NUIG Student Elections 2008

Yesterday marked the commencement of the annual NUIG student elections for the positions of President, Welfare Officer and Education Officer. While many members of the Literary and Debating society will be excited, generally these times of year are of little interest to most students. The general student completes his or her course without once coming into contact with a member of the Students Union. The average student would probably find it difficult to tell you what the Students Union even do. That being said the elections are important and it is crucial who represents the college and who makes decisions about student welfare and education. Students should be interested, but are not- whether it is due to apathy and indifference or a lack of knowledge about the students union. Perhaps if students knew that the Students Union of Ireland are continuously defending free fees for Irish students from government policy makers who are trying to put limits and conditions on our free fees scheme they might reconsider their lack of concern. Perhaps student leaders have a responsibility to articulate more effectively to the student community the goings on of the unions. Whatever the reason for disinterest in student politics the turn out yesterday was at a usual low.

One possibility for students not voting might have been that the result for the most important position, that of Student President, was already decided. There were three candidates running for the position of president but two of them were “joke” candidates, who ran questionably funny satirical campaigns. Both portrayed themselves as budding fascist dictators who were prepared to take dramatic action should they win. “I wish to liberate the students from their naïve attachments to concepts like democracy and freedom, and embrace la Vida Buena an evil tyrant can offer them” ran a line from Sean Butlers’ manifesto. A second year Arts student who has ran as a joke in a previous student election, Butler says he would combat student apathy “with incentives like guns and tasers. You’d be surprised how much people start caring when they’re staring down the barrel of an Uzi, facing a life sentence in the acid mines.

Juxtaposed beside posters of friendly faces all spouting the same old rhetoric about improving conditions for students in every way imaginable, these farcical characters brought much needed humour and humanity to the election. Butler, in his military uniform complete with sword and sunglasses made the serious candidates appear amateur. The other “joke” contender for Student President was Mike Spring, a man whom I have had the pleasure of speaking to from time to time. Hailing from Kildare this History and Sociology student is definitely capable of running a serious campaign, but this is his second satirical crusade. When asked by SIN newspaper why he was running for president and why students should vote for him he replied “because I feel that the student body has languished under poor guidance for too long. The student body is an awesome prospective force whose potential is constantly sapped by weak management from those above. I have sat through three different presidencies in my time here and haven’t seen one decent student riot… I hope to change all that… I believe in death, destruction, chaos filth and greed. I am the embodiment of the morals and ethics that dictate our time. I stand strongly in favour of arbitrary violence, discrimination, reckless abandon, haphazard governance and casual prejudice. People have traditionally demonstrated a propensity for these traits in their leaders, so I think I’m the guy for the job.” Wow, Mike. Read Nietzsche or listen to punk much?

The only serious candidate for the presidency was Muireann O’Dwyer, a Final Arts student who is studying English and Philosophy and currently the Societies chairperson and former auditor of the Human Rights society. Her manifesto included the usual speel about re-establishing the Union presence on campus and forwarding the student agenda but to give her credit she didn’t let the fact that there were no other real competitors affect how her campaign was run. Talking to people who know a lot more than me about this, (and I would trust their opinions more than campaign posters) I gathered that she is a very adept person who has already done a lot of positive work for NUIG and the college will benefit from her presidency. Her website is here if you are interested. What I found interesting is her stand on student apathy- “Students are more uninformed than apathetic, to be fair. As for combating it, first find out what students want. This can be done through a survey… Second, give the students what they want.” Parking spaces for SUVs maybe? Cheap beer? In any matter I’m sure she’ll be a good president. Here are the results: 1578 people voted (less than 10% of the amount of students attending NUIG), 234 voted for Butler. 274 voted for Spring, 88 voted to reopen nominations and 936 voted for the new president, M O’Dwyer. When I saw those results this morning I was surprised to see the joke candidates got so many votes since everyone voting for them knew (hopefully) that it was a wasted vote.

Looking at the posters and manifestos of the candidates involved in the other positions- Welfare and Education, it is difficult to see many differences between them. And that is what Hustings is for- the Hustings debate last Wednesday is designed to give students a proper sense of the candidates and how effective they’ll be as union members. This gives people a view of the policies behind the candidates, and perhaps just as important- the candidates behind the policies. Everyone has similar ideas and there are only so many ways you can phrase them. Hustings tells a lot about who’s prepared and who has plans to implement their ideas and not just manifesto pipe dreams. Regan and Fahy won Welfare and Education respectively. Personally if I had a vote I would only have voted for a Welfare candidate who saw that the kayak clubhouse needs to be re-opened for parties and Aisling Fahy seemed like a good bet for Education?

Last year there were four serious candidates for SU president. The fact that there was only one this year should be shocking, but it isn’t really. It’s embarrassing and depressing that out of such a huge college only one person thinks that they would be able to represent and make decisions for the college. Is this evidence that it doesn’t matter who is president? Last years President James Hope, who I met once or twice always seemed busy. The job is not an easy one, or a well paid one, but it is rewarding and it does make a difference. Many students ask themselves why they should bother voting. The main reason would be that every full time student is a member of the Students’ Union during their time in college. The union gets part of your registration fee; therefore you are paying a registration fee. By voting you are getting to decide how that money will be spent by voting for someone whose manifesto you agree with and by giving no preference to the person whose policies you disagree with. That’s why, at the bare minimum, a student should vote. There are of course a multitude of other reasons. Maybe, like Sean Butler suggests, people won’t care until they are suffering, or maybe the students are just uninformed. Either way the state of student politics in Galway has a long way to go.

One More Reason Not To Go To Mass

Today while I should’ve been at college I was listening to Joe Duffy’s morning show on RTE Radio One; something I’ve never actually done before, despite the shows popularity. Today’s show centred on Limerick priest Terry O’Connell who has openly opposed a Jesuit schools talent show which includes a magic show to raise funds for a trip to Lourdes. His grievance was that it was wrong for a magic show to be performed in a Christian/Catholic setting because “magic is considered an abhorrence in the Old Testament and it's appalling to think that it's being used to support a church trip”. I gathered that his argument was that only God or a prophet could perform miracles and that performing or believing in magic is some form of worshipping false gods or involvement in in some form of occultist practices. It could be argued that even giving the impression of doing something impossible- which is what magic and illusionary tricks do, can be seen as disrespectful to God, Jesus or the Bible, but you’d have to be one hell of a zealot to criticise a harmless magic show.

Throughout the show I thought the man was of questionable sanity. His on-air candour was one of smug holier-than-thou preaching and self assured shock. His opposition at the offending show was in theory understandable, but only from an extremely fundamental perspective. It is written in the bible that followers should not be involved in any forms of sorcery or magic for the reason that the followers should have no other “other worldly” beliefs or views other than what the bible tells them. Absolute faith is needed I order for a religion to succeed. Sadly some people remain so tied to the letter of the religious laws that they are incapable of forming their own ideas or thoughts. To Terry O’Connell the matter was as simple as “the Bible says it’s wrong to perform magic, so it’s wrong and if you are involved in this then you have no right to call yourself a Christian”. He also made no allowances for what was considered “magic”. To him magic encompassed everything from casting spells and devil worship to making a rabbit appear out of a hat or changing the colour of a handkerchief. It raised the question of how appropriate or wise is it to live your life and make your decisions according to the rules written in the Bible. The idea that the teachings of the Bible were open for interpretation was unacceptable for O’Connell. These are, after all, the words of God.

Many people rang in trying to make sense of his argument, which wasn’t available for compromise. Callers included people who performed magic tricks (who O’Connell referred to as “sorcerers”) who expressed how harmless their hobbies were, the distressed parents of the children involved and ordinary people giving their opinions on the priests statements. The most interesting responses came from fellow priests who were trying to get through to the priest that the magic show was an inoffensive entertaining act that the children had worked hard at to amuse their peers at a fund-raising event and that nothing “bad” or misleading was involved. One priest spoke on how he himself performed a few magic tricks and that it had never crossed his mind that there would be anything disrespectful to God involved. Terry O’Connell’s response was that any priest who performed anything like that should question their priesthood and they should be ashamed of themselves.

One “sorcerer” who had been performing for years to audiences of all ages and walks of life and very often as part of charity work was angered that the priest should question his Catholic authenticity. Joe Duffy also pointed out that it was a serious and wide teaching allegation to say that anyone who performed magic wasn’t a Catholic. One caller spelled out the word “context” to try and enlighten him. The point suggested at being that the nature of what the word “magic” means has changed over the course of the pat millennia. One priest, who knew Terry, appealed to him to see that he had made a misreading of a certain part of the Bible, that he had made a mistake which isn’t unusual for people to do. But through all this O’Connell remained unfazed in his beliefs.

Some of the callers did support his stand, but most of them sounded extreme, anti-modern and irrational. One man spoke about how the church’s power had suffered from including “gimmicks” like magic tricks in mass (although this wasn’t mentioned at all) and he even considered that music was unnecessary to the mass experience.

As the show progressed O’Connell included other practices that he considered “anti-Christian”. Those included yoga, reflexology and Harry Potter. His argument was that they taught doctrines which ran counter to the churches teaching and broke the “Thou shall not worship false gods” commandment. While I am no major Potter fan I cannot see how reading the books encourages an anti-Christian viewpoint or would make someone less Christian. To denounce therapeutic activities such as yoga and reflexology is irrational and unhelpful. These are pursuits which enrich and improve peoples lives and have no impact on their religious beliefs. The priest’s rants and blind adherence to the Bible became progressively more and more bizarre and despite the amount of people who tried to explain that what was happening in the school was innocent and inoffensive he wouldn’t relent. Perhaps he saw it as a test of his faith. Even when invited to the event he indignantly replied that he could not as a Christian watch the show and that it was an offence to God.

Finally towards the end of the show a senior member of the Church made a statement and announced the Church’s standing on the issue. Basically he said that he hoped that the event would be a success and that all the students involved would enjoy themselves, as this was the point of the whole event and also that he apologised for the “misunderstanding”. What exactly the “misunderstanding” was wasn’t clarified but this listener presumes it means “the ignorance of an over-zealous priest”. Of course a senior member of the Church cannot explicitly contradict the Bible. The show ended without Terry O’Connell withdrawing his opposition, and I didn’t expect him to.

In my humble opinion it’s because of people like Terry O’Connell that the Catholic Church is unpopular in Ireland. I think that people believe that backward priests who live in some kind of mental dark age are the norm, when in fact most priests (well, the ones I’ve met) are open-minded progressive men who are more than willing to listen to all peoples point of view. It’s only because crazy voices are always louder than sane and because the media will always focus on an interesting story that the impression of Catholicism does not reflect the reality. Most priests are very positive contributors to the community. Most priests will not shove doctrine down your throat or attack your beliefs. Most priests achieve their aim of making society a better place but sadly too much attention is given to the negative side of the Church. In a world that is becoming more materialistic and unfriendly I think religion has a lot to offer us, but our impressions of the Church is that it is oppressive and outdated. Which is sad because now there is a whole class of students who are going to take from this experience a skewed, mad vision of what religion means and offers.

NINE INCH NAILS: GHOSTS VOL 1-4

Yesterday Nine Inch Nails sole member Trent Reznor shocked fans by announcing the immediate online-only release of his new album “Ghosts Volumes 1-4” which no-one seemed to be in anyway aware of. Ghosts consists of 36 new instrumental tracks composed and recorded over an intense ten week period last autumn. In the words of Mr Reznor himself: "I've been considering and wanting to make this kind of record for years, but by its very nature it wouldn't have made sense until this point. This collection of music is the result of working from a very visual perspective - dressing imagined locations and scenarios with sound and texture; a soundtrack for daydreams. I'm very pleased with the result and the ability to present it directly to you without interference." By interference he is referring to the fact that the album can be purchased cheaply and downloaded straight from the bands website in various formats and pricing schemes how that he has no contract with anyone. What a hero.

Working with a team of regular NIN contributors including Atticus Ross, Alan Moulder and Alessandro Cortini, Trent has created an album of soundscapes and electronica songs which clearly focuses on improvisation and experimentation. While instrumental tracks have appeared on most NIN albums, lyrics and clear concepts have always been a central force at work behind Reznors work. Indeed certain lyrics have often been responsible for the alienation of many a NIN fan. But how does a Nine Inch Nails album rate without words? (Since I have thus far only been listening to the first two volumes, tracks 1 to 18, I can only review what I’ve heard and maybe I’ll write about the rest later.)

The opening track is one of the strongest on the album and reminds me of a depressed Philip Glass experimenting with synths- melancholic piano notes play and eerie synths rise up and a choir-ish sound in the background. The elements, while few, work together well and prepare the listener for an album which will be fairly minimal and progressive. The next track is similarly eerie and atmospheric with a spooky keys playing over a wall of distorted sound. Reznor returns to more familiar rocky territory as the album progresses, but electronic computer-driven elements remain central throughout. The angsty guitar riffs and eastern sounds are recognisably “nailsy” and remind me of songs from the Fragile era and production techniques used on more recent albums. Track four, with its gentle yet articulate organic guitars and drums sounds a bit like a Radiohead song. That is until a harsh guitar rips through the heart of the track. Some of the tracks which are particularly paired down to basic sounds and loops sound uninspiring and boring, although expecting an instrumental ambient album to be something more from what is essentially a rock band might be too much to hope for. The mixture of heavy and gentle songs can sometimes be disconcerting- just as you were enjoying a slower piece, a heavy track cuts in without warning. And I just can seem to get used to whatever harsh distortion is being used on the guitars. The piano pieces are what appeal to me most, especially the tracks nine, twelve and thirteen. Nine has a nice dubby feel to it with gentle beats, twelve recalls some of his sadder songs and breaks into an energetic pace. Thirteen is a relaxed mature piece with various different instruments weaving in and out.

Many of the louder songs contain elements of early industrial metal; bands like Ministry and Skinny Puppy are audible throughout. But the songs are far from being loaded with sound- in most cases they are minimal stripped down compositions. However most songs are too short to take full advantage of minimalism, the listener is too conscious of the different elements at work; the subtly just isn’t there. And sometimes the instruments don’t seem to be working together at all; whether this chaos is intentional isn’t clear. Another problem is that many of the songs are predictable- the song beings with the main riff, beat and loop and other instruments enter at regular intervals, and after 3 minutes the song is over without ever really deviating from the beginning.

As an album it is unconvincing. It doesn’t seem as though a lot of time was spent of the album (it was recorded over a ten week period) and many of the tracks feel underdeveloped. I’m not sure what Trent is trying to make. Is this his attempt at an electronic/ambient album? It comes off too much like IDM for beginners mixed with lessons learned from listening to copious amounts of Brian Eno. Ultimately I think what fails it is the inability of Trent to separate himself from a “rock songwriter” sensibility or perspective. Or maybe he’s made exactly what he set out to make- a sort of creepy electronic rock soundtrack. Whatever it is, I’m glad he’s not expecting normal people to pay for it.

You can download Ghosts at www.nin.com for money or maybe it's availible on a torrent site somewhere?

Go here for an alternative "Ghosts" review.

A Mix of Oil and Blood

Last night as I was stumbling around a crowded room at the Omniplex I was blessing my foresight of pre-booking tickets for There Will Be Blood. Being able to sell-out the largest screen in Galway isn’t a big deal for most disposable Hollywood blockbusters but I was surprised that so many people were as eager as I was to watch this almost three hour long story about a greedy businessman and the development of the US oil industry in the early part of last century. The recent Oscar hype must have had some effect. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson (Magnolia, Punch Drunk Love) and starring an Oscar winning performance from Daniel Day Lewis, this mesmerising movie is about as perfect as a movie can be. All the elements one expects from a top class movie are here- beautiful cinematography, an immersive story-line, complex characters who are strange and wholly believable, chillingly good acting and a haunting score.

The film is anchored by Daniel Day-Lewis’s powerful performance as Daniel Plainview, an oilman whose dangerous competitive nature consumes everything around him. Day-Lewis' acting is a thing of beauty. Equal parts larger-than-life and nuanced, his Daniel Plainview perfectly embodies the spirit of a salesman while putting across the multiple layers required for the portrayal of a man with an all-too-human desire for power. Where another actor might have turned Plainview into a monster, Day-Lewis brings out a troubled and multi-dimensional character. His eyes stare through the other characters, focused on his future plans to drill and drink up the land.

Joining Day-Lewis is Paul Dano as Eli (and Paul) Sunday. Last seen in the charming Little Miss Sunday, where he gave a brilliantly angsty performance for which I thought he would be type-cast, Dano plays an intriguing young pastor who balances out Plainviews’ character appropriately. Sunday has a calm and silent demeanour, which is occasionally shattered by his violent and religious outbursts. His character remains an enigma and was one of my favourite elements to this movie. The fact that Dano was originally cast in the minor role of his brother Paul and only given the part of Eli less than a week before shooting began is a testament to his talent.

Providing an aural equivalent to the breathtaking shots and scenes of boiling intensity is Jonny Greenwoods’ haunting score, which permeates throughout the film. The barren desert landscape really comes to life when the background imagery and background sound come together.

There Will Be Blood has been compared to such landmark movies as Citizen Kane and deservedly so. This movie is a great achievement in cinema and wonderful in so many aspects. I firmly believe this will be remembered and regarded as an important work of art. While its might not be the easiest of films to watch at times, it is captivating and the performances really invite the viewer into the harsh world Anderson has created. As I staggered back out of the dark room and into the safety of reality I knew that what I had just witnessed was an immense movie experience that would stay with me for some time.