Life is one long list of shindigs. We pop a cork on New Year’s Eve, don a tinsel wig for Mardi Gras, throw confetti all over our houses to warm them properly; each a shining story to embellish and revel in down the track. Immortalising these chapters of celebration in the visual equivalent of being blasted in the face with a confetti cannon, Sydney designers Romance Was Born have launched their very first exhibition, Reflected Glory, teaming up with kinetic sculptor and installation artist Rebecca Baumann. Launching in time for Mercedez-Benz Fashion Week Australia, Reflected Glory sees designers Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales veer off the runway and make a temporary, kaleidoscopic home within the industrial walls of Carriageworks. Rather than staring out the window and sobbing all over the past, RWB and Baumann seize the party blowers and celebrate the milestones that make our lives that extra bit spesh. Life, Death, It’s One Big RSVP Each piece in the collection represents a unique celebration, rite of passage or circled calendar date, from Mardi Gras to white weddings to that unavoidable final soiree, the wake. A sherbet-paletted, butterfly-beaded sweet sixteenth descends Baumann’s candy-coloured staircase, a Picnic at Hanging Rock-meets-Christina Ricci in Casper wedding dress hovers in a fairy floss pink haze, while a slowly revolving, truly magnificent mirrorball of a silver jacket triggers hazy New Year’s Eve memories. There's a metaphoric reflectiveness to the garments, as well as literal. “[I] really like the idea of reflecting back on the past,” says Sales. “The way we celebrate different milestones and the memory that can bring back.” Sales likened the process to a big night out, forgotten the morning after but slowly and (for the most part) fondly pieced back together over time. Sales points to one of the most striking pieces in the collection, an ode to Mardi Gras, a reflective hootenanny of a party dress. Shingled with the same multicoloured plastic making up Baumann’s kaleidoscopic disco floor nearby, the piece is fringed by a shaggy, shiny rainbow skirt that looks suspiciously like… wigs? “Yeah, tinsel wigs,” he triumphantly confirms. “And that’s New Year’s Eve, so it’s meant to be like a mirror ball. This is a house party, with the curtains and that t-shirt I was wearing the first time I met Anna at a house party.” The pair met at said house party in 2005 while students at East Sydney Technical College. Plunkett and Sales have since gained an international reputation for their unmistakable RWB swag. The T-shirt in question sports a nautical Madonna, a sentimental relic found in the back of Sales’ wardrobe now emblazoned with the pair’s thematic, tightly packed sequins. Plunkett sees the garment as a perfect representation of the pair’s fused ideology, “We embellished the garment in clear sequins and now this piece embodies the creative spirit between the both of us,” she says. Fashion, Meet Art. Art, Fashion. Regularly blurring distinctions between fashion and art, Sales and Plunkett are no strangers to the spoils of influence and collaboration. Before paying tribute to legendary Marvel Comics artist Jack Kirby in their hugely popular Summer 2012 collection, Berserkergang, Plunkett and Sales celebrated the treasured memories of a small-town Australian childhood with Archibald Prize winner Del Kathryn Barton, employing her exclusive digital ‘eye’ and ‘magic’ prints for their Spring/Summer ‘06/07 collection Regional Australia. It was in their Summer 2014 collection, Mushroom Magic, that the pair used a print from Rebecca Baumann’s work ‘Improvised Smoke Devise’. Scales and Plunkett met up with Baumann after the show and checked out some snaps of her installation works. Carriageworks had already commissioned RWB to create a work for their 2014 artistic program, timing the launch for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, thus the perfect opportunity to let their palettes blend. Reflected Glory is a fusion of Baumann’s celebratory installation style and RWB’s whimsical experimentation with detail. Where an RWB embellished T-shirt starts, Baumann’s signature gold tinsel ends, her 2010 work ‘Untitled Cascade’, playfully making a cameo in an epic train to the ‘House Party’ piece. Baumann’s popping candy-like projections set a prom-night stage for RWB’s sparkling moments of nostalgia, a fusion RWB embraced within their designs. “It’s very collaborative, like, super organic. Elements just kind of fell into place and we went with it,” says Plunkett. “[It’s fun] to use an artist’s influence, like, directly influencing our prints. We’ve reinterpreted her artwork too, so it’s a lot more interactive.” Every print in the exhibition comes from the Reflected Glory ready to wear collection, to be unleashed down the track. If there weren’t enough actual sequins sewed meticulously into each sleeve and bodice, the prints are magnified, saturated fields of photographic sequins. Each print was shot in direct sunlight for “maximum reflection” as Sales puts it. Leave The Models Out Of This Models have been left at the Carriageworks door for this exhibition. Working with mannequins instead of models, you’re working with a few advantages — the pieces aren’t bound by human restrictions like walking ability, plus mannequins don’t have homes to go to. In Reflected Glory viewers aren’t bound by their runwayside seats; instead, they are able to wander through the space and let the mirrorball motors unveil every last garment inch. Plunkett says working in an exhibition space as opposed to sending pieces down a runway can be a welcome change. “It’s kind of refreshing. It’s fun to be able to explore clothing but spatially, with light and through texture and kinetics.” But Sales and Plunkett insist the design process would be the same, models or not. “In the beginning I thought we wouldn’t design dresses so much — it would be more like objects with bigger shapes, more sculptural. But I feel like that’s not really who we are,” says Sales. “We’re designers not artists, we’re not trying to make sculpture.” A kinetic sculptor by trade, Baumann was a perfect partner in the duo’s quest to keep things moving. Baumann’s kaleidoscopic projections, bold geometric installations and carefully aimed lighting give each handsewn sequin, elaborate ruffled collar and tinsel-woven bodice its own glinting moment. “We didn’t just want to put mannequins in amongst some art and call that the exhibition,” says Sales, backed up by Plunkett. “We’re really interested in it not being a static thing,” she says. “The whole idea of suspending the garments with mannequins … We really wanted to be able to interact with the space, light and the eye.” Don't Design For The Industry With mirrorball outfits, oversized white sequins and embellished Madonna T-shirts supported by '80s love songs and candy store lighting, RWB definitely don’t create to please the fashion crowd. Both Sales and Plunkett see the shortcomings of an industry that can often suck the fun out of an essentially playful medium. “I guess we kind of have a bit of a sense of humour with what we do,” says Sales. “We don’t try and get too serious with fashion and I think, for me, fashion’s not about that. Fashion’s about expressing yourself and being fun and having fun with who you are and trying to communicate who you are to people.” “In a way, it feels like we’ve kind of gone back to our roots a bit more, working together, hand-sewing the garments together, draping it on the dummy and stitching it together,” he says. “It’s a bit more organic.” “I hope that people do take away that it is as uplifting as our usual runway show,” says Plunkett, pausing for a moment to consider the crowd attending. “Hopefully, but the fashion crowd can be very critical… Actually, bring it on.” Reflected Glory runs April 9 to May 11 at Carriageworks. Images by Zan Wembley and Lindsay Smith.
Don't sweat it. Just don't. That's a great sentiment, but putting it into action isn't always so easy. Humanity has long wanted to care less about all of the things that really don't matter, including since before self-help was a book genre — and since before there were books. Nothing else has quite summed up that concept quite like The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck, though, even just in its title. It sits among a seemingly endless array of texts about living your best life and forgetting pointless strife, but Mark Manson's 2016 hit perfectly captured the idea that we should all devote less attention to matters that simply aren't worth it. First came the book. Then came the film version of The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck. Since Manson's famous tome hit shelves, he's also popped up to chat about it and offer his brutally honest self-help advice — and he's returning Down Under in November 2024 to do exactly that again. Consider heading along to this The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck live tour as the next step in pursuing the ultimate goal: giving less fucks. More than 20-million copies of the book have been sold, so you're probably familiar with Manson's take on living more contented and grounded lives already, but there's something to be said about hearing about it in person. Couldn't be arsed reading the text? Then this is another way to soak in its contents. Of course, Manson's spin isn't about never giving a fuck. Rather, he knows that it's wise to choose where to direct our fucks, what to give a crap about and what genuinely bloody matters. The book's chapter titles are as telling as its overall moniker, boasting names such as 'Don't Try', 'Happiness is a problem', 'You are not special', 'You are wrong about everything (But so am I)', 'The importance of saying no' and 'And then you die'. Also the author of Everything Is F*cked: A Book About Hope, Manson will be onstage exploring this train of thought on a seven-stop trip around Australia and New Zealand, including in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Canberra, Adelaide, Perth and Auckland. Attendees can expect a deeper dive into the principles stepped through in his book, plus practical tips and stories from real life. This is an event to give a fuck about, clearly. Here's the trailer for the film, too, if you haven't yet seen it: The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Live with Mark Manson Dates: Monday, November 4 — Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, Sydney Wednesday, November 6 — Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne Thursday, November 7 — QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane Saturday, November 9 — Canberra Theatre Centre, Canberra Sunday, November 10 — Festival Theatre, Adelaide Monday, November 11 — Perth Concert Hall, Perth Friday, November 15 — Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Auckland Mark Manson's The Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck Live tour hits Australia and New Zealand in November 2024, with ticket presales from 10am local time on Wednesday, July 17 — except in Melbourne, where ticket sales start at 11am local time on Monday, July 22. Head to the tour website for more details.
The top end of town in Brisbane's CBD has ever-so-gradually been undergoing a transformation. It started with Queens Plaza, continued with the reinvigoration of King George Square, and has been spreading ever-outwards, imbuing the city streets with flashes and splashes of glamour and colour. The recent opening of upmarket pizza and burger joint Santa Monica has only added to the fever, and we're glad they did. Loud and proud in prime position on Ann and Edward Streets (and conveniently opposite Central Station), you really can't miss it. Nor should you. The hardest decisions to make will ultimately be whether to get a cocktail now, or after your perfectly crispy pizza. Do you sit at a booth, or stand at one of the tables in the middle of the venue? Do you hang out at the courtyard bar and grab a beer, or queue for drinks inside to watch the action in the kitchen? Santa Monica is perfect for after work drinks just as much as it is for a fun work lunch. Images: Grace Smith.
Vinyl is the restaurant and bar area of live music venue, the Hi-Fi, located on bustling Boundary Street in West End. Commonly frequented for its pre-gig drinking qualities, it's actually the food that is the drawcard here. Sitting kerbside at Vinyl you get to experience all of the great things about West End, including chatting with Craig, a friendly local bongo drum enthusiast who will shake your hand. The best part of the experience here though, is the menu, featuring delicious and unique takes on tacos, wings and burgers. To start with my eating partner and I ordered tacos: the crispy pork belly with charred corn salsa and hot sauce, and the fried fish with chipotle sour cream and coriander salsa verde. Very accommodating to dietary requirements (low-gluten) they brought these out in crisp iceberg lettuce leaves – san choy bow style. At $5 each these tacos were mouth-wateringly tasty, with unique flavours working together well. To continue the food-fest (accompanied by a Bulmer's Cider and Asahi) we ordered the twice-cooked chicken wings with hoi sin sauce – crunchy and salty - then a wagyu cheeseburger, served with cornichons and truffle dijonnaise. Served on a bed of thrice-cooked chat potato chips for the gluten intolerant, this is a rare win for those with dietary requirements. With incredibly reasonable prices and a chilled vibe, Vinyl is the perfect place for a mid-week pigout or a Sunday lunchtime hangover cure.
Back in the day, you could walk into any old saloon, tap the bar with two fingers and the bartender would pour you a top-shelf whisky — neat, of course. Sadly, such a suave scenario isn't possible at the moment, but just because bars across the country have been forced to temporarily close doesn't mean you must go without your Laphroaig. Keeping you suitably soused while you're stuck at home is Whisky Loot. And while it mightn't be new, there's never been a better time to get small-batch and hard-to-find whiskies delivered straight to your door. The monthly subscription service delivers a box of three 60-millilitre bottles, with a different theme every time, so you'll never drink the same tipple twice. The aim is to expand your palate and educate you along the way. So, if you're just entering the world of whisky or looking to sample something other than your go-to firewater, this is for you. This month, you'll get to sample three fine Australian whiskies: an award-winning one from Launceston Distillery; a rye by Melbourne-based distillery The Gospel; and the Whisky Loot Private Barrel made by Whipper Snapper Distillery, which is not available for retail sale. While we could go into the tasting notes of each, we reckon you should take the gamble and just drink 'em. Plus, you'll be supporting local businesses, the importance of which cannot be underestimated right now. As well as three tasty ambers, you'll receive expert tasting notes and a tasting journal (with your first box), both of which will help take you from whisky novice to aficionado. And although it's a subscription service, you can do it month-to-month, with no lock-ins. It makes for a great gift, too. Best of all, Whisky Loot is offering $10 off your first order if you opt for the subscription, making it just $49 for your first round, which includes free standard shipping across Australia. And for New Zealand, contact support@whiskyloot.com for shipping information. To get in on this sweet deal, just enter SUPPORT5 at checkout. Plus, it'll be donating $5 from each box to Hospo Voice in support of the hospitality industry, which is doing it pretty tough right now. So, you can cheers to a good cause. For more information about Whisky Look and to sign up, head here. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
Following the success of last year's Pokémon Go craze, the latest smartphone foray into augmented reality sees the launch of Snapchat's art lens, which will again see people wandering around using their smartphone to locate 'virtual objects' all across the globe. This time though you can claim a cultural pull, because instead of hunting collectable monsters, you'll be scouting out three-storey-high digital sculptures by acclaimed American artist Jeff Koons. Having dabbled plenty in AR with its face-morphing selfie filters and World Lens feature, Snapchat's now dropped a series of Lenses that will let users view a selection of Koons's colourful installations in specific locations worldwide. Right now, the series includes a shiny gold balloon dog in New York's Central Park, a rainbow playdough sculpture on Brazil's Copacabana Beach and a monumental likeness of Popeye at Sydney Opera House. Each sculpture will remain virtually in one place for a few weeks, before moving to a new location. If you're hooked up with the latest version of Snapchat, the app will give you the option of using the art lens when you're within 300 metres of one of the sculptures. The sculptures will appear on your screen once you're nearby — you can't miss them. Snapchat's also put the call out for other artists to jump aboard their virtual global art exhibition — here's hoping some local works are added to the mix.
NAIDOC Week, the annual week-long celebration of the history, achievements and diverse culture of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples has kicked off a little later than usual this year. And, as with everything in 2020, this edition of NAIDOC Week is going down a bit differently. After originally being scheduled for its usual spot in the calendar in early July, the festivities were postponed to November due to COVID-19. It's now running from Sunday, November 8–Sunday, November 15. This year's theme is 'Always Was, Always Will Be', recognising that First Nations people were the first to step foot on this land and that they have occupied and cared for the land for over 65,000 years. As is now customary for 2020, a majority of this years NAIDOC Week events will take place online. Talks, art exhibitions and markets will happening across this country — and the internet — this week so clear your schedule. It's also important to celebrate and recognise Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples outside of NAIDOC Week. Every day is a good day to learn more about the country's history, support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander owned businesses, and donate to important social enterprises and charities if you have the means.
New York is a very strange, very wonderful place. A city full of the quirky, the neurotic, and the downright weird, there is a place for everything and everyone in New York. That's why when I came across Rachael Morrison I was hardly surprised by her unorthodox performance art — in fact, I was completely spellbound. Morrison, a Senior Library Assistant at The Museum of Modern Art Library in New York, has launched a performance art project called 'Smelling the Books.' And yes, this is exactly what it sounds like. In early 2010, Morrison began her olfactory escapade, systematically smelling every book in the MoMA Library collection and documenting each new sensory experience in a ledger. Of the performance Morrison says her purpose is to "foster a discussion of the future of print media, the ways we read, methods of classification, and the way in which smell is entwined with memory." I love the smell of books. A book is like a lover — with each one you have a unique experience and with each you build a unique relationship, one that can't be re-fabricated by a computer or a kindle, no matter how hard you try. And that's why I'm asking you now, gentle reader, to join Morrison's crusade; pick up your favourite old classic or buy something new, curl up wherever you are with a cup of coffee, and nuzzle your nose between the pages. There has never been a better time than now to smell a book.
Like many events, Vivid Live had its 2020 edition axed due to the pandemic. But you'll find a pretty sweet consolation prize among the Sydney Opera House's digital program — a stream of Amon Tobin's audiovisual spectacular ISAM, hitting screens this Friday, August 14. The Brazilian-born producer's immersive show wowed audiences the first time around for Vivid Live 2012 and now it's headed to a device near you, available on demand from this week. Revisit the ever-innovative artist's stand-out performance, featuring a multi-sensory fusion of technology and electronic art. Performing within a 25-foot, three-tonne cubic installation he built himself, Tobin moves in and out of focus behind a constantly shifting multidimensional screen. The artist's high-voltage soundtrack of sonic explosions and rippling waves is backed by striking visuals playing out a mesmerising story of colour and light draped across the whole scene. The streamed performance is just one show featured in the Sydney Opera House's digital season, From Our House to Yours. To check out the rest of the performances, keep an eye on the SOH website. [caption id="attachment_773326" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Hamilton Lund[/caption] Top image: Prudence Upton
When National Tim Tam Day hit earlier this year, biscuit brand Arnott's gave Australians something we didn't know we wanted: the opportunity to smell like Tim Tams all day long. That chocolate biscuit-scented perfume was a limited-time-only affair, however, but there's now an option for your home, too — or for your mum's, because this a Mother's Day special. To mark 2022's celebration of mums, Arnott's doesn't simply want you to simply give your mother Tim Tams — although it clearly does still want you to do exactly that. To really get everyone's tastebuds in a tizzy, the biscuit brand has also just launched gift packs filled with Tim Tam-smelling candles and diffusers. Try getting a whiff of that and not having instant bikkie cravings. Yes, if Victoria Bitter can make a fragrance inspired by beer, The Louvre can drop perfumes that take their cues from its famous artworks and Messina can release gelato-scented candles, then making the air around you smell like Tim Tams really isn't that outlandish at all. It's the aroma that'll make you hungry all day, and features not only cocoa notes, but also caramel, tonka bean and a hint of sandalwood as well. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tim Tam (@timtam) The Melbourne-made, cruelty-free and vegan packs cost $100 a pop and are only on sale until Thursday, April 28, and include a 200-millilitre Tim Tam-scented reed diffuser and a 300-gram Tim Tam-scented candle, as well as packs of original and salted caramel brownie Tim Tams. So, if you're buying this as a gift, that means you won't need to take a dessert along to Mother's Day lunch. And if you're purchasing it for yourself instead, well, you're only human. Stocks are limited, though — but delivery is free Australia-wide. The Tim Tam Mother's Day gift boxes are available to purchase until Thursday, April 28.
Back in mid-2019, the revamped section of Fortitude Valley around the Alfred Street and Brunswick Street area underwent a revamp, with Foresters and Altitude rooftop bar opening in the slick FV by Peppers precinct. Plenty can change in a couple of years, however, with both venues saying goodbye — and La Costa among the newcomers taking their place. The space at 209 Brunswick Street now actually features four new places. For those eager for a cocktail and a bite to eat on the ground level, that's where the two La Costa venues come in. The restaurant serves up dinner Wednesday–Sunday and lunch Friday–Sunday, while the bar does cocktails, antipasti, tapas and brunch — plus live tunes and DJs. For those keen for a food-focused experience, La Costa restaurant takes inspiration from summers in the Italian Riviera, so seafood features heavily. Think Moreton Bay bug spaghetti ($32), clam linguini ($24), mussels with sun-dried tomatoes and Italian sausage ($26), and whole baby barramundi ($34). You can also opt for a sirloin steak marinated in chilli and garlic ($36), three other types of pasta ($26–32) and eight varieties of pizza ($24–26), plus Italian doughnuts filled with tiramisu cream ($14) and limoncello meringue tarts ($14) from the dessert range. At La Costa bar, there's fresh burrata ($12), baked sardines ($12) and two types of bruschetta ($9–12), plus mango coffee margaritas ($22, made with tequila, Mr Black coffee liqueur, mango and lime) and Olive and Tonics ($22, with olive leaf gin, madeira, tonic, rosemary and olives) from a nine-option cocktail list. If you'd rather, you can pick from the three spritzes on offer ($18–22), or peruse the sparkling, wine and beer selection. For brunch at La Costa Bar, highlights include Spanish eggs ($18); haloumi, mushroom and avocado burgers ($16); eggs benedict ($18); and beetroot and quinoa salad ($17). Your mid-morning meal also comes with a range of choices from the special brunch cocktail menu. And yes, the Hangeroni ($15, with gin, Campari and vermouth rosso) definitely stands out. Those drinks menus hail from the folks at Sydney's Maybe Sammy — which was named one of the world's best bars late in 2020. And, the venues themselves are the latest ventures from the team behind Salt Meats Cheese and Roman-style eatery Eterna. They also sit in a building that was first erected in 1889, was originally known as Foresters' Hall, initially housed a community meeting place and then became Fortitude Valley's first cinema in 1910.
Does anything scream holidays quite like kicking back with a drink while staring at the ocean? If that's your dream getaway pastime, even just on day trips to the Gold Coast, then you're about to score two more places to indulge. Already famous for its surf, Kirra is welcoming a new precinct that'll include accommodation, as well as hospitality spots Kirra Beach Hotel and Kirra Beach House — both of which are set to open in November. Eleven years in the making, Kirra Point Precinct will feature residential and vacation apartments, with a 116-unit tower dedicated to folks living the beach life year-round. If you're not residing or staying onsite, you can still look forward to hitting the shops — and gaining a new excuse to sip and snack while feeling the coastal breeze. One of the development's big drawcards is its seafront perch, which gives Kirra Beach Hotel and Kirra Beach House killer ocean vistas. At Kirra Beach Hotel, which'll start letting patrons through the doors on Wednesday, November 8, the aim is to level up the classic beachside pub concept. A watering hole has stood onsite since 1956, but this is a new Kirra Beach Hotel after its previous guise was demolished in 2021. Designed to be breezy and casual — think: a sunny beer garden opposite the surf, five-metre-high ceilings and windows letting the fresh air in — this version sprawls across 1300 square metres on the corner of Marine Parade and Miles Street, and will be filled with surfing memorabilia heroing the sport's famous names like Mick Fanning and Joel Parkinson. Attracting all kinds of beachgoers is another big focus. So, Kirra Beach Hotel will include a family-friendly bistro serving up schnitzels, fish and chips, and other traditional pub fare; a public bar pouring plenty of local names like Balter and Burleigh Brewing on the beer side, and Brookie's Gin for spirits; and a sports bar filled with hefty TVs. For a drop to take home, there'll also be a bottle-o that again champions homegrown fare. And, for anyone heading by straight from the beach, there'll be a tub of thongs for folks who don't have shoes with them. Greg Hodge is back as Kirra Beach Hotel's publican, after overseeing the bar for eight years in its last iteration. "We want the Kirra Beach Hotel to be more than just a pub for our guests and a place where anyone is welcome," he advised. "It's a second home, a place where you can relax and be on a first-name basis with our staff, a place where you can pop in after a surf and grab a bite to eat, and perch up with a beer in hand and watch the waves roll in." Kirra Beach House doesn't have an exact opening date as yet, but will also throw open its doors in mid-November on the precinct's second level. Here, patrons will find a 1200-square-metre venue by SITE Hospitality's Dave Galvin (Kōst, Mozza Mozza) — and a spot that again boasts a number of spaces within its one big space. There'll be a wine bar, two cocktail bars (one, Preston's, is for intimate soirées), indoor spots to drink, outdoor places to settle in, and room for events such as weddings and shindigs. The views at Kirra Beach House will feature the ocean and sky — so, plenty of blue — from almost everywhere within its walls. Obviously, when you're out on the terrace cocktail bar, seeing the beach is a given (also expect to spy Broadbeach and Surfers Paradise's skylines). While you're soaking in the views, you can listen to DJs and acoustic tunes, and get comfortable in 20-person cabanas. Head around to the western terrace and a kitchen, bar and asado barbecue await, as well as foliage as a backdrop. "It will have a beach club atmosphere about it, with great music, mesmerising panoramic views of Kirra, Mediterranean-style food using the incredible local produce we have on our doorstep, a world-class drinks list and, of course, great service," said Galvin. As for the food and drinks, the menu by Kōst Executive Chef Sebbie Kenyon includes seafood platters both raw and cooked, plus steaks, burgers, flatbreads and pizzas — and cocktails that take their cues from holidays, fittingly, as well as house-made spritzes and Aussie wines. Kirra Beach Hotel and Kirra Beach House form part of Kirra Point Precinct's first stage. When stage two arrives, it'll add to the places to stay, shop, and eat and drink. On the cards: a boutique hotel, laneway retailers, a village square, a fresh food marketplace, another residential apartment tower, a gelateria and more. Kirra Beach Hotel will open on Wednesday, November 8 and Kirra Beach House in mid-November at Kirra Point, 2 Marine Parade, Coolangatta.
Every music lover has dreamed of owning their own record store. What hasn't factored into everyone's fantasies, however, is what happens when that passion for vinyl leaves you with crates and crates of albums, and then crates and crates more. Yes, there are only so many sleeves that even the biggest shop run by the biggest music buff can handle — meaning that, often there's some additional stock needing a new home. In Butter Beats' case, that's just the scenario they find themselves in, and they're coping with it in the best possible way. On February 10 from 9am, they're heading to West End's Kurilpa Hall to sell off a huge heap of surplus bits and pieces. The best part? Each record is $3. Yes, you can boost your vinyl collection for little more than spare change, with all styles of music on offer. If you're after some reading material as well, magazines will also be on sale for $1. And, if your piggy bank is empty, EFTPOS will be available.
When a trend spreads its wings everywhere from Coles to KFC — and above Australian beaches, too — you mightn't expect it to zip into theatres as well. But humanity's love of drones just can't be stopped, whether they're helping shoot sky-high aerial footage for cinema and television, taking to the heavens to put on a dazzling light show or, at Australasian Dance Collective's new world-premiering production Lucie in the Sky, providing almost half the cast for a new choreographed stage show. Performing at Brisbane's Queensland Performing Arts Centre, in the South Bank venue's Playhouse, this production pairs six dancers with five drones, with the latter mimicking the former's movements. The robotic part of the piece definitely isn't just about hovering around. The drones are named, given personalities and — in a big change to the usual drone shows — treated like individual players rather than a swarm. From Friday, May 5–Saturday, May 13, audiences will meet the friendly Lucie, the show's namesake with the Beatles-inspired moniker; M, the leader of the group; jester Skip; Rue, the wise drone; and the rebellious Red. As well as their own vibe, which could be anything from joyful to melancholic, each has their own light colour to match. The flesh-and-blood component of the show sees the five drones create relationships with ADC's dancers, all in a performance that's about exactly what you think it is: how people interact with technology, what that says about both us and the gadgets that we use in our lives, and also what it means to be human. Images: David Kelly.
With both the Indie Beer Showcase and Good Beer Week sadly axed from our calendars this year, organisers have headed online to host a series of virtual beer events instead. And these ones you can enjoy anywhere, any time — heck, even pants-free, if you fancy. Streamed via the Independent Brewers Association YouTube channel, each of these online tasting parties celebrates a different Aussie craft brewery, led by a brewer or key member of the team. They'll chat about a few signature beers, discuss what goes into making them, give an insight into the world of brewing and maybe even offer a sneak-peek at some future releases. The Good Beer Week Facebook page gives a heads-up as to who'll be hitting screens next, so you can stock up in advance at the bottle shop or get that beer delivery sorted. The live stream schedule is fairly loose, though videos are mostly run during prime drinking times like after work on Fridays and Saturday afternoons. That said, the sessions are all kept up on YouTube so you can revisit later at your leisure — tune in any time you're in the mood for a tipple and some beer talk. Image: Simon Shiff
Taylor Swift announcing a new album as she broke records. Barbie's 'What Was I Made For?' winning Song of the Year. Tracy Chapman. Celine Dion. Miley Cyrus' first Grammy ever. Annie Lennox's Sinead O'Connor tribute. The 2024 Grammys had them all. The awards also had SZA entering the ceremony as this year's most-nominated artist, swerving away from swords as she performed 'Kill Bill' and collecting three gongs. Next on the R&B singer's list: touring Australia and New Zealand. [caption id="attachment_939968" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jacob Webster[/caption] SZA won Grammys for Best Progressive R&B Album, Best R&B Song and Best Pop Duo/Group Performance with Phoebe Bridgers — and to appreciate why, you'll want to make a date with her shows in Auckland, Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne in April. She's playing two gigs each everywhere but Brissie, all at arenas on a seven-show visit. The S.O.S. tour is in support of SZA's second album of the same name, which dropped in late 2022. She's been performing the record live for the past year, kicking off in North America from February 2023, then playing Europe before returning to the US. Cue 'Good Days', 'Snooze', 'Shirt' and 'Nobody Gets Me' on her current setlists, plus 'Broken Clocks', 'Drew Barrymore', 'The Weekend' and 'Love Galore' from her debut album Ctrl — and everything from 'All the Stars' from the Black Panther soundtrack to 'Kiss Me More'. SZA joins a massive list of big-name tours heading Australia and New Zealand's way in 2024, alongside everyone from Tenacious D, Take That and Sophie Ellis-Bextor, and GZA this week alone. SZA S.O.S. Australia and New Zealand Tour Dates 2024: Monday, April 15–Tuesday, April 16 — Spark Arena, Auckland, Friday, April 19 — Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane Tuesday, April 23–Wednesday, April 24 — Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Monday, April 29–Tuesday, April 30 — Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne SZA is touring Australia and New Zealand in April 2024, with presales from 2pm on Friday, February 9 and general sales from 2pm on Monday, February 12. Head to the Australian and New Zealand tour websites for more information. Top image: The Come Up Show via Wikimedia Commons.
UPDATE, October 21, 2020: Rebecca is available to stream via Netflix. Primarily set in a sprawling British estate that'd make Downton Abbey's characters envious, starring one of that show's cast members and telling a tale taken from the pages of an iconic gothic novel, the latest version of Rebecca arrives with a splash. A visible one, too; every frame is not only elegant and atmospheric, but often overtly gorgeous. Each second of this Netflix-funded film drips with extravagance. A parade of striking visuals saunters before viewers' eyes, surveying not only the movie's main location, but the luxe furnishings within it, the scenic coastal patch of land it sits on and the finely tailored attire donned by those walking its halls. At every turn, it appears as though no expense has been spared in bringing Rebecca to the screen, and in striving to sweep audiences up in its lavish imagery and 1930s-era story. Alas, while the first part of that equation is easily, almost instantly achieved, the latter portion proves a bigger struggle. Like its source material, Rebecca starts with an evocative line: "last night I dreamt I went to Manderley again". It's uttered in voiceover by a young woman who is never known as anything but Mrs de Winter (Lily James), and who viewers first meet before she takes that moniker, when she's working as a lady's companion to acid-tongued socialite Mrs Van Hopper (The Handmaids' Tale's Ann Dowd) on a trip to the French Riviera. During the picturesque getaway, the unnamed heroine crosses paths with wealthy widower Maxim de Winter (Armie Hammer). Tasked by her boss to pay their hotel's staff to seat him at their table (for Van Hopper's benefit, not her own), her unassuming nature soon draws his attention. Romance quickly blooms — much to the shock of the well-heeled masses similarly summering by the sea — setting Maxim and his blushing new bride en route to the family mansion he vocally treasures. Back at Manderley, however, the second Mrs de Winter can't escape the lingering presence of the movie's titular figure. Everywhere she looks, she sees Rebecca's monogrammed belongings. Every conversation in the house seems to revolve around her as well, especially her tragic passing. With housekeeper Mrs Danvers (Kristin Scott Thomas), all Manderley's newcomer feels is passive-aggressive and sometimes openly aggressive menace — and the fact that the stern employee was absolutely, utterly devoted to Rebecca. Maxim's mood changes drastically, too, and while those unacquainted with Rebecca's twists and turns should keep it that way going in, his second wife is increasingly troubled by the sensation that much is awry. In other words, the film's central young woman — the one that's still living and breathing, that is — is caught in the shadow of her new husband's late previous wife. In the pages of Daphne du Maurier's 1938 novel, on the big and small screens several times since, and in this new iteration, that's a scenario laden with ample psychological thrills. Here, director Ben Wheatley patiently teases out the details, but it's noticeable (and perhaps fitting) that he also subjects his viewers to the same kind of experience endured by his protagonist. From the moment it was announced, Wheatley's film was forever destined to be compared to Alfred Hitchcock's Oscar Best Picture-winning 1940 version of the beloved book. That's what happens when you follow in Hitch's footsteps and, now that Rebecca circa 2020 has reached viewers, that won't change. Wheatley is a stellar filmmaker, and has a resume filled with everything from Down Terrace, Kill List and Sightseers to High-Rise, Free Fire and Happy New Year, Colin Burstead to prove it. But, in his most mainstream, least boundary-pushing effort to date, he has crafted a brooding movie that engages enough, yet never surprises and rarely has a strong lasting impact. That's the case even when it deviates from the famed changes that Hitchcock's version of the story was forced to implement under Hollywood's strict production code at the time (which didn't allow content and plot developments considered morally indecent to reach the screen). This iteration of Rebecca doesn't do du Maurier's adored text or the gothic genre it hails from a disservice. It's perfectly watchable, generally handles the narrative capably and proves near-overwhelmingly handsome, in fact. And still, even for audiences coming to it anew, with zero attachment to an 80-year-old previous adaptation, everything about it proves so expected. It must be terrifying, unsettling, dispiriting and downright soul-crushing to feel as if you're haunted by your predecessor, to have someone doing their utmost to ensure that impression never dissipates and to barely exist to those around you (that James' character isn't given a first name isn't an accident). Rebecca is as moody as it is visually lush, but it can't quite nail that crucial sensation. It tries, though. While the overall movie frequently seems content to serve up a standard period-set melodrama rather than leaning too far into taunting and lurching emotional horrors, Scott Thomas' turn as Mrs Danvers is supremely, disquietingly chilling — to the point that, if casting her in the part was the sole reason this film was made, that's understandable. Too much around her isn't willing to commit as heartily, however. James and Hammer always hit their marks, but do little more, for instance. All those opulent sights catch the eye, too, but as the feature's heroine herself learns, sumptuous packaging alone is rarely ever truly and completely satisfying. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LFVhB54UqvQ Top image: Kerry Brown, Netflix.
When the COVID-19 pandemic first started making its impact known, we all began to feel like we were living in a disaster movie. Contagion flicks, outbreak films, sci-fi fare about infectious diseases — they all echoed with eerie prescience. The next types of movies that might start cutting a little too close to home? Dystopian flicks about climate change's impact. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has released its sixth assessment report about the state of the planet, global warming's impact and humanity's influence upon increasing temperatures — and it doesn't paint a calming picture. The big news: if no big moves are made in current efforts to combat climate change, the planet will warm by 1.5 degrees above pre-industrial temperatures by as early as 2030. That figure has been mentioned for some time as an unwanted milestone, as it's when climate scientists predict that higher temperatures, rising sea levels, heavier rains, longer fire seasons and worse droughts will kick in. Given the increasing frequency of extreme weather events around the world already, including Australia's devastating 2019–20 bushfire season, seeing these conditions worsen is obviously alarming news. Also flagged by the IPCC, which is the United Nations' body for assessing the science related to climate change, has been around since 1988 and has 195 members from around the world: that the planet has already warmed by 1.1 degree since industrialisation, and that Australia has warmed by 1.4 degrees. And, it has dubbed humanity's part in these increases as "unprecedented", with working group co-chair Dr Valérie Masson-Delmotte saying that "the role of human influence on the climate system is undisputed." The #IPCC released its latest #ClimateReport today, #ClimateChange 2021: the Physical Science Basis. "The role of human influence on the climate system is undisputed." – Working Group I Co-Chair @valmasdel Report ➡️ https://t.co/uU8bb4inBB Watch the video, 🎥 ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/hZOSU1xWQR — IPCC (@IPCC_CH) August 9, 2021 Also, even if the IPCC's most ambitious targets to arrest the impact of climate change were put in place, global warming would still likely hit 1.5 degrees by 2035. The body's scientists expect that the planet will warm by at least 1.6 degrees above pre-industrial temps regardless of whichever measures are put in place, before ideally beginning to drop again once those drastic mitigation tactics — things like large-scale reforestation projects, or being able to remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere — started to have an effect. It's no wonder that United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has called the IPCC report "a "code red for humanity" in a statement. "The alarm bells are deafening, and the evidence is irrefutable: greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuel burning and deforestation are choking our planet and putting billions of people at immediate risk. Global heating is affecting every region on Earth, with many of the changes becoming irreversible," he continued. "The internationally agreed threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius is perilously close. We are at imminent risk of hitting 1.5 degrees in the near term. The only way to prevent exceeding this threshold is by urgently stepping up our efforts, and pursuing the most ambitious path," the Secretary-General said. "This report must sound a death knell for coal and fossil fuels, before they destroy our planet... If we combine forces now, we can avert climate catastrophe. But, as the report makes clear, there is no time for delay and no room for excuses." World leaders will meet at the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow from October 31 this year to discuss the planet's plans to stop warming at 1.5 degrees. To read the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's sixth assessment report, head to the IPCC's website.
In the 1950s, Rothko found himself living an artist's dream. He had been commissioned by Manhattan's elite for a series of paintings that would adorn the walls of the Four Seasons in the brand-new modernist masterpiece of glass and steel, the Seagram Building on Park Avenue. Rothko would be set up for life, limited by his own imagination. What he created was a violent statement against the richest of New York, as he vowed to create stomach-turning crimson canvases to "ruin the appetite of every son-of-a-bitch who eats there". By the end of the '50s, Rothko stormily reclaimed the paintings and returned the hefty cash. How this series of events came to be, Rothko never said. The thought-provoking mystery and relationships between master and protege, art and commerce, artist and audience are all examined in Red, the award-winning play originally penned by John Logan. This production, by the Melbourne Theatre Company, is presented for audiences by the Queensland Theatre Company and stars the talents of Colin Friels and Tom Barton. A stellar opportunity to see history-making theatre. Image by Jeff Busby.
You don't have to battle the crowds to experience Ekka's famed strawberry goodness. Instead, Belle Époque at Emporium Hotel South Bank have loaded their dessert cabinet with dine-in and takeaway treats that build upon this showground staple. This way, you can experience the fair's immersive nostalgia with an elevated charm. Available until Sunday, August 17, the Parisian-inspired patisserie has a selection of suitably enchanting desserts spangled with strawberry notes. La Fraise features white chocolate mousse, red velvet sponge and strawberry compote, while the Strawberry Field is a yogurt and lime mousse topped with red berry compote and cocoa soil. Yet there are plenty more treats to taste on this limited-edition lineup. Take your Ekka experience up a notch with Belle Époque's strawberry eclair, featuring elderflower and vanilla cream, or sample the refined strawberry, pistachio and vanilla tart. Rounding out this offering is a classic strawberry cheesecake enriched with sweet jelly and fresh fruit. And if you're craving a treat with a little more kick, head up to The Terrace. The hotel's rooftop bar is levelling up Ekka with the Sideshow Sundae, a curated cocktail featuring vanilla liquor ice cream, strawberry liquor syrup, macerated strawberries and toasted nuts. Finished with a Bertie Beetle — this concoction is a thoughtful tribute to Brisbane's much-loved pastime.
"Why can't you enjoy life?": when that line arrives in Hard Truths, it's not only a haunting moment within the latest film from British writer/director Mike Leigh, but the same from any movie in the past few years. First, the perennially depressed, angry and disillusioned — and also agoraphobic, paranoid, confrontational and hypochondriac — Pansy (Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Surface) utters it, giving voice to the accusations that she felt were directed her way by her late mother. Pansy's sister Chantelle (Michele Austin, Boat Story) then repeats it back, but as her own question, asking someone so clearly always in pain why such hurt, unhappiness and fury is her default status. "It was the combination of a lot of improvisations and preparation. It just came out of the blue," Jean-Baptiste tells Concrete Playground about that piece of dialogue. "It was obviously months of rehearsing and developing the characters that led up to it." She continues: "it just summed up the frustration that Chantelle has with her sister Pansy, but also I think something releases for Pansy when she actually answers truthfully." Leigh sees it as "part of the investigation of the relationship", he advises. "The moment, like all the moments — and all the action and all the dialogue and everything else — came out of the whole exploratory process of making the film by finding out what the film is on the journey of making it." As all projects by the iconic filmmaker are — across an on-screen resume that started with 1971's Bleak Moments; saw Jean-Baptiste nominated for a Best Supporting Actress Oscar for Leigh's Secrets & Lies in 1996; and also covers Life Is Sweet, Naked, Career Girls, Vera Drake, Happy-Go-Lucky, Another Year, Mr Turner, Peterloo and more — the London-set Hard Truths was built from the ground up with his collaborators. His famed method of working involves casting first, constructing characters one on one with his actors sans script, tasking them with improvising the dialogue and, along the way, finding the storyline while only telling the members of his ensemble what they each need to know to play their parts. Here, the result is a two-time BAFTA nominee, including for Best Actress for its lead, who won the same category at the British Independent Film Awards. Alongside standing out as a portrait of the daily lives of a Black British family, a rarity in cinemas, Hard Truths is also a stunning study of a character who holds onto her agony, fears, rage and exasperation so tightly inside, and unleashes it so frequently at anyone and everyone in her vicinity. Pansy's contented salon-owner sister — a single mother with two daughters, one training to be a lawyer (Sophia Brown, Dead Shot) and the other in cosmetics (Ani Nelson, One Day) — isn't the only target of her distress. Hard Truths' protagnist's husband Curtley (David Webber, My Lady Jane) and adult son Moses (Tuwaine Barrett, Back to Black) are as visibly weary from attempting to cope as Pansy clearly is. Jean-Baptiste describes the character as "somebody who is in a lot of pain, but doesn't quite know where it's coming from. There's a lot of fear as well. It's 'attack before I'm attacked'. She's petrified of life and it manifests itself in a very aggressive way". If her performance hardly feels like one — not that she's Pansy IRL for a second — that's again a result of Leigh's process. "Michele Austin and I, obviously we've worked together before with Mike, but we would get into a room and Mike would talk to us about the girls. And so we had to build their parallel history," she explains, offering one example of how such fully realised characters came about. "Their parents, their grandparents, where they lived in London, what schools they went to, the bus route to their schools. How did they get there? Did they walk? Did they have to go past the park? And then we go and find that in London. So located it, so there's a visual memory of what that would have looked like, and that continues and continues until we get to a point — we do birthdays, parties, holidays, all that information. So imagine when you're in an improvisation a month and a half later, you've got all this stuff, all this wonderful history, all these experiences, that you can pull on at any given point within the improvs. So that's how that works." And yes, across a resume that also spans The Cell, City of Ember, the RoboCop remake, In Fabric, seven seasons of Without a Trace, Broadchurch, Blindspot, Homecoming and much more, Jean-Baptiste advises that she's benefited from Leigh's approach even when he's not her director. What appeals to Leigh, one of cinema's great excavators of life's complexities — struggles, joys and everything in-between — about investigating humanity through his work, and collaborating with his cast to create characters that feel like they could've walked off the street and into his movies? And what has driven him to do so for more than half a century? "It comes naturally to me. As a little kid, I was drawing caricatures of the grown-ups," he notes. "I don't make movies about movies. I love watching movies, but that's separate from the films that I make. I am not interested in received notions of plot and structure or anything else. For me, film — and indeed theatre, when I do stage plays, including in Australia — it's about a way to look at real life. People say to me 'where do your ideas come from?'. Well, I've only got to walk down the street and there are ten, 12, 20, 50, 100 films, because it's people, and that's really what it's about for me, basically." With Leigh and Jean-Baptiste reuniting for Hard Truths not only after Secrets & Lies and collaborating for the stage, but after Jean-Baptiste composed the score for Leigh's Career Girls, too, we also chatted with the pair about their working relationship, Leigh's starting point with each project, getting into and out of character, and the challenges and freedoms of his process, among other topics. What continues to inspire them and what they make of their respective careers: we spoke with the two about that as well. On Building Pansy as a Character Over Months and Months Marianne: "Mike asks you to come to the first session, where he works with you one on one, and to have a list of people from real life, real-life people that you know. And you start talking about all of these people and a list is formed, and the list gets smaller and smaller and smaller. So it's important to ground the characters in reality. And from that point, it's a stepping off point, because the character changes. For example, if you have three people, you've taken characteristics from those three people and you've merged them, what you would then do is start from scratch and build a new character — from their first memory to the age they're going to play when you actually see them in the film. In that process, you start to, with Mike always — he takes the position of god, he makes the decisions that none of us can make for ourselves — so with Mike, there's a collaboration whereby he asks lots of questions and you start filling in answers to who this person is. And then things that you wouldn't be able to decide, he makes those decisions. And in doing so, the disappointments, the heartbreaks and things like that, start to build in that person's life. So on a simplistic level, you could say that she is a combination of all of the bad experiences she's had — some real, some imaginary." Mike: "It's a difficult question to answer, really. Because obviously at one level, such people resonate for me — just as for everybody else, no doubt, including you — with experiences that you've had. What we do on my films, and this film is absolutely no exception, is I collaborate with each actor to give birth to a character. And drawing on various things, including some people that Marianne Jean-Baptiste actually knows, we evolved the basis of the character, which then grew." Marianne: "My experience in life. Observation. Being fascinated by human beings. That's the sort of thing that I generally draw on. And just knowing that — it's like being a kid again, almost — knowing that I'm absolutely free to imagine and create. One of my first jobs out of drama school, actually, was doing a Mike Leigh play — and it's exactly the same process, but it was early enough in my career to influence the way that I approached my work and almost approach life in that sort of people-watching way, and just being fascinated. So I think that just being in a safe environment where that was okay to make stuff up, and to pull stuff from my imagination is acceptable. I think you're just in-character in this process. We warm up into character and we snap out of it quite quickly. But as I said, it really is the culmination of months and months of working. We rehearsed for three and a half months — and that's a short rehearsal process for Mike. So if you can imagine, that's months of building layers and layers and layers. So there's every disappointment she's had. There's everything that she hoped for but didn't achieve. There's every slight or perceived slight that she's had. There's that idea that nobody listens to her, nobody values her, nobody likes her. So that's going on for three and a half bloody months. So by the time you get to those sort of scenes, it's like it's all there — it's all there already." On Reteaming Not Only After Secrets & Lies, But After Stage Collaborations and Jean-Baptiste Composing the Score for Leigh's Career Girls Mike: "We did work together 30 years, 31 years ago, in a stage play. And then of course, she was famously in Secrets & Lies, in which, incidentally, in both of those projects she paired with Michele Austin, who plays her sister in this film. It's a long time since Secrets and Lies, and I wanted to work with her — and she with me — for a long time. Often it's the case that you want to work with an actor and they're actually very busy doing other things. Finally we said 'well, let's go for it. Let's do it'. We were going to make the film sooner, but the pandemic put paid to that." Marianne: "I think he's very bold. He's a bold storyteller. He loves people and he loves actors. And I think, as an actor you have more agency working with him than you do with most other types of work. It's truly collaborative — and collaborative all round with production design, with hair and makeup. Everybody works together and everybody's on the same page about the way that they're going to approach the work. I think we've got a very similar sense of humour, so that really helps as well." On Leigh's Starting Point with His Actors on Each Film Mike: "I work individually, separately and privately with each actor. And part of the deal with these films is that the actors take part, agree to take part, and the deal is you'll never know anything about the rest of it, except what your character knows. So they're all working, as it were, in isolation from each other. And I sit down at some length, with quite a lot of sessions, with each actor, and we talk about real people and gradually we talk into existence the basis of the character. So that's the starting point. Then it's about putting them together and exploring relationships, and building up the world and doing any research that needs to be done — into activities or work or whatever it is. To arrive at something that is completely organic and three-dimensional, and is also thus the basis of a film, which then, during the shooting period, we construct as we go along scene by scene, sequence by sequence, location by location, arriving at the end." On Ensuring That Leigh's Cast Can Step Out of Their Characters, Especially Someone as Complicated as Pansy, When Each Scene and Day Ends Marianne: "It's hard to shake in that you still keep, it's still there in your head working. Mike's very, very strict about coming out of character. So there's a whole protocol on-set about warming up into character and warming down. But with Pansy, because of the intrusive thoughts that the character had, obviously you have to create that thought process for yourself in order to play it. So it took a while for me to shut her up." Mike: "As soon as we start to get the characters on the go, I'm very strict, right from the beginning. But actors should warm up and get into character, be absolutely in-character when they're in-character, but as soon as we stop — which is to say not at the end of the day, but each improvisation or whatever it is — to come out of character. So the actor is then able to be objective about what happened in the improvisation or about the character. I'm also very strict that the actor, when talking about the character, refers to the character as 'him' or 'her, not 'I' — which a lot of actors, as you know, do, they talk about 'I' and there's a crossing of wires. So that's really a discipline. And that's what you're talking about, to be sure the actor can be totally in it when in it, but totally comfortable and not screwed up when not in it." On the Challenges and Freedoms of Leigh's Approach Marianne: "It's exhilarating, terrifying and freeing — all those wonderful things. There's nothing else like it, being able to work in this way. There were times when you feel like crying, because you're like 'what on earth am I doing? What is this?'. And then you see it, you see the result and you go 'oh my god'. Because obviously, because everybody's working individually on their characters, you don't know what's happening. The first time I saw the film, I was able to see what happened in the beauty salon, and what Curtley did at work and where Moses went, and what the nieces were like. So it's like, for us, it's like discovering the film for the first time. It's wonderful is all I can say." Mike: "It's totally a combination of the two. It's certainly challenging. Here's the thing: if they say 'okay, here's five or six million pounds and you've got to deliver a film', that is quite a lot of responsibility on your shoulders, of course. It's challenging, but it's highly stimulating. And the freedom of there being no preconceptions or interference or prescriptions from the streamers or the producers or anybody — the backers or the whoever — it's very liberating. Frightening, yes, but then the creative process is dangerous in any context. But liberating. It's wonderful. If I were to ever — many times over the years, the opportunity has come to make a film with certain provisos. 'You have to have a Hollywood star in it.' 'We have to be able to monitor it.' 'You can't have final cut.' All that stuff. Well, I'll just walk away. It just doesn't happen, basically. Which then liberates the freedom to do what artists should do." On How Leigh Works with His Cast to Ensure That Whether or Not the Audience Has Lived a Character's Life, They Feel Recognisable Mike: "You can't underestimate the contribution of the actor. The actor's intelligence, sensitivity, perception, talent. I only work with character actors, which is to say people that don't just play themselves in a narcissistic way, but actually are up for and want to detect, depict and portray real people out on the street. And so my job is to facilitate and to contribute in terms of the narrative ideas — but in the end, what you're asking about relies primarily on her ability to to act, create, empathise, project, distill and investigate all those aspects of the character. There are actors who are, on the whole, good actors, but are not very intelligent. There are actors who are fine actors that have no sense of humour. There are actors who, as I've already said, are not character actors. Marianne Jean-Baptiste, like all the actors in this film, has all of those qualities, not least a sense of character and a sense of humour, and therefore has the ability to get inside different sorts of people and really, really bring it to life." On How Cognisant That Jean-Baptiste and Leigh Were About Hard Truths Standing Out as a Portrait of the Daily Lives of a Black British Family Marianne: "No, we were not aware of it while we were making it. We were aware that there's a predominantly all-black cast, but you obviously don't know what the story is. So you know it's going to be something to do with family and stuff, but yeah, it's a bonus that it's something that people can be proud of and say 'yeah, great, so refreshing'." Mike: "That was a deliberate decision. It wasn't, in no way, a difficult decision, because I just approached the characters and the world and the issues and the emotions and the relationships in this film just as I have every other film I've made, including the period films — which is to say these are people and we're looking at them as people in a real way. However, I was very definitely consciously aware that we were not going to deal in all those cliche tropes that films about Black people on the whole deal with, because that's not what it's about as far as I'm concerned. For me, I would say — and you're no doubt familiar with other films of mine — across all of my films, it's a collection of different aspects of society, but all looking at people as individual, real people. And this film is, if you like, the mere continuation of that ongoing investigation." On Reflecting the Reality of Life by Making a Film That's Both Deeply Moving and Has a Sense of Humour Mike: "It's not a balancing act at all. Life is comic and tragic. Whatever you do, whether you like it or not — how many times have you not laughed at a funeral? Life just comes out of the soil, ready-made comic and tragic. So for me, I don't sit around thinking 'oh, maybe there should be a comic moment' or 'maybe this should be a tragic moment'. That looks after itself, and it certainly looks after itself in this film. It's a barrel of laughs, hopefully, for a good section, a good chunk of the film. And then — and we've had quite a number of public screenings of the film, and you could absolutely chart precisely where the laughter dies away, and it's obvious why that is. It's not a question of balance. It's a question of the truth of what you're depicting and what you're investigating, what you're sharing with the audience and what the audience experiences." On What Inspires Jean-Baptiste and Leigh About a New Project Marianne: "At this point in my life, I'm looking for challenges. I'm looking for something that I can transform myself — something that's going to be fun. For me, that's it. Are they good people? Will it be fun? Will it be challenging in a good way, you know?" Mike: "To me, it's always exciting. It's partly, to be honest, because I don't know what we're going to do and therefore there are all sorts of possibilities. And my head is buzzing with all sorts of possibilities and ideas — 'maybe we'll get him', 'maybe we'll get her to the party'. Then, of course, it's the anticipation and the enjoyment of actually working with people, and making it and making the thing happen. And shooting and working with the actors, all that's just, to me, a joy. Here's the thing that's important: the way I make films is the same way but is parallel to people writing novels, painting pictures, making music, making sculpture, writing poetry, et cetera — which is to say that the artist embarks on a journey of investigation, and discovers what the piece is on the journey of making it. They interact with the material. How many novelists have you heard say 'well, I didn't know what was going to happen, and then somehow the character told me what needed to happen next'? That's really what I do. The privilege I feel I have that painters and novelists, et cetera, don't have, is that I'm not stuck in a room by myself. It's a collaborative, socially pleasurable activity." [caption id="attachment_782569" align="alignnone" width="1920"] In Fabric[/caption] On What Jean-Baptiste and Leigh Each Make of Their Careers So Far Marianne: "I think it's interesting. I think I've had quite an interesting career. I've forgotten some stuff that I've done — it's gotten to that stage where people go 'oh that film' and I go 'oh yeah'. Yes, I think it's been a bit of an interesting one, mine, that's taken me to a few different places. I've been able to be quite selective in the last say five or ten years, which is good." [caption id="attachment_722535" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Peterloo[/caption] Mike: "Well, on the whole, if I was to sum it all up, I think I've been very lucky, actually, really. There've been breaks at times, which made it possible to do the crazy thing I do, which is to say to backers or theatre managers: 'I have no idea what we're going to do. I will not discuss casting. And please don't interfere with it while we're doing it at any stage'. And one could be forgiven for imagining that on that basis, I might never have done anything. So I've been lucky in that sense, and I guess the honest answer to your question is that, really — that I've found it remarkable that I've kind of got away with it." Hard Truths opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, March 6, 2025 and New Zealand cinemas on Thursday, March 13, 2025.
Three little letters. That's all it took back in the day, to kickstart a bonafide mad chat with a perfect stranger. And now you'll be able to dredge up those three simple little alphabet members again, wielding all the power and responsibility of sending those feelers into the cybersphere. We're talkin' A/S/L. Anonymous chatrooms are about to ignite the heyday flame once again in Australia, with the launch of Facebook's new anonymous chat app, Rooms. Having launched in the US in October, the stand alone app takes cues from the IRC-type chatrooms, message boards and forums of internet beginnings. Available only on Apple devices, users can create 'rooms' to chat with other users on any topic of their choice, from baking recipes to The Hunger Games (and probably everything sordid and el rauncho in between). "Pick a topic, customize the look and feel, choose a different nickname for each room you're in and share your room with others," says the app rundown. "Rooms is perfect for the things you love and interests that makes you unique." Don't worry, your Facebook profile isn't your user profile; you can use a pseudonym (you can even use different ones for each room). Invites go through direct message invitations or public recommendations. Once you download the app, you're prompted to screenshot a QR code to see your first room. After you let the app access your photos, you're prompted to join the 'recommended rooms' picked by the Rooms team: anything from Chihuahua Lovers to Cross Stitch Room, God Talk to Depression Support. Alongside the predictable anime, TV show and music rooms, you'll find rooms for people with diabetes, ceramics and pottery lovers, trailrunning enthusiasts, rabbit parents, electric car owners. Screenshot the invite (QR code) and post to be let into the room — you'll have to wait for a moderator to approve you. Most rooms are image based, kind of like an Instagram feed-based forum. The app could be seen as an attempt to nab traffic from Reddit, already well-known and established as the current platform for this type of niche discussion. But the key to Rooms (heh) seems to be the anonymity factor, one bound to be compromised by creepy idiots at one point or another. Few reviews have been posted since the app's October release, but some have been pretty negative — one reviewer called it a "social media Burn Book". "I'm sure the creators of this app have good intentions," wrote user KSully54. "I live in Washington where a room was made to allow naked pictures or screen grabs to be posted. Without consent of the poor people who are just ridiculed and bullied. By our peers no less. hysteria has begun in my gay community which is essentially a social media Burn Book. It's incredibly sad." Via SMH. Image: Chapendra via photopin cc.
It isn't every day that you can peer up at the Gold Coast sky and spot a family of giant hot-air balloon sculptures soaring above the city — but on Thursday, July 31, 2025, you'll be able to do just that. That's when Patricia Piccinini's Skywhalepapa will float through the air alongside the artist's equally otherworldly Skywhale. Our advice: if you'll be around that part of southeast Queensland, then you'll want to look up. The distinctive works will take to the air at sunrise, and get hovering. Wake up early to see them launch or find a great vantage point to stare into the sky once they're up there: the choice is yours. Either way, the eye-catching event is taking place as part of this year's Bleach*, aka the Gold Coast's annual winter arts festival, which runs from Thursday, July 31–Sunday, August 10. New to all things Skywhale and Skywhalepapa? Thirty-four-metres long, more than twice as big as a regular hot air balloon and ripped straight from Piccinini's inimitable mind, Skywhale might just be one of Australia's most-recognisable recent pieces of art. It's a sight to see, and also the largest-scale example of the artist's ongoing fascination with the thin line that separates nature and technology — and in Skywhalepapa, it has finally met its match. The latter made its debut in 2021 thanks to the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, but taking both billowing hot air balloons around the country was always the plan. Of course, the pandemic had something to say about that — Skywhalepapa was originally scheduled to premiere in 2020, in fact. Skywhalepapa is designed to form a family with Skywhale, and was originally commissioned as part of the NGA's Balnaves Contemporary Series. It took 3.6 kilometres of fabric to create the second bulbous sculpture, which also features nine baby Skywhales, safely tucked beneath their father's fins. Obviously, this isn't the kind of thing you see in the sky every day. Exactly where First Light: Skywhales Across Australia will be setting off from hasn't yet been revealed — keep an eye on the event website to find out. [caption id="attachment_799292" align="alignnone" width="1920"] National Gallery of Australia[/caption] Images: National Gallery of Australia.
It won six Oscars, was nominated for four more, and made a mint at the box office — and now Mad Max: Fury Road has been named the best Australian movie of the 21st century so far by the country's film critics. George Miller's high-octane post-apocalyptic effort — the fourth in his Mad Max franchise, which came 30 years after the series' third instalment — was picked as the top recent local effort in the biggest survey of Aussie critics ever conducted. And it's in great company, with the top 25 spanning plenty of highlights from the industry's last 18 years. Crime drama Animal Kingdom nabbed second place, while Samson & Delilah, Chopper and Lantana rounded out the top five — and everything from The Babadook to Sweet Country to Snowtown also ranked highly. It's a list big on drama, though musical Moulin Rouge! was 11th, comedies The Dish and Kenny came in at 16th and 20th respectively, documentary Sherpa took 21st position and the animated effort Mary and Max secured 22nd spot. The survey was conducted by Australian film website Flicks.com.au, with 51 critics — 26 male, 25 female — taking part. David Stratton and Margaret Pomeranz were among the participants, unsurprisingly, with other critics hailing from a wide range of major news outlets, trade publications, magazines, commercial and community radio, websites, podcasts, TV and blogs. Disclaimer: Sarah Ward participated in Flicks.com.au's Australian film poll, and contributes to the site. She is also one of Concrete Playground's senior film writers and weekend editor.
Any venue can serve up a brunch that goes on for hours, or so it seems given the sheer number of such mid-morning sessions across Brisbane. Cloudland's Brunch With Bite fits that mould, offering plenty of food as well as bottomless booze — but it also adds something a little different to the menu. Fancy getting a bit of camp drag comedy with your meal? Watching an uproarious game show? Belting out a tune while brunch rolls on? They're all on the bill at this banquet, with the lineup changing weekly. Food-wise, you'll tuck into an Italian-inspired spread and nab a drink on arrival, all as part of your $79.90 ticket. The event kicks off at 11am, with two hours of bottomless spritzes, mimosas, bloody marys, select beers and sangria on offer between 11.15am–1.15pm. And, if you're going booze-free, you can opt for mocktails instead.
A dystopian favourite reaching its end, one of the best TV shows of the past few years, the greatest small-screen effort in this very galaxy, more chestbursting horror, Glen Powell: they're all coming to your streaming queue in 2025. As the new year approaches, the networks and platforms responsible for your television viewing are dropping sneak peeks at what's in store. Following HBO's teaser trailer, now arrives Disney+'s version. Add season six of The Handmaid's Tale, season four of The Bear, season two of Andor, new Alien TV series Alien: Earth and the Powell-starring Chad Powers to your must-see list, as they're all on the way. So are Daredevil: Born Again and Ironheart, both from the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Andor isn't the only Star Wars series highlighted, thanks to the Jude Law (Peter Pan & Wendy)-led Skeleton Crew. Elsewhere, season two of Percy Jackson and the Olympians gets a look in as well — and there's more where it and all of the above shows came from. As is always the case with trailers that are about a channel or streaming service's entire upcoming slate rather than one specific show, nothing receives the indepth treatment in the just-dropped trailer — but The Handmaid's Tale still gets plenty of attention. Season six is the last season of the Elisabeth Moss (The Veil)-led series based on Margaret Atwood's book, but the author's The Testaments is next set to make the leap from the page to the screen. The Bear also features prominently. Disney+ and Hulu said "yes chef!" to the fourth season before season three even aired, and gives Jamie Lee Curtis (Borderlands) one of the key lines of the clip: "sometimes your work family is closer to you than your family family," she tells Ayo Edebiri's (Inside Out 2) Sydney. With Chad Powers, audiences get a glimpse at a series that enlists Powell as a quarterback who takes on a new persona — the titular character — to play for a struggling team. And in Alien: Earth, the sci-fi/horror saga started in 1979 by Ridley Scott's (Gladiator II) iconic film heads to our own pale blue dot, with Noah Hawley leading the charge behind the scenes after also doing the same on the Fargo TV series. Andor has debut new footage ahead of its return in April 2025, while release dates for everything else — release windows, even — are yet to be revealed. Also featured in the trailer: clips from season two of Goosebumps: The Vanishing, as well as the new Paradise and Good American Family. The first stars Sterling K Brown (American Fiction) and James Marsden (Unfrosted), while the second is led by Ellen Pompeo (Grey's Anatomy). Check out Disney+'s 2025 trailer below: The shows highlighted in Disney+ and Hulu's new trailer will arrive in 2025. We'll update you with more details when they're announced.
It's hard to miss Tibetan Kitchen. The bright yellow and blue building right on Petrie Terrace is the sort of place you've probably driven past a hundred times and never actually been inside. But you should. The restaurant specialises in authentic Tibetan cuisine, including momos — steamed and fried dumplings, filled with meat or veggies, coriander, ginger and garlic, served with house-made chutney. For the vegetarians, Tibetan Kitchen in Brisbane City has veg kofta with mashed potato, chickpeas, capsicum and coriander rolled into balls that are deep-fried, then cooked in a spicy sauce. We also love the veg shapka, which has potatoes, mixed vegetables and tomatoes cooked in a curry sauce loaded with ginger, garlic and coriander. Round out your meal with some starters — we suggest the aloo chop (curried potato patties with homemade chutney) or spinach dhal soup — and the staple rice, bread and khir for dessert, a Nepalese pudding topped with caramel. Image: Hennessy Trill
Karaoke fans in Brisbane are probably well acquainted with Blute's Bar — a much-loved destination for boisterous sing-alongs and late-night revelry since opening in 2018. However, the venue is now embarking on a new chapter, hosting live music five nights a week to bring a fresh edge to Brisbane's creative scene. The program is guided by Alyssa Sherman and Keeley Thompson from BallPoint Press — the duo behind the top-notch programming at the Bearded Lady, aka The Beardo, which recently closed after nearly 12 years on Boundary Street. Now with a new home to host their high-energy gigs, expect Blute's Bar to resonate with similarly loyal crowds and community-driven passion. "This felt like more than a move, it felt like a responsibility," says Sherman and Thompson. "With The Bearded Lady closing, Brisbane lost a stage that meant so much to so many. Blute's gives us the chance to keep that spirit alive, while building something new." Run by The Happy Horseman (The Brightside, Black Bear Lodge), Blute's might be expanding beyond its karaoke horizons, but fans of getting on the mic shouldn't despair. With gigs wrapping up early, each night will still feature plenty of time to belt out your go-to karaoke tune. This evolved direction intends to fuse both night staples, supporting the local music scene while keeping partygoers satisfied. At a time when live music venues across the country are struggling, Blute's is stepping up to give local acts a vital space to carve up the stage. With diverse genres, inclusive lineups and underrepresented voices brought to the fore, audiences can expect a vibrant gig calendar flowing with residencies, recurring nights and community collaborations. "It's incredibly exciting to see another live music venue open its doors in Brisbane, especially under the guidance of The Happy Horsemen," says Andrew Perumalla, a senior promoter at Destroy All Lines. "Their commitment to nurturing live music is unmatched, and the addition of Blute's continues that legacy." Blute's Bar is open Friday–Saturday from 5pm–3am and Sunday, Wednesday–Thursday from 5pm–12am at 322 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley. Head to the website for more information.
To say that artist, Danie Mellor's, background is interesting would be an understatement. He was born in Mackay, grew up between Scotland, Australia and South Africa before studying his passion for art at North Adelaide School of Art, the Australian National University and Birmingham Institute of Art and Design. Mellor's skills are vast as he produces prints, drawings, paintings and sculptures all with exceptional artistic skill. Mellor also has strong ties to his Indigenous heritage which is expressed in his artwork. His latest exhibition, Exotic Lies Sacred Ties, explores Australia's complex history and Mellor's great contribution to the national body of art. The showcase includes major pieces from public collections such as the Australian Museum, National Gallery of Art and many more. Have a look at the public program for more details. High school students are in luck as Mellor will be holding a masterclass just for you guys.
When you think of the Big Apple, you can't help the image of a yellow taxi springing to mind. That's even if, like me, you've never been there. It's the brightest of American icons and it's about to get a Japanese makeover. Automaker Nissan has won the exclusive 10-year, US$1 billion contract to produce the city's fleet of 13,200 yellow taxis. Nissan's North American take on the NV200, a model already in use in Europe and Asia, won over finalist manufacturers Ford and Karsan, from Turkey. Previously, the taxis of New York City have been produced by Ford: Crown Victorias and hybrid Ford Escapes. These models will be phased out over a 3 to 5 year period to make way for Nissan's new model. [Via Jalopnik]
When caped crusaders team up on the page or the screen to battle a threat to the world or galaxy, there's probably no such thing as too many superheroes. For audiences, however, the Marvel Cinematic Universe has been testing exactly how many spandex-heavy capers get everyone switching off. It hasn't been stretching the limits specifically to answer that question; Disney has just been releasing a hefty amount of Marvel movies and TV shows. If you've been feeling MCU fatigue as a result, the Mouse House hears you. Going forward, fewer new Marvel films and television series will arrive each year. "We've been working hard with the studios to reduce output and focus more on quality — that's particularly true with Marvel," advised CEO Bob Iger on Disney's second-quarter earnings call on Tuesday, May 7. "We're slowly going to decrease volume and go to about two TV series a year, instead of what had become four — and reduce our film output from maybe four a year to two or a maximum three," Iger continued. [caption id="attachment_925151" align="alignnone" width="1920"] ©Marvel Studios 2023. All Rights Reserved.[/caption] The move comes in what's set to be a quieter Marvel year in cinemas anyway. Picture palaces in 2024 are only welcoming Deadpool & Wolverine, which releases in July. The streaming slate might be busier, after Echo hit Disney+ in January — and with WandaVision spinoff Agatha: Darkhold Diaries, plus the animated Eyes of Wakanda and Your Friendly Neighbourhood Spider-Man, yet to get air dates — but there'll definitely be fewer MCU tales hitting screens in total. In contrast, 2023 was huge Marvel for viewers, with Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 and The Marvels on the big screen, plus Secret Invasion, Loki and What If...? on screaming. 2022 was also massive, thanks to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Thor: Love and Thunder, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Moon Knight, Ms Marvel and She-Hulk: Attorney at Law. And in 2021, Black Widow, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Eternals, Spider-Man: No Way Home, WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Solider, and the first Loki and What If...? seasons all dropped. [caption id="attachment_899279" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Photo by Jessica Miglio. © 2023 MARVEL.[/caption] Marvel has already floated spacing out its releases so that its schedule in cinemas and on streaming isn't as jam-packed, and then pushed back a few titles during 2023's Hollywood strikes. Now, it's sticking to a strategy that Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige told Entertainment Weekly about last year, saying that "the pace at which we're putting out the Disney+ shows will change so they can each get a chance to shine". Right now, audiences will see Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts on the silver screen in 2025 — the first in February and the second in May. The new Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us)-, Vanessa Kirby (Napoleon)-, Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things) and Ebon Moss-Bachrach (The Bear)-starring Fantastic Four is also dated to arrive next year, in July. 2025 is meant to welcome Blade back to the screen, too, as led by Moonlight and Green Book Oscar-winner Mahershala Ali, but that'd make four films in one year. So, if Iger is sticking to three movies or less in a year, that could change. From there, just two new Avengers flicks are locked in with release dates at the moment, one in 2026 and the other in 2027. On the small screen, Daredevil: Born Again is due in 2025, while Ironhart, Marvel Zombies, Wonder Man and Vision Quest don't yet have dates. From Marvel's upcoming slate, only Deadpool & Wolverine has a trailer — check it out below: For more information about Marvel's upcoming slate of films and TV shows, head to the company's website. Images: Disney.
Nickel Kitchen & Bar predominantly offers up meals that will take many diners back to their childhoods, but the Fortitude Valley restaurant is also shaking things up with boozy brunches, late-night meals and something they call a 'DIY degustation'. A menu filled with homestyle dishes takes care of the first part of the equation for the Ann Street addition — think Barossa Valley chicken Kiev with garlic butter, heirloom vegetables and herb crumb (seriously, when was the last time you ate chicken Kiev?), and honey-roasted chicken paired with bacon and chive waffles. As for the latter, the details are still being finalised, but we're interested to see how a 'DIY degustation' differs from 'ordering off the menu'. Nickel is the latest venture from Nantucket Kitchen & Bar and NKB Express owners TJ and Kim Peabody, and endeavours to embody a blend of old and new across the board. Drinks-wise, that means a 250-drop wine library behind the bar boasting all the best tipples from today and times gone by, plus a hefty spirits list and a bespoke cocktail selection. Style-wise, that means anyone from the after work crowd to those keen on a boozy brunch are welcome in Nickel's art deco surroundings. Indeed, when it comes to décor, the cosy spot decks its halls with old-school fixtures, including leather booths, pressed metal and dark timber galore, and a chandelier made entirely of wine glasses. So, we're calling it: nostalgic places always try to hark back to yesteryear while giving things a forward-thinking twist, but Nickel might be the place to nail that combination.
There's a reason that galleries favourite white walls and cavernous halls: they're a canvas to fill with exhibition after exhibition, and with the glorious art that comes with them. At Brisbane's Gallery of Modern Art, that setup has seen its central atrium play host to everything from Yayoi Kusama's kaleidoscopic finest, Chiharu Shiota's red wool webs and Patricia Piccinini's inflatable pieces through to a black cube playing David Lynch clips and an ode to Marvel — and, next, 13 floating mirrored spheres. Those reflective orbs are part of GOMA's next must-see showcase, and the next reason for art fans both in Brisbane and further afield to make a date with the South Bank gallery. Across summer 2022–23 and into autumn, running from Saturday, November 26, 2022–Sunday, April 23, 2023, the venue will play host to Air, which ruminates on that very topic. Back in 2019–20, during the same time slot, GOMA pondered water in an exhibition called, yes, Water. Consider this the sequel. GOMA isn't merely filling its spaces with the life-sustaining substance — it already has, obviously — but is concerned with pondering air's cultural, ecological and political dimensions. [caption id="attachment_677199" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Gallery of Modern Art, Exterior, South & East face, James Turrell artwork[/caption] Those aforementioned globes are part of newly commissioned showcase piece Drift: A cosmic web of thermodynamic rhythms, which hails from Argentinian-born, Berlin-based artist Tomás Saraceno. The 13 spheres will be suspended in the atrium, at different heights, to get audiences contemplating the poetry if air and its imaginative side. Looking up at them, you'll see yourself looking back — and you'll also witness them move gently, like they're breathing. Where Water set up a huge indoor riverbed, Air will feature volcanic mounds and clouds of pigmented dust instead, thanks to fellow highlight Origins I–III by Dora Budor. Also set to be a standout: Chalk Fall from UK artist and filmmaker Tacita Dean, with the multi-panel drawing resembling England's Cliffs of Dover — but in chalk. [caption id="attachment_876732" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mona Hatoum / Lebanon / United Kingdom b.1952 Hot Spot III 2009 / Stainless steel and neon tube /234 x 223 x 223cm / Installation at Fondazione Querini Stampalia Onlus, Venice /© Mona Hatoum / Courtesy: Fondazione Querini Stampalia Onlus, Venice / Photograph: Agostino Osio.[/caption] Or, there's also Hot Spot, a neon-lit sculpture by Mona Hatoum that's about the planet's burning political turmoil, but also fits the globe's environmental situation. Bird-like sculptures will feature via Jonathan Jones's untitled (giran), which is accompanied by a soundscape created with Dr Uncle Stan Grant Sr AM — and black moth and butterfly silhouettes are a focus of Carlos Amorales' Black Cloud. Fancy seeing air? Anthony McCall's Crossing uses shafts of light and smoke haze to allow that to happen. Similarly — but in a completely different way — Rachel Mounsey's photography series displays the perilous red skies of Mallacoota's horrific 2019 bushfires. [caption id="attachment_876733" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rachel Mounsey / Australia b.1975 /Mallacoota fires in the sky 8 (from 'Mallacoota fires in the sky' series) 2020 / Inkjet print on Canson Platine Fibre Rag paper / 50 x 75cm / Purchased 2022. Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art / © Rachel Mounsey.[/caption] Air will also see plant-filled twin concrete towers pop up via new commission Portal from Jamie North, plus a cloud of air created from a collage of images in Jemima Wyman's Plume 20 — with everything in the exhibition fitting into chapters called Atmosphere, Shared, Burn, Invisible and Change. Clearly, it's a hefty showcase, complete with major works by more than 30 Australian and international artists. Air also comes with a film program in the Australian Cinémathèque, plus an opening weekend filled with artist talks, discussions, pop-up performances and drop-in workshops. [caption id="attachment_876731" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jemima Wyman / Pairrebeener people / Australia b.1977 / Plume 20 2022 / Handcut digital photos / 450 x 530cm / Courtesy: Jemima Wyman, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, and Sullivan+Strumpf, Sydney / In memory of Mark Webb (1957–2022) For the complete title of this artwork please visit: https://qago.ma/plume20 / © Jemima Wyman / Photograph: Ed Mumford.[/caption] "At this moment in history, as global temperatures rise, we are sensitive to air as never before: alert to airborne threats and aware of our reliance on this precious mix of gases," said Geraldine Kirrihi Barlow, QAGOMA's Curatorial Manager of International Art. "Air asks us to consider how we share oxygen with all other life, reflect on what it means to breathe freely and examine air as a metaphor for change," she continued. Air kicks off what's set to be a huge new year for GOMA, complete with a blockbuster fairy tales exhibition — and a twisted woodland with it — in the summer 2023–24 slot. [caption id="attachment_876734" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yhonnie Scarce / Kokatha and Nukunu peoples / Australia b.1973 / Cloud Chamber 2020 (installation view, 'Looking Glass: Judy Watson and Yhonnie Scarce', TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Vic. 2020) / Collection: TarraWarra Museum of Art, Healesville, Victoria/ © Yhonnie Scarce / Image courtesy: Yhonnie Scarce and THIS IS NO FANTASY, Melbourne / Photograph: Andrew Curtis.[/caption] Air displays at Brisbane Gallery of Modern Art from Saturday, November 26, 2022–Sunday, April 23, 2023. For more information and tickets, head to the GOMA website. Top image: Tomás Saraceno / Aerocene 2 and Aerocene 1.2 2016 (installation view, '163,000 Light Years', Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey / ©Tomás Saraceno / Photograph: Studio Tomás Saraceno.
Another Emmys year has rolled around, Breaking Bad and Modern Family dominated yet again, Matthew McConaughey missed out on his expected golden accolade for True Detective and everyone was mean about Lena Dunham's dress. Between Benedict Cumberbatch and Martin Freeman nabbing matching Sherlockian trophies, American Horror Story popping up in every last category and Australian audiences scrawling down lists of shows they'll be pirating soon, there were a few big ol' magic moments that caught our attention this year — for the high-fivably better and WTF-inducing worse. HIT: Brian Cranston and JLD Had a Big Ol' Pash Dentist Tim Whatley and Elaine Benes reunited in a big fat smooch. Multi Emmy-winning Brian Cranston (who once played Elaine's dentist boyfriend on Seinfeld back in the day) proved he truly is The Danger by planting a big ol' pash on Julia Louis-Dreyfus after she was announced Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series for Veep. On her way to the stage, Cranston intercepted Louis-Dreyfus for a big wet snog after exclaiming, "You were on Seinfeld!" Mackin' legends. MISS: Sofia Vergara Was Objectified on a Rotating Pedestal During a Speech About Diversity Seriously, what were they actually thinking? Maybe, just maybe, if you're the president of the Academy about to give a speech about diversity on globally-watched television, do not deliver said speech with Modern Family's Sofia Vergara on a rotating pedestal beside you, blatantly revolving like a piece of meat. As Huffington Post points out, only 26 percent of the nominees this year are women, not to mention the fact that the Emmys have only twice awarded a Latina actress with an award. Leave the rotating pedestals out and let Vergara stand on her own two feet huh? HIT: Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey Looked Like a Night at the Roxbury Donning suits akin to Chris Kattan and Will Ferrell in their 1998 comedy, the True Detective bros offered up an offensive amount of swagger in their matching promworthy tuxes. Even Kattan noticed. HIT: Billy Crystal Made the Only Speech that Could Be Made for Robin Williams "He was the greatest friend you could ever imagine... It's very hard to talk about him in the past, because he was so present in our lives," Crystal said, inviting a minute's silence for the recently-passed legend, following the Emmys' 'In Memoriam' segment. "He was the brightest star in the comedy galaxy," he said of his super close friend, before closing with an outstanding last line: "Robin Williams, what a concept." https://youtube.com/watch?v=hYv7qSDIRRY MISS: Julia Roberts Didn't Miss an Opportunity to Make Everything About Julia Roberts Mere seconds before awarding Bryan Cranston with his straight-up deserved Emmy for Outstanding Actor in a Drama Series, presenter Julia Roberts took a moment to remind everyone about number one. "Apologies to anyone who doesn't get to hug me in the next ten seconds," she said, before reading out Cranston's winning spot. Top marks, Roberts. HIT: Everyone Realised the Director of True Detective is a Stone Cold Fox As if we all pictured Cary Joji Fukunaga as a Tom Waits-like, porch-dwelling, gravel-voiced cowboy, the True Detective director got more applause on Twitter for being smokin' hot than he did for his award-winning series. Kind of like every Emmy-winning actress ever. https://youtube.com/watch?v=ygcHfkOoAeQ HIT? Sarah Silverman Might Have Been Stoned "We're just molecules and we're hurling through space right now." We're not sure, Silverman rules anyway. Check out the entire list of Emmy winners and nominees right here.
In 2001, Rolling Stone writer Guy Lawson published the extraordinary article: 'The Stoner Arms Dealers: How Two American Kids Became Big-Time Weapons Traders', and the response was predictably one of outrage and surprise. The entire story seemed preposterous, impossible, far too crazy to believe. As it turns out, it was precisely that quality that enabled its two subjects to get away with the impossible for so very long. David Packouz and Efraim Diveroli, two Miami-based Jewish boys in their mid-twenties, had become high-end international arms dealers, most famously landing what came to be known as The Afghan Deal – an exclusive USD$300 million contract to supply the US-backed Afghan forces with weapons, equipment and one hundred million rounds of soviet-era AK-47 ammunition from Albania. Two guys, mid-twenties, and Packouz's previous job was as a part-time masseuse. Such is the subject matter of War Dogs by director Tod Phillips (The Hangover), chronicling Packouz (Miles Teller) and Diveroli's (Jonah Hill) astounding ascent to the big leagues of international weapons trading, as well as their inevitable fall. The title, War Dogs, refers to the nature of their particular profession: scrambling for small-scale arms contracts posted by the Pentagon to help redress the constantly undersupplied forces in the disastrous Iraq and Afghan theatres. Described as "eBay for weapons dealers", these contracts were sourced off a website containing tens of thousands of Pentagon requests for tenders. By focussing on the jobs too small to interest the major players, Packouz and Diveroli were able to amass a small fortune in a remarkably short space of time. Broken up into chapters with names like "God Bless Dick Cheney's America", War Dogs is at pains to show us the corruption of the American Ideal and the toxicity of unrestrained capitalism – both decades-old points long since made in every form of media, and laboured here with an especially heavy hand. With its Americana rock soundtrack, freeze frames and bro-tasctic dialogue, the film plays like a wannabe Big Short or Wolf of Wall Street, yet lacks the emotional drive or dramatic tension to ever really deliver. Neither funny enough to be a comedy, nor serious enough to land as a drama, it instead ends up somewhere in the middle (a fate similarly suffered by the recent Tina Fey project Whiskey Tango Foxtrot). Overall, far too much time is spent on the overtly amusing and entertaining elements of the boys' earlier days, leaving the heart of this remarkable real-life tale – a deal gone awry, double-crosses and a friendship in free fall – to the final stages only. As an indictment on the arms trade, it likewise barely scratches the surface, opting instead to focus on the absurdity and corruption of the political system that enables it. Admittedly, that narrative is a compelling one, revealing a level of bureaucratic absurdity not known to most members of the public. Still, when compared to 2005's Lord of War, which dealt with similar material, this more recent offering emerges as the undisputed weaker of the two. Bland, unimaginative and ill-befitting the extraordinary story behind it, War Dogs feels like an amazing opportunity gone begging. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rwh9c_E3dJk
With another winter firmly behind us, we've got plenty to look forward to over the next few warmer months. And while we're definitely excited about the longer days, balmy evenings and lingering sunsets that lie ahead, summer also means the return of the al fresco aperitivo. And there's only one thing you should be sipping at those sundowner drinks: the vibrant and delightfully bittersweet Aperol Spritz. For nine consecutive Sundays from September 11, Burleigh Heads fave Justin Lane joins forces with Aperol to present Casa Aperol x Justin Lane. This Mediterranean oasis on the oceanside spot's rooftop serves up a weekly rotating lineup of live music, bespoke summery cocktails (including ice-cold Aperol Spritzes, of course), Italian-inspired sharing dishes (think Aperol-cured salmon gravlax, natural oysters with Aperol pearls, mushroom arancini with truffle aioli and Aperol sorbet) and Euro vibes aplenty, perfect for soaking up the sea breeze and sunset. You don't need to book and it's free to enter, so all that's left to you is rounding up your crew and enjoying a Sunday session that'll take you from afternoon to evening. Fancy really making a day out of it? Between September 11 and October 23, there'll be a lucky draw that gives groups of up to four the chance to experience a luxe, all-inclusive three-hour ride on YOT75, a 75-foot private charter that's part of the Yot Club stable and boasts two full-service bars and four entertaining areas over its two floors. On board, you'll be treated to a spread of Justin Lane's Italian fare and have a front-row seat to the sunset while sipping Aperol Spritzes. There'll also be a DJ spinning tunes to keep the vibes high. Casa Aperol takes over the Justin Lane rooftop in Burleigh Heads from 2–8pm every Sunday from September 11 to November 6. For more information, head to the website. Can't make it to Casa Aperol? You can still welcome the warmer months with an Aperol Spritz — right now, Aperol is giving away 100,000 of its signature drinks at venues Australia-wide.
There you are just standing around minding your own business, going about your day as usual, when you see a tyrannosaurus rex towering over you. Given that the Jurassic Park and Jurassic World franchise doesn't depict reality, that's the kind of incident that requires either fossils or a bit of creative magic to make happen in the year 2023. Dinos Alive: An Immersive Experience opts for the latter, thanks to animatronic dinosaur replicas that are life-sized, and also move — as Australians can see for themselves when the exhibition heads Down Under from September. Welcome to... your next date with prehistoric creatures after watching Prehistoric Planet, hitting up Brisbane's Dinosaurs of Patagonia museum showcase, exploring the Lego Jurassic World exhibition a few years back and soaking in every other excuse to scope out the earth's always-fascinating ancient inhabitants. This one will debut locally in Melbourne, kicking off on Friday, September 29. It makes its way to our shores with help from entertainment platform Fever, which is also currently touring a Banksy showcase. At Dinos Alive, you'll peer up at not only a T-rex, but also stegosaurus, ankylosaurus, gorgosaurus, velociraptors and other critters that roamed the planet all those millions of years back. (No, everyone's dad's favourite, aka doyouthinkhesaurus, won't be there.) The exhibition's creatures are designed to look as realistic as possible, with more than 80 specimens covered. Because this is an all-ages affair — kids love dinosaurs, and adults never grow out of loving dinosaurs — there'll also be an educational side if you're keen to up your dino knowledge. As the latest season of the David Attenborough-hosted Prehistoric Planet devoted some time to, the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous eras weren't just about giants on land. Accordingly, Dinos Alive will also feature a virtual aquarium to showcase the creatures that dwelled under the sea. Virtual reality will also help make parts of the exhibition as lifelike as possible, as part of an experience that'll take attendees between 60–75 minutes to wander through. While Melbourne is Dinos Alive's first Australian stop after proving a hit in the US, there's also a waitlist for a yet-to-be-announced Sydney season. Fingers crossed that these dinosaurs will also rampage elsewhere around the rest of country once they've brought their giant footprints to the Victorian and New South Wales capitals. Dinos Alive: An Immersive Experience will open at Fever Exhibition Hall, 62 Dawson Street, Brunswick, Melbourne from Friday, September 29, 2023, with tickets available now. You can also join the waitlist for the yet-to-be-announced Sydney season. We'll update you with future dates and cities when they're announced.
Every city has that one suburb that is filled with heaps of great cafes, an arts scene and beautiful scenery — and in Cairns, it's Edge Hill. Perched at the base of Mount Whitfield Conservation Park, this leafy suburb is filled with excellent eats, visual treats and summit peaks for you tackle. We suggest easing into your morning with a Vinyasa class at Wild Heart Yoga followed by a breakfast board at Noa. Once you're fuelled for the day, explore the art gallery at the much-loved Tanks Art Centre situated within the bright green Cairns Botanic Gardens. If you're feeling energetic, you could then take on the steep Red Arrow incline up Mount Whitfeld, or keep your heart rate at a lower level via a guided walking tour through the gardens below. Image: Tourism Tropical North Queensland
Every Mac user the world over knows the scenario: you save up, invest in a shiny new Apple product and take it home just in time to discover a newer, better version has been released. So too comes the biopic Steve Jobs, released just a few short years after 2013’s JOBS starring Ashton Kutcher. Sleeker, slicker and definitely better designed, Danny Boyle’s film is undoubtedly the kind of superior upgrade that this compelling story demands. Written by West Wing creator and Social Network scribe Aaron Sorkin, and based on the book by Walter Isaacson, Steve Jobs is an intense three-act drama of such fervid dialogue and minimal action that it would not feel at all out of place on a stage instead of a screen. Each ‘act’ takes place in the minutes preceding one of Jobs’ iconic product launches, and each is filmed in an appropriately coeval format – 16mm film stock for 1984’s Mac launch, 35mm for the introduction of 1988’s NeXT 'Black Box’ and digital for 1998’s iMac. The staging is an effective device, giving the film a persistent tension by combining the inherent pre-launch nerves with heated backstage conversations between all of the key figures in Jobs’ life. Portrayed magnificently by Michael Fassbender, we find in Steve Jobs a flawed visionary, as opposed to the saccharine, almost messianic figure found in the Kutcher version. Fassbender extracts and develops every foible nestled within Sorkin’s crackling screenplay – the obsessive preoccupation with seemingly trivial details, the isolating stubbornness and the unyielding belief that he was always right (resulting in a beautifully placed third-act beat when he’s confronted by an inescapable mistake of his own making). The supporting cast is equally strong, with three outstanding performances from Jeff Daniels as Jobs’s father figure-cum-foe John Sculley, Seth Rogen as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Kate Winslet as Jobs’s confidant Joanna Hoffman (sporting a terrific, if also inconsistent, Polish accent). Daniels, Rogen and Winslet each get their time in the light, exchanging witty quips and stinging admonitions with Fassbender. Says Jobs at one point: "It’s like five minutes before every launch everyone goes to the bar and then tells me what they really think of me.” It’s an overly convenient conceit, certainly, but one that also helps ground the story in the personal (rather than technological) demons confronted by its protagonist. All the usual Sorkinisms are there, and the script does at times feel overwritten, with its hyper-theatrics and laconic wordplay labouring to convince you it's cleverer than it actually is. Still, the performances transcend the shortcomings and allow Steve Jobs to provide a balanced and often critical perspective of a man whose determination to change the world did, for the most part, actually succeed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aEr6K1bwIVs
With two great locations on the south side of Brisbane, Premium Pilates and Fitness has become a favourite with Coorparoo and Camp Hill locals looking to increase their fitness and strengthen their body. The friendly team of instructors provides a range of group classes, including reformer pilates, mat pilates, barre, HIIT, stretch and yoga classes. Want to try something new? Book into a PIT (Pilates Interval Training) class, created by studio co-owner Chris, and sweat it out to a series of exercises combining interval training and low-impact mat movements. Premium Pilates and Fitness also offer affordable pilates and group fitness classes, with weekly memberships starting at $30 for unlimited classes at one studio. Membership is $50 per week if you want an all-access pass to both studios, or you can get fit in your living room with an online membership for $15 per week. Whether you're looking to strengthen your core, improve your posture or enhance your coordination, you're guaranteed a satisfying workout at Premium Pilates and Fitness. Images: Kristine Fernandez
Time flies when you're having fun and eating fried chook, which means that it's now five years since poultry buffet restaurant KaiKai Chicken first opened its doors. Since 2017, it's been asking a crucial question in St Lucia: why did the fried chicken fan cross Hawken Drive? The answer: to eat all the greasy chook they could handle. The eatery has helped Brisbanites solve the eternal query faced by hungry chook fiends everywhere, too — aka whether to have one finger lickin' good piece, several, or more than anyone should actually admit to. It serves up an endless array of poultry in a dozen different flavours, plus all-you-can-eat fries, rice, other sides and desserts to round out the meal. A la carte orders are also available, but who wants that when there's bottomless fried chicken at arms reach? To indulge in all of the above, likely while wearing your stretchiest outfit, you've needed to head to Brissie's inner west — but come April, you'll also be able to venture south. An exact launch date hasn't been announced yet, but KaiKai is opening its second yellow-hued store in Springwood, complete with its beloved all-you-can-eat fried chicken buffet. That means that you'll have twice as many spots to hit up for the chain's affordable — albeit hardly healthy — $24.95 bottomless package, which includes those 12 flavours of chicken, six types of loaded fries, steamed rice, mashed potatoes and gravy, bread rolls, and cinnamon jelly doughnut sandwiches for dessert. Also on the menu at the new Kaikai spot: a $75 option that also includes a 90-minute alcohol package spanning bottled beers, mimosas and soju jugs. If it sounds too good to be true, we're here to tell you that it's a clucking reality — as it has been in St Lucia for half a decade now. That said, visits to Kaikai do have a time limit. Just like sipping that aforementioned bottomless booze, flocking customers are asked to get their chicken fix within 90 minutes due to the demand — and, let's be honest, after an hour and a half of seeing how much chook you can feast upon, you're probably be ready to fly the coop anyway. Find KaiKai Chicken's new store at 3/25 Watland Street, Springwood sometime in April. We'll update you with an exact opening date when it is announced — and you can head to the chain's Facebook page to keep an eye out for further information in the interim. Top image: Atlanta Bell.
We're always looking for an excuse to indulge and an international celebration for everyone's favourite sweet seems as good a reason as any. This Saturday, July 7 is World Chocolate Day, and, as you would expect, Australia's oldest family-owned bean-to-bar chocolate maker, Haigh's Chocolates, is ready to celebrate the good stuff. Haigh's Chocolates certainly knows a thing or two about delicious artisan choc, seeing how it's been crafting chocolate from raw cocoa beans since 1915. The Adelaidean chocolate purveyors now offer more than 250 different specialist varieties produced at its SA-based factory. This Saturday, Haigh's will be offering free delivery on online purchases for purchases over $25. And, if you visit a Haigh's store, staff will be handing out free chocolate frogs. And to treat you, our lovely readers, even further, Haigh's has given us $200 for one of you to spend at any Haigh's Chocolates store or online. Enter below, and you could turn World Chocolate Day into World Chocolate Month with your winnings. Once you've entered, make sure you also save this Haigh's chocolate fondant recipe to try with your winning haul. INGREDIENTS: 150 grams Haigh's 70 percent dark chocolate pastilles, roughly chopped 150 grams unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing, cut into cubes 200 grams light brown sugar 4 large eggs 1 large egg yolk 1 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup (75 grams) plain flour, sifted Cocoa powder, to dust DIRECTIONS: Pre-heat oven to 200°C (180°C fan-forced). Grease the inside of six dariole moulds or ramekins. Place butter and chocolate together in a medium mixing bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water, stirring occasionally until melted and smooth. Add sugar, stirring to combine and remove from heat. In a separate bowl, combine eggs, yolk and vanilla together, stirring until combined. Add to the chocolate mixture, stirring until well combined. Sift the flour over the chocolate mixture, stirring until well combined. Divide mixture between prepared dariole moulds, making sure each mould is no more than 2/3 full. Place dariole moulds in preheated oven and cook for 15 minutes or until tops are set and coming away from the moulds. Remove from oven and allow to stand for one minute. To serve, use a small spatula to very gently ease the fondant away from the edge of the mould. Carefully invert each mould onto small serving plates and dust with cocoa powder. Serve with a dollop of jersey cream and fresh raspberries. Note: filled dariole moulds can be chilled ahead and baked just before serving. [competition]675143[/competition]
First, Brisbane finally got its first day-long vegan festival. Then, the first monthly vegan market popped up. Now, keeping the trend going, it's vegan Christmas time. Yes, Brisbane Vegan Markets are getting festive for their December 10 event — so prepare to celebrate in healthy, sustainable, cruelty-free, meat-free and vegetarian style. On the second Sunday of each month, BVM celebrates ethical eating choices in the best way that anyone can: bringing together all of the stalls selling all of the vegan products. Given the season, their last 2017 outing will feature multiple food stalls and vendors for all of your Chrissie culinary needs, plus plenty of gifts to put under the tree. The extra present, of course, is your own peace of mind. Stallholders have changed each and every month, but around 40 are expected this time around. Based on past markets, expect guilt-free grab bites and wares from a rotating range that has previously included I Should Coco, Tibetan Momo, Kings Indian Fusion, Fire & Dough, Tapioca Traders, Organic Frog Doughnuts, Chai Cart, Vegan Van, Vurger, Green Street Foods, Flour of Life and Popcorn Downunder — and they're just some of the traders selling their animal-free goods. Plus, there'll be clothing and cosmetics on offer too, and live music as well.
Here's news that no Usher fan will be saying "yeah!" to: the R&B singer is no longer touring Australia in 2025. After announcing his first solo headlining gigs in the country since 2011 back in May, then swiftly adding more gigs before general tickets had even gone on sale, the 2024 Super Bowl headliner has cancelled his entire trip Down Under. Usher was slated to play six concerts each in Melbourne in November and in Sydney in December. All 12 shows have been scrapped. A statement on the Ticketek website notes that the eight-time Grammy-winner's tour is cancelled, and that "the promoter of Usher's Australian tour regrets to advise that the scheduled shows to take place in November–December will no longer be proceeding". The Past Present Future tour's Aussie leg was set to hit Rod Laver Arena on Wednesday, November 19–Thursday, November 20, then again on Saturday, November 22–Sunday, November 23 and then across Tuesday, November 25–Wednesday, November 26. At Qudos Bank Arena, it was slated for Monday, December 1–Tuesday, December 2, then on Thursday, December 4–Friday, December 5 and finally on Wednesday, December 10–Thursday, December 11. Ticketholders will receive automatic refunds via the payment method they used to make their purchase within approximately 30 business days, the Ticketek website advises. Usher was due to celebrate his three-decade career at his Australian shows — going all the way back to his first single 'Call Me a Mack' from 1993, also playing tracks off of his latest 2024 album Coming Home, plus working his way through plenty in-between. The initial US concerts on the Past Present Future tour were announced just days before Usher's Super Bowl set, which worked through hits from across his lengthy career itself. From August–December 2024, the Texas-born singer made his way across North American stages, before heading to Europe (including England, France, the Netherlands and Germany) from March 2025. Also popping up on his setlist across the tour: 'Yeah!', of course, plus everything from 'Can U Get Wit It', 'Nice & Slow', 'U Remind Me' and 'U Got It Bad' to 'Burn', 'OMG', 'Euphoria' and more. Usher's Past Present Future World Tour Australia 2025 Dates Wednesday, November 19–Thursday, November 20, Saturday, November 22–Sunday, November 23 + Tuesday, November 25–Wednesday, November 26 — Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne — CANCELLED Monday, December 1–Tuesday, December 2, Thursday, December 4–Friday, December 5 + Wednesday, December 10–Thursday, December 11 — Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney — CANCELLED Usher is no longer touring Australia in November and December 2025. Tickets will be automatically refunded via the payment method used for purchase— head to the tour website for more details. Images: Bellamy Brewster / Marcus Macdonald.
The annual Brisbane Artist-Run Initiatives (BARI) Festival aims to shine a light on artist collectives who practise and exhibit outside commercial gallery spaces. This year, the Judith Wright Centre has been added to the list of venues set to host pop-up exhibitions around Brisbane City and Fortitude Valley. These installations will be curated by four artist-run initiatives at various times. SMALL LAKES – Friday 5 October, 7pm to 10pm. DIAGRAM – Monday 8 – Friday 12 October, 11am to 5pm. They will also host a closing event on Friday 12 October, 6pm to 8:30pm. POST DATUM – Tuesday 16 October, 11am to 5pm / Thursday 18 October, 2:30pm to 6pm (with an opening event from 6pm) / Friday 19 October, 10am to 1pm. INHOUSE ARI – Opening Friday 26 October, 6pm to 9pm / Saturday 27 October, 11am to 5pm. They will also be opening their shopfront window projections nightly between Monday 22 and Friday 26 October from sunset. The festival will be running for most of Ocober, so make sure you check out a few of these exhibitions!
Anyone with a passion or an idol has a before and after: the time prior to the thing or person that they adore coming into their lives, and the time since. Whether or not you're just a hunk of burning love for Austin Butler, the same type of thinking applies to the actor and his stunning performance in Elvis. He's been on-screen since he was a teenager, starting in a spate of Nickelodeon series such as Hannah Montana, iCarly and Zoey 101 — but becoming the king of rock 'n' roll for Baz Luhrmann in a portrayal that earned him an Oscar nomination, and won him both a BAFTA and a Golden Globe, instantly made him a household name. Ask Butler about his past few years since Elvis, as well as the impressive resume he's been amassing before and since, and he marvels at it. Alongside Luhrmann, he's now worked with Jeff Nichols on his newest movie The Bikeriders, Jim Jarmusch on 2019's The Dead Don't Die, Quentin Tarantino on Once Upon a Time in Hollywood the same year and Denis Villeneuve on 2024's Dune: Part Two. He's also led a Steven Spielberg-produced TV show in Masters of the Air and notched up those aforementioned accolades. "When you say it all back to back, that sounds wild," he tells Concrete Playground. [caption id="attachment_956506" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kyle Kaplan/Focus Features. © 2024 Focus Features. All Rights Reserved.[/caption] Butler isn't wrong. As the world saw with Elvis, then heard when his Presley accent seemed to drawl from his lips long after the biopic stopped shooting, he also isn't half-hearted for a second about his craft or his characters. Back in 2022, Luhrmann advised Concrete Playground that Butler playing Presley was "like a life-or-death commitment for him". Ask the man himself about that now, too, and he notes that the same dedication applies to each part that he steps into. "Every role is different and they all have their own requirements, but — I know that it might sound ridiculous — it feels like it's life or death. Like, you feel like your life depends on it in a way," he shares. With The Bikeriders, which Butler returned Down Under for to attend the film's Australian premiere at the 2024 Sydney Film Festival in June — after shooting Elvis on the Gold Coast, of course — viewers can witness him infuse that devotion and attentiveness into another of his great performances. He plays Benny, the lone-wolf Vandals Motorcycle Club member that everyone wants to be, the movie's narrator Kathy (Jodie Comer, Killing Eve) marries within five weeks of meeting and even club president Johnny (Tom Hardy, Venom: Let There Be Carnage) reveres. For the picture's characters, there's a before and after with encountering Benny, in fact, as there similarly is for the midwestern organisation that this band of outsiders find a sense of belonging in. Benny has his own versions of the before-and-after phenomenon. There's his life pre- Vandals, then after the headstrong thrill-seeker joins its ranks. There's also his existence prior to meeting Kathy, then all that follows. Spanning a ten-year period, the 60s- and 70s-set film charts how Benny's connection to the club and to his wife collide — and how Kathy and Johnny alike grapple with his influence. Drawn from reality even though its central biker gang is fictionalised, with Take Shelter, Mud, Midnight Special and Loving's Nichols adapting the film from the non-fiction book of the same name by photojournalist Danny Lyon, The Bikeriders equally chronicles the search for identity that accompanies enlisting in a group like the Vandals, putting someone at the centre of your orbit as Kathy and Johnny do with Benny, and attempting to be yourself no matter what, aka Benny's constant tussle. [caption id="attachment_964096" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Caroline McCredie[/caption] Butler has excellent company in The Bikeriders, not only in Comer and Hardy, but also Mike Faist (Challengers), Michael Shannon (The Flash), Norman Reedus (The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon), Boyd Holbrook (Justified: City Primeval), Emory Cohen (Blue Bayou), Karl Glusman (Civil War), and Australians Toby Wallace (The Royal Hotel) and Damon Herriman (The Artful Dodger). He's particularly exceptionally cast, however, as a mesmerising force endeavouring to remain authentic regardless of what the world throws Benny's way (and, given the era, the country, and the social, cultural, economic and political shifts that come with both, that's plenty). The Bikeriders might seem worlds away from Elvis and Dune: Part Two, Butler's two most-recent cinema roles — it's certainly intimate where they're each built upon spectacle — but they too wrestle with trying to discover who you truly are and where you fit in. Why he was drawn to the part, and to working with Nichols; how Butler sees Benny's journey throughout the film; outsider communities, including the parallels with being in the film industry; returning to that search for identity again and again; the contrast between making movies that favour intimacy and those worshipping spectacle: Butler also talked us through all of the above, plus his acting ambitions from this point onwards. [caption id="attachment_964098" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Kyle Kaplan/Focus Features. © 2024 Focus Features. All Rights Reserved.[/caption] On What Attracted Butler to The Bikeriders "First of all, it was Jeff Nichols. Knowing that he had written it and was going to be directing it really piqued my interest. And then reading the script, for one, it just felt that I was able to see the movie in my head as I read it. It felt like such a cool movie that had so much heart. It just seemed like a really good film. And the character was one of the coolest characters I've ever read — I just felt that I had to play him." [caption id="attachment_956508" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kyle Kaplan/Focus Features. © 2024 Focus Features. All Rights Reserved.[/caption] On How Butler Sees Benny's Journey Throughout the Film "He's an interesting one. Jeff describes him as an empty glass that everybody's trying to fill. And they're filling, they're trying to fill him with their expectations and responsibilities and rules, but he can't be filled with it. That's the interesting thing with both the club, which is this group of outsiders who don't like rules who come together and then funnily enough, they start making rules themselves within the club — and then, same thing with the relationship with Kathy, where he loves her and loves that feeling of connection and magnetism towards her, as long as there's no rules. And then once she starts trying to impose these rules, that's when he wants to cut bait and leave. [caption id="attachment_964099" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Kyle Kaplan/Focus Features. © 2024 Focus Features, LLC. All RIghts Reserved.[/caption] But what comes along with that is then an incredible amount of loneliness, I think. And so you can compartmentalise — and so I guess, by the end of the film you're seeing him at a point now where he's experienced loss and he's experienced loneliness, and he's trying to do things differently, but there is that lone wolf inside of him. I also like leaving that moment up to interpretation — like, I'm so curious to have conversations with people after they see the film now and know what they think that last moment of the film is." [caption id="attachment_964094" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Courtesy of Focus Features. © 2023 Focus Features. All Rights Reserved.[/caption] On Digging Into the Type of Community That Forms When Outsiders Come Together "I thought about it in the context of motorcycle lovers. That was the group that I was hanging around with at that time as we were making a movie, where all the people that I was with, we just ride motorcycles 12 hours a day and talk about motorcycles and work on motorcycles — and it's a very particular type of person that is in that world. But as you say that, it just makes me think of even the traveling circus that is making movies. They're kind of that same sort of outsider culture, where you're travelling around the world, and you pick up the circus tent and you move it somewhere else. You work for a while there and you have your family, and then the family disbands and you go and you kind of do it again somewhere else. So I suppose that that's the kind of the world that I've been a part of for a long time." [caption id="attachment_956509" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kyle Kaplan/Focus Features. © 2024 Focus Features. All Rights Reserved.[/caption] On Repeatedly Stepping Into Films with a Search for Identity at Their Heart "I don't know how much Benny is searching for an identity necessarily. I think that's why that Tom's character Johnny, when he talks about out of all the guys in the club that Benny is the one that they want to be because he doesn't need anything from anyone. He doesn't really want any rules. But I suppose, I guess from the other side, you could see he decided to join this club. He decided to become a part of something. So perhaps that is part of the identity, and maybe motorcycles being a part of the identity. I guess we could just look at the human condition with that, and how we're all sort of — it's what helps us get through the world, you know, is our identity and what we identify with. And now we get into a philosophical conversation about ego and what connects us to feeling and identity at all." [caption id="attachment_964097" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Courtesy of Focus Features. © 2023 Focus Features. All Rights Reserved.[/caption] On Moving From the Sense of Spectacle in Elvis and Dune: Part Two to the Intimacy of The Bikeriders "It's really one of the things that drew me to it. I wanted to do something very different — and how raw it was, and the fact that we were shooting on film and everything is practical. We were actually riding motorcycles with no helmets. It was just very visceral. So, yeah, it does change things because I think with some of the spectacle performances, it can be — I don't know, I'm trying to figure out as I'm saying it, but sometimes it's about the aesthetic of it and the frame of it. And sometimes that can feel external at times, where it's where you are in the frame and the angle of your face and that sort of thing. This felt — I felt — less conscious of any of that type of thing, and it was more about the relationships, and more just about the humanity and that connection." [caption id="attachment_964100" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Kyle Kaplan/Focus Features. © 2024 Focus Features, LLC. All Rights Reserved.[/caption] On How Having Such a Huge Past Few Years Has Shaped Butler's Ambitions as an Actor From This Point Onwards "I think right now I feel very fortunate for the opportunities that I've had, and it's really been my dream for my entire life to get to work with directors of this calibre and actors that I've always admired. So I really think my dream now is just to continue working with great directors and actors, and to keep growing — to keep challenging myself and surprising myself, and try not to do the same thing twice. I know that I have a lot to learn, and I'm just continuing to try to stay curious and grateful." The Bikeriders opens in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, July 4, 2024. Read our review. Top image: Courtesy of Focus Features. © 2023 Focus Features. All Rights Reserved.
Stare at The False Mirror at Magritte, one of the Art Gallery of New South Wales' just-announced big summer exhibitions, and the masterpiece of a painting from 1929 will peer right back. One of Belgian surrealist René Magritte's most-famous creations, the piece features a giant eye looking at the viewer, while also filled with a cloudy blue sky. It's an unforgettable work, and it's one of the stars of the 2024–25 Sydney International Art Series. Another striking painting that's hitting the Harbour City from Saturday, October 26, 2024–Sunday, February 9, 2025: Golconda, Magritte's 1953 work that brings two other pieces of popular culture to mind. Just try not to think about Mary Poppins and The Weather Girls' song 'It's Raining Men' while you feast your eyes on the sight of bowler hat-wearing men streaming down from the heavens. [caption id="attachment_959955" align="alignnone" width="1920"] René Magritte 'Golconda (Golconde)' 1953, oil on canvas, 80 x 100.3 cm, The Menil Collection, Houston, V 414 © Copyright Agency, Sydney 2024, photo: Paul Hester.[/caption] At Magritte, which is exclusive to Sydney, The False Mirror, Golconda and 1952's The Listening Room (La Chambre d'Écoute) — which shows an oversized apple — will have ample company at AGNSW's south building Naala Nura. In total, 100-plus works are set to display. This will not only be a huge retrospective dedicated to the artist, but also Australia's first retrospective dedicated to the artist. More than 80 of the pieces will be paintings, demonstrating why he's considered one of the most-influential figures in 20th-century surrealism; however, archival materials, photographs and films will also feature. Sydney International Art Series isn't just about one major exclusive showcase, of course. From Saturday, November 30, 2024–Sunday, April 13, 2025, AGNSW will also host Cao Fei: My City. Over at the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia from Friday, November 29, 2024–Sunday, April 27, 2025, Julie Mehretu will be on display as well. [caption id="attachment_959956" align="alignnone" width="1920"] René Magritte 'The listening room (La chambre d'écoute)' 1952, oil on canvas, 45.2 x 55.2 cm, The Menil Collection, Houston, gift of Fariha Friedrich, 1991-53 DJ © Copyright Agency, Sydney 2024, photo: Adam Baker.[/caption] Cao Fei: My City is also an Australian-first retrospective and the largest showcase of its namesake's pieces Down Under, putting the Guangzhou-born, Beijing-based artist in the spotlight. Expect cyber futurism to grace AGNSW's walls in a 1300-square-metre space in Naala Badu, the gallery's south building, as part of an exhibition designed by Cao Fei with Hong Kong's Beau Architects. Your entry point: a replica of a Beijing cinema from the 60s. And your exit point isn't a gift shop, but a Sydney yum cha restaurant. As for Julie Mehretu, it will be the southern hemisphere's first major survey of the Ethiopia-born, New York-raised artist's output, spanning over 80 paintings and works. Some will date back as far as 1995. Others have been created just for the exhibition. Mehretu herself will also be in Sydney for the showcase's opening. [caption id="attachment_959957" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cao Fei 'Nova' 2019, single-channel HD video, colour, 5.1 sound, 97:13 min, 2.35:1 © Cao Fei, Vitamin Creative. Courtesy Sprüth Magers.[/caption] "Magritte and Cao Fei are giants of their respective times and leading figures in both the modern and contemporary art worlds. Magritte will consider the Belgian artist's groundbreaking contribution to surrealism in an exhibition that highlights the uniqueness and independence of his artistic vision. This Art Gallery-exclusive exhibition will give Australian audiences the chance to experience Magritte's practice in deeper and more profound ways than ever before, providing a real glimpse into the evolution of his practice," said Art Gallery of New South Wales Director Michael Brand. "Naala Badu, our new SANAA-designed building, allows us to stage inventive kinds of exhibitions as never before, and the imaginative format of Cao Fei: My City is Yours befits the playfulness of one of the world's most prominent and innovative living artists. This exhibition builds upon the Art Gallery's proud history of staging exhibitions of Chinese art since the 1940s, and with this show we celebrate the pioneering creativity of this globally acclaimed artist, as well as the boundless possibilities that art offers for deeper understanding and connection. With both Cao Fei and Magritte on show this summer, we have an unmissable offering for visitors to Sydney and local art lovers alike," Brand continued. [caption id="attachment_959961" align="alignnone" width="1920"] TRANSpaintings (green ecstatic), 2023–24, courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery; TRANSpaintings (emergence), 2023–24, courtesy the artist and Marian Goodman Gallery; TRANSpaintings (recurrence), 2023, Pinault Collection; TRANSpaintings (skull), 2023, courtesy the artist and White Cube; TRANSpaintings (mask), 2023, courtesy the artist and White Cube; Your Eyes are two blind eagles, That Kill what they can't see, 2022–23, private collection. Installation view, Julie Mehretu. Ensemble, 2024, Palazzo Grassi, Venezia. Ph. Marco Cappelletti © Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection.[/caption] "The Museum of Contemporary Art Australia is delighted to be presenting to audiences in Australia this remarkable exhibition by an artist who is undoubtedly one of today's most exciting living painters, and whose dynamic language of abstraction speaks so powerfully to the contemporary world in which we live," added MCA Australia Director Suzanne Cotter about the Julie Mehretu exhibition. "The experience of Mehretu's paintings is nothing short of a visual and physical event. We are proud to present this year's Sydney International Art Series with Julie Mehretu to build upon the MCA's history of introducing to the public in Australia the work of today's most influential artists." [caption id="attachment_959954" align="alignnone" width="1920"] René Magritte 'The false mirror (Le faux miroir)' 1929, oil on canvas, 54 x 80.9 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 133.1936 © Copyright Agency, Sydney 2024, photo © The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence 2024.[/caption] Sydney International Art Series 2024–25: Saturday, October 26, 2024–Sunday, February 9, 2025 — Magritte, Art Gallery of NSW Friday, November 29, 2024–Sunday, April 27, 2025 — Julie Mehretu, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia Saturday, November 30, 2024–Sunday, April 13, 2025 — Cao Fei: My City, Art Gallery of NSW [caption id="attachment_959963" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cao Fei 'Nova' 2019, single-channel HD video, colour, 5.1 sound, 97:13 min, 2.35:1 © Cao Fei, Vitamin Creative. Courtesy Sprüth Magers.[/caption] Sydney International Art Series 2024–25 runs from October 2024 — head to the AGNSW and MCA websites for further details. Top image: excerpt of René Magritte 'The false mirror (Le faux miroir)' 1929, oil on canvas, 54 x 80.9 cm, Museum of Modern Art, New York, 133.1936 © Copyright Agency, Sydney 2024, photo © The Museum of Modern Art, New York/Scala, Florence 2024.
It was a groaning, grimacing Timothy Spall who won the Best Actor Award at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival, for a role in which his face is frequently scrunched, his posture is constantly hunched, and his voice is guttural when heard. His applauded performance leaves a lasting imprint, yet as primal as it proves, it only scratches the surface of a character and a film both called Mr Turner. Beneath the physicality sits a portrayal and a biopic that finds underlying beauty in brutality, while never equating both traits as opposite extremes. Such an approach matches the 19th-century subject, the titular J.M.W. Turner, who made his name painting vistas of land and sea. Some of his oil and watercolour pieces showed pastoral elegance, but for all his praised use of light, increasingly his pictures were tinted with the destruction and violence of nature. His command of technique remained untouched; however, the tone of his canvases evolved over the course of his career. This professional progression, venerated now, wasn’t well received during his lifetime. In Mr Turner, Spall inhabits the hulking figure of a reclusive and eccentric man in what amounts to slices of his existence over his final quarter-century. In his personal affairs, his ailing father (Paul Jesson), his dutiful housekeeper (Dorothy Atkinson), and his secret landlady turned companion and confidant (Marion Bailey) all influence this last difficult chapter, one also marked by the former mistress (Ruth Sheen) and daughters (Sandy Foster and Amy Dawson) he refuses to publicly acknowledge. Writer/director Mike Leigh is known for his fondness for and feeding off of the improvisation of his cast. His films — recently, Happy-Go-Lucky and Another Year – are a cooperative act between the auteur and his actors. Accordingly, his overarching narratives can be driven by the whims of individual scenes, as is strongly the case here. In Mr Turner, Leigh has crafted a pieced-together story that showcases the very best of everyone involved. Spall’s every action may monopolise the frame, but in this feature as in all of the filmmaker’s offerings, there isn’t a bad performance to be found amongst the sprawling yet subtly brushed tale. Indeed, it is with a painter’s touch that Leigh guides his cast, and that his actors enliven their characters, constructing the film layer by layer. The exquisite visuals by Cannes award-winning cinematographer Dick Pope perform the same creative task, further perfecting the feature’s evocation of its central vocation. From sequences following Turner traversing the countryside, to quiet conversations stolen indoors, every image tumbles from artistry – whether glimpsed alone or considered as a whole. As Mr Turner finds the humanity within the harshness of a life of winding down and of an extraordinary talent housed within a complex man, Leigh and his collaborators on-screen and off turn the corresponding account into its own masterly work.
Before Brisbane became home to rooftop bars atop every soaring tower in the Brisbane CBD, South Bank and Fortitude Valley, or near enough, enjoying a stunning view of the city over a drink meant heading up Mt Coot-tha. Driving to the top of the inner-west spot, scoping out the vista from the lookout, and getting sipping and eating at The Summit restaurant and cafe is one of the most Brisbane things to possibly do, no matter whether you're a local or a tourist. Come 2024, the already sky-high experience will level up — literally. The Summit is about to undergo a revamp, with Mantle Group Hospitality lodging a development application to transform the lofty venue. That includes building a new two-level pavilion that'll replace the set-to-be-demolished cafe — and also adding a gin distillery for mountaintop G&Ts, plus a new deck with a killer outlook to the heritage-listed restaurant. "What we are proposing is transformational, and presents The Summit as an iconic and exciting site for locals and visitors to Brisbane," said Mantle Group Hospitality owner Godfrey Mantle, announcing the proposed development. "Both the restaurant and the cafe are in dire need of significant work, plus we want to optimise the venues to take advantage of the spectacular views. The amenities will be completely renovated and we'll landscape the surrounds to create a more appealing environment." The existing restaurant will dedicate its top floor to dining — especially around the large fig tree that's already at the back of the site, and will be lit up for a glowing eating experience — and boast a casual bar alongside its new deck. Downstairs, the bottom level will be turned into a theatre, with a specific focus on showcasing Mt Coot-tha's history and culture, and paying tribute to the landmass' traditional Indigenous owners. Where the cafe currently stands, the new pavilion — called the Pavilion, fittingly — will feature both dining and the gin distillery on the ground floor. Up top, there'll be a rooftop garden heroing First Nations' herbs and ingredients, as well as a new viewing platform that'll be accessed via a connecting bridge. [caption id="attachment_720364" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bernhard Wintersperge via Flickr[/caption] Exactly when Brisbanites and travellers can hit up The Summit in its new guise hasn't been revealed yet, as that relaunch date is dependent upon the development application being approved. If the revamp gets the official go-ahead, the renovations are expected to take seven months. Design-wise, Hogg and Lamb will be doing the honours, as the firm has with fellow Brisbane venues Tillerman, Sunshine, Bar Tano, Gemelli Italian, Lune Croissanterie, The Sound Garden and Alto. The Summit is set to unveil its revamp at 2/1012 Sir Samuel Griffith Drive, Mt Coot-Tha, sometime in 2024 — we'll update you with an exact launch date when one is announced.
