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“The story of a new name” Book Review

I recently finished “The story of a new name”, the second book of the four-part series of the “Neapolitan Novels” by Elena Ferrante. This saga is about two best friends, Elena (Lenù) and Rafaella (Lila) and how their lives change as years pass by. The book is a compelling story that attracts the reader from the very first page, as it has interesting and multidimensional characters that make the story interesting and relatable. Also, the book has lots of details and you can tell that the author, Elena Ferrante, has done a wide range of research on the history of Italy to tell an accurate story filled with historical references and anecdotes.

One of the main reasons why I like this book so much is because Lila and Lenù’s friendship feels real; the loyalty between them has always some sense of rivalry, as both of them want to be better than the other and achieve more success in their respective areas. This kind of friendship-rivalry (or what we nowadays call “frenemies”), has, unfortunately, been very common between women for many years. Women were told they could not be friends, but they had to compete with each other for a better job, a better husband, a better house… The novel reflects these contradictory emotions perfectly and the reader understands the characters’ reasons to behave that way. I have already read the first two books and I can’t wait to read the third one. This saga is brilliant indeed.

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Panic on the streets of... Southampton

If you walk down the streets of Southampton these days you might feel tempted to echo Morrisseys' lyrics: "I wonder to myself… could life ever be sane again?".

Although everybody may have experienced a feeling of insanity at some point during the Covid-19 confinement, it seems as if in Southampton, things are turning into some Orwellian novel. I mean, people who break the law can walk freely throughout the city with no further punishment than a night in jail.

Deliveroo, one of the biggest delivery companies in the world, offers employment to hundreds of delivery riders in Southampton. For many of them, this job is an opportunity to earn some extra money, while for others, mostly students, Deliveroois an opportunity to enter the job market.

However, for the last two years, Deliveroo riders have been suffering the theft of their most precious possession: their bikes or motorbikes. Needless to say that without them, they cannot carry out their job. The stealing of bicycles and motorbikes is an increasing trend that doesn't seem to change shortly. However, it has taken a darker turn lately. Thieves no only steal bikes and motorbikes, but also they threaten people with knives and even machetes in open daylight.

If things weren't bad enough, now riders also have to confront a second issue: the thieves, feeling confident after years of unpunished crimes, now have started to beat up innocent Deliveroo riders. I am not talking about an isolated crime here or there. These are organized bands who assault riders, beat them, sometimes leaving them unconscious, and steal their motorbikes while they laugh away.

At this point you may be wondering, what are the local authorities doing? Well, that is a fair question that needs an URGENT answer, since none of these felonies has been properly prosecuted and crimes continue to rise in what once was a calm and safe city. Deliveroo riders have already protested in front of the police station to request more protection and security, but it seems that their requests have not been listened so far.

Council taxes have increased for the last two years, and the Council states that most of those taxes are for police officers' salaries. So, if wages are not an issue, why the police are not doing their job correctly and allow these crimes to rise? Things are escalating quickly, and If we turn a blind eye to these misdeeds, thieves are not going to stop there. If the local authorities don't take this matter seriously, people might start taking actions against the thieves. And, before we realize it, Southampton could turn into Sin City,a lawless place where criminals walk around unpunished, leaving people hopeless and unprotected.

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The Godfather – Review

“The Godfather”is based on the novel of the same name by Mario Puzo. It tells the story of the Corleone’s, a Sicilian family living in America in the 40’s. The movie is part of a trilogy that follows the Corleone family until the early 90’s.

It is a story of ambition, betrayal, and power.The background setting also depicts some of the mostimportant historical moments in the 20thcentury, like the end of World War II or the Cuban Missile Crisis.

In “The Godfather”we witness the rise and fall of Don Vito Corleone (Marlon Brando). Starting from very humble origins, Don Vito manages to build an empire based on gambling and crime.“Il Padrino”(the godfather), as he soon becomes known, is a figure to be respected and feared.

But as more and more people want to get into the business, Vito Corleone’s position as the mob leader is soon jeopardised. His son, Michael (Al Pacino),  was the least qualified candidate to be the next Don, the successor of Vito’s legacy, because he was a brilliant student at university. But he had to drop out college to join the Marines when the U.S. got involved into World War II. After coming home, his father wants him out of the business, but after being attacked by a mob rival, Michael decides to organisethe revenge and becomes the next “Padroni���.

One of the keys of “The Godfather”success is its outstanding cast: Al Pacino, Marlon Brando, Robert De Niro, Robert Duvall, Diane Keaton and James Caan are some of the main characters. On the other hand, Francis Ford Coppola’s direction of the film is simply perfect. It alsohas an excellent soundtrack, with a piece of music that has become one of the most well-known tunes of all times.

Al Pacino’s performance in the role of Michael is remarkablebecause we can see the different stages of his life, starting from an innocent young man he changes over time until he becomes a ruthless mob boss.

“The Godfather” has all the elements of a perfect classic movie, one of those films that you cannot miss in your lifetime.

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Nowadays it’s not enough to show on your CV that you have academic skills - you need to take a step further and differentiate yourself from other candidates, proving that you have something that others don’t, and you can do this by showing your technical skills.

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My coursemates Emma Townley and Eliska (Elli) Peskova are studying MSc Marketing with me. Trying to find the right balance between their mental health and their daily tasks can sometimes be very challenging for them - Elli has dyslexia and bipolar disorder and Emma has PTSD and psoriasis. However, they try to remain calm and focus on their goals: get their master’s degree and get a job in the media industries.

They shared with me some valuable tips on how to cope with mental health issues and what techniques they use to de-stress.

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In this article I give you some suggestions of places to visit near Southampton. 

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“The Assassination of Gianni Versace, All about Eve and The Bling Ring: Blinded by Hollywood”

I have recently finished watching“The Assassination of Gianni Versace” on Netflix, and I couldn’t believe how relevant is what happened to Versace over twenty years ago considering today’s fascination with pop stars and celebrities.

In the show, we are introduced to the character of Andrew Cunanan (wonderfully played by Darren Criss), a narcissistic, ego-maniac money seeker guy who is obsessed with luxuryand fame, but particularly with Versace. 

Cunanan’s main goal was to become someone special by using people for his benefit.

Darren Criss as Andrew Cunanan. Picture credit: Time Magazine

Using his high intelligence and ability to change looks and appearance, he mastered the art of persuasion and manipulation, making older and wealthy men fell in his trap. He was the ultimate “Mr. Ripley”, with a natural talent for lying and camouflage.

However, while living his wealthy and indulgent life,he started consuming large amounts of drugs and, very soon, his comfortable position as a prosperous young man vanished, as the affluent men he seduced became irritated by his instability.

Cunanan’s descend to hell through a series of wrong decisions changed his personality – and deteriorated his mind – completely, turning him into a dangerous criminal.

In today’s world, we can see the parallelism to Cunanan’s obsession with those people who are only looking for easy money and fame. Many people don’t admire scientists, philosophers, artists or any other cultivated men or women anymore. Instead, they follow and idolize people such as the Kardashian family or Paris Hilton, whose ascent to fame was quite dubious and whose entire lives revolve around self-exposure by doing nothing else but gossiping about other famous people or post vanity pictures of themselves.

Many people around the world voraciously consume entire shows about these celebrities and millions of fans follow their social media accounts and know better the most intimate details of these people’s lives, up to the point to know them even better than their own family.

Watching “The Assassination of Gianni Versace”made me realiseof the similarities between this film and other movies such as “All about Eve” and “The Bling Ring”. Both of them also cover people’s infatuation by power and fame and how social climbers have been pursuing easy access to money and fame.

In “All about Eve” (Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1950), Margot Channing (played by Bette Davis) is a famous forty-something actress who quickly befriends the mousy and – apparently – innocent Eve Harrington (played by Anne Baxter). Margot wants to help Eve in every way she can, but she soon realizes that Eve is taking advantage of her to become even more famous than her.

In “The Bling Ring” (Sophia Coppola, 2013) a group of teenagers obsessed with pop stars and celebrities start robbing their houses (they robbed Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan and Orlando Bloom among others) in an attempt of recreating the lifestyles of the rich and famous.Their activities resulted in the theft of about $3 million in cash and belongings.

We can see that celebrity obsession and unhealthy interest for fame and money is not something new, but it has reached new levels in the twenty-first century. With all the technology that we now have, people can follow – and stalk – celebrities. A lot of people continuously get messages about the lifestyle of the rich and famous, which makes these people feel insecure about their financial situation and they are tempted to emulate their idols taking the easy way.

If years ago hard work was the most important thing in our parents or grandparents lives,it seems like this generation’s mantra is something like be young, be rich, be famous, be someone at all costs. It doesn’t necessary mean to be someone who makes something productive or who creates; it simply denotes the obsession to be known and adored, as if only having good looks and followers on the Internet mattered in this vanity and narcissistic world.

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Customer Experience: The importance of having a Marketing Manager

One of my subjects studying MSC Marketing at Solent was “Customer Experience”. As part of the assessment, we had to produce an individual business report synthesising the material covered in the unit. 

I based my project on “Mettricks”, a local coffee shop based in Southampton and I talked about the importance of having a Marketing Manager. 

Mettricks is a small coffee shop located in Southampton city centre. It started its activity in 2013, and it was originally a family business owned by Spencer Bowman, who has recently sold the company to Coffee Lab. 

The new owners wrote the following statement on Facebook: “We are absolutely thrilled to announce we have just acquired Southampton’s original coffee indie, Mettricks”.

Mettricks offers a wide variety of teas, coffees and other refreshments, plus an excellent selection of food and pastries.

Picture Credit: Eliska Peskova                                            

Recommendations

At the moment, Mettricks lacks a clear and defined customer strategy, and this is affecting their revenues and how their customers perceive the company.

Most aspects of a successful business rely on a good marketing strategy, which involves several areas such as advertising, public relations, promotions and sales.

Mettricks has lots of potential as a business. However, their lack of a marketing strategy is affecting and damaging the image of the brand and the company.

Eddine (2015) observes that “Without marketing, your business may offer the best products or services in your industry, but none of your potential customers would know about it. Without marketing, sales may crash, and companies may have to close.”

Therefore, we can conclude that two key points or recommendations for Mettricks should be the following:

·         Hire a Marketing Manager

The Marketing Manager should be someone who is familiar with the organisation, and also with their vision and mission, which would help the company reach those goals and attain business growth.

According to Philip Kotler, “Marketing management is the analysis, planning, implementation and control of programs designed to bring about desired exchanges with target markets to achieve organisational objectives.”

Marketing Management is nowadays the most important role for a business, and therefore companies should be aware of the importance of hiring a good marketing manager.

Picture Credit: Eliska Peskova

McDonald and Christopher (2003), in their book about Marketing, say that a Marketing Manager “must have an appreciation of such areas as resource availability, cost generation and organisational capability, as well as an in-depth knowledge of customer wants and behaviour. Without the former, it becomes difficult to gauge the attractiveness of different marketing opportunities; and without the latter, the business is unfocused.” (P. 531).

Since Mettricks is experiencing many changes, it is important to highlight the importance of having a Marketing manager, because this person can define the objectives and strategies for the organisation, develop marketing strategies and tracking the efficiency of the programme. These are some of his duties also noted by Dowling (2005). 

Picture Credit: Eliska Peskova

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Interview with Ines Peixoto

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Black and White Photography Workshop