Archive

Microbiographia | Issue 27

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Toby Newberry

At its peak in the 13th century, the Mongol Empire covered 16% of the Earth’s total land area. That’s more than twice the size of the USA, or around 90 times the size of New Zealand. It is the largest empire in human history. Subutai was a Mongolian general, serving first under Genghis Khan and then Read more...

For The Record | Issue 27

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Lukas Clark-Memler

For the record, I feel a strong sense of pressure with this particular column, my final one of the year. I want to find just the right words to end with. I want this conclusion to be satisfying. It’s hard to believe the year is almost at its close, and that we’ll soon be free from the confines of Read more...

Straight up | Issue 27

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by La Dida

I’m sure many of us have noticed that queer columns often plumb archives of feeling which include anger, sadness or pride, or some combo of these. Which is fair enough, I think, since queer/trans people have lots to be angry, sad, and proud about. However, for this column I thought I’d Read more...

Notes on a Scandal | Issue 27

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Brittany Mann

For many, if not most (going by the sheer number of bright-eyed, rosy-cheeked freshers in the first flush of academic fervour), med school is something of a holy grail. But in reality, to milk the biblical metaphor, this cup can be very difficult to bear, to the point of sacrificing one’s own life. Read more...

Yes We Might! | Issue 27

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Creepy Uncle Sam

I have only once watched a US daytime talkshow. In my defence, I was severely incapacitated at the time. Rachael Ray, or whatever the fuck it was, proved a suitably bizarre experience: for instance, the audience would cheer madly whenever the host said the word “bacon”. Funnily enough, the dulcet Read more...

Me Love You Long Time | Issue 27

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Lovebirds

Well shit kids, it’s been a good ride, but this is the last Critic Blind Date of the year. We’ve got some people laid, had some very popular lesbian shenanigans, and created some of North Ds most awakward moments of 2012. To end things with a bang we had six guys and six girls speed date, and if Read more...

Editorial | Issue 27

Posted 5:59pm Sunday 7th October 2012 by Joe Stockman

Fuck ay. This is it, the last Critic of the year. This place has a strange effect on you. It’s high-stress, amazingly fun, and always, even to the end, completely seat of your pants. You turn up having no idea how to do the job, you leave having no idea how you did it. I think, I hope, Read more...

Year’s End

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Staff Reporter

In many ways, your time in Dunedin is a gift. I am especially aware of this when former students make contact and share that as they look back on their years in Dunedin, they feel very grateful. A core part of this Otago experience is the friendships we have here. Every now and then, we need to look Read more...

In 'da House | Issue 26

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Holly Walker

Regular readers will know that I am always looking for excuses to visit Dunedin, so I was delighted when my former POLS lecturer and academic idol Janine Hayward invited me to speak to her POLS102 class about life, politics, and everything else last week. I took that brief pretty literally Read more...

ODT Watch | Issue 26

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Staff Reporter

Holy shit. We’re getting pretty close to the end of Critic for the year, only one more to go. And I really didn’t think that we would get some of the ODT’s greatest work this close to the end. But they literally stopped me in my tracks this week, and in the business section, no less! (yes, I take Read more...

Sex at The Dinner Table | Issue 26

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Checker-out St Flat

It’s hard to draw boundaries between art and pornography when representing sex. Erotica seems to go back forever - the earliest known man-made sculpture is the 26,000-year-old “Venus of Willendorf”, widely interpreted as a fertility symbol with its large breasts and accentuated vulva. In our Read more...

Microbiographia | Issue 26

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Toby Newberry

Last week we chronicled the rise of Heshen, a Chinese official who became absurdly wealthy in the late 18th century. This week, we bear witness to his fall. Last week ended at Step Two of “Heshen’s guide to amassing inappropriately large stashes of treasure”, and we’ll pick up at Step Three after a Read more...

For The Record | Issue 26

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Lukas Clark-Memler

The xx are three British twentysomethings who dress in black and create stripped-down minimalist pop with haunting melodic precision and a zealously apathetic atmosphere. Read that last sentence again. Now go and beat your head against a fucking wall to get that PR-spun marketing dross out of your Read more...

Straight Up | Issue 26

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by La Dida

In this one short sentence, I will possibly extinguish what’s left of my queer cool cred: I’m a country fag, and I like it. I am not hard country. I’m more the soft, lifestyle block, grow-heirloom-roses kind. I like the smell of silage, flower shows, and shingle roads. I like to Read more...

Notes on a Scandal | Issue 26

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Brittany Mann

When I was getting travel vaccinations recently, the nurse administering them said she had not heard of the recent Ebola virus disease outbreaks in Uganda and Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). I made no real effort to veil my scorn (hello, she is a nurse at a travel medicine clinic…) and wasted no Read more...

Yes We Might! | Issue 26

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Creepy Uncle Sam

Last week, Mitt Romney pulled out of the presidential race, to be replaced by a fresh-faced Tea Party ticket of Paul Ryan and a Dalek. The latest scandal to hit the Romney campaign proved too damaging: Mitt was caught on camera dismissing the 47% of Americans who pay no federal income tax as Read more...

Me Love You Long Time | Issue 26

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Lovebirds

None of you read this anyway. It’s just that little weird standfirst bit above the action below. But anyway ... The Blind Date has been at Metro bar for the last few weeks, and it sounds like they’ve been putting on quite a show. Great feed, good drinks, excellent service etc etc. If you want in on Read more...

Editorial | Issue 26

Posted 5:01pm Sunday 30th September 2012 by Joe Stockman

And so just like that, the Logan Edgar era comes to an end. Francisco Hernandez – a career student pol if ever there was one – has come down the middle of a Scarfie vote split by Ryan Edgar and Zac Gawn to claim the OUSA student presidency for 2013. You have to wonder how Gawn and Ryan feel Read more...

Te Roopu Māori Elections

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 by Lisa Pohatu

José Maria de Eça de Queiroz said that “Politicians and diapers should be changed frequently, and for the same reason.” Thank you to all those who turned up to the SGM, and for providing some constructive feedback to the proposed changes within the management system of Te Rito. Hopefully you Read more...

The Room (2003)

Posted 4:25pm Sunday 23rd September 2012 by Sam McChesney

It was a question of defining importance. For decades, the debate raged. What was the worst film of all time? The contenders came from far and wide – Plan 9 From Outer Space, Robot Monster, Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Troll 2, Zombie! vs. Mardi Gras, Howard the Duck, Battlefield Earth. With Read more...