Archive

Machine of Death: a collection of stories about people who know how they will die

Posted 12:46am Friday 1st July 2011 by Sarah Maessen

Author: Various; Eds. Ryan North, Matthew Bennardo, & David Malki “This book, unlike most others, started its life as an off hand comment made by a bright green Tyrannosaurus Rex”   The book is based on a comic from Ryan North’s Dinosaur Comics in which T-Rex Read more...

Selected Works from Quadrant Gallery

Posted 12:43am Friday 1st July 2011 by Hana Aoake

To enter Quadrant Gallery is to experience a serene, mesmerising atmosphere. Located on Moray Place, Quadrant showcases and sells jewellery, sculpture and other such objects. Immediately I was hypnotised by Nicole McLaren’s apocalyptic sculptures, which are constructed from ceramic, plaster and Read more...

My First Attempt

Posted 11:54pm Monday 30th May 2011 by Bronwyn Wallace

Theatre As Is. Jimmy Currin, Luke Agnew, Feather Shaw and Hahna Briggs, (4/5). As I arrived at Allen Hall Theatre, joining an already eager audience in the foyer, My First Attempt was giving nothing away. This latest piece from the Theatre As Is was devised “using chance operations by Read more...

Marrow Zine's May Release Launch Party

Posted 7:36am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Sam Valentine

May 14, Re:Fuel Bar. With Thundercub, Black Yoghurt, Surgical Department, Max Waots, Nicole Van Vuuren (DJ).  “The little zine that could?” With the current flood of self-produced gig guides (INK), comic collections, (DUD), culture mags (Crop) and zines, Dunedin’s Read more...

Die Antwoord - $O$

Posted 7:33am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Kari Schmidt

From their Afrikaans accents, wack dance moves, insane videos, rapping skills, attitude, sex appeal, haircuts, fashion, names, use of rats, incorporation of South African references (e.g. tokoloshes, fish paste, racial culture) and the female gaze, there is nothing that doesn’t appeal to me about Read more...

Cult Classic: The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind

Posted 7:30am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: PC, Xbox I'm still not certain what the elder scrolls actually are. Old rolled-up papers, presumably with something mega-important written on them. I guess. If the third in the seventeen-year old series, Morrowind, doesn't ring a bell then maybe the forth will: 2006's Oblivion. No? What Read more...

Lume

Posted 7:29am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: PC, OSX, (2.5/5). I payed $8.13 for Lume, which follows from prices listed in round US dollar figures. As cheap as Steam's prices tend to be (I got Portal 2 for about $62.73, give or take $3.09), I can't say that Lume was worth it. The question then becomes then what to say about an Read more...

Homage to a domestic goddess

Posted 7:27am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Niki Lomax

Nigella Lawson is the only deity I worship. This being the food issue, I felt a reasonable amount of pressure to write something awesome. I ended up deciding that the most awesome thing/person of all is Nigella Lawson. Thus in the food column this week I pay homage to Nigella Lawson, a true Read more...

Source Code

Posted 7:24am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Director: Duncan Jones, (4/5). Source Code is 2011's Inception but with less ambiguity and fewer close ups on Leonardo DiCaprio’s concerned, faraway gaze (just kidding, love you Leo). Bird’s-eye view and panning shots of Chicago open this action/sci-fi gift of a Read more...

Queen of the Sun

Posted 7:23am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Gareth Barton

Director: Taggart Siegel, (3.5/5). One of the hardest things to do with documentary filmmaking is find the perfect “talent”. Talent in a documentary is the person or people who represent the face of the film, building the story with their dialogue, and, importantly, creating an Read more...

King George VI: The Man Behind the King's Speech

Posted 7:20am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Lauren Hayes

No director credited, (2/5). You can't blame a guy for trying to cash in on The King's Speech. The film was massive, winning an awful amount of awards. It doesn't take a movie mogul to realise that the real-life “spinoff “ could make a serious quick buck, especially amidst Read more...

Water for Elephants

Posted 7:16am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Nicole Muriel

Director: Francis Lawrence, (3/5). Water for Elephants combines two fantasies – running away to the circus and a forbidden romance – offering itself as the ultimate escapist movie. The story: hopeful student Jacob Jancowski (Robert Pattinson) is about to finish veterinary school Read more...

Bad Taste (1987)

Posted 7:14am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Ben Blakely

Written/Directed by: Peter Jackson. Starring: Terry Potter, Peter O’Herne, Craig Smith, Mike Minett, Peter Jackson and Doug Wren Imagine if your dad and a bunch of his mates got together and decided to film a Mothra. It’s kinda naff cause it’s your dad and he’s a bit naff and Read more...

No More Fat Pants

Posted 6:30am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Melissa Letica

Fat pants. The Warehouse’s finest. Whatever you call them, I think they are disgusting. You know what I’m talking about; those dirty grey fleecy-lined track pants that everyone seems to be sporting these days. Retailing for $8.50 during the holy grail of yellow dot sales, a recently conducted survey Read more...

Teetering Precariously

Posted 6:27am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Ines Shennan

Here goes a rant on a particular craze that a small minority seem to mindlessly follow on campus. As Peter Griffin would say, it’s really grinding my gears. Let me preface this by saying it is not the item itself which causes me to do double-takes, but rather the times and places in which this item Read more...

Sweet Valley Confidential - Ten Years Later

Posted 6:15am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Ilka Fedor

Author: Francine Pascal. Publisher: St. Martin’s Press, (3.5/5). This is a must-read if you ever read the Sweet Valley High series. Set 10 years on, twins Jessica and Elizabeth Wakefield from sunny Sweet Valley, Southern California, are now archrivals. Jessica, the ever flirtatious, popular and Read more...

Atheist Manifesto – The Case Against Christianity, Judaism and Islam

Posted 6:13am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Stefan Fairweather

Author: Michel Onfray. Publisher: Arcade Publishing. (5/5). In a modern world that is (sadly) still bombarded with the irrationality of religion, Onfray’s Atheist Manifesto book is a welcome read, arming the rationalist with arguments, counter-arguments, and facts to rebut the Read more...

SUJI PARK: That which opens.

Posted 6:10am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Hana Aoake

BRETT MCDOWELL GALLERY. Closes May 26. The question which I often ask myself when encountering any ceramicist’s work is how have they transferred a medium which is thousands of years old and which always appears to me to be static into something dynamic.   Suji Park is an Read more...

Let There Be Capping Show

Posted 6:07am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Chad Huffington

Main sketch written by: Thom Adams, Rest of the show performed/written by ensemble cast. Directed by: Alex Wilson and Trubie-Dylan Smith. Assistant Director: Aaron Mayes, (5/5). By the time you read this, Capping Show will probably be completely sold out – because it sells out Read more...

Fight the Fat

Posted 6:05am Thursday 26th May 2011 by Jen Aitken

Written by Arthur Meek, Directed by Lisa Warrington. Staring Hilary Halba and Ben Blakely, (2/5). This show sees Laurel (Halba) and Ben (Blakely), two down-and-out actors kicked out of a theatre-in-education programme, struggle to get the “money and mandate” to re-launch their Read more...

Beastwars Preview

Posted 6:33am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Sam Valentine

Beastwars are the result of a barbaric and brutal world sliding into the abyss. Where we see war and disaster surrounding us on all sides. Where half-truths and hidden agendas lurk behind every act of the world’s eroding empires. And where all these things are channelled into righteous and Read more...

MEN FROM ANOTHER PLANET

Posted 6:31am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Isaac McFarlane

State Of Mind subscribe to a different reality than the rest of us; a reality that involves ridiculously heavy bass, a ridiculously energetic full-noise set and, to top it all off, dancing spacemen. Yes, fucking spacemen. Dressed from head to toe in reflective black material, they sauntered up to Read more...

CULT CLASSIC: The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

Posted 6:29am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Toby Hills

Platform: Nintendo 64 It's become a cliché to criticise each new Zelda release as being just like all the rest. “Yawn”, they chorus. “You start off as some sort of fey-leaf elfin dude in a forest wearing green pyjamas. You find the wooden sword and shield, hack some plants Read more...

Bangai-O HD: Missle Fury

Posted 6:28am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: XBLA (Dreamcast), (3/5). Bangai-O HD: Missile Fury is arcade-y almost to the point of absurdity. Developer Treasure sets a mature example by presenting mecha that seem to run on carbon neutral bio-ethanol, regaining health from fruit. I guess they had to do all they could to offset the Read more...

Granny’s Tupperware

Posted 6:26am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Niki Lomax

My granny has an impressive Tupperware collection. Cylindrical containers, rectangular containers, square containers, triangular containers, massive ones, miniature ones, white ones, brown ones, blue ones, green ones, jelly moulds… you name it, she’s probably got two. As a kid I assumed all grannies Read more...

Thor

Posted 6:23am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Matt Chapman

Directed by Kenneth Branagh, (1.5/5). You might think that Viking gods, hammers of mass destruction, “Frost Giants”, and rainbow bridges to outer space would make for a pretty awesome movie. I thought that too. Damn. Thor, directed by Kenneth Branagh, seemed poised to blow my mind with Read more...

Mars Needs Moms

Posted 6:22am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Directed by Simon Wells, (2.5/5). Mars is named after the Roman god of war and is often described as the "Red Planet" due to the iron oxide in its surface. A mother is a woman who has given birth to or raised a child in the role of a parent. Mars Needs Moms is a 3D computer-animated film about a Read more...

Arthur

Posted 6:20am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Alec Dawson

Directed by Jason Winer, (2/5). Russell Brand and Helen Mirren make for an intriguing pair to place in a film together. Given that one is famous for playing a drunk rock star and the other the Queen, I went into this film with some interest. Unfortunately they are given dull typecasts Read more...

Heartbreaker

Posted 6:18am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Tom Ainge-Roy

Directed by Pascal Chaumeil, (3.5/5). My first foreign rom-com, and it was simply charming. It’s no Love Actually or Notting Hill, but it sure was a pleasant way to spend two hours. Think afternoon delight; not necessary, but you’re really glad it happened.   A Read more...

Lesbian Vampire Killers

Posted 6:16am Wednesday 25th May 2011 by Ben Blakely

Directed by Phil Claydon. Starring James Cordon, Mathew Horne, MyAnna Buring, Paul McGann. Having only heard the title of this film, I expected a B-grade movie with fairly low production values, lots of blood and gore, and acting that was a wee bit shit. I guess I was expecting something akin Read more...

The Mystique of Menswear

Posted 7:11am Thursday 19th May 2011 by Jonathan Jong

This last week, three things popped up in my RSS aggregator which have been in the back of my mind ever since. The first was an article about the appalling working conditions at a large Chinese factory, which had led seven workers to commit suicide. The second was Isaac Likes’s blog post entitled, Read more...

Tyranny – I Keep You Thin

Posted 6:40am Thursday 19th May 2011 by Stefan Fairfield

Author: Lesley Fairfield, Publisher: Walker Books, (3/5). This is a quick read, a graphic novel about a teenage girl’s battle with the eating disorders anorexia nervosa and bulimia nervosa. It’s a story of how a young woman spirals from a picture of good health to the depths of Read more...

Dragon Ball books 1-16

Posted 6:37am Thursday 19th May 2011 by Sarah Maessen

Author: Akira Toriyama, Publisher: Vizbig, (5/5). Dragon Ball is the creation of the prolific manga writer/illustrator Akira Toriyama. It was successful from the start and went on to sell a record-breaking 120 million copies, was made into a television series, continued with Dragon Ball Z and Read more...

Graffiti in Chernobyl

Posted 6:34am Thursday 19th May 2011 by Hana Aoake

In the last few years, images have surfaced of street art in the abandoned city of Chernobyl, which was victim to a nuclear explosion in 1986 after a reactor malfunctioned. Like Hiroshima, the desolate landscape in Chernobyl highlights the city’s process of being moulded and manipulated, but in a Read more...

Fiona Amundsen: First city in history.

Posted 6:33am Thursday 19th May 2011 by Hana Aoake

Dunedin Public Art Gallery At 2:45am on August 6, 1945 a B-29 under the command of Colonel Paul W. Tibbets, a twenty-nine year old veteran pilot, began to roll down a runway on Tinian Island to take off on its historic mission to Hiroshima.   The title of New Zealand artist Fiona Read more...

God of Carnage

Posted 5:04am Thursday 12th May 2011 by Jen Aitken

Directed by Lara MacGregor. Starring Phil Vaughn, John Glass, Claire Dougan and Barbara Power. Written by Yasmina Reza and translated by Christopher Hampton, (4/5). Carnage: the killing of a large number of people. Although God of Carnage did not actually present on stage the killing of a Read more...

Feastock; The Arrival of the Invercargill Sound

Posted 11:44pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Sam Valentine

Say the word “Invercargill” to many musicians, and you’ll probably get a rather mixed response. But standing amongst the damp, leafy surroundings of 3 Fea Street, in secluded Pine Hill, I was struck by an interesting concept. Has the country’s most southern city better known for, um, well let’s be Read more...

Outland

Posted 11:42pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: XBLA, PSN, (4/5). Outland is alchemy. Take a sickle's worth of Mario Bros 2D platforming, and heat in a geothermal pool with the polarity mechanic most famous in Ikaruga. Distill a generous ounce of Metroid's adventuring with a batch of art and sound design reminiscent  of Shadow Read more...

Hector: Badge of Carnage: Episode 1 - We Negotiate With Terrorists

Posted 11:41pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: IOS, MAC, PC, (3.5/5). A trend is developing, and it's kind of frustrating. Twice this year I've had to admit that - despite proudly displaying the juvenile shades that are kind-of-sort-of crippling the industry's artsy potential - I really appreciate it when games like Bulletstorm and Read more...

Three Mince Recipes

Posted 11:37pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Leah Hamilton

Mince is really cheap, isn't it? Doesn't taste too shabby either. Well, unless your flatmate, like mine, simply fries it and serves it plain on gooey rice. Mmmm. To save you all from Mincezilla, here are three delicious recipes that will put your mince to good use. Enjoy! Chilli Con Carne Read more...

Sarah’s Key

Posted 11:34pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Zane Pocock

Directed by Gilles Paquet-Brenner, (4/5). I haven’t read the best-selling novel by journalist Tatiana de Rosnay on which this film is based, but going by what director Gilles Paquet-Brenner has produced, my guess is that it would be well worth it. Like most Holocaust films, this will bring Read more...

Mozart’s Sister

Posted 11:26pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Nick Hornstein

Directed by René Féret, (2.5/5).   Mozart’s Sister portrays the life of Anna Maria Mozart (nicknamed “Nannerl”), who was denied a similar path to that of her younger brother, Wolfgang. In the beginning, she is still performing, though overshadowed and sidelined as Read more...

Fast Five

Posted 11:17pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Matt Chapman

Directed by Justin Lin, (3.5/5). We’ve come a long way since 2 Fast 2 Furious, and Fast Five wants to make that known. Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, Jordana Brewster return for the fifth installment in the Fast and the Furious series, and Justin Lin returns as director. Yet, Lin takes a Read more...

Justin Bieber: Never Say Never (3D)

Posted 11:14pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Sarah Baillie

Directed by Jon Chu, (4/5). I am not afraid to admit it; I am in love with Justin Bieber. Knowing little about the phenomenon of Bieber fever but thinking it would be hilariously awesome to go and see “the Justin Bieber movie”, I headed down to Hoyts, 3D glasses in hand. Little did I Read more...

Hedwig and the Angry Inch

Posted 11:11pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Ben Blakely

Directed and written by John Cameron Mitchell. Starring: John Cameron Mitchell, Miriam Shor, Andrea Martin, Michael Pitt. Hedwig is in a bit of a slump. She’s on tour with the band the Angry Inch, but the gigs they play aren’t in flashy arenas; they are in fast food and Read more...

Style shepherds

Posted 10:13pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Eloise Callister-Baker

In New Zealand we seem to be living in the time of choice, so why do we limit our outfits to clothing that will blend into a crowd? Why do girls enjoy oversized off-the-shoulder knits with black tights; why do boys save up for their Lower jeans and black t-shirts? It seems that there is such a Read more...

Queen gives McQueen the royal seal of approval

Posted 10:10pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Mahoney Turnbull

Sarah Burton, quiet achiever of the House of McQueen; what a stunner of a dress. Make that plural sorry, dresses, even if they were curiously similar - you’d swear the latter was a refinement of the first. But when Westminster’s at stake, hell, why not? As the newest addition to the Royal Read more...

From Under the Overcoat

Posted 9:44pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Charlotte Doyle

Author: Sue Orr. Publisher : Vintage, (3/5). You are told all your life to never judge a book by its cover, but secretly everyone does. The cover of From Under the Overcoat by Sue Orr isn’t exactly the most appealing. It first gave me the impression that it would be a light-hearted, Read more...

Sacha Lauchlan: Dunedin sculptress

Posted 9:40pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Elaine Stevens

While Dunedin's art scene may attract less attention than our famous music scene, promising young graduates from the Dunedin School of Art have the potential to reverse the “underground” nature of Dunedin art. One such artist is sculptress Sacha Lauchlan, the inaugural winner of the Feldspar Award, Read more...

Critic reviews the Easter Weekender

Posted 5:02am Monday 9th May 2011 by Sam Reynolds

Warning, warning, warning; the monotonous sounds of MC Beau bounce across a wave of moving bodies, all swaying in time to the rhythmic wop wop of Nero’s beat. The crowd only stops moving for a split second to catch the Foreign Beggars MC as he jumps off a speaker; once he’s back on stage the Read more...

Mortal Kombat

Posted 4:59am Monday 9th May 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: Playstation 3, Xbox 360, (4/5). Some fool somewhere said that videogames couldn't possibly get any more violent. That's exactly what they said at the beginning of the twentieth century and look where we ended up. Despite the series being as old as I am, Mortal Kombat hasn't yet Read more...

Portal 2

Posted 4:57am Monday 9th May 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: PC, MAC, XBOX 360, Playstation 3, (5/5). I can feel it, like ten-thousand drummers marching in a cool valley miles from my ajar bedroom window. An amazonian torrent of internet memes. So many memes. But to focus on the individual moments Valve has created in Portal 2 would be to ignore Read more...

Foccacia

Posted 4:55am Monday 9th May 2011 by Niki Lomax

There’s something very satisfying about making bread from scratch. Getting dough under your fingernails is totally worth the hassle. The last time I did this was in February during the post-earthquake bread shortages. I was kneading for Christchurch, sort of. This week I decided to make some Read more...

Cafe Review - Allpress Espresso

Posted 4:53am Monday 9th May 2011 by Pippa Schaffler

12 Emily Siedeberg Place – just beside the BNZ car park, (4/5). Prices: Flat White: $4.00, Long Black: not offered on menu, Mocha: $4.50   Why I came here: A friend and I were on our way to Ombrellos but changed our minds when we saw all the people outside Allpress.   Read more...

Paul

Posted 4:47am Monday 9th May 2011 by Nell O'Dwyer-Strang

Directed by Greg Mottola, (4/5). Paul is the newest brainchild of genius comic duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost, the all-round awesome guys behind the classics Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz. This time, Frost and Pegg play British sci-fi nerds Clive and Graeme who are on a road trip around the United Read more...

Oceans

Posted 4:39am Monday 9th May 2011 by Tom Ainge-Roy

Directed by Jacque Perin and Jacque Cluzard, (1/5). Attenborough must be rolling in his…oh wait, he’s still alive. In that case, may he never ever, ever see Disney Nature’s most recent release Oceans; it will surely send him to an early grave.   Attempting to be a Read more...

Rio

Posted 4:37am Monday 9th May 2011 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Directed by Carlos Saldanha, (3.5/5). I opened the heavy door to the room where the sound of the commercial world was coming from. I then edged my way past rows of velvet red seats. Once I sat down, I realised there were three people in front of me. It looked like a mother with curly blonde Read more...

Scream 4

Posted 4:34am Monday 9th May 2011 by Hamish Gavin

Directed by Wes Craven, (4/5). The Scream franchise gets another outing courtesy of director Wes Craven and writer Kevin Williamson. The requirement of staying true to the self-aware nature of the first three entries, while still providing semi-serious horror scares, while at the same time forging Read more...

World Cinema Showcase

Posted 4:32am Monday 9th May 2011 by Sarah Baillie

The World Cinema Showcase begins on the 5th May 2011, and runs until 18th May. As always, there’s a stunning range of films with over 30 screening during the fortnight at Rialto. Unfortunately, each film screens only a few times, so be sure to check out the full timetable online so as not to miss Read more...

The Room

Posted 4:29am Monday 9th May 2011 by Alec Dawson

Directed by Tommy Wiseau, (5/5). Move over Troll 2 and Plan 9 from Outer Space: The Room is the pinnacle of the so-bad-it’s-funny film. Tommy Wiseau is credited with starring in, directing, writing, producing and executive producing the film, although he’s barely done any of them well Read more...

The Last House on the Left (1972)

Posted 4:22am Monday 9th May 2011 by Hamish Gavin

Directed by Wes Craven Just like most video nasties, The Last House on the Left didn’t deserve to be banned for thirty odd years in the UK or wherever. It’s a fantastic piece of low budget horror filmmaking in which raw production values add gritty realism to a tale of rape and Read more...

Literary lust and the Blue Oyster buzz

Posted 3:51am Monday 9th May 2011 by Eloise Callister-Baker and Libby Fraser

We fashionistas are still ever so slightly affected by overtures of the iD high, which means glorious insights of “the week that was” are still steamrolling along. This week Eloise Callister-Baker shares the down low on the über cool fashion-meets-photography Blue Oyster gig while Libby Fraser Read more...

Cartoon Movement

Posted 6:19am Thursday 5th May 2011 by Sarah Maessen

Various authors. www.cartoonmovement.com (3/5). Another website you should take a look at if your bag is already too heavy to be dragging a book around is Cartoon Movement. It describes itself as “the internet's #1 publishing platform for high quality political cartoons and comic Read more...

The Essayist

Posted 6:07am Thursday 5th May 2011 by Steve French

Author: Various. http://essayist.tumblr.com/ http://thedocumentarian.tumblr.com/ (4.5/5) A lot of the writing on the internet is trash. There are only so many lists (cracked.com) or poorly written blogs (shit you come across in Stumble) you can read before you start craving a well-written Read more...

The Detainment of Al Weiwei

Posted 6:02am Thursday 5th May 2011 by Hana Aoake

Since April 3, Chinese artist and activist Ai Weiwei has been detained by the Chinese authorities for “economic crimes”. Given his international fame and robust charisma he seemed inviolable, but perhaps that was the point of detaining him: to stamp out the idea that any individual is greater than Read more...

Preview: God of Carnage

Posted 5:55am Thursday 5th May 2011 by Jen Aitken

Written by Yasmina Reza, translated by Christopher Hampton, directed by Lara MacGregor. Starring: Claire Dougan, John Glass, Barbara Power and Phil Vaughan. April 29 – May 21 at the Fortune Theatre. Staged around the world to rave reviews and with a spate of awards under its belt, comedy God Read more...

Wounds to the Face

Posted 4:16am Wednesday 27th April 2011 by Clare Thomson

Directed by Jennifer Aitken, Starring Joel Rees and Hana Aoake, (3.5/5). My thoughts, as I watched scenes from Wounds to the Face, kept returning to Antonin Artaud’s precept that words should have the same significance in theatre as they do in dreams. According to the five-minute crash Read more...

FASTER THAN LIGHT

Posted 2:05am Wednesday 27th April 2011 by Isaac McFarlane

The mysterious new kid on the block The New Zealand electronic music scene is a strange beast. From the sustained success of Shapeshifter to the boom and bust of Mt Eden Dubstep, many acts flirt with excellence only to fall on the wrong side of the success-mediocrity divide. But we have a new Read more...

Amnesia: The Dark Descent

Posted 11:47pm Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: Windows, MAC, Linux, (4.5/5). What's the quickest route to disrupt the tension in any horror videogame, or for that matter any scary media? Top marks if you said combat, because any direct encounter with the relentlessly stalking depraved shadows immediately undermines any fear Read more...

Gobtron

Posted 11:45pm Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: iPod touch, iPhone, (2.5/5). Gobtron opens by flashing up a faux-ESRB (Entertainment Software Rating Board) rating of “I for Immature”. I ask you, what could possibly be more mature than a majestic, mountain sized, hot-pink, fluffy, rectangular pig monster, enduring Read more...

Lemon Ricotta Pancakes

Posted 5:42am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Sharin Shaik

I love Sunday brunch. It’s the highlight of my week. My whole week is spent searching for cool recipes that I can try out on Sunday morning. Okay, so maybe I have no life. But hey, don’t judge! Today I would like to share with you a recipe for lemon ricotta pancakes. These pancakes are so Read more...

Cafe Review - The Good Earth

Posted 5:38am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Pip Schaffler

765 Cumberland Street, across the road from St David’s Lecture Theatre, (4/5). Prices: Flat White: $4.00, Long Black: $3.50, Mocha: $4.80   Why I came here: The sun pouring through the large windows looked appealing   Atmosphere: Relaxed, contemporary, smart Read more...

Just Go With It

Posted 5:33am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Critic

Directed by Dennis Dugan, (1/5). Adam Sandler’s Happy Madison crew has been a bit hit and miss when it comes to making comedy films, their repertoire consisting of Little Nicky, Joe Dirt, Mr Deeds and of course, Grandma’s Boy. There are plenty of others, but these ones hit the mark with Read more...

Sucker Punch

Posted 5:30am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Frances Stannard

Directed by Zack Snyder, (0.5/5). A 13-year old boy’s wet dream, this movie is reminiscent of being put through the pain of watching someone play Xbox. Sure, the player is having fun but you, the spectator are not! Here’s the film’s premise: evil stepfather sends girl to a Read more...

Rio

Posted 5:28am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Loulou Callister-Baker

Directed by Carlos Saldanha (3.5/5). I opened the heavy door to the room where the sound of the commercial world was coming from. I then edged my way past rows of velvet red seats. Once I sat down, I realised there were three people in front of me. It looked like a mother with curly blonde hair Read more...

Hop

Posted 5:26am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Phoebe Harrop

Directed by Tim Hill. (3/5). In hindsight, Hop was perhaps the most ridiculous movie I’ve ever been to. Don’t get me wrong; it made for an enthralling and delightful 90 minutes. But it’s hard to take something seriously that has, as its premise, the idea that unbeknownst to Read more...

Barbarella (1968)

Posted 5:23am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Ben Blakely

Directed by Roger Vadim. Starring: Jane Fonda, John Phillip Law, Anita Pallenberg, Milo O’Shea When a film is set in 40,000 AD you know it’s going to be a treat, especially when it was made in the Sixties. With more outlandish costumes than Lady Gaga, the movie has all the fashion you Read more...

Afternoon tea with the Cooper sisters

Posted 4:28am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Libby Fraser

An iDeal location, just above Dada in Moray Chambers, the Coopers (and that's TAMSIN, not TRELISE) have a perfect partnership of lovely luxe goodies for you to scope out in the impending Easter break. Ahead of their joint showcase at the iD Fashion Week show on Friday night, designer sisters Read more...

iDiDiDiDiDiDiD you???

Posted 4:26am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Mahoney Turnbull

What a week. Fashion in full fantastic force right here in wee old Dunedin. Who would have thought we’d make it to the high-flying “People and Parties” societal pages of vogue.com.au? Thanks Damien Woolnough and your “surprisingly stylish city” concession. Damn right we are. There were fabulous Read more...

Fosterling

Posted 4:03am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Feby Idrus

Author: Emma Neale. Publisher: Vintage (3/5) Dave—there’s no such thing as yetis.” But what if there were? And how would we react? These are the questions behind Emma Neale’s new novel Fosterling. Bu, the main character, is found in a remote forest after falling and Read more...

Wicked – The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West

Posted 4:01am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Stephen Fairweather

Author: Gregory Maguire. Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers (5/5) When I finished reading Wicked at 2.30am the other morning, I felt like a gold seeker panning a river and finding the mother lode. Not that I suggest good novels are as rare as gold nuggets, but this book will move you in ways Read more...

She Walks in Beauty

Posted 7:09am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Jen Aitken

Created by and staring Maya Turei and Bronwyn Wallace (4.5/5) Two girls enter into a relationship with each other. One is bisexual, the other a religious heterosexual. But love is love and they have it for each other, so what do you do?   The staging for this piece was simple but Read more...

Lonely Hearts

Posted 7:07am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Jen Aitken

Created by Luke Agnew, Staring Martyn Roberts and Audrey Morgan, (4/5). Lonely Hearts took the modern day activity of chatting online and revealed, hilariously, the reality behind a chat between a 17 year old schoolgirl and a “19” year old boy (aka a 43 year old man who lives with Read more...

Forty Hour Theatre

Posted 7:02am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Jen Aitken

This week’s Lunchtime Theatre marked the birth of what will hopefully become an Allen Hall Theatre tradition; the Forty Hour Theatre competition. Submissions and proposals were called for and two winners were chosen; their challenge was to make a 15-20 minute piece of theatre in only forty hours! Read more...

Panda Bear - Tomboy

Posted 6:38am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Sam Valentine

Over the last decade Panda Bear has made quite the name for himself in the independent music scene. Between his work with Animal Collective and his solo albums Young Prayer (2004) and the critically acclaimed Person Person Pitch (2007), he has covered pop, noise, ambient and everything in between. Read more...

Bass Drum of Death – GB City

Posted 6:37am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Sam Valentine

In the running for both the best and worst band name of all time, Mississippi two-piece Bass Drum of Death (BDOD) fuse garage and pop in a haze of stoned energetic brilliance on their debut album GB City. Fitting both the musical and social aesthetics of the current American garage revival Read more...

Burial – Street Halo

Posted 6:35am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Eddie Johnston

Last month Burial, Four Tet and Thom Yorke released their incredible collaboration and, to be honest, I thought nothing would beat it in 2011. But a few weeks ago it was announced that Burial would be releasing new material and, lo and behold, I was proven wrong! The new 12” Street Halo (or Read more...

Dino Run

Posted 6:31am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Toby Hills

Platforms: MAC, PC, LINUX (3/5). Subtitled “Escape Extinction”, here is a short list of the paleontological inaccuracies in Dino Run: #1 Contrary to the lush pasture Pixeljam has created, there was no grass in the late Cretaceous period. #2 tyrannosaurus rex and triceratops were not Read more...

Cult Classic - Planescape: Torment

Posted 6:29am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Toby Hills

Platform: LINUX (5/5). The Nameless One's golden armour is not inexplicably polished to a mirrored-sheen. He does not ride into battle on a small but plucky caramel-coloured mare, trading blows with troll-bandits to heroically save the spice-merchant. He certainly does not go on rodent-killing Read more...

Moroccan Carrot Soup

Posted 6:27am Thursday 14th April 2011 by by Ines Shennan

There is nothing greater than soup. Okay, a bold claim perhaps, but soup on a dismal grey Dunedin evening in our “character-rich” but ultimately freezing flat is pretty satisfying. A favoured technique to increase our core body temperature is to lock ourselves in the kitchen (which is also our Read more...

Reefer Madness (1936)

Posted 6:25am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Ben Blakely

Directed by Louis Gasnier. Starring: Dorothy Short, Kenneth Craig, Lillian Miles, Dave O’Brien, Thelma White. A green menace is silently attacking the youth of 1930’s America. It’s name…marihuana! Yes, it was a different world back then. You could spell marihuana with an h Read more...

Battle: Los Angeles

Posted 6:22am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Tom Ainge-Roy

Directed by Jonathan Liebesman. (2/5). It’s a challenge to fit the many cinematic faux pas and clichés that Battle: Los Angeles exhibits into 350 words, but I’ll give it my best shot…with a vengeance.     Battle: Los Angeles tells the story of a Read more...

Red Riding Hood

Posted 6:20am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Zane Pocock

Directed by Catherine Hardwicke. (1/5). This movie provides the perfect platform on which to rant about everything Hollywood. It's hard to believe this piece of shit was directed by the same person who gave birth to Lords Of Dogtown, but her more recent disaster (yup, Twilight) is a much more Read more...

The Names of Love

Posted 6:19am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Lauren Enright

Directed by Michel Leclerc. (2.5/5). The Names of Love (Le Nom des Gens) is a story of how people can bridge opposite sides of the political spectrum through human relationships. Sara Forestier plays Baya, a French girl with an Algerian father. She was brought up by her mother to have left wing Read more...

Gaiety at the House of G and a bit of Lonely love

Posted 5:50am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Mahoney Turnbull

‘Twas Wednesday the 6th and iD Fashion Week was truly in full swing.   As part of the Starlight Shopping, a regular feature of iD week, various shops released some sweet deals for locals to delight in. The iD theme for the House of G (aka Glassons) was presumably “woodland Read more...

Blood Safari

Posted 5:37am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Ilka Fedor

Author: Deon Meyer. Publisher: Hodder Paperbacks (2.5/5) Deon Meyer is apparently “the best crime writer in South Africa” according to the review on the back of this book.  Set in the “lowveld” near Kruger National Park in South Africa, Blood Safari is Read more...

The Yiddish Policemen’s Union

Posted 5:35am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Leah Hamilton

Author: Michael Chabon. Publisher: Fourth Estate (4/5) The Yiddish Policemen's Union is a great tongue-in-cheek book about two homicide detectives who set out to solve a rather interesting murder. Meyer Landsman, homicide detective #1, is a recently divorced, scrawny alcoholic who doesn't sleep. Read more...

April Fools Day:

Posted 5:32am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Hana Aoake

Resident artists, Dowling St project After walking up such an enormous staircase, excited about what lay inside, I found myself leaving filled with disappointment. Gazing across any group show rarely makes me feel as though I have just been defibrillated. However, upon leaving I had barely any Read more...

The Most Massive Woman Wins

Posted 4:24am Monday 11th April 2011 by Ben Blakely

Written by Madeline George, Directed by Charlotte Waalkens. Starring: Rina Cohen, Miriam Noonan, Victoria Bernard and Tarn Felton (2.5/5). Four women have decided to take the plunge and get liposuction. The goal for all is obvious – get rid of the fat. Each woman tells us how they have Read more...

A Model Millionaire

Posted 4:22am Monday 11th April 2011 by Jen Aitken

Written by Oscar Wilde, Adapted for the stage and directed by Vickie Cross. Starring Trubie-Dylan Smith, Samuel Irwin , Kathryn Hurst, Abby Howells, Hannah Port and Lyndon Katene. (4/5) This adaptation of Wilde’s short story was imaginative, thoughtful and very quaint. It was a joy to Read more...