Culture

'There’s something magical about running your fingers across a shelf, gazing over each stack and meandering through a cavern full of works of literature.'

When browsing the shelves of a bookshop, what I am most drawn to is art. I hunt for the brightest colour, the most striking typography, a good-looking image with which to decorate my bedside table. Book covers can use their beauty to their advantage, or even as a form of rebellion.

"She walks this peculiar line of being both stronger and more self-assured but within that, being more unapologetically delicate and sentimental." J Daniels explores Lana’s 7th album, in all its assuredness, delicacy and sentiment.

"Howard has somehow transformed the usually significant divide between the ominous and the amusing into a fine line." J Daniels takes a look into folk singer Ben Howard’s latest album.

The poetry of the late Roman Republic does not immediately move the mind to think of shibari – a Japanese rope bondage art –...

"In his adolescence, the Church told Montero that being gay would send him straight to Hell – so the singer reckoned, why not get into his thigh-high stilettos and slide down there on his own terms?" Beth Ranasinghe dives deep into Lil Nas X's recent single "MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)".

'Claustrophobic, erratic, and prickly all at once, Black Bear is an experiment in film which entangles its audience deep in its intellectual web.'

The undulating sands stretch out,  a vast expanse, sweltering under the gaze of the sun as it burns its way across the sky, dunes flowing like currents,  tides on...

'The emptiness should be engulfing. Instead, when Nolan’s films work, they are spectacular.'

Faeries, elves, centaurs, wizards, dragons. In its purest form, fantasy is one of the most ancient literary genres, and fantastical elements can be found...

Alexandra Andrews’s psychological thriller, Who is Maud Dixon?, tests the limits of fiction. Literally. The novel begins in media res: Florence Darrow wakes up...

"These Quicker Elements is a remarkably polished piece of student drama. The acting is captivating throughout, managing to make a very simple set-up consistently captivating, and the script strategically reveals little gems of narrative information throughout its twists and turns while also speaking to bigger questions of memory, self-perception, and relationship dynamics." Ahead of its performance on Friday, 7th May, Katie Kirkpatrick previews "These Quicker Elements" by George Rushton.

"It is prefaced: “What if Beethoven’s Für Elise… Had been written by Ludovico Einaudi?”... ‘Reimagining’ Beethoven in the style of Einaudi would entail a translation of Beethoven’s ‘classical’ harmonies into the more accessible language of modern film/popular music, potentially downsizing the role of melody and musical form in favour of communicating a more homogeneous ‘background’ sound." Yundi Li discusses the role TikTok and other new media play in changing dialogues of genre fusion.

'Ramadan is a highlight of the Islamic calendar and involves a month of self-reflection and improvement as well as abstinence from food and water. Gaining knowledge is hugely celebrated within Islam, and with more time on my hands not eating or drinking, this spiritual month is the perfect opportunity to learn something new.'

"Production is not the greatest sin ‘Holy’ commits. Indeed, I actually really like the gospel piano that kicks the song off, and Justin’s opening verse (“I know a lot about sinners/guess I won’t be a saint”) and pre-chorus (“the way you hold me… feels so holy”), while nothing special, definitely fit and set the mood. Yet, this is immediately ruined by the lyric “Oh God/Running to the altar like a track-star”, which, accompanied by the muddy-too-modern pop bass farting through the timeless instrumentation preceding, wrecks the song beyond all recovery." Raman Handa reviews 'Justice', the latest offering from Justin Bieber.

"There were two questions heading into the night: how much money could the crowd raise, and how well have the comedians adapted their acts to fit the online format? Both questions were answered emphatically, as the audience raised over £3000." Noah Cohen-Greenberg and Owen Foster review the Zoom comedy fundraiser, Oxford Mind Comedy Gala

"Adapting to online technology was a necessity but I also felt that recent events provided a long-due kick in the backside to get narratives about Black experiences into the Oxford drama scene. Sure, we have ‘inclusive casting’, but this inclusivity isn’t currently extending into the voices being produced as far as it should." James Newbery interviews Sam Spencer about his upcoming project.

With cinemas closed amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, it is no surprise that many typical filmgoers haven’t seen the nominated films this year. However, as...

The rise of antiheroines stresses essentially the same thing every wave of feminist movement attempts to accentuate, that a woman’s refusal to be suppressed and abused by patriarchy is always less threatening, when what they’re rebelling against is still prevalent

I propose that we start considering animation as the art form it is:one that allows for the pushing of boundaries and the creation of beautiful nonsense.