Archive
Interview: Chloe Geoghegan, Director of the Blue Oyster Art Project Space
Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Loulou Callister-Baker
With her first exhibition opening as Director of the Blue Oyster Art Project Space just last Tuesday; Chloe Geoghegan is set to bring an exciting, fresh breath of life to Dunedin’s art scene. Loulou Callister-Baker caught up with Chloe to discuss Oxford, irrigation and Read more...
Modern Baseball - You're Gonna Miss It All
Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Peter McCall
Grade: B + If this record had come out seven years ago, it would’ve been a solid fixture in my CD collection; wedged right between A Lesson in Crime and From Under the Cork Tree. With the angst of emo’s old generation like Sunny Day Real Estate and Built to Spill, and the pop-punk energy of Read more...
St. Vincent - St. Vincent
Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Adrian Ng
Grade: A When an album is self-titled it usually signals an attempt at a self-defining statement. The cover of St. Vincent’s fourth album depicts Annie Clark perched atop a pink throne; deadpan, confident and menacing. With her hair now dyed a blonde-grey and styled in eccentric fashion, she Read more...
Download of the week: Perfect Hair Forever - VOID (NZ)
Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Adrian Ng
Infectious, bedroom pop punk from Auckland. Perfect Hair Forever produce adrenaline pumping, angst-ridden songs, coupled with a lo-fi sheen. Released late last year, VOID is available for free download at crystalmagic.bandcamp.com/album/void Read more...
Artist Profile: Clap Clap Riot
Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Adrian Ng
As part of their four-date New Zealand tour, Auckland based indie-rock band Clap Clap Riot play Chick’s Hotel on 15 March. Stephen Heard and Dave Rowland talk briefly to Adrian Ng about the band’s new album Nobody/Everybody, touring life, and Rock N’ Roll. Did you all come from quite a Read more...
New this week
Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Adrian Ng
For how long exactly is an album, or track, considered new? Keeping up can become quite a time consuming task, though nonetheless a rewarding one. Media is so readily available now; we have the ability to consume at a very high rate. For me, it’s hard to not get carried away on an endless wave of Read more...
Banished
Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Baz Macdonald
Grade: A - It’s not often that you can call a game literary. In my opinion, it has only been in the past generation of games that developers have truly cracked into gaming’s potential to reveal and analyse truths about the human condition. The human condition, of course, is a very broad Read more...
Chipotle Chicken Tacos with Homemade Flour Tortillas
Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Sophie Edmonds
Sometimes I feel like Mexican food is really just an excuse to bring out Corona and tequila. Which isn’t a bad thing, mind you, but while we’re at it, replace the fatty, cheesy Tex-Mex with this vibrant and flavourful, fresh alternative. My favourite dish at the moment is chipotle chicken tacos with Read more...
I, Frankenstein
Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Baz Macdonald
Grade: C A huge number of people work to produce a film. When I watch a film as horrendously written as I, Frankenstein, this is all I can consider. How is it that a huge number of industry professionals worked on this project and, yet, not one person put up their hand and said “Excuse me, I Read more...
Saving Mr. Banks
Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Andrew Kwiatkowski
Grade: A - Exquisite performances and a powerful story make this film a success. You may be familiar with the classic 1964 Disney film Mary Poppins. The 2013 film Saving Mr. Banks invites you to become familiar with the tormented artists responsible for producing such an uplifting and Read more...
12 Years A Slave
Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Tim Lindsay
Grade: A+ “I don’t want to survive. I want to live.” While 12 Years a Slave is expertly (and beautifully) set in 1840s America, it is not a very comfortable film to watch. Steve McQueen’s (Shame and Hunger) film has garnered a raft of Oscar nominations and accolades, a testament to Read more...
Dallas Buyers Club
Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Rosie Howells
Grade: A - Dallas Buyers Club tells the true story of Ron Woodrof, an HIV-positive hillbilly given 30 days to live and with no availability of effective medicines to change his fate. In a desperate attempt to extend his expiry date, and make a little money on the side, Woodrof begins Read more...
Empress Dowager Cixi
Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Bridget Vosburgh
Jung Chang’s Wild Swans, a retelling of her own family’s history through the female line, was (and presumably still is) an eminently readable and fascinating book. With her latest work, Empress Dowager Cixi, she again showcases her gift for retelling great big chunks of history in an accessible and Read more...
When Your Neighbour’s Problems Become Your Own
Posted 4:44pm Sunday 2nd March 2014 by Hannah Collier
The Blue Oyster Art Project Space on Dowling Street - recently re-located, re-furbished and re-directed - is the coolest little gallery I’ve been to in Dunedin. Comfortably minimalistic with its smaller sized rooms, unpolished wooden floors, white walls and warm light, Blue Oyster is the perfect Read more...
Download of the week: Kane Strang (NZ)
Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014 by Adrian Ng
Based in Dunedin, Kane Stang is the city’s resident songwriting genius. When he is not drunkenly stammering in manic rock band Dinosaur Sanctuary, he is writing clever, interestingly crafted, psych-pop songs. Released last year, A Pebble and a Paper Crane is available for free download at Read more...
New this week
Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014 by Adrian Ng
Welcome to the 2014 Critic music section. I’m Adrian Ng, a songwriter and producer based in Dunedin. What qualifies me to write about music, let alone curate a section around it? Not much, really. I’ve realised that when it comes to music, the person you should pay the most attention to is yourself; Read more...
Artist Profile: Brown
Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014 by Adrian Ng
Brown are a four-piece alternative pop band based in Auckland and Dunedin. From confrontations with boy racers to recording an acapella covers cassette, Michael Cathro, AKA Skinny, talks to Critic’s Adrian Ng about his approach as a songwriter, his memories of Dunedin life, and also gives us an Read more...
Broken Bells - After The Disco
Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014 by Adrian Ng
Grade: B Broken Bells is comprised of James Mercer (The Shins) and Brian Burton (Danger Mouse), who team up again following their 2010 debut. After The Disco is an album of very well crafted songs, merging elements of new-wave and disco with Mercer’s trademark pop sensibilities. The Read more...
Warpaint - Warpaint
Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014 by Adrian Ng
Grade: A- From start to finish, the sophomore effort from this Los Angeles-based four piece emanates a dense atmosphere, each track transitioning beautifully to the next. Soaked in a somewhat ethereal splendor, the record is held together by a subtle, carnal groove which comes across as Read more...
Broken Age
Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014 by Baz Macdonald
Grade: A As consumers, we are at the mercy of what sells. When what you like is “what sells,” that’s a wonderful fact. However, when something you like is niche, then it can be the worst. However, the last couple of years have given gamers the opportunity to directly influence what they like Read more...
Fridge Pizza
Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014 by Sophie Edmonds
That O-Week time of the year is a week full of good flat intentions, like doing the first flat shop full of nutritious food, drafting up the cleaning roster and vowing to never screw the crew. But, as we all know, the week’s charming side effect – also known as the week-long bender – renders all of Read more...
The Wolf of Wall Street
Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014 by Alex Wilson
Grade: A+ In recent years, economic disparity has permeated society’s political zeitgeist, questioning whether it is ethical for such a small percentage of the population to control so much wealth and power, while so many struggle on the way side. Wolf of Wall Street gives a face to Read more...
Inside Llewyn Davis
Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014 by Rosie Howells
Grade: A- Inside Llewyn Davis follows our title character as he desperately attempts to make a name for himself in the Greenwich Village folk scene of 1961. Plagued with a homeless cat, an empty wallet and bad attitude, Llewyn (Oscar Isaac) fumbles through his increasingly disastrous life to Read more...
American Hustle
Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014 by Rosie Howells
Grade: B Goddamn, did American Hustle have a good trailer! Through a grandiose string of clips, one was treated to dancing, boozing, screaming in toilet cubicles, Jennifer Lawrence in a leotard and the phrase “only in America” punching onto the screen in sassy block letters – all in perfect Read more...
Her
Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014 by Baz Macdonald
Grade: A- Every romantically focused film made has tried desperately to capture the events, thoughts and emotions associated with love. But no film, in my opinion, has ever captured the essence of it quite as poignantly as Spike Jonze’s Her. The film traverses all of the ups and downs of Read more...
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks
Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014 by Imogen Davis
The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is a pertinent, well-constructed slice of the creative non-fiction genre. Written by Rebecca Skloot in 2010, the book takes its readers back to 1951 when a 29-year-old African American housewife and mother died from ovarian cancer. Her death led to an instance of Read more...
Hotere Culbert
Posted 6:57pm Sunday 23rd February 2014 by Hannah Collier
Ralph Hotere and Bill Culbert Exhibited until 9 March 2014 This whole exhibition could be the result of Dan Flavin meeting Ad Reinhardt in Port Chalmers for a couple of arty hours by the beach. But, in fact, the Hotere and Culbert exhibition, currently at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Read more...
App of the Week | Issue 26
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Raquel Moss
In the haze of information overload that is study week, it’s easy to be overwhelmed by all the shit you’re meant to know. Sometimes, putting it into order in a way that makes sense to you can help to soothe the hysteria. Time to make your Year 9 English teacher proud and create some sweet Read more...
Behind the Meme
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Raquel Moss
Remember your horrible high school class photograph? Or the embarrassing childhood picture that your Mum posted to her Facebook? (Thanks, Mum.) What happens when the Internet gets hold of those photos and, based on that one photograph, assigns you a personality? Do you roll with it? Exploit it? Or Read more...
2013’s Best Tracks
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Basti Menkes
1. Sigur Rós - BrennisteinnThe opening number of the Icelanders’ gothic and gorgeous seventh LP Kveikur is a masterpiece of the juxtaposition of light and darkness. Trembling with volcanic basslines and glimmering with Jónsi’s peerless falsetto, “Brennisteinn” is the finest song both of Sigur Rós’ Read more...
2013’s Best Albums
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Basti Menkes
2013 has seen some fantastic releases in the music world, from sonic veterans returning to the game after a long absence to new artists making waves with their impressive debuts. To celebrate another great year for music, Basti Menkes gives you his favourite albums and songs released this year. Read more...
MGMT - MGMT
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Lisa Craw
Rating: 2/5 As someone who’s followed MGMT peripherally for a while, I had high expectations for their latest album. I expected a new slick experience, a return to the clever and commercially viable pop of their first album Oracular Spectacular. After their brief foray into self-indulgence on Read more...
Lorde - Pure Heroine
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 4.5/5 No matter how many times I hear the Lorde story, it never fails to amaze me. In 2008, Ella Yelich-O’Connor was just another North Shore 12-year-old. After a video of her singing at a school talent show made its way to Universal Records scout Scott Maclachlan, she was Read more...
Scribblenauts Unmasked: A DC Comics Adventure
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 8.5/10 As a gaming advocate it is my job to point out that games can have a variety of positive effects on gamers, including the development of cognitive skills. I wholeheartedly believe that this is true, particularly for young gamers. However, it has been a long time since I Read more...
Beetroot Chocolate Cake
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Kirsty Dunn
This cake is gorgeous. It comes out a rich cocoa-burgundy colour, has a moist but light texture, and tastes great – it’s not too sweet. If, however, you want to up the ante on the sugar count, I’d ice the top (adding a little berry jam to regular icing makes a nice change and turns it a lovely pink Read more...
The Warriors
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Baz Macdonald
I have never understood the point of gangs. Violently defending an area of land that is not yours to begin with strikes me as rather absurd. While Walter Hill’s 1979 cult classic The Warriors doesn’t convince me of gangs’ validity, I doubt that a cooler vision of the concept has ever been created. Read more...
One Direction: This Is Us
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Tamarah Scott
Rating: 3/5 One Direction: This Is Us explores obsession. Society seems to crave celebrities that seem attainable, or somehow normal, just like us. “The American Dream” has been twisted into an obsession with being famous. We have seen other films produced about the lives of Read more...
Rush
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Lyle Skipsey
Rating: 4/5 Rush, starring Chris Hemsworth and Daniel Bruhl, chronicles the intense rivalry between drivers James Hunt and Niki Lauda. The film covers the early stages of the rivalry, but is mainly focused on the 1976 Formula One World Championship. Far more than just a story about sport, Read more...
The Best Offer
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Rosie Howells
Rating: 4.5/5 This film could not be more appropriately named – it is literally The Best Offer at Rialto this week, the Rekordelig on a shelf full of Scrumpy. Geoffrey Rush stars as the wealthy, brilliant and just-a-bit-sad auctioneer Virgil Oldman, who becomes entangled in the mystery and Read more...
Beautiful Ruins - By Jess Walter
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Feby Idrus
Beautiful Ruins opens with its hero, Pasquale, first laying eyes on the sumptuously beautiful Dee Moray, an American actress who comes to Pasquale’s tiny Italian village by boat, borne across the Mediterranean like a Botticelli Venus. You then cut to Hollywood 40 years later, to a bored studio Read more...
Let Us End With Some Porn
Posted 4:26pm Sunday 6th October 2013 by Charlotte Doyle
There is a deeply-felt anxiety, shared by many girls, about the need for a “perfect” vagina. For many, this necessitates spending 50 dollars on a braz or bikini wax (that will last less than a fortnight) in the hope of fulfilling the desires – or even expectations – of their male counterparts. Read more...
Interview: Sonja Urban (Animal Rights Activist)
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Sonja Urban is a German-born human and animal rights activist who became a New Zealand resident last year in order to study Environmental Organisation at Otago. Baz Macdonald spoke to her about her latest cause, Shave It or Save It, which aims to raise money for animal welfare by letting donors Read more...
Web Trick of the Week: The Wadsworth Constant
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013 by Raquel Moss
The Wadsworth Constant: Noun. An axiom stating that the first 30 per cent of any video can be skipped because it contains no worthwhile or interesting information. Popularised by Reddit user Wadsworth in 2011. (knowyourmeme.com) It’s true though, isn’t it? Pretty much any how-to video Read more...
Checking in on Yahoo!
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013 by Raquel Moss
It has been a year since overachieving, Silicon Valley poster-girl Marissa Mayer (formerly of Google) took over as CEO of Yahoo! There has been a lot of buzz about Yahoo! recently, what with Mayer’s acquisition of several start-ups, the re-vamp of Flickr, and a logo change. I decided it was time to Read more...
Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin - Fly By Wire
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013 by Tom McCone
Rating: 4/5 With the slow onset of the sunnier half of the year, the musically-inclined are already building up their summer playlists, soundtracking lazy drives to the beach, rooftop sunbathing sessions and afternoon backyard drinking sessions that segue into crisp starlit evenings. Read more...
Kings Of Leon - Mechanical Bull
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 3/5 What a strange tale the Kings Of Leon story has been. Though ever-adored by the British music press, it wasn’t until album number three, their magnum opus Because Of The Times, that they broke into the mainstream consciousness. Even after several monster hits and two more albums – Read more...
Kingdom Hearts - 1.5 Remix
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 6/10 The jump from standard definition (SD) to high definition (HD) has created a chasm between gaming generations. It has created a culture in which SD games belong to a past age while HD games belong solidly to the future. But it is also about more than how we perceive Read more...
Fried Rice
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013 by Kirsty Dunn
Good old fried rice. Whilst it’s a simple takeaway staple, it can be surprisingly hard to adequately replicate at home. Therefore, I now impart to you my own tried and true recipe, inspired by my Mama’s version. It’s another great way to use up bits and pieces in the fridge and freezer – I often use Read more...
Spirited Away
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013 by Tamarah Scott
After receiving the devastating news that the king of animation, Hayao Miyazaki, may possibly be retiring from film making, I thought it would only be right to review Spirited Away (2001). Miyazaki co-founded Studio Ghibli, which has never made a disappointing film. Miyazaki enjoys a huge Read more...
What Maisie Knew
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013 by Rosie Howells
Rating: 3.5/5 I fully understand that divorces are never fun, carefree events that come with smiles and free popsicles, but I could not have predicted the messiness, nastiness and general glumness depicted in What Maisie Knew. The film follows the bitter separation of ageing rockstar Susanah Read more...
Riddick
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 3/5 It’s hard to believe, but despite his brawny machismo and horrific repertoire of films, Vin Diesel is a gigantic nerd. It is Vin’s inner geek that has driven him to champion the Riddick franchise, in which he plays the central figure, Richard B. Riddick. At the start of the Read more...
Stoker
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013 by Tamarah Scott
Rating: 4/5 Chan-Wook Park’s Korean films are beautifully pieced together masterpieces with brutally twisted elements. Stoker (2013) is his first attempt at an English-directed film. Do not judge Stoker through the strict lens of realism; rather, treat it as a cinematographic journey into Read more...
The Third Policeman by Flann O’Brian
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013 by Lucy Hunter
The opening sentence of this book describes a brutal murder. An old man is first knocked down with a bicycle pump and then beaten to death with a spade. The one-legged, unnamed narrator, however, doesn’t want to explain his crime right away; more important to him is his friendship with John Divney, Read more...
The Deconstruction of a Gallery Opening’s Mystique
Posted 2:29pm Sunday 29th September 2013 by Charlotte Doyle
The Dunedin art “scene” is often considered to be “underground.” Seen as the realm of the city’s “alty” citizens, there is a widespread public perception that few students would go out of their way for an artistic experience. However, for the entirety of last week Dunedin art pervaded the Read more...
Interview: Isaac McFarlane (Two Cartoons)
Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by Loulou Callister-Baker
The lead singer and guitarist of Dunedin band Two Cartoons, Isaac McFarlane is preparing to head off to London for a record label-sponsored soujourn. Loulou Callister-Baker caught up with Isaac after his final Dunedin show to ask about the big move and how he got into music. Let’s start from Read more...
App of the Week | Issue 24
Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by Raquel Moss
With semester two’s end now in sight, some of you might be thinking about your entrance into the working world. It’s going to be a little tough. Someone is going to expect you to be reasonably dressed and coherent by 9am, and to labour for eight hours toward vague and mystifying goals. You may have Read more...
Turning the Self Into a Statistic
Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by Raquel Moss
“I was surprised to find myself so much fuller of faults than I had imagined, but I had the satisfaction of seeing them diminish.” – Benjamin Franklin Benjamin Franklin, noted Renaissance Man of the American Enlightenment, was a well-known advocate of self-improvement. He famously kept Read more...
The Weeknd - Kiss Land
Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 2/5 An arsehole. A genius. Troubled. The second coming of Michael Jackson. Abel Tesfaye, known better by his stage name The Weeknd, has been called many things during his young career. After dropping his first mix-tape House of Balloons in early 2011, claims that the Canadian would Read more...
Forest Swords - Engravings
Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 4/5 In the infancy of the twenty-first century, electronic music is really establishing itself as an unorthodox medium of expression. As the grind and excess of EDM declines in popularity, so grows acclaim for more reserved styles of electronic music. Among these new, more calculated Read more...
Grand Theft Auto V
Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 10/10 I subscribe to the idea that art should be entirely inclusive. True art should never alienate or exclude people, but rather should create ways in which cater to everyone. For some, this may entail being able to analyse every moment in relation to its thematic significance; for Read more...
White House Down
Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by Rosie Howells
Rating: 3/5 In my opinion, White House Down belongs to the same family as titles such as Snakes on a Plane, Tropic Thunder and Iron Sky – it’s a big, silly action film that understands that it’s a big, silly action film. John Kale (Channing Tatum, in his second film playing an army Read more...
Blue Jasmine
Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 4/5 Forty-eight years since Woody Allen’s film debut What’s New Pussycat? and the reedy-voiced director is still bloody going. His latest film, Blue Jasmine, was promised by early reviews to be one of the best of his career. Though I doubt I’ve seen even half of his work, Blue Jasmine Read more...
Paranoia
Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by Tamarah Scott
Rating: 1.5/5 I wish I could provide an understandable synopsis of Paranoia, but I still have no idea what it is about. I think it is about Adam Cassidy (Liam Hemsworth), an intern at a large corporation that sells and distributes SmartPhones. Cassidy somehow gets his whole team fired Read more...
Salinger
Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 3/5 J. D. Salinger is perhaps one of the most enigmatic figures of the twentieth century. The author of one of the period’s most infamous novels, The Catcher in the Rye, Salinger exploded onto the literary and pop culture scene of the 1950s and 60s. Then, as fast as he had appeared, Read more...
Fruit Bread
Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by Kirsty Dunn
This recipe is really an anything-goes kinda deal; it’s a great way to make use of those icky brown bananas you’ve been avoiding, the ripening apples sitting alone in the fruit bowl, the dregs of forgotten dried fruit mixes in the pantry, and those various other bits and pieces you’ve got crammed at Read more...
In The Memorial Room
Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by Anonymous Bird
Janet Frame has a reputation as a serious New Zealand writer, and a truly successful literary genius. Knowing something of her dramatic personal life – she nearly had a lobotomy due to “psychiatric problems” – I half-expected this novel to be dark, brooding, and Sylvia Plath-esque. Instead, In The Read more...
We Think Alone
Posted 1:47pm Sunday 22nd September 2013 by April Chiu
Emails are one of those everyday mundanities. They are part of our daily routine, used by nearly every one of us to varying degrees and for various purposes. There is one email, however, that is deserving of special mention: that which appears in my inbox every Monday from the multi-talented Read more...
Pixies - EP-1
Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Lisa Craw
Rating: 2/5 Most big bands like to make it obvious when they’re releasing new material – ads, fan announcements, at least a few posters. That was not the case for the new Pixies EP, offhandedly titled EP-1, which just sort of appeared last Tuesday and seems to have gone unnoticed since. Read more...
Arctic Monkeys - AM
Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Bella King
Rating: 4/5 Since their debut Whatever People Say I Am…, British indie rock quartet Arctic Monkeys have evolved their sound with every new release. Fifth album AM both throws all of their styles thus far into the blender – the rampant energy of their first two albums, the darker tone of Read more...
App of the Week | Issue 23
Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Raquel Moss
Next time you have to give a presentation for a class, skip the PowerPoint and give Prezi a go. Prezi is a presentation tool that allows you to scribble all over a canvas, rather than organising your ideas into traditional slides. Imagine a mind-map with fancy transition effects, embedded Read more...
Internet Art
Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Raquel Moss
Art both expresses and reflects the society in which it was produced. In an Internet-obsessed society it hardly comes as a surprise, then, that Internet art is thriving. Net art is hard to pin down and categorise, because it is as diverse as the Internet itself. Just like Internet pornography, Read more...
Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn
Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Baz Macdonald
In the 20 hours I have spent with this game since its launch I have discovered a huge amount about it. However, as those of you who have played MMORPGs will know, 20 hours is barely enough time to scratch the surface of what these types of games have to offer. With that in mind, this article will Read more...
Gone Home
Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 9.5/10 As gamers we have become used to associating our games with grandiose situations and spectacular premises. From protecting the universe from alien threats to fighting dragons and other mythical creatures, we have the pleasure and privilege of living out some of the most amazing Read more...
Stuffed Focaccia Bread
Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Kirsty Dunn
Dissatisfied with Pak ‘n’ Save’s colourless and inadequately topped pizza bread offerings? Unhappy with your regular, run-of-the-mill, unexciting toasted sandwich? Hankering after a more sophisticated savoury treat that you can customise? Then this delish stuffed focaccia recipe is for you, Read more...
Frances Ha
Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Jonny Mahon-Heap
Rating: 3.5/5 An endearing and fresh take on the messy lives of twenty-somethings, Frances Ha is equal parts Woody Allen and Lena Dunham, taking a neurotic central character and using her to charming effect. A star-making performance from Greta Gerwig in the title role ensures that Frances Read more...
Red 2
Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 2/5 When Red came out in 2010 it offered a fresh, light-hearted take on spy thrillers. It also featured a seasoned cast and a skilled director. Unfortunately, while all of these ingredients where once again in the mix, somewhere in the intervening three years Red 2 lost almost all of Read more...
Jobs
Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Rosie Howells
Rating: 3/5 Jobs is a biographical drama that tells the story of Steve Jobs, the co-founder and former CEO of the Apple corporation. The film starts with Jobs as a barefoot college dropout in 1974 and ends with the invention of the iPod in 2001, unfortunately skipping the last ten years of Read more...
The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Harriet Hughes
There is something about the glamour of 1920s New York that makes The Great Gatsby a timeless favourite. Fitzgerald’s characters collide from one party to the next in a bubble of “purposeless splendour” where nothing has consequences, and no one loses out. Our narrator, Nick, arrives at West Read more...
Blue Oyster
Posted 2:39pm Sunday 15th September 2013 by Charlotte Doyle
Blue Oyster is the hipster gallery of the Dunedin art scene. Bound to provide you with an interesting glimpse into local contemporary art, it has until now been somewhat of a hidden gem, tucked down an alleyway on Moray Place. However, it recently underwent a transformation, and on 30 August hosted Read more...
Wiki of the Week
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Raquel Moss
In researching this piece I came across a wiki as deliciously pitiful as Conservapedia, if not more so. The Internet Movie Firearms Database (imfdb.org) is why GCSB watch-lists may be justified after all (just kidding, they aren’t). This careful, meticulous cataloguing of weapons of personal Read more...
You Wouldn’t Download a Gun … At Least, You Shouldn’t
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Callum Valentine
In May this year, gaming giant Electronic Arts announced it would no longer be using officially licensed firearms in its video games. The move was a backpedal in reaction to an extremely poorly thought-out charity campaign launched as part of the stupidly-named Medal of Honor: Warfighter. The Read more...
Lustmord - The Word As Power
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 5/5 Dark ambient is a genre drenched in imagery of the ancient, the gothic and the biblical. Its blacker-than-black noises are derived from the vaults of industrial music, stretched into barren wastes and yawning abysses of sound. Often dark ambient songs are long and slow, crushing Read more...
Nine Inch Nails - Hesitation Marks
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 4/5 My, hasn’t Trent Reznor been busy? Between side projects, scoring films, raising sons and insulting fans over Twitter, the 48-year-old prince of industrial has somehow found the time to make another Nine Inch Nails album. I’ll admit to feeling ambivalent when Hesitation Read more...
The Bureau: XCOM Declassified
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 6.5/10 As far as original premises go, alien invasions are hardly groundbreaking. Sometimes, though, all you need is a fresh take to make something common feel original. In the eyes of many, this is what the game 1994 UFO: Enemy Unknown (also known as XCOM: Enemy Unknown) Read more...
Rayman Legends
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 9.5/10 The gaming industry is currently fascinated with creating new and innovative new ways to play games. Don’t get me wrong – I am very excited about the discoveries being made, but such an attitude tends to imply that we have fully utilised the mechanics we currently have. Rayman Read more...
Sticky Date Muffins
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Kirsty Dunn
I really don’t have much to say about these, except a) they are so freaking good, and b) you’d be a fool, A FOOL I TELL YOU, not to whip some up on a lazy Sunday and revel in their (and your) greatness. (Also you feel less like a fatty eating a muffin than scoffing down a bowl full of the pudding Read more...
Existenz
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Baz Macdonald
It’s always fun to watch films made in the 80s or 90s and see how they thought the world would be by now. Disappointingly, we still don’t have hover cars or pill-based nutrition. What we are getting closer to achieving, however, is virtual reality. Sure, virtual reality the way these films portray Read more...
Kick Ass 2
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Tamarah Scott
Rating: 3/5 Being a big fan of the original Kick-Ass film, I was prepared to be let down by the sequel. In particular, I was dubious as to whether the new director, Jeff Wadlow, would manage to reproduce certain aspects of the original film, such as the stylistic violence sequences and the Read more...
The Mortal Instruments: City of Bones
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Rosie Howells
Rating: 1/5 There is almost nothing in this film that we haven’t seen before. Many times before. The Mortal Instruments is an unskilful amalgamation of the tropes and character types made familiar by Harry Potter, Twilight, Lord of the Rings, True Blood, Pirates of the Caribbean … and the Read more...
The Way Way Back
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 4/5 Watch the first five minutes of any coming-of-age film and you’ll be able to guess exactly what happens in the next 85. The Way Way Back is no exception, and yet the film is so charmingly pleasant that not only do you not mind its predictability, you actually relish it. The Read more...
Less Than Zero
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Millie Lovelock
Less Than Zero is the first novel by literary brat-pack misanthrope Bret Easton Ellis. The novel details narrator Clay’s return to Los Angeles for Christmas after his first semester away at college. Clay is from a wealthy family, and all of his friends are rich, bored, and saturated with pop and Read more...
Hate Modern Art If You Want To
Posted 1:51pm Sunday 8th September 2013 by Charlotte Doyle
In recent years, the concept of “art” has been expanded to the point where many feel as though they can no longer question a work’s artistic quality. Doing so implies that they are unable to discern the meaningful message hidden behind what appears to be a pile of rubbish in the middle of the Read more...
App of the Week | Issue 21
Posted 3:48pm Sunday 1st September 2013 by Raquel Moss
The QWERTY keyboard as we know it has been around since 1873. A lot of shit has happened since then. Women got the vote, man went to the moon, computers were invented and became smaller and smaller, and twerking became an amusing pastime. But despite many changes in device shape, size, and manner of Read more...
Facebook’s Particular Shade of Blue
Posted 3:48pm Sunday 1st September 2013 by Raquel Moss
Wake up in the morning lookin’ like P Diddy, grab my phone and check my Facebook … and learn that Girl Who Was In My Class Last Year “loves Ikea.” Ugh. Who cares? I’ve got the Facebook Blues. That particular shade of blue makes me feel dissatisfied, bored, and a little uneasy. Like many Read more...
The J. Arthur Keenes Band - Mighty Social Lion
Posted 3:48pm Sunday 1st September 2013 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 3.5/5 There are few things that irk me more in a musical discussion than a person dismissing an entire genre. To assert that a style of music is wholly without merit, regardless of the incarnation, borders on psychosis. How can you deem hip-hop or metal or folk to be inherently shit, Read more...
Franz Ferdinand - Right Thoughts, Right Words, Right Action
Posted 3:48pm Sunday 1st September 2013 by Basti Menkes
Rating: 4/5 “It’s always better on holiday.” So sang Alex Kapranos on “Jacqueline,” the opening track of Franz Ferdinand’s eponymous debut album. Considering the glacial pace at which the Glaswegian dance-rockers are releasing music these days, the line now rings a touch ironic. Read more...
Saints Row IV
Posted 3:48pm Sunday 1st September 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 5.5/10 Only a year ago, the Saints Row series had a different publisher: THQ. That particular sinking ship succumbed in early 2012, however, and now rests silently on the ocean floor of failed video game companies. In this case, the metaphorical women and children that got the first Read more...
Splinter Cell: Blacklist
Posted 3:48pm Sunday 1st September 2013 by Baz Macdonald
Rating: 9/10 There was time, not too long ago, when I thought that stealth games were a genre that could only appeal to a very small subset of gamers. Recently, however, I have been enthralled not only by stealth games, but also by attempting stealth tactics in games that are not purely Read more...
Moroccan Stew & Minted Couscous
Posted 3:48pm Sunday 1st September 2013 by Kirsty Dunn
Couscous is the wonder-kid of the meal-accompaniment world. I mean, sure, rice is nice (until you have to clean the pot or dish you cooked it in), and pasta is fab (yet can be a little stodgy on the odd occasion), but couscous, on the other hand, is light and fluffy, easy to make, and super-duper Read more...
Otherness
Posted 3:48pm Sunday 1st September 2013 by Kajsa Louw
Otherness is an anthology of science fiction short stories that is likely to leave its readers impressed by its boldness and originality. The book comprises a collection of 13 stories and is the winner of the LOCUS award for Best Collection of 1995. Notable contributions include “Warm Bodies” and Read more...
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