Archive

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...

Dunedin's Dark Past

Posted 11:09pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Staff Reporter

Dunedin's quaint architecture and quiet suburbs hide a dark past. This small southern city has had more than its fair share of brutality, with some of the country's most high-profile crimes and horrific happenings occurring right here in the Edinburgh of the South. The axe murderer that got Read more...

My Story

Posted 9:31pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Critic

The first time I realised what this feeling actually meant, it felt as if I was in a horror movie. My first crush, that first denial, pushing all of these feelings and thoughts back thinking it is all a phase. Well, most things are a phase, right? My denial was very strong. It was against Read more...

Translating Trans for the Masses

Posted 9:27pm Monday 11th October 2010 by Caitlyn O’Fallon

“Arthur or Martha? Let the commission decide!” was NZ First's sensationalist response to the Human Rights Commission's Transgender Inquiry in 2008. “If you're born a male, you stay a male. If you're born a female, you stay a female. If you want to start fiddling around and changing your body, that's Read more...

Dinner with Thomas

Posted 4:35am Monday 20th September 2010 by Henry Feltham

The car swings heavily around the corners. I can feel its weight with every turn, migrating up through the steering wheel, a sense of connection that’s lost in newer, smoother cars. Each curve feels like a lift settling to the ground, but pulled sideways, towards the mountain on one side, or the Read more...

SOUTHERN SOLILIQUIES.Insights and imaginings from three Dunedin writers.

Posted 4:12am Monday 20th September 2010 by Critic

“Dunedin,” says local writer Sue Wootton, is “a fantastic place to be a writer. We have a great creative energy, often invisible to people who may not be directly involved. It's often thought of as a very conservative place, where nothing is happening, but there is a lot going on in wee pockets!” Read more...

Female Serial Killers:

Posted 3:55am Monday 13th September 2010 by Staff Reporter

Female Serial Killers: Countess Elizabeth Bathory:     Born in 1560, and a countess from the renowned Bathory family, Elizabeth Bathory certainly etched her name in history. The ‘Blood Countess’ is alleged to have lured young, attractive women to her dungeons in Read more...

Vibrators: A History

Posted 3:49am Monday 13th September 2010 by Caitlyn O'Fallon

We think of the Victorians as the epitome of prudishness. The end of the nineteenth century was a time when table legs wore skirts and the Queen was said to have told her daughter that the only way to endure the marital bed was to “lie back and think of England.” So it comes as a surprise to most Read more...

Critic's Contemporaries

Posted 11:39pm Sunday 5th September 2010 by Susan Smirk

As Critic reaches the ripe old age of 85, we decided to have a chat with some other 85-year olds about some of the highs and lows of their lives. Susan Smirk chatted to Jenny Lambert, who used to go dancing every night; May Munro, who once caught a 385-pound shark; Len Robinson, who taught Read more...

The 85 Best Sentences in Critic History

Posted 11:28pm Sunday 5th September 2010 by Thomas redford

Sir,    It is with growing honour and rising gorge that I view the scandalous increase of the use of trousers by women. Trousers are the outward hallmark of man’s estate. Not content with cutting short their hair, smoking cigarettes and, God forbid, even pipes, women have Read more...

Dredging sucks*

Posted 5:20am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Caitlyn O’Fallon

For several years now, turmoil has been brewing in Dunedin. The fate of Otago Harbour lies in the balance. Some groups claim that dredging the harbour will be a step forward for Dunedin; others say it will destroy it. Caitlyn O’Fallon looks into it. The plan that sparked the controversy Read more...

Exploring Otago by Bicycle: Three Suggested Adventures

Posted 5:17am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Jennifer Turek

Bike Touring: The Otago Central Rail Trail    Difficulty: Medium    Distance: 150 km    Time: 4-5 days recommended (could do faster or slower, depending on interests/ability)      Located in our own backyard, the Otago Central Rail Read more...

GREEN DIETS - How your plate affects your planet

Posted 5:08am Monday 23rd August 2010 by Susan Smirk

There are ever so many reasons to change what you eat, ranging from the laughable to the admirable. We make eating choices for the sake of our weight, our wallet, our health, our image ... or sometimes (and perhaps less often) our beliefs. Animal rights crusaders have campaigned long and hard to Read more...

Critic Exclusive: interviews with Presidential candidates

Posted 10:35am Thursday 12th August 2010 by Ben Thomson and Julia Hollingsworth

Critic Editor Ben Thomson and OUSA Correspondent Julia Hollingsworth sat down with the four presidential hopefuls and grilled them about all of the important issues. Read more...

Dog days are over

Posted 12:09am Tuesday 10th August 2010 by Georgie Fenwicke

You'll never believe me, but I'll tell you anyway. I went to see Florence and the Machine live in Auckland. A friend had told me via some sort of Facebook link that they were coming back to New Zealand. After much to-ing and fro-ing, another friend and I decided to invest. It is the best $220 I have Read more...

Taking their place in the world

Posted 11:56pm Monday 9th August 2010 by Georgie Fenwicke

Dunedin is a city at the bottom of the world. It is cold, wet, and lacks sunshine. For the most part, it has an aging population, excepting an annual injection of fresh blood and student allowances. Granted, it is also home to Cadbury, Fisher & Paykel, and a manufacturing hub in Mosgiel. Read more...

Celebz in NZ

Posted 11:52pm Monday 9th August 2010 by Staff Reporter

Celebrity in New Zealand is a weird thing. We subscribed to America’s world-conquering culture of celebrity worship, and then inevitably wanted to transpose the same devotion to homebred stars. But that’s difficult in a country of New Zealand’s size and humility. A country whose biggest celebrity Read more...

Religion on campus

Posted 4:34am Monday 2nd August 2010 by Susan Smirk

Faith shapes the world we live in. We may think that we live in a world of pure science and secularism, but our history, our society, and our individual lives are still shaped by world views grounded in religious belief. What we think about the universe, human nature, death, God, and the human soul Read more...

Religion: Explained

Posted 4:31am Monday 2nd August 2010 by Jonathan Jong

The oddness of religion.Every 12 years, millions of Hindus from all over the world gather in India for the Maha Kumbh Mela pilgrimage. In 2001, 70 million people attended, purportedly making it the largest gathering of people in history.   Somewhat less impressively, three million Read more...

Maori Mythos

Posted 11:16pm Sunday 25th July 2010 by Caitlyn O’Fallon

“Her body was like that of a human being, but her eyes were greenstone, her hair sea-kelp, her mouth was like that of a barracuda, and sharp flints of obsidian and greenstone were set between her thighs … Maui was determined to enter Hine-nui-te-po’s body, consume her heart, and then aimed to Read more...