Undomesticated, stigmatised, aesthetically gross and virtually untrainable – the household parasite doesn’t tick many boxes as man’s best friend. But the pet industry is about to experience a shake up, with an increasing demand for more eco-friendly options. Our traditional furry friends are costly both financially and ecologically. Plus, they often cause a public nuisance with volatile behaviour, schizophrenically twisting […]
The well-being industry is on the precipice of its very own remit. A new invention is being marketed as a ‘time-out’ from the usual methodology – the yoga, the meditation, the activated sprouts – with a contrarian approach that subjects the user to a burst of extreme stress. The UnZen Hole is a walk-in-head-chamber that […]
The career of 90’s industrial band Throbbing Gristle is shrouded in urban myth. Their on-stage antics polarised, with a show that sorted out the wheat from the chaff via milk, urine and menstrual blood enemas and masturbating with chicken heads. They secured themselves on the very fringes of entertainment, pre-dating even the weird off-cuts of […]
Needing a medical procedure in an overworked and defunded health system requires an elk-like leap of faith or a stone-cold death wish. Unable to oversee the diagnosis or operation, we lie on the operating table entering a lottery, fingers tightly crossed under a makeshift surgical gown of reconstituted potato skins and carrier bags. The theatre staff’s […]
Standup comedy is more than just a few laughs, it’s an age-old pact between comedian and audience to accept the performance as improvised and unrehearsed. You don’t have to scratch that deep to discover those seemingly spontaneous riffs are actually well-oiled scripts. Visiting a comedian on consecutive nights will demonstrate the minuscule amount of ad-libbing. […]
Eating people, it’s so stigmatised. Even though our not-so-distant ancestors ate each-other both ceremoniously and pragmatically, today our cannibalistic streak lays dormant, only surviving in some indigenous tribes where cannibalism has become a hush-hush culinary quandary. As faux pas go, the Papaya New Guinean appetite for human flesh is equivalent to the British biscuit dunker; […]
In the game of love, words are powerful. The correct words, delivered in the right order, can unlock belts and loosen gussets. Equally, they can be empty, bumbled and ambiguous; blowing opportunities and undoing meticulous groundwork within a momentary conversational spasm. But what if you had something to remedy your romantic incompetence, like a hearing […]