Books
The universal and timeless appeal of Sherlock Holmes
There is a very simple reason why the brilliant detective consistently returns to our screens, particularly in the last 10 years. Money. Read more…
the hype
The Hype
Thy Name is Woman, Ruth Negga stars as Hamlet in The Gate Theatre
“it is vital for Hamlet’s character to be vulnerable and therefore the actor who plays him must be able to show their emotions” Read more…
Music
“We’ll Go to a Hidden Place” – A Bjӧrk Retrospective
It’s follow-up Post, released in 1995, built upon the sound of Debut, embellishing the dance-pop production with harsher electronics and beats, and bringing to listeners a more angry, passionate, and more powerful Bjӧrk, one that would further flourish as her career continued. Read more…
Television
Will Black Mirror’s choose-your-own-adventure episode create a trend?
The concept of ‘choose your own adventure’ has been tried and tested for years in video games and has found to be very successful. Generally referred to as roleplaying games or RPGs, players are taken on a journey from building their own character to choosing how they handle difficult situations and how their decisions ultimately change their character’s fate. Read more…
Film
Lady Gaga soars in A Star is Born
What truly elevates ASIB compared to its modern rivals is surprisingly simple. They casted people who could actually sing. Read more…
Television
Sierra Burgess is a Loser vs Insatiable – who does body positivity better?
Insatiable’s message is that even if you outwardly ‘fix’ your problems, in this case, by becoming skinny, everything under the surface still remains. Read more…
Television
South Park’s season premiere critique’s artificially “woke”
Cartman is a parody of the typical ‘Woke’ individual. He engages in insincere virtue signalling to prove that he is not a racist, despite having not said anything racist. Paradoxically, his reduces Token to his race identity by assuming that all black people think collectively. Read more…
Music
Lil Wayne returns with Tha Carter V
The redemption from this is undeniable though as Wayne drops Uproar, a diss track fuelled with a fiery passion. Sampling the beat from ‘Special Delivery’ by G-Dep, Wayne tells his enemies to beware of him. Many are speculating that the biggest enemy in question is Birdman, CEO of Cash Money records with whom Wayne had the legal battle. Read more…
The Hype
A visit to Roderic O’Conor and The Moderns
Similarly, one can see how O’Conor begins to discard the styles of Impressionism. Instead, he focuses on the emotions that pervade a painting and how that can change its direction. Within this room, we can see when O’Conor truly embarks into Post-impressionism territory alongside Gauguin. Read more…
Books
Matt Haig’s Reasons to Stay Alive inspires hope
(He) hammers home the point that depression and anxiety do not pick and choose who to affect. Being rich or successful is not an immunity against mental health problems. Read more…
Film
Review: A Simple Favour
The film is reminiscent of the thriller “Gone Girl” and has enough to fill viewers expectations. Emily won’t answer Stephanie’s calls or text messages so Stephanie takes to her blog to begin investigating Emily’s sudden disappearance. Read more…
Lifestyle
Bang for your buck with online shopping
[dropcap]F[/dropcap]or busy students, online clothes shopping is a lifesaver. Gillain Hogan finds out where to get the best value for money.
The Hype
Shows like Bojack Horsemen depict the truth about depression
With shows depicting mental illness it can oftentimes be a double-edged sword of sorts, it seems that these shows either address the issue of mental health very successfully or miss the mark completely.
Read more…
Television
What reality shows have the X Factor?
There is one tanned and collagen filled outlier known as Love Island, which dominated the last couple of summers, consistently smashing ITV2 rating records. Read more…
Film
Black 47 is the Irish action movie we’ve been waiting for
We root for our murderous hero throughout the movie as his actions are on the side of justice. Read more…
The Hype
The problem with authors meddling with their finished works
The beauty of the arts is that it allows its audience to interpret concepts in whatever manner they wish to. It inspires creativity, what happens after the story ends is up to the reader to imagine. By telling a story, you are allowing others to interpret it in whichever way they wish to Read more…
The Hype
Atelier des Lumières lights up the art scene
When the light flashes and suddenly all paintings have diminished, the audience is met with the stark reminder that they have been walking around a grey room. The projectors had given the illusion that they had been on an ethereal adventure. Read more…
The Hype
Exploring the world of Instagram poetry
This generations ‘instapoets’ are a breath of fresh air for an artform that seemed to be dying. Many young people can no longer relate to the heavy poetry of the likes of John Keats of whom they may have studied laboriously throughout their secondary school education. Read more…
Music
A look into Hozier’s latest EP, Nina Cried Power
The grammy nominee isn’t one to shy away from sharing his political and cultural views, especially in his recent EP. In the song “Nina Cried Power”, the track draws on protest music from the American civil rights movement. Read more…
Music
Tebi Rex’s Max Zanga talks about songwriting, the Irish hip-hop scene and more
“There’s a juxtaposition to our work, we have an idea, go off on our own and come back with completely different angles.” He says, “It leads to an interesting contrast where the music is really upbeat and energetic but then the lyrics are super grim”. Read more…
Music
Arctic Monkeys storm the 3 Arena
Each song was intertwined brilliantly with the one that came before it, carrying a smooth transition from either an energetic hit, to a calmer sound. Kicking off with ‘Star Treatment’, the expertise and professionalism of the band shone. Read more…
Music
Ross from Friends takes a break at the Button Factory
The style of music he creates can be compared to that of other artists such as DJ Seinfield and DJ Boring who seem almost reflective of the 90’s pop culture that these artists would have grown up listening to. Read more…
Music
Hip hopping onto centre stage
Since then, a huge cultural shift has occurred, a rise in hip-hop and critical interest in pop has meant that many music festivals have had to completely rebrand themselves as the demographic of audiences attending these festivals has changed. Read more…
Lifestyle
Overtraining isn’t just for elite athletes?
If exercise is good for you, more must be better, right? Everybody can experience burnout at some stage but have you ever thought that overtraining may be prohibiting your overall performance? Read more…
Flux
Hudson Taylor “Feel it Again” at the Olympia
The show was a mixture of going from the old album to the new one and everyone who was either long-term fans or was new to their music didn’t take their eyes off them from start to finish. Read more…