(Original post at The National Student)
Netflix has released the trailer for season five of Bojack Horseman, the best show about an alcoholic horse on television.
Blog
Decode: Demystifying the Digital Age
For the past two months I’ve been working as the Chief Subeditor for Decode, a magazine about how technology is changing our world.
The Big Brother Complex: What Information Can The Police Get From Your Phone?
(Original post at Decode Magazine)
What does your phone say about you?
From drunken selfies to private emails to banking information, modern smartphones can store vast amounts of personal data about their users. Police across the country are taking advantage of this new reality, investing in new mobile phone extraction technology that can reveal more about the people than your contact list.
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London Buskers Can Now Be Tipped Via Contactless
(Original post at Decode Magazine)
London has become the world’s first city to introduce contactless card payment for street performers.
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Embrace Virtual Reality, Say Arts Leaders
(Original post at Decode Magazine)
Leading figures in the creative industries have called for greater use of virtual reality (VR) technology in every sector, from theatre to the preservation of ancient ruins.
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Bitcoin and Beyond: How to Make Your Own Cryptocurrency
(Original post at Decode Magazine)
Cashing in on cryptocurrencies, digitally encrypted money that isn’t governed by a centralised bank or government, has never been so easy.
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SMILF: ‘Mark’s Lunch and Two Cups of Coffee’
(Original post at The National Student)
SMILF’s finale is not quite as successful as the phenomenal previous episode but manages to tackle an equally serious issue.
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SMILF: ‘Family Sized Bucked of Popcorn and a Can of Wine’
(Original post at The National Student)
Packing a serious emotional punch, ‘Family Sized Bucket of Popcorn and a Can of Wine’ is funny and tragic in equal measure.
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SMILF: ‘Chocolate Pudding and a Cooler of Gatorade’
(Original post at The National Student)
When is a sitcom not a sitcom? When it’s a heartrending triptych of failed ambition. This week’s episode of SMILF, a show that’s only nominally a comedy, sees Bridgette, Tutu, and Rafi come face to face with their own delusions.
Just a few episodes earlier, the news that a new women’s basketball team was forming in Boston helped Bridgette overcome the shock of being sexually assaulted. In Chocolate Pudding & A Cooler of Gatorade, Bridgette finally receives the letter she’s been waiting for and is given the chance to show her skills.
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Trauma and Sexuality in Crash and Blue Velvet
TW: rape
Crash and Blue Velvet are intimately concerned with the link between trauma and sexuality, both consciously and unconsciously revealing the impact of traumatic sexuality on its participants, particularly women.
Two films that are often considered the most successful of their respective directors, their presentations of trauma and sexuality are also indicative of the flawed societies in which they are produced. Yet despite their shared preoccupation, David Cronenberg and David Lynch approach this relationship from inverse positions.
Whilst Cronenberg explores the erotic potential of traumatic events in Crash, Lynch’s Blue Velvet highlights the inherently traumatic origins and nature of sexuality through its Freudian themes.
Their respective examinations of traumatic sexuality disproportionately affect their female characters, with Cronenberg reinscribing misogynistic tropes within his supposedly liberating new form of sexuality, and Lynch’s visceral rape scenes complicating his otherwise progressive rejection of violence against women. Cronenberg’s and Lynch’s views of traumatic sexuality are complex, but both struggle, to varying degrees, with regressive attitudes towards female characters.
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Bethan Ackerley 