Archive

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...