Culture

By Jessica L. Smith.With the recent release of Robert Egger’s ‘Nosferatu’, the timeless figure of the vampire has once again come to prominence. These blood-sucking, immortal, nocturnal figures have captured and haunted imaginations for centuries. Take Count Dracula in Bram Stoker’s late nineteenth-century epistolary novel Dracula, or the mysterious, camp vampires that plague a small Californian town in the eighties cult classic ‘The Lost Boys’, to the compelling Cullen family in the infamous ‘Twilight’ series. We are no stranger to vampires, who have been meticulously explored throughout various forms of media and literature. Yet, if the vampire is already so well-explored, why are we still gripped by them?Vampire narratives can gather huge cult followings. Devoted and passionate fans en...

By Kiera Garcia - Associate Culture Editor Cabaret at the Kit Kat Club is one of the most critically acclaimed productions worldwide and I was able to see it performed on the West End this January. The production promises to draw you in with colorful numbers and enigmatic characters, and to leave you with a heightened awareness of how quickly one ideology can take over a country. For those unfamiliar with it, the play is set in Berlin in the 1930s, focusing on ‘The Kit Kat Club’, its host of dancers, enigmatic Emcee, and those who frequent it. The characters include Clifford Bradshaw, an American author, Sally Bowles, a British performer at the club, Fräuline Schneider, the woman who runs their boarding house, Herr Schultz, a boarder who ends up courting her, and Ernst Ludwig, a man...

By Rhian Kille The 67th Annual Grammy Awards included show stopping performances from artists like Chappell Roan, Sabrina Carpenter, Doechii and Charli XCX that are all considered to have had breakthrough years in 2024-5. These artists have found mainstream success after at least a decade of hard work. But in many people’s eyes they have abruptly burst onto the scene, complete with a curated and distinct brand for music consumers to latch onto. This is a phenomenon that might seem to be the result of the increasing role that internet virality and eye-catching aesthetic now play in the music industry. But their performances speak to something much more timeless: theatrical spectacle.   In their one-off performances, Chappell Roan strides a 10 foot tall pink pony surrounded ...

By Ruby Day -- Senior Culture Editor Recently, I read an article on Substack about the typography of band names on old concert tickets. The piece mourned this specific art form in the wake of QR codes and nylon wristbands, but what really caught my attention was the name of the newsletter itself: The Casual Archivist. Using the term ‘archivist’ invokes images of innumerable shelves and dusty books and white cotton gloves, but when I really got to thinking about it, the words ‘archive’ and ‘archivist’ were cropping up again and again in unexpected places. Namely, the bios of various blogs and Instagram accounts I like to keep up with. They vary in content, based on similarly varying interests. A few favourites include an account dedicated to the daily exploration of a late father’s ...

By Jessica L. SmithChoosing the right book to read can be hard. Really hard. I’ve been an avid reader since I was a little kid, so you’d have thought it would get easier picking my next read, but often that is not the case. It can feel overwhelming, and like there’s too many books to read, and not enough time. So, how do you find the relevant book for you?To start simply, you have to read what you like, which relies on genre. Finding a book that appeals to you largely depends on the genres you’re interested in. This can be impacted by your current situation. Maybe you want to forget your reality and become engulfed in a fantasy. Maybe you’re feeling passionate about something and want to read a collection of non-fiction essays. Maybe you’re craving a feel-good romance that will have you k...

Image via Unsplash by Katie Smith By: Kiera Garcia – Associate Culture Editor Spoilers Ahead Back in October, I had the opportunity to see an advanced screening of We Live In Time atthe London Film Festival and since then I have been unable to stop telling people to see it.We Live In Time follows the lives of Almut and Tobias, two 30-something year-oldLondoners, as they navigate the ups and downs of their relationships together, specifically asAlmut is diagnosed with Ovarian cancer. The story is told non-chronologically, jumpingbetween the early stages of their relationship and what could be considered the present day,where Almut is struggling between her diagnosis and wanting to still do things that matter toher in the time she has left. The film gives you the feeling that yo...