9/26/2005 03:29:00 PM|||James O'Malley|||

I've just been down to get enrolled onto my course (International Relations and Globalisation). I'm feeling slightly more positive towards the whole University experience now I've got things to do (ie: go to this, that and then something else), and I've come to the realisation I don't have to go out in the evenings. In fact, it's a bit like being at home.

The most unfortunate thing about being on the course that I'm on, and a student in the Humanities department, is that I was sharing an introduction "lecture" with DANCE and MEDIA STUDIES students- with company this uncool, it must cramp my style somewhat.

Excitingly, I've prepared some pictures for this update!

As you might be aware, I'm now a student and obviously want to get as pissed as humanly possible. Nothing will delight me more than being able to hold in my hand an upturned traffic cone full of my own vomit, in a toast to the student lifestyle.

Clever Leicester business people have cottoned on to this, and have setup literally billions of pubs, bars and nightclubs within a few metres of the campus (not literally). The obvious thing this creates is a lot of competition and as such, they've all employed what I assume are second and third year students to stand outside the campus centre, which is the hub of all DMU activity, giving out leaflets, many promising a free drink. This creates a hell of a lot of litter- I'm not joking when I say the pavements are carpetted in glossy paper talking about Vodka.

I'm hoping that they've got environmental science students giving them out- I'm sure they'd be irony or some sort of elitist joke there somewhere.

For your viewing pleasure, because I know that you're incapable of imagining what a flyer looks like, I've taken a photo of some of the stuff I've recieved. I'd have scanned them, but I didn't bring a scanner.



Mosh is apparently a night club that does, unsurprisngly, predominantly rock music. I didn't know such a night club existed, as I assumed it was all "dance" music, or as it's known in the industry, "a damaged CD, that keeps looping the same bit". I've never been to a nightclub, nor do I want to. In fact, being conscripted into an armed force where they give you a super-soaker to take on a Tomahawk cruise missile is probably more desirable.

In fairness, the back of the flyer gives a run down of the bands on their "punk" night on a Wednesday, and I regularly listen to nearly all of the bands listed, but the lack of a real live band, and the presence of hundreds of people whom I don't know still puts me off. You also have to pay just to get through the door, which is ridiculous- I didn't know a CD player (or would that be an iPod set to 'random' these days?) worked on a commission basis.



Of course, the other thing counting against Mosh as a desirable place to go is that on another flyer I was given, it features a handful of photograph of people there enjoying themselves. Is it me or do photos from any nightclub ever always look exactly the same? The photos could be taken anywhere. It's just people looking at the camera, looking a bit pissed. Never seen that before! I also think this is true for parties and football matches- why not just use library footage (ie: a google image search) and save yourself the expense of a camera, people?



The Mosh publicists (leafletmonkeys?) also gave me a small badge (pictured) and a rubber wristband, like a slightly more commercial Make Poverty History one, in black (not pictured).

Not wanting to sound like a branding nerd, but I'm not a fan of the Mosh logo- from afar it'd look like it says "osh", because of the choice of colours- perhaps it'd have made more sense to have a white "M" and a white "osh", too?



This "Stock Exchange" thing is a fantastic idea, let down by an apparently nationalist edge. It looks like that as people are there, market forces will be used to determine the price of the drinks- ie: if no one's buying drinks and everyone's sober and sans traffic cone, the price'll go down. When everyone rushes to the bar to buy a drink, whoosh! Prices go up!

I'd commend their efforts on the flyer for trying to extend the economics gimmick beyond its natural end- "Look out for a Market Crash!! Market Crash = very cheap drinks", as labouring a point, as you might have guessed, is one of my favourite things. However, points are lost for the inclusion of text speak on a flyer with ample room. "Entry £1 b4 9"... speaking properly, please! We're UNIVERSITY students and thus NOT braindead idiots. At least, I'm not.



I don't!



By far the best promotional literature so far (and this isn't saying much) was a plastic yellow "camera", given out by people advertising "Polar Bear", whatever that is- I assume it's a pub or nightclub, rather than a bizarre new initiative by the WWF. (Wrestlers don't like camera).

If you look into it, there is a real of slides containing pseudo-rude photos, and you can scroll through them by pulling a small lever on the side.

The best bit is that the slides come on cartridges- they offer other cartridges if you go to their thing. As much as I'd love to expand my collection... I think I'll pass.

More as it happens.

|||112774648765316026|||"Please get drunk, you're a student afterall"