Sunday 17th August 2025

Culture

Beyond the binary: Leigh Bowery’s radical individuality

Tate Modern's "Leigh Bowery!" refuses easy categorisation—much like its subject A fashion student from Sunshine, Melbourne, rocks up to London in 1980, writes 'wear makeup everyday' on his New Year's...

St Anne’s goes All-Steinway: A purposeful and bold commitment to music

In a move that lives up to its motto of ‘Consulto et Audacter’ (purposefully...

Just like the movies: An American’s notes on her Oxford year

Oxford occupies a mystical, almost fantastical place within the American psyche – so much...

Reading Oxford books in Oxford

For those who have not even set foot in Oxford, the city still lives...

Review: Dr Faustus

“Why this is hell, nor am I out of it.”  As clawing hands ooze from behind a bookshelf, as twisted shadows creep against the walls,...

Interview with Musician and Neuroscientist Izzy Frances

Musician and neuroscientist Izzy Frances loves to play on your heartstrings. Propelled by a desire to understand herself and others, Izzy has burst onto...

Picasso at the RA and the experience of solitude

The curved, sick, and boney fingers are everywhere. The Frugal Meal (1904), one of Picasso’s early paper engravings, is immediately striking.

C’est la Brie: why we love cheesy music

Few would care to admit that the dated tunes of 'cheese' make up a significant portion of our listening habits, and yet music once...

Where Things Turn Out Different

Bombay is an Anglicisation of the Marathi word Mumbai. For this reason, it has become a source of awkwardness.

A Hard Day’s Nightmare: Music and Sleep Paralysis

A typical depiction of sleep paralysis may be found in Henry Fuseli’s 1781 painting ‘The Nightmare’. A woman in a clingy white dress sprawls...

Review: Conversations with Friends

At one point in Sally Rooney’s Conversations with Friends, the protagonist, Frances, tells her best friend and former girlfriend, Bobbi: ‘If I could talk like you...

Review: Bad Bunny’s YHLQMDLG

In December 2017, Bad Bunny performed just one block from where I was living at the time in Minneapolis, Minnesota. I didn’t know who...

David Copperfield: strikingly modern?

We often speak of a ‘writer for our times’, the ‘voice of a generation’ – there is this need to define our age, to...

Photo Editorial: Inheritance

"Sentimental value": it's an emotional attachment that can be hard to put your finger on, an intimate sense of connection which runs more deeply...

Brits 2020: Where performance met politics

This year’s Brit awards took place on the 18th of February, and did not disappoint as a night of celebration of British culture, entertainment...

Review: That Reminds Me (2019)

Fragmentary, authentic and poetic – Derek Owusu’s latest publication, That Reminds Me, succeeds in its painfully honest exploration of a young Ghanaian boy’s journey into adulthood.  When...

Translating nature into the theatre

Audition season for Trinity plays is beginning. Prepare your monologues and get ready to neglect your studies. More importantly though, get shopping for a...

Review: Facial Recognition

In “Facial Recognition”, the main organiser, Lucy Tirahan’s ambition is clear: to break the unspoken taboos surrounding mixed-ethnic heritage. The exhibition is extremely successful. It avoids romanticizing while...

In conversation: Greta Morgan of Vampire Weekend and Springtime Carnivore

Greta Morgan - otherwise known as Springtime Carnivore - has made a name for herself as a touring member of indie rock band Vampire...

Eco-Fiction

Last November, Waterstones named Greta Thunberg as their ‘author of the year’. Her collection of speeches, No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference, certainly...

Review: The Oxford Revue and Friends

To keep an audience laughing consistently at amateur comedy sketches for over two hours is the impressive achievement of the cast of ‘Oxford Revue...

Review: ‘Sorry’ at the Jericho Tavern

Asha Lorenz’s eyeballs roll back into her skull. One half of the songwriting duo behind the band Sorry, she scowls the chorus of ‘Right...

The Modern Memoir

“I can’t believe that we’re on the fifth instalment of my autobiography. As usual with me, the three years since my last book, You Only...

Interview: Rai Kah Mercury’s Nathan De Giorgi

Rai Kah Mercury are set to break into the Oxford scene with an atmospheric gig in Hertford College Chapel on 3rd March. Known for...

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