Icon of the Week: The jargon of ‘Summer Eights’
You’re a novice to rowing. No, not a Novice, just… a novice. Someone who has no clue, someone who hangs around Summer Eights for the Pimms and the occasional barbequed delicacy. The incessant rowing conversation from hall lunches has carved a space in your mind – Torpids; Tech suits
Tradition at a cost: Three Oxford Colleges and their choir schools
When the University of Oxford released its 2020 Admissions Statistics Report, it should not have made particularly positive reading for Magdalen College. Of all undergraduate colleges, Magdalen had admitted the lowest proportion of state-educated pupils in the preceding three years. The Colle
From Bin to Body: The Role of Rework in Alternative Subculture
Our consumer climate creates a body-to-bin culture, making people believe that an endless stream of new clothing is needed to stay on trend. DIY subculture communities subvert this mainstream model by recycling apparent rubbish into unique items for long-term wear. This bin-to-body fashion cannot be
The cyberspace in our backyard and the gardens in our cyberspace
Up in the iCloud, innocent bubbles of data glint under the sun’s heat; from here, they slip frictionlessly into the cool vacuum of space. Adrian Mackenzie describes this new-age phenomena as one of perceived “wirelessness”: the chasmic disconnect between our screens and the moving networks tha
Back in the USSR
Kolya Vasin, one week before his death (Courtesy of Igor Vereshchagin) I used to think I loved the Beatles, until I heard about Kolya Vasin. Only then did I see what loving the Beatles really means. For an essay competition a number of years ago, I wrote on how the Beatles’ influence had ri
BEST BEFORE: In Britain, you can’t control the weather but you can control the elections
Desperate to be more entertaining than Matt Hancock’s TikTok account, Rishi Sunak was given a helping hand by the press yesterday, as rumours about the general election ran wild. The news was flooded with live feeds of Number 10’s closed door, journalists huddled together for warmth in the pouri
Experiencing grief at university
Image: The last holiday with my dad, spent in the Scilly Isles, 2005. I’ve developed an uncanny trick for telling when spring is on the cusp of summer. It requires very little skill, aside from a keen eye on the advertising campaigns in Tesco Express, Magdalen St. Only last week, having sum
Icon of the Week: The Phoenix Picturehouse
During my first month at Oxford, I was in a relative, consistent state of terror as I tried to carve out friendships, figure out my degree, and figure out where and how I’d socialize. I, like every other first year, had arrived in a completely unfamiliar place with little knowledge about how to na
Watching ‘Manwatching’
“This is so funny; I’ve never been interviewed before.’’ “Really? It’s your lucky day. How do I start though? I normally come more prepared but because it’s you, I’m like, it’s fine.’’ I’ve conducted a couple interviews during my time at university, but t