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...

Five Book that Shaped My Life: A Biblio-Biography

'Upon sitting down to write this article, the immense prospect of narrowing down my entire life's reading experience to five books suddenly seemed to stare at me, chasm-like. Life does not always present itself to us in such neat sequences.'

Why I’m still disappointed by How I Met Your Mother’s finale

Spoiler alert! The finale of How I Met Your Mother aired in 2014, and its discordance with everything that came before it and unexpected direction...

What Makes A Great Writer: A Biblio-Biography

'What makes a great writer? Practice, of course, and undoubtedly that unique spark called talent or inspiration. But as every writer, great or otherwise, knows, the whole business of writing is built on reading.'

Album Review: “Great Spans of Muddy Time”//William Doyle

""Great Spans of Muddy Time" finds Doyle in new realms of abstraction, with a record that can feel formless, sometimes almost messy." Frank Milligan ruminates on William Doyle's latest release.

Review: “The Arnolfini Portrait” by Tamsyn Chandler

"The Arnolfini Portrait was an intricate, sophisticated project with a controlled yet bold execution. Every element of sound was carefully considered, and I took great satisfaction in being guided along Jean’s journey through the various mediums of sound." Beth Ranasinghe reviews the audio production of "The Arnolfini Portrait" by The Industry Magazine Podcast.

Review: These Quicker Elements by George Rushton

"The lack of interaction prescribed by the online format forbids conversation between Lana and her audience, a blockage that’s mirrored by the cited words’ failure to offer clarity on Lana’s lost life events". Eleanor Zhang reviews the online production of These Quicker Elements.

Cannibal coming-of-age: Julia Ducournau’s Raw

'Raw is gross and disgusting, but it is also an important story about acceptance, about what makes us normal, and about our relationship with what we eat. Though the very idea of the film is sickening, disgust is central to the point it wants to make.'

The Epic Highs and Lows of Riverdale

'Riverdale is the teen drama to end all teen dramas. What started off as a fairly standard show about a teen murder mystery has evolved into essentially a parody of itself. '

Billie Eilish and the exhaustion of being a young woman in the public eye

Since Billie Eilish burst onto the pop music scene in 2016 with Ocean Eyes, her voice has reverberated around many a bedroom, club, and...

Self-growth, Sin Miedo: The Rise of Kali Uchis

"The potentially risky decision to produce a Spanish album to a predominantly English-speaking fanbase reflects Uchis’ consistent commitment to be authentic to herself." Ellie-Jai Williams explores Uchis’s brave Spanish new album, "Sin Miedo (del Amor y Otros Demonios)."

“We’ve come a long long way together” Liverpool’s ‘First Dance’

""I want to go again. It was just so so fun. It was such a nice atmosphere there.” The feeling of happy excitement of people heading out for their first night out post-lockdown definitely gave a boost of energy." Iona Neill discusses the recent trial rave at Bramley-Moore dock in Merseyside.

‘Blink’ and You’ll Miss It

"'A kind of circus act between two people, of juggling all these emotions and arguments and sentiments’....The play is defined by that same sense of quirkiness, instability and fascination. I’d watch Blink over a tightrope act any day." Katie Kirkpatrick previews Frangipane Productions' latest play, 'Blink'

The #OwnVoices Movement: Whose Voices Are Being Heard?

From abandoning the acronym BAME to placing diversity and inclusion at the forefront of their values, representation has never been so important in the...

Review: “Orestes”//Oxford Greek Play @ the Oxford Playhouse

"The intense and nuanced performances, the queasy mix of fear and fury palpable with a small glimmer of hope, made Oxford’s Orestes a very capturing play." Marietta Kosma reviews The Oxford Greek Play's production of Euripides' tragedy "Orestes".

Bookshops are Back: The Joys of In-Person Book Buying

'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.'

Judging books by their covers?

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.

Review: Lana Del Rey’s Chemtrails Over The Country Club

"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.

Review: Ben Howard’s Collections From The Whiteout

"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.

Review: Catullus: Shibari Carmina by Isobel Williams

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

Review: Lil Nas X’s ‘MONTERO (Call Me By Your Name)’

"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)".

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