Opinion
Party Politics
Columns: money, money, money
Money can't buy you happiness....True, but it can buy you an awful lot of other things. And has anyone ever seriously complained about being loaded? There are the obvious perks of being rich: jet-setting round the world, having wild debauched parties in your own mansion, driving a flashy sports car, collecting Monets for the sake of it, and having beautiful people around you - personality counts when you're ugly, and money counts when you have neither looks or personality....
Columns: ...how to get stinking rich
1. The conventional route
Columns: Bite-Size
Chocolate.
Columns: columninches
I've been single for four weeks now, and it's hurting like new shoes. Damn they look fine, but by the end of the night they're hurting, and I'm longing to have my old pair back again. It was my choice, I had outgrown you, and the thought that you weren't 'the one' had been pinching my heels for four years.
But I
Columns: wisewords
Get on the train at 11am. Oxford students immediately identify themselves by opening bottle of crap white wine and drinking out of plastic cups. "Oh no, I've forgotten my college scarf". Sort it out, bitch.
Columns: My Nudity
Feel sad, lonely and unloved? Get the impression that you no longer feature among those things the world considers hip? Got an agent with a small mind and (at) a loose-end? Then get naked. Everyone's doing it. Hell, I'm doing it now. Swaying gently in the breeze. Cut loose. And I love it.
Columns: Cyber//scape: Ability Office
Though software titles such as Microsoft Office 98 and Lotus 1,2,3 dominate the market, there are a growing number of similar programmes offering comparable levels of performance for the fraction of the price of the originals. AbilityOffice, developed by Birmingham based PBH Systems, is perhaps one of the best examples of this new bread of software titles....
Columns: Cyber//scape: Websites of the week
Quiet, cuddly and adorable, I think not! Stupid, inane and annoying is probably closer to the mark and it appers that there are people on the Net who agree with me. The above site, featuring not one but two Tellytubby torture chambers is undoubtably the best of a growing number of anti-tubby sites. Tellytubby Funland at http://www.newsgrounds.com/tubby/ is definatley not a site for kids. Featuring realistic animations of Dipsy, Tinky Winky, La La and Po engaged in what can only be described as 'adult' activity, this a web site for the perverse and clinically disturbed, with the accompanying music also suitably annoying. Funland pays similar ironic homage to a range of 'Childrens Favourites'. Parody is something the Net does well, free from the usual laws of libel and censorship. Advertising parody is perhaps the best example of the Net's freedom to take the piss without facing most of the consquenes. False Advertising- A Gallery of Parody at http://parody.organique.com/false.htm , sucesfully lampoons some of the most successful of ad-ca+-mpaigns, such as the interesting take on 'Tickle me Elmo', as well as having a go at most of corporate America - definitely a site for Bill Gates to avoid....
Columns: Cyber//scape: Websites of the week
Quiet, cuddly and adorable, I think not! Stupid, inane and annoying is probably closer to the mark and it appers that there are people on the Net who agree with me. The above site, featuring not one but two Tellytubby torture chambers is undoubtably the best of a growing number of anti-tubby sites. Tellytubby Funland at http://www.newsgrounds.com/tubby/ is definatley not a site for kids. Featuring realistic animations of Dipsy, Tinky Winky, La La and Po engaged in what can only be described as 'adult' activity, this a web site for the perverse and clinically disturbed, with the accompanying music also suitably annoying. Funland pays similar ironic homage to a range of 'Childrens Favourites'. Parody is something the Net does well, free from the usual laws of libel and censorship. Advertising parody is perhaps the best example of the Net's freedom to take the piss without facing most of the consquenes. False Advertising- A Gallery of Parody at http://parody.organique.com/false.htm , sucesfully lampoons some of the most successful of ad-ca+-mpaigns, such as the interesting take on 'Tickle me Elmo', as well as having a go at most of corporate America - definitely a site for Bill Gates to avoid....
Columns: Cyber//scape: Civilisation: Call to Power
Civilisation: Call to Power is the latest reworking of this huge title, and fans of the original titles Civilisation 1, Civilisation 2 and Colonization will not be disappointed with this version. As before you get to play god with supreme control of your tribe, attempting to advance them to world domination.
The str
Columns: Film: Word on the street
Far be it for the OxStu to tell you what you can and can't see, we're not in a totalitarian state, yet, but here's a few helpful pointers of what's tipped and what's topped.
Columns: Film: Wilde at Heart
An Ideal Husband takes as its starting point the sort of social scene that's not a million miles away from The Importance of Being Earnest. This is a connection that's stressed - if not rammed home - by Parker's background activity, as names like Bunbury and Windermere are dropped into conversation.
Columns: Film: Mel misses his money
Payback. A nice blunt title for a nice blunt film. The slangy juxtaposition of the two words is like the lead and his two syllable name 'Porter'. No pretensions of grandeur. No apologies for killing lots of people. No conscience wracking "I am in blood steeped so deep" speeches. No traumatic past as an estate agent in Surrey to explain his life of crime....
Columns: Film: Top 10
1 The Rugrats Movie
Columns: Drama: Tempers are rising
This term sees OUDS' first venture at the Playhouse since last November, when it brought us a beautifully crafted production of The Libertine. Its new undertaking is Bertolt Brecht's The Resistible Rise of Arturo Ui - an ambitious choice of play to say the least. The choice was, though, foisted upon OUDS because at the National Theatre blocked the project late in the day, seeing the OUDS show as a threat to its summer season....
Columns: Drama: What's up?
The BT's special project this season is The Attic. The vision is a chilled, acoustic, Sunday night lounge cabaret. So far the highlight is Frei Zinger. corn market busker / Edinburgh fringe regular. But there are still free slots, so if you fancy your chances give the BT a call.
Columns: Drama: A new protrusion
Oxford's first major new production company for a two generations has its first outing this term, with a peripatetic summer show.
Columns: Drama: Mid-summer madness
On paper Tennessee Williams' plays seem a bit sameish. Faded southern belles, stultifying heat, twisted familial relations. Suddenly Last Summer is no exception.
Columns: Music: The twilight years
So you think you've got Symposium sussed. A bunch of overgrown skater boys just out of short trousers, masters of the three-minute punk pop soundblast and purveyors of some of the best live performances ever. Nothing more, nothing less, but quite good all the same. Or is there more to Symposium than meets the eye? "We're bringing a different vibe to the audience now, one that we've never done before, because the music's different now, so its a really exciting time," says talkative ladies-man-come-guitarist Hagop of the songs which the band have been preparing for their new album and which were previewed live on their recent UK tour. "Before it was just on one level most of the time, I think, but now the music is a lot more deep." According to bassist Wojtek, one song, Space Between Us, is "almost prog-rock, it's got so many sections. The crowd don't know quite what to make of it." The band have made no secrets of the alleged classical influences within their music, with song titles like Shostakovich, and Wojtek, very much the sensitive member of the band, has even composed a string quartet piece to be played at his brother's wedding in April....
Columns: Music: Singles
Faith Evans: All Night Long
Columns: Music: Albums
Ultrasound: Everything Picture
Columns: Music: Top 10
1 Martine McCutcheon
Columns: Books: Among the midgets
It was a slow day. Nothing in the in-tray, less in the out-tray; nada to work on and no place to go. I slouched in my swivel-backed chair, left hand-fingering the mouth of the empty bottle. I'd already worked my way through a full half quart of bourbon, and was now reduced periodically to breathing the intoxicating fumes coming out of the photocopier vent. Like I said, a slow day. But all that was to change when this hot little number checked into my office....
Columns: Books: 60 second classics
What is it?
Columns: Books: Critical condition
After twenty years as the Guardian's drama critic, it is only to be expected that Michael Billington should have a fairly solid grasp of recent theatrical history. At first glance, that's exactly what One Night Stand offers: a collection of his reviews from the period 1971-91, organised chronologically to provide a detailed study not only of the landmark shows of the period, but also of the development of British theatre....
Columns: Books: Top 10
1 Patchwork Planet