Neon Indian Provided everything one would expect from an ultra-hazy psych-synth band in their live show at London’s Heaven club last night.

A surreal lightscape cascaded around frontman Alan Palomo as he jittered and swayed to the cosmic off-pitch syntherey that they provide. Psychic Chasms featured well in the show, they encored with the glittery psych-anthem Should Have Taken Acid With You. Tracks from Era Extrana were well-received, these songs a little less tuneful, but for a live audience, it was an immersive musical treat, straight from the enhanced minds of the Texas boys. Polish Girl went down to a huge roar of appreciation, its poppy introduction bringing people into dancing along with Palomo, whose zeal hadn’t diminished along the course of his testing tour.

They weren’t particularly talkative with the audience – it was all about the atmosphere – Palomo actually seemed to be annoyingly inside his own head.

They’re a great band with a great live sound, which is brilliant to experience both in chemical jubilation and in admiring sobriety.

Post-modernism of the 80s wasn’t there to be smart, to be thought-of, post-modernism wanted to be playful, seducing and entertaining. It was a radical, it broke free from the arts. Many critics regarded it as ‘the end of culture’.

The V&A takes an in-depth look at this movement with a blockbuster approach. The show is visually thrilling, a kaleidoscope of what Post-modernism is and stands for. Leading visitors through a neon-lit landscape of fashion, art and music, the exhibits are welcomed by their surroundings – the post-modernist architecture of Charles Jencks. Urban metal fences represent city wastelands and the club culture elements of art. 80s music drips from speakers as video installations captivate audiences – it feels a lot more like walking on an abandoned film set than being in a museum. Most art works are created on the boundaries of high and popular culture, Post-modernism merges them both.

The exhibition ends in the museum shop – highly appropriate in this context. The death of Post-modernism (that is if you believe it ever did die) came when commercialism overcame the necessary distance from it to be seen as irony.

As Occupy London entered its second week on Saturday Reverend Graeme Knowles distributed a statement through the camp that cited “practical and safety issues” and “public health” concerns as his primary reasons for the decision.

“I hope that the protesters will understand the issues we are facing, recognise that their voice has been legitimately heard, and withdraw peacefully,” the statement read.

In a general assembly soon after occupiers responded by declaring that they will not leave.

“We stay, we stay, we stay and we stay,” a protester announced, amidst deafening cheers from the hundreds of people seated around him.

The reverend’s announcement had come as a shock, since his outspoken support for the occupation had allowed it to remain in the church square throughout the previous week.

Members of the demonstration do not believe there is any substance to claims of safety problems.

“We’ve contacted both the fire brigade and the City of London Health and Safety Board, and they told us they haven’t issued any warnings to the church,” said Mike Jhon, an Occupy London media representative.

He added: “We think there is some political pressure around it. We’re becoming a problem for the government and the banks, since people are showing so much interest and support.”

A police statement said that, since St. Paul’s withdrew its support for the occupation, police would remove people from the church square if asked.

According to a spokesman for the occupation’s legal team, police will need a court order to remove protesters, since it is a civil offence – not a legal offence – to remain in front of the cathedral.

Since its establishment on 15 October, Occupy London has amassed considerable resources and public support. Nearly 250 tents now fill the square outside St. Paul’s, including centers for media, information, finance, law and first-aid – as well as a fully-staffed kitchen.

“I think on Saturday everybody thought it was going to be a one-day, flash in the pan protest,” said protester Justin MacDonald. “A lot of people expected us to fail.

“But now they see that we’re still here, we’re still talking, and we’re still making our demands. So people are more confident about coming back, because they know we’re still going to be here.”

Starting on Saturday 3000 protesters gathered in the square outside St Paul’s.The crowd then attempted to move into the London Stock Exchange in Paternoster Square.

Police barricaded the square off using human walls. This forced the protesters back outside St Paul’s were they have set up on the steps.

“I’m here today,’ said one man, ‘because I really believe the financial institutions, organisations, have become far too large, far too powerful in the world…”

So far the protest has been peaceful and police have been working well with the crowd after the first day.

One man was arrested on Saturday as police stopped new demonstrators joining and anyone else leaving. A witness said, “he has a camera so he’s clearly not attacked anyone, he’s holding an expensive piece of equipment, this lady reckons he got shoved forward, perhaps fell over and they just had him. That’s what they’re looking for isn’t it, they’re trying to provoke us.”

Julian Assange has been amongst those to come and speak with the protesters. Despite some of them displaying a clear negative attitude to him being there he spoke saying he had always wanted to say everyone was equal. He was then allowed to leave the contained area again in a large media frenzy.

The Dean of St Paul’s Cathedral has welcomed the crowds saying he defends their right to protest. Services and tourist attractions have gone on uninterrupted.

The protesters are now appealing for toilet paper, food, sleeping bags and warm clothing as they attempt to set in for a long campaign following the protest in Wall Street, New York.

As soon as my place was accepted I looked up the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender society, otherwise known as LGBT, and went along to the first meeting. I didn’t have any gay friends of my own and the only image I had of other gay people were stereotypes off the TV like Julian Clary and Graham Norton.  I was surprised to meet LGBT people from all backgrounds: Asian, Black, Chinese and South American, as well as the stereotypical white, middle-class.

I was so pleased; I’d found a place where I could fit in straightaway where people would not judge me. I could be myself without masking my sexuality. It might sound incredibly cliche but it really did liberate me, giving me a sense of confidence I’d never had before.

Over time, as I became more political, I was elected President of the society, and became involved in the national campaign, NUS LGBT.

Getting involved in this campaign taught me so much about the LGBT community -  that there are student activists on campuses all around the UK promoting tolerance and equality for LGBT people.

As I became absorbed into LGBT life – a scene which I was never a part of before – I went along to other universities and saw for myself how large and established other LGBT societies were. It inspired me to do the same at City; I really felt like we lagged behind.

Just as things were going nicely, with the LGBT society growing by the day, the Student Union approved a speaker to address the Islamic Society who is recorded to have said: “Take that gay man and throw him off a mountain.”  I was absolutely furious.

Despite all of the work and progress I had made, after a year of being society President and raising its profile – I now had to deal with putting pressure on the Student Union to stop this from happening.

This was by no means an attack on Islam as we know that homophobia can come from any community, including the Christian Fundamentals who carry around “God Hates Fags” banners in the US.  However, this was the first time I’d experienced such hatred, and so close to home.  If Nick Griffin was invited onto campus; would he have been allowed  to speak? So why the double standards?

On challenging this, I was met with bureaucracy – in this case Section 43 of the Education Act – Freedom of Speech.

I thought this was incredibly wrong as the person coming to speak had incited violence towards gay people and would have been unchallenged.  The event eventually went ahead with a lot of security – and nothing homophobic was said.

I still stand by my ideals. It is definitely not helpful for an academic insitution to host an event with someone who has incited violence towards gay people in the past – this is not what you would expect from a liberal, progressive university. University should open people’s minds, not close them.

It is important not to create a platform for any type of hatred, be it Islamphobia, Homophobia or Racism. In my mind they are all equal forms of discrimination that should be dealt with which is why I’ve attended demonstrations against the EDL and BNP in the past and will continue to do so in the future.  These organisations have caused tensions in Muslim communities by protesting against the ‘threat’ of Islam.  These modern day fascists should be kept off our streets.

As time went on the LGBT society grew to the point where we had a committee, and last year became the third largest society on campus  – I continue to be proud of what we have achieved together.

We even got as far as having people of faith join our society, notably Sikhs and Muslims.  This made me feel very proud of the progress we had made.  People were feeling comfortable about who they were – just like I did after joining the LGBT society.

Being an out openly gay man has definitely changed the way I am day-to-day and it has made me feel comfortable being myself in all situations.

Before I was out I had to always think to myself, OK I’ll try not to use this or that word, or say anything effeminate to fit in with the ‘lads’ crowd.

I was definitely homophobic before I came out. The reason for this was to tap into the general anti-gay bandwagon that was endemic in schools when I was growing up and elements of it are still around, even on campus.

Overall, being an openly gay man at City University has had its ups and downs, but mainly its been a great journey and I’m glad I met some great people on the way.