Culture

Art as protest on university campuses

CW: rape. This week, Cornell University has made headlines as prosecutors reopened an investigation into the alleged rape of a student at the Ivy League in 2024. The case is...

Good grief! Why do we feel for the death of fictional people?

Whether it’s a mild sniffle or full-blown tears, I always end up feeling a bit ridiculous about the whole ordeal when it’s over. I mean, it’s not real, is it? Why do I waste my grief on things that haven’t happened, that will never happen?

The rise of the pop girlie: Marketing mediocrity or feminism in action?  

“GIRLS INVENTED PUNK ROCK, NOT ENGLAND”: so reads the iconic green T-shirt of Sonic Youth legend Kim Gordon. The slogan stands in defiance of an unfortunate truth in the music industry: femininity and credibility often exist in contention with one another.

World music after ‘world music’

On the face of it, the term ‘world music’ is perhaps one of the...

Revisiting Godard’s ‘Breathless’ 60 years on

'Godard gives us a film that shows the white knight as the charlatan we always knew him to be and offers us the anti-hero instead. And after decades of excessively moralistic cinema, this breath of fresh air was thoroughly needed.'

Moloch 1

'Scream me into the void. I would like to be screamed into the void. Please.'

Is Love Actually actually sexist?

Disclaimer: before I massacre the entirety of its script, Love Actually is one of my favourite films. I watch it every year without fail....

the peaches

"the table is rotting, and the house is rotting, and we are rotting too."

Gift-Giving in 2020

"a difficult balancing act, between thoughtfulness and practicality, and between social responsibility and reception"

The Show Must Go On…but not in every region of the UK

Several regional theatres have struggled to cope in the pandemic, due to persistent negligence and underfunding for decades, both by regional funding bodies and the government themselves.

Review: The Dancing Men

"The whole crew behind this production are worthy of praise for their resourcefulness, having produced a piece which works with, rather than against, its unusual circumstances".

The Prom: rainbow lighting, James Corden & the stage-to-screen adaptation

After a year in which curtains have hardly left stage floors, The Prom gives theatre fans a much needed dose of gliz, glamour and cheese. Katie Kirkpatrick reviews.

Six of the best: winter albums

"Sit back and relax by the fireplace with a mince pie in one hand and a glass of mulled wine in the other, and let Bing Crosby’s ‘White Christmas’ soothe your soul."

On First Looking into Rupi Kaur’s ‘Home Body’

'bricolage applause as spoken word verses raining down like stardust'

Lighting: the art of manipulating the audience

The effect of light is upon the unconscious, unacknowledged unless you are thinking about it, but it’s influencing you all the same.

Review: Taylor Swift’s ‘evermore’

‘In the disbelief I can’t face reinvention. I haven’t met the new me yet.’ So sings Taylor Swift in her ninth and most recent...

Memory/Dream

'snippets of shared secrets, tied to a half forgotten memory'

Instead Of

"I won't have to close my eyes to remember your smile."

Review: Phoebe Bridgers’ ‘If We Make It Through December’ EP

Coming off the post-apocalyptic scream that concluded Punisher, Phoebe Bridgers’ 2020 album (my favourite album this year, and possibly ever), the muted buzz of...

Christmas Songs: The Hidden Treasures and Epic Failures

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been listening to Christmas songs since the beginning of November. Oxmas is without doubt one of the very...

The Solidified People

"The people have solidified since the summer. Seized up in the cold. No longer fluid Melting and melding together in the sun They can be discerned as individuals now. Separate entities two metres apart."

A swing of the pendulum: the horror literature that’s making its way up

"Modern academics are reexamining genre fiction, helped by a number of critical movements breaking down literary elitism, and there’s a world of horror which is intelligent, complex and, most importantly, terrifying."

Review: Adrianne Lenker’s ‘songs / instrumentals’

Big Thief’s album covers — hazy, warm-eyed snapshots of earthy nostalgia — are a fitting prelude to their deeply intimate folk music gnarled among...

Review: Future Islands’ ‘As Long As You Are’

Originating from Baltimore, Future Islands were three albums into their acclaimed discography when they hit the mainstream in 2014 with their iconic Letterman performance...

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