Student Guide2 Bristol

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Toby Prior makes sure Bristol students see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil...

Having spoken about Bristol fresher's flu in my introduction from last week's student guide, I now have some weird strain of it! Just when you think you avoided it, it sneaks up on you like the inconvenient ninja virus it is. But I am remaining upbeat and positive, mainly due to the fact that there's some cool stuff going on this week in Bristol and I have the opportunity to point you towards it in my weekly guide for Bristol Students.

See this Week

This week I suggest you go check out the Bristol Museum. It's free (for everyone, not just students!) and I had a wander around the other day. It's actually far bigger than I thought. A great place to visit if you have a spare hour in town or you don't have much cash to burn. I kept myself amused for about two hours, and I have the attention span of an excitable ferret.


I felt like I learnt something and I would go again when the next exhibition comes around.  Added to this, it was quiet and generally very relaxing experience. They have a number of large, well maintained and detailed exhibitions featuring some stunning and very interesting pieces of artwork and some very informative historical displays.

The exhibition they have on at the moment is the 'End of the line: Attitudes in drawing' exhibition. I didn't walk around it so I'm not sure if you have to pay. But it did look good from the outside and the posters about it made it look interesting. Worth a look for any art students or anyone who fancies themselves as a closet artist in the making.

Hear This Week

Crashing in as the number one thing to hear this week is the second edition of 'Ripsnorter' on Saturday the 17^th of October at Motion on Avon Street. It's about a 15-20min walk from the city centre in the direction of Temple Meads station. It's probably worth looking it up on Google maps before going, as fumbling around looking for it for an hour can put a dampener on the evening.

Once you get there you're in for a treat.  Motion isn't somewhere that's normally on the promotional radar for Bristol students. It's an indoor skate park that converts easily into a formidable music venue. Having attended the last Ripsnorter myself I can vouch for its awesomeness! It is huge inside, and that makes all the difference to the acoustics. This time around event organisers have promised to turn the skate park into a 'UV playpen featuring fire dancers, face painters and the ripper laser/lightshow!' I don't know about you but I think that sounds pretty cool.

Obviously it's not all about the look of the place. The music is fantastic too. A mix of trance, break beats,  electro, house and dubstep from DJ's such as Ed Real, Glowbones and Phat Controller, your almost guaranteed a fistful of tunes to keep you bobbing your head appreciatively all night long.  You need an 'E Ticket' to get into Ripsnorter 2; they are free to download from www.ripsnorter.co.uk .  Although entry is free, optional donations are made at the door. I usually give a fiver because it's a good night and all donations are put towards future events.

Also this week, if you haven't already done so, have a quick listen to Jay-Z's new album 'The Blueprint 3'. Some of it is up on YouTube. I can't say I'm a massive fan of Jay-Z, In the past I've liked the odd song of his, but he's won me round with his latest efforts. It's a very diverse album with loads of good tracks. It's bound to add a few listings to your iPod playlist. 

Speak of the week

I was reading on the BBC website that Facebook is helping reduce the number of students dropping out of university. Apparently the reasoning behind it is that we are finding it easier to communicate with our course mates and our module leaders and therefore fewer students are feeling unmotivated and alone. Some universities are now embracing Facebook, using it as the primary way of keeping in contact with their students.

Personally, I think it's a fantastic idea. Next time you're told by one of your tutors to get off Facebook and listen, all you need to do is reply "sorry, I was just maintaining my enthusiasm for university by utilising this state of the art networking portal that allows me to effectively communicate with my peers and module leaders..."

Mind you, it would probably a good idea to close the pictures of last night's trip to the pub that you were looking at before you say this.  Have a good week!