Archive

7 stupidest song lyrics ever

Posted 10:43pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Josh Hercus

There are a lot of stupid lyrics about, from the nonsensical to the downright disingenuous (Rebecca Black’s “Friday” comes to mind). An avid listener of music with “inspiring” lyrics, Josh Hercus rates the 7 stupidest song lyrics. Song: Hootie and the Blowfish – “Only Wanna Be With Read more...

Cinderella Has A New Name: KATE MIDDLETON

Posted 10:39pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Siobhan Downes

Once upon a time there lived a band of women’s magazine editors, who ruled the media empire with their weekly chronicles of gossip and slander. One day, a fair young maiden named Catherine appeared in their midst – for she was courting the handsome Prince William. In November 2010, a royal Read more...

You wouldn’t steal a handbag

Posted 10:29pm Monday 9th May 2011 by Charlotte Greenfield

The recent Copyright Amendment Bill was created to protect artists’ copyright, and ensure that the money for their ideas went to the right person. But how effective is the legislation? Will the change encourage people to buy CDs? Charlotte Greenfield asks the million dollar question: is it possible Read more...

Four Ridiculous Things that Sparked Wars

Posted 4:19am Monday 9th May 2011 by Josh Hercus

A golden stool   Throughout history, the British are well known for not giving a flying fuck about the customs and traditions of natives. Back in 1900 an African state called the Ashanti Empire had a sacred golden stool that essentially embodied the spirit of nation as a whole Read more...

Silent Casualty

Posted 4:15am Monday 9th May 2011 by Phoebe Harrop

In general, war isn’t good. And it’s especially not good for the environment. “The environment?” I hear you say. “What about the innocent victims, the countless civilian lives lost to bloodshed, the ghastly conditions, the hate, the fear, the violence? I mean, sure, no one wants Read more...

Breaking Dawn

Posted 4:04am Monday 9th May 2011 by Siobhan Downes

My first experience of an Anzac Day dawn service was cold, wet, and about the only time I’d ever been up early enough for the McDonald’s breakfast menu. Suffice to say it was the thought of hotcakes rather than heroes of war that had gotten me out of bed that morning. Anzac Day had always seemed Read more...

iD Dunedin Fashion Show

Posted 5:19am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Julia Hollingsworth

After begging the previous two editors for a ticket to iD to no avail, I wasn’t letting go of my seat. Finally, I was in a dream scenario. I was Anna Wintour without the entourage or expensive clothes, armed only with a notebook. I had expected the crowd to be comprised primarily of antipodean Read more...

Size Her Up

Posted 5:09am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Siobhan Downes

“I don’t think you ready for this jelly,” chants Beyonce, waggling her voluptuous hips. Kim Kardashian poses seductively on the red carpet, her ample, orb-like backside splashed across magazine pages. “Real women have curves!” screams the slogan of a marketing campaign. It is the Plus Size Read more...

Men’s fashion...um what?

Posted 5:05am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Rueben Black

What a strange and treacherous place men’s fashion can be. When flannel-loving Al Borland becomes a hipster style-god, you know some weird shit is going down. With a few tweaks, the look has now become suitably pretentious for our beloved self-obsessed Auckland hipsters. So, over summer the shirts Read more...

Rachel Easting of Twenty-Seven Names

Posted 4:59am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Grace Averis

Rachel Easting is one half of Wellington label Twenty-Seven Names, for which she designs with childhood friend Anjali Stewart. Twenty-Seven Names have gained a cult-like following worldwide, drawing praise for their airy carefree aesthetic. Their most recent collection “Fearsome Five”, which showed Read more...

Sara Aspinall of Company of Strangers

Posted 4:51am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Hana Aoake

After working alongside NOM*D designer Margarita Robertson for six years, Sara Aspinall formed Company of Strangers in 2008. Company of Strangers’ third collection, Strangelove, which focuses on the notion of obsessive love, was recently shown at the iD Dunedin fashion show. Aspinall has reworked Read more...

Lela Jacobs of Lela Jacobs

Posted 4:45am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Grace Averis

Lela Jacobs is the brain behind her eponymously named label. Although only 30 years old, Wellington-based Jacobs has become a New Zealand fashion staple, known for her dark, moody looks which focus heavily odetails. Jacobs’ love of quality fabrics, draping and contrast is evident in her most recent Read more...

iD International Emerging Designer Awards

Posted 4:39am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Grace Averis

“LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED”  These were the fabulously cringe-worthy words (courtesy of Her Royal Highness Carol Hirschfeld) that opened this year's International Emerging Designer Awards. For those who are unfamiliar with it, the Emerging Awards show is an annual event run as part of Read more...

5 Iconic Fashion Trend Setters of our Time

Posted 4:34am Tuesday 26th April 2011 by Josh Hercus

5 Iconic Fashion Trend Setters of our Time Lady Gaga: Lady Gaga is a true fashion inspiration. Her style is diverse and difficult to pinpoint, but clearly contains vibrant elements of what 8-year-old girls use to play dress up in, mixed with a heavy dose of Marilyn Manson’s wardrobe. This Read more...

Fake or real?

Posted 6:15am Thursday 14th April 2011 by George Harrison

George Harrison discusses the pros and cons of weed and its legal counterparts Availability and risk   To those of us who have often struggled to find real weed, fake weed of the “puff”, “illusion” and “chronic” varieties have been a revelation. Well, Read more...

INTELLIGENCE ON DEMAND

Posted 6:11am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Christopher Ong

It will be a few more weeks before most university students experience the soul-crushing pressure pot that is the examinations period, but scarfies typically appear to labour through with the “tried and true” methods. Multiple doses of V or Red Bull will be ingested, coffee addictions will be Read more...

Getting Above the Influence

Posted 6:08am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Siobhan Downes

The homeless bum, shooting up with a dirty needle in a dark alleyway. The street-walking prostitute, snorting cocaine between each fuck. The old man with blood-shot eyes, staggering along the street and swigging from a bottle in a brown paper bag. Our perceptions of addiction are tainted by Read more...

Fear and Loathing in the N.E.V.

Posted 6:04am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Dr. Z

When Critic decided they needed a first-person account on the effects of the legal and/or easily available highs found around Dunedin for their upcoming “Drug” issue, I volunteered for the task immediately. I had never tried any of the substances that follow, but as an aspiring Read more...

SIX INSANE OLD -SCHOOL USES OF DRUGS

Posted 5:59am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Josh Hercus

Everything has a history. Josh Hercus looks at some of the past uses for modern day drugs. Giggle party Most of you know that nitrous oxide is used in a wide range of things, from anaesthetics to speeding up cars. But it’s better known as “laughing gas” and back in the Read more...

Around the World Drug Tourism

Posted 5:53am Thursday 14th April 2011 by Anonymous

Travelling is one of life’s greatest joys. However, for many the intrepid explorer, cheap and available ways to elevate that joy well beyond the body’s already soaring levels of dopamine and serotonin remains a primary reason for the journey in the first place, and with that I bring you...drug Read more...

Wanna be on Top?

Posted 3:02am Tuesday 5th April 2011 by Phoebe Harrop

It was an afternoon that left me feeling decidedly average - in both height and hotness – yet strangely entertained. Nevertheless, the first round of New Zealand’s Next Top Model, Cycle Three, Dunedin chapter, was disappointingly devoid of drama. The most exciting thing to happen was when the Edge’s Read more...

Back to the Future

Posted 2:52am Tuesday 5th April 2011 by Charlotte Greenfield

We’re all curious about the future. We can guess at it, make inferences about it, and hope or fear for it, but some people take this a step further and - or claim to belief - that they can tell the future. And people believe them. According to a recent study, 48.8% of New Zealanders believe in Read more...

FAR OUT, MAN

Posted 2:37am Tuesday 5th April 2011 by Siobhan Downes

As Calvin and Hobbes said, “the surest proof that there is intelligent life out there is that it hasn't tried to make contact with us”. In December last year, New Zealand’s Defence Force uncovered fifty years’ worth of its documents on UFO sightings. These include claims that extraterrestrial life Read more...

Ghostbusters

Posted 2:12am Tuesday 5th April 2011 by Josh Hercus

Wellington-based paranormal investigators Strange Occurrence started off as an idea for an art project, which was meant to be “a bit of a joke” until they started getting actual enquiries. With all the members having a lifelong interest in the paranormal, they realised that they would need to get Read more...

R.I.P. Journalism

Posted 4:56am Monday 28th March 2011 by Charlotte Greenfield

Charlotte Greenfield discusses the effect that the fast paced internet and the rise of “churnalism” have had on the art of journalism. Try telling someone you want to be a journalist. In my experience the most common response is “but journalism is dying.” As much as Critic hopes this Read more...

Duckface, begone.

Posted 4:48am Monday 28th March 2011 by Josh Hercus

A Public Service Announcement by Josh Hercus There are many, many problems in the world. We have uprisings and corruption. We have climate change and natural disasters. We have war and mass starvation. However there is one problem that needs to be addressed immediately. A problem that has spread Read more...

Duckface, begone.

Posted 4:48am Monday 28th March 2011 by Josh Hercus

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The Arab Spring

Posted 4:35am Monday 28th March 2011 by Joe Stockman

Fuck this shit, I’m lighting myself on fire. Way back in December 2010, while future freshers waited patiently for useless NCEA results, and the rest of us prayed for twelve weeks of living with the olds to come to an end, something big was happening. Something really big. In Tunisia - a country Read more...

The annual BYO review

Posted 3:48am Monday 21st March 2011 by Anonymous

There’s more to student life than just downing Southern Golds on Castle Street and eating fish’n’chips on Fatty Mile. Indeed, the past few years have seen the rise of a new tradition: the BYO. Nowadays there’s no need to wait for a birthday or graduation in order to fill a bottle with goon and Read more...

Red Card 101

Posted 3:38am Monday 21st March 2011 by Phoebe Harrop

For more on the history of Red Cards in Dunedin, check out: How The Red Card Became a Dunedin Cultural Phenomenon An introduction to, and critical appraisal of, a Dunedin student tradition The red card is a mysterious phenomenon. No one knows quite where it came from, but I like to imagine Read more...

I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream

Posted 3:33am Monday 21st March 2011 by Josh Hercus

Josh Hercus reviews Dunedin ice cream.   Critic ice cream review criteria   Ice cream type: how good it tastes. Obviously, some places use the same stuff. Price and quantity: is it a good size for the price? Standard size = two scoops, always on a cone. Structural Read more...

The Great and Glorious Annual Critic Fish and Chip Review

Posted 3:28am Monday 21st March 2011 by David Milner and Cory Dalzell

Critic’s been reviewing fish and chips for yonks and yonks, or eleven years to be exact. It seems there’s nothing as universal, nor as all-embracingly glutinous, as consuming a greasy packet of deep fried goodness. And so, at least for the sake of keeping tradition alive, we’ve taken it upon Read more...

Wikileaks; Freedom, Law and Politics

Posted 4:58am Monday 14th March 2011 by Charlotte Greenfield

The New Yorker's George Packer calls him "super-secretive, thin-skinned, [and] megalomaniacal." Sarah Palin claims he's "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands" whom we should pursue "with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders." Meanwhile, he is the darling of left Read more...

System Overload

Posted 4:53am Monday 14th March 2011 by Georgie Fenwicke

In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt But being season'd with a gracious voice Obscures the show of evil? - The Merchant of Venice III.II At any time of the week, Courtroom One in the Manukau District Court is a busy place; in the half-hour or so before lunch, it gets pretty Read more...

Bizarre Crimes

Posted 4:44am Monday 14th March 2011 by Josh Hercus

If you’re gonna get locked up, it might as well be for something that will make a good story. Josh Hercus has done his research, and come up with eight of the most bizarre crime and court cases from around the world. Something smells off A man in Singapore was sentenced to 14 years in prison Read more...

Sam Johnson

Posted 2:29am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Georgie Fenwicke

On a normal day, Sam Johnson is a Canterbury University student majoring in Law and Political Science. Unleash a natural disaster onto his city, however, and Sam becomes one of the co-ordinators of the army of student volunteers working tirelessly to restore Christchurch to its former glory. Each Read more...

O Week

Posted 2:20am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Charlotte Doyle and Georgi Hampton

Each year, Critic conducts a review of OUSA’s O Week - the highlights, the spew-y lowlights, the great bands and the bands that sparked hateful scarfie chants. This year, however, we did things a little differently. For a while now Dunedin bars have been offering up “alternative” OWeeks, often Read more...

Face Value

Posted 2:16am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Siobhan Downes

As of 2011, over 500 million of us are living our lives within the cornflower-blue-and-white themed webpages of Facebook. For most of 2010, Facebook surpassed Google as the most visited website. We’re over searching porn, celebrities and LOLcats. We’d rather search each other; our friends, families, Read more...

Seven irritating ‘friend’ types on Facebook

Posted 2:12am Tuesday 8th March 2011 by Josh Hercus

There’s a good chance some people are going to defriend me as a result of this piece... The Liker: Known for: ‘liking’ everything and anything  What they think they’re doing: I’m really bored so I’m just gonna like all this stuff cause it’s just so Read more...

I know what you did last summer…

Posted 4:01am Monday 28th February 2011 by Phoebe Harrop

If the extent of your summer current events knowledge came from: a) doing the occasional Stuff quiz; b) checking the Facebook statuses of your socially-conscious friends; or c) reading the ODT; then this alphabet of Important Summer Happenings, compiled by news-savvy Phoebe Harrop, will bring you up Read more...

It's What He Didn't Say

Posted 3:58am Monday 28th February 2011 by Georgie Fenwicke

Recently, Georgie Fenwicke was set the ambitious task of interrogating John Key on his leadership style, election plans and policies for students. Key turned out to be as evasive as any head of state should be, and thus what follows is compelling both for what he actually said, and what he carefully Read more...

Fresher FAQ

Posted 3:55am Monday 28th February 2011 by Josh Hercus

Most Freshers look like confused puppies as they wander eagerly through campus, giggling loudly about getting OTP and the guy on their floor they pashed last night. It’s the point when freshers still think that their law degree will make them successful, rather than drain their soul, and that doing Read more...

Books are the new Black

Posted 3:50am Monday 28th February 2011 by Charlotte Greenfield

The demise of the hard copy book has been predicted by technophiles since the birth of the personal computer. After all, with surf the channel and youtube at our fingertips, who has the time to struggle through Jane Eyre, or, god forbid, Tolkein? Charlotte Greenfield talked to Politics lecturer Read more...

New Zealander of the Year 2010 – Shane Cortese

Posted 2:18am Wednesday 3rd November 2010 by Staff Reporter

Shane Cortese; a man with more talents than there are shades of blonde streaks in his hair. A man who bravely made a comeback after a tragic fake tan incident during Dancing With the Stars that has permanently left his skin a strange, inhuman, yellowy-brown hue.   2010 was a triumphant Read more...

ADJUDCIATION BY THE NEW ZEALAND PRESS COUNCIL ON THE COMPLAINT OF THE OTAGO MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT TRUST AGAINST CRITIC TE-AROHI

Posted 2:03am Wednesday 3rd November 2010 by Critic

  Mike McAlevey of the Otago Mental Health Support Trust has complained to the New Zealand Press Council that an article in the Otago University student newspaper, Critic, headed The Bum at the Bottom of the World, was among other things, inaccurate, discriminatory and in poor Read more...

Scamming Studylink

Posted 1:52am Tuesday 12th October 2010 by Staff Reporter

Ralph grew up in a $7m beachfront house in Auckland’s affluent Cheltenham. His Dad made “serious coin” working as a partner in a prominent law firm for 14 years, enough to retire when Ralph was in fifth form. Ralph has spent the last four years studying physiotherapy at AUT. Throughout those four Read more...

Taking away of a Nun

Posted 1:46am Tuesday 12th October 2010 by Caitlyn O’Fallon

and other odd laws past and present. Most people would agree that politicians are capable of some entertainingly stupid actions. It's one of the redeeming qualities of politics in general. But according to the lists of stupid laws that do the rounds on the internet or, in earlier times, in Read more...

The Most Dangerous Places on Earth

Posted 1:44am Tuesday 12th October 2010 by Staff Reporter

The Most Dangerous Places on Earth Colombia:    Dirty little drug-running Escobar wannabes have made Colombia one of the most dangerous countries in the world. Paramilitary groups have waged war on the government with no end in site, contributing to a frenzy of murders. Another Read more...

A Day in Dunedin’s Underbelly

Posted 12:25am Tuesday 12th October 2010 by Thomas redford

Busy days at the Dunedin District Court are a big excited reunion. On Tuesday 19 September, the hallways and waiting rooms were packed at the start of the day, so nods, big reverse-nods, winks, and arm-wrestle-angle-handshakes abounded, and were remarkably shared across all of the courtroom Read more...

PORT CHALMERS

Posted 11:15pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Staff Reporter

Port Chalmers is a funky little port town full of historic buildings and artsy stores. It's the perfect day trip, rain or shine, just 20 minutes of water and sky away from the city centre. Get there:    It's about a 20-minute drive to Port Chalmers, which is 15km from the city Read more...