Archive

Dead White Men & Other Important People: Sociology’s Big Ideas.

Posted 3:45pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Jonathan Jong

uthors: Ralph Fevre and Angus Bancroft Publisher: Palgrave (3.5/5) Dead White Men is sociology’s answer to Jostein Gaardner’s Sophie’s World, but it’s not quite as good. As in Sophie’s World, Fevre and Bancroft attempt to introduce the big ideas of their Read more...

Beloved: Works from the Dunedin Public Art Gallery.

Posted 3:43pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by April Dell

DPAG Until October 30 2011 So Critic finally got around to seeing Beloved at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, a large and diverse exhibition commemorating the gallery’s 125th anniversary. The show flaunts the gallery’s permanent collection and celebrates six centuries of art from Read more...

Review: The Capping Show 2010, Alice in Cappingland.

Posted 3:29pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Erica Newlands

Directed by: Thom Adams, Alex Wilson, and Dianne Pulham (3/5) I am always in awe of the people who commit to a performance event of this scale in conjunction with full-time study. As a ‘Capping Show’ Alice in Cappingland ticked all the right boxes; however, I personally Read more...

LTT Review: Cicadas.

Posted 3:28pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Jen Aitken

Written by Rick Han Performed by Simon O’Connor Co-directed by Clare Adams and Hilary Halba (5/5) As a reviewer, I feel responsible to respond to this show with the same poetic quality that Theatre Studies student Rick Han presents in his script. This, however, is an unattainable Read more...

Caribou - Swim

Posted 3:11pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Simon Wallace

Merge 2010 (4/5)     Diving headfirst into a wash of haze and colour, Caribou's new album Swim envelops the listener instantly. Dan Snaith seems more focused musically than he has since his debut as Manitoba at the turn of the century, as he steers the opening track Read more...

Supermodel

Posted 3:10pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Ellis Bell May

“I'm definitely at one with myself when I'm singing,” says Mark Hanify, the lead singer of orthodox Wellington rock band Supermodel. “I'm in the moment, it's like when you're in deep meditation; it's the same kind of feeling. You're in that higher level of awareness, and because I'm Read more...

Motion Controller Movement

Posted 3:05pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Ethan Khalsa

Platforms: Wii (coming out for PS3 and Xbox 360) The Wii Remote catalysed the development of motion controllers for all major console manufacturers. While swinging the remote around is fun, the question remains: is this a good move for the gaming community? Currently, the Wii and PS3 Read more...

Robin Hood

Posted 3:04pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Alecks Vuckovic

Directed by Ridley Scott Rating: 3/5 Forget everything you might know about the original Robin Hood. There are no men prancing merrily around in a forest sporting tights to match the trees or stealing gold from the rich and giving it to the poor. Robin Hood no longer looks like a grown-up Read more...

The Blind Side

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Max Segal

Directed by John Lee Hancock (1/5) The Blind Side is the latest instalment in the long-running narrative that is the myth of white supremacy. Leigh Anne Tuohy (Sandra Bullock) is a wealthy, conservative mother of two who takes black teenager Michael Oher (Quinton Aaron) into her Read more...

The Secret In Their Eyes

Posted 3:03pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Sarah Baillie

Directed by Juan Jose Campanella (3.5/5) The Secret In Their Eyes (El Secreto de sus Ojos) is a riveting murder mystery of the highest order. The film follows Benjamin Esposito, a recently retired federal justice agent. Benjamin is still kept awake at night by an investigation he was Read more...

New York, I Love You

Posted 3:02pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Nicole Muriel

Directors: Multiple (2/5)     Emmanuel Benbihy, who produced Paris, Je T’aime, has again arranged an anthology of love stories with ten different directors. Each short was made in just over a week. This film has a stellar cast, including Natalie Portman and Shia Read more...

The Most Beautiful Man in the World

Posted 2:52pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Katie Hayes

Author: Jill Marshall Publisher: Penguin ( 4/5)     The blurb on the back of this book promised me a “pole dancer from Taranaki,” a beautiful man to be found “floating face-down in [a] Hollywood pool,” and “a tangled web of lies, sex and Read more...

Solar

Posted 2:52pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Kathy Young

Author: Ian McEwan Publisher: Jonathan Cape Rating: 3/5 Fans of Ian McEwan, prepare to be disappointed. Solar may be the closest McEwan has gotten to a rush job. Indeed, I was dismayed, and about halfway through I kept wondering if McEwan had actually written the book himself. Read more...

Eternal Life: A New Vision

Posted 2:50pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Deane Galbraith

Author: John Shelby Spong Publisher: HarperCollins (0/5) Bishop John Spong is Christianity’s version of the Dalai Lama: a purveyor of an earnestly inoffensive spirituality, which possesses all the substance and fibre of lukewarm parsnip juice. Spong dismisses fundamentalist Read more...

Thinking of Answers – Questions in the Philosophy of Everyday Life

Posted 2:49pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Jonathan Jong

Author: A. C. Grayling Publisher: Bloomsbury (4/5) I must admit to not being A. C. Grayling’s biggest fan: we’re in opposing camps on many issues. However, I do appreciate his role as a public intellectual, bringing philosophy (or critical thinking, if you prefer) to the Read more...

Dick Frizzell: Works on Paper

Posted 2:47pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Hana Aoake

Milford Gallery Until May 19 Dick Frizzell is a prominent and highly successful New Zealand artist, based in Hawke's Bay, whose notorious artistic appropriations have become ‘Kiwi’ pop-culture icons. His work is characterised as being incredibly adaptive from one style mode to Read more...

Preview: Alice in Cappingland

Posted 2:37pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Lady Kathryn Schrader

Directed by Thom Adams, Alex Wilson and Dianne Pulham Written and acted by an ensemble cast Teachers College Auditorium, Union St May 12-22, 7.30 pm $15 Student $20 public – onlineshop.ousa.org.nz The Capping Show, notorious for its painful puns and topical sketch comedy, as well as a Read more...

LTT Review: Shared Agendas Thursday 6-5-2010

Posted 2:36pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Jen Aitken

Co-ordinated by Ali East and Martyn Roberts (3/5) This performance was the fourteenth Shared Agendas event. Shared Agendas provides an annual forum for a cross-disciplinary, improvised exchange between musicians, dancers, actors, performers, and techies. James Reedy explains that the work Read more...

The Return of the Super Sharp Shooter

Posted 2:18pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Martyn Pepperell

In 2006, DJ Zinc (Government name: Benjamin Pettit), one of the true legends of jump-up jungle drum and bass, found himself heading towards a crossroads of sorts. “With drum and bass, around 2006, it became hard to find music that sounded cutting edge,” he says, speaking down the Read more...

The Chills (Live at the Empire)

Posted 2:17pm Sunday 11th July 2010 by Sarah Baillie

he recently reopened Empire tavern on Princes Street has “special memories” for Martin Phillips of The Chills, as it is one of the regular venues the band played at during the heyday of Flying Nun bands in Dunedin. The only remaining member of The Chills’ original line-up, Martin Read more...