Saturday, March 1, 2025

Culture

Fontaines DC and the (re) rise of indie Sleaze

I recently took to my finsta to post a story claiming that the Fontaines DC’s Radio One Live Lounge cover of Lana Del Ray’s ‘Say Yes To Heaven’ should...

Julie review – Free shots, toxic relationships, immersive theatre

My ticket to see Julie resembled an invite to a birthday party, promising a...

Who is Oxford’s Coffee Shop Artist? In conversation with Julia Whatley

Julia sees herself as the conduit through which an artistic vision is realised. Where does this vision come from? “Somewhere else.”

The Goat Review: ‘raw, absurdist, and honest’

Clarendon Productions brings The Goat, or Who is Sylvia? (Edward Albee) to the Michael...

UFOs, Space Baboons, and Masculinity

Somehow, “Pentagon confirms UFOs may exist” barely registers as news. It’s a shame, since our cultural obsession with the great unknown of outer space...

Live in the Opera House: A Review of 21st-Century Choreography

"I didn’t sit back and enjoy the show. And I ended up with a lot more opinions than I had ever expected four pieces of 21st-century choreography to evoke." Patrick Gwillim Thomas discusses the Royal Opera House's newest choreography project.

Could the Friends Reunion BE any more nostalgic?

It's fair to say the Friends Reunion was a mixed bag. The best? A heavy hit of nostalgia from seeing the cast reunited. The...

“Rotterdam is anywhere, anywhere alone…”: A Literary Pilgrimage

'If I do go to these places, I won’t need to be transported to a fictional world for them to be magic. They’ll be wonderful because I went there, and had fun, and lived a life that is far less exciting than those of the characters, but was good all the same.'

When streaming becomes scrolling

"Spotify promises to ‘soundtrack your life’. We must be wary of how it’s shaping it." Lucy Kelly questions whether Spotify could become the most addictive social media platform.

The Nordic Inheritance and the Power of Myth over the Modern Imagination

For a historian who has made every effort to avoid studying the early history modules, Prime Video’s Vikings was perhaps a surprising viewing choice....

Sticky

Something crawls up my throat, more bitter than honey.

“Everywhere else, death is an end. Death comes, and they draw the curtains –”

Death comes, and they draw the curtains – Not in Spain. In Spain they open them.

Eve

Go, then - O girl, O derivative of...

Eve’s Laugh

Humour me with golden words...

Stalked by a bear at high table

perhaps next time i will kill the bear

Accidentally in Love: Shrek Twenty Years Later

I watched Shrek for the first time when I was two years old. It quickly became a daily habit: my parents would plonk me...

Review – Spiral: From the Book of Saw

My friend and I arrived about thirty minutes late to see Spiral: From the Book of Saw in the cinema. It didn’t particularly matter....

Submarine: A Study in Soundtrack Writing

'Nothing is done by halves in this film, including the emotional intensity; when you’re watching, you feel at all times like you’re stuck in Oliver’s head, forced to hear all of his fifteen-year-old-boy thoughts and schemes. The soundtrack follows all of this perfectly, letting Oliver’s state of mind bleed through into the lyrics, which is the key to what makes Turner’s music so powerful and so fitting to the film.'

Tragic Female Friendship in The Pursuit of Love

'In everything from Little Women to My Brilliant Friend, Lady Bird to The Sisterhood of the Travelling Pants, women are offered a pretty clear choice: do you want to be sexy, or clever? Do you want to be stimulated, or happy? According to Mortimer, you can’t have both.'

‘[I]n spring the soil swells’: Poetry’s favourite season through the ages

Spring has been extolled in poetry perhaps more than any other season. Since antiquity, poets have associated spring with growth and celebration making their poems are a joy to read this time of year.

Hyperpop: the newest teen fad or pop music’s saviour?

"This juxtaposition characterises the genre: bright, happy elements of club hits mixed with a subversive sly irony that comes with introducing darker lyrical and aesthetic elements." Connor Connolly tackles the explosion in popularity of Hyperpop, and its effects on the music industry.

“Je ne comprends pas”: learning to love bilingual literature

My first experience of reading a bilingual novel was both painful and involuntary. It was that heady World Cup summer of 2018 – the...

Review: “Beauty in Death” by Chase Atlantic

"The energy is less mosh pit, headbanging, and more vulnerable. There’s talk of heartache and relationships crumbling" Poppy Atkinson Gibson finds a different side to the Australian trio, Chase Atlantic, in their latest release, "Beauty in Death".

Review: “Half Baked” by Nina Jurković @ North Wall Arts Centre/00Productions

"'Half Baked' passes the Bechdel test with flying colours. It is truly a feminist triumph and is so refreshing to see an all-female cast on an Oxford stage—something of a rarity, especially in the genre of farce." James Newbery reviews the first live post-Lockdown show in Oxford, "Half Baked" by 00Productions at the North Wall Arts Centre.

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