Specs 'n' Headphones

Express Yourself: Being a Fashionista in the Gaming World

2013-09-04T19:45:00.000+01:00

This feature is also available at n-Europe, found here.

Self-expression is an inherent part of almost all video games. By simply being a medium where the audience can interact with the work, they're allowed to make an impact within the game. Even doing nothing at all is technically an expression.

But that viewpoint is pretty pretentious and nebulous. In a practical sense games have two ways most people consider outlets for expression - building environments and player customisation. There are deviations of course, but what you come across in mainstream titles will boil down to one of those two.

To be hyperbolic, building (or destroying) environments doesn't give me much joy. I know there are plenty of people who spend countless hours crafting the perfect urban environment in SimCity or constructing a golden, penis-shaped fortress in Minecraft, but it's not my thing.

What I can burn hours on is thorough character customisation - perfect for my egoistic nature. Most games are very mechanical about this (will you put points into attack, defence or custard pie resistance?), but the real draw is the fashionable side.

It's the perfect way of showing how painfully unique and stylish I am. I have an avid interest in fashion and subculture - though since the general demographic target for mainstream games is not... shall we say 'particularly sartorial', games that let you choose your fashion choices stand out as special.

It's all well and good to have a robust character building system in a game, but if it's all impossible fantasy armour or tattered brown military gear then *snore* - let me wow crowds with sharp suits and bold patterns.

Which, coincidentally, had me all kinds of hyped for New Style Boutique earlier this year. I had much enjoyed the original DS game (to the raised eyebrows of almost all my male peers), and having my fashion tastes not only fully expressed but at the gameplay forefront seemed like a dream.
Funnily enough, it didn't fully meet up to my expectations.

New Style Boutique is a fun and well-produced game, don't get me wrong. But, in order to give something as subjective as fashion tastes win and lose states, the game has a hidden set of rules for what works and what doesn't.

It's surprisingly restricted. For example, I personally hate wearing too many things from the same brand at once (it makes you look like a walking billboard). But because each brand in the game is dedicated to a single 'look', hardcore brand loyalty is the stairway to success.

I had to form an uneasy balance between experimentation and ticking all the invisible boxes the game required. This wasn't punk in the slightest, no matter how much Stage Dive-brand clothing I wore.
Where I found a far better style experience on the 3DS was, surprisingly, Monster Hunter 3 Ultimate. Now, MH3U has more than its fair share of overly-bulky, ridiculous armour sets, but it's sprinkled with some real flair.

Every enemy you fight in the game can be turned into items to wear, and it takes a few kills before you have enough materials to make the full suit. This has the great side-effect of making you work hard for your fashion. When I first started playing, and found I could wear a suit and top hat made from butterfly wings, I was totally blown away.

But the bugs that the suit was made from were delicate, and shattered into dust against my weapon, denying me a carving opportunity. Working out how to reliably get the carves (the trick is to poison them) and gather all the parts took me hours. But the result was pure joy and a fabulous, lustrous sheen.

Even though the different armours are tied to mechanical benefits (each armour set gives a bunch of skill bonuses) crafting an outfit that both looks cool and gives skills you want is a test in lateral thinking.

However, my customisation ideal is the ability to design clothes myself. It's not an impossible task (the Sims modding community has been doing it for years), but the Animal Crossing series makes it breathtakingly easy.

The simple, low-poly style of the game means making patterns is a painless process. Spending years of my teenage life doing (mediocre) pixel art as a hobby meant I could go to the Able Sisters tailoring shop and churn out clothing like a Primark sweatshop.

Animal Crossing New Leaf takes the extra step and allows design of clothes of three different styles - as well as making trousers and shoes separate items, so you can create an ensemble from top to toe.
July can't come fast enough. Look out for Nathan Blades Summer 2013 clothing range in an Animal Crossing town near you.

Hyper Japan 2013 report

2013-09-04T19:42:00.004+01:00

This feature is also available at n-Europe, found here.

Nerd conventions aren't too common in the UK – at least not compared to the US. The biggest one, the MCM Media Expo, draws ridiculous numbers of nerds, thirsty for cosplay and overpriced merchandise.

As such, I was slightly wary of Hyper Japan. Technically, it's not a convention for nerdy interests, but because Japanese entertainment and culture has such a heavy overlap, I was expecting it to be a similar affair to MCM or London Film and Comic Con, but with superhero capes being replaced by the super kawaii.

But I was wrong – kinda. While there were a myriad ways to spend your money on authentic (and not-so-authentic) Japanese products, there were also panels on aspects of Japanese culture, music performances, and tea and sake tasting.

As for broadening my own cultural horizons, I found that I hate takoyaki (did you know they put mayonnaise directly into the batter? Disgusting), that hakama are super comfortable but not built for someone who's 6ft 5, and a cute purple bento box that will store my lunches for months to come.
There was also a very large section devoted to Nintendo's upcoming and latest releases, including a few things I wasn't expecting to see just yet.

Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies

After Ace Attorney Investigations 2 not being translated into English, the news that Dual Destinies was making it over here brings me great relief.

They've cranked things up for the 3DS – everything is now rendered in 3D, but the art direction of the originals is still intact, right down to the goofy freaking out animations when you expose a flaw in testimony.

As the name suggests, there are two stories afoot – in a direct continuation of Apollo Justice, both Apollo and Phoenix Wright stand in court to fight for the truth. The demo looked at both a court and an investigation scenario; neither of them differ much from the rest of the main Ace Attorney games, but there's a new feature added to court proceedings.

Phoenix's new assistant, Athena, is a behavioural psychologist, and carries some snazzy software what will give you readings of feelings from the witness on the stand. Some parts of the testimony might have an emotion you don't expect to see, and pointing them out is the way to progress.

Finding these inaccuracies is easier than the body-language reading in Apollo Justice, but it could still be employed in complex ways. Only time (or a play through of the Japanese version, which is already out) can tell.

Shin Megami Tensei IV

The SMT series has kind of a cult following (and most of the recent fans are of the Persona spinoff series), but Atlus have not been great at getting its instalments out to Europe.

Yet, there's a whole lot of RPG goodness heading our way on Nintendo formats. Including this game, four SMT titles are set to have an European release. Dollars-to-doughnuts most of them won't arrive here for some time, but SMTIV is bound to tide you over in the meantime.

You play as a trainee Samurai – a member of the police force for a medieval kingdom with some really serious class divide issues. In order to keep the peace (and follow your directives), you're given an arm-mounted computer that will let you summon demons. A difficult adventure into dungeons, morality issues and gateways to post-apocalyptic Tokyo follows.

The battle system is very similar to other games in the SMT series (and if you're not familiar with that, Dragon Quest and Earthbound are close matches), and is quick to punish careless players. In the demo, there were fights with demons that could clear out my party in one turn if I didn't get the upper hand.

Fortunately, SMTIV will let you resume your game from where you died at the cost of some in-game cash or Play Coins. It's a feature a lot of other games in the series lacks, and comes personally as a great relief.

The Wonderful 101

It doesn't take long to identify a Clover Studios/Platinum game when you come across one. It might be a focus on grading your combat prowess, it might be the flying kick attack they seem to work into every game, and sometimes it's just the the hyper-passionate energy they put into making you feel like a powerful badass.

On in this case, up to 100 powerful badasses.

The Wonderful 101 is partially a technique-heavy hack 'n' slash, partially an action puzzler. Playing as a superhero with the power of 'unity', you use it not so much in a 'power of friendship' way, but more of a 'chaining people together to make giant weapons' kind of way.

Tailed by an ever-lengthening crowd of people you find in the stages, you can suspend the game action to draw a shape on the Wii U Gamepad or with the right analogue stick. The shape you make will determine the weapon. A straight line for a sword, an L shape for a gun, an S shape for a whip and so on.

The longer you draw the line, the more people you use to make the weapon and the larger it gets. Joy is swinging a massive sword made from 50 people. Heaven is plunging it into a gelatinous space monster.

The character design and sense of humour reminds me heavily of Viewtiful Joe, and considering the superhero theme, I will be distraught if he doesn't cameo in some way. The battles, though chaotic, rely on a mastery of dodges and parries, just like Platinum's other works. Getting hit doesn't just mean damage, but scattering your amassed horde.

The demo only allowed for 10 minutes of play, but in that time I ran down a water slide trailing rainbows, cranked a Ferris Wheel into life with a giant fist, ripped the armour of a giant robot with a whip, and got swallowed whole by the aforesaid gelatinous space monster. Awesome.

Wii Karaoke U

It is exactly what it sounds like, though that's not a complete cause to write it off. Arguably, it was the most appropriate game to be demonstrated at the event! The Wii U Gamepad is great for queueing up songs on the fly, and the game boasts that thousands of songs will be available from the eShop.
There's an almost even mix between Japanese and Western songs, meaning I had the pleasure of seeing countless white girls butcher Japanese pop songs the lyrics of which they could barely pronounce.

I myself sung Beyonce's 'Ego' - an excellent (terrible) match for my incredibly bass-heavy singing voice. A refreshing change to the repeated requests for 'Hare Hare Yukai'. It was only one of two Beyonce songs offered though, which is a grave, grave error.

A special note has to be made for the large Animal Crossing area that was set up, complete with a photo booth and fish catching competition (which almost immediately devolved into a Whale Shark-catching competition). For the tons of people going through their Street Pass data, there was a cushioned area complete with a bunch of charge points (and a profoundly irritating Emcee who's constant humming of the Luigi's Mansion theme made me want to lodge my 3DS in his trachea).

Really, it was the most ambitious Nintendo stall I've seen at a convention in a long time. They'll be holding a convention entirely by themselves soon, just you wait.

MCM Media Expo 2013 round up

2013-09-04T19:39:00.003+01:00

This feature is also available at n-Europe, found here.

The MCM Media Expo, while increasingly turning into an outlet for bad cosplay and overpriced merchandise every passing year, it's one of the better opportunities for members of the public to try out upcoming releases without paying through the nose.

Nintendo has a rather hefty stall every year, and this time around was no exception. Here's a quick round up of the new content that featured last weekend.

Rayman Legends (Wii U)
Having seen severe delays, you would hope that Rayman Legends would be brimming with content and gleaming with polish. Well, it's impossible to judge content from the demo, but the game definitely feels weighty, retaining all the charm and animation quality of the prequel.

What's different for the Wi iU is the ability for the GamePad user to act as a helper, tapping on scenery to reveal hidden objects and stun enemies. It's definitely functional, but like the helper mode in the Super Mario Galaxy games, its inclusion is entirely incidental, and not a patch on running around the levels yourself.

Thankfully, the game still supports 4-player co-op, and now there's a new character - the axe-hefting Barbara. Considering most of the female characters in Rayman Origins were inside cages, this is a nice change.

Game and Wario (Wii U)
Arguably existing to fill a quota of a Wario Ware game on every Nintendo console, the Wario Ware series have been great for demonstrating how to use the hardware's quirks for interesting ideas.
As such, Game and Wario plays like a halfway house between the structured, controlled fun of Nintendo Land and the meta, inter-personal fun of Spin the Bottle.

The minigames on offer - now too robust to really be 'microgames' - balance using the technology of the GamePad (its tilt-sensor, its touch screen, that it's a screen other people can't see) with getting other people involved in a way that doesn't necessarily require hardware.

Of the games shown, 'Fruit' stands out as a Where's Wally style game where one player pretends to be a single character in a crowd of NPCs, stealing fruit without other players noticing.

Animal Crossing: New Leaf (3DS)
The first public showing of the game in Europe, Animal Crossing New Leaf's release date crawls closer and closer.

The formula of the game definitely hasn't changed, but a graphical update, a torrent of new content to fill your house with, and countless tweaks for convenience make this version of AC smoother to play and set to get fans hooked all over again.

The added element of being the mayor of your town doesn't change to much of what you'll be doing day-to-day, but the ability to add in custom features and pass town altering 'laws' (the law that makes your villagers clean your town for you is going to be definitely useful) adds a new facet of game to throw your precious bells at.

Project X Zone (3DS)
A spiritual sequel to the Japanese-only Namco X Capcom, Project X Zone (pronounced "Cross Zone") takes iconic characters from the franchise histories of Sega, Namco, and Capcom and has them fight to save the say in a very flashy turn-based strategy game.

The demo, offered at the event is also available on the eShop right now, so you can already give it a whirl! The stage maps and basic rules aren't too complex, but the battle system is where the game stands out. Battles are executed manually, each attack hitting with different timing and heights. Winning battles requires timed attacks to juggle foes into oblivion.

As with previous games by Monolith Soft (They also did Super Robot Taisen OG Saga: Endless Frontier on the DS), the sprite work is gloriously detailed and cleverly animated.

Deus Ex: Human Revolution (Wii U)
One of the handful of games demonstrated at the Nintendo booth that are ports of an existing titles (Resident Evil Revelations and The Cave were also available), I bring it up Deus Ex for the unique way it uses the GamePad.

While the game itself was unchanged from the 360/PS3 release (the dialogue and area layouts are all the same) all of the menu functionality has been moved to the touch screen.

So your standard inventory management is now touch-operated and a lot more intuitive. Better yet, the hacking minigame is also now on touch screen, and in dialogue sections where your aim is to persuade your conversation partner, you get a rudimentary psychological profile of the subject, and a visual indicator of how close you are to changing their mind.

Considering the game's cyberpunk aesthetic, the GamePad feels much more engaging, as if you're using the technology in real life. Here's hoping the Wi iU version of Watch_Dogs will incorporate similar ideas.

Serial Gaming: Fighting Games

2013-09-04T18:59:00.001+01:00

This article can also be found on One Hit Pixel, here.

I’ve loved fighting games for a long time. I’ve never been great at them – most of the time I’m not even good at them – but they bring about such excitement and tension. The kind of hollering at the screen you can only manage when it’s about a toe-to-toe duel with larger than life attacks. I’m an ardent pacifist in real life, but in King of Fighters, I’ll stain my hands with your blood.

That said, until very recently, I didn’t quite appreciate how games within the genre have such important differences. At the moment I’m playing Persona 4 Arena, Skullgirls, and Tekken Tag Tournament 2; but I admit that I approach them all mentally in a rather similar fashion.

At their core, all fighting games (the good ones, anyway) follow some basic tenets: movement and spacing, the attack/block/throw strategic triangle, and even how the HUD should look. The other differences feel aesthetic, maybe even inconsequential.

Then I discovered Salty Bet.

13:1 odds for Chun-Li
For the uninitiated, Salty Bet is a perpetually running stream of MUGEN, an open-source fighting game engine where users can create characters. Fighters from the history of the genre, popular or obscure, have been rendered in the engine, along with bizarre and imbalanced custom creations.

Characters are selected out of a roster of hundreds, and fight it out while controlled by AI. Viewers gamble on the results with play money, with the payouts depending on which way people have voted.
It’s a rather dystopian form of entertainment, but it very quickly becomes inexplicably compelling to watch. For fighting game enthusiasts, it’s a nostalgic mash-up of favourite characters, obscure series, and bizarre custom creations.

I witnessed a rather tense match between Clark Steel from King of Fighters (A burly military man with a penchant for wrestling) against Robo-Ky from Guilty Gear (A surprisingly sassy robot filled with missiles).

The ground-based combo heavy system of King of Fighters was an odd match against the high-speed aerial manoeuvres of Guilty Gear. It was a tense match, and not just because I went all-in on Robo-Ky. Sadly though, Clark won out.

When universes collide
In the same way that taking the Blue Falcon for a spin around Mario Circuit sounds like a fun idea, but logistically silly – Salty Bet makes it clear that the minutiae that sets games in a genre apart are differences worth respecting.

The problem is, crossovers between series are the dreams of obsessive neckbeards the world over. In the same way that superhero comic fans lust for a fight between say, Captain America and Superman, fighting game fans can’t turn down a fight between Ryu and Kyo Kusanagi.

Official crossovers of that nature do indeed exist, with Capcom vs SNK 2 and Street Fighter x Tekken being the most famous examples. However, in both games, the attempt to bring disparate fighting systems together was a tricky process.

CvS2 actually takes about 8 different fighting game series from the two publishers, and takes at least one mechanic from them all! A ‘groove’ type you select at the start of each battle determines what gameplay style you use. It was a good game (and the game where I first tried to learn how to play instead of just mashing buttons), but the complexity resulted in matches playing out similar to those bizarre 3D chess sets while simultaneously trying to land an aeroplane. That’s caught fire.

SFxT went a slightly different route to blend its host series. Making a 3D fighting (and largely projectile-free) system like Tekken work in a Street Fighter format is an obvious conundrum, but mostly the game uses entirely original mechanics, including the ‘Pandora Mode’ desperation move and the infamous Gem System. The resulting experience felt gimmicky and awkward. While the Gems provided handicaps for less skilled players, their use didn’t help said players understand the quirks of the game any better.

The Birth of New Series
Because CvS2 is so inaccessible, and SFxT was largely a hot mess, it’s difficult to call those crossover games a total success – but experiments like those titles have definitely formed the latest generation of fighting games.

Since we’re no longer in an era where Street Fighter is the genre baseline, new fighting games don’t need to intentionally come up with new mechanics to set themselves apart – we have a complex library of games systems, ripe for remixing into something new.

Skullgirls, which has recently become available on Steam, is a prime example. Although it doesn’t look like it on the surface, the game is packed to the brim with bits and pieces from other fighter series the developers had close to their hearts.

However, because it’s not overtly trying to mash different games together, the experience as a whole is very unified and smooth. It’s been described as the missing link between Marvel vs Capcom 2 and Guilty Gear, and I can definitely feel that when I play.

Yatagarasu is another indie fighter that only very recently completed a crowdsourced fundraiser to become a more robust, multi-platform release. Its lead developer was heavily involved with the development of several King of Fighters titles, but it aims to be something far beyond that. Most notably, it features an easy-to-use parry system (which most famously showed up in Street Fighter III) for some very technical battles.

As a final, kind of silly example, did you know that there’s a League of Legends fighting game in development? It’s fan made, but it’s been given the all-clear by Riot. Because they want it to be accessible to players who aren’t used the execution requirements of fighting games, they’re actually taking cues from Super Smash Bros. for how special moves work. I wait for more information about it with apprehensive curiosity.

Serial Gaming: Animal Crossing

2013-09-04T18:56:00.000+01:00

This feature can also be found on One Hit Pixel, here.

When I committed myself to writing a set of features on my opinions of gaming series, it looked like a cakewalk. But after some thought, I found it needed a more tentative approach. You see, I’d like to say that I am ardently opposed to ‘sequelitis’. In my mind, the greatest gaming achievements are rarely held by sequels (sales figures notwithstanding). Ideally, I would want to say that I don’t have a favourite series, followed by many words about the indie gaming scene.

Sadly, that’s not true at all. I’ll hold my hands up and say that there are a few series where I’ve played most, if not all of. Today, I’ll talk about one that’s not my absolute favourite, but one I’ve recently clocked as having some genius game design I didn’t appreciate way back when.

Animal Crossing is not a series I’ve followed from the start – my first foray was Animal Crossing: Wild World on the DS – but every game since then I’ve sunk countless hours into.

In my high school years, Wild World had me completely enthralled with its miniature idealistic world. However, I wasn’t a genius authority on game design back then – I took the game experience entirely at face value. It’s difficult to give an honest answer as to why it clicked with me so well.

The best I can manage is a reference to the Skinner Box theory. Animal Crossing keeps you coming back every day with the prospect of something new – fossils that your museum might not have yet, another item of furniture for the themed set you’re collecting, or that fabled Coelacanth. To a kid raised on Pokémon Trading Cards, that kind of game design is like digital cocaine.

I befriended villagers to get their photo items. I expanded my house so I could better show off the rare furniture pieces I procured to my classmates who also played. What AI and design work that went on behind the scenes went unappreciated.

Years later, the Wii semi-sequel, Animal Crossing: City Folk came out. On paper, it was the kind of content expansion I could have ever wanted. By that time I was in sixth-form, older and more jaded about my gaming habits.

I no longer had a raw, completionist instinct. I could carry over my character from Wild World, but I wasn’t motivated to play every day any more. The game had more robust content, but I was looking for story-driven experiences in that time of my life. I still played, but I was failing to ‘get’ what Animal Crossing did best. Eventually I lost a couple of hours progress to an internet connection drop and I set the game aside for good.

So then, fast forward to this year. Animal Crossing: New Leaf had me excited, but I couldn’t have explained to you why. Just two or three days of play later, the pieces clicked into place, and it dawned on me what was so special about the series.

In no other game does the player’s creative input have such a direct payoff. Every choice made available – how you arrange your town, how you decorate your house, what you wear – can be shown to and enjoyed by other people. It’s been present across all of the games (even in the Gamecube and Japanese only Nintendo 64 games, where you are encouraged to have everyone in the household play), but New Leaf goes leaps and bounds into make both creating and sharing content as easy as possible.

The most salient example is with pattern designs. In all the games you could make designs for clothing or house furnishing. With New Leaf, not only are the uses for your patterns pretty broad, you can turn it into a QR code and share it with other players. I’ve been designing patterns of my own, and it’s the best feeling ever when some sends you a picture of them wearing something you’ve designed.

New Leaf‘s heavily pushed feature of being the mayor of your town feels like a gimmick at first glance, but it means that your town is now like your patterns – customisable, and can be shared with your friends. More so than the randomised town layout every player starts with, what kind of public works you build makes your town truly unique.

There are other games that run a theme of sharing customisations (It’s the only way I can fathom people playing Minecraft), but I’ve not found any others that makes the process so simple yet so immediately rewarding. You can bask in the satisfaction of your town not only looking good, but everyone else you know with the came can see for themselves how sweet it is.

Ah, but there’s another trick up the game’s sleeve. Even though creating content is hassle-free, it doesn’t give you all this customisation up front. For example, you can’t get the ability to share pattern QR codes until you properly befriend the hedgehog sisters that run the clothing store – which could take around 10 days from starting the game!

Getting new furniture is a slow process unless you talk to the other residents and help them with errands. Anyone who plays Animal Crossing knows to set aside 10 minutes every Saturday night to score some new bootleg songs from a guitar-playing dog (on a side note, never try to explain this to your friends unless you want to be labelled unhinged).

You find that when you’re engaging the game world so you can make creative and completion progress, you form a kinship with the characters you encounter. You don’t need to have a favourite town resident to be able to expand your house, but every player has one.

It was a side of the overall gameplay that I didn’t fully appreciate as a kid (I made maybe eight patterns in the two or three years I played Wild World). Animal Crossing each instalment of the series to further blur the lines of getting immersed in the game and letting you explore your creativity through the game, but the present results blow me away.

If there is to be a Wii U incarnation (and that’s rather likely), if they integrate the sharing of content to the Miiverse and allow cross-platform play with the 3DS, it would be all that easier to reach some stranger on the other side of the world with a little bit of my self-expression.

Oh, and as a side note, go read through Dave Irwin’s Animal Crossing: New Leaf diary if you haven’t already.

Media Matters: Peaceful days died. Let's Survive

2013-09-04T18:49:00.000+01:00

This feature can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

Even with my busy schedule, I still try to squeeze in some gaming time. My current vice on Nintendo 3DS right now is Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor Overclocked.

It's actually something of an old game - it was originally released as just Shin Megami Tensei: Devil Survivor in Japan and America back in 2009, but never saw a UK release. Overclocked is a re-release for the 3DS, but due to publishing issues, it took a whole two years between the Japanese release and ours, released on the March 29.

The game details an unlikely disaster scenario - a large section of Tokyo is suddenly cordoned off by the armed forces. The government say it's due to a poison gas leak, but the thousands trapped inside the danger zone know the truth – it’s an invasion of bloodthirsty demons. Knowing that death is constantly around the corner, they try to survive the lockdown for a week, assuming they don't find a way of escaping. The game's tagline says it all: "Peaceful days died. Let's Survive."

It's a story that's surprisingly easy to relate to. Not so much the demons (although the mythology nerd in me appreciates that), but in the character interaction. The main character is rather plain, but his friends and the other survivors he encounters each have their own concerns and different motivations for trying to escape... or stay.

It got me thinking: if I was in a similar disaster area, would I be able to survive? Lord knows how many fellow nerds made zombie survival plans in light of that now overplayed and overrated horror trope.

Devil Survivor offers little advice, but it definitely discusses the dangers. The electricity going out is one of the biggest threats. We of the Communication Age need electronics more than ever to stay functional. Some people get tetchy when they can't check Facebook at will - having no internet connection at all would destroy them. Most of the food would spoil, and failed traffic lights would cause more than a few accidents.

Fortunately, a lot of our technology is both portable and rechargeable. You may not have desktop access or a call signal, but there are countless handheld chargers out there, even DIY ones if you fancy yourself handy.

After that comes the rioting. In the game, once the public realise that they're being lied to about the poison gas leaks, things get tense - and any small argument could escalate into chaos. In real life, riots will break out the moment people realise they can break shop windows without getting caught.

I still remember the riots in 2011 – although not sparked by disaster, it still remains a great example of what people are capable of if given a little temptation and stirred into a frenzy.

In either case, large groups become a problem. The general consensus on surviving riots is simply to remain detached from it. The closer you are to the incident centre (and the more you're dressed like a rioter, or worse, a person in uniform) the more likely you are to get involved in the fray.

Taking a look at a different work of media for advice - The Walking Dead TV show has seen a lot of success for both being yet another thing with zombies in it, and also being legitimately good (which I admit slightly begrudgingly).

Its narrative focuses more on the relationship dynamics between the survivors more than the, uh, walking dead. It seems that their survival recommendations involve escaping the city entirely, which I doubt I could manage; I'm terrified of the countryside (and nature in general).

They also lack electricity, but have (somewhat intermittent) police radios to communicate. Tension between survivors is often laid on for drama's sake, but it 's clear that becoming a 'lone wolf' in the face of danger will most likely be fatal.

In reality, even though we encounter most of our experience with disaster in media, the survival advice they give is sometimes dangerously inaccurate. Some disaster movies are just plain ridiculous. Even with the presence of demons, Devil Survivor feels a lot more plausible than pretty much all of 2012.

So yes, in a disaster scenario, my media knowledge is probably just going to get me killed. Which is a shame - not because I intend to fight zombies or demons any time soon, but because North Korea's constant threats of nuclear missile strike make me feel I should be collecting tins of food and searching for underground shelters on online estate agent websites.

Luckily, there are countless paranoid people on the internet with detailed disaster survival instructions, from reasonable things like floods to this increasingly likely nuclear apocalypse.

Tech Talk: Seeing Sounds and the 'Art Game'

2013-09-04T18:45:00.000+01:00

This feature can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

Singing Ribbons is a new art installation by Matthew Maxwell for the iPhone generation. A series of paintings consisting of bold stripes of colour can be scanned by a special mobile app that converts each stripe into notes sung by a soprano.

Really, it's an awesome concept. On a basic level, it's a great form of interactive art. The works come alive with what you bring to the gallery, and the results leave with you. We are clearly far to prone to forgetfulness to simply remember the exhibit.

From a technological perspective, it takes the idea behind QR codes (Those 'square barcodes' that most smartphones these days can read), and explores it in a refreshing way. It's no surprise that Mr Maxwell works in software, but has an education in fine art.

Beyond that, I think it's an interesting demonstration of Synaesthesia, though that may not be intentional.

What's that? Synaesthesia is a mental condition that switches up the wiring in your brain when recalling emotions and senses. Normally when we see, for example, the colour green, our brains go through a subconscious process of acknowledging what colour it is, using the 'correct' part of the brain to do so.

For a 'synaesthete', they may instead start smelling fried bacon or hear the sound of a tuba, as their brain tries to use an area that's meant to process a different sense.

In practice, the most common form of synaesthesia are people feeling that letters and numbers have inherent colours. What's more, only 1 in 2000 are likely to be synaesthetes. But that's not as romantic or exciting to think about.

Drug use (I won't say which ones, though you could probably guess) is often known to induce synaesthesia, often a kind where sounds trigger colours, or touch triggers sounds. Unsurprisingly, this is a lot closer to artistic representations.

The bars that make up each piece in Singing Ribbons reflect the decorations on army generals. What would be a meaningless pattern of colours to a layperson has a set of understandable rules and meanings to someone in the know. Just like how a synaesthete could feel another meaning to a set of apparently arbitrary letters.

Singing Ribbons isn't the only example of interactive art, or in using technology as a medium. Across the history of video games, there's a host of titles that take the art appreciation experience to your living room.

Once described as 'art games', they cause many debates over if games are inherently art, or if only this genre of subversive and abstract titles qualify. Many have taken to describing them as 'un-games', though that's not always appropriate either.

Rez is the classic example. Released way back in 2002 for the Sega Dreamcast and Playstation 2 (and since re-released on Xbox Live), it is directed by Tetsuya Mizuguchi.

Across much of Mizuguchi's work, he has a personal fascination with sound design in games. He designed Rez as a representation of Synaesthesia, and in reference to the Bauhaus art of Wassily Kandinsky.

Even though it's a video game in a very traditional sense, enjoying it need not be about getting high scores. There's a mode that lets you just enjoy the game without fear of failure.

More recently, the present Indie scene has had a revival of games that are much closer to the idea of the 'un-game'. Dear Esther went from a free modification of an existing game in 2008 to a complete, priced title in February 2012. It lets you explore an abandoned, overcast island as a narrator explains the back story of the events that happened there in a vaguely obtuse and non-chronological fashion.

At the time, its total refusal to conform to standard perceptions of a 'game' caused a large stir among games journalists and even now I feel it's a far cry from a successful experiment, but it was a well-publicised step into a bigger interest in interactive artworks.

As such, Proteus works out to be a more palatable take on that kind of Art Game. Using intentionally low resolution graphics, hazy neon gradients, and a dynamic interactive soundtrack (filled with wavy extended synths and hushed clarinets), players can wander through the landscape as day turns to night and clouds roll overhead.

As developing video games becomes easier, and the underground movement for producing counter-culture and intellectual games builds steam, the discussion of what constitutes 'art' or a 'game' will rage on.

Meanwhile, Pippin Barr's Art Game, a game about producing art by playing a game within the game is the best take on the genre I've seen yet. Maybe the Tate Modern should have an Art Game exhibition this year.

Singing Ribbons will be available for viewings from 14-17 April at the Coningsby Gallery on Tottenham Street. For more information, check the gallery website.

Tech Talk: Tournament organisers scam clients with unauthorised money-making software

2013-09-04T18:38:00.000+01:00

This feature can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

A hidden function in globally used anti-cheating software generated almost $4,000 for an e-sports company, statements revealed this week.

The E-Sports Entertainment Association (ESEA) distributed the program for users who would be competing in tournaments, but within the code was a function that uses computer processing power to earn a digital currency called Bitcoins.

Users noticed that their computers were running slower and electricity bills had increased, complaining on the ESEA website about the issue.

One of the website staff members, known as 'lpkane', issued an initial statement to the queries.
He mentioned that it was an idea between him and another staff member, 'jaguar', to implement the function as an April Fool’s joke.

He said: "Jaguar and I were talking about how cool it would be."

He went on to claim that they had disabled the mining functionality, after testing it on their own accounts for a few days. Then, a server error resulted in the 'joke' program being distributed to clients.

In lpkane's statement, he said that the program had been live for 48 hours and earned around two Bitcoins (roughly $280 at time of writing).

However, a more formal statement made by the ESEA owner, Craig Turnball, put the mining total at $3,713.50, occurring over two weeks since April 13th.

He says that he was aware of the initial testing phase of the mining functions, but gave no instruction to apply it to user accounts.

Mr Turnball said: "We are extremely disappointed and concerned by the unauthorized actions of this unauthorized individual."

The Bitcoin mining function has since been removed from the software and the value of the Bitcoins mined will be donated to the American Cancer Society, along with a donation of the same amount from ESEA themselves.

There has been no mention of whether lpkane or jaguar have been identified as the "unauthorised individual" or if any action is being taken against them.

Some Background on Bitcoins
Established in 2008 by Satoshi Nakamoto, Bitcoins are electronic cash designed to be transferred with no exchange rate between computers, and can be converted into legal tender. Although the currency is used globally, it is commonly compared to US dollars in value.

They are ‘cryptographic’, using a complex coding system for authenticity and to ensure the same Bitcoin isn’t spent twice. Due to their non-corporeal nature, the actual value of Bitcoins tends to fluctuate often.

Although the non-mediated system of Bitcoins allows for trading of goods and services with minimal intervention from banks, there is a lot of criticism about the currency’s stability and legality.
In its early stages, the non-traceable nature of Bitcoins allowed a website, Silk Road, to freely trade drugs and other contraband.

A man under the handle of ‘Killhamster’ runs a Bitcoin satire website, called Buttcoin. The site archives news about the currency and those that use it, highlighting dangerous or strange behaviour.
His documentation of various screen captures from online message boards and Twitter accounts is rather contentious among the Bitcoin community.

To generate Bitcoins, a computer does a series of complex equations, and upon completion, a central server rewards a number of Bitcoins.

Initially, users were awarded with 25 Bitcoins for every block of equations completed. As more Bitcoins enter the economy, the amount rewarded has decreased. The complexity of the equations is designed to be proportionate with the power of the computer.

In some cases the processes can cause damage to the machine, as the calculations can caused increased processor strain, and greatly increase electricity usage. Computers designed for playing video games have better processors than average.

Enthusiasts will create specifically designed machines for Bitcoin mining. Some are professionally built machines costing thousands of dollars; some are jury-rigged setups with multiple graphics cards and cooling fans.

Sloppy builds are a health hazard – in January a house fire broke out in Ottawa, Canada as a Bitcoin miner’s rig short circuited. The fire resulted in $300,000 in damages.

Avalon Asics are the present leaders in producing hardware with the sole purpose of mining. They will only accept Bitcoins as payment for their services.

Tech Talk: Xbox One

2013-09-04T18:34:00.000+01:00

This feature can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

You probably already know this, but electronics are designed to have a lifespan. Apple tends to design their iPod so you'll own one for about a year before buying another. Gaming consoles work the same way, but a tad slower.

We're on to our 9th generation of home consoles: Nintendo's WiiU will be soon met with Sony's Playstation 4 this year, and this week we've had a conference from Microsoft, announcing their new console - the Xbox One.

Even though its presence was long awaited (you could argue it was guaranteed), the response was a great deal less positive than Microsoft were hoping. In fact, the conferenced managed to cause a large spike in stocks for Sony and Nintendo.

Now, I'm no business analyst, but my diagnosis is that there's been a hefty misunderstanding between what Microsoft thinks they should sell, and what their user base actually want.

The Xbox One (which I have seen amusingly referred to as Xbone, so I shall do the same) kind of resembles a mid-90s VCR, with an iPod black sheen.

To compare it to the Xbox 360, the Xbone has a 500GB hard drive and 8GB of RAM (compared to the 320GB storage and 512MB RAM of the 360), and is designed to have motion sensors and connectivity with tablets right from the word go.

So far, so sensible. The hardware's vital statistics bring it closer to the brunt that (incredibly expensive) Gaming PCs are capable of, but these are mere figures if they're not used for something important.

This is where I feel Microsoft slips up. When talking of the Xbone's special features, spokespeople at the conference focused on trying to pitch a 'multi-entertainment' product, with a lot of words dedicated to video streaming, voice commands and recording footage of games you're playing.

It's all rather superfluous. Most TV addicts already have access to Netflix, voice commands are the territory of couch potatoes, and the recording functions are suspiciously similar to what Sony announced for the Playstation 4 a few months ago.

The amount of time dedicated to actual games for the console was comparatively brief, and none of it was especially astounding. In fact, everything they announced was a sequel - FIFA 2014, Forza Motorsport 5, Call of Duty: Ghost.

Only one new franchise was announced - Quantum Break. The brief trailer reveals precious little, though it's the prettiest destruction of a bridge I've ever seen.

According to Remedy, who are developing the game, Quantum Break aims to meld TV shows and gaming experiences together, which honestly could go in some interesting directions - though it's way too early to get excited.

However, the things that concern me most weren't discussed in the conference at all. As with the 360, the Xbone won't let games developers self-publish.

Traditionally, games developers release their titles through a publisher (companies like EA, Activision and Konami are publishers), but in the present industry, there's a very popular trend of smaller development studios that can't afford a publisher can still release their games digitally.

With Microsoft forcing teams to use publishers to host their content, a thriving part of the games development industry is suddenly hamstrung.

Buying a new games console is actually a hefty investment - the basic hardware isn't cheap, so most are hesitant to make the purchase unless they know they are going to get enough hours of fun to make things worthwhile.

And unfortunately for Microsoft, being able to watch television and play Yet Another Football Game 2014 doesn't inspire me or my wallet with confidence.

But it's not too late - in the months leading up to the Xbone's release, they can still announce more interesting titles, lower the barrier of entry to smaller development companies, and realise that the main reason why people buy games consoles is to play games.

Media Matters: The 7 o'clock news with Shaquille O'Neal

2013-09-04T18:30:00.000+01:00

This feature can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

The other day, I was in a conversation on the internet about the development of an indie video game. The main characters were to have voice actors, and it just so happened one of the cast was a black guy.

The number of people who suddenly yelled "He should be voiced by Samuel L. Jackson!" was overwhelming.

It made me wonder about the presence of black actors in major releases these days. Setting aside that the internet is filled with idiots, is Samuel L. Jackson the only option Hollywood has for 'the black guy'?

Well, no, I'm being hyperbolic - we also have Will Smith. If the role requires someone older, or a narrator, Morgan Freeman's usually the port of call.

There are others (no need to bring up each name of every rapper who's turned a hand to film, for example), but they're very rarely cut out for anything other than a comedy relief role.

If Hollywood needs a British black actor for whatever reason, they're stuck. Ocean's Twelve had to settle for Don Cheadle putting on a disgustingly poor Cockney accent.

That's not to say that there's a total dearth of black actors out there, it's just that they often don't seem to get the kind of high profile exposure that other actors of a similar (or even worse) skill level get.

And that's if the audience don't just dismiss the presence of black actors outright. If you remember back in 2011, Idris Elba had a solid role as Heimdall, in Thor. Naturally, the internet filled with complaints about a black character appearing in what they considered exclusively white mythology.

The Hunger Games had Cinna, a fashion designer played by Lenny Kravitz (who absolutely rocked the gold eyeshadow, by the way). As the book made no direct reference to Cinna's race, there were loads of complaints that they dared to put someone non-white in the role. In fact, there was a character that specifically was mentioned to be black in the text that got the same treatment.

It seems there's a general theme of scripts not giving scope for black characters, or an audience that's unaccepting of them. Though while believable, those are both entirely awful excuses.

But hey, what about ordinary television? TV presenters and show hosts aren't limited by a script to be white, so the demographic ratios should be better, right?

Well, according to Reggie Yates, 29, it's scary how few black faces there are on UK prime-time television.
Himself the only black host on Saturday night television (He hosts The Voice), he feels that not enough is done to accurately reflect the British population.

He told The Sun on the 16th that it was intimidating to be alone in a demographic.

“There’s more opportunity in America — and a bigger black audience," he said.

He's backed up by a comment from Lenny Henry, 54, after the Bafta TV awards last weekend.

A successful comedian in his own right, he said: "I’m working on things and trying to bring about change, but I can’t do it all on my own. We need to invest in these programmes, in rainbow casting, in all of the great black writers, producers and directors who make these programmes."

The point about there being a bigger pool of black TV personalities and actors in the US is a good one. Maybe the solution is to do use our favourable exchange rate, and import more diverse actors from overseas.

I can see it now. Donald Glover hosting CBBC, Lawrence Fishburne starring in endless Channel 4 gritty dramas, Shaquille O'Neal reading the news headlines on BBC Breakfast.

Why not go the whole hog and get me on the television? I would make an incredible game show presenter! Take Me Out would never be the same again.

Media Matters: Orchestras á la mode

2013-09-04T18:25:00.000+01:00

This feature can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

This year's Proms are going to be taking an interesting turn, with the introduction of the Urban Classic Prom.

It stands out as a unique event for the Royal Albert Hall show, bringing the classical flavour of the BBC Symphony Orchestra with the grime, hip-hop and soul inclusions of Fazer (a former member of N-Dubz), Laura Mvula and Maverick Sabre.

But will the marriage of styles be well received by the general public? Not that I don't think it should, but because the Proms are often thought of as something of a musical sacred ground.

Last year's Prom was rather straight-laced, sticking almost entirely to orchestra and operatic work, though taking both vintage and modern pieces. To that end, infusing another genre, especially one that's often (unfairly) considered as non-compatible with high-class concerts, may be contentious.

This concern is shared by Jules Buckley, the concert conductor, but he remains confident that the audience can be as unified as the music. This has me more interested in the Prom than I have been in a long time.

There have been experimental acts in the past (Yo-Yo Ma's collaboration with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 2011 is a good example), and there was a Bollywood number in 2009, but the Urban Classic Prom is a genre first for the event.

Experimentations with genre are some of the most fascinating things you can do with music. For a major event like the Proms, they have a perfect platform to introduce the idea that blurring the lines of genre can be something worthy of a high-class performance.

On the flipside, those who find the orchestra scene difficult to access can also become acquainted to new horizons - collisions of subculture genres with classical music have been tried before to some great effect.

G. Prokofiev/Concerto for Turntables and Orchestra is an album exactly like what it sounds. Released in 2010, turntablist DJ Yoda turns a performance from the Heritage Orchestra into a beat-juggled masterpiece, using the beat making sensibilities that have served high quality hip-hop for decades.

It's a fairly major part of the urban music scene to go to complex lengths to create music tracks - and the very best uses inventive source material.

As a classic example, the 'Amen Break' is an incredibly well-known sample used across all different genres and social scenes, and it all spawned from a funk/soul joint from 1969.

The current pop and hip-hop music industries have adopted the sounds of 'chiptune', the bleeps and boops that formed the soundtracks of games from the 70s to the 90s. We hear them now in tracks from Labrinth to Ke$ha to Crystal Castles. Many hip-hop tunes use direct samples, and an entire genre has recently formed from the marriage of rap and video game music.

A lot of this kind of sampling and genre experimenation happened back when hip-hop and electronic music was still 'underground', not garnering so much attention and money. These days we have Daft Punk and Kanye West – big names in sampling. Now, remixes and mash-ups are a major part of musical expression (although sometimes lawyers disagree.)

With the Proms, we have a major musical event that heavily features a celebration of historically famous material. The Urban Classic Prom is more than sampling; it's a direct collaboration between styles, eras and cultures. It holds the potential for being just so... rich and interesting.

In fact, it's not the only musical mash-up that will appear at the Prom this year - The Stranglers, a punk band, will be playing with the London Sinfonietta on 12 August. My knowledge of Punk’s musical history is rather lacking, but I don’t doubt they’ll do it service.

Details and tickets for Urban Classical Prom are available here and information on The Stranglers performing with the Sinfonietta is available here.

Tech Talk: Pandora's Printer

2013-09-04T18:20:00.000+01:00

This feature can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

The printing press in the 1400s was one of the great innovations of humanity - allowing us to communicate with others, duplicate important texts, and, several hundred years of improvements later, drown beleaguered office staff under mountains of paperwork.

But now we've moved on to the next dimension with the 3D printer. It does exactly what the name suggests - creating copies of objects rather than text. Instead of being filled with ink cartridges, they take a feedstock of molten plastic (or even organic material if you want to print a hamburger), building up the finished product layer by layer.

The technology has been around for a few years, existing within construction and engineering industries. The age of commercialised 3D printers is inching closer, although it's still too pricey to show up in your Argos catalogue. Even the cheapest models these days will set you back around £5,000.

The useful potential for 3D printing is astounding - if your wardrobe, bicycle or washing machine broke and needed a small obscure part, you could just print it at home. Creative types could make anything from furniture to musical instruments to kitsch mantelpiece ornaments.

Or, if you're Defense Distributed, you could start a line of printable firearms.

The arms manufacturing company had previously been designing components for existing guns, but their current project is for the "Liberator", a handgun made entirely from printable parts with the exception of a metal firing pin (an ordinary nail from any hardware store).

Blueprints for the Liberator were released on the internet earlier this week, and already over 100,000 people have downloaded it, according to Forbes.

The complete model looks like something from a shooting game made by Fisher Price, but its firing capability is definitely real.

Users have downloaded the plans from both the company's website, and through a torrent hosted on The Pirate Bay. The majority of the downloads were in the US, but large numbers of downloads also came from Spain, Brazil and the UK.

Understandably, authorities are sweating bullets over the idea that a firearm is so easily accessible. The Senator of California, Leland Yee, showed concern over a widely available gun that can't be picked up by metal detectors.

Over here, the Metropolitan Police have put out a statement, reminding that our gun control laws require a person to be a Registered Firearms Dealer to manufacture a gun. So while having the blueprint isn't illegal, printing out the parts will get you nicked.

The US State Department sent a letter to Cody Wilson, Defense Distributed's founder, with a demand that the online blueprints are taken down. Of course, now they've been made public, totally eradicating them is decidedly impossible. Still, Defense Distributed have removed the item from their servers.

The decision to release the blueprints publicly ties into Mr Wilson's stance on information censorship. An 'all information should be without regulation' stance similar to that of Julian Assange is partnered with Wilson's politics on gun control.

In my opinion, that's an evil scheme if I ever saw one. To tie freedom of information (which I mostly agree with as a journalist) with pro-firearms rhetoric really shoots holes in the credibility of the former. At least any anti-establishment sentiments he had fell by the wayside when he sheepishly removed the blueprints from his site when asked.

It feels like the age of domestic 3D printers will be postponed - I don't see HP and Epson wanting to make consumer models when the public see the technology as inherently dangerous or illegal.

I was looking forward to being printing new glasses frames, fashion accessories and miniature figurines of video game characters, but until the violence fetishists are out of the public focus, my 3D modelling hobby shall have to be put on hold.

There is some, hope, though. Chris Anderson, the CEO of 3D Robotics says that 3D printing is a bad method for gun manufacturing, as the plastic wouldn't be able to handle the tensile strength their metal brethren are capable of.

Film Review: Evil Dead

2013-09-04T18:15:00.002+01:00

This review can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

Despite my passion for the arts, there are gaps in my knowledge. The most salient ones are with film. I became interested in film after a lot of 'cult status' films made their rounds, and with my already huge backlog of films to see, a lot of them have gone unwatched.

So, although I know it was a major factor in forming its genre, I have not seen the original 1981 Evil Dead. Nor am I especially well-versed in the 'slasher' variant of horror films, aside from a regrettable evening where I was coaxed into watching all the Saw films back to back.

So I was entirely down for watching the 2013 reboot. The director is different – this new film is directed by Fede Alvarez instead of the longer-established Sam Raimi – but if it grabbed my attention, I was prepared to fall in love with a whole new genre.

Still, I hedged my bets; I made sure to not step into the screening alone (or sober). That decision turned out to be for the best, as Evil Dead thrives not on its own merit, but by bringing audiences closer through how shamelessly bloody and silly it is.

The plot, I am told, clings close to that of the original. Five teenagers stay in a run-down cabin in the woods, finding that it was used for Shady Things of a Mystical Nature.

One of them finds a book made from flesh, has the complete lack of foresight to read magic words from it and things get real bloody real fast. Chainsaws, possession and vague sexual abuse metaphors follow.

Interestingly, a lot of this material was familiar to me without having even seen the source material – which says a lot for how well-worn the themes are. As a whole, Evil Dead goes over every standard horror convention with precision but without artistry.

A lot of it was funny, but not often intentionally. While the acting isn't exactly bad, they have a rather weak script to work with, and no performances stand out enough to make it worth recalling actor names.

Once the evil entity in the house possesses one of the characters, almost every line they utter is hilariously filthy, Exorcist style.

The copious amount of blood thrown around is also worth a giggle (the credits scene has props plunging into endless pools of the stuff), but to Alvarez's credit, all the effects are practical. A worthy mention in an industry filled with computer generated scenery, effects and costumes.

The soundtrack is also one to bring up, if only because it starts blaring loud sirens whenever someone suffers a grievous injury, like ambulances are going to burst in from off camera.
I came out of the cinema feeling entertained, but not especially satisfied, and definitely not scared.

Watch It: If you have a horror movie night arranged with lots of booze, you want a textbook example of the slasher genre (...for whatever reason), you take knowing amusement when 'the black character dies first'.

Skip It: If the sight of blood makes you queasy, you absolutely cannot handle jump scares, you roll your eyes when 'the black character dies first'.

Want more? Actually watching the original film is a safe bet (though I'm not sure if it's necessarily better than this one). Cabin in the Woods makes a perfect companion piece to this film, though I find it notably flawed.

Full speed ahead for Northern Line extension from Kennington to Battersea Power Station

2013-09-04T18:09:00.002+01:00

This news item can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

Plans to extend the Northern Line from Kennington to Battersea Power Station have moved a step closer after TFL finalised their budget for the work.

The ‘NLE’ project, which will also include an intermediary stop at Nine Elms, has been in planning since 2009, and aims to be completed by 2015.

When the project started, an allotted budget of £1bn was set and present cost projections are around £998m.
A public survey found that around three quarters of the responses to this were positive or neutral, many approving of the increased public transport accessibility.

A report from TfL states that key issues to come out of the survey relate to possible noise and vibrations for buildings above the route. Around 1000 property owners and occupiers may be directly affected.

The London Borough of Southwark is calling for Kennington to be re-designated as a Zone 1 station once the extension is complete.

Since carrying out the survey, TfL have consulted with community groups and heritage experts in Kennington on how to proceed with any above-ground construction.
Alongside the preparations for the rail extension, Battersea Power Station has had £400m invested to turn it into a leisure hub for the area.

SP Setia, the largest property group in Malaysia, purchased the land alongside other company partners.
The structure has had various renovation plans in the past (including becoming a football stadium and a hotel), but they all succumbed to funding problems.

The completed complex is aiming to include a block of luxury flats, shops, eateries, a gym, and a revitalised public park.

Work on the Power Station is scheduled to start this autumn, concluding in 2016, although preliminary preparations have already started.

The success of the Power Station's reopening is likely to depend heavily on the increased accessibility from the rail extension.

Feminist comedian to take centre stage at Wandsworth Arts Festival

2013-06-04T16:02:00.002+01:00

This feature can also be found on the South West Londoner, here.

Rosie Wilby has been putting in an appreciated queer feminist angle into stand-up, music and filmmaking since she was at university, and her experiences are coming together in her new performance at the Wandsworth Arts Festival this Thursday.

Called Nineties Woman, she talks about her self-identification as a feminist and the newspaper she worked on at university, in a mash up of live performance and documentary.

Studying at the University of York, the campus fostered a wide range of student publications, and started working on Matrix, a 'zine' for women.

Zine culture (short for 'fanzine') revolves around amateur production magazines dedicated to specific interests. Because of the low barrier to entry, it meant that people who felt that their demographic or interests weren't reflected in professional media could still get their voices heard.

"It was very much put together in a lo-fi DIY style which seems appropriate, as there was a huge fanzine scene at the time which has now come back," she said.

Matrix featured a mixture of heavy topics of body image and sexual harassment, but also had cartoons.

At the time, the riot grrrl movement was popular in the feminist scene and heavily related to zine culture. Taking a harder, punk rock edge, riot grrrl media focused heavily on sexuality and empowerment in a counter to the endless reams of boy band pop at the time.

"We weren't really listening to riot grrl bands when we put [Matrix] together," said Rosie. "It was more folk lesbian acts like the Indigo Girls.

"When I got to London after graduating, I realised that some really exciting challenging musical things were going on."

Beyond Nineties Woman, Rosie Wilby works in her self-identity into most of her stand up. She said that, coming from a generation where being gay defined who you were and the company you kept, it featuring in her comedy was inevitable.

She noted that things have changed and sexuality isn't so much of a core identity issue these days which, in her opinion, is both a good and bad thing. Still, she wants to keep her stand-up accessible to everyone, regardless of sexuality and gender.

"Love is universal, after all," she said.

Outside of her performances, Rosie is still heavily involved in queer media. Back in 2011, she co-wrote and co-stared in The Bride and Bride, shown at the BFI Lesbian and Gay Film Festival. Her radio show, Out in South London, was one of the sponsors for this year's festival.

She said: “I enjoyed it, particularly the widening focus to include more trans and gender queer work. Though this may mean they need to change the name of the festival.”

In the future, Rosie looks forward to a resurgence of queer voices in media, both from zines and larger-scale publications. She said that a mixture of both in-depth writing was needed among more lifestyle and entertainment publications, though they still have their place.

Out in South London airs on Resonance 104.4FM every Tuesday at 6.30pm

High Street Blues: Balham residents voice concern over rise of betting shops

2013-06-04T15:44:00.002+01:00

This feature can also be found on the South West Londoner, here.

“Balham is my 'village' and I use it daily for shopping, dining and community engagement,” said Kevin Fitzpatrick of Fieldhouse Road, Balham.

“The addition of yet another betting shop will add nothing positive.”

He's talking about a planning application submitted by Coral Bookmakers on May 2. The proposed location is on Balham Station Road, replacing a dry cleaners and directly next to The Moon Under Water pub.

What's more, a gambling arcade, Cashino, is just down the road. The close proximity of these businesses is giving both shop owners and residents a cause for concern.

Have you recently noticed an increase in certain types of stores on your high road? Odds are, you’ve seen new charity shops, betting shops and chicken take-aways sprouting everywhere. It’s no coincidence, it’s happening all across Britain.

In a report made by PricewaterhouseCoopers, between December 2012 and February 2013, 77 new betting shops opened across Britain - and presently there are almost 9,000 in total.

It’s got to the point where betting shop companies are apparently fighting between themselves to take high street shop fronts. However, aside from the owners of these businesses and their landlords, very few people are pleased to see new bookmakers appearing.

Deborah Suggate filed a complaint about the planning notice. "It already feels like running a gauntlet of drunks when passing by," she wrote.

She added that the placement of the Coral Bookmakers is deliberate, to prey on vulnerable people who frequent the pub and the gambling arcade.

However, there’s little any of those who disagree can do about it – and it all comes down to how planning works.

A Class Act

All buildings in the UK have a Use Class dictating the use of the building. Retail is in one class, restaurants and cafes are in another, and so on. You require planning permission to change land from one class to another, which can be denied, if the local authority feels it’s a bad idea.

However, you can convert a building to anything in the same class without having to ask permission. The problem is, betting shops are categorised so they’re in the same class as a lot of different business types – so anything from restaurants to estate agents to banks can be turned into a betting shop.

Fortunately, the Balham dry cleaners that Coral wants to convert is of a different Use Class, forcing the company to go through the Wandsworth Council planning department. Still, many councils are looking into possible solutions to stop betting shops (and other overly common businesses) from going out of control.

An On-going Fight

The Greater London Authority put out a report in March showing concern for the increased rate of shops closing on high roads. It cites shop diversity as a requirement for good high street growth, and suggests that borough councils gain stronger planning powers to limit too many of the same kind of business from appearing.

The only defence councils have against betting shops is something called the ‘Article 4 direction’. The rough idea is arranging a zone under special circumstances, where certain types of building changes are required to submit a planning application, even if they wouldn’t otherwise.

It won’t surprise you that getting clearance for an Article 4 is lengthy, expensive and fraught with headaches.

In another borough of London, Merton Council did research into how severely betting shops were affecting them. Funnily enough, Merton has one of the lowest concentrations of betting shops in London.

"It's important to have a diverse high street,” said Councillor Andrew Judge, a cabinet member for environmental sustainability and regeneration.

“It's equally important that Merton's town centres meet the needs of our residents and visitors.”

But councils are starting to fight back against the seemingly unstoppable surge of unfavourable businesses. Multiple borough councils across London have backed the idea of giving betting shops their own Use Class, forcing them to go through the planning committee and giving councils and the public a chance to refuse.

Mayor Boris Johnson is even trying to haul in the reins of betting shop proliferation by demanding a change to the Gambling Act 2005, which presently does nothing to prevent clustering of gambling establishments.

With Concerns Elsewhere

However, Wandsworth Council seem to be less concerned about the subject.

“From a planning perspective, it hasn’t appeared to be an issue,” said Sarah Dixey, of Wandsworth Council planning department.

“Take-aways are more of a concern.”

Similar to Merton Council, Ms Dixey considered Wandsworth to have a low concentration of betting shops, though a precise figure wasn’t given. As such, they have no present interest in backing the lobby to have the law for the betting shop Use Class changed.

“Our town centres are reasonable successful, with low numbers of vacancies,” she added.

They do use the Article 4 direction, but for something entirely other than high street management – the direction allows for them to conserve designs on older houses.

So will the voices of the public be heard? Possibly. For standard planning applications, Wandsworth has an average turnaround of eight weeks. At time of writing, that means there are another four weeks for concerned locals to have their say.

Fulham pub closes after feeling unfairly targeted by police

2013-06-04T15:38:00.000+01:00

The full page for this story is available here. (Quark will only export as a .pdf, apologies.)

A pub on Goldhawk Road has closed after being met with heavy licensing restrictions, despite members of staff feeling they have been unfairly targeted.

The Raving Buddha, specialising in live DJ and open mic nights, held their last event, a ragga and dancehall night, on Saturday 25 May.

The pub, had a ruling on from the Hammersmith & Fulham Council Licensing Sub-Committee. They said that it was ‘associated with serious crime and disorder’; due to police picking up on three separate instances in one month.

The recent incidents included an arrest of a customer wanted for assault who was carrying seven rocks of crack cocaine; two men arrested on a separate incident with Class A drugs; and three arrests in one evening for GBH.

However, one of the bar staff the Raving Buddha feels that the business was unfairly targeted by the police, when there are other pubs on the road which may also suffer from crime.

Natalia Eagle, 21, said "The police bullied us!"

Taking issue with the first incident - the man wanted for assault - she said that the police were at the Raving Buddha by chance, and happened to see their target inside; as opposed to police chasing the man to the pub (which, she claims, the council statement and local news coverage implied).

The man was on a list of people the staff know to throw out on sight, but he was let in by the bar security. The pub has since switched security companies.

Ms Eagle felt that since the Raving Buddha is has fewer resources to defend itself; the police are making an example of them, when there are instances of pub-related problems in other areas.

"They think that this pub is the reason that people do drugs," said Ms. Eagle. "It's really stupid and deluded."

In light of having their License suspended, the Raving Buddha was given strict guidelines to follow in regards to CCTV usage and customer entrance numbers.

While the council do uphold that venues in the borough should follow key licensing objectives, the scrutiny that Raving Buddha was put under is a unique instance.

Nearby pub, the Walkabout Inn on Shepherds Bush Road, is also known by the police to have violent customers and now does not open on Sundays, following a policy change in February imposed by the police.

Other pubs on Goldhawk Road have been closed down over the last year. The Goldhawk Tavern was closed last November, and was reportedly sold to a developer to become offices; though no change has yet been made.

The Grand Union pub at the end of Goldhawk Road has been closed for the last year after relocating to a new venue in Wandsworth. The land has since been bought, and there are plans to turn the venue into a European gastropub, to open in late May. There is little visible sign of refurbishment on the site.

Tech Talk: The ghost of Myspace past

2013-04-29T22:30:00.000+01:00

This feature can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

Every so often, I remember something embarrassing I did as a teenager and feel such intense shame that I am slightly more welcoming to the idea of being struck by lightning. Or a nuclear warhead.

How lucky I am that nearly all of the message boards and social networking I did in high school has since been consigned to the annals of internet history. To that end, I feel just a touch of sympathy (though not much) for the teenagers of the last decade, who aren’t going to have their Facebook and Twitter exploits fade any time soon.

Indeed, Paris Brown, the 17-year-old adviser to the Kent police commissioner had her career grind to a screeching halt, because she forgot (and her detractors chose to not forgive) that teenagers will say some impressively stupid things when left to their own devices.

The racist and homophobic tweets that were plastered all over newspapers last week apparently were dredged from years ago, and Ms Brown had probably forgotten all about them.

That’s not to say that they aren’t awful (my goodness, I never realised casual racism could sound so inane) but it’s a useful parable for all of us. If someone doesn’t like you, it’s the easiest thing for them to put your name into Google and browse through the various terrible thoughts you’ve had.

For most it will be incredibly boring things, but to potential employers who need to whittle down applicants – or dissenters looking to do a little character assassination – they’ll take any excuse.

Even if you’re already comfortably set in a job, you’re not safe. Here’s a story from last year that struck a chord with me personally.

Lauren Wainwright is a games journalist who was called out in October last year over something she had posted on Twitter. She expressed a lot of excitement for the newest Tomb Raider game (which is actually released now). However, it was picked up that Ms Wainwright had worked for the publishers for Tomb Raider in the past – it said as much on her LinkedIn profile.

This lead to suspicion over whether the opinions she was expressing were actually genuine. Articles were written, fingers were pointed, and other journalists were threatened with Libel. Members of the public, looking for journalists (not to mention a woman) to vilify, took to threatening Wainwright personally. It was a huge mess.

I was lucky enough to meet her in person, and was told that her excitement for Tomb Raider was, perhaps obviously, entirely genuine and unrelated to her previous employers.

While I feel there could have been a little more attention paid to what people could infer from the tweets of professional figures, it would be wholly unfair to blame Ms Wainwright for what had happened to her.

The lesson to be learned here is that we could all do with taking a step back and looking at just what we’re posting in public spaces, and how it could affect us professionally.

The simplest solution is to isolate anything that could reflect badly on you to somewhere more private. Either by limiting viewer access, or better yet using a pseudonym. Many people run two Twitter accounts – one for professional discourse, and one for general purpose. The people it will matter to will still know it’s you, but Google won’t.

Speaking of which, it may do you well to search your own name. Especially if you have a distinctive one (like me, I guess). If you had a Myspace in the distant past, now would be a good time to shut it down.

On a closing note, if you have a free afternoon, I strongly recommend you check out dont take it personally, babe, it just aint your story – a visual novel written by Christine Love. The name is ridiculous, but it explores the themes of a future where accessing the messages and profiles of someone online is commonplace. Would your judgements of people be clouded by things you're not meant to know? See for yourself.

A Jazz Interlude: Interview with George Simmonds of The Squintet

2013-04-29T21:59:00.001+01:00

This article can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

It's difficult being 22. For most of us, it's the point where we struggle to balance adulthood with the aftermath of university. But for George Simmonds there's a jazz quintet to lead and a music agency to run. And astoundingly, both things are rapidly gaining momentum.

A Londoner through and through and presently based in Tottenham, George has taken his love of jazz music from a young age and formed his band, The Squintet, with childhood friends and other budding artists.

George himself leads on trombone and vocals, his old high school friend Jamie Hone on saxophone, Mike Cuthbert on keyboard, and Jack Polley on bass guitar.

Rob Hervais is the newest member of the band, on the drums, replacing Bryan Taylor who left.
With them, he's shared his jazz passion all over London (including Soho, Islington and the famous The Rivoli Ballroom in Lewisham) and also abroad in Istanbul and Norway.

Over time their sound has changed - starting out with a strong swing feeling, before moving to a more funk-focused, New Orleans-style sound in recent months. The change was sparked by the drummer Rob, and George says that the band has definitely become more comfortable since.

At the start of performances with The Squintet, George likes to open with 'Honeysuckle Rose' by Fats Wallop, a piece played to him by his grandfather as a child. The version he was familiar with was performed by Acker Bilk, and the memory has always stuck with him.

His musical influences include J.J. Johnson, Jimmy Knepper (both trombonists), and Charlie Parker. More recently he's been taking on the funk-based influences of James Brown and Fred Wesley.
During a period of taking an interest in composing, Duke Ellington and Charles Mingus' jazz orchestras were a major factor.

For the last two months, George has also plunged into the world of business with the Maxwell Barrett Music Agency. Christened after his middle names, he uses it to both set up his own gigs and those of his steadily increasing client list.

After playing music professionally for three years, he felt that to go into conventional employment and have less time for his music was not an option.

Running a business in your early 20s is a fairly daunting task, so he co-runs it with his father.
New gigs are being planned all the time, and George is definitely looking to perform more in the South West London area.

You can find out about future gigs at www.maxwellbarrett.com or on his Facebook page.

Film Review: Out in the Dark

2013-04-18T21:36:00.001+01:00

This review can also be found on Shadowlocked, here.

The BFI London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival is something I truly appreciate. It warms my heart to know that there are actually plenty of films out there that star more than just straight white men as protagonists; and it's a shame that they end up relegated to a single, yearly event.

There were a huge number of films showing this year, almost guaranteeing a wide range of experiences on offer - but I only got to watch one in particular. Out in the Dark, filmed in 2012 and directed by Michael Mayer.

The plot is something rather simple. Nimer (Nicholas Jacob) is a Palestinian student who, on a risky night out to an Israeli nightclub meets Roy (Michael Aloni), an Israeli lawyer. Their love blossoms rapidly, but severe social standards (and gun-happy police) get in the way. More on the plot later.

From a technical perspective, the film is incredibly solid. Film production norms differ from country to country, so one of the fun things about foreign film is seeing the different stylistic rules they go by.

The cinematography was nothing to hugely fawn over, but the wide shots of the skyline and city streets did wonders for a loser like me who is obsessively urban. The dialogue style definitely stood out - lengthy chats pierced with succinct one word sentences, in a blend of Hebrew and Arabic that's sadly lost on my monolingual self.

The decision to have the plot heavily focus on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a harrowing, but well-researched one. It assumes you know the basics of the issue, and although you can understand all of the story without prior knowledge, being aware of the background definitely helps add context.

What it also adds is a marginally fresher angle on what would otherwise be a tired love story. Straight romances in films are rather rote, but gay (male) ones are more so in a slightly different way.

Star crossed lovers, one humble and sexually introverted, the other metropolitan and liberated have their love halted by the grim face of systemic oppression (feel free to imagine those two words in a 72pt font and on fire). It's a valid story, but it's one told a little too often.

As such, the racial conflict adds some flavour to the proceedings; juxtaposing cute intimate moments and longing stares with border crossers getting shot in the head.

It's all a very well-produced reminder of the social injustices in the world, both sexual and racial - but we know this all already. That is, the people who would be inclined to see Out in the Dark in the first place. Dudebro McHomophobe would definitely benefit from watching something so well made (and with such impact, too), but you'd have a better chance of actually ending oppression than getting him into the cinema.

It's all very 'preaching to the choir', really. That's not the end of the world - we all like to have our political opinions re-enforced, but in the end I ended up not enjoying Out in the Dark as much as I could have done – I was holding out for something more experimental.

I continue to wait for the action blockbuster where Jake Gyllenhaal saves Ben Whishaw from an exploding building, and they make out to the sound of helicopter blades and gunfire. Now that would be progressive.

My Big Mouth: Save Our Subcultures

2013-04-18T21:29:00.000+01:00

This feature can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

Violent attacks against subcultures like punks and goths are now being considered as hate crimes by the Greater Manchester Police (GMP).

What was once only the territory of politically-established social minorities (so race, religion, disability, sexuality or transgender identity) is now broadened to alternative music scenes and subcultures – at least by the GMP.

The plan to record attacks in this manner was sparked by the murder of Sophie Lancaster back in 2007. The 20-year-old goth was attacked in a park in Lancashire along with her boyfriend, Robert Maltby, simply because of their style of dress. While the boyfriend managed to survive, Ms Lancaster was not as lucky.

Because this attack was motivated by judgements about the victims’ identities, a pretty strong parallel can be drawn between attacks of this nature and existing hate crimes.

You could replace these goths with queer people or people of colour, and I could most likely find an existing news report to match. Hell, in March last year there were reports of emos in Iraq being murdered by militia, partially because the subculture is heavily associated with homosexuality there.

The crux of attacks like these is ignorant fear of identities that differ from the ‘norm’. Why the scare quotes? Because in Western culture, to be anything other than a straight white man with a taste in Top 40s pop is an ‘other’, someone to be changed or removed. It’s an awful way to think of things, really. That demographic may not be the most prevalent in terms of numbers, but social dominance counts for so much more than manpower.

Society has progressed just enough to cut some minorities some slack. You’re allowed to be, for example, black in a public place in much of the world without pulling much ire (Though sometimes it doesn’t feel that way).

But often, our identity as minorities is displayed in ways that aren’t physiological. There’s nothing in terms of body type that separates straight men from gay ones, but there’s a laundry list of ‘coded behaviour’ that society decides is indicative of being gay, or religious, or yes – belonging to a subculture.

What raises the hackles of violent bigots is that people who differ from the ‘norm’ have the temerity to express themselves openly, and think that beating them will change that in some way. That seems very much like hate crime to me.

That subcultures are largely tied to musical tastes, rather than biology may cause some to feel that they aren’t appropriately equitable to the other minorities, but I have issues with that.

Most notably, there are some subcultures that are heavily involved in socio-political struggles. Punk as a movement revolves around being non-conformist, and as such features heavy streaks of anti-racist and anti-sexist ideologies.

The emo scene, while considered rather male dominated, embraces emotional openness (hence the name) and androgynous fashions, making it a social safe haven for many queer teenagers.

The workings and intricacies of subcultures is just as fascinating to me as learning about feminism, racial history and queer theory, and deserves to be respected in a similar manner. For a glimpse of just how vastly different subcultures can be, take a look at Urban Tribes. Hours will fly by.

The official consideration of subcultures as being part of the hate crime demographic is a while off – England’s courts cannot recognise its legitimacy, and the GMP are the only police force that are recording it.

But all is not lost. By bringing the idea up as a point to be seriously considered, the public are also forced to think of those who are part of alternative scenes as people, not targets.

What this news hopefully won’t do is get people arguing over which minority has it worse, and flinging mud at whatever groups might have it easier. These kinds of ‘Oppression Olympics’ aren’t helpful to discussion; those who try to start them require immediate defenestration.

Note: Simon Price’s entry on The Guardian’s Comment is Free gives a great break down on different subcultures, as well as detailing his own experiences of being targeted.

My Big Mouth: Queer up the media

2013-04-18T21:23:00.001+01:00

This feature can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

A thought experiment for you:

Think of three pieces of media (books, film, games, whatever) that meet the following criteria:

The main character is straight.
The piece is not of the Romance genre.
The sexuality of the main character and its social impacts are not the main plot point.

You could probably name at least 10 without thinking too hard. Now try to do the same, but with a queer main character. Go on, I'll wait.

If you've managed to think of any, congratulations! No, seriously, it's a pretty difficult challenge; feel free to tell me what you've thought of in the comments.

I suppose it's nothing that you think too much about unless you're actually affected by it, but the presence of characters in fiction that aren't straight and white isn't thrillingly prevalent.

However, queer media definitely exists out there - this month had BFI's 27th London Lesbian & Gay Film Festival. The problem is, all this content is kept away from the mainstream, and only given a chance to shine once a year.

That's great for all the pretentious artsy types who already know how wonderfully liberal and accepting they are, but the people who need to see queer media the most barely know it's around. The teenagers who are questioning their identity and sexuality; people who are jaded with the stereotypes they're spoon-fed; that one old homophobic guy down the pub. You know the one. I hate that guy.

What we do get in the mainstream media isn't making me super-thrilled to be open about my sexuality. I'm not too keen on the idea of having my skull cracked open with a tyre iron (Brokeback Mountain), nor do I want to pursue a career in being a Sassy Gay Best Friend (The Hellish Nightmare that is Glee). Though I'm sure I could make a killing if I did. Maybe with the aforesaid tyre iron.

For sure, I would have been a lot more confident in my identity growing up if there was a role model who was much like me. That's not to say my imagination was so poor I couldn't project myself into a James Bond power fantasy - the assortment of gay villains excepting - but a reminder that queer heroes (or black heroes or female heroes...) are allowed to exist would be nice.

To flip it on its head, only those who are the most literal and devoid of critical thought could argue that an increased number of openly queer protagonists would be alienating to straight audiences. Last time I checked, empathy and sexual expression were two different things, unless you consider How I Met Your Mother the pinnacle of character-driven storytelling.

Speaking of which, I'm finding it a lot harder to watch action films these days. Aside from gunfights and explosions being tired mindless pap; the levels of machismo are so over-emphasised and forced, it's like a high budget blockbuster Shrine to Straightness. Sucker Punch managed to be full to the brim of bubbling testosterone with barely any men on screen. The sight of Vin Diesel flexing has been scientifically proven to instantly impregnate women.

The secret to creating reasonable queer media isn't some kind of well-guarded secret. They're the same as the media we already consume, with the genders of the romances switched around. It doesn't seem like an unreasonable demand to have, say, a crime thriller where the long-suffering detective happens to be a lesbian.

Oh. That actually exists. Well okay then.

That's not to say that good queer media can't or shouldn't explore sexuality as a main theme, it just often feels like that's all that we're given. I want to identify with an escapist fantasy, not systemic oppression so gritty I could use it as sandpaper. Explorations of sex are enjoyable enough in private, but it's not something I could share with others, for obvious reasons.

Then again, maybe some soapboxing and issue awareness is a first step in what we need right now. It recently came to light that the 'Ex-Gay' advertisements produced by the Christian group Core Issues Trust was, although banned in short order, deemed 'not illegal' by the High Court. Regardless of legality technicalities, that the advert exists at all is indicative of a serious need to queer up the media.

Film Review: A Late Quartet

2013-04-18T21:15:00.002+01:00

This review can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

Despite my constant burning need to see pretentious non-mainstream film (if it's in a different language or about socio-politics, even better), my knowledge of the fine arts is actually not so great.

My initial interest in seeing A Late Quartet was, embarrassingly, because Christopher Walken takes a major role in it. He's had a myriad of roles and cameos in films since the 60s, many of which ended up being cult hits. He even starred in some terrible video games in the mid 90s.

A large part of his popularity is his notably stilted speech, and since it tends to work best in comedies, I was interested to see how he would fare in something that looked to be so serious.

As it turns out, A Late Quartet is wonderfully human and moving, and Walken does a great performance by... largely not being there. It's an odd situation.

Pete Mitchell (Walken) is the cellist in an internationally famous string quartet called The Fugue. He shares the spotlight with Daniel Lerner (Mark Ivanir) on Violin I, Robert Gelbart (Philip Seymour Hoffman) on Violin II and Juliette Gelbart (Catherine Keener) on Viola.

Recently Pete's playing has been affected by his shaking hands. After a doctors appointment, he finds out that it's Parkinsons, and bows out from The Fugue, asking the other members to find a replacement.

As it turns out, this upset sparks desires for change in the rest of the quartet, and emotional havoc ensues.

It's all very melodramatic, but the way the script is written makes that not matter. All the narrative points are closely and expertly woven in with the films themes, in a way that you won't need a degree in media studies to get (though a little knowledge about classical music will help).

The ideas are honestly clever, from the way that the amount of time Pete is on screen is related to how badly he's suffering from his condition (though he's arguably the protagonist, Parkinsons is very effective at taking away his agency, both as a disease and in the script), to how the emotional issues of the quartet match up nicely with the musical role they play.

The soundtrack was funnily enough, a mixed bag. There are some elegant and well timed cues of classical string pieces, including the one piece that the film is arguably 'about', that I won't spoil for you. However, it's matched with a general orchestral score that feels very generic. Although the two musical styles share instruments, the feel is very different. It made some scenes feel notably schmaltzy - though that may just be my jaded heart.

That said, the experience as a whole was touching. It manages to pull you along on an emotionally manipulative ride so well you'd think it was a Hollywood production, if it wasn't for the quietly middle class subject matter.

Watch It: If you know your way around a string section, If you want to see a cult actor happily make peace with his age on film, if you want a talking point for your film discussion club.

Skip It: If the phrase 'human drama' makes you dry heave, if you're not ready to make peace with your age, if you want something that doesn't feature the American Middle Class.

Want more? Go and check out some live classical quartets! I promise, it's a moving experience the first time. If you want to see Walken in something cheerier, he has a great supporting role in Catch Me If You Can.

Film Review: Stoker

2013-04-18T21:08:00.001+01:00

This review can also be found at the South West Londoner, here.

I do love a bit of Gothic Horror. Not because I'm a fan of the macabre (not entirely, anyway), but because it has a wonderful precedent of being understated. And in the current Hollywood climate, bombast and explosions are king - so Stoker is a refreshing presence.

Director Park Chan-wook had a worldwide cult hit with Oldboy in 2003, but Stoker is his first film with English actors. India Stoker (Mia Wasikowska, Alice in Wonderland) is a troubled girl living in opulent American Suburbia. Her father sadly deceased, she's quietly withdrawn but comfortable - until her Uncle Charlie (Matthew Goode, Watchmen) comes to stay, and gets a little too close to her mother Evelyn (Nicole Kidman).

Things soon escalate, but carefully and quietly. The first act is very much a slow burner, but when the spark of intrigue shows itself, you begin to reach the state of mind that the film demands - a focus on the finer details. This is helped in no small part by the cinematography director Chung-hoon Chung, who sets up shot after shot filled with detail. There's a scene where a close-up of long hair pans and fades into swaying long grass. It's perfectly done, and pretentious as all get out.

The acting definitely reflects that - while no one is under acting, the script is filled with hushed fear, quiet lusting and silent anger. Nicole Kidman pulls off hateful, piercing stares that I never knew she was capable of.While there's a heavy focus of suspenseful horror; there's also a core of human drama, as India grows into herself. She could be best described as Wednesday Adams reaching adolescence; and it works wonderfully.

When the instances of violence occur (and they definitely do occur, though not as intensely as in Oldboy) it's a huge snapping of tension, and I appreciated the film's low-key nature for it. It takes skilled direction to have violence that will get a reaction from its audience (since we're generally desensitised to watching mild violence in films these days) without it going into fetishistic territory. Likewise, discussions and display of sexuality are toyed with here, often feeling unsettling but never gratuitous or disturbing.

It's what, in my opinion, separates it from the standard Hollywood fare. In a traditional suspense horror film, the violence and feelings of entrapment come on hard and heavy, and after a while the impact is lost. More so with the standard of action films. Some manage to go beyond the basic requirement of 'all spectacle, no substance' (I don't know anyone who didn't love Django Unchained, and would rather not meet them), but that kind of film making is both easy and lucrative, so there may not be a change on that front for some time.

Watch It: If you want to watch something different from the current releases, if you're a fan of cinematography, if you fondly remember The Addams Family or Daria.

Skip It: If you want more laid-back cinema, if you're wary of sexuality without romance, if you picked on 'the quiet kid' in high school.

Want more? Why not look at Shadow of a Doubt, a Hitchcock work which heavily inspires Stoker's plot. Definitely watch more of Park Chan-wook’s films if you haven’t already – if Oldboy is too extreme for you, I’m a Cyborg, But That’s Okay is a more comical affair.

Tech Talk: Remove U

2013-04-18T21:05:00.001+01:00

This feature can also be found on the South West Londoner, here.

Nick D'Aloisio is both a pretty cool guy and entirely frustrating.

On one hand, I entirely support independent developers. With app stores on mobile phones and game download services like Steam, Average Joes being able to make and share creative endeavours is a glimpse into a marginally less corporate future.

On another, he's a 17-year-old kid who's more financially successful than me. What a little punk.
The actual app itself, Summly, is honestly pretty useful. With Google's news feed aggregator dying a death, my main method of pumping raw information directly into my veins will be cut off in a few months, leaving me with a hole in my life that Summly would fill – if I had an iPhone.

That someone so young made it big isn't surprising. Newspapers were stunned to see a teenager making so much money, but we forget that we're all old, and already outstripped by the next generation. I say this as a 22-year-old.

Schools are teaching programming a lot more these days, and the software for making your own programs is more accessible than it’s ever been. That's especially true for games production – there have been some pretty good books written about it.

Hell, I'm sure I could make my own hyper-successful app – it's not like I lack ideas. I'm sure there's a hole in the market for misanthropic technology users like me.

****

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