Inquirer 5

TheInquirer TheInquirer An independent weekly paper for City students

9 February 2007

Gunpoint robbery at halls • Visiting student threatened with gun • Yet another crime at City’s halls of residence A visiting student was robbed at gunpoint as she was entering City’s Finsbury halls on Sunday afternoon. She gave chase and retrieved her belongings. The girl is not a City student, and was visiting friends at Finsbury. As she was approaching the halls a 14year-old approached her, pointing a pistol at her face. A student who witnessed the incident said he demanded she gave him “all her money and things.” She then gave him her mobile phone, and he began to run up Bastwick Street. Then, thinking the thief seemed too young to own a real weapon, the girl decided to give chase. “She was running after the kid and yelling at him to give her back the phone.” a witness said. “Then, the boy stopped, turned round, pointed the gun at her and pulled the trigger. Nothing happened, so he started running again.” According to witnesses, a few minutes later he finally stopped and pleaded with the girl to let him have the phone. “Please, I really need the money,” he was reported to say. Unabashed, the girl offered to buy back her phone. The robber handed it to her, and she handed him a £5 note. He made off with the cash, though obviously unsatisfied. As we were going to print, we were informed that the police had arrested a suspect. The teenager was arrested following a similar complaint from another girl. The police were not available to comment on the incident, and the suspect cannot be identified. They are currently investigating.

Inside your Inquirer this week...

Tips for a swinging Valentine’s Day

Picturesque Finsbury Halls: A secure environment? City University made the following statement: “City University takes the safety of its students very seriously. Following this incident there are plans to organise personal safety awareness stands in the University’s halls where students will be able to get advice on the subject. Furthermore the halls are monitored 24 hours a day, seven days a week.” Next month sees a Safety on Campus week organised by the students’ union. Students will

be able to attend a free self defence class and receive free attack alarms and personal safety literature. This incident is not an isolated one. Students are an easy target for theives. City’s halls have been the scene of many crimes over the years. There have been two other incidents at Finsbury in the past three weeks. One girl had her laptop stolen from her room. DR

The travesty that is Dreamgirls

City’s architecture uncovered

TheInquirer Editorial team News editor Dimi Reider Features editor Ketil Stensrud Music editor Kev Kharas Production & sub-editors Harry Haydon Emily Clarke Chief Writers Adwan Adwan Stephane Reissfelder Contributors Cecilia Anesi Vlora Johnston Tom Burden Write for us The Inquirer needs you! We’re independent and can publish anything we like. Email [email protected]

Leader So, a girl is held at gunpoint, another is robbed within her room. Two laptops are stolen from Walter Sickert Hall, and a car is hijacked from the Saddler’s Gym parking lot. The contrast between City’s clean-cut image and the reality of the area grimly illustrates the fragility of the “bubble” in which our establishment is nestled. Homeless people sleep in the bandstand of Northampton Square; mugging incidents are common along Goswell Road; just behind the pinnacle of City’s monetary pyramid, Cass Business School, is a neighborhood that wouldn’t be out of place in a Dickensian TV drama. City is isolated from the community. Most students don’t know anyone in the area who is not studying at City. City’s only major involvement with the community is helping to shut down a successful local school to construct a much opposed academy. Not only is this a rather dubious move ethically – it completely bypasses both local residents and the student body. Many universities have schemes, in which students can volunteer in the community for a few hours every week, and receive benefits in exchange, like a discount off tuition fees, or bonus credits. This doesn’t mean that City is to blame for the recent crimes. Northampton Square should be better lit, and security officers should on occasion patrol outside the buildings as well as inside (what happened to that community police service we heard so much about last year?) Still, it would be a consolation if recent incidents would be a signal to City to bridge the gaps between itself and the community, rather than encase itself in ivory towers of bricks and CCTV cameras.

Progress or politics? Peers in the House of Lords have voted against the Government to extend the Corporate Manslaughter and Corporate Homicide Bill. The Government was defeated by 96 votes in the House of Lords, and the Bill will now return to the House of Commons. The amendment, voted in by peers, would broaden the Bill so that the police and prisons can be charged with manslaughter if someone dies in custody. The Inquirer’s legal writer, Tom Burden, says: “Although the Home Secretary John Reid had previously threatened to scrap the Bill if such a vote were to happen, the public can be reassured by the fact that Tony Blair has said that the government will not abandon the Bill in the wake of this defeat. “All in all this Bill seems satisfactory for the vast majority of employees in the UK and the proposed extension by the House of Lords is, in my opinion, a very welcome amendment; yet there are those few whose employers will frequently fall outside the “relevant duty of care” and there will be those families and victims who will not receive justice in the truest sense.” EC & TB

Students get to grips with the snow on Thursday

In other news...

Students are being targeted by a fraudulent website posing as the Student Loans Company (SLC). Deceptive e-mails have been sent to students, from an address ending in ac.uk, asking for their personal details. The SLC has urged students not to respond, and to contact them if they have received such an e-mail EC Islington Council is set to give the go-ahead for a nine strong “street enforcement team” to tackle the problem of dog mess in Islington. The team, who can hand out on the spot fines, will also deal with fly tipping and flyer posting and litter across the borough if the plan is green lighted. HH Tesco has joined forces with the Open University to offer courses for clubcard points. Shoppers will be able to put their points towards paying for undergraduate OU courses. EC The newly founded politics society will launch on Monday with a talk by Professor Peter Willets: What future for Palestine? From 5-8pm in DLG08. Contact Holly: abbr355@city. ac.ukk for more information. EC The economics society is celebrating with a traffic light party on Monday at 19/20 Bar in Farringdon. Entrance is free to members. Non-members will be charged £3, including a joining fee. EC

Snowy London Snow fell in London yesterday, and as usual, the whole world ground to a halt. The BBC near enough declared a state of emergency, and indignant mothers had to deal with their children running around, as many schools closed around the country. BBC News 24 also stuck to the old journalsitic mantra of never assuming intelligence on the part of the audience, with one presenter saying: “Well, that could disprove climate change.” Their co-presenter added: “We could certainly use some global warming now.” Ho ho ho. However, it was a pretty different picture at City University; students took the first oppurtunity to eschew the library for some altogether more outdoor fun. EC

Do these stairs make you uneasy? How does City’s architecture affect your experience? Stephane Reissfelder finds out Alain de Botton, in his recent book Architecture of Happiness, eloquently describes the often overlooked influence of our surroundings on our mood. Does City’s architecture play a role, however small, in daily social life and academic success? It is a common experience, not only for first year students, to endlessly roam the long corridors of the university buildings in order to find a given classroom. Many would admit their secret dream to discover one day, in passing, a secluded IT lab with sofas, coffee machines and bagel dispensers. A group of 3rd year engineering students shared with The Inquirer that the maze-like architecture of their department evoked to them a sense of disorientation that was “almost Kafkaesque.” While one does not explore uncharted City territory every day, the main building remains an unavoidable gateway around which student life centers. Unfortunately, it also is the most unpopular building, which students have referred to as the ugliest in the area. Areas meant for socialising were described as dull and unimaginative. Students agree that neither the “giant dentist’s waiting room”– a.k.a. The Hub – nor the neon-lit, noisy and expensive Ritazza can compete with local cafés. But many students expressed similar exasperation at the library’s structure. “The library desperately lacks computer areas and

City’s alien landscapes? The stairs at the main entrance adds. Investigating this lack of group meeting facilities, the Inquirer asked a senior member of staff what the dozen bright and spacious rooms in the new extension of the College building are used for. “Organisational and strategic meetings, exclusively for staff” was the short and blunt answer. The renovated CASS and social science buildings unequivocally bolster City’s reputation as a modern and innovative academic centre. And naturally, their glass structure and outstanding facilities appeal to students across disciplines. Sam London, a 2nd year business student, states that: “When I set foot into CASS in the morning, I feel ready for business.” As for the social science building, both lecturers and students agree that its bright and clean

‘several students begrudge the sterile and corporate architecture’ group study rooms, which leads students to talk loudly in silence areas,” Shereen Taylor, 1st year law student, explains. “Although the different levels provide variety, the combination of reverberating noise, heat and neon lights makes it impossible to concentrate” she

architecture together with the on-going art exhibition provide an ideal setting to combine intellectual endeavour with social interaction. It is noteworthy, however, that several students begrudged the sterile and corporate architecture at City. Dan Kozek, 2nd year media student, voiced his concern that it reflected City’s vocational imperative. “The disposition of facilities, the neon lights and even the computer labs are built in a way to make students familiar with professional environments. We’re trained to fit into the corporate mould,” he explains. At no point, he seems to say, are students allowed to be just students, creatively redefining and appropriating their space and surroundings. Yet the majority of students have a different understanding of what services a university should offer, and creativity is not one of them. Indeed, Sam London affirms that: “Good facilities and practicality come first, then aesthetics.”

‘When I turn my back on City, I miss it’ Vlora Johnston takes us on a tour of City City’s architecture is rather interesting. As I walk in and up the stairs, I know that I am entering a university. But facing the long reception area at the top of the stairs, this feeling fades and it feels like I’m checking into a cheap hotel. Walking further along the noisy corridors conjures up the impression of walking through the streets of London – surrounded by different smells of food, not necessarily delicious but certainly expensive. Where I choose to go next will inevitably affect my mood. The way through the Tait building – with its long and dark corridors and tiny openings on the doors – feels like entering top secret human laboratories where people are tested as guinea pigs. Once I enter the classrooms, I feel relieved because they are bright and spacious. Well, most of them. I keep wondering what the classroom on the top floor is, the one covered in plants.

Although I am quite nosy, I’ve never asked; simply because I always imagine someone with their face drawn with green and grey lines, camouflaged, sitting idly on the chair, hiding from the students. It’s hilarious and I’m afraid I would crack up if I asked. While the rest of City’s architecture is adventurous, I must admit it’s not scary, even though in some parts you are more than likely to experience sudden claustrophobia or anxiety attacks. Yet, I love City as it is. When I turn my back on it, I miss it. Vlora Johnston is a first year journalism student

The newly refurbished computer shop

Do you have a story to tell? If you’re itching to get something off your chest, get in touch with the Inquirer at: [email protected]

Incoming: V-day. Get your credit cards ready Loved by some, dreaded by others, Valentine’s day is here again. By Ketil Stensrud Love is in the air, or at least upon us as the epitome of Americanisation forces brave men all over the planet to swipe their credit cards in despair on teddy bears, flowers and overpriced chocolate. Our neo-capitalist women demand some romance in the shape of materialism. What ever happened to the good old patriarchal society? Well, well. I guess our better halves deserve it after months of football and beer. Here is a mini-guide of what to do on this hellish day.

a wicked hang out joint drenched in 1950s Americana. Films will be shown, tunes will be rolled out, and jokes are sure to be unleashed. Dress in red. White Russians anyone? 7pm2am Tickets £6 in advance, or £8 on the door. Dating?

Single? •Why don’t you try speed-dating? Apparently it’s the most effective way of meeting new people – and, more importantly, they’re all in the same boat as you. This is for the virile and eligible. Check www.originaldating.com. The Pitcher & Piano, 69-70 Dean Street, London, W1D 3SE. Tel: 020 7434 3585. Tube: Piccadilly Circusor Leicester Square. •At the I fancy you party, everyone has a personal envelope with a nickname/picture. You will also be given business card-size slips to be put in the envelope of the person you fancy! You’re free to leave messages or even your contact details! Apt Bar, Aldermary House, 10-15 Queen Street, EC4N 1TX @ 7.30pm. Check www.ditchordate.com for more info. £10 tickets in advance.

Valentine’s Day: Love hurts •If that’s not your thing, and you simply want some good-old action without spending a fortune, then head to the West End’s Red Light District. Prostitutes are scattered all over the vicinity and prices start at £20. What a bargain! Brewer Street, Soho, London, W1. Tube: Same as above. (The The Inquirer of course would never condone prostitution, it is a serious matter that affects millions of young, and old ladies across the world. Hope you can take a joke.) •FAO: Fans of The Big Lebowski, bowling, fancy dress. Modular Records' Together Night vacates Turnmills for Valentine’s and heads down to the Bloomsbury Bowling Lanes,

•For pure wow factor, take your date to Windows on the 28th floor of the London Hilton hotel. It features a sophisticated piano bar with a “dressed-up” policy and views that will blow you and your partner away. London Hilton, Park Lane, W1. Tel: 020 7493 8000. •For a great night out, check this place out. The owners of Les Trois Garçons have created one of the hippest bars in London, guaranteed to impress any potential date. It’s eclectically decorated, with a cluttered interior that blends gothic, art deco and Provençal styles and the cocktails work a treat. Loungelover, 1 Whitby Street E1. Tel: 020 7012 1234. •If it’s a romantic, candlelit environment with a gently buzzing atmosphere you’re after, try this wine bar in vaulted arches beneath Charing Cross Station. Great wines, good food, agreeable prices and dreamily romantic. Gordon’s, 47 Viller’s Street, WC2. Tel: 020 7930 1408.

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detached the arts and culture bit

film

Dreamgirls In order to comprehend how profoundly appalling this film is, and the lengths to which I have gone in berating it, please try to grasp the following: Remember the mind blowing toilet scene from James Wan’s Saw trilogy? You know, where that chap is chained to the wall and ultimately cuts his leg off? Now, envision the very same scene, only with a ridiculous number of H5N1 infected birds screaming in response to the excruciatingly repetitive noise of a brass band. Simultaneously, a group of middle-aged satanists perform a ritual in which a goat is dissected with a rusty old knife. After 131 torturous minutes you are let out. Free to go. Baffled by the absurd experience you jump on the bus and head home with bag loads of paracetamol to heal the chronic headache that just set in. This is just one way of describing how utterly surreal it feels to watch director Billy Condon’s disaster that is Dreamgirls. Based on an extremely successful Broadway musical from 1981, this picture should have been re-launched as exactly that – a musical. Only then would its credentials work up a

remote chance to be categorised as entertainment. This is The Supremes all over again. Childhood friends Deena (Beyoncé Knowles), Lorrell (Anika Noni Rose) and Effie (Jennifer Hudson) are the Dreamettes, a singing group looking for a break in 1960’s America, where racism and turbulence reigns among the proletariat. They get their big opportunity when used car salesman and talent manager Curtis (Jamie Foxx) lands the three

‘Virtually every scene has a gut-wrenching song painfully incorporated into it’

The Last King of Scotland

Forest Whitaker as Idi Amin

As cinema-goers find their conscience and start sipping Fair-trade coffee, there’s been an eruption of films that “deal with” intensely complicated political situations, Hollywood style. See the Constant Gardener, and recently, Blood Diamond Diamond. These films mean well. Mostly, the director waves whichever group of under-represented people he’s supposedly championing in our faces (If I hear the phrase: “Raise awareness in the West” one more time...). So far, so noble. Yet there’s a conven-

a slot singing backup for the hardest working man in show business, Jimmy Early (Eddie Murphy). The tour is a big success, and Jimmy and Lorrell get romantically involved. So do Effie and Curtis, until Curtis moves on to Deena. The girls eventually cut a single of their own, written by Lorrell’s brother C.C. (Keith Robinson), and before long are climbing the charts. But Curtis, shrewdly, changes the lineup so that prettier Deena is singing lead over the largely overweight Effie, despite having a tion that 45 minutes through the film the same socially conscious director will shout: “Fuck it, let’s have a chase! Get me Danny Glover!” You leave the cinema feeling confused and slightly violated. So, how to tackle a film about a genocidal maniac so infamous that he became a parody of himself? You’ve already heard the platitudes heaped onto Forest Whitaker for his portrayal of Idi Amin, the delusional Ugandan dictator (trained by Britain and Israel, in case you were wondering.) Honestly? He deserves them. One second, Amin is a cheeky, charming man of the people. The next, he is dark and terrifying. The film charts Amin’s journey from coup to downfall, during which time he was responsible for the murder of 300,000 Ugandans. Save for one brutal sequence, there is little portrayal of Ugandans. James McAvoy plays Nicholas Garrigan, a naïve, obnoxious doctor straight out of university, who is seduced by Amin’s charm and opulence. He becomes irrevocably entangled in Amin’s spiral of paranoia, and realises his mistakes all too late. We watch Nicholas’ terror develop as he realises “hang on, this isn’t St. Andrews anymore.” Despite the film pivot-

much weaker voice than her. The gamble pays off magnificently, but wreaks havoc on the band. You all know where it goes from here. Or do you? For the first time in my life I witnessed people leave the film before the vital hour mark shaking their heads in disbelief. Worse still, as the story developed, sarcastic applause and laughter ensued. Virtually every scene has a gutwrenching song painfully incorporated into it; meaning that most dialogues are cheesily performed with extremely loud vocals. At one point there were four songs in quick succession leaving the viewer disoreintated and in a state of slight discomfort. Beyonce is so unconvincing in her role and fails completely to deliver a credible performance. One wonders if Foxx paid an undisclosed fee to get her on the set just to perform the semi-romantic scene of relative intimacy with her, because there cannot be a worse actress ever associated with any Oscar talk. Eddie Murphy and Jamie Foxx have starred in better, but they keep the film going. In fact, the duo are the sole reason why I kindly categorise Dreamgirls as viewable. But be warned, this is tragic stuff. KS ing around the character of Amin, seen through the eyes of the young white doctor, Macdonald is a truly competent director. The film has a pounding pace, and adept editing. There are hedonistic scenes driven by beats of African drums, full of naked flesh lit by firelight. It’s sensuous, heady and evocative. But by the same stroke, Macdonald highlights Amin’s paranoia and altered reality. The director tries hard to avoid falling into aforementioned trap of car chases and love stories. There is, inevitably, still one more car chase and a love story. McAvoy’s Nicholas falls in love with Kay, one of Amin’s wives.

It’s like 45 minutes through the director shouts: “Fuck it, lets have a chase! Get me Danny Glover!” The tryst ends brutally, and the film takes a gruesome turn. Amin’s brand of village justice for Nicholas, and his subsequent flight from Uganda dominate the final 20 minutes. It’s just a pity that the young doctor isn’t a strong enough character to evoke sympathy from the viewer. Although a brilliant performance, McAvoy can never command your attention as Whitaker’s Amin does – he wouldn’t have a chance. EC

music

Panic Prevention As many advertising hoardings and bill posters have been trying to tell you this week, Panic Prevention is the debut album from Jamie T, a guitar toting rascal sprung from a bedroom somewhere in the leafy suburb of Wimbledon. It’s from within that bedroom that many of the tracks here were penned and set down on a computer. Like his latest single Calm Down Dearest, its ambling, drunken verses giving way to a dawn chorus that threatens to pull your heart out through your ears. The sing-along skiffle of Back In The Game, too, was dreamt up in a middle-class bedroom as Jamie struggled with agoraphobia after a few too many class As. It is from within this isolation that Jamie has managed to construct one of the best debuts of the last decade. The pictures of London and its environs he paints with his rapid spat chatter and half broken throat are so vivid you feel like someone’s rigging new scenery up

internet

Best of the web www.tinyurl.com

The ridiculously long URL’s that you receive when searching route finder websites are often a hassle to post online or email to people. Sometimes taking up several lines of a document and being split as a result. The people at tinyurl.com have developed a server that adds a new alias when a long URL is entered and returns a short one such as http://tinyurl. com/1234. If the URL has already been requested, TinyURL will return the existing alias rather than creating a duplicate entry.

www.squaremeal.com

Squaremeal is an essential guide if you are looking for a restaurant in London. Its reviews are well written and accurate and the website is very easy to use. Searches can be filtered by cuisine type, area or even useful groupings such as “Best for Sunday Brunch” or “Latest Openings”. This is a resource the discerning diner simply cannot live without.

http://rapidshare.com

There are widely conflicting views on this online storage website. Through the online menu you can choose a file on your hard drive of up to 100megs and upload it for free. You are then provided a link, which you can share with others. A useful resource for uploading files too big to be attachments in emails or audiovisual media without the need for external storage solutions. Though many users experience frustration with functionality and slow loading times it still remains one of the best in its field. Compiled by Matt McGinty

Jamie T: you would think an agoraphobic would be tidy around you every few minutes, teeming with characters, depth and intrigue. Influences and reference points are various and disparate: The Clash meets 2007 or Rodney Trotter meets J Dilla. This is perhaps most evident on tracks like So Lonely Was The Ballad Ballad, which sets wistful English colloquialisms to a laconic hip hop backbeat. This is a record rich in texture and variation, but with hooks that sink deep and when you start to combine quality with gateway melodies

suddenly you’re in “classic” territory. Not that weird things like Q will be looking to get involved too soon, you imagine, abhorring as they do the concept of “new”. For while Jamie T makes use of old influences, he manages to pilfer the attitudes and ideas and come up with something fresh and very much his own – take Ike and Tina for example, a song that sprawls on, driven furls of white motorway noise, into new siren-lit nights. Panic Prevention is wicked, basically. Get it. KK

White Heat at Madame Jojo’s DJ Drop The Lime & The Infants February 1, W1

I’d never been to Madame Jojo’s, the infamous Soho watering hole, before tonight. The area is home to many venues like this, of course – red walls, rows of glittering bulbs, sticky floors giving away the place’s strip club past. In the daytime Jojo must feel like an old glamour model trying to pass herself off as a middle English housewive. But when White Heat comes to town, it seems that the Madame can slip satisfyingly easily back into her old mindset. DJ Drop The Lime’s crunk duttiness fits snugly in this den of inequity, as the New Yorker distills chart hits and siphons off the crusty crystals forming at the top; debasing the likes of JT and even Cutting Crew’s 80s hit (I Just) Died In Your Arms Tonight’into ear searing, cracked-out mash-ups. If you’re throwing a party anytime soon, book the boy up and make sure I’m on the list. Earlier, it was the turn of circus-punk troupe The Infants to take the stage. As the quartet’s nonsensical set unraveled, legs twitched, heads thrashed and nice-looking girls in sequins were transformed into notso-nice looking girls in sequins, jutting and jarring their appendages like Pat Butcher on gurners. Tracks such as Information fizz and pop with youthful vigour, while Firetruk comes on like the ridiculous fun of watching a stallion stop traffic, maddened by drugs, before it heads to the bridge and you know, you just know, what’s gonna happen next. Thankfully, The Infant’s ADD sonic attack simply did not allow for the weight of guilt that having to

see the mule keel and plummet over the side would engender. I made my way back up to ground level with my head spinning; out into a central London that seemed relatively unaffected by the din bubbling just below the surface. Calm faces passed like drivers crossing the bridge, ignorant of the lame animal drifting silently downstream. KK

Get out there...

Chalk continues to bring mayhem to indie kids and ravers alike at the Scala in Kings Cross this Saturday. Live appearances from Metric, Crystal Castles and others should see the new night continue its exciting start..10pm-5am Tickets £8.50 in adv. & on the door. £5.00 after 3am. Fabric will be rammed this Friday for its Valentine’s Bash. A typically impressive line up brings Scratch Perverts, Andy C, Pendulum, High Contrast and Spank Rock to Farringdon. 9.30pm-5am Tickets £12 (£10 NUS) Still bang on it by Sunday? Head over to the Kingsland Road for Grooverider's Grace night at Herbal. Total Science and DJ Probe will attend. 9pm onwards Tickets £6 before 10.30 for boys, FREE for girls before 11.30pm. £8 after. The name Resonance FM mean anything to you? Help preserve London's first art radio station by heading North to Kilburn's Good Ship on Tues 13, for an excellent cast of young singer songwriters. 7.30pm Tickets £5