Happy Hallowe'en!

Don't Forget... Clocks Go Back Tonight!

The Winter is now firmly upon us, and the end of October is just hours away. This can only mean one thing, the clocks are going back one hour tonight. So don't forget to change yours before nodding off on Saturday night (or like many of us, the early hours of Sunday morning!). This change will mean that mornings will be lighter, but it will grow much darker earlier in the evenings... It's making me cold and miserable just thinking about it, time for a cuppa!

Fishing For Bishops - Gig on Saturday

Come and see Fishing for Bishops at the New Delight Pub in Blackshaw Head tomorrow night, as they relaunch themselves with a new bassist, new songs and a new mentality.

Starts roughly at 7, though we can't be sure...

Fishing For Bishops

Saturday Night, 7pm

New Delight, Blackshaw Head

Manshackle: Issue 4

Film Review With Sam Larner

The Town (15)

The Town is a new film directed by Ben Affleck. It follows a group of bank robbers as they bank rob Boston.

The film starts with the group attempting to rob a bank. They’re successful but kidnap Rebecca Hall’s character who they then release. They realise that she lives just a few blocks away from them in Boston and realise that they need to deal with her. Fearing that the rest of the group may be considering killing her Ben Affleck decides to follow her, with predictable results.

The critics have rated this very highly, 90% on Rotten Tomatoes. Mark Kermode said it was a good story but a bit too clichéd. I must admit I wasn’t that impressed with it. I thought it was perfectly watchable, there’s some great scenes, some very good chases in it, but I must admit my views aren’t entirely the same.

I think that the main problem is the film “The Departed”. Any film post “The Departed” about Boston blue collar gangs will invariably get compared to it, however especially a film this similar in plot and style. I don’t believe that “The Departed” is the masterpiece that its Oscars would suggest, however it is a more memorable film than this. It is very clichéd aswell, especially many of the bank robbing scenes.  Equally the scenes with Rebecca Hall and Ben Affleck are more charming and fun than the rest of the scenes and I did feel a bit annoyed that they didn’t focus more on a romantic style script.

The ending, for me, was a little too “Shawshank Redemption” and it did elicit a little chuckle from me as I watched the movie. It’s not a terrible movie any stretch of the imagination but it is fairly unmemorable. Rebecca Hall gives a very good performance as the slightly naive and vulnerable girl next door and Affleck is actually pretty good as the gang member who maybe wants out although maybe he's happy with the career he has at the moment. The best performance of the film, though, is undoubtedly Pete Posselthwaite as the scary Godftather type character who rules with an iron fist from a low budget florists in uptown Boston. I would encourage you to go see it, but I very much doubt that it will make much of an impact beyond the kind of fun popcorn Hollywood movies.

Sam's Survey For YOU!

Hullo boys et girls,

I'm doing an investigation into Taboo Language for my English Language course. I was wondering if you could copy and paste the below survey and then copy and paste it back into a Word Document and send it me on samlarner@painterschronicle.co.uk. I would also be grateful if you could you also ask your parents to fill this survey out (as well as long as they're over 40).

I know it sounds like a lot but you could all be famous in the linguistics world.

Mucho Appreciation.

Sam Larner

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Taboo Words in Daily Life and the Media

Investigating whether age and gender affect how people view taboo words. 

1. Age: 16-25 (   ) 40+ (   )

2. Gender: Male (   ) Female (   )

3. What are your attitudes to swearing? 


Strongly dislike (   ) Dislike (   ) Find it inoffensive (   ) No problem hearing it or using it (   )

4. Do your views on swearing change with the context of the swearing? 
(For instance would you find swearing more acceptable in a comedy club and less so around children?)

Strongly agree (   ) Agree (   ) Disagree (   ) Strongly disagree (   )

5. How often do you use taboo language?

Never (   ) Infrequently (   ) Occasionally (   ) Frequently (   ) Very Often (   )

6. For the 40+, do you swear more often now than you did in your childhood?

No (   ) Yes (   ) Don’t know (   )

7. For everyone, would you adjust your swearing around a person of the opposite age group?

No (   ) Yes (   ) Don’t Know (   )

8. Would you adjust your swearing around a member of the opposite sex?

No (   ) Yes (   )  Don’t Know (   )

9. Do you find swearing more offensive when coming from one of the groups in this survey?

16-25 male (   ) 16-25 female (   ) 40+ male (   ) 40+ female (   ) No (   )

10. In your opinion is swearing cool?

Yes (   ) No (   ) Don’t Know (   )

Thank you for completing the survey!

An Intriguing YouTube Video

I have just been shared the link of the above YouTube video by Painter's Chronicle reader Ben Topham, a video that I am extremely grateful he showed me. It's a fantastic watch, and I guarantee that it will get you thinking, it certainly had me thinking and I will be making a response later on this week. Enjoy!

*PS - I'd reccomend making it full screen to get the most from it.

Patrick Munsie

It is with great sadness that to hear about the passing of Patrick Munsie on Thursday night. Patrick was taking a gap year from education and travelling through America and, at the time was visiting Colorado; all of this before attending university in Kingston, London next year to study Law.

Patrick was dearly loved by all who knew him, both as a friend and acquaintance. He was a really genuine, comical and down to earth character known by many throughout the Calder Valley and whom had great skills and talents in many areas, most notably debating and writing. I am proud and privileged to have known Patrick and worked with him during the Mock Trial competitions and through The Painter’s Chronicle.

His presence and personality will be very sorely missed by all and our thoughts and prayers are with his family and friends at this time.

Billy Painter

Stand up for Students

URGENT: Browne Review recommends massive increase in tuition fees. Act now!

As you may have seen in yesterday’s news, the Browne Review has recommended massive increases in student tuition fees to fund higher education. Labour Students have always fought to stop rises to fees and the creation of a market in higher education – and now we need your help as a member of Young Labour.

Every Lib Dem MP signed a pledge before the general election promising that they would vote against any increase in tuition fees. Now it seems that the Lib Dems have betrayed students with a massive u-turn by agreeing to abstain while the Tories vote through this monumental tuition fee hike. We are now calling on all members of Young Labour to join our campaign to expose this hypocrisy and stop these recommendations from becoming a reality.

Do five things right now to help:

1  Sign our online letter to Vince Cable here at www.standupforstudents.org.uk

2 Forward this email to 10 friends and get them to sign the e-petition

3 Pledge to attend the national demonstration on the 10th November – more details atwww.demo2010.org

4 Write to your local MP to ask them to vote against any proposed increase in tuition fees

5 Ask your local newspaper to challenge your local MP about this policy

Please do everything you can to highlight this campaign around and sign your friends up – together we need to show the Lib Dems that they cannot lie to young people and get away with it.