Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Image Description: Laura Marling singing into a microphone with a guitar, on a black stage. In August, I wrote a review of Haim’s bubbly, frenetic, exploratory album, Women in Music Pt. III. I thought that it was a lockdown vibe, it buoyed me up, and I listened to it over, and over, and over again. […]
Continue Reading
Image Description: A gold, decorated mask and a black fabric background. The mysterious and impenetrable dressings of both internal and external experience provide the theme for Maskwork, a haunting new collection of poetry by Gregory Leadbetter (Professor of Poetry at Birmingham City University). Bewitching descriptions of masks – in the likeness of seraphs, witches, even […]
Continue Reading
Image Description: Lily Collins as Emily taking a selfie in front of a Paris skyline. Does everyone remember that unbearably cringy scene from Sex and the City when Carrie shows up at Big’s door with McDonald’s wearing a beret and does a really bad French accent? I personally think Darren Star has been sitting on […]
Continue Reading
Image description: a black and white photograph of a group of women wearing ‘stop the ERA’ badges ‘Feminism is doomed to failure because it is based on an attempt to repeal and restructure human nature.’ Ah, I can almost hear you thinking as you visualise the scene. We’re at a Trump rally, or a Fox […]
Continue Reading
To our readers, We know it’s been an unusual term. Not having a physical paper has been disappointing, to say the least for the OxStu editorial team, but we like to think we have continued to create worthwhile and interesting content for you. Moving forward, we have exciting plans to transform and modernise the paper […]
Continue Reading
Image description: Freddie Gibbs and Madlib performing at The Echoplex in March 2014. A welcome surprise: Freddie Gibbs’ tweet, announcing a single would premiere the next day, was followed by an album’s release the day after. It’s not a long listen at 35 minutes, recorded and produced “quick as lightning”, in the words of Alchemist. […]
Continue Reading
Last week, we asked Oxford who it would want to quarantine with, and some of the responses were… questionable. One thing that OxYou can get behind though is self-improvement – to the two readers who voiced a desire to sort out their hair and to get hench, we commend you. If only we had such […]
Continue Reading
Image Description: A canal in Venice, Italy If I had a pound for every recent reference to Defoe, Camus and their novels about plague…. Granted, A Journal of the Plague Year and La Peste respectively, are certainly too close to home at the moment. Resorting to history – in this case, its reflection in literature […]
Continue Reading
Image Description: Contestants gather together in a moment from the series Lockdown is really getting to me. A few days ago a new show popped up on my Netflix recommendations and, like a fool, I decided that a new reality programme where some oiled-up Instagram wannabes are banned from having sex with each other sounded […]
Continue Reading
Image description: Grimes live in Austin in 2012 You may have forgotten, but Grimes makes music. Now, a lot of her fans, myself included, have taken to viewing her recent affiliations with a side-eye. Contrary to what you find in the media, ever since her appearance at the 2018 Met Gala Grimes is more than […]
Continue Reading
Image Description: Paul Simon’s Graceland album artwork I confess I am a person liable to decide after a single listen that I have found my new favourite-ever song. But believe me when I say that Paul Simon’s 1986 masterpiece Graceland (an album recorded after Simon became intrigued by a bootleg cassette and ended up travelling to Johannesburg […]
Continue Reading
Image Description: Gallery space from the exhibition Whilst living in Rome in 2019, I had the pleasure of being a 15-minute walk away from the gallery. With a student admission fee cheaper than a cup of coffee, it became a ritual of mine, after finishing work, to leave behind the chaotic pace of Roman city […]
Continue Reading
Image Description: Skeleton Statue near a tree The frustration of being cooped up is hitting hard. Netflix has lost its sparkle and you’re bored of staying in the house reading or squabbling with siblings. The one hour of state-mandated exercise isn’t enough to stop the cabin fever setting in. You might, as I felt, wish […]
Continue Reading
Image Description: Johnston’s “Hi, How Are You” mural in Austin, Texas. There is a quote by the legendary BBC Radio DJ John Peel which has been overused by many a budding music journalist attempting to create a unique think piece on music: ‘Somebody was trying to tell me that CDs are better than vinyl because […]
Continue Reading
Image description: A portrait of Frederico Colli against a grey background Adaptation is a contentious topic for early music audiences. Some say that musicians should play a Baroque piece in a manner loyal to the time in which it was written, replicating the atmosphere of the eighteenth century as best they can; others believe that […]
Continue Reading
Content warning: this article contains brief mentions of sexual abuse and substance abuse. Last week, I was fortunate to have a ticket to a private performance of ‘People, Places, and Things’, held in the kitchen of a student house in Cowley. With the playwright – Duncan Macmillan – having not yet released the rights to […]
Continue Reading
Image description: O’Neill’s latest album cover When Lisa O’Neill stepped on the stage and went straight for the microphone without stopping to pick up an instrument, and delivered a rendition of an old roamer tale, the tone was set for what was to follow. Uncompromisingly traditional, unapologetically Irish, the beautiful coming together of History, folk, […]
Continue Reading
Image description: Eric Cantona and Liam Gallagher on-set for the ‘Once’ music video The Weeknd: Blinding Lights The stage of this aesthetic car ride is set in its gory context with a slow-motion close-up of the Weeknd dripping in blood, channelling a joker like laugh while dressed (coincidentally?) in bright red. Flashing backwards, a shaking […]
Continue Reading
The Personal History of David Copperfield, based on the novel by Charles Dickens, tells the story of David Copperfield’s (Dev Patel) journey from childhood into adulthood. It focuses on the relationships he develops with a huge cast of characters who he meets as he travels “from rags to riches… and back again”. Sold as a […]
Continue Reading