces.

They play in near darkness save for hazy

lighting that accentuate the spectral and

atmospheric vibe that’s so palpable

throughout their shoegaze and post-every-

thing imbued output.

Butterfly Explosion weave in and out of

brooding melancholia and extroverted riffs

and walls of sound, all done so with an oth-

erworldly efficiency and apparent ease. It’s

that aspect that made Lost Trails such a

beguiling listen and live it translates so

well. Each nuance, from the sleek guitar

tones to the layered keys is audible and

heightened in a live setting.

The restful and ambling milieu of Closer or

Sophia’s scaling cadence lay testament to

that. The execution of the evening is a

stark reminder of how vast they can sound

and continues to beg the question of why

aren’t they so much bigger. It’s furthered

by closer Automatic, which is accompanied

by some dizzying strobes which in the con-

fines of Academy 2 are almost apocalyp-

tic.

2011 should see Butterfly Explosion begin

to capitalise on the momentum garnered

from Lost Trails as a new record looms.

Jonathan Keane

butterfly explosion

THE GENUINEARTICLE

26

MOODLEHACKED BY WIKILEAKS

By Daniel James

There is nowhere to run andnowhere to hide folks,moodle has been hacked.

The once most impenetrable offorces has been, well, pene-trated.

News first broke when every sin-gle student in a first year classof Journalism handed in assign-ments containing such obscureinformation that RTÉ, TV3, SKYNews, and even Griffiti did notknow about.

The Supermen in I.T have beenworking around the clock, stop-ping only to watch Stargate At

lantis and The Matrix, naturally,to find out how this happened

and to put a stop to it. They justcan’t believe that such a thing could happen to their wonderfulMoodle.

Wikileaks has amazingly re-vealed that S.U president Gra-ham Butler is in fact a terrorist.Plans to ram his VW Golf intothe Spire on O’Connell Street onChristmas Day have been welland truly foiled. Butler is cur-rently on the run but when peo-ple see him he acts totallynormal, which is to say suspi

ciously, so beware.

As for the rest of the college onepanicked journalism studenthad this to say “I really

thought I’d have to get off myass and go looking for stories, Ican now launch my entire careerfrom my bedroom” which iswhere we journalists get most ofour inspiration anyway.Griffiti welcomes the Hack, wethink Moodle should be re-named Woodle or Widdle,maybe we can vote on it, let’sget on to the terrorist.

Pigeon

Army

Invades

Students

Union Building

Poo Everywhere

Under the Spotlight

Name: Barry Finnegan

Occupation: Lecturer / Freedom fighter

Hobbies: Golf, shopping at IKEA

Likes: Techno, Unicycle Hockey

Dislikes: Bankers & The LisbonTreaty

Interesting fact: Barry once did the voice of Megin Family Guy

The contents of this section are satirical and may offend. The views expressed do not represent the views of the SU

27

Norway defeat the Irish soccer team, nobodycares

Unconfirmed reports suggest Hell has frozenover

The budget confirms we are actually F***ED

Fire Alarm goes off in Arthurs, Nobody moves

As a result of VAT increases Santa will includean invoice with all presents this year

Norwegian students mock Ireland for its inabil-ity to deal with “a light dusting of snow”

By Jim Sok

It was announced last week that entrepre-neur and business tycoon Paul McCor-mack has moved into the world of fashion

with the launching of his ‘MrScarf.com’clothing range.

You may remember Students’ Union man-ager Paul Mccormack got spotted for juven-tus during freshers week at the footballtournament but due to his commitment tothe Students’ Union he had to decline theoffer rumoured to be in the tens of millions,He has however branched out in to fashiondesign.

“I’ve allways liked a good scarf, but I alwaysthought that they could besomething...more. I want to be at the fore-front of scarf design so that is why I set upMrScarf.com” said the Dublin design guru.

We hear at the Genuine article are also quitefond of the scarf and we do enjoy perusingthe website for the latest styles and innova-tions in scarf technology.

We can also unveil plans for a companionwebsite ‘justcaps.ie’ to be launched early inthe new year.

McCORMACKLAUNCHESFASHIONLABEL

28

Christmas is looming, we are now

bombarded with TV ads for the

best toys of the year, food compa-

nies who provide your Christmas dinner

for you and of course all the happy

cheery songs begin on the radio.

But as we grow up does Christmas loose

its magic? Does it just become another

holiday, a time when stress in our lives

grows as we all struggle to gather money

together to pay for presents?

When Christmas comes knocking on my

door I am often filled with an overwhelm-

ing sense of nostalgia – distant memories

of struggling to sleep with the excitement,

and anticipation for the jolly fat man in the

red suit to appear. Nowadays, I realise

that jolly fat man in the red suit was none

other than the jolly fat man in his work

suit, my dad, and that the mysterious dis-

appearance of the mince pies and brandy

was simply a free meal for him also.

I will admit that I do still get a certain

amount of excitement on Christmas Eve

night. But it’s no longer for the jolly old

man with his presents galore and his bag

of tricks. It has become much simpler

than that; it is simply the joy of meeting

all my friends in the local pub for our new

tradition of Christmas Eve pints.

I will also admit that I do still struggle to

sleep Christmas Eve with the excitement

of opening the presents the next morning,

but my sleep is eased with the three or

four festive pints of Guinness I enjoyed

earlier in the night. I do also tend to be

the first one to wake up on Christmas day

to storm down to the tree and shred open

my presents.

Christmas for me now, is a time for nos-

talgia, where stories of tricks our parents

played on us, to convince us old Saint

Nick had been to visit, echo in our memo-

ries. Life as a child then was simpler too.

The best form of entertainment for an

eight year old is as simple as running

around your house until you pass out. If I

was to attempt to run around my house

now I would probably need an ambulance

on standby with a defibrillator on hand.

If I was to attempt to runaround my house now Iwould probably need anambulance on standbywith a defibrillator on

hand

The worst part of Christmas back then

was being shipped off to your family’s

houses where you were questioned for

hours by relatives about “how you’ve

been?” and “how’s school going?” like

some detainee at Guantanamo bay,

when all you wanted to do was play with

your awesome new toys.

Nicole Rogers, a 20 year old student de-

scribed Christmas Day for her – “I used

to hate the way I wasn’t allowed to get up

until seven in the morning to open my

presents. I would have been up for at

least two hours before that making do

with a selection box for breakfast.” She

then went on to talk about what she

hated about Christmas as a kid. “I hated

the fact that as soon as I got done with

opening my presents I was whisked off to

see the rest of my family, the worst part

about that was having to have Christmas

dinner late.”

The last thing any child wants on Christ-

mas Day is to be distracted from their

new toys. The big thing for Christmas

when I was a kid was Pokémon playing

cards and Scalextric racing tracks. Not a

lot has changed in the last ten years on

the toy front. Pokémon still holds a place

Growing up with ChristmasGrowing up with ChristmasShane Ronan-Duggan looks back at how Christmas changes as you get older from the rush of opening presents to simply spending time with friends and family

in the market with its games and toys.

But one thing that brought upon a huge

sense of nostalgia was the release of the

new Toy Story film and the re-emergence

of the toy line.

I was nine when the first film was re-

leased in 1995. When the new film was

released early this year I became I a child

again in the cinema watching these char-

acters that I grew up with appearing once

again on the big screen.

The Christmas of 1995 I got the Buzz

Lightyear doll that simply did nothing but

induce some kind of fantastical coma

over me as my imagination would leap

into overdrive when it was in my hands.

Now with the release of Toy Story 3 in

3D, saw also the release of a new line of

toys. The simple basic Buzz Lightyear I

had as a child has gone through some

major upgrades. It now comes with the

ability to talk and of course shoot flames

from his jet pack. No more imagination in-

duced comas for our kids, as the doll now

does not require any imagination.

“I do still get a certain amount of

excitement on Christmas Eve

night.”

This look back in time was all brought

upon when six 20 something year olds

ventured to the cinema to see the final

adventure of my childhood heroes.

Children brought along by their parents

who were being introduced to these char-

acters for the first time and sat in the mid-

dle of them all were six grown men

almost reduced to blubbering messes

with the final scenes of the film, as we all

finally said goodbye to our youth.

But despite all this jealously of new

amazing toys and being nearly reduced

to tears by animated characters, has

Christmas lost its magic to us ever age-

ing students? I personally do not think so.

I think it has simply shifted from waiting

for the big man with the presents (not my

dad, Santa that is) to the excitement of

meeting up with your friends as they all

return from their places of study for a fes-

tive pint.

Being shipped off to your family no longer

annoys you as many of us now have a

new found appreciation for family, that,

and we no longer have toys to be playing

with. We also get to watch the younger

ones in our family lose themselves in a

world of imagination with their vastly su-

perior toys and we all have to fight the

urge to fall to the floor with the kids and

play with their toys.

As we students get older, I think we begin

to appreciate things more. Plus after that

food induced sleep on the couch we can

wake up and watch as the first Toy Story

is shown on TV and re-capture that youth

for at least two hours.

Shane Ronan-Duggan

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30

Once upon a time, in a green and

mysterious country, populated by

legends and wonderful stories,

lived Andrew. He was only 9 years old but

already knew how to play music perfectly.

He was smart and knew how to cope. His

parents were poor but always gave him all

the best they could. They had died the pre-

vious winter, a disease had taken them.

From that time on, Andrew’s only friends

were his two instruments: a fiddle and a

whistle. His dad was telling him since he

was young that he had magical powers

and was able to do extraordinary things.

But Andrew didn't understand what his dad

wanted to say, all that he knew was he was

feeling better, less lonely when he was

playing.

One day, after a long day at school where

the other children were laughing at him,

Andrew took his instruments and went

walking in the forest near the village. The

venerable sage used to tell stories about

this forest. According to him, it was the

kingdom of Dillon, the mythical lion with

eagle wings which liked to devour children.

Andrew wasn't afraid by his stories, for him

it was just fairy tales to scare children with

the aim they don't go alone in the forest.

He didn't listen to him; the forest was his

playground, his secret stash. He liked to

play his music and hear the birds singing.

So far, he never went beyond the river, but

on this day, attracted by a melody he went

further than the limit he knew. This melody

was like a melancholic song, the voice was

strong, savage but still sad. Andrew fol-

lowed the notes to a clearing. It was beau-

tiful, clear, and full of grass and flowers,

butterflies were flying all around the clear-

ing one flower to another. And here, just in

front of him, proudly standing on a stone

was a singing majestic lion. It was not a

normal lion like you see in images in

school and story books, this one was shin-

ing like water under the sun, his coat was

similar to gold, the most significant detail

which made this lion so special were two

magnificent white eagle wings.

His dad was telling himsince he was young thathe had magical powersand was able to do ex-

traordinary things.

Andrew, as surprising as it may seem,

wasn't scared. He was just curious to know

why this beautiful lion, which he was sure

was Dillon, the King of the forest whom the

venerable sage spoke about, appeared to

him. He decided not to interrupt the song

by his voice and let the lion finish it. After

few minutes, Andrew decided to join the

lion singing with his instruments. The

melody was sweet in perfect harmony with

the lion's voice. When the song ended, Dil-

lon looked at the kid and said:

-“Hello Andrew, I was waiting for your visit.”

-“Really? Me? Why? I don't even know

you, how did you know I would come to

you?”

The lion explained to him that for several

years now, he has been observing him. He

knew that Andrew was often alone, and

played beautiful melodies. Andrew was

more and more surprised, how could this

lion know so many things about him? He

finished by asking:

-“Dillon, is it because I am an orphan, and

always alone too that you came to me?

You wanted to devour me and no one

would have noticed that I disappeared.”

-“Ha Ha Ha!!! How funny you are! I won't

eat you, I never ate any child.”

-“But... the legend says ...”

-“Legends are not always true Andrew.

They are based on true facts but distorted

by the human imagination. I am Dillon,

King of the forest. It is true: I can fly and I

have magical powers.”

Andrew imagined what he could do with a

magic lion as friend: terrified the naughty

boys that laughed at him, but also he could

find a new family. Dillon told him he was

here to help him. He knew how Andrew

was lonely from the death of his parents.

He told him that if he listened to him care-

fully and does what he tells him to do he

would never be alone again. Andrew,

happy, fixed the lion with eyes full of hope,

he was anxious to hear what the lion would

say.

A short story by Clothilde Dumas about a young boy and the king of the forest and the adventure they have

A short Story for ChristmasA short Story for Christmas

31

Dillon told him to go back to his home to

prepare a bag with some clothes and food

for two days. Then he said to Andrew to go

into the forest and to follow the path of his

heart. If he was lost, he had to play music

and birds will help him find the right way.

When he hears the melancholic lion's

melody again he will have arrived.

-“Arrived? But arrive where?”

-“When you arrive you must play the most

beautiful songs you know. That's the only

way you can find your way back to happi-

ness.”

After this last advice the lion disappeared.

Andrew, still shocked by this strange en-

counter, thought it was just a dream. He

went back home and decided to not think

about it any more. The day after, Andrew

was awoken by a melody, the same

melody as the day before. He realised that

it wasn't a dream, the lion was real. He

started to pack a few things in a bag and

followed the instructions. The little boy

walked through the forest for a long, long

time, and finished his day, exhausted, at

the foot of a tree. He lit a fire to warm up

and ate a light dinner.

If he was lost, he had toplay music and birds will

help him find the rightway

The next day, he awoke in the middle of

the forest, he started to panic. However, he

remembered what the lion said to him and

played music. A few minutes were enough;

he felt better, ate fruits and berries for

breakfast and continued his walk. During

the afternoon, he noticed the forest was

becoming clearer and clearer, until he ar-

rived at a huge flower fields. It was won-

derful, beautiful; no words could describe

what Andrew saw! He closed his eyes and

concentrated on his ears, he wanted to

hear the melody because he was sure that

this place was the arrival of his trip. After

seconds, which seemed like hours to him,

Andrew heard the lion's song and started

to cry. Remembering what Dillon told him,

he took his instruments and played. He

played like he never did before; it was

sweet and melancholic – every type of

music, one after one.

Nearby, a little girl, who was picking flow-

ers for her mum, heard the music. At-

tracted by this beautiful sound she ran to

the young boy and stopped. Her parents

scared of seeing their daughter running

away all alone, followed her. Nobody dared

to speak and interrupt him. When Andrew

stopped playing, the parents and the little

girl didn't say a word. So he decided to tell

them his story, how lonely he was from his

parent's death, how he met the lion in the

forest and how he arrived here. Charmed

by the melodies, the couple listened to him

till the end and decided to take the young

boy with them to their home. They took

care of Andrew for many years and finally

adopted him. Happy again, Andrew

thought of his dad and said:

“You were right Dad, my instruments were

magic, able do to extraordinary things,

they brought me a new family”

And Andrew grew up in his new family with

his little sister, whose name was Sarah,

and new parents who was love him as their

son. He lived happily ever after.

Clothilde Dumas

griffiti - issue 41

Documents

students uniona

international tripwhich

returnto college

productive month

month weve

oscar finncontributers

oscar finnsubeditor

masquerade ball