#both due to poor socialisation skills and also the fact that i live in a rural town and that demographic isnt exactly my taste

[predawnrex04]

God i feel so fuckin lonely

[clockworklozenges]

So, a good five or so years back, I played in one of the best worst DnD games I have ever been in. The DM had bought the Libris Mortis book, which, if you were unaware, was a 3.5 splatbook adding in a lot of undead stuff, including some monsters and undead player races and stuff. Wanting to try it out, me and my gaming group decided to play things from it, our then DM deciding to run a completely homebrewed session. This proved to be a...

Terrible Idea™

(for the uninitiated, never homebrew something you do not fully understand unless it's just cosmetic. If you want to make all elves worship the god of garlic bread, Ultimo-Metatron-Omega, go ahead, but unless you know how the game works, don't make mechanical changes). So we all picked stuff from the books-one player played a skeleton Sorcerer who in life was a tribal shaman, but an attempt at healing went wrong, turning him undead as his life energy was replaced with negative energy, explaining why most of his spells were necromancy and suchlike.

Another player played Krug, an antipaladin in very spiky full plate. He was a zombie made by a necromancer of a paladin who was fighting him, but his allies killed his would-be master before he could assert control, and not wanting to just off him, his allies just...yeeted his body into a portal and hoped it'd re-kill him. It did not kill him hard enough. It did, however, explain his stats which...oof. He had already got debuffs to some stats due to being a zombie, and rolled abysmally. Fortunately for the player, he played mostly to socialise, so didn't much care.

I played... Count Nox Feratu, the Campire. As in, a vampire with a very camp German accent, which I did not break for the whole time I was playing him. To the point where "ach, nein, I haf bin heet! Heal me, meine freunde!" was par for the course. My overly camp vamp was a wizard, but due to level adjustment was a bit of a shoddy one. For backstory, he'd been ousted from his clan for ineptitude, and had sworn revenge. I was going for a swordmage build but never got there. All his spells were utility or just necromancy spells.

Our last player played...sigh...Damien Bloodmoon, cleric of Nerull, God of murder and undeath. He was one of the clerics from the book's murder Domain, meaning that he got buffs to damage. He was a vicious arse both in character and out of it, and was so dripping with edge compared to the paladin with the same IQ as a horse after its trip to the glue factory, the shaman who thought killing fixed people and the Campire that if you gave him a pat on the back you'd have finely diced your hand into a red mist. Not going too outlandish with his backstory of wanting to dominate the world as his undead thralls, Damien F***ing Bloodmoon had only taken spells which either charmed live people, dealt negative energy damage or messed with ability drain and suchlike, which he used with aplomb on townsfolk on our way to our objective. He was also, importantly, playing an elf of some sort, I forget which kind. Meaning that of the party, only one was alive.

So, just as an aside, for those of you that haven't played 3.5e DnD or have only played 5e, in Libris Mortis, undeath was gone over in detail, and had a litany of pros and cons. For one thing, undead had only the HP they had-folks like Damien F***ing Bloodmoon could be 'dying', and had some time to be stabilised before meeting the reckoning of Papa John and dying proper. Undead did not, it was just how much you had and if you ran out, poof, you're dust, bones and fertiliser again. You were also harmed by positive energy, so healing spells hurt you, as did potions of healing. However, undead were kind of hardy - poison immunity, some had resistance to non-magical melee damage, stuff that drained your ability scores and levels didn't work on them, some crits wouldn't do extra damage, and the best part- negative energy healed undead. Meaning all the spells our party had which damaged others like the living Damien Bloodmoon were curative ones for us. Keep this in mind.

So, we began our quest, learning of a necromancer a nearby town was plagued by. After using our skills (to whit: Damien Bloodmoon charming and drawing the life force out of random villagers and the only potion seller in the town whilst we went shopping. Krug got a snazzy hat, which we put on top of his helmet, and we chatted to townsfolk as I looked alive enough to pass as human and the shaman had a fake beard and toupee that people were too awkward to point out was fake so went along with it) we learn that the necromancer has a base of operations in the cemetery. "Oh ja, zo original, dahlink. Ve vill need to educate zis guy on vhat is chic and vhat is just shabby!"

So we head there and the nightmare begins. Damien Leads the charge, using all of his knowledge to deduce that the shambling horde moving towards us were stronger-than-your-average-bear undead, and he was right. These were powerful armoured zombie mages of some sort, casting ability draining spells, negative energy ray spells and even having auras of negative energy that dealt damage on a failed Fortitude save. Even their punch and quarterstaves did negative energy damage as well as the usual bludgeoning or unarmed. However...only one of us was really in danger and the DM's face fell when the squishy casters walked up and began shanking their super-special homebrew zombie wizards, being healed by the damage of their attacks as we cut them down.

Like I said, one of the benefits of undeath is that negative energy actually heals you. So the strikes of the magic staves and punches that hit us did some basic damage. Which was then immediately healed by the negative energy their weapon strikes and spells were doing.

However, you'll recall that Damien Bloodmoon was an elf. And not dead. Being a Cleric of a death god doesn't mean that you have the abilities of an undead. That meant that even with the DM being merciful, by the end of the first fight he was covered in blood, mud and withered away to just above half his original strength and constitution. More were patrolling, so we had to run. But that posed a problem.

Remember Krug had heavy armour? And recall his awful stats? He in fact, hadn't got enough strength to wear the armour he'd been given for backstory. He didn't, according to the DM, have enough to remove his own armour. And we attempted to, but also failed our checks according to the DM. And Damien Bloodmoon refused to help, simply blaming Krug and his player. Krug's player thought it was hilarious, and Krug only had enough Intelligence and Wisdom to say his own name, so saw no problem. And Krug, Nox Feratu and Shaman realised that there really...wasn't a problem.

For us, at least.

We slogged through three combats dragging Krug and wading through the mud with him. His speed was so slow that for every step he took, we took about ten. The DM was confused and infuriated that his encounters weren't working, but refused to change them. So we had fun role-playing. Or at least three of us did.

Damien Bloodmoon refused to roleplay, and none of his ranged spells could affect the zombie mages. When he went into melee, he came out wounded as all hell. He went down twice, and it was only the healing supplies of the shaman that saved him.

All the while, he was... Let's say not best pleased. Damien Bloodmoon was getting increasingly wounded, exasperated and longing for the sweet embrace of death as reprieve from the humiliation. His player was getting increasingly redder and rage-filled as time passed. Each fight ended with our characters stronger than ever and his a bloody pulp on the floor, with poor in-character knowledge (and terrible rolls) preventing him from realising why.

Eventually, we reached the final boss, pausing only to paint Krug's armour in contact poison just in case, and to find a stick to help the now-partially-crippled Damien Bloodmoon, cleric of death and murder, walk after being beaten up by angry zombie wizards for hours. And it had, indeed, been hours. Among us, only Damien had a bonus to strength, and we had two swords, a mace and a staff between the four of us. Meaning it was re-death by a thousand cuts for the enemy and a slog and a half for us.

We reach the necromancer and, having taken so long due to dragging the oblivious Krug with us, his big ritual is complete- he raises a fist-sized black onyx egg aloft, crackles with arcane power and causes the bones around him to coalesce into one massive creature - an undead, giant-sized rust monster, radiating an Aura of pure negative energy. Krug opened his arms wide, eager for the metal-eating monster cockroach to free him from his poison-painted metal prison. It ignores him as he's still very far away. Me and the others have our weapons and armour devoured.

Our DM was very much a stickler for note-taking. So because Damien Bloodmoon hadn't written 'clothes' on his sheet, his armour being eaten by the monster left him naked and afraid.

It became clear that the DM had done another f***y-wucky. See, the Aura of negative energy healed me and the Sorcerer by more than its other attacks did. So whilst Damien Bloodmoon was naked, soaked in mud and bleeding to death almost crushed to a pulp in the fetal position, rocking backwards and forwards as his player seethed with hatred, the Shaman and the Campire set about beating the thing to death with our bear hands and a stick.

The session ended once we killed the necromancer, or rather when Krug walked up to him, closed his arms and just crushed the noodle-armed bad guy to death with the weight of his ridiculous armour and poisoned him with its paintwork.

We never revisited the game afterwards. We were told later on that the DM wanted us to use the non-undead races. But at no point had he said as much, even when we asked him about our characters and the restrictions on them. We also learned a valuable lesson. DM for the players who are there, not the ones who you have an idealised mental image of. Tailor your game, otherwise you'll get a sitcom featuring a camp nosferatu, a shaman with no healing, a paladin who could barely move and a Cleric of murder who was ironically the only one at risk of actually dying.

[darkwarriorproject]

Hillo there! I read your blog about "character analysis" and I'm curious on more backstory about Erol. There really isn't alot about him besides the fact he is a commander and he is a champion racer. But how did he get the position of commander and did he learn to race by himself or did his father/other teach him? And i notice in the game at the Underground hide out there is a poster of him in the back. Were him and Torn originally friends perhaps?

Erol was born in Kras (which was still a colony of Haven at the time) and lived there with his single mother until around age 7. While they generally had enough money to cover essentials like rent and food, there was very little to spare for leisure; a lot of their clothes came second-hand and Erol had very few toys or other possessions, and he was often left to amuse himself during his mum's long work hours.

Like many of his peers, young Erol loved watching the races and dreamed of becoming a champion when he was older, but he never really connected with other kids and didn't have any real friends (he was small for his age and was often bullied; none of the ‘cool kids’ wanted anything to do with him, and he didn't get on with the other bullied kids because he considered himself better than them). Erol's trouble connecting with others in a meaningful and positive way would remain a problem throughout his life, though he definitely got better at faking it as he grew older.

Erol's mum came from a once-wealthy family whose business enterprises had failed in her youth, draining all the family savings; Erol never met any of them, as his mother was completely estranged from her surviving relatives by the time of his birth (largely due to values dissonance, as they didn't approve of her having a child while unmarried). She'd had a brief affair with Baron Praxis around the time of his wife's death, though she was generally circumspect with this information and never told Erol anything about his father. Erol keenly felt the absence of any sort of father figure throughout his early childhood, and when his mother told him he would be shipped off to Haven to live with his father he was absolutely thrilled at the prospect. This was in the early years after Praxis's coup but before the dust had settled; Erol's mother threatened to expose the affair if Praxis didn't comply with her demands (taking care of Erol and paying her). However, Kras was completely cut off from Haven shortly after this, and Erol never saw or heard from his mother again.

Young Erol showed up in Haven and Praxis suddenly found himself saddled with an illegitimate son and a potential scandal he really couldn't afford (there were still plenty of dissenters who wouldn't hesitate to use something like that against him). But even after Kras was cut off, Praxis quickly found that keeping Erol suited his own needs; Erol was desperate to please his newfound father and Praxis realised he could turn this to his advantage, grooming Erol into the perfect subordinate.

Praxis pulled some strings and got Erol enrolled in Haven's private academy, placing him among students from the oldest nobility and wealthiest civillian families in Haven, and overall Erol's quality of life improved drastically from what he'd known back in Kras. However, he still didn't get what he truly wanted; Praxis kept him at arm's length emotionally, and of course Ashelin was still Praxis's only legitimate child and heir– Erol coveted Ashelin's position and began to see her as a rival, feelings that were only compounded by the fact that she barely noticed him (she was a few years older and busy with her own lessons and training). Once again, Erol found that he didn't particularly care for any of his peers; he was thoroughly devoted to pleasing Praxis and felt no desire to make friends his own age.

After a couple years in Haven, Erol started competing in the NYFE Youth Division, entering his first tournament at the youngest age allowed. Of course he had received some basic lessons in zoomer handling (as this was one of the requirements for entry) but racing came easily to him, and he quickly gained public notice after he took first place in his debut tournament. He became a posterchild for both the NYFE and the KG Cadets program, beginning his lifelong career as the KG-sponsored racing champion. Praxis encouraged him to cultivate his newfound popularity among the masses, and Erol became almost addicted to the validation he received from the public. Once official trade resumed between Haven and Kras, Erol began to travel there occasionally as an ambassador of sorts; Kras had changed a lot during the decade of isolation but their obsession with racing had remained consistent, and Erol's skill as a champion earned him a degree of respect few other visiting Havenites received.

Erol met Torn a handful of times during Torn's command of the KG, but their encounters were only ever in an official capacity; Torn was 5-6 years Erol's senior and too busy running the KG to have time for socialising with a teenager, and the two had very little in common (Torn had come from an impoverished family and climbed the ranks by pure merit, while Erol had received the very best education and social opportunities available in Haven). After the fall of Haven's Old Town district Torn was labelled a traitor, and Erol took over as commander of the KG; by this point Erol thoroughly resented Torn, both for his supposed ‘treachery’ and for the comparisons that were inevitably made between the two (Erol was better liked due to his near-celebrity status, but Torn had been well respected as a capable leader and combat veteran while Erol had almost no practical military experience). At first Erol was determined to be the one to bring Torn in, but as time passed it became clear that Torn's effectiveness in the resistance was hampered by poor resources and lack of manpower, and Erol began to focus more on other things– the DWP was under way, and Erol's obsession with Jak rapidly overtook the lingering resentment he felt for Torn.

((you can find more context for all of these events in the Haven timeline masterpost))

We also received an ask about Erol's relationships; I think I touched on this pretty well throughout this post but to summarise: Erol struggles to form positive relationships with other people, and instead his interactions with others tend to be grounded in rivalry and competition. Almost from the moment he arrived in Haven, Erol felt like he was competing with Ashelin for Praxis's attention and he was compelled to prove he was a better commander than Torn, and during his visits to Kras he developed a rivaly with Razer that at times turned sexual. And then, his abusive treatment of Jak was largely rooted in a need to project his own insecurities onto an external target so he could make himself feel better. Erol's budding romance with Keira was probably the closest he ever came to a healthy relationship, as they at least shared common interests, but it was still grounded in manipulative behaviour and power plays (Keira must have talked about Jak at some point and there's no way Erol didn't make the connection).

Erol spent his whole life as a pawn in other people's games, and when he attempted to replicate the abuse cycle he ended up spiralling into self-destruction instead.

[springuse34-blog]

Essay Examples for #EAP and #IELTS students



Essays online uk

Model essays.

These essays and paragraphs use topic sentences and other features of Western academic writing. They are useful models for international students who are planning to take the IELTS test (International English Language Testing System), or study in a university in the USA, the UK, Australia or New Zealand. There are task 1 and task 2 style examples.

To do some exercises on these texts click here.

Argumentative paragraph about cars.

Private cars are becoming a very controversial issue these days but they are important in our modern lives for two main reasons, poor public transport and business. Many people in the world live in towns, villages and even cities that do not have good buses or trains. Without cars these people could not travel to work, to the shops or do many other important things. Also, in many towns and cities buses stop before midnight but in today's busy world people are busy twenty four hours a day. The next point is that cars help the economy in two ways. Firstly, the car industry gives many people in the world jobs and helps countries to develop. Secondly, many people today need cars in their work. Doctors need to visit patients, salespeople need to visit customers and computer technicians need to visit businesses. In conclusion, although cars can cause problems it is impossible to live without them in modern life.

The chart shows the fluctuations in the numbers of international students attending the Sydney International Language Centre in 2001. At write my paper of the year numbers were quite high at 170, this was because there were a large number of students in University Preparation (UP) before the March intake. The student population remained the same until the end of February when 40 graduated from ELI and took up their offers in Bachelors and Masters courses. In both April and May, 15 extra students enrolled into ELI courses. There was a sharp increase in June when 20 new students entered UP courses. In July there was only an increase of five students as the Winter course intake was at the end of July and this was too late for students who were entering university in the second semester. In comparison to the first semester, there was a sharp drop in numbers as 50 students left, leaving only 135 students in ELI for August. From here until the end of the year there was a steady rise in student numbers to a peak of 180 in December. Overall it shows steady growth when compared to the 2000 enrolments.

Argumentative essay about food

A recent theme in the popular media has been the decline in the quality and nutritional value of the food that we buy. Newspapers in particular warn us of the problems associated with convenience and take away food, whilst commenting on the spread of advertising aimed at children. The government and manufacturers are frequently cited as the sole cause of these problems. Although there are undoubtedly problems associated with current eating habits it can be seen that the blame rests mainly with the consumer because of the law of supply and demand. In short, modern shoppers value price and convenience over nutritional quality.

The most basic law of the market shows us that if a consumer does not need or desire a particular product, they will not buy it. When the sales of particular products are examined it is possible to see that sales of convenience foods are always increasing, whilst sales of basic ingredients are generally decreasing. People buy ready prepared food because it fits into the busy lives that they have chosen to live, where an extra foreign holiday or a new car has become more important than the health and welfare of families. This desire for the trappings of modern life also has other effects on shopping habits. Many families would prefer to have an up to date computer than to buy nutritional, healthy organic food. To have both is only possible for the affluent due to the high cost of organic food in developed nations.

To sum up it can be seen that convenience food has a double economic advantage. It is cheaper to buy in the first instance, and also allows parents to spend more time earning money at work. In the past people ate low quality food because they were poor, but now they do it so they can afford a certain lifestyle and that is not the fault of the manufacturers.

An essay comparing and contrasting University education in the USA and Australia

The Western style of education has gained popularity over the last decade. Many foreign students come to countries like Australia and the USA to study at university and improve their employment prospects. In this essay I will briefly compare and contrast these two countries in terms of their appeal to foreign students. There are many similarities between the two countries. Firstly they both have a very multicultural population so it is possible to enjoy food from your own country when homesickness arises. Also, as they are both large countries it is possible to find an institution in an area with a climate that suits you. Another similarity is that their tertiary institutions have a reputation of quality and excellence in academia. On the other hand there are some appreciable differences. The main one is that education in the USA is much more expensive than in Australia. However, many students think that it is worth paying the extra money as some American universities have a world-wide reputation. Furthermore, as the USA has a much larger population there are a wider range of institutions to choose from and naturally, a wider range of courses. To sum up, America offers more choice and a more acknowledged reputation, but at a higher cost. Australia offers similar quality but is cheaper if you can find the course that you want.

Argumentative essay on computer games

Computer games have been popular for decades now and many households have at least one. However it can be seen that playing these games causes social, educational and personal problems of several kinds both to youngsters and society. Firstly, youngsters who spend a great deal of time in front of a monitor are not studying, playing sport, socialising or learning about life. The skills which they need in order to interact with others and succeed in the real world are not being nurtured. Moreover, studies have shown that this generation of young males is actually growing less than previous generations due to lack of exercise. Following from this, they are more likely to be overweight and less healthy, so more prone to diseases such as diabetes. In addition, the games themselves are often quite violent and dangerously sexist. For example, there are games which show graphic fighting scenes where the most brutal is most applauded. Women are shown as either sexy, but weak, or as improbable amazons. Violence against women is often part of these games which encourages misogynistic behaviour. The language tends to be violent and sexist which further adds to the problems of the lack of interaction and social skills. It is easy to imagine the effects of such games on young minds. If we wish children to grow up to become well-adjusted members of society, these games should be more tightly controlled.

A Cause and Effect Essay on Australian Private Schools

European history in Australia is very short and as a result it can be interesting to look into the development of its educational system in relation to similar societies. When compared to the USA and Britain, the most striking aspect of Australian education is the incredibly high proportion of private schools and the number of students attending them. Figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics (August 1996) show that 29.3 percent of the school population attends privately run institutions compared to approximately 10 percent in the UK and USA. As this strange situation has evolved over the past 150 years it is relatively easy to trace the most important causes. Australia was primarily settled by the English, Scottish, Irish and Welsh who all followed different churches of Christianity. They argued as to which was to be taught in schools which led to the adoption of government schools with no religious affiliations. This action led to the removal of funding to church schools which in turn meant that Catholic schools had to find alternative funding and also work harder to attract students. Parents had to pay for their choice of school and this set a precedent. Now more and more immigrants of diverse cultures and religions come to Australia and decide to set up schools which will protect their children's identities. As Australian society has diversified it has become advantageous for politicians to improve their popularity with powerful groups by supporting these schools financially, improving their quality and appeal to prospective students. Unfortunately this seems to have created a vicious circle as public schools are now receiving less from the government, so have trouble providing an adequate service. This then makes the private, fee-paying schools more popular with parents, which allows politicians to justify giving more financial support to them. The future of good quality public education therefore seems in doubt.

Descriptive paragraph about English

English is widely accepted as being the pre-eminent global language. As well as the countries that have it as their mother tongue there are others where it is an official second language and still more where it is taught as a compulsory language in schools. When you go further to consider the use of the language in media and technology the strength of it is completely undeniable. This fact, and the reasons for it, makes the question of when, how, and why to present culture to English students especially complicated.

Percentage of consumer goods in UK homes

The table shows the percentage of household consumer durables sold in the UK from 1972 to 1983. It can be divided into three groups. Firstly, a number of appliances were in a high percentage of homes for the entire period. These included TVs, vacuum cleaners, refrigerators and washing machines. TV ownership was the highest, growing from 93% to 98% over the eleven-year period, while washing machine ownership, the lowest of this group, increased from 66% to 80%. The second group included central heating and the telephone and these showed the most dramatic rise with increases of 27% for central heating and 35% for telephones. At the beginning of the period these appliances had been present in 37% and 42% of homes respectively. The final group shows appliances that were only introduced onto the market during the period shown. The video recorder was quickly accepted into households, achieving 18% ownership by 1983. The dishwasher had less impact, with its ownership slowly rising from 3% to 5% between 1978 and 1983. In all it shows that British households enjoyed an ever-increasing ownership of consumer durables from 1972 to 1983.

[musicmapglobal]

Video premiere and interview: Aphty Khea

Aphty Khea may seem like she belongs in outer space, but her attention is very much focused on Planet Earth. Adopting the persona of a ‘chameleon humanoid’ extraterrestrial who is dismayed to find a planet ‘poisoned by a myopic perspective and destructive world view’ (sounds about right), Aphty Khea adopts the role of a ‘sonic healer’ set to ease the world’s pain and refresh our perspective, with spacious, downtempo compositions that sound like fka Twigs, Banks and Zero 7 being beamed from beyond the moon.

‘Peacebloom’ is one particularly restorative track. Taking its name from Aphty Khea’s spaceship, the mixture of delicate melodies and heavily swung beats is a combo that will soothe the hardest of hearts. Now ‘Peacebloom’ has a new video, following the artist in full space exploration mode, and we’re delighted to exclusively reveal it to the world today:

Aphty Khea doesn’t just talk a good game when it comes to the planet’s problems though, she walks the walk too. A Greece-born, London-based activist who is unafraid to approach social issues both in her music and her actions, she’s spent extended periods volunteering in the refugee camps of Calais. We asked her to tell us more, and give us some insight into the experiences that have shaped her music and her attitude.

Oh yeah, and we also got the shopping list for the ‘Peacebloom’ video:

MusicMap: The name Aphty Khea – what does it mean?

Aphty Khea is a mish mash of a few words… It’s a combination of ‘afti’ (‘she’ in Greek) and Khea is a mix of my real name and ‘Gaia’. The pronunciation is different however, leaning more towards the Greek sounding way… So yeah, rootsy and mythic…!

In your music you inhabit the character of an alien visitor – in this persona, what are your first thoughts about our planet?

Varied thoughts really… Tremendous beauty is encountered, and equally tremendous ugliness and corruption. Intrigue, curiosity, and beauty at first, I’d say… But the more Aphty gets to experience Earth, the more of the latter she will encounter. She will most probably use her chameleon skills to merge into her environment and gain a deeper understanding. Future music will reveal this or not, however…

You spent time volunteering and teaching music in the refugee camp known as ‘The Jungle’ in Calais – tell us a little bit about your experiences.

When most people ask me this, I usually ask them if they have 3 hours to spare haha… This is always such a hard question. It’s one of those things that you just cannot reply in a few sentences. Well at least not in order to paint an accurate picture. The ‘Jungle’ was a horrible yet very special place, where cultures and religions and people merged into this special little community built on suffering. It’s so weird now that it no longer exists. Talking about a place that once was, and so many aspects of that place, sadly, truly understood only by those who experienced it. And the beautiful aspects of that place were present only because of a lot of suffering.

Assisting in the maintenance of the camp aside, teaching music and English, and just through socialising with the refugees I feel gave to a lot of them a sense of ‘normality’. In particular with one of my very good Sudanese friends, I managed to teach him a few tunes on the guitar, and that gave him such satisfaction and sense of worth. He was so dedicated to learning the tunes and would come every afternoon to practice and learn more. I think he’s one of my best ever students! It definitely added a little bit of light to his darkness… And he was very thankful for it. I really can’t get deeper into this subject in reply to such a broad question, as I will end up writing a thesis..!

The camp has been dismantled since you were there, how much do you know about what happened to the people who were living there?

I’m actually in Calais as I write this. Winter in the northern hemisphere is generally an awful time to be a homeless person, let alone a homeless refugee. I do realise it’s no longer winter, but in Calais it might as well be. When the camp got dismantled, the French government arranged for busses to send people to ‘CAO’ camps around France, without telling them where they were being sent to. Not to mention that they only sent enough buses to accommodate roughly 6,000 people, rather than the actual amount of the refugees that were living in the Jungle, which was closer to 10,000, leaving a few hundred people with no place to go, and as a result getting arrested for still being in the general area of the dismantled camp. Very poor handling by the French government, it was more like sweeping all the dust under a carpet and pretending it’s not there.

I have many refugee friends from the Jungle that I have no idea where they are right now or how they are. Some I couldn’t even keep in contact with, as they were children. During my current Calais visit however, I received positive news about two refugees that I hold really close to my heart (one of them is a child), which brought me great relief and happiness. But to return to the current state in Calais, the vast majority of refugees still there are all underage, unaccompanied minors, some teenagers as young as 13, a lot of them 13-17. My sister is 15, and I just could not imagine her going through what they do on a daily basis for such an extent of time in the freezing cold.

With the organisation I frequently join in Calais (Utopia 56), we distribute food, sleeping bags, clothing, whatever it takes for them to survive the cold nights. Seeing such young faces in such horrid conditions is really disturbing and really highlights how society has failed them. A lot of them, unfortunately, have a romanticised idea of the UK, and because of their great effort and tribulations, it seems like a sort of ‘paradise’ to them. But the current Tory government is nowhere near helpful or has any interest in helping out with this humanitarian crisis, let alone to help out its own UK poor, disabled and minority citizens.

How important is social commentary to your music? Do you feel high-profile artists should be speaking out more?

Every artist has a right to write or create art around whatever subject they feel they relate with and can express themselves through. I do kind of feel, however, that there is not enough focus on social commentary and worldwide issues in recent years, at least in my eyes. For some reason, I sometimes get the impression that there is a notion of it being ‘uncool’. Why? I’m not really sure, maybe because it makes people feel uncomfortable, or dare I say, guilty even, sometimes? Especially in mainstream art, I think existentialism doesn’t really ‘sell’, because it doesn’t make people want to buy, so in return it’s not really promoted.

A lot of popular culture now feels like it’s more about tuning out all the stuff that make us feel uncomfortable and creating a peachy bubble. Now, I really feel that art, in this case music, must provide people with the opportunity to tune out and create their own escape bubble, I really do find it necessary, from personal experience as well. However, when we find ourselves to have so many of these bubbles, mainly due to social media, where you see what you want to see and everything you come across has been tailored to your interests, you’re most probably not going to be confronted with issues that you don’t like or that make you feel uncomfortable. The discomfort in having to ‘deal’ with social issues, especially those of great importance, I feel can be interpreted as the echo of our western privilege. The fact that we can choose to tune out all these issues and not ‘deal’ with them is solely because of our privilege, especially since we are not the ones actually experiencing or truly ‘dealing’ with them.

I don’t really think there is currently a balance between escapism and social commentary in music, but then again this is just my opinion, and I am no art-subject-dictator. Art is meant to liberate people. But, like Nina Simone has said before, ‘an artist’s duty… is to reflect the times’. Social commentary is not the main focus of my music, but it plays a major role in it, especially recently… And I will continue to experiment with ways of expressing it… And keeping the balance, as well.

You currently live in London, how has the city influenced your music (if at all)?

When I first came to London, I wanted to front a rock band… How my aspirations have drastically changed! The city has inspired me and influenced me in many ways, and the people I have met here have all influenced me in their own way at different periods of my London life. From soul and hip-hop, to experimental and noise rock, to electronica, techno and house. And it will hopefully continue to influence and inspire.

What sort of music were you exposed to when you were growing up?

Some of the first CDs I ever owned were ‘Justified’ by Justin Timberlake, ‘Survivor’ by Destiny’s Child, ‘The Eminem Show’ by Eminem and ‘Fallen’ by Evanescence..! But I grew up with my mum playing a lot of Pink Floyd and 80s music. I was also exposed to a lot of musicals and especially a lot of classical music, due to my classical studies from when I was 10. When I was a teenager I didn’t really appreciate electronic music… Now I can’t imagine not listening to it! I do love me some techno, any time of the day.

You’ve represented Greece in the Junior Eurovision Song Contest – can you tell us about that experience? How did it affect your perspective on the music industry?

The Junior Eurovision. What an experience. One that kind of haunts my past. I can never seem to escape it, as hard as I try! At the time I wanted to participate in the competition, because other than my music studies, that was the only musical related thing I could do on a professional level. It really taught me a lot. A lot about the entertainment industry, and especially TV. I really did hate TV by the end of it all. It was a really ‘dirty’ industry. Everyone was constantly out to stab you in the back for their own personal gain, you couldn’t trust anything anyone would say… it was tiring. But at the same time I had an amazing experience, and learnt all the right things about the wrong things, if that makes sense, at a very early age. Something that I am extremely grateful for. I now know what to not waste my time, aspirations and energy on as an adult and artist.

TV is all about the views and the show. Even if it is a music contest/show, as much as you’d like to think it’s about the music, it’s most likely not, but it would be more about the ‘story’, even if the story isn’t really that real, cos that’s what brings in views. In addition the Eurovision in general is all about politics, believe it or not, hah! Whether it is about the politics of what country you’re representing, or to do with the relations you have with those in the entertainment business. I just didn’t expect it to be so ingrained in the kids’ version as well. But again, it was an experience that taught me a lot and one that I am extremely grateful for.

Are there any Greek artists past and/or present who’ve particularly inspired you?

There are actually! But it’s usually specific songs of theirs, rather than their whole discography. Usually I get inspired by greek folk songs that have been done by many artists throughout the years, one specific song is ‘Thalassaki Mou’, because it reminds me of my dad, since he sings it all the time. Whenever I get homesick, I use some manipulated Greek elements in my music, it’s my form of paying tribute (again, you will hear this more in future releases).

But some Greek artists I really respect and sometimes find inspiration from are Stelios Kazatzidis and Haris Alexiou.

What/where next for Aphty Khea?

Social commentary will be evident in my next releases, if you know where to look, or listen… Musically, there are some progressions and ventures onto deeper electronic grounds, but done quite subtly (I won’t be releasing a one-hour techno set, if that’s what you’re thinking!) Also in the near to further future, there might be some further clarification and experimentation on Aphty’s story/past/future… We shall see!

Aphty Khea’s Aphty Khea EP is available now on The Sound Of Everything UK.

‘Peacebloom’ Video Credits:

Creators: Charlie & Ben Assistant: Ashley Robinson-Dodd

http://www.cargocollective.com/jegmigfilms http://www.benjaminbrookes.com/