Thursday 12th June 2025
Blog Page 2269

Classical review: Oxford Chamber Orchestra play Copland, Barber and Haydn

Charles Markland
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Classical review: Oxford Chamber Orchestra play Copland, Barber and Haydn

Sheldonian Theatre, 8.30pm, February 29th 2008

The Oxford Chamber Orchestra, under the direction of Jonathan Williams, gave a programme connecting the 20th century back to the 18th. Indeed, the theme of the concert seemed to be one of elegant lyricism; in the simplicity and beauty of Copland’s Appalachian Spring and Barber’s Violin Concerto one finds an appropriate partner to the grace of Haydn.

Appalachian Spring, commissioned by Martha Graham for use as ballet music, was abstractly conceived but was given its evocative name shortly before its premiere. The hushed opening with its simple dialogue between strings and woodwinds was delivered with the utmost calm. At the other end of the dynamic scale, the full-bodied peroration of the variations on the Shaker theme‘Simple Gifts’ dismissed any notions of diminutivity that the phrase ‘chamber orchestra’ might have previously inspired!

Samuel Barber’s Violin Concerto, the first of his concertante works (along with those for cello and piano), is also the most overtly melodious. The first movement demands most importantly a fine singing tone from the soloist, and David Le Page gladly provided. Sadly, some of his most daring runs found in the first movement’s climaxes were somewhat swamped by the orchestra’s simultaneous crescendi. In the finale (a short, spiky perpetuum mobile), conductor, orchestra and soloist alike maintained a bravely brisk tempo, and MrLe Page particularly shone in the final moments, where the rapid triplets suddenly shifted to semiquavers for the rush to the finishing line.

The 104th and final Haydn symphony (known as the ‘London’ symphony, while also confusingly being the 12th of the ‘London Symphonies’) acted as an unintentional summary of the composer’s mastery of the form. After the grave introduction, the chirpy opening movement was elegantly played, as was the following Andante. The Menuetto was an excellent example of Haydn’s humour, with abrupt silences punctuating the movement where climaxes were expected. The rousing folk-based finale brought immediate applause from the audience, who had listened to a well-programmed and superbly played concert from one of Oxford’s premier ensembles.

by Charles Markland

Home Cooking With Hannah Pennington

Rhiannon Nicolson
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Home Cooking With Hannah Pennington

Hannah and her assistant Tom show us how to cook stress-free, mouthwatering food. This week, toad-in-the-hole and banana fritters with chocolate sauce .

Roth by numbers – a review of Philip Roth’s latest novel, ‘Exit Ghost’

Matt Hill
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Roth by numbers – a review of Philip Roth’s latest novel, ‘Exit Ghost’

Nathan Zuckerman, a writer living out his winter years in rural isolation, believes he finally has a handle on unpredictability. Prostate cancer has left him impotent and incontinent, and his daily routine consists entirely of pushing words around a page. But at least he is free – free from pain, from vulnerability, from the unequal struggle against life’s contingency. But one day, on his first visit to New York in eleven years, stirred by the slim hope of renewal offered by bladder surgery, he surprises himself by answering a house-swap ad posted by two young writers looking for a break from the city. Suddenly embroiled in the real world again, he is haunted by all he imagined he’d left behind – desire, intimacy, conflict, and the unruly self he thought he’d banished somewhere up in the Connecticut woods.

There’s a twist, of which more in a moment. But first, a couple of introductions. Exit Ghost is the twenty-eighth book, no less, by the distinguished American novelist Philip Roth. Roth was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1933 to second-generation Jewish immigrant parents. He published three books of quite traditional realistic fiction before gaining notoriety with his fourth, Portnoy’s Complaint (1969), an outrageous account of Jewish psychosexual pathology and the first (and only) great novel of masturbation. Now 74, he is reckoned by many to be America’s best living writer.

This is the tenth Roth novel to feature Nathan Zuckerman, a character he created in 1974,who has been the vehicle for many of his enduring preoccupations. Zuckerman was born in Newark, New Jersey in 1933 to second-generation Jewish immigrant parents. He published three books of quite traditional realistic fiction before gaining notoriety with his fourth . . . but stop me if you’ve heard this before.

There are writers who, short of an idea or a buck, will trot out a novel about a writer who is short of an idea or a buck, with a vengeful portrait of some irritant ex-wife or rival thrown in for good measure. The Zuckerman books, though partly responsible for begetting this mini-genre, are much more than the story of the author’s life with names changed to protect the not-so-innocent. Taken altogether, they are a brilliant deconstruction of the mystique of the modern American author and an investigation of the real-life sources of his inspiration. By tempting you to read them as a roman-a-clef they take you on a tour of the border territory between imagination and reality. At one point in Exit Ghost, a character holds out a manuscript to Zuckerman and insists: ‘This is a tortured confession posing as a novel.’ ‘Unless it’s a novel posing as a tortured confession,’ snaps Zuckerman.

About the twist in Exit Ghost. It’s that there is no twist. Zuckerman re-enters the world of people, relationships and events – and the result is a non-event. He has imaginary sex with the young woman in the house-swap deal; he meets an old acquaintance and becomes briefly immersed in some literary politics. But nothing really happens. Zuckerman emerges from his imaginary world deep in the country to discover an equally imaginary world in New York, thus illustrating a characteristically Rothian paradox: that what we innocently call real life may be as much a matter of the imagination as the stuff of literature.

The danger for Roth has always been that his animating paradoxes can become a little too neat: his major intellectual influence is, after all, Kierkegaard’s Either/Or. Throughout this book he is content to adumbrate his familiar themes, to sketch characters and elide dialogue. Here’s Zuckerman overhearing another character on the phone to her parents:

In her voice you could hear just how battered she was, not least by the fact that her parents were the very sort of people her liberal conscience couldn’t abide . . . You could hear both the great bond and the great struggle against. You could hear all it had cost her to forge a new being and all the good it had done.

After fifty years at the summit of American literature Roth probably feels entitled to ignore creative-writing-programme rules like ‘show, don’t tell’. But too much of Exit Ghost is written like this – lightly etched, fluent and overdetermined. Never has a novel about the unpredictability of life felt so – well, predictable.

One source of comedy in earlier Zuckerman books was the collapsed distinction between ‘high’ and ‘low’ culture. Zuckerman, like his creator, aims at high-culture distinction and ends up being the subject of salacious gossip on daytime TV. (One talk show host, on reading Portnoy’s Complaint, famously quipped: ‘I’d like to meet Philip Roth – but I don’t want to shake his hand.’) By Exit Ghost, Zuckerman seems to have decided that this state of affairs is no laughing matter, and spends a lot of time in rueful contemplation of literature’s abasement at the hands of mainstream media. Sometimes it seems literary culture is indeed direly embattled when newspapers increasingly can’t find room in their printed pages for a books section! But how did Philip Roth, whose career has been characterised by a gleeful assault on the cultural prestige of refinement and seriousness, becomes so po-faced?

If you’re the kind of person who aspires to write a Mills & Boon novel, you can send off for a pack which will supply you with the exact formula for a successful romance. If you were to write a Philip Roth novel by the same method, the result would be something like Exit Ghost. Roth is such a good writer that anything he writes is worth reading – I, for one, would happily while away an afternoon with his collected notes to the milkman – and a thousand ambivalent reviews won’t stop his many fans from devouring this book. But the uninitiated in search of the best of Roth – or indeed some of the best American fiction, period – should seek out a copy of Sabbath’s Theater (1995) or American Pastoral (1997), or one of Roth’s earlier masterpieces. There you’ll find all of Exit Ghost’s principal themes, but in lurid, irresistible flesh.

 

by Matt Hill

Fit College: Corpus vs Mansfield

Cherwell
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Fit College: Corpus vs Mansfield

Corpus… ..or Mansfield?

The Rose

Kate Hayter
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The Rose

It is quite a feat to pull off a menu comprised entirely of types of tea and their descriptions without being utterly pretentious, (anyone for the ‘mild and nutty aroma’ of Indian Assam? Or the ‘smoky almost tarry flavour’ of Lapsang Souchong?), yet somehow The Rose manages it. What prevents this central Oxford tea room from scaling the heights of pomposity is the fact that you are not made to feel wholly inadequate if you have never before sampled the delights of Darjeeling. They do things properly not because they want to impress, but because they are enthuasiastic. Being a posh tea amateur myself, and apprehensive about making a horrendous faux pas such as pouring milk into a cup which should remain dairy-free, I was relieved by the concise directions on the menu. Eventually we chose pots of Earl Grey (‘Milk : No’), and Vanilla Tea (‘Milk: Yes/ No’, an especially good choice), as the base element of The Rose’s Cream Tea Special, and Light Afternoon Tea. The former (£9.95) was comprised of a selection of delicately-cut sandwich fingers (three classics: smoked salmon, cucumber and cream cheese, egg and cress); a scone with clotted cream and jam; and a slice of cake (we chose coffee and mascarpone). All elements are homemade, usually by the charismatic owner Marianne, who is refreshingly hands-on and can often be seen wandering the shop floor in tea-stained chef whites. My companion, a West Country lass well familiar with the art of the cream tea, thought that the scone was slightly too damp and dense in texture, which impeded the generous slathering of the cream. However, we both agreed that the toasted tea cakes which constituted the light afternoon tea (£5.45) were the best we had ever tasted. The slight hint of cinnamon, the buttery brioche-like texture, and the wafer-thin, burnt-caramel coloured crust made each mouthful a pleasure. The Rose is worth a visit purely for the tea cakes alone. Breakfasts and lunches are also available, averaging around £6-£8 for popular dishes such as Croque Monsieur, omelette, and fish cakes. Prices here are on the steep side, perhaps more for the teas than the main meals, but the focus is on local, seasonal, and organic. A visit here could well be justified under the guise of an end of term treat…

by Kate Hayter

Oxford battered in Table Tennis Varsity match

Cherwell
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Oxford battered in Table Tennis Varsity match

Oxford 2 – 8 CambridgeIn the history of Varsity Table Tennis the series was all square; with 30 wins each for Oxford and Cambridge, and four draws. Following three consecutive wins over the Dark Blues, the confident Tabs entered this years Varsity fixture with a strong belief that they could take the lead in the series. Despite some brave resistance from the hosts, the Light Blues achieved this with by a convincing margin. The day began with a thrilling showdown between the Men’s Bteams. Possessing their best line-up in years, Oxford were shocked to find themselves 4-2 down after the first round of singles and doubles. However, victories from Roger Abbot, Chris Hollindale and Horatio Boedihardjo gave the Blues a fighting chance, however Cambridge levelled the scores to tie the fixture. The Ladies’ team inherited the momentum and took an early 2-1 lead thanks to impressive performance from the captain Susan Chai and Yuenyi Lo. Despite this encouraging start, their destruction by Cmabridge in the doubles caused the team to implode, finishing with a disappointing loss of 8-2. This story was then repeated by the Men’s A Team. Chris Hansell kicked off with a 2-0 lead in his first match against the Light Blues Captain, however things looked bad when the later recovered through aggressive forehand strokes in the third set. Hansell managed to hold on with some impenetrable blocking and secured a crucial first point for the Blues. The Oxford No. 2 Ansgar Walter’s hope to follow suit was soon extinguished by the Cambridge Ace. The thrilling 4 game contest saw a brimful of scintillating rallies where the audience could hardly see the ball but it was the Cambridge player who had a better focus and emerged victorious. The hosts were hit hard by this defeat and after that dispirited Blues found it impossible to stop Cambridge scoring. The Dark Blues conceded 4 points in a row until the Blues Captain Paul Lam reversed the tide. Going down 11-9 in the first set, he cleverly exploited the opposing players problems receiving long serves and took the next two sets. The Cambridge player launched a series of backhand attacks to lead 7-6 in the fourth set but Lam’s calmness together with his unstoppable forehand topspin won a 2nd point for Oxford. The victory, however, only as a consolations and the Dark Blues concluded the day with sorrowful 8-2 loss. The Varsity Match this year saw the Dark Blues posing a growing threat to the Tabs, but also showed that Oxford have a way to go before they can truly compete. With 2008 also bringing the graduation of Oxford’s two best players, Chris Hansell and Ansgar Walter, there are going to have to be other players that step up and take responsibility for leveling the series next year.by Horatio Boedihardjo

Listings: Friday 29th Febrary – Thursday 6th March

Cherwell
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Listings: Friday 29th Febrary – Thursday 6th March

Friday 29th FebruaryFilm
The Accidental Husband (12A) Odeon George St 1300, 1550, 1800, 2030
The Bank Job (15) Odeon George St 1445, 1745, 2045
Be Kind, Rewind (12A) Odeon George St 1230, 1500, 1730, 2015
The Bucket List (12A) Odeon George St  1215
Definitely, Maybe (12A) Odeon George St 1430, 1715, 2000
Don’t Touch The Axe (PG) UPP 1800
Favela Rising (OBHRFF) Oxford Brookes Main Lecture Hall 1900
Jumper (12A) Odeon George St 1345, 1615, 1845, 2115
Juno (12A) Odeon George St 1330, 1600, 1830, 2100
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (PG) Odeon Magdalen St 1715
My Blueberry Nights (12A) Phoenix 1400, 1850
No Country For Old Men (15) Odeon Magdalen St  1415, 2000, Phoenix 1615, 2100, UPP 2100, 2330
Semi-Pro (15) Odeon Magdalen St 1300, 1530, 1800, 2030
There Will Be Blood (15) Phoenix 1345, 1700, 2015Music
Philip Bate Birthday Concert: Bach, Biber Holywell Music Room 2000
Conway Scholars’ Recital: Schumann, Bach and Holborne, Holywell Music Room 1230
Oxford Chamber Orchestra: Copland, Barber and Haydn, Sheldonian 2000
The Beat, Carling Academy 1900
The Tossers, Carling Academy 1830
The Machiavellis, Purple Turtle 1900
Alvin Roy: Swing/Jazz, Old Orleans Bar 2030
Einstellung: Krautrock, The Wheatsheaf 2000
Stornoway: Really good band, Jericho Tavern 2000
Chalk, Purple Turtle 2100
 Stage
Debris, Burton Taylor 1730
Dolores Wears The Stars, Burton Taylor 1930
Fanshen, O’Reilly, Keble 2000
Measure For Measure, OFS 1930
Spies, Playhouse 2000Other
Saints and their Symbols: Lunchtime gallery talk, Randolph Gallery, Ashmolean 1315
Oxford Radical Forum, Wadham various
Saturday 1st March

Film
The Accidental Husband (12A) Odeon George St 1300, 1530, 1800, 2030
The Bank Job (15) Odeon George St 1445, 1745, 2045
Be Kind, Rewind (12A) Odeon George St 1230, 1500, 1730, 2015
Definitely, Maybe (12A) Odeon George St 1430, 1715, 2000
Don’t Touch The Axe (PG) UPP 1800
Jumper (12A) Odeon George St 1345, 1615, 1845, 2115
Juno (12A) Odeon George St 1330, 1600, 1830, 2100
Lumo (OBHRFF) Oxford Brookes Main Lecture Hall 1530
Lust, Caution (18) UPP 1800
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (PG) Odeon Magdalen St 1715
My Blueberry
Nights (12A) Phoenix 1630, 1850
No Country For Old Men (15) Odeon Magdalen St  1415, 2000, Phoenix 2100, UPP 1530
Penelope (U) Odeon George St 1215
Rain In A Dry Land (OBHRFF) Oxford Brookes Main Lecture Hall 1400
Semi-Pro (15) Odeon Magdalen St 1300, 1530, 1800, 2030
There Will Be Blood (15) Phoenix 1345, 1700, 2015
The Water House (PG) Odeon George St 1200

Music
Queen’s College Recital: Violin and Piano, Queen’s College Chapel 1315
Hertford Bruckner Orchestra: Bruckner, The University Church of St Mary 2000
The Cherwell Singers: Dubois, Verdi and Stabat Mater, Exeter College Chapel 2000
East Oxford Community Choir: Talis’ Spem in Allium, Greyfriars 2000
The Hoosiers: Shitpop, Carling Academy 1830
Little Fish, Jericho Tavern 1930
Late Of The Pier: Indie, Carling Academy 1900
Sugardirt: Folk, Purple Turtle (Time TBC)
Stage
Debris, Burton Taylor 1730
Dolores Wears The Stars, Burton Taylor 1930
Fanshen O’Reilly, Keble 2000
Measure For Measure, OFS 1930
Spies, Playhouse 1400, 1930Other
Oxford Radical Forum, Wadham various
Sunday 2nd MarchFilm
The Accidental Husband (12A) Odeon George St 1300, 1530, 1800, 2030
Alice In The Cities (U) Phoenix 1100
The Bank Job (15) Odeon George St 1445, 1745, 2045
Be Kind, Rewind (12A) Odeon George St 1230, 1500, 1730, 2015
Blood Diamond (OBHRFF) Regal 1400
Definitely, Maybe (12A) Odeon George St 1430, 1715, 2000
Don’t Touch The Axe (PG) UPP 1700
Jumper (12A) Odeon George St 1345, 1615, 1845, 2115
Juno (12A) Odeon George St 1330, 1600, 1830, 2100
Les Chansons d’Amour (15) Phoenix 1100
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (PG) Odeon Magdalen St 1715
My Blueberry Nights (12A) Phoenix 1630, 1850
No Country For Old Men (15) Odeon Magdalen St  1415, 2000, Phoenix 2100, UPP 2000, 2230
Penelope (U) Odeon George St 1215
Semi-Pro (15) Odeon Magdalen St 1300, 1530, 1800, 2030
There Will Be Blood (15) Phoenix 1300, 1715, 2030
The Water House (PG) Odeon George St 1200
Video Letters (OBHRFF) Regal 1630Music
Gould and Reid: Schubert, Schumann and Szymanowski, Holywell Music Room 1115
Scholar Cantorum Choral, Exeter College Chapel 2100
Duke String Quartet: Challenging new works, Holywell Music Room 1300
The Audition, Zodiac 1900
Stage
Ministry of Mirth, Wheatsheaf 2000Other
Oxford Radical Forum, Wadham variousMonday 3rd March Film
The Accidental Husband (12A) Odeon George St 1300, 1530, 1800, 2030
The Bank Job (15) Odeon George St 1445, 1745, 2045
Be Kind, Rewind (12A) Odeon George St 1230, 1500, 1730, 2015
The Bucket List (12A) Odeon George St  1215
Caramel (OBHRFF) Jericho Tavern 1900
Definitely, Maybe (12A) Odeon George St 1430, 1715, 2000
Don’t Touch The Axe (PG) UPP 1800
Fatherhood Dreams (OBHRFF) Jericho Tavern 1800
Jumper (12A) Odeon George St 1345, 1615, 1845, 2115
Juno (12A) Odeon George St 1330, 1600, 1830, 2100
Les Chansons d’Amour (15) Phoenix 1830
Lust, Caution (18) UPP 2100
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (PG) Odeon Magdalen St 1715
My Blueberry Nights (12A) Phoenix 1345
No Country For Old Men (15) Odeon Magdalen St 1415, 2000, Phoenix 1600, 2100, UPP 1530
Semi-Pro (15) Odeon Magdalen St 1300, 1530, 1800, 2030
There Will Be Blood (15) Phoenix 1345, 1700, 2015Music
Set Your Goals: Californian Punk, Carling Academy 1900
Stage
The Oxford Imps: Improvised comedy. Wheatsheaf 2000
Free Beer Show: Russell Kane + support. Cellar Bar 2115
The Clean House, Playhouse 1930Other
David Constantine: Poetry reading, Queens College 1700
Innocence Lost: Amnesty International Art Exhibition, Jam Factory 1930Tuesday 4th MarchFilm
The Accidental Husband (12A) Odeon George St 1300, 1530, 1800, 2030
The Bank Job (15) Odeon George St 1445, 1745, 2045
Be Kind, Rewind (12A) Odeon George St 1230, 1500, 1730, 2015
The Bucket List (12A) Odeon George St  1215
Definitely, Maybe (12A) Odeon George St 1430, 1715, 2000
Don’t Touch The Axe (PG) UPP 1800
Jumper (12A) Odeon George St 1345, 1615, 1845, 2115
Juno (12A) Odeon George St 1330, 1600, 1830, 2100
Murderers On The Dancefloor: Jailhouse Rock (OBHRFF) Jericho Tavern 1800
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (PG) Odeon Magdalen St 1715
No Country For Old Men (15) Odeon Magdalen St 1415, 2000, UPP 2100
Semi-Pro (15) Odeon Magdalen St 1300, 1530, 1800, 2030
Shooting Dogs (OBHRFF) Jericho Tavern 1830
Southland Tales (15) Oxford Magdalen St 2000Music
The Go! Team, Carling Academy 1900

Stage
The Clean House, Playhouse 1930
Love’s Labour, O’Reilly, Keble 1930
Mort, OFS 1930
True West, Burton Taylor 1930Other
Dust Settles: Clarendon Lectures in English, Professor Michael Wood, St Cross Building 1700
Dorothy Hodgkin Lecture 2008: Prof E Jones of Cancer Research, University Museum of Natural History 1700
Chancellor Chris Patten In conversation, St Antony’s College 1700 Wednesday 5th March Film
The Accidental Husband (12A) Odeon George St 1300, 1530, 1800, 2030
The Bank Job (15) Odeon George St 1445, 1745, 2045
Be Kind, Rewind (12A) Odeon George St 1500, 1730, 2015
The Bucket List (12A) Odeon George St  1215
Definitely, Maybe (12A) Odeon George St 1430, 1715, 2000
Don’t Touch The Axe (PG) UPP 1800
Indigenous Peoples And The United Nations (OBHRFF) Oxford Brookes Main Lecture Hall 1800
Jumper (12A) Odeon George St 1345, 1615, 1845, 2115
Juno (12A) Odeon George St 1330, 1600, 1830, 2100
Lust, Caution (18) UPP 2100
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (PG) Odeon Magdalen St 1715
My Blueberry Nights (12A) Phoenix 1400, 1850
No Country For Old Men (15) Odeon Magdalen St 1415, 2000, Phoenix 1615, 2100, UPP 1530
Rabbit Proof Fence (OBHRFF) Oxford Brookes Main Lecture Hall 1845
Semi-Pro (15) Odeon Magdalen St 1300, 1530, 1800, 2030
There Will Be Blood (15) Phoenix 1345, 1700, 2015

Music
Paul Lewis and the Leopold String Trio: Kodaly, Beethoven, Kurtag and Dvorak, Sheldonian 2000
Queen’s College Organ Recital, Queen’s College 1310
Orchestra of Oxford: Brahms and Mozart, University Church of St Mary 2000
Son of Dave: Solo blues, Jericho Tavern 2000
Mumm-Ra: Indie, Zodiac 1900
Stage
The Clean House, Playhouse 1930
Love’s Labour, O’Reilly, Keble 1930
Mort, OFS 1930
True West, Burton Taylor 1930
Other
The Black Swan: the impact of the highly improbable, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Saskatchewan Rm, Exeter College 1900Thursday 6th March Film
The Accidental Husband (12A) Odeon George St 1300, 1530, 1800, 2030
The Bank Job (15) Odeon George St 1445, 1745, 2045
Be Kind, Rewind (12A) Odeon George St 1230, 1500, 1730, 2015
The Bucket List (12A) Odeon George St 1215
Definitely, Maybe (12A) Odeon George St 1430, 1715, 2000
Don’t Touch The Axe (PG) UPP 1800
Hand In Hand (OBHRFF) Jam Factory 1800
Jumper (12A) Odeon George St 1345, 1615, 1845, 2115
Juno (12A) Odeon George St 1330, 1600, 1830, 2100
National Treasure 2: Book of Secrets (PG) Odeon Magdalen St 1715
My Blueberry Nights (12A) Phoenix 1400, 1850
No Country For Old Men (15) Odeon Magdalen St 1415, 2000, Phoenix 1615, UPP 2100
OUFF Film Cuppers Phoenix 2115
Semi-Pro (15) Odeon Magdalen St 1300, 1530, 1800, 2030
There Will Be Blood (15) Phoenix 1345, 1700, 2050
West Beirut (OBHRFF) Jam Factory 1830

Music
Oxford Philomusica: Mozart’s Don Giovanni, Sheldonian 1900
Kiki Dee and Carmelo Luggeri: Vocal and guitar, J du P 2000
Lunchtime Piano Recital: Brahms, Beethoven, Liszt, J du P 1315
Tim Lapthorne: Superhip Pianist, Spin @ The Wheatsheaf 2100
The Futureheads: Angular pioneers, Carling Academy 1900
Dreadzone: Dub/electro, Zodiac 2000
Sine Star Project: Country/pop, Jericho Tavern 2000
King Furnace: Rock, Cellar 2100
Stage
The Clean House, Playhouse 1430, 1930
Love’s Labour, O’Reilly, Keble 1930
Mort, OFS 1930
True West, Burton Taylor 1930
Other
The Old Country: Clarendon Lectures in English, Professor Michael Wood, St Cross Building 1700

Oxford do the double in Varsity fencing

Cherwell
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Oxford do the double in Varsity fencing

Oxford 108 – 103 CambridgeOn Saturday 23 in the Examination Schools the mighty Dark Blues triumphed over the outpaced Tabs. For the first time in 10 years the Dark Blues won the men’s trophy at home with the support of a stellar home crowd. Cambridge started strongly with their favourite weapon, the sabre. Cambridge Captain Alex O’Connell, a former Under 17 World Champion, was humbled by Oxford’s Jamie Kenber (Magdalen) who fenced above expectation to beat him. Veteran Paul Taylor (New) stepped up also and got a few cheeky hits and finally Dominic Kerr (Magdalen), a first year sabre talent, showed he wasn’t intimidated with a few classy hits of his own against O’Connell. The final sabre score was 45-18 to the Tabs. Not a great start, but not impossible. Foil was next and Kenber demonstrated his showcase form demolishing the cowering Tab opposition. Chris Kent, a pocket rocket from Lincoln, took up his arms against larger opponents and outclassed them. The third foilist Andy Caldwell (St Johns) also proved himself to be stoic, overcoming three days of Torpids pain as part of the best St John’s crew in 20 odd years with an excellent foil performance. Things got a bit fraught at the end and with the Cambridge Captain arguing every hit with the referee – only making himself look foolish and setting up the inevitable self-destruct that followed. Final score 45-27 to Oxford. Epee was the final weapon and saw two of Oxford’s current national silver medalling team, Matthew Dodwell (Lincoln) and Matthew Baker (Exeter), in action. Andy Caldwell served as third epeeist because he still felt fresh and wanted another chance to smash Tabs. Trailing by 9 hits, the task was always going to be hard. Caldwell made not getting hit look easy when he out-thought Cambridge’s former Captain and Epee No. 1, Chris Greensides, in a 0-0 draw after 3 minutes, and then Dodwell tore into them and took a 5 hit lead. Baker promptly lost this lead in a scrappy fight with the same Greensides losing 4-1, but then turned around and slayed the unfortunate Tom Möst 8-1 in their last fight. Dodwell, serenely calm, then overcame Greensides, ensuring victory for the second year running. Overall Score 108 – 103. In the women’s event, Sophie Troiano (Christ Church) captained the side to an impressive victory. This was the first time that Oxford have won both the men’s and women’s event in more than 10 years. The Dark Blues got off to a dominating start in the sabre featuring former BUSA individual Bronze medallist Justine Aw (St Johns). Sophie then followed up with great performances in the epee and foil and the Ladies overcame Cambridge 122-105. Notable performances came from newcomer Rosalind Davies (Jesus) in the epee making her opponents look ordinary, and last year’s women’s Captain Georgina Osborne (New) who fenced in her last Varsity after having fenced first for Cambridge for three years and then for Oxford for the past three. Definitely also worth a mention was Mat Shearman (Lincoln) anchoring the Men’s Seconds, the Assassins, to a victory with an incredible fight that clawed back a 6-point deficit and his final bout in which he humiliated his Tab opponent and clinched victory for Oxford. This was a comprehensive victory for an Oxford side that has trained hard all year. They will be hoping to replicate this form in next years fixture.by Matt Baker

The rise and rise of the supermarket

Cherwell
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The rise and rise of the supermarket

With Tesco straddling the Atlantic and Asda, the UK face of US mega-conglomerate Wal-Mart reporting record profits, supermarkets are on the up. And up. They sell school uniforms, pharmaceutical products, life insurance; how far does their influence extend?The selling point behind the supermarket is convenience. It is more fun to spend a morning choosing fruit and veg from the grocers and paying extortionate prices from the butcher for delicious hunks of meat than trudging round Safeway; and more fun too is feeling good about ourselves and our diets in doing so: helping the community to help our selves. But time, now, is essential. I can put off and campaign against ‘popping down to Tesco’ as much as I want, but unavoidably there comes a moment of desperation when with crumbling morals I head out at 2am for a sugar kick on chocolate or bottles of vodka. It is also true that having picked my way through the bread aisle or ‘bakery’ – brown, white, brown and white together, sliced, without crusts, half-baked –  I am gagging for a bit of jam and butter to go with it and can rejoice that both, miraculously, are in the next aisle, and not the next street: I can even buy a knife and plate in store.How far the supermarket is affecting our health, of course, is a key question today. Obesity just doesn’t cut it anymore and has brought ready-meals –contributing to the convenience ethos- and value food –once helping our student (and general) loans but now requiring new loans for liposuction- into the realms of consideration and concern. Arguably in fact, there is a system of supermarket hierarchy, where the higher the price the higher the food content – that is food from the ground or raised on a farm- so that only those consuming ‘finest’ or ‘taste the difference’ can really claim to be eating nutritiously. But supermarkets have eliminated to some large degree, their competition. If you visit one supermarket chain as opposed to another then there is little in variety or price difference and probably they planned it that way. The OFT (Office for Fair Trading) noted that point for example, in December 2007, when five chains were investigated for fixing the price of tea and coffee’s creamy companion. And, stepping outside of these stores, the alternatives are bleak. Finding a free-range chicken or buying vegetables that haven’t been dyed, felt-tipped or grown in a lab is a hard search: an allotment, in fact, with chicken coop, may be your only real option.Delicious low prices are inevitably a large and enticing feature of the supermarket, and a greatly contributing factor to the supermarket’s success. Super stores can get things really cheap and sell them for slightly less cheap so that we still feel like we’ve got a good deal: an irresistible bargain. The power of the bargain indeed, the one off, the ‘miss it, miss out’ is immeasurable and is exploited to the full. I can go to Tesco for two pints of milk and come back with a lifetime’s supply of fortune cookies and dental-floss, because £39.99 seemed unmisable and I knew I could swipe my clubcard. I’d go so far as to suggest that supermarkets have got inside our individual psychologies. They have the power to dictate, quite influentially, what goes into our trolleys. M&S, showing the authority of explicit marketing for example, combine sex and food into (seemingly) orgasmic TV adverts that make all their produce seem absolutely divine, whilst Sainsbury’s, on a different tact, have Jamie Oliver for sort of boosting the credibility of an otherwise dull store and encouraging us to think that their produce is well made and well sourced and well intended.Supermarkets are empowered because they have extended beyond food. Not only can you pick up your groceries within a half hour slot but you can also buy your clothes (or at least your staples – tights, knickers, t-shirts) fuel your car, get pens and reporter’s notebooks or refill pads, and, indeed, pick up your emergency prescription. And there’s more. Tesco shoppers could, in theory, live a glittering Tesco life: with Tesco internet, Tesco mobile network, Tesco personal finance and loans, even Tesco photography and garden centres: and all putting points on your loyalty card. In fact how many people know too, that OneStop is Tesco in disguise? We might as well wear clubcards round our necks and swap our rucksacks and satchels to bags for life. Recently being green and eco-friendly has gathered momentum but this is only a fad where supermarkets are concerned. Lets be honest, they don’t actually give a shit about the environment but are forced to modify their products and approach so as to create an ethical stance that can rectify the qualms of their customers. You can get ‘woodland eggs’, extra bonus green club-card points, and straw bags to replace the plastic ones as well as fair-trade and recycled materials but all in the name of the customers who want this, not the planet.Everyone, inadvertently, supports the supermarket because people like things easy: on that note, shopping online is the most hideous form of ‘easy’ I’ve ever heard of and probably only put in place so supermarkets can fob off the mouldy apples. But because everyone loves the easy life supermarkets –with baskets full of cash- grow and keep growing ridiculously.  At home I can’t get away from supermarkets: there are three on one stretch of the high street, and two that are less than five minutes drive away. The power giants – Tesco, Asda and the combined Morissons and Safeway – are too economically powerful to deny and too greedy, themselves, for moral behaviour. Is it not a bit alarming too, that as supermarkets get bigger and bigger, they have started to acquire turrets and spires? Though brightly lit and full of happy staff (and of course complete with a thousand unhappy shoppers) our local supermarket looks quite similar to a church or maybe Big Ben and the houses of parliament, which surely says something about the importance of the supermarket, if not the problems that should be addressed as well.Whilst our lives should be tasting better, we’re actually just being suffocated. The supermarket, in theory, is kind of a good idea: everything in one place, with lots of choice and lots of staff to guide you to a great value, well considered buy. Everybody smile.But they’re making our lives into toy town. Admittedly there was no greater variety, no proportionally better prices or deals for the prehistoric section of society that existed before the supermarket boom, but there was equally no brainwashing, less waste and a better sense of community eating food that was home grown and home made. We can’t get away from the supermarket, nor can we can get away from the ease of them being there. But I do think thought is important: ‘every little’ does not ‘help’, M&S is not ‘yours’, if we ‘try something new today’ we’ll just end up going hungry.b
by Louise Collins

Q&A with Blues captain Paul Rainford

Cherwell
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Q&A with Blues captain Paul Rainford

1) You played in the game last year – how much are you looking forward to being the man leading the team out this time round? It’s somewhat of a hackneyed cliché but I will be extremely honoured to lead the team out in this year’s match. This will be the 124th Varsity football fixture and for it to be played in such a fantastic venue with, hopefully, plenty of Oxford fans cheering us to victory will be in many ways humbling, but also very exciting.
2) How much pressure did you feel in the game last year, and how did it affect you? Some players say it means you don’t get a chance to enjoy the game – how did you feel? From my experience the game almost passes you by because you spend so much time in the build up playing out the possibilities in your head that the actual 90 minutes you spend out on the pitch seems interminably short. I wouldn’t say that the pressure particularly affected me last year. Ultimately you have to realise that, whilst the tradition, the stadium and the fans make the fixture that extra bit special, you are fundamentally playing for your team-mates and the same set of guys that you have been working with all year. Your responsibility is to those around you who have shared in your efforts throughout the season and you know that those guys aren’t expecting anything other than the whole hearted commitment that you know that you can expect in return from them. Anything other than your duties as a team-mate really doesn’t matter and shouldn’t create any undue pressure. I have been involved in two varsity defeats and I missed a crucial penalty in the shoot out last year so I can only really improve on that this time round!
3) How much emphasis do you put on the Varsity – do you think it merits all the special attention it gets, or does it overshadow the season too much? I have never approached a fixture this season with the mentality that I wanted anything less than a victory so in that sense the Varsity match is simply the latest in a long list of ‘must win’ games. The Varsity match always attracts the glamour and the majority of the attention from outside observers within the Oxford community but I probably would have placed greater emphasis on our BUSA league campaign because regular fixtures against the major universities in our region is a far greater test of our ability that the one off glamour tie against Cambridge. I derived an exceptional amount of pleasure and pride from our accomplishments in becoming the BUSA midlands champions because it indicated that we had performed at a consistently high level over a sustained length of time. In addition, the way in which the standard of football at this University will be judged by those outside of Oxford will be based more on our BUSA standing than the outcome of the Varsity game. However if you were to ask this same question to the Cambridge captain you would most probably receive a very different response, although that would largely be due to their poor BUSA standing in the league below ours, which would naturally make the Varsity match the very fulcrum of their season above and beyond anything else.
4) And lastly – have you got anything special planned, such as last-minute teamtalks? And will you prepare differently to this game than any other? The aim will be to normalise the game as much as possible. We will seek to prepare in exactly the same fashion and keep to the same timetable that would be the case for any other game of the season. The more that you take the players out of their routines, the more likely you are to disrupt the processes that have contributed to our success so far this season. The team don’t need to be told that this is a big game so I will avoid making any great gestures or statements that could unnecessarily add to the tension. If we stick to our routines, maintain our composure and impose our style of football on the game I am sure that we will be victorious!

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