The Dead South are a Canadian bluegrass band, and they’re everything that’s right about Country Music. Their career started back in 2013 with their original EP The Ocean Went Mad And We Were To Blame, and the following 13 years has seen four more original albums, two EPs worth of covers, a handful of singles, and every single one of those 70 odd songs is a banger. 

I’m not a music theory genius, but what I can do is tell you why these men are some of the best musicians out there (the short answer is ‘Honey You, Boots’ or ‘Tiny Wooden Box’). Since I own all of their records on vinyl, I’ve been to their live shows, I was in the top 0.01% of listeners on Spotify last year, I know almost all of their songs off by heart, and I know how to play several on guitar, I think I’m qualified to give this lecture. 

It starts with the instruments. A Cello, a Banjo, a Guitar and a Mandolin, the string quartet from heaven. Now, introduce the voices of Scott Pringle and Nate Hilts, the lead vocalists whose voices capture the very essence of the western frontier and the Oregon trail. Finally, tell a story you’d expect to hear in a saloon somewhere in Nebraska or Texas during the 1850s about war, women, being poor, being an alcoholic, dying horribly, or about dying horribly in a war with the woman you love as a poor alcoholic. Then stick it into a blender, pour it into your ears, and feel yourself wanting to wear a bolo tie and a suit within the week. 

These boys have songs for every mood. Yes, they specialise in existential crisis or heartbreak, but their ballads capture almost every emotion in the book. ‘In Hell I’ll Be In Good Company’ makes you want to do the little Tik-Tok trend that sprouted up a few years ago, ‘Gunslinger’s Glory’ makes you want to be the quickest draw in the motherfuckin’ land, and ‘Miss Mary’ reminds you to take your pills in the morning, unless you want to kill your husband.  

They might not be as popular as Chris Stapleton, Luke Combs, or any of the other country artists out there, but what they are is talented, unique, and niche enough that you’d be introducing your friends to something new every time you bring them up at your mate’s party… or you’ll earn rolled eyes like I do, before everyone skips to the next Katy Perry or Pit Bull in the que. 

Playlist: Fifteen Songs by Ffifteen Queer Artists 

Because apparently the queer experience is crying in your bedroom, falling in love in a club bathroom, and making it sound absolutely incredible. This playlist travels through aching folk confessionals, indie rock catharsis and pop perfection, spotlighting artists who transform vulnerability, love, loss and self-discovery into unforgettable songs. From Sufjan Stevens’ existential spirals to MUNA’s unapologetic bangers, this playlist is a celebration of every beautifully messy corner of queer artistry. 

1. anything – Adrianne Lenker 

2. Edge of the Earth – The Beaches 

3. Not Strong Enough – boygenius 

4. Fuck Me Eyes – Ethel Cain 

5. Violence – FIGHTMASTER 

6. Bad Religion – Frank Ocean 

7. Holiday – Green Day 

8. Sunshine Baby – The Japanese House 

9. Dirt – Julien Baker & TORRES 

10. Honey – Troye Sivan 

11. Partner in Crime – Lucy Dacus 

12. Big Stick – MUNA 

13. Lost Boys – Phoebe Bridgers 

14. Shy – reneé Rapp 

15. So You Are Tired – Sufjan Stevens 

This week, I realised I couldn’t be bothered going any further than walking distance, so today my friends and I tore up Morrinsville in order to find something worth doing. Since it’s the first Saturday of the month, we realised that it would be more interesting than usual; the local farmer’s market was on! Yes, Morrinsville is such a small, boring town the most interesting part of our month is the Farmer’s market. Sue us. 

All of the stalls were incredible, and they all had something different to offer. My favourite stall was the stand run by an older gentleman with a really cool cowboy hat. He had built an assortment of wooden jewelry boxes and decorative containers, most of them for a reasonable price. What caught our eye, however, was the strange collection of hollow boxes that definitely weren’t for putting things in; he said to pick a song on our phone, and to sit it in the suspiciously phone shaped slot. It’s an acoustic speaker, and they worked SUPER well. If only this was a $120 dollar date, I would have bought one of them in a heartbeat! 

After our exploration of the market was complete, we went into town for a feed, and Morrinsville has no shortage of options for food. If you feel like a fancy meal, we have The Chambers or a Redoubt in the middle of town. If you’re rich, then there’s a few options for sushi down the main street. But our pride and joy here are our bakeries; we have seven or eight, but our three best are Ronnies, The Bakehouse, and The Wagon Wheel. Most locals will tell you the Wagon Wheel is the best, but they’re out of stock before 10am. The Bakehouse, however, always has more to sell. Their food costs an average of $6 per item, and the drinks in the fridge are about the same (unless you’re me, and you want to spend $10 on an iced chocolate because you aren’t broke enough). They also have a menu of breakfasts and lunches for under $20, all of which are super good to eat. We all got a pie and a drink, took a seat, and chatted until we were ready to go home and watch a movie 

So, how did we rate the date?  

Well, you do need to be prepared for this one because the farmer’s market is always on the first Saturday of the month, so it scored a 3/5. We did enjoy ourselves, but farmers markets can be a bit niche, plus Morrinsville doesn’t have a lot else to offer unless you like big plastic cows and walking, so it also scores another 3. Affordability was where it shines; if you don’t buy anything, the market is free, so theoretically you can get away without spending anything. The food around town isn’t bad either, and so I give it a 5/5; there’s no way you can break the bank. As for whether or not we’d go on a second date, that depends on who you are, and who you’re with; a recurring theme in this column. If you or your partner aren’t into this sort of thing, it’s not going to be perfect, but it gives you a chance to do cute coupley things like walk around holding hands or buy someone a necklace they looked at for two seconds too long, and so I’m giving it a 4 as well. That’s a total of 3.8 for the Morrinsville Farmers Market; maybe not the best, but certainly not the worst. 

Do you want a story with too many characters and not enough mystery? Then A Man You Can Bank On is the book for you! Set in a small town in the Australian outback, this novel follows a cast of criminals, townspeople and police as they all try to figure out what happened to a stolen cache of three million dollars. It’s not a mystery novel, the book tells you where it’s gone immediately, and everybody in the book also knows where it’s gone, but nobody can prove it. 

With something like 30 odd significant characters, keeping track of everyone is nearly impossible and remembering their role in the story, even more so. With just enough spicy language to qualify as an adult novel, this book isn’t really bad, per se, it’s just nothing to write home about either. The dogs are what really makes it worth reading 

First day back in Semester B, and there’s something new in the library! It looks so cozy and inviting, and kind of reminds me of a fishbowl. Cute! 
 

I forget everything every three seconds, and I’m insanely sensitive to changes in my environment, so I think I‘ll belong there. That’s right folks, I’m talking about the glass study boxes that have been introduced for more plentiful (and, perhaps more importantly, soundproof) study spaces in our wondrous library! 

The doors open and close silently, there’s only four seats and the table is only really big enough for two. I foresee many study dates being held in the fishbowls. They are completely soundproof, as proven by the number of heads that turned when my earbuds died and Bob Seger blasts from my phone at full volume; Zero. The seats are comfortable, the table is fairly sized and there’s nothing for me to hit my head on. A little panel on the wall has controls for lights, air conditioning, and a couple of charging ports so you can’t act like your device died to get out of writing that essay. 

Never fear pessimists, I do have complaints. If you’re claustrophobic, the fishbowls aren’t for you. There’s plenty of headspace, but the walls are a little tight. The benches may have been intended to fit four, but I don’t see more than two people sitting in here comfortably without elbowing each other or emptying the bench so somebody can get to a toilet. Plus, there don’t appear to be any fish flakes in here, which ruins the aesthetic. 

That said, they’re a great addition to our study spaces. They’ll make an awesome place to study, or to binge watch Friends and pretend like you’re a beta swimming around in a fishbowl. 

With a cast that has been absolutely phenomenal performing their characters through all five seasons (Shoutout to Kiwi actors Antony Starr as Homelander and Karl Urban as Billy Butcher, two men I’d call daddy any day), The Boys began as a contender for being one of the greatest superhero TV shows to air in history. Unfortunately, by season four, it was filled with disappointing fillers that set up the fifth and final season for failure. 

While the premise in the first episode was solid, the dialogue was noticeably worse and the jokes weren’t landing; the worst offender being Kimiko (another stellar performance from Karen Fukuhara), who had finally overcome her trauma and could finally speak… only to have nothing to say except brainrot. 

The rest of the season followed in disappointing fashion, with 90% of the show’s marketing being clickbait. The memes were scathing, as the “scorched earth” promises ended up being a barely damaged oval office. That’s before we even consider the writer’s choice to use Soldier Boy, the greatest antihero to grace my screen (okay you got me, it’s because Jensen Ackles is a daddy too) as a walking marketing ploy for their spinoff series, Vought: Rising and The Boys: Mexico, and became the very thing they swore to destroy all the way back in season one. 

All in all, the only truly redeeming qualities of this season was the actor’s talent for their characters (and the writer’s ability to predict the future actions of a certain president of America), but that’s not enough to bring the rating of The Boys season five to a high enough level for it to be worth recommending.

It’s cheaper than fuel, you don’t have to fight for parking, and there’s no chance of someone breaking in and stealing your vehicle. For these three reasons, I know lots of fellow students who also take the bus, and we all love it. Except we all hate it. 

I hate taking the bus. They’re slow, inconvenient, and there’s always some stoned guy talking too loud to the driver, or a gaggle of high school girls chatting about some pointless crap that you can’t help but eavesdrop on because there’s not really anything better to do. I hate the buses around here. I am currently a frequent flier on the Eastern 22 Connector that shoots out to Morrinsville, Matamata, Waharoa and Te Aroha, and it’s safe to say that… what the fuck. 

My classes this semester mostly start at 11:00am, give or take. Coming from Morrinsville, I then have to catch the 10:30am bus, landing at roughly 10:50am, and that’s almost perfect. But what if I had a 10am class? Well, I’d need to catch the 7:30am bus, arrive at roughly 8am, and twiddle my thumbs for two hours. Who in their right mind wants to do that? Not me, I want to sleep in. 

And what if my classes don’t finish until 6pm? Well, the last bus is at 5:30pm, so I’d better hope I have a friend on or around campus who either doesn’t mind taking me home, or has an extra mattress handy for me to sleep in. And it’s like this on every route out of town; and even the Meteors and Orbiters have their issues. 

I spent six months in England, and their buses were decent. There was always a bus going somewhere you needed to be at almost the right time; so why can’t Hamilton do that? The bus fares are pretty similar, and these buses don’t have to travel to the other side of the country. They stay in the Waikato region. Again, what the fuck? 

Old mate Chris Hipkins says that we could cap our bus fares at $10 a week because our public transport service has over $60 Million sitting around doing nothing, but I say we should hire more drivers. Imagine how much better life would be if there was a bus going exactly where you needed to go every half hour between 7am and 9pm? $60 Million sounds like it could make this dream happen, and I think that would be nothing short of epic. 

Inconvenient, understaffed, and just plain irritating. This bus-shit is making me want to spend a fortune driving every week, and I don’t even have a car. Hopefully, Hipkins does more than just capping the prices.

Luckily for me, BIOMO202 Genetics is not my class, so the missed notes aren’t an issue, but I’m starting to wonder if I’m in the wrong degree… because this is interesting. This lecture is all about how genetics can interact with the administration and absorption of certain drugs in our brains and our bodies, and that fascinates me to no end; too bad I’m also busy listening to the most boring history documentary of all time, that won’t answer any of the questions I have in my essay. Great. 

Quick shoutout to the lecturer though; it would be amazing if she could run some of my courses. The lecture was over by 9:42, and given we were still on the first slide when I walked in, I’m going to say that it couldn’t have taken any longer than 37 minutes. My genius STEM student friend tells me her record is 31 minutes, potentially the most impressive thing I learned today. 

So what does she actually teach? I have no idea (once again proving that I’m an arts student), but I’ll try to make sense of the few things I heard and saw on the board… oh no. Turns out, there’s a downside to lightning fast lecturers; we’re already on the fifth slide. Time to piece together the small fragments of intelligible English I can hear. 

First of all, it’s a genetics class, and she mentioned something about AI and alleles, those things that dictate our physical features. Looks like my future job isn’t the only one at risk of an AI takeover. Then there’s a strange and vaguely inappropriate looking graphic of serotonin and what must have been a neuron block, unless the giant red arrow is pointing in the wrong direction. The serotonin can’t get through to the neuron, which is something I think we can all relate to. Given that blocked or low serotonin is what I thought caused depression (a quick google search tells me that my thinking is outdated boomer talk), it’s good to know that genetics are, in fact, a factor.  

And now there’s more super smart Sciencey stuff going on up on the board that I can’t translate. No, seriously, it looks like it’s written in code; numbers and letters and symbols I can’t follow are thrown up like sketchy ads on a pirating website (A240-GCD*&Blah wants to know my location), and my friend’s best efforts still aren’t enough for me to make any sense of the garbled characters highlighted in an assortment of colours that a rainbow would be jealous of. 

All in all, this class looks like it’s fairly interesting, and it has incredibly efficient lecture time. I just hope that everybody attending is able to understand what’s being said, and that nobody stops listening for longer than half a second, lest they miss some crucial detail for their exam that won’t ever be mentioned again, until said exam, like I did. My friends start talking about everything they’ve learned, and I have to smile and nod along because the only words I recognise were “Drug”, “Administer” and “The”. Scratch what I said earlier about being in the wrong degree; boring history documentaries with a German narrator about some joe blogs from the 1500s is exactly what I should be doing after all.

For this installment, I’m joined by my girlfriend’s best friend and fellow Nexus writer, Chloe Caddy, as both of our partners are in other countries right now, and we got bored. 

Initially, we decided we were going to hit up the minigolf course at Centerplace, but we noticed something intriguing across the hall; Funzone has their own escape rooms! We looked at each other and immediately agreed that this sounded way more enjoyable, and waltzed right on in. 

Walking in, we immediately realized that there was a Game of Thrones and a Harry Potter themed room- being nerds, we were overjoyed. Even better than that, entry on Thursdays costs $25 per person, and $28 for students every other day of the week. Compared to Confinement just down the road, which costs $40 and has no student discount, this was an absolute steal! 

Unfortunately, we weren’t able to enter the HP room as another team was already using it, so we settled for the GoT room instead. Which was expert level. Well, shit. One hour later, we had almost figured our way through the entire room, only running out of time with three or four steps to go. 

Proud of our achievement, given neither of us believed we’re very good at escape rooms, we then wandered down Barton street to my favourite store in Hamilton; Fossick. This vintage and antique store has some items of clothing, old video game and movie discs, with the occasional instrument and other knicknacks for a household, but its main attraction is the extensive collection of books and vinyl records they own. The two of us ended up keeping them open well past their closing time of 5PM as we fossicked (hence their name) through movie posters and records. While this store is technically free to enter, I can almost guarantee you’re going to end up spending money here if this is something that interests you; we spent about $49. This is why the budget line is blurry. 

So, how did we rate our day out? 
Firstly, there was no preparation needed; while booking the specific room you want may come in handy, you’re also more than welcome to just walk in and take an empty escape room if one is available. Since Fossick is open from 10am-5pm every day, you don’t need to prepare for this either. 4.8 out of 5. 
We enjoyed ourselves immensely, though Chloe did reason that you have to be cautious with the escape room. Since you’re on a timer, there’s real pressure to win, and this could easily turn sour with bickering, critical judgement, or poor communication. Both parties need to participate fully, and so it earns a 4 out of 5. 

It was also fairly affordable, especially if you go on a Thursday. Our total combined spending was $99, almost the maximum allotment for the day before breaking the budget; skipping the trip to Fossick and going on Thursday still would have meant a perfect $50 spend, burning the entire budget in just one hour, only scoring 3 out of 5. 

Finally, Chloe and I agreed that assuming we went with an agreeable and enthusiastic partner, we would gladly go on a second date after this one, and that it makes for a great date idea; again, assuming both parties are enthusiastic, and make the most of their time. 4 out of 5. 

And so, we’re giving the Escape Room and Fossick date an average of four stars out of five. The risk for things to turn sour and the full budget expenditure knock the day down a peg, but we both still highly recommend. 

That’s the first thing I hear after walking into BIOMD202, and I start to wonder if I’m on drugs as I’ve missed half of this lecture trying to find MSB 1.05, which took me roughly an hour. Waikato University, you need to give this classroom a decent godforsaken sign so we know where it is. 

This is a new class to Waikato University, instated in the big ‘26, and it’s reflected in the slideshow we’ve been presented with. This has to be the most boring and bland set of slides I’ve ever seen in my life, and definitely NOT suited for a class all about drugs. I reckon some nice flashing colours, a couple of rainbow spirals, and this slideshow will be a great experience for all 10 students sitting in the room with me.  

The lecturer definitely knows what she’s talking about, not that there’s a lot of engagement from the class; so far, she’s asked two questions about drug interactions, which my best friend/the nerd next to me has answered. She asks; How does [insert long, complicated drug name here] react with [insert over the counter drug here] that the patient didn’t disclose, and what warning signs should you be looking for? Answer: Pulmonary embolism, shortness of breath and chest pains. If there was ever a good reason to tell a doctor about those antihistamines and edibles I took last week, that was most certainly it. I’m glad she reminded the med students to monitor a patient’s side effects of the drugs they take, because that feels like a very important step in the process of administering drugs. 

In a strange turn of pace, she brings up… What the hell is an enzyme seduction? Oh, sorry, induction? That’s strange. I wonder if these med students know something I don’t, but I can’t let on; they’ll sniff out my arts degree and rip me to shreds, with those condescending looks of theirs. Whatever it is, she has not explained it very well, and- OH MY GOD. AI SPOTTED IN THE POWERPOINT. This is NOT okay, NOT OKAY AT ALL. Yup, they definitely know I’m an arts student now. 

After recovering from that traumatising observation, I hear her remind the students that “Patients should be informed at all times.” Uhh yes, isn’t that like the law? I know that Dr House never obeys them, but he has that sexy cane giving him a pass. Following this, I learned that we have a national drug interaction checker in this country that all of our pharmacists and doctors rely on when prescribing drugs. Damn, wouldn’t it just suck if that got hacked and we found out how to get really “well medicated”  

SCENARIO: A woman begins taking oral contraceptives, and simultaneously begins to take a drug to combat the tuberculosis infection, but now she’s pregnant. How could this happen? Well, in my unprofessional Arts student opinion, my guess is that children aren’t the disease we all thought they were. 

Upon the conclusion of the lecture, I sit back and reflect on what I’ve learned. Number One: Brand New Pharmacology courses are lazy with their slideshows. Bland, boring text on a white background needs to be improved, and the AI imagery has got to go. Number Two: Telling my doctor about all the drugs I’m on, legal or otherwise, is a very important step in the direction of NOT dying. Finally, I’ve learned that MSB 1.05 needs a really big sign telling everybody where the hell it is.