.: The Red Brick – Dubai College's Student Newspaper :.

1. DUBAI’S WINTER = AUTUMN: If it’s the one thing you can only do in Dubai, then it’s going to the beach in December. Although the so called ‘winter’ in Dubai doesn’t bring any snow, it’s the one time of the year when outdoor activities don’t leave you dehydrated, raining with sweat and about to faint. Not too hot and not too cold: The Goldilocks period.

2. THE PALM, THE WORLD AND ATLANTIS: There seems to be a new building rising from each corner of Dubai every day. When the sail-shaped Burj Al Arab rose in Jumeirah, it was unbelievable! But now a new innovative idea emerges every month - from the tallest building in the world to the biggest shopping mall on Earth to an incredible water park. No need for separate holidays; visiting these places are holidays themselves.

3. BEACH: Whether it’s for an end-of-school party or just a place to tan and chill, the beach is undeniably the best place to do so. Although there are some debates about which beach is the best (I personally

prefer Jumeirah Beach Park but others will argue the case of Sunset Beach or JBR), whichever beach it is, there’s nothing better than cooling yourselves in the sea and lying in the warm sun with the breeze in your hair- or is that too poetic?

 

4. “THE MELTING POT OF CULTURE”: I’m sure everyone has thought about it once in a while. You’re sitting with a group of friends, either in your class, canteen or the food court at Dubai mall, when you look around and realise that you’re sitting in a racially mixed group. Ranging from Indians, East Asians to just white westerners, it’s surprising how easily we mix. Due to the blend of nations we’re exposed to, it’s hard not to mix. But because of this environment, we get to know and understand the different cultures.

 

5. DUBAIAN AND PROUD: The one good thing you get out of living in Dubai is the reputation of having lived in a country spurred by imagination. Just a few years ago, Dubai was an unknown place to people living in other countries, but now when you say “I live in Dubai,” the immediate reaction is a surprised face with a list of descriptions of buildings that they’ve seen on the news. You would be silently nodding and smiling, “yup, I’ve seen all those, no biggy.”

Chae Yoon Kim

 

 

What’s the first animal that you think of after reading the title? Hopefully for the majority, it would’ve been the cheetah because that’s the mammal I’m going to talk about. (I’m pretty sure some people, in an attempt to prove their ‘superior’ knowledge, chose the peregrine falcon or some other weird animal not known to most people. In that case, you are right, but I am focusing on land animals.

The cheetah is easily able to reach a speed of 110~120km/h, having a strong advantage over other animals when hunting. Unlike other predators like the lion or leopard, the cheetah can run from afar after having spotted their prey, thus giving them a 40~50% chance of catching their prey.

The cheetah’s fast speed is a result of generations of natural selection. The main prey of a cheetah is the gazelle, a small and quick animal whose agility cannot be matched by most predators. The cheetah has evolved over time to target this ‘niche market’. To inhale more oxygen, their lungs have increased in size, allowing them to breathe 150 times /min instead of 60. To speed up their blood circulation, their heart, liver and arteries have increased. To become faster and more flexible, their leg bones and spine have become thin and long. To reduce the wind resistance, the jaw and teeth have become smaller and their weight has reduced by 40~50kg

Ironically however, the cheetah’s ill-fate arises from here. Although they sacrificed everything to achieve the speed they wanted, because of this, they are nearing extinction.

The rate of success of their hunt is high but, due to their small body size, half of what they catch is stolen. The leopard, to prevent its catch from being stolen by hyenas and lions, takes its meal up a tree, but the cheetah doesn’t have such abilities and is therefore forced to retreat quietly, unable to do anything.

Another, more serious reason, is their heavy dependence on gazelles. Because gazelles are a cheetah’s main energy source, a small decrease in the number of gazelles will have a huge impact on cheetahs. Due to industrial developments in Africa, areas of natural habitats are diminishing, consequently leading to a fall in the population of gazelles and high competition amongst the cheetahs. It is a side effect brought on by specialisation.

It is undeniable that specialisation is necessary. But to concentrate only on the fire in front of your feet instead of looking far and wide cannot really be called specialisation. True specialisation happens after thoroughly reading the world changes and specialising according to those changes.

Being able to run quickly is important, but being able to run in the right direction is more significant. The faster you run in the wrong direction, the longer the return will be. The sadness of having to leave what you catch evidently does not only happen in the animal world.

Chae-Yoon Kim

Within D.C, there is an abundance of talent. Round every corner is a boy or girl who could very well grow up to be a world leader, a talented musician, an artist or a sportsman. Without exception, one extremely talented student within our school is Rob Miller: a fantastic singer, guitarist and songwriter with a unique style who deserves to be heard. Rob is extremely humble about his talent which makes him all the more special and he was kind enough to talk to the newspaper about his original songs and his feelings towards music in general.

How old were you when music began having an impact in your life?

I must have been about 13 and a half because, for Christmas, my parents and I went half and half on a new guitar. I started off with having some lessons but didn’t really take to them so I decided to teach myself. I focused on looking at learning the basic chords and things like that and then for the harder pieces, I watched the artists playing on YouTube videos so that I could pick up the music that way.

Was there something in particular that influenced you to start?

Can’t say that I am sure what influenced me in the first place but I had always had it in my mind that I wanted to play an instrument and the guitar appealed to me. My neighbor had a broken, 3 string guitar and you could say that I just really enjoyed the instrument even when it was broken like that.

You have already made so many positive steps towards getting yourself heard. Where do you see yourself in 5 years? Touring and performing for live audiences?

Well obviously I would love to tour and get the chance to perform my songs in front of people but I think my music will stay as more of a hobby and an interest- performing at open mics and such. It’s up to people to decide how good I am but I’m not counting on anything like that and I’ve never been sure if I’m quite good enough. I doubt I’ll ever stop playing because it’s my way of unwinding and having fun but my music hasn’t influenced my decisions about Universities or anything. I have my own recording equipment so music facilities didn’t play any major part in my choice.

Those who know you are aware of your love of Newton Faulkner- any favourite songs by him?

A pretty impossible question but I would have to say at the moment, the final track on his new album called ‘I’m not giving up yet’. I think it’s special because normally he uses loads of different instruments on his album like strings and bass and such but this song is just on acoustic guitar which makes it work so well. It’s just such a meaningful song and has a great vocal spectrum which actually makes it quite hard for me to sing.

You have a big fan base within Dubai. How many are there exactly?

On YouTube, I have just over 250 following my music and then on Facebook, over 500. It’s not as much as other YouTube artists but I am very pleased with the support I get from people both in and out of the school community.

What is your new C.D made up of?

It’s made up of my own original material, so, songs where I have written the original music and the words. I am planning on releasing a cover album but that would be for free. It would be a good way for people who don’t know me to hear what I can do for free and then decide whether or not they would want to spend the money on my original work. It’s also because I wouldn’t feel right making money from songs that other people have written.

What is your favourite song that you have covered?

I recorded the duet ‘Falling Slowly’ with Tara Mehranzabad which was really good fun and we put in lots of different things like piano and strings, so I would have to say that was my favourite.

And what about your songs; do you have a favourite?

Out of my songs, if any it would have to be ‘Love Song for No One’. It’s probably because I just had a lot of fun doing it. It was played with me on Guitar and Dylan Price on Drums and it started off as a bit of improvisation and just ended up sounding really good.

Rob’s C.D has been released. It’s called ‘Good Enough’ and can be purchased on Amazon and there is no doubt that he has what it takes to affect people with his music and this is not the last we have heard of Rob Miller.

Lily Schuck

 

 

Theatre review – A Halloween night out

Plot

 

Eil Marsh House stands tall, gaunt and isolated, surveying the endless flat marshes beyond the Nine Lives Causeway, somewhere on England’s bleak East Coast. Here Mrs Alice Drablow lived – and died – alone.

Young Arthur Kipps, a junior solicitor, is ordered by his firm to travel up from London to attend her funeral and arrange her papers. At first Kipps is quite unaware of the tragic secrets which lie behind the house’s shuttered windows. He only has a terrible sense of unease. And then, he glimpses a young woman with a wasted face, dressed all in black. Who is she? Why is she there? He asks questions, but the locals refuse to talk about the woman in black, or even to acknowledge her existence at all. So, Arthur Kipps has to wait until he sees her again, and she slowly reveals her identity to him – and her terrible purpose.

Years later, when Kipps chooses to tell his story, he approaches a theatre producer who creates a performance of this story within the play itself. Therefore ‘The Woman in Black’ is almost a play within a play where scenes constantly swap between rehearsals and the performance.

Review

While dressed up children crowded doorsteps and the less zealous Halloween enthusiasts rocked the night away at the Kings of Leon Concert, I was queuing up at the Madinat Theatre ticket booth, spending all my money on watching a show that frankly I had never really heard of. The one thing I knew about ‘The Woman in Black’ was that it was ‘scary’ or meant to be at least. But to be honest with you, I was sceptical about how a play starring two men working with a minimalistic set could possibly impact an audience so much as to leave them ‘shaking with fear’ as claim the quotes on the programme. Even some films fail to truly terrify viewers and they have the advantage of cinematography, gory special effects and tantalising real life settings. I deemed it impossible for two men on a stage to possibly create their desired effect on an audience.

I don’t think I could have been more wrong.

When first stepping into the theatre I was already encapsulated by a false sense of security, the lighting was warm and luxurious, caressing the hustle and bustle of laughing people dodging others in the aisles, excited for the horror filled spectacular still to come. It was not long before the whole theatre was dark and the audience were caught dead in their seats.

As soon as the actors spoke, their talent emulated from within them and they engaged every member of the audience through every line they spoke or action they took. Even throughout the long silences I was gripped, suspended with curiosity and tension as their ghost story was slowly unravelled before my very eyes.

The tone at first was humourous, where the light hearted relationship between Mr Kipps and the theatre producer instigated modest giggles among the audience, driving them into a sense of reassurance that was soon to be shattered by the latter stages of the play. Their chemistry and presence stole my focus, especially when actually role-playing Mr Kipp’s story. I was so concentrated in their actions that I almost failed to notice the third member of the cast hovering right behind me. Black, everything hidden but a white, ruined face and decrepit eyes. The Woman in Black.  Her subtle presence was eerie and hardly acknowledged in Act 1 which made her that much more mysterious and frightening. She could be anywhere and you could be completely unaware of it.

Act 2 brought horrific surprises, and although I sat still and shaking in my seat, I couldn’t keep my eyes off the action in front of me or block my ears when terrible screams and sound effects pulsed throughout my body. The actors were so convincing in their parts, maintaining this despite the fact they had to multirole that I felt so connected to the story, and found it hard to imagine that the Woman in Black was just a regular person with costume and make up.  The set was cleverly manoeuvred and designed as there was no point where the audience saw stage crew come on stage and change the set. To the viewer’s perspective it seemed to just appear as if from nowhere. This is true of the child’s room which the Woman in black haunted, where a rocking chair seemed to rock repeatedly by itself without any visible form of human interaction.

Not only did the direction and actor’s performances in the play completely stagger the audience, but the twists and turns in the story left us frozen in our seats and strongly impacted by the terrifying atmosphere surrounding us. In my case this fear even managed to follow me home that night, despite my scepticism from before, and my dreams were haunted by screaming children and a woman with a white wasted face.

Lucie Turner

 

 

It’s a funny thing, but you mention “creative writing” and you can almost see people’s faces fall. I’m not sure what it is- I mean, proper grown-up writers with their names under columns and on the dust-jackets of shiny hard novels don’t get this kind of stigma- but it’s definitely there. You dance? Amazing! You can paint? Paint me something! You can play the flute? How pretty! You write? … and the faces fall and in the awkward silence you can hear their brains whirring as they try and think of something to say.
Maybe it’s because people are scared of bad writing. But when there’s so much of it about (most of the best seller lists seem to be full of badly-written, fast-paced, well-plotted dross) you’d think people might have become immune to dangling clichés, both in construction and plot. You’d also think people would be more willing to read badly-written, fast-paced, well-plotted dross written by somebody they know rather than a stranger. Not at all- though the theory seems to be that if somebody at an editing house/ press office thought it was good enough to stick into print and sling a hard cover at, it’s good enough for me. And like I’ve said- it isn’t. It really isn’t. You can do better than that yourself. But you try, and people will give you that funny look again. (Try it. It’s got a lot in common with other looks- the look that JC people give you when you say you go to DC. The look someone might give you if you owned up to a keen and pressing interest in collecting odd and esoteric objects.)
Maybe it’s because writing is such a solitary thing. You can’t write together- well, you can, but it’s hard to get anything good out of it. Most collaborative writing smacks nastily of School Project- and most of those that require me, at least, to sit down with somebody else and WRITE end up with me and the somebody-else having a stand up row or a sit down gossip, and neither way do we get much done and down. But writing’s boring to watch. A great deal of writers haven’t got a lot to say off the printed page and written word; and a great deal of writers would rather write than talk (that’s why they’re not actors). And people tend to avoid people who are into solitary pursuits. Saying that you, by choice, sit on your own with a pen-and-paper/computer/typewriter /whatever floats your writerly boat is like announcing to the world you’d really rather sit on your own with a pen-and-paper/computer/typewriter /whatever floats your writerly boat THAN TALK TO THEM. Yes, we know that’s not true- but I’m writing an article about creative writing and you’re reading it. Probably on your own. Probably on a computer screen. You can kind of see where they’re coming from. So we’re going to have to do something about that, too.
Maybe it’s because people are scared of the horribly emotional cliché of the Teenage Writer; laboured rhyming couplets that don’t scan and don’t work as a poem. Yes, there’s a fair few bad teenage writers- one quick drag of the internet finds more bad teenage writing than you could ever hope to need- but there’s a fair few amazing teenage writers at all. Though to classify these writers as teenage is demeaning and ridiculous- nobody ever calls Keats a teenage writer (though some of his work definitely fits the stereotype- laboured rhyming couplets that don’t scan- and I may be risking near death from the English department for typing that) and he died at 25. Vast chunks of his poetry were written in that teenage bracket, and he isn’t alone. It’s the job of this little quarter of the magazine (eighth, sixteenth, maybe even 32th now, in these busy busy technological days) to weed out the bad, and fill it with writing above and Keats. Writing that will defy the stereotype. Writing that will change the minds behind all those looks.
So let’s start now. If you’re in the creative writing section, chances are you’ve got a passing interest in creative writing. So we’re going to do this together. What are we going to do? We’re going to, in Dubai College at least, attempt to change the way people look at creative writing. So that means: writing something people want to read, making it less solitary and getting rid of the cliché of the Teenage Writer. Is this even possible? Can we do that? In the words of Barack Obama and Bob the Builder, YES WE CAN.
And here’s how. I’ve never run something like this before, but here’s how I imagine it should go. Write the next line to this story. Or two lines, if you prefer. As much as you like, up to 100 words. Send it to me. I’ll pick the ones I like best, adhering strictly to the No Teenage Writing and No Bad Writing theories. The techie people will put it on the website. We should in theory end up with a work of artistic and sociable genius. So heigh ho, let’s go…
The day I fell down the cellar steps was the first day of the rest of my life. If I hadn’t fallen down the cellar steps, my head going bump bump bumpity bump on every single stair, my whole life would have been completely different-

…and off you all go. There may even be prizes for anybody who gets something up here (I say prizes. We have no budget as such, so it will just have to be the everlasting love and respect of the editorial board and maybe some chocolate if you’re lucky).

Ella Risbridger