Felix Online RSS Feed

MTSoc serve up some matrimony cheese

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Arriving on the tenth floor of the Blackett Building to watch Musical Theatre Society and rsquo;s (MTSoc) newest performance, their big spring show The Wedding Singer, I get the feeling that either the powers of my imagination will have to be used to their fullest extent or I should keep my expectations pretty low. I have to admit, I was rather happily surprised by the end. I and rsquo;m sure most of you know (and love) the Adam Sandler classic comedy that goes by the same name. Those of you who do will probably hear the words and ldquo;musical adaptation and rdquo; and cringe and ndash; give it a second though! For those of you who live in a box, The Wedding Singer was a 1998 Rom-Com set in the 80s, starring Adam Sandler (Robbie, a lowly wedding singer) and Drew Barrymore (Julia, a loved-up cater-waitress). The story itself winds around the and lsquo;Will they? Won and rsquo;t they? and rsquo; scenario with plenty ...

Women and Imperial – everyone deserves to be happy here

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Are women unhappy at Imperial? Some, it seems, are. Some men are too. Whether these are vocal fractions of a silent majority, or simply a vocal minority remains to be seen, but it doesn and rsquo;t really matter. Every student at Imperial deserves freedom to be him/herself and to thrive to his/her full potential, minority or not and ndash; and women at Imperial are a minority. Within the central Union we do a lot of work for many of the recognised minorities but have done little recently for women. Historically we have had a women and rsquo;s officer, women and rsquo;s society, and a women only social space, but as time wore on and gender parity drew ever nearer, work on women and rsquo;s rights fell by the wayside, replaced by newer, fresher campaigns. Perhaps we stopped fighting for gender equality because we thought the battle was won, or perhaps members of the Union became convinced that the stereotypical burning-bra-brandishing ...

Twisted exhibiton gets us all strung up

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

If you go down to the woods tonight you and rsquo;ll be in for a surprise, as there will be a teddy bear and rsquo;s picnic. Alternatively, if you go to the Blyth Gallery (fifth floor of Sherfield) you will find another surprise. It and rsquo;s a shocking day for you, isn and rsquo;t it. Twisted is a collaborative effort between LeoSoc and PhotoSoc. It consists of multiple pieces of string forming a maze. This represents the mind, and walking through it is a journey through the disorder of thoughts, or at least that and rsquo;s what I got from it. Moving down the corridor had the aim of feeling claustrophobic; immersed in the overbearing activity of the mind. Unfortunately for me, due to the fact that my stature is roughly that of Tom Cruise, it wasn and rsquo;t quite as claustrophobic for me. The creative process was very much organic. The concept was conceived and developed at house parties. Luckily, everyone remembered what ...

I have a smartphone: progress at last

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

I recently joined the twenty-first century and got a new phone. Actually, that and rsquo;s not quite accurate. As well as servicing my telecommunicative needs, it also has a whole array of shiny doodads and gizmos. It has a camera with the resolution to individually identify the hairs in Karl Marx and rsquo;s beard from across a crowded dinner party. Its GPS is so precise it even knows when I and rsquo;m standing on one leg in the middle of the Sahara (sadly though, not in Fulham for some reason). It is capable of posting to Facebook and Twitter so I don and rsquo;t have to be near a computer to be vain or inane anymore. On top of this, it has a veritable host of apps, each more pointless than the last. I can even phone people with it... though I haven and rsquo;t quite worked out how yet. I am amazed that what would have been a supercomputer thirty years ...

Imperial Memes: a post mortem

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Late on a Tuesday night, a monster was born. One that would increase exponentially with size; prove that Imperial students, for all their academic brilliance, follow the same behavioural patterns in a crowd as anyone else; and leave many of us sleep-deprived during our 9 o and rsquo;clock lectures the following day. The phenomenon fizzled out as soon as it exploded onto our screens: most of the activity was within the first 24 hours; another 24 hours later and the group and rsquo;s activity had mostly ceased. I know a few people have looked upon it and wondered how something like this hasn and rsquo;t happened before: there are a huge number of jokes to be made from the relatively mundane gripes about everything from Imperial and rsquo;s email system to the shortcomings of various campus eateries. Nothing remotely insightful, but things that people can relate to. Indeed, upon the afternoon/evening when everyone was done with lectures, serendipitously on ...

Time to place your bets and win big at the Oscars

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Best Picture: and nbsp;The Artist Who knew a black and white silent film could be this charming, crowd-pleasing and moving? In this advanced day and age of sound, colour and computer graphics, Michel Hazanavicius (director) grasped the hearts of audiences worldwide by taking cinema back to its roots. It and rsquo;s a love story between the two leads, but also a loving tribute to Hollywood. Scooping up pretty much every single Best Picture award there is in America, it and rsquo;s hard to see such a revolutionary film not walking away with the top prize. The only real potential competition this faces is from another critics and rsquo; favourite, Alexander Payne and rsquo;s The Descendants, but the buzz around The Artist is far too strong to topple at this point. Best Actor: and nbsp;Jean Dujardin and ndash; The Artist Without any audible spoken dialogue, the little-known French actor managed to make everyone fall in love with his handsome and likable George Valentin. The range of his ...

Corrupt cop going ballistic

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Rampart Director Oren Moverman Screenwriters James Ellroy, Oren Moverman Cast Woody Harrelson, Sigourney Weaver, Robin Wright, Steve Buscemi A cop with the nickname and ldquo;Date Rape and rdquo; (Harrelson) is not going to be a mild-tempered, even-minded, fair cop; although it probably wouldn and rsquo;t be fair to say that he is a bad person. He believes in the justice system, he has respect for the police force and the work they do, he is passionate about arresting the scums of L.A., and he appears to be a family man with two children he is dedicated in taking care of. For him, slightly bending and sometimes outright breaking the law is absolutely fine, as long as he has a justifiable goal. He is the kind of cop who would beat someone half to death to get some vital information. Cops could get away with this kind of mindset but in the 1990 and rsquo;s, the infamous Rampart scandal was shaking up ...

The great Executive Committee blunder

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

The Union and rsquo;s Executive Committee is charged with deciding how the Union is run on a day-to-day basis. It approves things like the Summer Ball, and the whole Union and rsquo;s budget to make sure things are progressing how the student body wants them to. Three weeks ago the Executive Committee chose to reallocate nearly and pound;35,000 away from Clubs and Societies funding. The rationale given by Michael Foster (Deputy President for Finance and Services) for this 10% cut was that and ldquo;the total grant underspend [by clubs and societies] last year was greater than the changes to funding. and rdquo; Grant money left unspent at the end of the year by a club is reabsorbed by the Union and generally deemed as unnecessary funding. Foster then went on to say and ldquo;the reallocated money will be much more effective invested in support mechanisms. and rdquo; It has since emerged that this figure of 10% is incorrect and that an accounting ...

Extremely long and incredibly clumsy

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Director Stephen Daldry Screenwriters Eric Roth, Jonathan Safran Foer (novel) Cast Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock, Thomas Horn A lot of negative hype surrounds the latest film from Academy Award nominated director Stephen Daldry. As the overly sentimental, manipulative film that stole the much-coveted Best Picture slot from Drive, the lowest rated film on Rotten Tomatoes that made it to the nominations list in this year and rsquo;s Oscars, it looks as though Daldry and rsquo;s most recent work won and rsquo;t be receiving similar attention his previous films such as Billy Elliot and The Hours enjoyed. 9/11 is a delicate subject that cannot be taken lightly in fictitious work. Set a foot wrong and you will most likely offend those who were involved in the incident. It remains a fresh wound, and therefore the subject needs careful direction. But with Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, Daldry is too careful and ndash; and is so worried of doing ...

Never let Ishiguro go

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Sure, this book involves a parallel society, human cloning, and organ farming, narrated through the eyes of an independent and vaguely rebellious protagonist, but still: Never Let Me Go isn and rsquo;t what you would expect from a work of science fiction. With little futuristic technology and absolutely no extra-terrestrial life forms to be seen, Kazuo Ishiguro and rsquo;s most recent novel captures the reader and rsquo;s attention not with ray guns and worm holes but with characterisation and imagery. Before I go on, I have a confession to make: I watched the movie first. I know, I know; I and rsquo;m doomed to picture the characters as the actors that portray them, I couldn and rsquo;t possibly approach the novel in quite the same way, everything and rsquo;s horrible, why would I ever do that, et cetera. And while I certainly suggest you read the book before seeing the movie (which may or may not have something to do with Keira Knightley), ...

The return of the Muppet puppets

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

The Muppets Director James Bobin Screenwriters Jason Segel, Nicholas Stoller, Jim Henson Cast Jason Segel, Amy Adams, Chris Cooper They and rsquo;re back! YES! The fantastic Muppets gang are back on the big screen with a whole new feature length movie for the first time in some years. Yes the story is ridiculous, yes the jokes are cheesy, yes the whole thing is mental but come on and ndash; you and rsquo;ve got to admit you and rsquo;ve missed them. In this latest tale of hilarity, the Muppets and rsquo; greatest fan Walter (Peter Linz), who is himself a muppet from Smalltown, USA, is on holiday in Hollywood with his ridiculously dense brother, Gary (Segel) and Gary and rsquo;s also pretty dim fianc and eacute;e Mary (Adams) and ndash; both of whom are human, by the way and ndash; when he learns that the old Muppets and rsquo; Theatre is closed and about to be razed by an evil Texas tycoon, the imaginatively named Tex Richman (Cooper), who wants to drill in ...

A weak Republican field

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

The US elections are coming faster than a randy teenager who and #39;s left his bedroom door open when his parents are downstairs. Much like the aforementioned situation, they are always exhilarating and dangerous. At the moment, it and rsquo;s the Republican nominations that are taking up valuable headline space. They are not too dissimilar to an arrogant, terrible, and loud punk-rock band: they shout incoherently about how great they are when all the evidence seems to suggest the opposite. If I and rsquo;m honest, I think that the Republican field is incredibly week this time around. Even John McCain maybe thinks so: he accidentally endorsed Obama and not Romney in what I can only imagine was a Freudian slip. I want to waste your time by immaturely discussing the potential (and real) candidates. This year, some wild cards have been throwing their hats into the ring. There was the brief period when Donald Trump looked like ...

A call to arms in the fight to save our libraries

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

I first found out about The Library Book in a small addendum to a piece in the Guardian by Lucy Mangan, one of my favourite columnists, announcing that she was one of the contributors. Investigating further, and nbsp; I became even more interested upon finding out that the contributors also included such impressive figures as Stephen Fry, China Mi and eacute;ville and Alan Bennett. Yet, even having known beforehand the amount of talent involved I have to say that the book far exceeded my expectations. In essence The Library Book is simply twenty five highly skilled journalists, writers, broadcasters and other public figures coming together to each write a short piece, whether a fictional story, essay or deeply personal recollection, focusing on their love of libraries. The book comes in at under 200 pages and yet manages to include a breathtaking degree of variety. From Mangan and rsquo;s hilarious description of the rules she would put in ...

A French love affair

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Anyone that knows me well will know that over the past few months I have fallen hopelessly in love. Forgive me for using such a tired clich and eacute;, but it really was love at first sight. Yes, since the moment I first clasped my eyes on a Chanel handbag, I was infatuated. I have a friend who is a designer handbag junkie, Yves Saint Laurent, Chanel, Balenciaga and hellip; the list goes on. They are all beautiful bags, but I never used to understand her obsession. Then, one day, I saw her classic Chanel Flap Bag and I suddenly understood. There was something about the thick, textured, quilted leather and ndash; sumptuously soft, yet firm. There was something about the intertwined gold chain and leather strap that hugs ones shoulder like an old, comforting friend. And don and rsquo;t even get me started on the exquisite finishings and ndash; perfectly crafted inside pockets, the gold hallmark on the ...

Vegan Diary: Week One

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Hannah and Clare are two real foodies who have become vegan for a month to raise money for the Multiple Sclerosis Trust. They and rsquo;ve decided to make the most of this opportunity and are on a quest to find really good vegan food. Follow their progress in their weekly column to see if they really can find vegan food that satisfies the meat-eaters among us. Hannah and rsquo;s Cheap and Easy Vegan Mediterranean Couscous and ndash; serves 1 Ingredients 70g giant couscous Drizzle of olive oil 1 crushed clove of garlic 1 courgette 1 can of chopped tomatoes and frac12; teaspoon of sugar 1 medium red onion Pinch of salt Fry couscous (2mins) in oil or until golden brown, before covering in water (approx. two times the volume of couscous) and boil until soft. Chop onion into chunks, sweat in oil until soft. Chop courgette into chunks and add to onions along with the crushed garlic. Drain chopped tomatoes and add to vegetables. Add sugar and season before cooking ...

Library doors: a refutation

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

In training for long distance things, you have to train for quite a long time. Whether I and rsquo;m in the pool, on the bike, or on a run I usually get some and lsquo;quality and rsquo; time with my own thoughts. What follows is the result of this time alone and hellip; Recently in Felix, Laurence de Lussy Kubisa wrote a remarkable article in praise of the new library doors. In typically electrifying prose, he has prostituted your loyalties. Your faith and trust should rest forever more with the old doors, not these young pretenders. In calling the old and lsquo;face-on and rsquo; style of door and lsquo;outrageous and rsquo;, he confuses as much as he outrages. The old had dignity, a certain majesty. You knew where you were with these faithful beasts. These new contraptions, by contrast, are a menace. By introducing a highly dangerous 90 degree swerve to the entrance procedure, the new doors are an HSE nightmare. To anyone who has ...

Get creative in the kitchen after lectures

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

You have finished lectures, you have just returned home and you are starving. The worst thing is that you and rsquo;re sick of eating fast food, but you don and rsquo;t have that much experience with cooking. Relax, this article is dedicated to you! There are a lot of simple recipes, even for those of you who have little time to go to the supermarket and prepare your meals. And the most important thing is that these recipes have a low budget and will save you a significant amount of money if you make them often. Remember, the secret of success in cooking is to be creative, so let and rsquo;s get our hands dirty and try the following dishes. I call the first one the and ldquo;Easy Choice and rdquo;. The usual ingredients are some tomato sauce, an onion, a tomato, some parsley, a lemon, pita bread and as much mince as you like. Cheap and common ingredients, nothing too ...

Food and the Fairtrade Fortnight

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

The celebrations of Fairtrade Fortnight start on 27 February and ndash; but what is and ldquo;Fairtrade and rdquo; actually? The Fairtrade Foundation is a non-profit organisation that ensures that any product marked with the Fairtrade Mark conforms to the established standards. These standards are in regards to ethics, for instance, any hired labour producing the consumable must be paid at least the regional average wage. The Fairtrade Foundation also sets a cap on the minimum selling price of the products. This ensures that the farmers and rsquo; labours will always bring in enough money to sustain their families and communities. This is not true for non-Fairtrade producers who have to work for zilch in famine or when demand and subsequently selling price drops to nothing, meaning not being able to make ends meet. Another example is that health and safety must be enforced to ensure that machinery is handled correctly and the dangers are known. Specific hazardous materials are ...

The Heart of Hyderabad

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Hyderabad city, India. Capital of the state of Andhra Pradesh, the second largest city in South India, and my hometown for the first few years of my life. and nbsp; Having lived in Hyderabad for almost a decade, and visited the place virtually every year since, you can understand why the city is extremely close to my heart. It would undoubtedly be impossible for me to write about everything Hyderabad offers in a mere few hundred words, and I wouldn and rsquo;t dare attempt it, so I and rsquo;m going to tell you about a few of my favourite sights. Hyderabad is a perfect mix of historical charm and bustling modern areas Hyderabad is a perfect mix of alluring historical charm, reflecting the town and rsquo;s heritage, and bustling modern areas: a clear demonstration of the town and rsquo;s progress. Quirky narrow streets, beautiful mosques and packed bazaars are unquestionably the defining features of Old City. Here, you also find Hyderabad and rsquo;s most ...

Dessert of the week - Blueberry Cobbler

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Ingredients: The filling: 1 cup blueberries 2 tsp vodka 2 tsp all purpose flour 2 tsp sugar 1 tsp lemon juice (optional) and frac12; tsp lemon zest (optional) The biscuit: and frac12; cup all purpose flour 90ml cold milk 1 tsp baking powder 3 tbsp cold butter cut in small squares 1 tsp sugar A pinch of salt Preheat your oven at 190 and deg;C. In a mixing bowl, combine all the filling ingredients but be careful not to mash the blueberries. Place the filling in two ramekins. It should be enough to fill 3 quarters of each ramekin. In a separate mixing bowl, combine the flour with the baking powder, the sugar and the salt. The butter should be cut in small square pieces and it should be very cold. This will ensure that the biscuit will have a good texture. Mix the butter with the flour mixture but be careful not to overmix. If you overmix then the biscuit will be very hard. The milk should be cold and this ...

Black holes: cosmic creators

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

In the 1930s, soon after Einstein came up with his equations on general relativity, Karl Schwarzchild developed a solution that predicted what became known as a black hole. Essentially a mass compressed into such a small volume that its gravitational pull is literally irresistible; not even light is fast enough to escape. But then you already knew that. Since then, black holes have been thought to exist at the centre of just about every galaxy and acts as a cosmic plug hole, pulling matter in and cutting it off from the rest of the world. Small wonder then that they have such a reputation as destroyers of stars and planets. However, one international team of astronomers is studying an opposing side effect and ndash; black holes may help stars to form. Stanislav Shabala of the University of Tasmania, Mark Crockett of University of Oxford and Sugata Kaviraj of Imperial College led a team ...

New autism diagnosis in infants

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD) affects approximately 1% of the population. The main characteristics of ASD are difficulties in social interaction, communication, and repetitive behaviours. It is a difficult condition to diagnose, especially in young children, but researchers at Birkbeck College have just published some promising findings that open a new path to early diagnosis. At the moment, ASD can be diagnosed from the age of two by doctors and psychiatrists with the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS) which observes social interaction between the patient and the examiner. Mayada Elsabbagh, from Birkbeck College at the University of London, and her colleagues, have published a study in Current Biology measuring the brain and rsquo;s response to viewing faces gazing directly toward or away from infants aged between 6 and 10 months, from a sample of 104 infants (54 with familial risk for ASD and 50 control infants). Event Related Potentials (ERPs) were measured by electroencephalography ...

Exploring the God Particle

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

If the God Particle is real, 2012 will be the year of its discovery. Scientists at CERN have been searching for proof of the existence Higgs boson since 2008, when the construction of the Large Hadron Collider finally came to an end. Now, after four years, the LHC and ndash; a 27-kilometre ring of superconducting magnets located in Geneva, Switzerland and ndash; is ready to take up a new challenge. On 13 February, CERN announced that in the next year the Collider will fire proton rays at an energy of 4 TeV. Until now, the LHC has run at a beam energy of and lsquo;only and rsquo; 1.18 TeV (Physics fun fact: 1TeV is about the kinetic energy of a flying mosquito). Up until 2009, the highest energy used for this kind of experiment was less than 1 TeV; this record was held by the Tevatron accelerator at the Fermi Laboratory in Illinois, USA. So far, ...

A return to form for Top Gear?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Ever since its rebirth in 2002, Top Gear has provided me with Sunday night entertainment and it and rsquo;s always been brilliant. Well actually that isn and rsquo;t entirely true. You see, Top Gear and rsquo;s entertainment value has decreased hugely in recent years and ndash; the and lsquo;humour and rsquo; has become entirely predictable and largely infantile, whilst fewer and fewer cars are actually being reviewed and much like I expect Hangman to be offensive, I expect a car show to be about cars. In the last two or three years the balance has been completely wrong and ndash; it and rsquo;s been three idiots larking about doing pointless challenges and occasionally reviewing a car if the mood takes them. My primary reason for tuning in to Top Gear each week is to see the car reviews and tests, I don and rsquo;t think to myself and lsquo;oh I want to watch some comedy and ndash; I and rsquo;ll watch Top Gear! and rsquo; You can imagine then that it was to ...

Kadhim’s totally hot album of the week #16

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

On Monday, Azealia Banks will play at Heaven. Sadly, I will not be there. Those damned academic commitments trumped my desire to go see the hottest female rapper since Missy Elliott said she wanted to search around in my trousers for Lord knows what (well, I assume she was talking to me, but one can never be quite sure when it comes to mass-distributed music). Missing the gig is a bit depressing for two reasons: 1) It and rsquo;s probably the best opportunity I and rsquo;m going to get to throw myself at Azealia Banks and rsquo; feet and propose to her, thus beginning what I term, and lsquo;My Incredible Awesome Life as Mr B. and rsquo;; and 2) I haven and rsquo;t been to Heaven for a looooooong time and I and rsquo;m beginning to miss it. The last time I was at Heaven (a gay club which moonlights as one of London and rsquo;s best music venues) was Valentine and rsquo;s Day 2011 and ndash; I assure you, ...

New research into Alzheimer’s

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Alzheimer and rsquo;s disease affects almost 30 million people around the world but it remains a poorly understood condition with no cure and few effective treatments. However, recent studies by scientists at Columbia and Harvard universities provide tantalising evidence of how the disease spreads through the brain and even offer hope of way to stop it in its tracks. Tau proteins have a vital function inside neurons in stabilising microtubules, which transport vital chemicals around these brain cells. In Alzheimer and rsquo;s patients, however, these proteins become distorted and begin to clump together and ndash; causing the tubules to collapse and the cells to die. This is known as tauopathy. Tangles of tau protein, along with plaques consisting of the beta amyloid peptide, are main biochemical indicators of Alzheimer and rsquo;s. Previously scientists had been divided on whether this tauopathy spread from one area of the brain to neighbouring regions or whether it developed in different areas independently, with ...

The Shins are back, but should I care?

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

I would like to be honest and say that I had little hope for The Shins in 2012. Their Grammy nominated delight, Wincing the Night Away, shoved lead singer/songwriter into the limelight but nearly five years have passed and the musical landscape has changed significantly. When I heard the announcement that The Shins were going to release a new album, Port of Morrer, in March, on frontman James Mercers and rsquo; own label Aural Apothecary, I pondered as to where the poetic indie pop which I used to so enjoy would fit; guitar music has dropped entirely out of the charts and the young dreamers who would once have been exposed to jangly alternative rock through watching the OC are now transfixed on the overproduced pomp that is Glee. Let us say that it is not 2007 anymore. I am pleasantly surprised to report then, that after listening to Port of Morrer, ...

On target

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

Wednesday afternoon saw the latest chapter in Imperial College Fencing Club and rsquo;s stellar season unfold. The men and rsquo;s first team kicked off proceedings in Ethos at 2pm, facing a Durham side who turned up with minutes to spare before the scheduled 2pm start. Confidence was high amongst the guys, having been freshly crowned Southern Premiership champions and only having suffered one defeat all season. Durham, on the other hand, sat at the bottom of the Northern premiership, having lost all their league matches this season. The Imperial team had undergone a few changes from the team that won the league in late January; president Ed Collier and top sabreurs Maiyuran Ratneswaran and Henry Gann were unavailable. They were replaced by Camille van Hoffelen and Chris Lawrence. They completed the squad made up of Chris Gilliam, Indy Leclercq and Glen Ostacchini in foil; Jonathan Ashcroft, Tom Powell and Harry Gulliver in the epee and ...

Reviewed in 60 Seconds

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

David Bowie - and nbsp;The Rise And Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars Having been released 40 years ago, this review is probably a bit late. For those of you who are less than familiar with the work of David Bowie this album is a great place to start. and nbsp; The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars is about the human-like alien, Ziggy Stardust, sent to earth to bring humanity hope in the last five years of its existence. This is one of the shortest and most accessible of David Bowie and rsquo;s albums, and in my opinion his best. It is full of cracking pop/glam-rock songs, some of which you will be more than familiar with, all of which will leave you keen to press repeat. Rating: 4/5 Venetian Snares - and nbsp;Cubist Reggae Usually, listening to Snares would be a great way to burn calories through hearing. This time around, Aaron Funk ...

A very print unfriendly band

Thu, 23 Feb 2012

I was exceptionally upset to hear about the death last June of Seth Putnam, lead singer of Anal Cunt (or AxCx). For some reason, his death wasn and rsquo;t reported that widely in the mainstream media, and in my post-teenage years my involvement in the metal scene has been dramatically diminished, so his passing passed me by. I loved his band more than can possibly be explained in anything approaching logical terms, but I hope to make you want to listen to them anyway. I rarely make it through an entire AxCx album, and never in polite company. I generally dip in and out for about 5 minutes or so before having to not listen to anything else for a couple of hours. To call this band challenging is similar to calling World War II bad: undeniably true, but so wildly understated as to make the description seem fatuously incorrect. Simply reading the ...