Our Fancy Feast

Posted 12:09pm Sunday 2nd April 2017

In their time scouring op shops, my friends Mary and Reg have gleaned three relics of a particular point in the ‘70s where food got very, very strange. Critic wanted to know what those wacky old recipes tasted like, so, in the interests of our readers, we bravely concocted and feasted on some Read more...

Editorial | Issue 5

Posted 10:37am Sunday 26th March 2017

Two of our features this week deal with issues of paranoia, and how easy it is to write it off as “crackpot” behaviour. Think about doomsday preppers and you’re likely picturing a guy who lives in a buried caravan with his 900 guns, 4,000 bottles of whiskey, and pet pig. Mention Read more...

Current

Posted 11:51am Sunday 19th March 2017

Current is an exhibition in which nine local artists and designers respond to pieces from the Otago Museum’s textile collection. The idea was planned to coincide with ID fashion week. Critic spoke to the Assistant Collection Manager of Humanities at the Otago Museum Jamie Metzger, who Read more...

Editorial | Issue 4

Posted 10:13am Sunday 19th March 2017

We’ve all been there. You walk into a function in your assless rubber pants with a ball-gag in your mouth, slathered in mayonnaise and holding a bunch of torpedo beetroot, and everyone else is in smart-casual blouses and slacks. You just can’t relax the whole night. That’s because Read more...

Editorial | Issue 3

Posted 11:19am Sunday 12th March 2017

Last week an advert appeared in The Star newspaper promoting Don Brash’s new political movement “Hobson’s Pledge”. In it, the group calls for politicians to stop giving “extra rights for those who arrived here first,” “favourable treatment based on Read more...

Dating the seven foreskins of Christ

Posted 11:57am Sunday 5th March 2017

Can a spatter of ancient blood heal the sick? Is a piece of cloth useful in praying for the poor? Can desiccated eyeball help you get into heaven? I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I did talk to a man who leads a team investigating religious relics - the pieces of long-dead Read more...

Lift Your Game, Baird

Posted 10:55am Sunday 26th February 2017

OUSA Student President Hugh Baird got stuck in a lift in an Auckland hotel when on a presidential trip earlier this month. He was in a lift with five German people who, he says, were talking to each other in German. He is “sure they were talking about him.” They were stuck in the lift Read more...

Editorial | Issue 1

Posted 10:34am Sunday 26th February 2017

Welcome to a new year of Critic magazine! We are excited to start the year with a new team of contributors.  I hope you all managed to keep your togas securely fastened and your wristbands firmly in place. However, I felt disappointed when I saw that out of the 26 paid musicians in the big Read more...

Freedom

Posted 12:42pm Saturday 8th October 2016

The most unsettling things are the most familiar —the more you know somebody the stranger they seem. And nothing is more familiar than family. Patty Berglund is an ex college basketball star and fanatically perfect mother. She bakes cookies on all her neighbours’ birthdays and never Read more...

Deadlines: A University Survival Guide

Posted 12:03pm Saturday 1st October 2016

"I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by,” said the late Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Unfortunately you are probably not yet a beloved author with forgiving publishers. You are likely a student, you have assignments to Read more...