Keeping it real with Rory Auskerry - March 2007

Only yesterday was I thinking of a way to begin this month’s column. As if by magic at about 11:40 last night the power went off. There was some confusion over whether or not we had run out of money in the meter. However, after looking outside at the other flats it was quickly realized this was not the case. What had actually happened was a power cut had knocked out the entire two blocks of student accommodation as well as the street lights on both the road and river side of Panns Bank. It had even thrown the Southern half or the Wearmouth bridge into darkness. What amazed me is how quickly a bunch of students can gather together with a bag of newspapers, a lighter and a guitar despite being so useless at getting up for work. A nice ‘camp fire’ community spirit ensued until a pack of stressed security guards came and utilized the fire extinguisher that one conscientious student had supplied, and put the small paper fire out.

Something struck me this week to do with students eating habits. Very few of us seem to be able to cook at all. Luckily for me I have a mother who passed on a good deal of culinary experience to me when I was home educated which has stood me in good stead whilst away from home. However, the number of people I know that can’t even cook the simplest things amazes me. Some people are very bad for throwing things away that are only a day or two out of date even though they are fine. If the milk smells and tastes ok, it is ok. Frozen Margarita pizzas will not make you I’ll if they are ten days out of date and neither will a carton of apple juice that’s been unopened in the fridge! Anyway I’m doing my best to eat healthily and give advice where it’s asked for. I suppose you learn best from your own experience.

As you would expect, us lazy students consume a lot of media, especially TV programmes. For me and the rest of my flatmates, the television watching experience has changed quite dramatically in the last few months. As we are all media students being encouraged to analyse, criticize, evaluate and discuss the media in all its forms we all find ourselves constantly judging whatever it is we’re watching. Some of the most common statements are: “That’s a badly composed shot.” “That package was badly edited and the music was totally wrong for that advert.” “The CGI effect on that building doesn’t look real.” I suppose it’s what we’re meant to be doing and it is interesting. Having said that this, sometimes subconscious, analysis and debate can get a little tedious when you just want to relax in front of ‘Midsummer Murders’. Our TV decided to blow up last night so we no longer have this problem for the time being.

This week I received some of my results back from last semester. I was pleased to find that close to a first for my essays on popular culture and analysis of narrative and genre respectively as well as for my Radio module. I still haven’t heard anything about the introduction to T.V. module yet but I’m confident it will be fine. I was pleased with these results because if I’m honest I didn’t put as much effort into them as I could have. I figured that the marks I get this year don’t count towards my degree and only serve to get me onto the next level, i.e. second year, so therefore it was more important to just make sure I pass and spend the extra time on other things. So to get these results gives me confidence that with a little more effort I will be well on my way to getting some really god grades in my second and final year here.

Despite having been totally settled with a good group of friends for a while now I’m still constantly meeting new people which I think is fantastic. What amazes me the most is how many people I meet have done really cool and interesting things in their life already. One of my mates who is now 28 gutted the living room in his London flat when he used to work there and, together with his mates, built a studio. From this studio they broadcast a daily three hour live radio show over the internet. What started as a group of mates having fun turned into something which attracted approximately 8000 listeners per day. People tuned in from as far away as China to listen to live DJ sets from quite big name DJ’s at the time as well as from the guys themselves. They intermingled the music with idle humorous chat and informal interviews with DJ’s from big London nightclubs. Another lad who I was introduced to the other week whilst on a night out in South Shields has built a recording studio in his bedroom and has worked with some big name dance DJ’s and produced, amongst other things, a top 40 hit. He’s just 19.

It never ceases to amaze me how open minded students seem to be when it comes to a whole host of issues. I find it incredibly encouraging that in a society that’s currently threatened by climate change and war, my generation seem to be pretty switched on when it comes to issues like race and sexuality. I can honestly say that I have encountered no racism, those with alternative sexualities are open about it from the off and everyone seems to be, as they should, completely comfortable with it. My contemporaries come across to me as a thoughtful group of individuals who are thinking about the world we are inheriting. If what I’m seeing on this small scale is in any way an accurate reflection of what young people are like in general then I think we have a good chance of getting ourselves out of the mess that our so called ‘elders and betters’ have got us into.