"A pink, glittery, existential dance party in their heart." That's what Greta Gerwig hopes that audiences will find when her third film as a solo director splashes its rosy — and rose-hued — frames across the silver screen. The movie in question is Barbie, marking Mattel's six-decade-old doll's live-action debut. And, no matter how you feel about the toy itself, the feature boasts no shortage of reasons to get excited: the Lady Bird and Little Women filmmaker guiding the show; the fact that Gerwig co-wrote the film with her Frances Ha, Mistress America and White Noise helmer Noah Baumbach; Margot Robbie not only starring but producing and originating the project; a killer cast, including Ryan Gosling as Ken; and the self-aware sense of humour that's bounced through not one, not two, but three trailers before the picture hits cinemas Down Under on July 20. Gerwig and Robbie know that Barbie is a product with history. First reaching stores in 1959, as one of the first-ever dolls that weren't of babies, the plaything has sparked more reactions than the toy itself sports outfits — and this figurine in all of its many guises has never been short on wardrobe options. As a flick, Barbie aims to unpack those swirling responses and, yes, play with them. The feature's marketing tagline might be adamant that "if you love Barbie, this movie is for you" and also "if you hate Barbie, this movie is for you", but Robbie adds to it. "It's also a film for people who feel indifferent about Barbie. But when I pitched that to marketing, it didn't really roll off the tongue in the same way." The Australian Babylon, Amsterdam and The Suicide Squad actor shared her thoughts in Sydney, as did her Maggie's Plan, Jackie and 20th Century Women star-turned-filmmaker helmer Gerwig. In the leadup to the picture's release, Barbie is going global, with a trip Down Under one stop on the feature's promotional tour. Also visiting: Issa Rae and America Ferrera, with the Insecure and Superstore talents popping up on-screen alongside Robbie. Rae plays President Barbie, while Ferrera is Gloria, one of the film's few non-doll characters. Weeks out from Barbie hitting cinemas, the Gerwig-directed, Robbie-led, Rae- and Ferrera-costarring movie has already achieved a feat that would likely seem unthinkable if any other talents were involved: this is one of 2023's most-anticipated cinema releases. Actually, Barbie scored that status months out — years even, after the Gerwig-and-Robbie pairing was locked in back in 2021. Audiences are eager, but the folks that've been given the chance to bring this Barbie flick to them couldn't be more thrilled, too. Talking about the film at a beachside Bondi event at Icebergs, where the venue's famous pool even scored a temporary Barbie-themed makeover, the team's enthusiasm is palpable. "It's a movie that I think can really cut across generations and gender," notes Gerwig, who advises that the feature has been made for everyone aged eight to 108. Also covered at Gerwig, Robbie, Rae and Ferrera's Australian press conference: making a "wild, bananas Barbie movie", the huge opportunity to play with something so globally recognised, expanding the character, challenging stereotypes, following Wonder Woman's lead and breaking all of the Barbie rules. ON HOW IT FEELS NOW THAT BARBIE WILL SOON BE IN CINEMAS Greta: "At this very moment, just being in this setting and being with all of you — and the beach, and we're in Australia, and all these talented people — I really am feeling like what a spectacular life this is. It's overwhelming and amazing, and I just feel very grateful that Margot came to me almost four years ago and said 'do you want to you write a Barbie thing?'. And I'm grateful that in my postpartum haze four years ago, I said yes. It's just been such an extraordinary confluence of so many people coming together who are just outrageous and smart and talented — and that we got to make this wild, bananas Barbie movie is just an extraordinary blessing." ON WANTING TO MAKE A BARBIE MOVIE IN THE FIRST PLACE Margot: "I was aware that the Barbie IP was floating around, had gone up and running, and hadn't come to full fruition. So we've been keeping tabs on the property, and when there seemed like there was an opening, we jumped at the opportunity. We sat down with the Mattel CEO, Ynon [Kreiz], and that was five years ago, and pitched what we as our production company would want to do with a Barbie movie. And I knew even at that time that I would want to do it with someone like Greta Gerwig. She was the dream writer/director for it. I didn't know if she was going to say yes to it, but there are very few people in my mind that I want to make a Barbie movie with, Greta being the top of the list — and thank goodness she said yes. But the reason we went after the property is because it seemed like a very big and exciting and scary opportunity. It's globally recognised — the word itself is globally recognised. And not only that, people have very strong feelings about Barbie in a lot of cases. So it felt like a really exciting place to start a film, and start with the audience, where they already feel a certain way — perhaps that, at the very least, they have associated childhood memories with it. And it seemed like we could do something special with it." ON BEING A PART OF BARBIE'S ON-SCREEN WORLD Issa: "It was spectacular. Greta approached me and, just in our interview-slash-meeting, told me that she envisioned a world, a Barbie world, where I was President. I was super flattered by that, and also questioned her taste in political leaders. But it's a world that is perfect and beautiful — and seeing her brilliant writing, and the cast attached, it was a no brainer for me. So I was just honoured to to play in the world." America: "It was Margot and Greta's involvement that made me interested in what the script was. It was irresistible to be invited to — to take a peek into the world that these two incredibly talented and intelligent, respected women in our fields were going to do with Barbie. I never imagined myself in a Barbie movie, and I just opened the script and I was laughing on page one and then I was crying — and then I was laughing and crying. I had so many feelings and, truly, my first thought was 'are they even going to let Greta make this?'. I did not go into it feeling invested in Barbie — I didn't grow up playing with Barbies, I didn't feel represented in the world of Barbie — but Greta and Noah's brilliance created a world that made it relevant to me. And it is really exciting to get to be a part of a moment that is expanding such a dominant, influential female iconic character in our global culture, to include more of us. And also to include people with perspectives that aren't necessarily positive and kind toward the very long legacy and history that Barbie has." ON TACKLING A CHARACTER WITH SUCH HISTORY — AND BREAKING ALL THE BARBIE RULES Greta: "I grew up with a mum who didn't love Barbie, which only made me more interested in Barbie. So I had a lot of hand-me-down Barbies — a lot of Barbies who were Kate McKinnon's version, like their clothes were all on backward. That Barbie is very close to my heart. When we signed on to write it and I went to the Mattel headquarters, they opened up all the archives and took me through everything from 1959 till now, and the designers and the people who work there were just really fun to talk to and really interesting. But I would say that actually what we we did is, if there were rules, I think we broke all of them. That was part of it, in a way: 'tell me what your sacred cows are and I will do something naughty with it'. Margot, as a producer, was so instrumental in the whole process of just saying 'I want to make this. I want to make her version of this movie, her vision and and really protect it'. But yeah, if anything, it was an introduction to all the rules so they could be broken." America: "I remember when Greta and I first started speaking, she gave me a list of movies to watch to get in the vibe and the feel and the tone, and actually one of the movies I watched was a documentary called Tiny Shoulders about the expansion of the brand. I learned so much watching that. I did know a little, but through the making of this movie and the little bits of research that are either in the movie or that you caught researching it, it's really phenomenal to get a sense of how long the Barbie legacy has been — and how there have been times in the legacy where she was a revolution, and other times where she was behind her times and she needed to catch up. Just the mere fact that she was the first doll a girl could play with that wasn't a baby doll is something that I didn't really ever know. So there was there was an appreciation right from the start of how long her legacy is and how varied her place in our culture has been." ON CHALLENGING THE BARBIE STEREOTYPE Margot: "I definitely didn't want to portray Barbie as being vapid in any way. The thing about our how our story is constructed is that Barbie can be anything — Barbie can be president, Barbie can be a Nobel Prize-winner, you see all this stuff at the beginning of the movie that sets up how incredibly intelligent Barbie is. But at the same time, she hasn't been exposed to so many of the concepts that she's going to be exposed to in the real world. So it was a fine line between playing naivety without it coming across as unintelligent, because I didn't want it to seem ditsy— and that's just not interesting to play. It's not interesting to watch, either. There are times in the movie where we lean into stereotypes — we literally call my Barbie 'stereotypical Barbie' — so we're very much leaning into some stereotypes so that we can, in a way of being self-aware, play up the comedy, and also have a deeper conversation about some sort of issue. But then there are other times where you're like 'okay, if we play up that particular stereotype, it's going to be boring for people for the hour and 40 minutes that they're watching this movie'. It was an interesting challenge to find 'okay, what how do we portray the fact that she hasn't been exposed to certain things that she's going to learn along the way, but it doesn't mean that she's not intelligent?'." ON GETTING HELP FROM WONDER WOMAN — AND PASSING THAT HELP ON Margot: "Obviously I want the movie to do well because we all worked so hard and we love it so much. But I think it is important when a movie like this does do well — like, if Wonder Woman hadn't done what Wonder Woman had done, I don't know if people would have given us the budget we got to. And if this does well, then the next person who wants to make [something female-led]. It's so important." Greta: "We were just saying this the other day. I think all the time, I was like 'I'm so grateful that Patty Jenkins made Wonder Woman'. And yeah, whoever comes next, it will be..." Margot: "I remember when they were trying to come up with comps [comparable films] for this movie, and there's not that many. And it's important to have them. It makes a difference on the business side of things to have those comps, and have the proof in the pudding that they've made money and done well. Hopefully we can be an extra stepping stone for the next thing." Check out the trailer for Barbie below: Barbie releases in cinemas Down Under on July 20. Images: Barbie press tour photography by Caroline McCredie for Warner Bros/NBC Universal. Barbie film stills via Warner Bros.
Thomas M. Wright, director of Doku Rai (you, dead man, I don't believe you), prefaces our interview with a disclaimer. "The difficult thing to begin, with talking about Doku Rai, is to acknowledge that we can only ever scrape the surface," he asserts, caffeine-eyed after "seven hours' sleep over the past four days". "Talking to me about this production is like talking to one angle of a cut stone. You're only going to see it through my prism. Every time I talk with others involved, the number of refractions is just infinite. You'll hear every event from a different perspective. The stories are limitless." Doku Rai is a collaboration between Melbourne's Black Lung Theatre and Whaling Firm and "East Timorese rock gods" Liurai Fo'er and Galaxy. It opened last year at Darwin Festival, Melbourne Arts House and Adelaide Festival. Having appeared at Brisbane Festival last week, it will come to Carriageworks on 25-28 September. As well as being a co-founder of the Black Lung and renowned theatre actor, you might remember Wright for his role as Johnno Mitcham in Jane Campion's Top of the Lake, for which he received a Best Supporting Actor nomination at the 2013 US Critics' Choice Awards. AN ABANDONED HOTEL, A REMOTE ISLAND Doku Rai is the first ever international theatre production to emerge from Timor-Leste. Conceived in 1999 when Wright met East Timorese actor, rock star and ex-guerrilla fighter Osme Gonsalves on the set of Balibo, it came to fruition 18 months ago. For 60 days, 30 Australian and East Timorese creatives holed themselves up in an abandoned colonial motel on the volcanic island of Atauro. Their mission: to create an epic work of cross-cultural collaboration; their method: undecided. "The word confronting doesn't even begin to describe the process of making this work," Wright says. "The writing was very complex. It took a lot of different forms — slabs of text from anecdotes, personal conversations, improvisation, individuals' writing, writing that already existed — interwoven in a way that an audience can only sense, and not really know, because there are so many circumstances, histories, myths and real events. But that's what gives it its sense of depth." TWO BROTHERS, A CURSE AND A DEATHLESS MURDER At Doku Rai's core is the "mythical structure" of two brothers, a curse and a man who is killed but cannot die. "A doku is a curse — a weapon — that has been used through the past twelve generations or more of occupied Timorese," Wright explains. "It's a tool by which, in a ceremony, you take all the coherence from a person, you rob them of their faculties, and that makes them vulnerable for you to do what you will with them. "Literally, the act of doku is 'turning over'. So, you set a table for a meal, with a place set for the absent person. You all share in the food, and at the end, you perform a ceremony. You cut open the liver of a chicken to get an augury and then turn the absent guest's plate, bowl and glass upside down. That is the acting of the curse. 'Rai' means earth, soil, so Doku Rai means 'to curse the earth', or 'the turning of the earth'." SHATTERING PATERNAL ASSUMPTIONS With this imagery at its dark heart, Doku Rai is driven by the personal, rather than the political. Unconfined by a linear narrative or governing aesthetic, it combines rock music, multimedia, unexpected dashes of black humour and a surprise guest, in the form of a live rooster, in an indefinite setting. "It has moorings in the world of East Timor and echoes of the Portuguese colonial past, but it's a fictional reality," Wright explains. "It has, certainly not aesthetic echoes of the Australian engagement, but thematic ties ... In Australia, we do have a very condescending, very paternal relationship with a lot of our neighbours. And we wanted to shatter that — to make something on purely personal terms. We know that the political implications and political realities are all there; we don't need to foreground them. They take care of themselves, just by dealing with personal stories. Beyond [Doku Rai] is a three-dimensional, constantly evolving life, with a past that goes back a long way and a future that also extends outward. There is certainly a responsibility with the audience to invest - to place themselves into scenarios and to consider the real people and the circumstances behind the making of the work. No matter how interesting and taut and strong a work we make, it's only ever going to be as interesting as the process of making it, at best." REHEARSING THROUGH BLACK OUTS AND GUN BATTLES That process was about as "interesting" as it gets. Wright and his team battled black outs, water shortages and gun battles. "When we did the show in Dili," he recalls, "we had to do it in very reduced circumstances, because there was a total 'no movement' order issued by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Violence had broken out following an election, which was very, very frightening. Half of us were stranded on the island and half of us were in lockdown in a house which was isolated down a corridor of gangs in Dili. Our producer, Alex Ben-Mayor, had to drive through a gun fight. Two of the students of our production members were shot in the head and killed by police." That's but a microcosm of what daily life in East Timor can entail. "To be honest, and to be clear, their stories are screaming to be told," Wright asserts. "We've told our stories for years and years and years." Doku Rai (you, dead man, i don't believe you) will show at Carriageworks between Wednesday September 25 and Saturday September 28, 2013. Shows start at 8pm, plus there's an additional 2pm matinee on Saturday September 28. Tickets, $35, are available online.
You might not know that noted film banger of the 00s Bring It On has been made into a stage musical — and, having already done the rounds on Broadway in 2012, it's going to cartwheel into Melbourne in June this year. Responsible for the phrase "cheerocracy" and your unrealistic expectations of high school, it seems the original movie still has some decent cultural capital to give. If you've been wondering, in the last 18 years, what exactly the world of competitive cheerleading might have going on with it these days, this musical is for you. If you had a Kirsten Dunst poster on the back of your childhood bedroom door, this musical is for you. To be honest, if you've watched the film even just a few times, it's probably for you too. With music and lyrics by Tony Award-winning composer Lin-Manuel Miranda (of Hamilton fame) and the stage adaptation by Jeff Whitty (Avenue Q), the musical is only loosely based on the original film of 2000, which starred your girls Kirsten and Eliza Dushku. Unlike the five sequels that followed the movie — all of which went directly to VHS — the musical looks like it has a refreshing amount of sass, cutthroat rivalry and aerial stunts. Bust out your best spirit fingers and get them tapping on your keyboard if you want tickets — Bring It On: The Musical is making its way to Melbourne's Athenaeum Theatre in June, but it's only going to be step-pivot-split jumping around town for a strictly limited run of ten shows. And keep them fingers crossed the show decides to make its way around the country. Bring It On: The Musical will run from June 7–16, 2018 at the Athenaeum Theatre, 188 Collins Street, Melbourne. Tickets are on sale now via Ticketek.
It's the best action movie of this century. The best Australian flick of the same period, too. And, it's one of the very best in general as well. But, because the arid expanse that usually surrounds Broken Hill was too green when filming took place, six-time Oscar-winner Mad Max: Fury Road was actually shot overseas. That won't be the case with its follow up Furiosa, though. Focusing on a younger version of the character played by Charlize Theron in Fury Road, Furiosa is actually a prequel — and it'll begin filming in New South Wales in June this year. The Queen's Gambit lead Anya Taylor-Joy will be stepping into the formidable figure's shoes, and starring opposite Chris Hemsworth. Watchmen's Yahya Abdul Mateen II will also feature and, although no other cast members have yet to be announced, it's safe to expect that plenty of local faces will pop up as well. It has been six years since Fury Road first motored its way across the big screen, so Furiosa can't arrive soon enough. Exactly when the latter will actually hit cinemas is yet to be revealed, but it'll do so after a relatively short gap by Mad Max standards. If you feel like you've been waiting for ages to see the franchise continue, it's worth remembering that there was a 30-year gap between 1985's not-so-great Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road's triumphant arrival in 2015. NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian announced the news today, Monday, April 19, noting that the shoot "is expected to support more than 850 local jobs and bring in around $350 million into the NSW economy". And while it's all good and well that the Mad Max series is continuing, that it'll be shot in Australia and that it has quite an impressive cast, that'd really mean nothing if director George Miller wasn't involved. Thankfully, he'll be back behind the lens, as he has been on 1979's Mad Max, 1981's Mad Max 2, and both Beyond Thunderdome and Fury Road as well. Obviously, a sneak peek of Furiosa won't be available for quite some time given that it hasn't even begun shooting yet, but you can relive Fury Road's glory in its trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hEJnMQG9ev8 Furiosa will start filming in NSW in June. Exactly when the film will hit cinemas hasn't yet been revealed, but we'll update you with details when they're announced
One of the top ways to treat yourself is to check into one of the best hotels in Melbourne for a few nights. At these joints, you get a little bit of everything (or even a whole lot of everything). Expect fresh plush sheets (this may seem basic, but god we all know how good this feels), room service that you can eat in bed, pampering packages at spas, pools with epic views and just about anything else your luxurious self desires. And Melbourne is packed full of five-star hotels and brilliant boutique stays that will help you live your best life. So check out our guide to the very best hotels in Melbourne, perfect for those after a luxury staycation or out-of-town visitors in need of a base for exploring the city. Recommended reads: The Best Day Spas in Melbourne The Best Dog-Friendly Hotels in Australia The Best Places to Go Glamping in Victoria The Best Dog-Friendly Accommodations in Victoria
Overseas travel is at the top of many Australian bucket lists right now. And if you're the kind of traveller who prefers fewer stopovers, there's some exciting news on the horizon from Qantas. Dubbed Project Sunrise, the Australian airline has unveiled plans to introduce a fleet of twelve Airbus A350s, which are all capable of flying direct from Australia to London and New York. Direct flights are currently available from Darwin to London, however, for those on the east coast of Australia, this still means factoring in a layover to your journey. Qantas has announced that with these new aircrafts, direct flights will be available from the east coast as well, starting with Sydney-to-London and Sydney-to-New York flights in late 2025. Qantas first toyed with the idea of direct flights from Australia's east coast to New York and London back in 2017, however after two trial flights in 2019 decided to delay the decision. "The A350 and Project Sunrise will make any city just one flight away from Australia," said Qantas Group CEO Alan Joyce. "It's the last frontier and the final fix for the tyranny of distance." With time in the air set to exceed the current 18-hour flight time of the Darwin-to-London route, the new aircrafts are also being designed with comfort in mind. The A350-1000s will carry 239 passengers compared to other airlines' average of 300 passengers, and will feature a designated comfort zone in the middle of the cabin where people can stretch their legs. [caption id="attachment_852120" align="alignnone" width="1920"] A350 wellness zone render[/caption] Alongside this announcement, Qantas has also revealed it will add 40 new A321XLRs and A220 aircrafts to its domestic fleet late next year. These new planes will gradually replace the Boeing 737s and 717s as they are retired. "The A320s and A220s will become the backbone of our domestic fleet for the next 20 years, helping to keep this country moving," continued Joyce. According to Qantas, this new fleet of aircrafts will create over 1000 jobs and Joyce says the aircrafts will help reduce emissions "by at least 15 per cent if running on fossil fuels, and significantly better when run on Sustainable Aviation Fuel". This will play a role in Qantas' commitment that it made in 2019 to reach net-zero by 2050. If you fly Qantas regularly and you're committed to sustainability, you can also sign up for its Green Tier rewards program which unlocks rewards and benefits to customers who complete at least five sustainable activities across six areas in their lives. Qantas' direct flights from Sydney to London and Sydney to New York are set to take to the air in late 2025. For more information, head to the Qantas website. Images: Qantas
When a musical becomes a Broadway sensation, FOMO tends to sink in for theatre fans Down Under. Rave reviews might start pouring in, and awards as well, but seeing whichever production has New York talking usually requires a Big Apple trip — an expensive endeavour even for the biggest stage aficionado. The other option: waiting patiently for NYC's brightest shows to head Down Under. It happened with Hamilton, finally, and now it's happening with Dear Evan Hansen. A six-time Tony Award-winner, Dear Evan Hansen premiered in the US in 2016, then made the leap to the big screen in 2021. The next stop, back in stage form, is Sydney, with Sydney Theatre Company putting on the musical's Australian debut as part of its just-announced 2024 season. Michael Cassel Group is also behind the Aussie premiere, which will play at the Roslyn Packer Theatre from Saturday, October 12–Sunday, November 17, 2024. The two organisations are already teaming up on The Picture of Dorian Gray's upcoming run in West End in London next year — starring none other than Succession's Sarah Snook, too — following joining forces to take the STC show to Melbourne in 2022. With Dear Evan Hansen, STC and Michael Cassel Group will follow the titular anxious teen. He's advised by his therapist to pen letters to himself to highlight the good aspects of his day; however, when one of his notes ends up in a similarly lonely classmate's hands, it sparks a complex chain reaction. Created for the stage by songwriting and composing duo Benj Pasek and Justin Paul — who nabbed an Oscar for La La Land's 'City of Stars' — with playwright Steven Levenson (Fosse/Verdon), the musical spins a coming-of-age story about a plethora of high school struggles. "This will be the first new, original production since the show's phenomenal Broadway debut. This is a real coup for Sydney, and we couldn't be in better hands than with the brilliant Dean Bryant at the helm — one of the best musical theatre directors in the country, and loved by STC audiences after his superb work recently on Hubris and Humiliation and Fun Home," said Sydney Theatre Company's Artistic Director Kip Williams. "Words fail to truly capture the profound impact Dear Evan Hansen has had on audiences and I am thrilled to be partnering with Sydney Theatre Company to create an entirely new version of the show for Australia," added Michael Cassel. "There are no other contemporary musicals that capture the challenges of being a teenager in such a distinguished way with such a phenomenal score." There's no word yet as to whether the STC production of Dear Evan Hansen will tour to other Australian cities — so start crossing your fingers. Check out the trailer for the Dear Evan Hansen film below: Sydney Theatre Company's production of Dear Evan Hansen will play the Roslyn Packer Theatre, 22 Hickson Road, Walsh Bay in Sydney, from Saturday, October 12–Sunday, November 17, 2024 — with tickets available in stages via Sydney Theatre Company from Tuesday, September 19, 2023. Images: Universal.
What happens when a croissanterie known for perfecting its signature dish, and also for getting inventive with its pastries, joins forces with a distillery that both knows how to make a stellar dry gin and equally likes experimenting? We're talking about Lune and Four Pillars, of course — and the result is the world's first croissant gin. Is this the new perfect brunch drink? Will this help you enjoy a breakfast of champions? You can be the judge from Wednesday, February 19, 2025, when the croissant gin hits stores — and online. And yes, it's a buttery sip. "Lune croissants are made with nearly double the butter of your average croissant, so we knew that butter had to be a key part of the gin," explains Four Pillars Head Distiller Sarah Prowse, with Lune's own clarified butter a key ingredient. Alongside that caramel slice-smelling dairy product, the croissant gin is made with almonds that've been roasted in the Four Pillars distillery kitchen, juniper and a range of other botanicals, plus wattle seed and nutmeg. The recommended way to knock it back? In G&Ts or in espresso gin-tinis. While this isn't the type of tipple that just anyone could've dreamed up, Lune and Four Pillars joining forces couldn't seem more obvious — not only for their similar meticulous approaches to their chosen wares, but as Melbourne-born success stories that hero local ingredients. The croissant gin sprang from shared visits and tours, then hand delivering butter and testing distillations. If it sounds like a bucket-list collab, Lune Founder Kate Reid agrees. "Infusing our Lune magic into my favourite gin was a dream come true. I can honestly say I've never been thirsty for a croissant before but once you taste this gin, you'll understand what I mean." "It turns out there is a knack to distilling butter, but after a few trial distillations we found our sweet spot and we couldn't be happier with the end result," explains Prowse. "The nuts and spices add a real depth to the gin, the vanilla bean brings a hint of sweetness, and then we've bought in our signature organic oranges to deliver lovely brightness and balance." The croissant gin retails at $80 a bottle — or $100 with a Four Pillars x Lune tote bag exclusively from Four Pillars. If you're among the first to get your hands on it, free croissants are also on offer. On launch day, the Four Pillars Sydney Lab in Surry Hills will be giving away free Lune croissants with first 50 bottles of gin sold, for instance. At Dan Murphy's Malvern East and BWS Hawksburn in Victoria, plus Dan Murphy's Double Bay and BWS Potts Point in New South Wales, as well as Dan Murphy's Newstead in Queensland, there'll be a limited number of Lune vouchers up for grabs on launch day as well. And on Saturday, February 22, the Four Pillars Distillery in Healesville will have free Lune croissant for the first 50 bottles purchased, too. Croissant Gin will be available from the Four Pillars website, Four Pillars Distillery, Four Pillars Lab, and select Dan Murphy's and BWS stores from Wednesday, February 19, 2025 — head to the Four Pillars website for further details.
This article is sponsored by our partners, Wotif.com. If you’ve been thinking that tropical island holidays are all lazing on the sand and drinking cocktails by the pool, think again. Sure, you can make them an excuse to read every book in the Game of Thrones series or catch up on the 200 hours of sleep deprivation that you’ve clocked up over the past year, but it doesn’t have to be that way. Even if you’ve been to the Whitsundays before, there’s never a shortage of adventures to be had: from taking to the skies on a scenic flight to sailing on an old-school ship to spending a night sleeping under the stars on the Great Barrier Reef. Choose your own adventure. HIGH FLYER: SCENIC SEAPLANE FLIGHT Once you’ve seen the Great Barrier Reef from underwater, from the deck of a boat and from the land, there’s only one way left to the see it, really — from the sky. A scenic seaplane flight carries you soaring into the air, treating you to 60 solid minutes of bird’s eye views. Sights that will make you ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ like it’s New Year’s Eve all over again include the swirling sands of Hill Inlet, which look a bit like Impressionist artworks created by some enormous Druidic paintbrush; Bait Reef’s magical stepping stones; and Hardy Lagoon, the most photographed spot in the entire Great Barrier Reef National Park (and there’s some mean competition!). But they’re just the starting gun; the itinerary includes a sizeable list of other gobsmacking spots: Shute Harbour, Daydream Island, Hayman Island, Hook Island, the Molle Group of Islands, Whitsunday Island and the Whitsunday Passage. What’s more, it’s not all macroscopic panoramas. At various points, the seaplane descends to 500 feet, giving you the chance to partake in some turtle and ray spotting. Between June and October, you’re highly likely to see humpbacks, too. And for some added excitement, the pilot makes a touch-and-go water landing at the reef. Scenic flights carry between four and ten people each and depart from Airlie Beach. ALL-ROUND ADVENTURER: 3-DAY SAIL, SCUBA DIVE AND KAYAK Here’s the choose your own adventure option for indecisive types and commitment-phobes: the all-rounder. Why settle for one activity when you can take on the whole kit and caboodle? During this three-day extravaganza, you get to sail, snorkel, scuba dive, kayak and bush walk. Here’s how it works: for 72 hours or so, you live aboard the Summertime, a beautiful, traditional-style sailing vessel built in 1947, complete with rustic timber square rigging. But the good news is you don’t have to do any traditional living — if you don’t want to. You can get as olde worlde and Sailor Jerry-ish as you like, but you’ll still have the option of jumping into a freshwater hot Jacuzzi, turning on the air conditioning and dissolving in front of a DVD whenever you feel to. Nine luxurious berths make up the accommodation. The same goes for the action-packed itinerary. As the Summertime carries you from one secluded cove or silky-sanded beach to another, you can get involved in as many or as few activities as you like. Some travellers jump at every chance while others opt to spend every ounce of their precious energy moving between the Jacuzzi and the deck. It’s up to you. OUTDOOR NATURE LOVER: OVERNIGHT SLEEP ON THE GREAT BARRIER REEF If you still haven’t recovered from reading Treasure Island, Robinson Crusoe or perhaps Life of Pi, this one's for you. Pack your list of ‘top-five-items-I’d-take-with-me-to-a-desert-island’ and turn your long-cherished childhood survival fantasy into a reality. Given that the Great Barrier Reef is heritage listed, not to mention one of the world’s natural wonders, you can’t just go around sleeping on any old coral bed of your choosing; in fact, there’s only one place on the reef where you’re able to catch some shut-eye, and this adventure — dubbed Reefsleep — is it. A high-speed luxury vessel transports you for an 11am arrival. You spend the day doing as you please — be it swimming, grabbing a massage, snorkelling, diving, catching a heli-scenic flight or checking out the local underwater viewing chamber. Then, at 3pm, the ship splits the scene, leaving you, your fellow adventurers and the crew all on your lonesome. The only guests you can expect are some turtles who drop by at dusk for a seaweed feast. A maximum of 12 overnighters is permitted at any one time and accommodation is in the form of good ol’ Aussie swag — available in single or double sizes. Food is included in the deal. ISLAND EXPLORER: WHITSUNDAY ISLAND HOPPER PASS Do you have an aversion to strict timetables and pre-planned activities? Island hopping is the way to go. With this pass, you can travel The Whitsundays at your own pace and according to your own itinerary. It gives you access to high-speed vessels that spend all day travelling between Daydream Island and Long Island, dropping off and picking up guests at their whim. Between the two islands, pretty much any tropical activity is on the cards. While the time away sunbaking and swimming or get deep with a dose of snorkelling or scuba diving. Alternatively, stay terrestrial with long beach strolls, rainforest walks or a round or two on Daydream Island’s 19-hole mini golf course. There’s also a variety of restaurants, cafes and cocktail bars. The Whitsunday Island Hopper boats leave from Abel Point Marina throughout the day. You’re advised to take your toothbrush and credit card with you, just in case you miss the last ride back and wind up island-bound for the night. Book your Whitsundays escape now via Wotif.com.
You can't re-do Christopher Walken. But Flight Facilities have given it red hot go. The Aussie producer duo have thrown down a brand new video for single 'Down to Earth' from their 2014 critically acclaimed debut album, recruiting none other than Sam Rockwell to Walken the Dinosaur through a tired ol' diner. From the disco ball-flanked kitchen to Rockwell's vicious thumb grooving, Flight Facilities latest video presents the ultimate happy place for jaded, Hawaiian shirt-wearing folk. Rockwell falls asleep at a diner and goes on an epic danceology quest through the kitchen and out to the carpark and back. The whole thing was directed by Rhett Wade Ferrell, who lent his mad skills to FF for 'Sunshine' with Reggie Watts and breakthrough, 15 million views single 'Crave You' with Giselle. Rockwell's strong moves were choreographed by the legendary Vincent Paterson, who's worked with the top tier likes of Michael Jackson and Madonna. "I really, really liked the song, and it was an honour to work with legendary choreographer Vincent Paterson," says Rockwell. "I’m the kinda guy that likes to shake my tail feather, and so it was a great opportunity to get some new moves, especially to such a sweet beat.” Here's Flight Facilities' 'Down to Earth' video. See if you can spot the FF cameo. And here's Christopher Walken in Fatboy Slim's 'Weapon of Choice', because.
The Whitsundays is a stunning holiday destination. Thanks to its gorgeous natural surroundings, vacationing at the Sunshine State spot is rarely solely driven by wanting to dine at a particular restaurant, then; however, on Hamilton Island, that might be the motivation now. If any eatery and bar is worth planning a getaway around, it's the brand-new Catseye Pool Club. First announced in 2024 and open since late April 2025, it's Josh and Julie Niland's latest venture — and their first ever in Queensland. When the pair revealed that they were launching their debut Sunshine State restaurant on Hamilton Island, it was huge news. Indeed, this is one of the big culinary openings of 2025. Catseye Pool Club is part of The Sundays, the also brand-new 59-room hotel at Catseye Beach's northern end that's all about luxury, but also boasts being family friendly as part of its point of difference. This Niland venture stands out from the duo's other restaurants for a few reasons. There's the location, of course — and eating here does indeed mean dining at an oceanfront tropical destination. Then there's the fact that Catseye Pool Club isn't a seafood joint. Whenever Josh and Julie's names come up, it's usually in the same breath as their preferred form of protein. Acclaimed Sydney restaurants, award-winning cookbooks, global kudos, a sustainable seafood restaurant in Singapore: championing a fin-to-tail approach to the ocean's finest, their footprint spans all of the above. Whole-fish cookery remains a feature at Catseye Pool Club, but it's just one part of the menu. This restaurant and bar heroes Australian ingredients and celebrate shared dining, with dishes designed to be tucked into communally. Taking your time in the sun, making the most of the fact that you're on an island and relaxing in general are also key aspects of the vibe — and the pool club part of the restaurant's name says plenty. Yes, the eatery is by the pool, so expect to peer at water from multiple sources. "Whilst 'family-style' or 'share-style' dining is very much a way restaurants have operated for many years, the Catseye Pool Club approaches its menu with each item very much designed to be enjoyed as a whole table, with all the trimmings coming with each dish," explained Josh back in March. The opening food and drink lineup spans 14 pages, starting with rock oysters with pepperberry mignonette, pizza bread, and a selection of wild raw fish and scallops for two. Almost everything edible from there is for at least a pair of diners, whether battered and fried wild fish tacos, Tweed Heads rock lobster, roast pork, Bowen mud crab pie, sirloin on the bone, lamb cutlets or line-caught trout tempt your tastebuds — or raspberry and coconut trifle, chocolate cake or flambé pineapple tart among the desserts. The one exception: the neapolitan sundae is just designed for one. Catseye Pool Club is also serving up breakfast just for hotel guests — and patrons can be enjoy its range of meals if they're hanging out by the pool rather than sitting at a table. At a hotel run by Hamilton Island Enterprises, which is also behind qualia, guests can also make the most of that oceanfront swimming pool surrounded by private cabanas, alongside a pickleball court and tropical gardens. Room options include balcony and terrace, plus interconnecting family rooms, all decked out in calming hues. "The Sundays brings something truly special to Hamilton Island — an elevated boutique escape that welcomes families and reflects the warm, laidback, uniquely Australian style of hospitality Hamilton Island is known for," advises Hamilton Island CEO Nick Dowling. "The Sundays is part of Hamilton Island's ongoing evolution — reimagined for today's traveller on the site of one of the island's original hotels. Over the years, we've evolved our accommodation, dining and experiences to reflect what our guests are looking for. Those who've been returning for decades know that you don't need to travel far to tick off a bucket-list destination — the Great Barrier Reef is right here on our doorstep.' Find Catseye Pool Club at The Sundays, Catseye Beach, Hamilton Island — and head to the hotel's website for more details.
It's official: we Australians really love our coffee. None of that Starbucks swill for us; we know the real thing when we taste it and we aren't willing to settle for anything less. In even better news, coffee snobbery is no longer a Melbourne-centric thing. Brisbane's caffeine scene has spent the past few years growing up, and we reckon our humble city now boasts some of the best coffee in the business. Check out our top 10 picks and see if you agree. Ltd Espresso In less than two years, Ltd Espresso has reached lofty heights in Brisbane's coffee scene. A humble A-frame located outside Ltd's front door has gained near cult status for its daily jokes, puns and pearls of wisdom (which are also broadcast over social media) and the smooth Cleanskin coffee blend keeps customers coming back. Grab a bottle of cold press coffee to keep in the fridge for later. 362 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley Death Before Decaf This new coffee hub offers something that sets it apart from all other entries on this list: 24 hour caffeination. That's right; whether your cravings hit at 3pm or 3am, you'll find an open door and a hot coffee at Death Before Decaf. You can take your Bellissimo coffee with you or take five in the comfy leather sofa or milk crates out front. Shift workers, musicians and other creatures of the night have never been so awake. 3/760 Brunswick St, New Farm Dandelion & Driftwood Husband and wife team Peter and Penny Wolff have created a coffee-lover's dream at this Hendra cafe. Peter is a roaster with over 30 years experience, while Penny has judged at the Australian International Coffee Awards, and these credentials shine through with the two signature blends (aptly named 'Dandelion' and 'Driftwood'), tasting notes, rotating single origin options, and a 'Brew Bar' of opportunity. Shop 1, 45 Gehler Rd, Hendra Reverend's Fine Coffee When the owner of your coffee local is a former pastor, you come to expect a divine brew, and cappuccinos topped with real grated chocolate sure do fit the bill. The house blend is as appealing as the rustic interior, and a cafe menu is also available for those who don't want to caffeinate on an empty stomach. 372 Brunswick St, Fortitude Valley Elixir Coffee Taking superb coffee further into the Northern Suburbs is Elixir, a hugely popular café and roastery in Stafford where you can watch coffee beans being roasted as you enjoy breakfast and a cuppa. Owners Jason and David Narciso practically have coffee running through their veins, such is the quality of their caffeine pedigree, and they have recently inked a deal with Paleo Cafe that will see award-winning Elixir coffee served up in Paleo Cafes around Australia. 10-12 Hayward St, Stafford Bunker Coffee Talk about hole-in-the-wall…Bunker Coffee is a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it coffee hub (located in an real WWII bunker!) serving up espresso, filter coffee, iced coffees and authentic hot chocolate. Open from Monday to Friday and located a hop, skip and a jump from Milton Train Station, Bunker is a hit with weekday commuters. Bunker’s brother, John Mills Himself, has also recently opened in Brisbane’s CBD. 21 Railway Terrace, Milton Gramercy Espresso This semi-hidden cafe oasis is located just inside the Edward St entrance to the Wintergarden. The coffee is sourced from Sydney’s Reuben Hills roasters, and is a delight whether hot or cold. And bonus points, the folks at Gramercy make their own almond milk. A mouth-watering selection of cakes and pastries are also on offer, so don’t leave your sweet tooth at home. Wintergarden, 219 Queen St, Brisbane Blackstar Coffee Hailed as kings of the cold-press, Blackstar don’t take short cuts when it comes to providing their rich and earthy blend. In a story that has become a Brisbane legend, the Blackstar boys returned from a coffee-excursion in New Zealand, and with little more than flavour memory tried to replicate the finely crafted coffee they left overseas. Needless to say, success ensued and these days you can you can grab a brew from Blackstar in West End, Contessa in the City, or at the Queen Street markets. 44 Thomas St, West End Fonzie Abbott Espresso The Fonzie Abbott crew are serious about their beans, roasting their own blend at the Fox Street Factory in Albion. You’ll taste Fonzie’s brew if you order a coffee at establishments including Bitter Suite, Papa Jack’s, Noosa Chocolate Factory and Primal Pantry, as well as at the Fonzie Abbott café in Hamilton. While you’re there, grab a fresh croissant or a slice of banana bread to enjoy while you soak up the rustic surroundings and the goings on of Racecourse Rd. 1/30 Racecourse Rd, Hamilton Spring Hill Deli Spring Hill Deli is another fine establishment that has realised that using real chocolate on top of cappuccinos makes them approximately 1000% better. We probably don’t need to say much more, but if you still need convincing, the beans come from celebrated locals Cup Coffee Roasters and the moreish food menu is the perfect accompaniment. 537 Boundary St, Spring Hill View all Brisbane Cafes.
By almost every conceivable metric, 2020 wasn't great. It was downright terrible, in fact. We know that you already know this, but let us share a sliver of good news: it was still a fantastic year for cinema. That's true even with picture palaces across Australia, New Zealand and the rest of the world closing for considerable periods. Indeed, when silver screens reopened again Down Under, and everyone was able to once again sit in darkened rooms and stare at celluloid dreams blown up big just as they're meant to be, we all remembered why the term 'movie magic' exists. And, in those theatres with their popcorn smells and booming sounds, we were able to see truly exceptional films. Every year delivers a treasure trove of movies — so much so that, here at Concrete Playground, we always put together multiple lists of film gems. As part of our end-of-year wrap-ups for 2020, we've already highlighted ten excellent movies that hit cinemas but sadly didn't set the box office alight, as well as 20 other standout titles from this year that really you owe it to yourself to have seen. From everything that flickered through a projector in general release in 2020, we're now down to the pointy end. Each year delivers awful, average and astonishing movies, and we've picked the cream of the crop when it comes to the latter. Some released pre-pandemic, in what seems like another life. Some are yet to hit cinemas, but will before the year is out. From movies that'll have you dancing in the aisles to unsettling head trips, these are the ten absolute best films of 2020 that made their way to the big screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DSFpK34lfv0&feature=youtu.be NOMADLAND Frances McDormand is a gift of an actor. Point a camera her way, and a performance so rich that it feels not just believable but tangible floats across the screen. That's the case in Nomadland, which will earn her another Oscar nomination and could even see her win a third shiny statuette just three years after she nabbed her last for Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri. Here, leading a cast that also includes real people experiencing the existence that's fictionalised within the narrative, she plays the widowed, van-dwelling Fern — a woman who takes to the road, and to the nomad life, after the small middle-America spot she spent her married life in turns into a ghost town when the local mine is shuttered due to the global financial crisis. Following her travels over the course of more than a year, this humanist drama serves up an observational portrait of those that society happily overlooks. It's both deeply intimate and almost disarmingly empathetic in the process, as every movie made by Chloe Zhao is. This is only the writer/director's third, slotting in after 2015's Songs My Brothers Taught Me and 2017's The Rider but before 2021's Marvel flick Eternals, but it's a feature of contemplative and authentic insights into the concepts of home, identity and community. Meticulously crafted, shot and performed, it's also Zhao's best work yet, and 2020's best film as well. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsWV2qTX21k NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS When some movies mention their titles, they do so via a line of clunky dialogue that feels forced, overstressed and makes viewers want to cringe. Never Rarely Sometimes Always isn't one of those films. It does indeed task a character with uttering those exact words, but the scene in which they're voiced is the most devastating and heartbreaking movie scene of the year. Given the premise of writer/director Eliza Hittman's latest feature, that perhaps comes with the territory. It shouldn't, which is one of the points this layered film potently makes, but it does. Upon discovering that she's expecting — and being told by her local women's centre that she should go through with the pregnancy — 17-year-old Autumn (first-timer Sidney Flanigan) has no other choice but to take matters into her own hands. With her cousin Skylar (fellow feature debutant Talia Ryder), she hops on a bus from her Pennsylvania home town to New York to seek assistance from Planned Parenthood. Given that Skylar has stolen the funds for Autumn's abortion out of the cash register at work, and that they don't have enough to cover a place to stay, this isn't a straightforward quest. Hittman's naturalistic style, as previously seen in 2014's It Felt Like Love and 2017's Beach Rats, makes every second of Autumn's ordeal feel intimate, real and unshakeably affecting, as does Flanigan's internalised but still expressive performance as well. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=97nnV0fNd30 AMERICAN UTOPIA On paper, American Utopia's concept doesn't just sound excellent — it sounds flat-out superb, stunning and spectacular. A new David Byrne concert film, capturing his acclaimed American Utopia Broadway production, as directed by Spike Lee? Sign the world up, and now. In the most welcome news of the year, the execution matches the idea in this instant masterpiece (and wonderful companion piece to 1984's Stop Making Sense). It'd be hard to go wrong with all of the above ingredients, but Lee's second film of 2020 (after Da 5 Bloods) makes viewers feel like they're in the room with Byrne and his band and dancers like all concert movies strive to but few achieve in such engaging a fashion. Every shot here is designed with this one aim in mind and it shows, because giving audiences the full American Utopia experience is something worth striving for. Byrne sings, working through both solo and Talking Heads hits. He waxes lyrical in his charming and accessible way, pondering the eponymous concept with an open and wise perspective. And he has staged, planned and choreographed the entire performance to a painstaking degree — from the inviting grey colour scheme and the open stage surrounded by glimmering chainmail curtains to the entire lack of cords and wires tethering himself and his colleagues down. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-fxRXzfi0U KAJILLIONAIRE Awards bodies don't tend to recognise performances like Evan Rachel Wood's in Kajillionaire, but they should. It's a career-best effort from an actor with an array of terrific work to her name (most recently in Westworld), and it operates so firmly on the same wavelength as the film she's in that it's impossible to imagine how it would work without her. Kajillionaire is filmmaker Miranda July's latest movie, following Me and You and Everyone We Know and The Future, so it was always going to stand out. It was always going to need a knockout portrayal at its centre, too. Wood plays a 26-year-old con artist called Old Dolio Dyne, who has spent her whole life working schemes and scams with her parents Robert (Richard Jenkins, The Shape of Water) and Theresa (Debra Winger, The Lovers) — to the point that it's all that she knows, and it has made her the closed off yet still vulnerable person she is. But when her mother and father take lively optometrist's assistant Melanie (Gina Rodriguez, Annihilation) under their wing, Old Dolio is forced to reassess everything. That might sound standard, but July has never made a movie that's earned that term and she definitely doesn't start now. Kajillionaire is a heist-fuelled crime caper, and an eccentric and idiosyncratic one; however, it's also a rich and unique character study, an astute exploration of family and a love story — and Wood is essential at every turn. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kFqCTIdF7rs POSSESSOR The possibility that someone could hijack another person's brain, then use their body as a vessel to carry out corporate-sanctioned murder, is instantly distressing and disturbing. Whatever your mind has just conjured up reading that sentence, it has nothing on Brandon Cronenberg's vision of the same idea — as Possessor, his sophomore feature, illustrates in a brilliant and brutal fashion. As chilly and also as mesmerising as his first film, Antiviral, this horror-thriller spends its time Tasya Vos (Andrea Riseborough, The Grudge). It's her job to leap into other people's heads and carry out assassinations, and she's very good at it. When the movie opens, however, she experiences difficulties on a gig. Then she takes on another, infiltrating Colin's (Christopher Abbott, Vox Lux) brain, and struggles to maintain control over his personality and actions as she attempts to kill his fiancé (Tuppence Middleton, Mank) and her business mogul father (Sean Bean, Snowpiercer). Possessor's writer/director is the son of David Cronenberg, of Shivers, Scanners, Videodrome and The Fly fame, so exploring unnerving body horror has been implanted into his own head in a way, too. He certainly carries on the family name in a daring, determined and expectedly gruesome manner. Also striking and unforgettable here: the concepts that Possessor probes, including present analogues to Possessor's body-jumping technology. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLNXHJB5Mto BABYTEETH Filmmaker Shannon Murphy made her feature debut with Babyteeth, but she shows no signs of merely cutting her chompers on this heartwrenching film. Based on the Rita Kalnejais-penned play of the same name and scripted for the screen by the writer as well, this Australian drama tackles a well-worn premise — that'd be: terminally ill teen falls in love as she endeavours to manage her grim health situation — with such shrewdness, vivacity and understanding that it puts almost every other movie about the same concept to shame. Milla (Eliza Scanlen, Little Women) is the cancer-afflicted high schooler in question. When she meets and clicks with 23-year-old small-time drug dealer Moses (Toby Wallace, Acute Misfortune), it takes her pill-popping mother Anna (Essie Davis, True History of the Kelly Gang) and psychiatrist father Henry (Ben Mendelsohn, The Outsider) time to adjust. Their struggles have nothing on Milla's own, though, because Babyteeth sees its protagonist as a person rather than an illness, and as someone with their own hopes, dreams, troubles and disappointments instead of the reason the folks around her have their lives disrupted. That's such an important move, but's just one of the many that the movie makes. Aided not only by superb (and AACTA Award-winning) performances all round, but also by arresting visuals and clever but realistic dialogue, Babyteeth proves both raw and dynamic from start to finish. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VFOrGkAvjAE SOUND OF METAL It's one thing to tell viewers that the character they're watching is losing their hearing. It's another entirely to ensure that they understand exactly how that feels. Sound of Metal adopts two methods to achieve the latter feat — one expected but still extraordinary, the other truly earning the usually overused term that is 'immersive'. Firstly, Riz Ahmed (Venom) gives his all to the role of heavy metal drummer and ex-heroin addict Ruben Stone. Realising that one of his senses isn't just fading but disappearing obviously upends every facet of Ruben's life, which Ahmed conveys in a powerfully physicalised performance (and his second portrayal of a musician coping with health struggles after this year's festival hit Mogul Mowgli, too). Just as crucial, however, is the soundscape created by debut feature director Darius Marder and his team. It mimics what Ruben can and can't hear with precision, and it couldn't be more effective at plunging the audience inside his head. Both choices — lead casting and the film's audio — invest weight and depth into a story that isn't lacking in either anyway. Putting his tour with his bandmate and girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke, Ready Player One) on hold, Ruben reluctantly moves to a rural community for addicts who are deaf to learn to live with his new situation, does whatever is necessary to rustle up the cash for a surgically inserted cochlear implant and faces more than few hard truths along the way. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7gOs6gKtrb4 THE LIGHTHOUSE It initially hit cinemas pre-pandemic, but The Lighthouse might just be the most relatable movie of 2020. There are no prizes for guessing where it is set, but The Witch filmmaker Robert Eggers has zero time for scenic seaside escapades, turning his attention to two men holed up in the coastal structure, unable to leave and going stir-crazy (to put it mildly) instead. Those lighthouse keepers are played by Willem Dafoe (At Eternity's Gate) and Robert Pattinson (Tenet), who both commit to the narrative with gusto. The former steps into the shoes of cantankerous sea dog Thomas Wake, while the latter endures quite the uncomfortable welcome as eager newcomer Ephraim Winslow — and, as anyone could predict given their talents and respective filmographies, they're gripping to watch. That sensation only increases when a storm sweeps in, with the fact that Winslow frequently fondles himself while holding a mermaid figurine marking just the beginning of The Lighthouse's claustrophobic chaos. Shooting in black and white, and boxing the film in via the 1.19:1 Movietone aspect ratio that's a throwback to a century ago, Eggers dives right into a vivid and entrancing nightmare that simultaneously unpacks masculinity, unfurls a manic head-trip and explores how people react when they're thrust together in a heightened scenario. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EU-Z90SEqGQ CORPUS CHRISTI An Oscar nominee this year — losing the Best International Feature Film category to Parasite — Corpus Christi examines faith with blistering and unflinching intensity. This quietly powerful Polish drama doesn't just contemplate what it means to believe, but how the supposedly pious actually enact their convictions (or don't, as the case often proves). Freshly released from reform school, Daniel (Bartosz Bielenia) is drawn to the seminary after connecting with the facility's head priest, Father Tomasz (Lukasz Simlat), during his sentence. Alas, his record instantly excludes him from following that calling, even though he's only 20 years old. Then, through a twist of fate that always feels organic, he's given the opportunity to act as the new spiritual advisor in a rural town after its residents mistake him for a man of the cloth. Given that this is an imposter tale, Corpus Christi proves inherently tense and bristling from the outset; however, just as much of that mood and tone stems from the way that Daniel's new community say one thing but act in a completely different manner involving a recent tragedy. Warsaw 44 and The Hater filmmaker Jan Komasa willingly steps into thorny territory as he tells the young man's tale (with top-notch help from Bielenia), and wonders why it's so easy for so many to cling to centuries-old concepts and stories, but so hard for most to put them in a modern, realistic and everyday context. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzqevBnUUZU THE ASSISTANT Charting an ordinary day in the life of a junior staff member at a film production office, The Assistant is as unsettling as anything else that reached screens in 2020. Jane (Julia Garner, Ozark) has the titular position, working an entry-level job for a demanding head honcho who everyone in the office indulges — although viewers never get to meet him. She arrives at work before daylight, trudges through menial tasks and is treated poorly by her male colleagues. She's expect to anticipate everything that her boss could ever need or want, or face his wrath if she doesn't. And, as the day progresses, she realises just how toxic her workplace's culture is and how deep its inappropriate conduct burrows. Seeing how predatory the man she works for acts on a daily basis, and how his behaviour has a significant impact, she also learns how those who even try to speak out can still be powerless to effect change to stop it. If you've kept abreast of the #MeToo movement over the past few years, you'll know exactly what has inspired The Assistant, of course. However, Australian filmmaker Kitty Green wants her audience to experience this devastating scenario via Jane, rather than merely read about it. She doesn't just succeed; although she's working in fiction here, she directs a film as searing and perceptive as her last project, the excellent documentary Casting JonBenet.
When it comes to travel, the early bird really does get the worm. Or in this case, the best value fares. Singapore Airlines has just launched its Early Bird Fare Deals, with flights taking off from all major cities and many regional centres through their partnership with Virgin Australia. And if you're a Type A planner, this is for you. From return fares like Adelaide to Brussels from $1,473, Sydney to Milan from $1,669 or Perth to Manchester from $1,555, Singapore Airlines' Early Bird Fares are full of great value options. Every Early Bird customer can unlock exclusive Pelago discounts on tours, passes and experiences — and KrisFlyer members booking selected European destinations can also earn 50% bonus KrisFlyer miles. So, if you're looking to lock in your holiday plans for 2026 at exceptional value, here's how to do it. Book High-Demand Destinations Early Paris in winter, Rome in summer, London in spring. Whenever you plan on taking off, Europe books out fast. The smart move? Secure your flights now. With Singapore Airlines' Early Bird fares, you can choose from more than 100 destinations, including popular spots like Milan, Barcelona, Amsterdam, Copenhagen and Brussels. By the time everyone else is emailing their boss to ask for annual leave, you'll already have your dream itinerary locked in. Maximise Your Annual Leave Speaking of time off work, here's where organised travellers win big: mapping your trip around long weekends and public holidays. With a few carefully placed leave days, you can plan your trip abroad to perfection. For example, in 2026 Easter Monday lands on April 6. If you take the four days before (March 30–April 3) as annual leave, you'll end up with a ten-day break, perfect for a European spring escape. Planning ahead also gives you first pick on leave at work, and helps you line up those rare sweet spots where flights, events, and time off align. Time Your Trip Around the Seasons Australia's summer is Europe's low season, and vice versa. So, planning a future trip based on the season lets you dodge peak crowds and chase the weather that works best for you. You could swap the beach for ski slopes and hot chocolates in January, or book for August to catch the last long golden evenings of a European or North American summer. Luckily, the sale covers travel between January and September 2026 so you can choose your favourite time to go — just keep an eye on blackout dates. Avoid School Holidays Another bonus of forward planning? You can sidestep the chaos (and higher prices) of school holiday periods by travelling in the quieter in-between weeks with available Singapore Airlines' Early Bird Deals. Aiming for off-season windows means more choice, less crowding and smarter value. Plus, if you're travelling with the kids, the sooner you book your flights the more likely you are to nab those prime departure times — no 6am alarms or overnight layovers unless you want them. Reserve Bucket-List Experiences in Advance Want to dine at a three-Michelin-star restaurant in Paris, explore street markets in Ho Chi Minh City or snag tickets to Wimbledon? These experiences often sell out months in advance. By locking in flights now, you can get a head start on bookings that make a trip unforgettable. When you book a Singapore Airlines' Early Bird flight, you'll unlock exclusive Pelago perks (including up to 10% off tours, airport transfers and even Eurail passes) make ticking those experiences off even easier. Make the Most of Extra Rewards Booking early doesn't just save you money and give you something to look forward to, it adds extra value to your trip. With selected Early Bird bookings to Europe, KrisFlyer members can earn 50% bonus KrisFlyer miles to put towards their next trip. All Early Bird customers will unlock Pelago perks — including up to 10% off tours and passes, plus a free 1GB global roaming eSIM. There's a $10 Kris+ sign-up offer available for new users. All the more reason to get that 2026 trip out of the group chat and into the calendar. Don't Wait Until It's Too Late Singapore Airlines Early Bird Fare Deals run only until Tuesday, September 30 2025, with fares across Economy, Premium Economy and Business Class cabins. Book now, and by the time 2026 rolls around you'll be counting down the days, not scrambling for last-minute options. Find out more and book your Early Bird fare for select travel dates in 2026 here.
Whether you're buying flowers for your nearest and dearest, such as your mum or your partner, or you'd just like to have something floral brightening up your house, the real kind always come with an expiry date. Fake flowers exist, of course, for those who like permanent petals — but they're not as fun as the block-built type in Lego's new Botanical Collection. Part of the brand's growing range for adults — because we're all well past pretending that Lego is just for kids — the Botanical Collection currently features two items. For a bouquet that'll never die, the 756-piece flower bouquet kit includes a number of different blooms that you can bunch together however you like. If you're more of a bonsai kind of person, an 878-piece set that features one of the miniature trees is also available. For those keen on vibrant flowers, the flower bouquet box includes pieces to make blooms based on roses, snapdragons, poppies, asters, daisies and grasses, all in different colours and shapes. In fact, because this is the first kit of its type, it features blocks in hues and shapes — including 17 realistic-looking petal pieces — that Lego hasn't ever used before. The stems come in different lengths, measuring up to 36 centimetres, and you choose which flowers sit at which height. The petals and leaves are also customisable; however, if you want a vase to put them all in, you'll have to find that elsewhere. In the bonsai tree set, you'll obviously build a bonsai. Yes, it's that self-explanatory — but you'll also make a black pot for it to sit in and a wooden stand for it as well. You can pick between green leaves and cherry blossoms while you're putting it together, and it's up to you how you arrange them as well. If you fancy a bit of pink in warmer months and something earthier when winter hits, you can do that as well. Both kits cost $89.99, although the bonsai one is temporarily out of stock after they both launched on January 1 this year. Lego is also moving towards being more green with its pieces, not just with the designs they can be used to make — and announced that it was starting to produce sustainable blocks made from plant-based plastic back in 2018. You'll find some in the Botanical Collection sets, fittingly, as made from sustainably sourced sugarcane. Plus, as well as catching the eye, Lego's newest products are designed to help you destress and get mindful — something that the brand has been promoting for adults for a few years now. For more information about Lego's new Botanical Collection, including the flower bouquet and bonsai tree kits, head to the company's website.
If you didn't see The Fall Guy, Twisters, Deadpool & Wolverine, Challengers, Inside Out 2, The Wild Robot, The Substance, Kneecap, It Ends with Us or Despicable Me 4 on the big screen already in 2024, here's the perfect way to catch up with them: under the stars, while sprawled out on a picnic blanket or sat on a bean bed, at the latest season of Moonlight Cinema. And if watching Christmas films is one of your festive traditions, here's a scenic way to do that, too, with this annual opportunity to enjoy a movie outside packing its just-dropped first lineup for this year with seasonal flicks. As it does every summer, Moonlight Cinema is returning for another run of films in the open air, locking in its dates, venues and first program details for its 2024–25 stints in Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne and Perth. While the outdoor picture palace is synonymous with the warmest season of the year, it kicks off at the end of spring in most cities, and runs through to the end of the first month of autumn in some as well. The projector will start rolling in Brisbane first, with the River City's season taking place across Thursday, November 21–Sunday, February 16 in Roma Street Parklands. Next up is Sydney, in Centennial Parklands from Friday, November 22–Sunday, March 30. Then comes Adelaide and Melbourne a week later, the former from Thursday, November 28–Sunday, February 16, 2024 in Botanic Park and the latter across Friday, November 29–Sunday, March 30 in Royal Botanic Gardens. Perth movie lovers can get their fix in Kings Park and Botanic Garden from Thursday, December 5–Sunday, March 30. Lineup specifics always vary per location, so not all of the aforementioned titles — or the ones below — show in every city. But the program still gives patrons a mix of recent, new and classic fare wherever they're sitting on the grass while soaking in the evening, the fresh air and a movie. Among the brand-new titles, Gladiator II and Wicked are also on the bill, as are advanced screenings of the Hugh Grant (Unfrosted)-starring horror film Heretic and Robbie Williams biopic Better Man. When Paddington in Peru gets the same treatment, you'll want marmalade sandwiches in your picnic basket. The OG version of Mean Girls will grace Moonlight Cinema's screens, too, as will 2023's smash-hit Barbie. And for a merry time at the movies — a jolly one as well — the roster of Christmas fare spans the new Red One, as well as classics Elf, Love Actually, The Holiday, The Muppet Christmas Carol, Home Alone, Home Alone 2: Lost in New York and How The Grinch Stole Christmas. If you're wondering what else Moonlight will show across its full season, it now drops its program month by month, so watch this space for more announcements. As always, the films and the setting are just two parts of the cinema's experience. Also on offer: the returning Aperol spritz bar. Nosh-wise, the event will again let you BYO movie snacks and drinks (no alcohol in Brisbane, though), but the unorganised can enjoy a plethora of bites to eat onsite while reclining on bean beds. There'll also be two VIP sections for an extra-luxe openair movie experience, a platinum package with waiter service in Sydney and Melbourne only, and a beauty cart handing out samples. Plus, dogs are welcome at all sites except Perth — there's even special doggo bean beds. Moonlight Cinema 2024–25 Dates Brisbane: Thursday, November 21, 2024–Sunday, February 16, 2025 in Roma Street Parklands Sydney: Friday, November 22, 2024–Sunday, March 30, 2025 in Centennial Parklands Adelaide: Thursday, November 28, 2024–Sunday, February 16, 2025, 2024 in Botanic Park Melbourne: Friday, November 29, 2024–Sunday, March 30, 2025 in Royal Botanic Gardens Perth: Thursday, December 5, 2024–Sunday, March 30, 2025 in Kings Park and Botanic Garden Moonlight Cinema kicks off in November 2024, running through until March 2025. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the cinema's website — and we'll update you with further program details when they're announced.
There's a great anecdote behind Big Poppa's. It's three guys sitting around, eating cheese and drinking wine while listening to hip hop and deciding that their current activity was a) costing them too much money — they were literally spending thousands of dollars on cheese — and b) a great concept for a restaurant. And so, Big Poppa's was born from Lewis Jaffrey, ex-operations manager at The Baxter Inn, Frankie's and Shady Pines, and Jared Merlino, owner of The Lobo Plantation and Kittyhawk. It's a two-floor ode to Biggie Smalls that plays hip hop until 3am, and serves cheese, wine and Italian food until the doors close. The restaurant is upstairs, the bar is downstairs — it has bare brick walls, candles, dark blue leather booths and the face of Biggie Smalls is tiled on the floor. It's an unpretentious space, and it's worth the wait for a table. We've partnered with KitchenAid to celebrate the launch of the KitchenAid Mini, and we asked two chefs from two of our favourite restaurants to throw a Mini Dinner party (and create a Mini Moment) for their friends. Liam O'Driscoll, head chef at Big Poppa's, former Sydney hip hop DJ (although he probably won't enjoy us calling him that) obliged. He cooked us up a three-course dinner of the simple, rustic Italian food he serves at Big Poppa's, and told us what he loves about cooking at home. He reveals his menu in advance — it's so beautifully Italian I have to research it so I know what we'll be eating. There's salsa salmoriglio, parmigiana-reggiano, pangrattato, flat iron tagliata and potato al forno. This appears on the table as globe artichokes, pasta sprinkled with cheese, a thinly sliced flat iron steak, potato with rosemary butter and a simple semifreddo nougat dessert. [caption id="attachment_592755" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Flat iron tagliata with confit garlic and rosemary butter, and potato al forno.[/caption] O'Driscoll adores Italian food. "I love pasta," he says specifically, "if I was on a desert island and there was one food I could take, it would be pasta." With Italian food, he explains, less is more — it's about the quality of the produce over anything else. "It's not like French food where there are so many ingredients and complicated techniques to learn. Some Italian dishes only have three to four ingredients, so the produce is left to stand for itself." Big Poppa's isn't fine dining, it's casual dining. Produce is sourced from quality suppliers, and the food is presented in its simplest state. Despite having a background in fine dining (he just came from Pendolino in the Strand Arcade), this is how O'Driscoll chooses to cook. The preparation at his dinner party is simple, as is the service. Food is served in the pan, and friends help themselves to steak and potatoes. [caption id="attachment_592851" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Torrone Semifreddo, dulce latte.[/caption] "One of the beauties of cooking is being able to share food with the people you love," he says. "There's a communal feeling in everyone being able to dig into a dish that's on the table, as opposed to everyone having their own particular meal". Liam pulls his tub of semifreddo straight from the freezer and starts to scoop it out and serve. "When you're home cooking you just slap it on a plate," he says. "If this was a nice restaurant, I'd shape it into something. But this is rustic cooking — everyone agrees that they would like it better like this." What he says doesn't really have an impact until the next morning, when I'm sitting in a café and I look down at my breakfast. It's piece of toast that's been delicately scattered with edible flowers. While beautiful, they don't really add anything to the dish in terms of taste. "It's not about it being pretty," I remember Driscoll said. "It's about what it is." Images: Samantha Hawker.
Watching cat videos online is about to get a whole lot more intense, with Google revealing plans to enable virtual reality content on YouTube. The announcement, made at the Google I/O 2015 developer conference, is one of a slew of new innovations the global tech giant has in the works, as it slowly furthers its plan for total world domination. Your move, Bing. According to the announcement made in San Francisco overnight, YouTube will be able to host specially-created, immersive VR videos as early as this July, viewable through any virtual reality headset including Google’s own budget option, Google Cardboard. In order to ensure there’s plenty of VR content to choose from, Google will supply select YouTube partners with its new 360° Jump camera rig, developed in partnership with GoPro. The extreme sports-friendly camera company has actually been developing and selling multi-directional camera rigs for some time now, and recently acquired a company that specialises in panoramic video software — so the partnership certainly makes sense. Check out GoPro's VR demo video posted yesterday. Use the top left directional buttons to peruse: As they did with Google Cardboard, Google will be making the blueprints for the Jump rig public, meaning that anyone can theoretically build one. The rig will be compatible with consumer grade cameras, although you’ll need 16 of them to get the full effect. Google also announced upgrades to its cardboard VR headset, which can now be assembled in just three steps and fits phones up to six inches in size. The low-tech hardware, which offers an inexpensive alternative to the likes of Oculus Rift, has already racked up more than one million users since debuting at I/O last year. Between Google Cardboard and the new Jump platform, Google is clearly trying to push VR content into the mainstream. Next up: hoverboards! (Fingers crossed.) Via Gizmodo. Images: Google.
Louis Theroux's recently announced speaking tour of Australia could lay the seeds for a new documentary, the esoteric filmmaker has revealed. Speaking to the ABC, the British documentarian mentioned that he has long considered making a film in the outback, and that his upcoming visit could double as a reconnaissance mission. "I've always been interested in the landscape of Australia," said Theroux. "I've got a romantic association both with the American West and the Australian interior which seems to strike [an] emotional tone of austerity and size and remoteness, people carving out their destinies in this vast wilderness." "I don't know exactly what the story is but I've loved the idea of being in that frontier... the town at the end of line, this one-horse town with lives that combine dignity and a sense of desperation." "This two-week tour, I will keep my ear to the ground," he added. Theroux's documentaries for the BBC have tackled a range of controversial topics, from the American prison system to the porn industry and the hate-mongering Westboro Baptist Church. He also recently spoke about wanting to make a documentary about US Presidential hopeful your drunk uncle at Thanksgiving. His two-week trip of Australia kicks off in September and will include speaking engagements in Perth, Melbourne, Sydney, Adelaide and Brisbane. Via ABC.
The ploughman's lunch: it's a meal packed with old-world connotations of country living and hard labour, loved by many, even those who have never touched a plough in their lives. A standard definition is a small meal of bread, cheese and pickle, generally eaten in the middle of the day, usually served in a pub. From its time as a farmer's mainstay to the pub classic it is today, the dish has gone through many changes. When we tried the ploughman's at the White Rabbit Brewery in Geelong, we wondered, where does the dish actually come from? What is it that makes it such a legend? Here's a little bit of history, from ye olden days to the here and now. [caption id="attachment_584446" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Flickr.[/caption] YE OLDEN DAYS Back in the day, the world ran almost exclusively on agriculture. Aussies were farming as early as 1788, and agriculture remains a large part of Australian trade today. This is likely why the dish remains so prominent and evokes such overwhelming cultural nostalgia – even in those who have never stepped foot on a farm. For the farmers of old, the meal made perfect sense; clearly, the ploughmen of centuries ago didn't return home for a long lunch and siesta before finishing the day's work. Nor did they spend lunchtime hours hanging at the pub over a few pints — tough days, we know. Historians surmise that it is more likely farmers took with them some cheese, bread and pickles for luncheon, which didn't need to be refrigerated and could last out in the heat of the day. The notion of a 'pub lunch' is a much more modern and luxurious one than could have been afforded centuries ago. FROM RAGS TO RICHES While the meal itself was certainly a mainstay of farmers, its name, and indoctrination into society, came way, way later. The meal actually gained popularity after a nation-wide marketing push that happening between 1958 to 1977. At this time, post-war rationing was a thing of the past and businesses were not happy with the swift decline in the amount of cheese being eaten. To whip up nostalgia for this time-honoured dish, a marketing company made a bold claim that English cheese and beer have for centuries formed a perfect combination enjoyed as the 'Ploughman's Lunch'. This is the first historical reference to the dish, which was essentially invented as a marketing ploy to sell cheese — and not just one type of cheese, but all cheeses, thus making the dish popular across all regions and allowing for the creation of endless regional versions. Of course, the combination of bread and cheese was a timeless one and an obvious accompaniment. At that time, many rural pubs wouldn't have had a proper kitchen, so the Ploughman's Lunch was embraced as it could include simple ingredients that would be stored in the cellar and assembled easily by staff. THESE TIMES, THEY ARE A-CHANGIN' Once the dish was named, it was swiftly taken from the fields into the pubs. The emphasis on fresh produce, which in the past was a necessity, is a big part of why it fits so well into today's organic culture where we expect nothing less. Since the derivation of the dish is a farce, the components of a 'traditional' ploughman's lunch are also widely open to interpretation. An entire book was written on the subject – The Definitive Ploughman's — which found that one region of England uses thirteen ingredients in their ploughman's, adding sweetcorn, olives and beetroot components to your average cheese and bread. The variations don't stop there – Jamie Oliver's version contains spinach and fennel artisan bread and a scotch egg, while Barfoot Contessa's Ina Garten prefers an English-American fusion of thickly sliced Virginia ham and English cheddar. The restaurant within Geelong's White Rabbit Brewery allows patrons to pair any number of craft cheeses and meats, like wagyu bresaola paired with a Barossa triple cream. Each platter is served with a baguette from local bread makers Born & Bread and Yarra Valley's Cunliffe & Waters chutneys and spreads, along with pickled veg galore. This is truly the crème de la crème of ploughman's. Also agreed upon is that a good ploughman's lunch is a true testament to the overall quality of a pub. The dish continues to take many forms, and at its fanciest, better resembles a charcuterie. But even in its simplest form, there really is nothing better than a plate of crusty bread, homemade chutney, pickled vegetables and of course, a wedge of artisan cheese. Don't forget to wash it all down with a nice cold pint — it makes the dish taste just right. Find White Rabbit Brewery at 221 Swanston Street, South Geelong. Open Sunday to Thursday 11am – 5pm, Friday to Saturday 11am – 9pm.
Lovers of cinema and hummus-fuelled picnics rejoice: the Moonlight Cinema program has finally arrived and it’s looking mighty good. The lineup features some of this year's biggest new Hollywood releases alongside more demure titles, family favourites and age-old classics, so you can guarantee you’ll find something that piques your interest. Let’s start with the bigwigs What better way to see the big releases of summer than outdoors on a balmy night? Star Wars: The Force Awakens, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part Two and SPECTRE are all showing and (we’d imagine) best viewed under the stars. We’re also thrilled to see a fair whack of female-centric films in the lineup too, as well as an array of movies that cover hitherto taboo topics in the popular cinema circuit. Joy, starring everyone’s favourite human Jennifer Lawrence, follows the unconventional story of a mother of three as she builds a business empire in the '90s; Suffragette is an important historical period drama about women's fight for the vote in pre-war Britain and appropriately features a dreamy cast of unique and unapologetic women including Meryl Streep, Carey Mulligan and Helena Bonham Carter. We’ve also got The Danish Girl, featuring Eddie Redmayne and Alicia Vikander, which explores the life of transgender artist Lili Elbe. Closer to home on Australia Day, we’ve got The Dressmaker, a montage of Kate Winslet looking hot and Liam Hemsworth looking filthy hot (maybe other things happen in the plot too but why would they bother?). And at the other end of the spectrum is the lighthearted comedy Sisters, featuring unstoppable duo Amy Poehler and Tina Fey. But don’t think the gentlemen miss out. The Revenant, Leonardo DiCaprio’s latest Oscar bid, was directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (of Birdman fame) so you can guarantee it’ll be equally beautiful, dramatic and weird. And if you miss The Martian or missed Jurassic World in cinemas, you can catch them at Moonlight sessions too. As always Moonlight Cinema will be throwing back to classics: Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, Top Gun, Dirty Dancing and Grease. Tickets are on sale now for the summer sessions so get booking lest you get stuck in front of Dirty Grandpa (yes, a film where you can see Robert Deniro making out with April Ludgate while Zac Efron wears a vast array of golfing sweaters — that is apparently showing too :/). Moonlight Cinema runs across Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide from December 3, Perth from December 5 and Brisbane from December 16. Tickets are on sale now from the Moonlight Cinema website.
Cities make possible the suspension of night and day. With enough neon and insomnia at our disposal, we can turn them into places where we can do anything we want, whenever we want. In New York City, for example, you can shop for nuts and bolts, stalk your crush with a nocturnal flower delivery, nab the latest smartphone and spruce up your hairdo 24/7. Like Simone Beauvoir wrote, “There is something in the New York air that makes sleep useless.” The big question is, now that we have this potential at our fingertips, what should we do with it? To what extent does a cosmopolitan city depend on infinite opening hours? Many laud the energy, excitement, romanticism and economic benefits of the 24-hour metropolis. Marion Roberts, a professor of urban design at the University of Westminster, concludes that it “generates more jobs, activities and social solidarities”. Others fret about excessive alcohol consumption, noise pollution and the next generation turning into a horde of sleep-deprived, hedonistic narcissists. With the one-year anniversary of Sydney’s controversial lockout laws looming over us, we take a look at how much napping is happening (or not) in some of the world’s best cities, and how essential it is their success on the world stage. WHERE NIGHTLIFE IS A RELIGION BERLIN In Germany, closing times are determined by each town or city. For Berlin, this means there’s no such thing as last call. Bars decide on their hours independently, with oodles of them operating according to the ebb-and-flow of demand, and a bunch of
Look, in our book, every single day is gin day. But this Saturday, June 11, the drink that launched a thousand drunk texts (and counting) will be officially celebrated the world over. It's World Gin Day. And considering the experimental foodie age we live in, it doesn't seem appropriate to celebrate with just another gin and tonic — not when you can have it infused with ants or steeped in red wine grapes, anyway. So we've found two new weird Australian gins that won't only make for an unconventional G&T, but will spark a few conversations and raised eyebrows too. ANGRY ANT GIN — BASS AND FLINDERS Up and coming gin barons often differentiate themselves and their product by distilling the botanicals of the local area to give a distinctive, but familiar, flavour and scent. Australian species lend themselves perfectly to the task — but for the chaps down at Bass and Flinders Distillery in Victoria's Mornington Peninsula, that simply wasn't weird enough. They've distilled a gin made with a special ingredient: ants. Like all gin, Angry Ant is made up of a selection of botanicals. But along with the usual juniper berries and lemongrass, the essence of ants has also been thrown in. That's because ants release a pheromone during the distillation process, which produces a flavour that complements the other botanicals to create a damn fine gin. While they're not the first people to use the tiny insects in gin — Copenhagen's Nordic Food Lab produces an Anty Gin that costs a bomb per bottle — they're certainly the first in Australia, with the ants sourced from Wooleen Station in WA. Grab a bottle here, if you dare. BLOODY SHIRAZ GIN — FOUR PILLARS Ron Swanson may say that "clear alcohols are for rich women on diets" and while we usually take his word as gospel, we couldn't disagree more with him on this one. But if you want to add some colour (and kick) to your 5pm G&T, look no further than Four Pillars' brand new Bloody Shiraz Gin. The revolutionary gin created by Victorian gin legends Four Pillars is exaaactly what it sounds like — a Shiraz and gin blend. To create this bloody monster, they steeped Yarra Valley Shiraz grapes in their high-proof dry gin for eight weeks before pressing the fruit and blending it with the gin, and hoped like hell it would turn out well. It did. The pretty, deep purple hue combined with a potent alcoholic content (37.8 percent, compared to an average 30 percent in sloe gin) and sweet undertones make the Bloody Shiraz Gin a near perfect specimen. Four Pillars are releasing the mix on World Gin Day — you can head down to their Healesville distillery to try it or buy it on their website. And on that day, we'll raise a toast to all the gins that were and to all the weird, delicious gins that will soon be. Cheers to you gin, you glorious bastard!
In January next year Noma will open in Sydney for ten weeks. For that time it will likely be the only restaurant in Sydney entirely inspired by Australia’s native ingredients, landscape and climate. When he was here in 2010, Noma’s visionary chef Rene Redzepi said this: "I think this is the essence of great cuisine. I think that in any city they should have all the ethnic and multicultural cuisines, but I think that it's a poor culture if it doesn't have its own true, unique expression that can only be represented right there at the place." He was making a comparison between the restaurant food he’d eaten in Sydney and Melbourne and the indigenous feast he'd had in the Flinders Ranges. Redzepi was surprised that, given the incredible variety of native produce we have, no one outside of indigenous communities (and a tiny pocket of restaurants) were using them. A lot has changed since then. "After listening to Rene Redzepi's keynote address at the Sydney Opera House, I was completely inspired and left that night on a mission to track down Australian native produce which I could weave into my Cantonese cooking," says Kylie Kwong, owner and head-chef at Billy Kwong — the only restaurant in the world making traditional Cantonese food with Australian ingredients. At the moment, their latest menu includes wallaby cakes with Kakadu plum, crispy saltbush parcels and stir-fried spanner crab with a trio of native greens. Elsewhere, Adelaide's Orana has a dish of emu, plum pine and mountain pepper, while at Attica in Melbourne you'll find salted red kangaroo with pepperberries and bunya bunya, a starchy Queensland nut roughly comparable to a chestnut. With the exception of the above restaurants and a handful of others though, the use of native ingredients is rarely more than an occasional flourish — a few wattle seeds here and there, a lemon myrtle infusion or maybe a sight of warrigal greens. Finding a native vegetable, fruit or meat is an extreme rarity. You get the impression that Australia's portfolio of native ingredients is simply a short list of easily substitutable herbs and greens. [caption id="attachment_552283" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Billy Kwong[/caption] REVOLUTIONISING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH NATIVE FOODS John Newton's been researching native ingredients for his book The Oldest Foods on Earth. The history of native Australian food, with recipes. Australia has around 6000 unique edible plants and, in South East Queensland alone, there are more than 1500 different fruiting trees, he says. "We have the most fantastic native game birds. I've tasted the magpie goose — I love duck, and it's ten times better than duck. There's the bustard, there's scrub turkey, which tastes like pheasant. Beautiful." Even if only a tenth of our native ingredients tasted any good, it would be more than enough to completely revolutionise a green grocer’s shelves or an entire restaurant menu. But that particular revolution will have to wait, as there's not nearly enough farms or even knowledge of how to farm the vast majority of those ingredients. A lot of that information was lost after Europeans first arrived and started terraforming Australia for the production of beef, wheat and wool. [caption id="attachment_552284" align="alignnone" width="960"] Quay[/caption] FARMING NATIVE FOODS Picture this: you're an enterprising land owner who wants to start a farm. Given the resources and knowledge out there, you're more likely to start growing blueberries, cabbage or some common vegetable, rather than spend several years fiddling with native ingredients that have little to no backlog of info on how to actually cultivate or propagate them. Well, this has been the life of Mike and Gayle Quarmby. The owners of native food farming and distribution initiative Outback Pride have dedicated the best part of two decades to figuring out how to grow various native ingredients on a commercial scale. "We've done an enormous amount of research, development and horticultural work to actually domesticate these native food plants to get them to perform in a sustainable way," says Mike Quarmby. When they started, the majority of native produce farming consisted of simple wild harvesting, now their business is the biggest general supplier in the native food industry. Their clients include some of Australia's most innovative restaurants, chefs and grocers — and in January they'll be supplying almost their entire range of 65 ingredients to Noma Australia. [caption id="attachment_552289" align="alignnone" width="960"] Scallops with beach succulents at Orana.[/caption] SO, WHY THE STIGMA? It’s been a tough slog for the Quarmbys to get here. Aside from their trials in horticultural adventure, Quarmby says the duo has had to battle against an entrenched negativity against indigenous produce. "Australians have an inferiority complex about everything and anything related to food. ‘If it comes from overseas it must be good’. That has had a major effect,” he says. When we talked to John Newton about this, he mentioned the experience of three of Australia's early native produce pioneers: Jean-Paul Bruneteau and his restaurant Rowntrees, and Jennice and Raymond Kersh with Edna's Table. Interestingly, this first wave of restaurateurs made a big noise about using Australian native ingredients. Newton, who was working as a food critic in the '80s when the restaurants were operating, says the restauranteurs regularly faced criticism from customers solely due to the fact that they sold indigenous ingredients. "I don't know why. You could explore that in terms of racism all that you like," he says. But Newton says the worst thing to happen to the industry was a TV show called Bush Tucker Man. "Every time he puts something in his mouth he screws up. He hated it." Quarmby gave a similar review: "All due respects to Les Hidden, but he gave the impression that you only ate bush tucker if you were starving, and it tasted like shit." Quarmby says Redzepi has proven so influential because, as a Dane, he didn't come to Australia attached to any cultural prejudice or inferiority complex around Australian ingredients and the idea of a national cuisine. And now, despite a rough past, both Quarmby and his competitors in the native food industry are witnessing rapid growth. "We can't believe the number of new restaurants — we have nine exclusive distributors around Australia and our phone is running hot. They're saying things like 'this is the easiest thing we've sold all our lives'." WHERE TO EAT NATIVE INGREDIENTS Orana 1/285 Rundle Street, Adelaide, South Australia Attica 74 Glen Eira Road, Ripponlea, Victoria Vue de Monde 55, Rialto Towers, 525 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria Billy Kwong 1/28 Macleay Street, Elizabeth Bay, NSW Quay Upper Level, Overseas Passenger Terminal, George & Argyle Streets, The Rocks, NSW Bennelong Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, Sydney, NSW Top image: Salt cured red kangaroo with bunya bunya at Attica.
When news broke last month that Dominos had invented a $30,000 delivery robot, we thought we'd reached the apex of pizza-related technology. Turns out we couldn't have been more wrong. In a development that threatens to shatter the very fabric of existence, a pizzeria in Williamsburg, Brooklyn has invented...a pizza box. No, not a pizza box. A pizza box. A pizza box. Made from pizza. Behold. Introducing The PIZZA BOX PIZZA! A pizza box made entirely out of pizza! No waste, 100% pizza and 100% delicious. pic.twitter.com/2KxxndlK4Z — Vinnie's Pizzeria (@vinniesbrooklyn) April 27, 2016 Rendering all other modes of food transport and storage obsolete, this glorious edible container is the brainchild of Vinnie's Pizzeria owner Sean Berthiaume, who might actually be Thomas Edison reincarnated as a guy who really, really likes pizza. Having previously caught our attention after photos of his pizza with pizza topping went viral online, Berthiaume came up with this new creation while trying to think of ways to reduce waste. "I thought 'what if you can make something that you can eat every part of,'" he told NBC 4 New York. The pizzeria is still working out the finer points of delivery – for the time being, anyone who orders one will have it delivered to them wrapped in foil. A pizza delivered in a pizza box will run New Yorkers up a bill of around $40. Unfortunately we suspect that even if they did deliver internationally, both the box and its contents might go a bit stale in the time it takes to get to Australia. Via NBC. Header image via Dollar Photo Club.
When it came to putting together a live action version of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book, director Jon Favreau must've found himself thinking about the bare necessities. We don't just mean the catchy song that helped make the major Disney version such an enduring hit, though the tune does feature again this time around. In trying to bring the story's wilderness setting and talking animals to life, the actor-turned-filmmaker had to consider which aspects were essential. Would it be killer special effects? An all-star voice cast? A fresh new talent to play the film's only human role? Capturing a sense of movie magic? Yes, no doubt they all crossed his mind as he prepared to tackle the tale of man-cub Mowgli (newcomer Neel Sethi), his jungle upbringing and the creatures — wise panther Bagheera (voiced by Ben Kingsley), hypnotic snake Kaa (Scarlett Johansson), honey-loving bear Baloo (Bill Murray), giant primate King Louie (Christopher Walken) and fearsome tiger Shere Khan (Idris Elba) — he encounters. Indeed, the proof is in the enchanting end product, which blends both the book the animated film people know and love into a photo-realistic, live action package in the best way possible. So just how did the man that partied with Vince Vaughn in Swingers, kickstarted the current superhero cinema craze by directing Iron Man and made everyone crave Cuban sandwiches in Chef approach such an ambitious project? With Favreau in Australia recently to promote The Jungle Book, we took the opportunity to ask him about making talking animals look real, tracking down Bill Murray, getting advice from the kitchen and more. ON ADAPTING (AND PAYING TRIBUTE TO) SUCH A BELOVED STORY "I think you have to capture the spirit of the animated film, but if you're doing it in a photo-real way — which is what we set out to do — making it a G-rated kids movie probably wasn't going to work for us. So we felt that doing a PG-rated movie that skewed a little bit older and appealed more to adults as well as kids was not that big of a leap. We did try to include music and characters and tone, and cast it in a way that felt like it was related to the older film. And it's always tricky as a director when you're trying to balance tone. Because not only were we influenced by the '67 animated Disney film, but we're also influenced by the stories written by Rudyard Kipling that were quite a bit darker and scarier and more adventurous. So we tried to combine those things and pay homage to all the influences." ON CREATING A GRAND CINEMATIC ILLUSION "There was an opportunity here to do something really exciting and fresh and new that would surprise children and adults alike, because we're using technology that has never been used before. And people who see this are very hard-pressed to figure out what's been generated by computers and what's real. And there's very little real at all. It's very hard to wrap your head around it when you see it. I think nowadays, honestly, there's so much competition on television, on the internet, on cable. There's so much good programming and so much good content out there that if you want to ask people to go to the movie theatre and spend their money and sit with 3D glasses on, you'd better give them an experience that they can't get anywhere else. And that was the appeal here. It's like being a magician coming up with a magic trick. You really want to create a grand illusion. There's nothing like the big screen and 3D to do that. So there's a lot of techniques that I combined in a way that really hadn't been done before. I borrowed a lot of the technology from Avatar when it comes to motion capture, and building out the characters and the world. I also studied pretty closely how they did Gravity and how they put those live action characters into this computer-generated environment." ON CREATING 'REAL' ANIMALS (AND TAKING CUES FROM AN AUSTRALIAN TALKING PIG) "So much of the planning is so technical. But at the end of the day, after you plan how the magic trick is done and you figure out what elements you need to deliver to be able to convincingly fool the audience that they're looking at something real, then you have to wind it back and make sure you infuse it with character and emotion — and in some cases music — and make it feel effortless and invisible. Because the real reward here is that you show people a movie that's very tech-heavy, that's completely synthetic, but yet they feel like they're looking at real animals in a real jungle and feeling real emotion for real characters. And that's always tricky. Some movies do it well. Although here, over ten years ago, Babe did a great job with relatively low-tech effects. So it shows that if you have a good filmmaker and a good story, that does half your work for you." ON GETTING HIS DREAM CAST (AND GETTING HOLD OF BILL MURRAY) "This is a dream cast for me — I didn't think I would get them all. I didn't think I would even get access to Bill Murray, who is notoriously difficult to get a hold of. He doesn't have an agent so you can't get to him through the normal channels. So through writing letters and leaving messages and sending artwork I finally got a call back from him, and that was a one of the great victories in this process. I would've had to change the character [of Baloo] if it was someone else." ON HOW WORKING WITH CHEFS PREPARED HIM FOR THE JUNGLE BOOK "I think the best preparation was actually the training I did with the chefs [on Chef]. Because I had to learn how to cook and I worked with the chefs on the film, and they're very good at overseeing other chefs. A big part of their culture is you have a head chef but then there's other chefs who are also very talented and well-trained and want to present a vision. And part of being an executive chef is bringing together all of those talented people and having them work towards the same goal — and overseeing all the artists and overseeing the vision of all these technical people was a big part of The Jungle Book. Two thousand people worked on this movie. And sometimes one person is working on a shot and another person is working on another shot that are going to be right next to each other, but they don't really reference each other's work until it all lays into the film. I had to stand over the whole process and make sure it was all consistent and fits together in an invisible way. Chefs are very good at keeping consistency in their restaurants from dish to dish and from night to night, and watching how they oversaw and inspired and maintained quality control over the process was quite inspiring and informative for what I do as a director." The Jungle Book is currently screening in Australian cinemas. Read our full review.
If you haven't already visited Uluru, it's probably on your bucket list. Getting as close to the rock as possible is bound to be your main goal, but you may as well do some top-notch eating, drinking, sleeping and adventuring while you're at it. Being so popular with, well, everyone, Uluru and its surrounds have options for every budget and travelling style. A main attraction in the area, other than the rock itself, is the Field of Light festival. Running until March 2018, this huge exhibition features a mind-blowing installation by internationally-acclaimed artist Bruce Munro, made of 50,000 lights that collectively appear as a massive, magical, multi-coloured carpet around the base of the rock. Some events (like this one) are worthy of a big trip, and aside from casual laziness and a little lack of inspiration, there's really nothing stopping you from squeezing Field of Light into your schedule. We've teamed up with Mazda3 to help you plan your out-of-the-city trips ahead of time, so you can detour from your regular routine and inject a little adventure into your life. Here's our Weekender's Guide to the Red Centre of the Northern Territory during Field of Light — what to do, what to eat and drink for a weekend and where to stay — whether you want to sleep under the stars, or splurge on five-star luxury. [caption id="attachment_619574" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tali Wiru.[/caption] EAT AND DRINK Uluru is protected by Uluru-Kata Tjuta National Park, which means most of the eating and drinking has to happen outside of the park. However, there is one way you can feast in the park and under the stars, and that's on a sunset tour with AAT Kings. As you watch the sun disappear into the horizon, you'll be treated to a classic Aussie barbecue, packed with garlic prawns, lamb sausages, chicken skewers and kangaroo. There's also the Sounds of Silence dinner at Ayers Rock Resort with Uluru as your backdrop. This is a fancier affair, beginning with canapes and sparkling wine, then moving through three courses inspired by bush tucker — all to the sounds of a live didgeridoo performance. You'll also get a guided tour of the stars and return rides to and from your hotel with this experience. We should also mention, the resort's even more extraordinary experience, Tali Wiru, where atop a sand dune, you'll work your way through four courses matched with top-shelf Aussie wines. Dishes include Paroo kangaroo, wagyu fillet from Darling Downs, Glacier 51' Toothfish and twice-baked soufflé made with Heidi Farm gruyere. [caption id="attachment_619516" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Outback Pioneer Hotel.[/caption] Don't have cash to splash for fine dining? Fear not, there are a bunch of tasty morsels around that are much more wallet-friendly. It's hard to imagine a more outback experience than the Outback Pioneer Hotel's DIY barbecue, where you can grab a slab of kangaroo, barramundi fillet and an emu sausage or two, and cook up an true blue Aussie feast. If that sounds like too much work, though, head to the Pioneer Kitchen for an affordable a la carte menu which features a crocodile hot dog. Meanwhile, at Desert Gardens Hotel, there's Arnguli Grill and Restaurant. Surrounded by ghost gums and overlooking the hotel pool, you'll tuck into dishes laced with Indigenous ingredients. Gear up to try seeds, spices and grains you've never heard of before. [caption id="attachment_619580" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Field of Light: Bruce Munro. Photo by Mark Pickthall.[/caption] DO Of course, your first priority is going to be wandering through Field of Light. The exhibition features more than 50,000 slender stems topped with frosted-glass spheres, over an area the size of seven football fields. At night, under a sky full of stars, the exhibition is absolutely breathtaking, and an amazing way to see Uluru. The artwork itself is aptly named Tili Wiru Tjuta Nyakutjaku, which translates to 'looking at lots of beautiful lights' in the local Pitjantjatjara language. There are several ways to see Field of Lights — on foot, on the back of a camel, by helicopter, at sunrise, at sunset or in the middle of the night, all of which involve jumping aboard a Field of Light tour. The cheapest is the Field of Light Pass, which includes a hotel pick-up and self-guided walk, and the most deluxe is the helicopter tour (obviously), which includes 30 minutes in the air, as well as a guided stroll, three-course bush tucker dinner, didgeridoo performance, canapés, sparkling wine, chocolates and port. [caption id="attachment_619489" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: Edmono Gnerre via Flickr.[/caption] After the festival, next on your agenda should be getting as close as possible to Uluru. The rock's traditional custodians ask that you don't climb it, but you can take an loop-walk around the base. Along its 10.6-kilometre rocky circumference, you'll see many colours and textures, and, chances are, meet some local wildlife. If you'd like the company of a ranger, get to the Mala Walk car park at 10am (from May to September) for a free guided journey. If you're feeling adventurous, there are many more walking routes to take. An unusual perspective, and particularly spectacular view at sunrise and sunset, can be found via the Talinguru Nyakunytjaku track, translating to 'place to look from the sand dune'. The crowds are thinner here than in other spots, and picnic shelters provide shady places to relax. Deepen your understanding of what you're seeing and experiencing at the Cultural Centre, where there are regular Indigenous storytelling sessions. The centre also hires out bicycles, so you can grab one and check out Uluru from two wheels. [caption id="attachment_619581" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Desert Basecamp at Longitude 131.[/caption] STAY To make sure Uluru never slips out of your sight, check into Longitude 131, an architect-designed glamping-style accommodation option with panoramic views. You can sleep under the stars, or on your own private verandah, in a snuggly, handmade swag beside a stone-and-rosewood fire. Or head inside for a signature "Baillie Bed". Either way, you'll be surrounded by designer furnishings, Indigenous artworks and ceramics in a spectacular setting. Alternatively, take your pick of the huge array of accommodation options at Ayers Rock Resort. It's a bit of a mini village, 15 kilometres away from Uluru. If you're travelling lo-fi, then be sure to pack your tent and claim a camp site in Ayers Rock Campground. The grass is lush and dotted with she-oaks and there are some handy facilities on hand, including a swimming pool, an outdoor kitchen, barbecues and a laundry. [caption id="attachment_619583" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sails in the Desert.[/caption] Otherwise, book at the Outback Pioneer Lodge for air-conditioned rooms and a laidback, Aussie pub experience or the posher Desert Gardens Hotel for rooms with beautiful views of the rock. Meanwhile, the Resort's most luxurious option is Sails in the Desert, a five-star hotel with its own gallery dedicated to Indigenous art. Should you be travelling with a bunch of mates, your best bet is a two-bedroom cabin in the campground or, for a bit more comfort, an Emu Walk Apartment. Field of Light runs until March 2018. Top image: Field of Light: Bruce Munro. Photo by Mark Pickthall. Personalise your next adventure via The Playmaker, driven by Mazda3.
Finally, the Bloody Mary will have a breakfast bev companion. Bacardi has been cooking up what is thought to be the first spirit distilled from tea leaves, a new product they're calling Tang. Although we're pretty sure that's already a long-copyrighted drink name for a sugary orange fizz, Bacardi are running with it as inspired by the Chinese Tang Dynasty — when the country's obsession with tea really put down its roots. And with tea still the second most widely consumed beverage in the world (behind coffee, of course), it looks like Bacardi's capitalising on a still-travelling bandwagon. Someone at Bacardi obviously saw more than The Grim in their tea leaves. Apparently the company has been developing a brand new distillation process for four years, according to The Spirits Business. Releasing complex sugars from green tea leaves, the process makes the tea leaves fermentable — so able to become booze. Looks like someone at Bacardi left the leaves in their home teapot too long and had a Brilliant Idea. The fermented gloop then heads to distillation phase, before being blended to really get those tea flavours out. Then the whole thing is diluted with French spring water at Cognac's Grey Goose distillery and you've got yourself a 'tea spirit', designed to drink alongside Chinese food or dropped into cocktails. If you're all fired up to drop a little Tang in your morning cup, be warned; it's going to be exclusively distributed in China (initially only from DFS Hong Kong until May). Plus, it's not going to be cheap. Bacardi are only making small batches of 2000 500ml bottles a go (HK$1888 or AU$318), with the first 500 of the batch numbered, so you're going to see some pretty steep eBay prices on Tang. Via The Spirits Business.
Turns out Neil Armstrong was lacking foresight when he first stepped on the moon. What he actually should have announced was, "One small step for man, one giant leap for beer." Last year, Oregon-based brewing company Ninkasi ran their very own space programme (classic forward-thinking Oregon). Yep, they got hold of a couple of rockets and sent a bunch of brewer's yeast into outer space and back. It's since been turned into beer and as of April 13, will be available for sampling. Wonderfully-named Ground Control, the brew blends well-travelled ingredients with local ones. Ninkasi have described it as a "rich, complex imperial stout", made with Oregon hazelnuts, star anise and cocoa nibs. Take. Our. Money. Getting the yeast into outer space and back successfully took two missions. The first, which left on July 2014, carried sixteen vials. But, on returning to Earth, it wound up somewhere in the Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, which meant that the Ninkasi team didn’t find it for 27 days — way too late for brewing purposes. The second mission, carrying six vials, left on October 23 from New Mexico's Spaceport America. After journeying to 408,035 feet, and reaching a maximum speed of Mach 5, it came back to Earth safely — ready for fermenting. Ground Control will be sold in limited edition 22-ounce bottles at selected retailers across the United States. Keep your eyes on the eBay stars. Via io9.
Move over, Sydney Harbour. Lake Macquarie, just 90 minutes drive north, is two times bigger than you. In fact, it's the largest full-time saltwater lake this side of the equator. There are 167 kilometres of shoreline for strolling, swimming and paddling, and 90 villages for coffee-ing and feasting, just a short cruise up the Legendary Pacific Coast. Meanwhile, a short scurry overland to the coast leads to a string of pretty, pretty beaches, including Caves Beach (where there are real, actual caves on the beach), to quaint Catherine Hill Bay, dotted with 1890s miners' cottages. And, just to the west, lie the mountains, waterfalls and rainforest gullies of the Watagans National Park. Here's your guide to a dreamy lake weekender. [caption id="attachment_575383" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Lake Mac Kayak.[/caption] DO To get your bearings — and stretch your legs after the drive — start with a walk. You can take your pick, in terms of length, difficulty level and scenery. One of the easiest and most popular is the 8.9 kilometre, water-hugging Warners Bay Foreshore. It's a shared path, so you can saunter or cycle, and there's a handy, 24-7 bike hire station onsite. A mightier adventure is the 25-kilometre Yuelarbah Track, which forms part of the Great Northern Walk and takes in coastal rainforest, plus two waterfalls, before finishing at Glenrock Beach. For epic views, pop inland to conquer Mount Sugarloaf. When you're done with those, you'll find stacks more walk ideas over here. After seeing Lake Macquarie from the dry safety of land, the next step is to launch yourself onto the water. Pick up a kayak or paddleboard from Lake Mac Kayak and get shaping up those biceps. If you're the intrepid type, choose your own adventure. Otherwise, book a guided tour with School of Yak, whose itineraries include uninhabited Pulbah Island and secretive Dora Creek. Both two-hour and half-day trips are available. [caption id="attachment_554861" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Robert Montgomery.[/caption] More interested in lazy beach days? Make tracks to the coast to visit Caves Beach at low tide and you'll be playing The Goonies in a network of sea caves. For safe, patrolled swimming, head to Blacksmiths, which is at the southern end of a 14-kilometre strip of sand, ending in the rocky formations of Redhead Beach. And, at Catherine Hill Bay, you'll feel like you've stumbled into the 19th century. Once a mining village, it's heritage listed, so developers have kept away for the past 100 years. While you're there, drop by the Catho Pub for a beer in a refreshingly un-renovated, un-themed, old-school, Aussie watering hole. If you're looking for a beach inside the lake, swing by Murrays. [caption id="attachment_575386" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Sephardim.[/caption] EAT AND DRINK After completing the Warners Bay Foreshore track, tuck into a Mediterranean feast at Sephardim, where the motto is, "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die." Amen. When we say Mediterranean, we really mean it. The menu is a kind of circumnavigation of the Sea, with tapas-style dishes covering Spanish, Turkish and Persian influences. Be sure to try something from the Ottoman grill, which is fired up every single day, powered by Aussie charcoal. Seasoned with herbs, standouts include the swordfish, the gypsy steak and the Zhoug chicken. Vegetarians, don't panic, there are loads of dips, salads and fancy veggies. To dine surrounded by trees with water views, grab a table at The Lakehouse Cafe, at Murrays Beach. Their hearty breakfasts, like the monster bacon and egg roll or the mega signature breakfast, will sort you out for a day of action, and lunch and high tea are on the menu, too. Special events, like tapas nights, are held every now and again — keep an eye on the website for details. [caption id="attachment_574793" align="alignnone" width="1280"] The Olde Bakehouse.[/caption] Get your Italian fix on the western shore at The Olde Bakehouse, Morisset. But you can forget your usual country town spag bol or chicken parmi. Head chef Dan Way is a master of his craft and unafraid to experiment, working with the best produce that the seasons bring to his door. That's why the restaurant made the finals of the 2015 NSW Regional Restaurant Awards. So, gear up for house-made pastas, exotic inventions like wasabi-infused flying fish roe, and perfect panna cotta. Of course, the Hunter Valley's not too far away, so expect plenty of wines from the region on most wine lists in the area. If you have the time, then work your way through a degustation. On cold evenings, you won't want to rush, anyway — the fire's always a-crackling away. Another waterfront option is the Swill 'n' Grill Bistro at the Gunyah Hotel, at Belmont. Unfortunately, it was closed by a basement fire in early April, but the owners are promising to reopen soon. When that day comes, claim a spot on the verandah if you can (locals love this place). Freshly-shucked local oysters are dished up natural, Kilpatrick or mornay, while the generous Atlantic salmon steak is glazed with maple. There's also a bunch of premium quality meatiness, like the surf 'n' turf, which comes in the form of a 400 gram King Island rump with chilli garlic prawns. [caption id="attachment_575381" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Airbnb.[/caption] STAY For an old-fashioned stay on the lake's eastern edge, check into Selby Cottage at Mark's Point. You'll be cosying up among antiques and black-and-white photos, soaking in a claw-foot tub, pottering around in a private garden and catching sunsets from a waterfront verandah. Or, to be encircled by Wallarah National Park, opt for Bluebell Retreat at Murrays Beach. Designed by Queensland architect Gabriel Poole, this cottage won a UDIA for Sustainability and a HIA Greensmart Design Award. It features two large, sunny bedrooms and loads of luxe touches, from Sheridan linen to a Bose entertainment centre to decks overlooking landscaped lawns. There's also a selection of beauties on Airbnb. At The Boathouse, Wangi Wangi, on the lake's western shore, you and up to six friends can kick back in a spacious, open plan living-kitchen-dining room on waterfront reserve. Doing the romantic thing? Book peaceful Cedar Cottage, with its bamboo floors and fancy-pants bathroom and kitchen. Top image: Bill Collison.
A spirits brand that shares its moniker with one of the most influential movies ever made, about vampires or otherwise, was always going to stand out — and that spirits brand is Nosferatu Distillery. The fact that its eponymous gin is a tasty blood orange number was always going to earn attention, too, as well as the Count Orlok-shaped silhouette on the bottle's label along with it. Here's another reason for Brisbanites to throw the company some love: its newly opened headquarters in Bowen Hills, which operates as a distillery, bar and cafe. Located in Jeays Street and welcoming in gin lovers Monday–Saturday, it'll actually celebrate its grand launch on Saturday, October 15; however, it is indeed already trading. Get a caffeine fix by day, then sip gin by night: that's on the menu at the boutique brand's new Brisbane base. The drinks lineup includes all of the usual coffee options, teas, StrangeLove sodas (keeping the movie theme) and non-alcoholic beers for those keen on a non-boozy beverage. Or, there's wine, beer and the company's range of spirits — Nosferatu Blood Orange Gin, Mandrake Cucumber and Mint Gin, Giselle Pavlova Gin and Bunyip Sticky Gin — including in cocktails and flights. While the company has taken its cues from a horror great in its title, its new industrial-style warehouse space definitely hasn't. Here, in a light and airy setup, expect leafy plants aplenty around the venue, a retro-style van as a bar, and the distillery's operations in full view. Bites to eat are served up by a rotating array of food trucks. And Nosferatu's Bowen Hills location is dog-friendly, too, so add it to you and your pooch's next cafe or bar outing.
Come summertime, there's no better way to see Australia's east coast than through the flaps in your tent. The 1600-kilometre drive between the sunny paradise of Byron Bay and the cosy bars and laneways of Melbourne is dotted with unspoiled beaches, spectacular headlands, national parks and hiking trails. Many of these places are home to campsites — from the fancy, drive-in grounds with hot showers and barbecues to the remote, walk-in pitches where you have entire stretches of sand to yourself. Except for your fellow kangaroos, that is. So grab your sleeping bag, stock up on tucker and get ready for a sun-drenched, star-speckled adventure. Here's our top ten camping spots along the way. REFLECTIONS HOLIDAYS, BYRON BAY Start (or end) your journey with a stay on the water's edge in Byron Bay. If you were in bricks-and-mortar you'd be paying hundreds of bucks a night for this stuff. But, at Reflections Holidays — Byron Bay, it's all yours for next to nothing. Byron's famously warm water and dolphins are just a stumble away, but should you feel the need for good coffee or a feast, you're close to town, too. Facilities are laid-on: you'll get toilets, showers, a camp kitchen, barbecues, a shop and free wifi. Does this even count as camping? PEBBLY BEACH CAMPGROUND, YURAYGIR NATIONAL PARK Getting to Pebbly Beach Campground is half the fun. Found about 50 kilometres north of Coffs Harbour, it's accessible by sand only. In other words, you have to drive over the beach, then cross a saltwater estuary to get there. To avoid sinking, be sure to travel at low tide. You'll be pitching just a few metres from the shore, surrounded by she-oaks and with loads of walking tails nearby. There are pitches for 60, but facilities consist of toilets only. If you're keen to light a fire, then head to the Station Creek turnoff where you'll find a stack of free firewood. Getting to Pebbly Beach is fun, but it's probably best left to the camping experts — if you have access to a decent 4wd and some genuine adventure skills (like the ability to let down your tyres and re-inflate when you get off the sand), you'll be sweet. TRIAL BAY GAOL CAMPGROUND, SOUTH WEST ROCKS Your tent gives you million dollar views when you sleep over at Trial Bay Gaol Campground, which is perched on the water at South West Rocks. End your day with a watery sunset and wake up to an immediate swim. If you're a keen diver, then you'll want to explore nearby Fish Rock Cave, considered one of the planet's best cave dives. The 116-pitch campsite gives you toilets, showers, drinking water, picnic tables, barbecues, an onsite cafe and, just in case you have your boat with you, a launching ramp. All these bonuses mean that bookings are essential. THE RUINS, BOOTI BOOTI NATIONAL PARK This open, grassy area behind Seven Mile Beach is encircled with cabbage palms and has plenty of space for campers of all shapes and sizes. Find a secluded corner for your two-person tent or peg your party kingdom smack bang in the middle of the action. When you feel like a break from surf and sand, wander to Wallis Lake for a dip or paddle in still water, or conquer scenic Booti Hill track, which takes you to Elizabeth Beach via a couple of lookouts. Then there's the rest of Booti Booti National Park to explore, as well as cafes and shops in nearby Pacific Palms and Forster. The Ruins offers toilets, showers, drinking water, picnic tables and barbecues. Bookings aren't available — you get your pitch on a first come, first served basis. TALLOW BEACH, BOUDDI NATIONAL PARK, CENTRAL COAST You'll need a bit of strength and stamina for this one — it's a 1.2 kilometre walk from the car park. The effort is 100 per cent worth it, though. With just six pitches available, Tallow Beach is one of the most peaceful camping experiences on this list. If you're serious about Bear Grylls-ing it, then bring a fishing rod and catch your own dinner off the rocks. Otherwise, there's swimming, surfing and bush walking to do — try Box Head track for red gums or Flannel Flower track for coastal views. Facilities are minimal, consisting of toilets only, and there might or might not be mobile phone coverage depending on your carrier. While you're on the Central Coast, do some exploring with our local guide. NORTH ERA CAMPGROUND, ROYAL NATIONAL PARK Like Tallow Beach, North Era Campground is only accessible on foot, so pack light. In fact, if you're a keen hiker, then you can make it an overnight stop on the 26-kilometre long Coast Track. Otherwise, drive to Garie Beach Picnic Area and walk from there. Either way, you're in for a magical escape from urban life. Welcome to the bliss of the land beyond mobile phone coverage, mind-blowing ocean views and a maximum of 11 other tents in your vicinity. All this means that facilities are limited to toilets. Make a booking before you leave home. GREEN PATCH, JERVIS BAY This is your chance to park your tent within a few metres of Australia's deepest and, many would argue, most beautiful, bay. Located with Booderee National Park, Green Patch is dotted with trees and you can expect to meet 'roos, wallabies and possums. Spend your time relaxing on Jervis Bay's fine white sand, dolphin spotting, snorkelling, paddling or bush walking. There's a bunch more local tips in our weekender's guide. Campsite facilities include access to fresh water, hot showers, toilets and barbecues. It's important to book your pitch online in advance. ARAGUNNU, MIMOSA ROCKS NATIONAL PARK Mimosa Rocks National Park — where the forest meets the sea for miles and miles — is dotted with stunning, pristine beaches. And one of the loveliest is 500-metre long Aragunnu, found half an hour's drive south of Bermagui. The campground is separated into four areas, so choose the environment that suits you best, be that right near the waves, in the shade of towering mahogany trees or up high, overlooking the beach. Leave yourself time for the Mimosa Rocks walk, which takes in an excellent lookout. The campground comes with toilets, barbecues and a car park, so you don't have to lug in your gear. However, bookings aren't possible — turn up and try your luck. WINGAN INLET, CROAJINGALONG NATIONAL PARK Croajingalong National Park hugs Victoria's eastern coastline for over 100 kilometres, protecting heathlands, rainforests and eucalypt forests. There's a bunch of tranquil camping grounds to choose from and Wingan Inlet is one of the prettiest. It's set in a tall bloodwood forest, 36 kilometres from the Princes Highway, on the inlet's western shore. There are several day walks to keep you busy, covering river rapids, a fresh water lake, windswept headlands and fur seal colonies representing both Australia and New Zealand. Take your pick of 23 pitches, but keep in mind facilities are quite basic, offering non-flush toilets, picnic tables and fireplaces. TIDAL RIVER, WILSONS PROMONTORY Any road trip between Byron Bay and Melbourne should include a diversion to Wilsons Promontory, the most southern point of the Australian mainland. Its 50,460 hectares encompass empty beaches, swathes of rainforest and rugged mountains. For access to both river and sea, take your tent to Tidal River Campground. The facilities are pretty posh, including toilets, hot showers, free gas barbecues, dishwashing stations, washing machines and device charging stations. So, if you can't bear the ol' digital detox, then you won't have to. There are 484 sites, including 20 powered ones, but bookings are essential.
FBI special agents Dana Scully and Fox Mulder are returning to find that truth after 13 years off the air. The X-Files is officially returning to your screens, with creator Chris Carter, David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson locked in for the reunion fans have been waiting for. While it's not a full-blown season — just six episodes are planned — it's news to the ears of X-Philes worldwide. "I think of it as a 13-year commercial break,” Carter told TIME. "The good news is the world has only gotten that much stranger, a perfect time to tell these six stories." Here's hoping we don't pick up where we left off in 2008's cinematic casserole The X-Files: I Want to Believe. No cameos of Billy Connolly playing a convicted paedophile thanks. Let's hope Carter throws back to 1993, when The X-Files first kicked off years of killer dolls, literal substitute teachers from hell, creepy skateboard dudes and Texas Chainsaw-like creepo families. And aliens, o'course. According to TIME, the six episodes will indeed head back to the show's original format — we're talking one show, one mystery, all sexual tension. The X-Files is heading into production this winter, with no release date in sight yet. But we want to believe early 2016. Via TIME. Image: Diyah Perah, 20th Century Fox.
Picture this: a cosy, wooden structure somewhere remote, away from the hustle and bustle — and far, far away from mobile phone coverage — of your everyday life, perhaps with a fireplace and/or some kind of heated outdoor bathing fixture. You know the kind of place we're talking about. In fact, you're fantasising about it right now, aren't you? Take a coffee break and take a scroll through some of the world's most dreamy winter cabins that you can actually stay in. We've teamed up with NESCAFÉ to help you take the desk break you, as a hardworking human being, deserve. So start planning your worldwide cold weather escape — we promise none of them were featured in a Joss Whedon-written, Chris Hemsworth-starring horror movie. [caption id="attachment_580297" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Justin Muir[/caption] FOSSICKERS HUT, MARLBOROUGH, NEW ZEALAND Want to go off the grid? Well you've found your place. Fossickers Cottage is located just an hour from Nelson in NZ's Marlborough region, but it feels at least nine hours away from any kind of civilisation. The stunning early settler-style hut is the perfect perch in the middle of the bush right next to the amazingly clear water of the Wakamarina River. Along with a cosy kitchen room and bedroom (with a loft up top for a few extra mates), there's also a fire-heated outdoor bath. It doesn't get much better than that. LAKE O'HARA LODGE, CANADIAN ROCKIES, CANADA If you're looking for an old-school cabin that really does feel like it's in a movie (but sans scares), then Lake O'Hara Lodge is the place to be. This is the type of cabin that Parks and Recreation's Ron Swanson would be proud of — well, aside from the fact that it's in the Canadian Rockies. Constructed in 1926, it's the perfect spot for skiing in winter, hiking in summer, and enjoying the serenity of British Columbia's Yoho National Park all year round. Their one-bedroom lakeshore cabins are of the 'no muss, no fuss' variety, boasting little more than a queen bed for sleeping, a day bed for relaxing, and a deck for looking out at the world. It's just what you need after a long day revelling in the splendour of the site's surroundings. UFOGEL, NUSSDORF, AUSTRIA Whichever way you look at it, there's nowhere quite like Austria's unique Ufogel cabin. You can take that literally, given the mountain hideaway's inimitable design, or you can see it as a statement on the once-in-a-lifetime experience you're bound to have in the one-of-a-kind structure in the village of Nussdorf. Inside, expect wood as far as the eye can see; the entire compact building is completely made of it. Bring a few mates — the place can sleep up to five — and don't waste your time wondering about the name. It's a blend of UFO and vogel, the German term for bird, as inspired by the structure's distinctive appearance. CHALET JEJALP, MORZINE, FRANCE Who hasn't fantasised about a snowy sojourn holed up in a chalet? If you like wintry sports, it's the ideal break: you'd hit the slopes when the sun is shining, and then enjoy the facilities inside looking out over the frosty valley of an evening. Chalet Jejalp is the exact place you want to get snowed in; the house includes a double-height glass wine cellar, bar, pool table, gym, sunken jacuzzi, sauna, cinema room, and on-site chef and chauffeur. Yep, this is the kind of place you need to win the lotto to stay in — but you know it'd be totally worth it. MOONBAH HUT, NEAR JINDABYNE, AUSTRALIA If you stay local, prepare to do some driving to get your Aussie cabin fix. But if you're willing to commit, the rewards really are stunning. Moonbah Hut is located on private frontage on the Moonbah River, the Snowy Mountains' cleanest, most unspoilt home for trout. Give your fishing muscle a flex from your front doorstep, while keeping an eye out for wildlife, from wombats to deer to brumbies. Or bunker down inside, with a huge, stone open fireplace for company. Previous guests have taken the experience next level and invited personal chefs along for an evening. Spanish chef Miguel Maestre is among those to have done the honours. LION SANDS GAME RESERVE, SABI SANDS, SOUTH AFRICA Cabins come in all shapes, sizes and heights — and suited to all climates, too. Your idea of a winter cabin might involve snuggling up by the fire; however if you head to Lion Sands Game Reserve in South Africa, it could involve hanging out in a treehouse, spotting wild animals and gazing at the stars as you nod off to sleep. Constructed out of wood and glass, their Kingston treehouse is designed to welcome visitors all-year-round, so there's no need to worry about any inclement weather. And if that's not enough to tempt you, how about this: it comes complete with a wooden drawbridge. Yes, really. EAGLE BRAE LOG CABINS, SCOTTISH HIGHLANDS, SCOTLAND That ideal image of a wood log cabin you've been dreaming about? Well, that's what you'll find at Eagle Brae. Their seven two-storey open-plan dwellings have been hand-built using massive western redcedar logs sourced from the forests of Canada. And although it's cold, the cabins feature log-burning stoves to keep you warm. Indeed, if there's ever been a place tailor-made for staying indoors and snuggling up, this is it — though there's plenty to see outside, of course. That's where you'll find out just how the Scottish Highlands got their name, spot plenty of wildlife, and maybe even go salmon fishing as well. AZUR LUXURY LODGE, QUEENSTOWN, NEW ZEALAND Talk about a room with a view — and a bed and a bath too. If it's a private villa with stunning lake and mountain sights available from every available floor-to-ceiling window that you're after, then Azur Luxury Lodge has you covered. So it's not exactly a 'cabin', but when you're hanging out by the fire with a glass of wine, you're not going to concerned with specifics. Plus, for those who just can't unplug from the outside world completely, the Queenstown resort offers the best of both worlds, with all the mod cons like Wi-Fi in the middle of a gorgeous natural setting. BODRIFTY ROUNDHOUSE, CORNWALL, ENGLAND Centuries ago, in Celtic villages in the Iron Age, chiefs slept in thatched roundhouses. Seeing one is quite a sight, particularly since there's only a handful of replicas littered throughout the world — but spending a night in one? Well, that's something else. At Bodrifty in Cornwall, you can do just that. As well as marvelling at the experimental architecture, you can set up camp inside and stoke the open firebowl as well. And while it might appear as though you're stepping back in time, expect a touch of luxury when it comes to sleeping, as visitors will relish the modern comfort of a four-poster bed. POST RANCH INN, BIG SUR, USA Perched atop the cliffs of Big Sur in California, Post Ranch Inn provides several riffs on the cabin experience. Everyone wants a bit of rustic charm — and you'll get that here in a variety of accommodation types, including circular houses inspired by redwood trees and stand-alone treehouses. Choose from mountain or ocean views, and enjoy a dip in two infinity pools, a spot of fine dining and everything from yoga to nature walks while you're there. Okay, so this one's a modern interpretation of a cabin — but hey, who doesn't want to try that at least once? Words by Sarah Ward with Jasmine Crittenden. Top image: Justin Muir.
Fans of Robert Mapplethorpe will no doubt have already snapped up tickets to the new survey exhibition of his work at AGNSW. Showcasing an impressive selection of portraits, figure studies, floral still lifes and erotic imagery reflecting his participation in both New York's uptown art clique and underground gay scene, The Perfect Medium will grant fans an intimate, comprehensive insight into Mapplethorpe's distinctive artistic methods and private world. As one of the most compelling, boundary-pushing late 20th century American artists, Mapplethorpe's photography shaped an era, in part thanks to his portraits of the cultural idols of the 1970s and 80s (think Debbie Harry, Philip Glass and Mapplethorpe's longtime muse Patti Smith). AGNSW director Dr. Michael Brand says that Mapplethorpe played an influential role in establishing photography as a valid form of contemporary art: "whether he was photographing a figure, a flower or a fetish, Mapplethorpe's subjects were unified by an enduring and unflinching quest for beauty." Compulsory viewing for anyone interested in photography and the 1970s/80s New York art scene. Images from left: Robert Mapplethorpe Two men dancing 1984; Kathy Acker 1983. Promised Gift of The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation to The J Paul Getty Trust and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art © Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation. Used by permission.
As commuters left the Bondi bubble for the day (if they managed to snag a bus), the fashion set descended on the Sydney paradise by the sea for MBFWA 2017. Crowding into where else but Icebergs Dining Room and Bar, journalists, photographers and the always salient 'influencers' soaked up those morning rays, as Icebergs' Maurice Terzini and partner Lucy Hinkfuss showed the Vertical Stripes collection of their unisex, streetwear label, Ten Pieces. This season, the label also partnered with The Woolmark Company to create ten more pieces in burnt orange merino jersey, balancing out the label's signature black and white. A show of only 20 looks snaked through Icebergs to a Nicky Night Time score, showcasing what we've dubbed 'beamo' — no, not that cute little console from Adventure Time, but beach emo. Your favourite hoodie of yore has taken new shape losing its sleeves or growing them extra long. It's become a full-length dress, a type of slouchy robe you'd actually wear out of the house. And all was brought back to the surrounding surf vibes with zippered Ugg-style Sharpie Boots. But where does the emo come in? Well, you'd be missing the mark if you weren't pairing these pieces with a big sook, smudgy eyeliner and ratted out hair — or even better, a next-level mullet. [caption id="attachment_622671" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, Brendon Thorne/Getty Images.[/caption] The Vertical Stripes collection also brought things full circle for the Icebergs Dining Room and Bar entrepreneur. Inspired by architecture and landscapes, the white silhouettes were marked with one thick black line reminiscent of the iconic pool below — we were wondering why the pool had been emptied, all the better to see those influential lane stripes. Over black and white canapés, above the black and white emptied pool below, among the black and white (and burnt orange) streetwear, Fashion Week was fully immersed in Ten Pieces style — monochromatic, extremely comfortable and undeniably cool — though we're still not sure how we feel about those long shaved party mullets. Images: Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, Brendon Thorne/Getty Images.
When it comes to must-watch movies, Australian cinema has gifted audiences with plenty in recent times. The outback noir of Mystery Road and Goldstone, the chills of The Babadook, the high-octane glory that was Mad Max: Fury Road, the mountainous terror captured in Sherpa, the race riots comedy of Down Under: they're just some of the great local fare our talented filmmakers have been serving up. That was then, this is now — and don't worry, this year looks set to deliver too. So which homegrown flicks should you put on your 2017 viewing list? A hint: a heart-wrenching true tale, serial killer thrills and a long-awaited reunion are just the beginning. LION The 2017 slate of Australian-made films really couldn't kick off with a bigger title. At the time of writing, Lion has already been nominated for four Golden Globes, five BAFTAs, two Screen Actors Guild awards and two Directors Guild of America gongs — and expect that list to keep growing. Recounting the real-life story of the Indian-born, Tasmanian-raised Saroo Brierley (played by charming newcomer Sunny Pawar as a child, and Dev Patel with a spot-on Aussie accent as an adult), the first feature directed by Top of the Lake's Garth Davis will earn your tears and then some. Rounding out the cast for this rousing take on a tale 60 Minutes viewers will be familiar with is Nicole Kidman, David Wenham and Rooney Mara. JASPER JONES One of the nation's favourite novels makes its way to the big screen with Jasper Jones, and it's in great hands. Bran Nue Dae's Rachel Perkins directs the adaptation of Craig Silvey's best-selling book, with local treasures Hugo Weaving and Toni Collette, and young up-and-comers Angourie Rice (The Nice Guys), Levi Miller (Red Dog: True Blue) and Aaron L. McGrath (TV's Glitch) among the onscreen talent. For those that haven't read the source material, it tells the '60s-set, racially charged tale of the titular teen, the 14-year-old who becomes his new friend and the mystery that brings them together. HOUNDS OF LOVE Prepare to be unnerved — and to be surprised and a little shocked by Stephen Curry of The Castle fame. He was once best known for playing hole-digging Dale Kerrigan, however the actor's performance in Hounds of Love will make you see him in a completely new light. That isn't just an indication of the different realm he's in, with the first film from director Ben Young taking inspiration from real-life true-crime cases dating back to Perth in the '80s, but also a sign of just how effective Curry is. The unsettling effort has been compared to Snowtown and Animal Kingdom for a very good reason. JUNGLE How far will Daniel Radcliffe go to escape a certain boy wizard? Playing a farting corpse in last year's polarising Swiss Army Man helped, and heading to the Bolivian rainforest in Jungle might too. Directed by Wolf Creek's Greg McLean, the Queensland-shot feature charts four backpackers in the thick of the Amazon wilderness. Yes, that means that it is a survivalist tale — but given that it's from the filmmaker that made outback Australia oh-so menacing, expect plenty of thrills. SWEET COUNTRY Did you think that David Wenham and Hugo Weaving were only going to pop up on this list once? Not a chance. Two of Australia's hardest-working actors feature in Sweet Country, as do Bryan Brown, Sam Neill and Last Cab to Darwin's Ningali Lawford-Wolf, however it's the director behind the movie that should grab your attention. Making a drama about the killing of a station owner by an Aboriginal stockman, and the corresponding fallout in 1920s Australia, the film marks the long-awaited next effort from Samson & Delilah's Warwick Thornton (pictured). CARGO He's already played Tim from The Office, Bilbo Baggins and John Watson — and now, Martin Freeman will take on the guise of a father trying to save his baby during the apocalypse. Based on Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke's Tropfest short of the same name, the South Australian-made film plunges into dystopian sci-fi territory, and takes a host of local talent along for the ride, including Susie Porter, Anthony Hayes and David Gulpilil. Oh, and for added fun, there's zombies as well. BERLIN SYNDROME It has been five years since Cate Shortland's Lore became Australia's best German-language film, and 13 since her debut Somersault won an astounding 13 Australian Film Institute awards (the gongs they gave out before the AACTAs). For her third effort, she opts for psychological thrills — and for the titular European city. Here, Hacksaw Ridge's Teresa Palmer plays an Aussie photographer who has a fling with a local teacher, only to find herself unable to escape from his apartment. Expect to hear a whole lot more about Berlin Syndrome very soon, given that the movie premieres at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival in mid-to-late January. FLAMMABLE CHILDREN If we had to summarise Flammable Children in just a few words, it'd be this: Kylie Minogue and Guy Pearce's post-Neighbours reunion. You're already sold, right? The former Charlene and Mike turned internationally successful pop star and actor, respectively, will once again share the screen — and The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert's Stephan Elliott is the person responsible. His latest flick ventures back to the '70s, when Aussie teens flocked to the beach, and their parents got up to some swinging fun, with Radha Mitchell and Julian McMahon also starring. [caption id="attachment_606189" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Lion.[/caption] HOTEL MUMBAI In 2008, Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was attacked by terrorists, with at least 167 people killed. Australian writer/director Anthony Maras recreates the horrific incident, which proved harrowing for locals and tourists alike. Because 2017 seems to be all about familiar faces gracing local flicks more than once, Dev Patel (pictured, from Lion) helps lead an international cast that also includes Red Dog: True Blue's Jason Isaacs, 52 Tuesdays' Tilda Cobham-Hervey and The Man from U.N.C.L.E.'s Armie Hammer. ALI'S WEDDING Australia doesn't make all that many romantic comedies. Australia doesn't make many films focusing on the country's Muslim community either. Combine the two, and Ali's Wedding is the end result. Starring Iraqi-born Aussie actor and comedian Osamah Sami as the eponymous character, there's no prizes for guessing that marriage sits at the centre of the film as the son of a Muslim cleric tries to remain true to both his family and his heart. Top image: Lion.
For most people who grew up in Australia, primary school excursions left you thinking that Canberra was all about politicians and roundabouts. Years later, that concept couldn't be further from the truth. Over the past few years, Australia's capital city has had quite the food, drink and cultural revolution. Spend a weekend in Canberra and you can wander through breweries, eat at spectacular restaurants and cafes and stay the night at what we think is one of Australia's most beautiful accommodation spots. To ensure you go beyond the excursion favourites, Questacon and Parliament House, here's your guide to spending a weekend in Canberra as a food and wine loving adult. From pristine beaches and bountiful wine regions to alpine hideaways and bustling country towns, Australia has a wealth of places to explore at any time of year. We've partnered with Tourism Australia to help you plan your road trips, weekend detours and summer getaways so that when you're ready to hit the road you can Holiday Here This Year. Under current COVID-19 restrictions in Australia, there are restrictions on where you can go on holiday. Bookmark this for when you can explore once again. [caption id="attachment_750222" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Barrio via VisitCanberra[/caption] EAT AND DRINK After cruising up the Hume Highway, you'll want a refuel in the form of a damn good coffee. Get started at Highroad on the corner of Cape and Woolley streets. Run by boutique roastery Ona, this specialty coffee house serves a mean cup of joe as well as inventive cafe fare — think kimchi waffles with gochujang butter, prawn toast benedict and corn bread french toast. It also has a diverse selection of wines and craft beers from local and interstate breweries. Meanwhile, Barrio is a Braddon cafe dedicated to simple and high-quality coffee and food with a seasonal and local focus. It makes its own nut milk and, for breakfast, you can expect stroopwafels, marrow butter with fried egg and shallots on sourdough and rye with avocado and togorashi seasoning. When you're ready for a mid-morning treat, head to Braddon's Scandi-inspired Rye. It has brews from Sydney's specialty coffee roaster, Five Senses, and a lengthy food menu, with dishes such as dutch baby skillet pancakes for breakfast and a range of smørrebrød (Scandinavian open sandwiches) for lunch. Better yet, it serves breakfast cocktails, too. Then, get yourself to Silo Bakery and Cafe in Kingston. Collapse onto a wooden banquette before starting on the hard bit — making your choice from the massive array of freshly baked cakes and pastries in the cabinet. If you're vegan, get your sugar fix at Sweet Bones back in Braddon. [caption id="attachment_613859" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Bar Rochford[/caption] While in Braddon, visit Bentspoke Brewing Co, a microbrewery and taphouse combining beer with bicycles — it works, trust us. More than 21 brews — from the much-loved Crankshaft IPA to How's It Gosen tropical gose — are on tap at any one time. For more Canberra craft beer goodness, make tracks to Capital Brewing Co. Situated within the city's new creative hotspot, the Dairy Road District, the expansive brewery and taproom is the first permanent home for Capital Brewing — who had previously been gypsy brewing across several sites in Sydney. And it has a taproom like no other, with a massive outdoor area, lawn games, a cubby house and Brodburger food truck. Come lunch or dinner, some of the tastiest Italian in the ACT is found at Italian & Sons. This fun-loving place champions old-school warmth and traditional regional cooking. Dig into duck and porcini gnocchi or take your pick from the simple pizza menu. Speaking of pizza, be sure to drop by Mama Dough pizza shop — this teeny-tiny venue slings incredible woodfired pizzas cooked in an impressive imported pizza oven. If you can't score a highly coveted seat, order a pie to take away. [caption id="attachment_751448" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Rebel Rebel by Nathan Harradine-Hale[/caption] Craving a more upmarket feed? There's a bunch of hatted restaurants in Canberra, offering unique and refined fare. We suggest stopping by Aubergine, where head chef Ben Willis is lauded for his local produce-driven wonders. Make a long afternoon or evening of it and take your time over the seasonal tasting menu. Or, you could check out refined all-day diner Rebel Rebel, in the New Acton precinct, led by chef Sean McConnell — the corn and manchego croquette with prawn head aioli is a must-order. Later on, if you're looking to kick back in a small bar, try Amici on Northbourne Avenue. The deli-cum-wine bar has an excellent selection of vinos, plus cocktails, cheese, meats and hand-stretched pizzas. If you're keen for something a little more dark and mysterious, try Bar Rochford for a quiet glass of wine among the vinyl and pot plants, or Molly for a speakeasy atmosphere in a former bank vault lined with booths. [caption id="attachment_700170" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Yayoi Kusama at NGA[/caption] DO No visit to Canberra is ever complete without a wander through the National Gallery of Australia's enormous space and epic works. There's always a temporary exhibition that draws crowds, such as the upcoming Botticelli to Van Gogh: Masterpieces from the National Gallery, London. The permanent collections are equally worthy of a visit, with Yayoi Kusama's Spirits of the Pumpkins Descended into the Heavens, James Turrell's Within Without Skyspace and Urs Fischer's candle sculpture, Francesco, all housed within the gallery's walls. [caption id="attachment_760510" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mount Ainslie via VisitCanberra[/caption] Once you've got your culture fix, it's time to get outside and stretch your legs. Check out Canberra's hilly surrounds by visiting a local lookout — Mount Ainslie and Black Mountain (home to the Telstra Tower) are among the most popular. If you're keen to beat the crowds, try Red Hill in the south or Mount Pleasant, where you'll find the grave of General Bridges — the only Aussie soldier who died in Gallipoli to have had his body returned to his homeland. You can find more walks to conquer around Canberra here. If you're in the mood to splash some cash, the Braddon precinct is packed with specialty stores, including the excellent one-two punch at 27 Lonsdale Street of boutique bottle-o Blackhearts and Sparrows and high-end ceramics label Bisonhome. [caption id="attachment_735917" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ovolo Nishi via VisitCanberra[/caption] STAY One of Canberra's most design-centric stays is Ovolo Nishi. The award-winning hotel is a self-described 'collaboration with designers, artists, artisans and fantasists'. Each and every one of the 68 rooms is unique and categorised according to feel: choose from Cosy, Snug, Original, Creative or Meandering. What they have in common is their references to the quintessential Aussie bush. Think clay walls, beds made of recycled oak, oversized rain showers, found objects and artworks. [caption id="attachment_763127" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Little National by Nathan Harradine-Hale[/caption] Another designer option is QT Canberra. This 205-room hotel hinges on the fun and unexpected, featuring tongue-in-cheek political references. Walking into the dark, marble-lined lobby, you'll notice famous world politicians portrayed in left-of-field, neon-lit portraits, as well as a TV screening major historic moments. Some rooms come with views and Lake Burley Griffin is just a stumble away, as is the well-stocked hotel bar. To stay in compact comfort with a sleek, New York-style aesthetic, book in at Little National. This conveniently located, 120-room hotel is fitted out with rich timber furnishings, has cracking city views and, quite uniquely, is situated on top of a car park, right next door to Parliament House. It has a 24-hour lounge and library with a roaring fireplace in winter, plus guests have access to a nearby gym, two day spas and a wellbeing centre. Whether you're planning to travel for a couple of nights or a couple of weeks, Holiday Here This Year and you'll be supporting Australian businesses while you explore the best of our country's diverse landscapes and attractions. Top image: Bentspoke Brewing via VisitCanberra.
When a year ends, it's easy to pick what to watch. Just work through the best films of the past 12 months, the best movies that went straight to streaming over the same period, and the top new and returning TV shows. Or, catch up with flicks and series you might've missed — and others that are worth revisiting. When a new year begins, it's also easy to choose where to point your eyeballs. Awards season kicks into gear, bringing with it more recommendations — all newly minted recipients of shiny trophies. So, now that the Golden Globes have taken place for 2024, as held on Monday, January 8 Australian time, there's a new batch of winners to spend time with on both the big and small screens. To see some of this year's Golden Globe-recognised movies, you'll need to head to a cinema. For others — and for TV's best, too — you can get comfy on the couch to watch. Either way, here are eight of the Globes' top winners that you can check out right now. (And if you're wondering what else won, you can read through the full list, too.) MOVIE MUST-SEES OPPENHEIMER Cast Cillian Murphy and a filmmaker falls in love. Danny Boyle did with 28 Days Later and Sunshine, then Christopher Nolan followed with Batman Begins, The Dark Knight, The Dark Knight Rises, Inception and Dunkirk. There's an arresting, haunting, seeps-under-your-skin soulfulness about the Irish actor, never more so than when he was wandering solo through the empty zombie-ravaged streets in his big-screen big break, then hurtling towards the sun in an underrated sci-fi gem, both for Boyle, and now playing "the father of atomic bomb" in Nolan's epic biopic Oppenheimer. Flirting with the end of the world, or just one person's end, clearly suits Murphy. Here he is in a mind-blower as the destroyer of worlds — almost, perhaps actually — and so much of this can't-look-away three-hour stunner dwells in his expressive eyes. As J Robert Oppenheimer, those peepers see purpose and possibility. They spot quantum mechanics' promise, and the whole universe lurking within that branch of physics. They ultimately spy the consequences, too, of bringing the Manhattan Project successfully to fruition during World War II. Dr Strangelove's full title could never apply to Oppenheimer, nor to its eponymous figure; neither learn to stop worrying and love the bomb. The theoretical physicist responsible for the creation of nuclear weapons did enjoy building it in Nolan's account, Murphy's telltale eyes gleaming as Oppy watches research become reality — but then darkening as he gleans what that reality means. Directing, writing and adapting the 2005 biography American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J Sherwin, Nolan charts the before and after. He probes the fission and fusion of the situation in intercut parts, the first in colour, the second in black and white. In the former, all paths lead to the history-changing Trinity test on July 16, 1945 in the New Mexico desert. In the latter, a mushroom cloud balloons through Oppenheimer's life as he perceives what the gadget, as it's called in its development stages, has unleashed. GLOBES Won: Best Motion Picture — Drama, Best Director — Motion Picture (Christopher Nolan), Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama (Cillian Murphy), Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture (Robert Downey Jr), Best Original Score — Motion Picture. Where to watch it: Oppenheimer streams via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. POOR THINGS Richly striking feats of cinema by Yorgos Lanthimos aren't scarce. Sublime performances by Emma Stone are hardly infrequent. Screen takes on Mary Shelley's Frankenstein couldn't be more constant. For Lanthimos, see: Dogtooth and Alps in the Greek Weird Wave filmmaker's native language, plus The Lobster, The Killing of a Sacred Deer and The Favourite since he started helming movies in English. With Stone, examples abound in her Best Actress Oscar for La La Land, supporting nominations before and after for Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue of Ignorance) and Lanthimos' aforementioned regal satire, and twin 2024 Golden Globe nods for their latest collaboration as well as TV's The Curse. And as for the best gothic-horror story there is, not to mention one of the most influential sci-fi stories ever, the evidence is everywhere from traditional adaptations to debts owed as widely as The Rocky Horror Show and M3GAN. Combining the three results in a rarity, however: a jewel of a pastel-, jewel- and bodily fluid-toned feminist Frankenstein-esque fairy tale that's a stunning creation, as zapped to life with Lanthimos' inimitable flair, a mischievous air, Stone at her most extraordinary and empowerment blazing like a lightning bolt. With cascading black hair, an inquisitive stare, incessant frankness and jolting physical mannerisms, Poor Things' star is Bella Baxter in this adaptation of Alasdair Grey's award-winning 1992 novel by Australian screenwriter Tony McNamara (The Great). Among the reasons that the movie and its lead portrayal are so singular: as a character with a woman's body revived with a baby's brain, Stone plays someone from infancy to adulthood, all with the astonishingly exact mindset and mannerisms to match, and while making every move, choice and feeling as organic as birth, living and death. In this fantastical steampunk vision of Victorian-era Europe, London-based Scottish doctor Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe, Asteroid City) is Bella's maker. Even if she didn't call him God, he's been playing it. But curiosity, the quest for agency and independence, horniness and a lust for adventure all beckon his creation on a radical, rebellious, gorgeously rendered, gloriously funny and generously insightful odyssey. So, Godwin tries to marry Bella off to medical student Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef, Ramy), only for her to discover masturbation and sex, and run off to the continent with caddish lawyer Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law). GLOBES Won: Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy, Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy (Emma Stone). Where to watch it: Poor Things is currently screening in Australian cinemas. Read our full review. KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON Death comes to Killers of the Flower Moon quickly. Death comes to Killers of the Flower Moon often. While Martin Scorsese will later briefly fill the film's frames with a fiery orange vision — with what almost appears to be a lake of flames deep in oil country, as dotted with silhouettes of men — death blazes through his 26th feature from the moment that the picture starts rolling. Adapted from journalist David Grann's 2017 non-fiction novel Killers of the Flower Moon: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI, with the filmmaker himself and Dune's Eric Roth penning the screenplay, this is a masterpiece of a movie about a heartbreakingly horrible spate of deaths sparked by pure and unapologetic greed and persecution a century back. Scorsese's two favourite actors in Leonardo DiCaprio (Don't Look Up) and Robert De Niro (Amsterdam) are its stars, alongside hopefully his next go-to in Lily Gladstone (Reservation Dogs), but murder and genocide are as much at this bold and brilliant, epic yet intimate, ambitious and absorbing film's centre — all in a tale that's devastatingly true. As Mollie Kyle, a member of the Osage Nation in Grey Horse, Oklahoma, incomparable Certain Women standout Gladstone talks through some of the movie's homicides early. Before her character meets DiCaprio's World War I veteran Ernest Burkhart — nephew to De Niro's cattle rancher and self-proclaimed 'king of the Osage' William King Hale — she notes that several Indigenous Americans that have been killed, with Mollie mentioning a mere few to meet untimely ends. There's nothing easy about this list, nor is there meant to be. Some are found dead, others seen laid out for their eternal rest, and each one delivers a difficult image. But a gun fired at a young mother pushing a pram inspires a shock befitting a horror film. The genre fits here, in its way, as do many others as Killers of the Flower Moon follows Burkhart's arrival in town, his deeds under his uncle's guidance, his romance with Mollie and the tragedies that keep springing: American crime saga, aka the realm that Scorsese has virtually made his own, as well as romance, relationship drama, western, true crime and crime procedural. GLOBES Won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Drama (Lily Gladstone). Where to watch it: Killers of the Flower Moon is currently screening in Australian cinemas, and streams via Google Play, YouTube Movies and Prime Video. Read our full review, and our interview with Martin Scorsese. THE BOY AND THE HERON For much of the six years that a new Hayao Miyazaki movie was on the way, little was known except that the legendary Japanese animator was breaking his retirement after 2013's The Wind Rises. But there was a tentative title: How Do You Live?. While that isn't the name that the film's English-language release sports, both the moniker — which remains in Japan — and the nebulousness otherwise help sum up the gorgeous and staggering The Boy and the Heron. They also apply to the Studio Ghibli's co-founder's filmography overall. When a director and screenwriter escapes into imaginative realms as much as Miyazaki does, thrusting young characters still defining who they are away from everything they know into strange and surreal worlds, they ask how people exist, weather the chaos and trauma that's whisked their way, and bounce between whatever normality they're lucky to cling to and life's relentless uncertainties and heartbreaks. Miyazaki has long pondered how to navigate the fact that so little while we breathe proves a constant, and gets The Boy and the Heron spirited away by the same train of thought while climbing a tower of deeply resonant feelings. How Do You Live? is also a 1937 book by Genzaburo Yoshino, which Miyazaki was given by his mother as a child, and also earns a mention in his 12th feature. The Boy and the Heron isn't an adaptation; rather, it's a musing on that query that's the product of a great artist looking back at his life and achievements, plus his losses. The official blurb uses the term "semi-autobiographical fantasy", an elegant way to describe a movie that feels so authentic, and so tied to its creator, even though he can't have charted his current protagonist's exact path. Parts of the story are drawn from his youth, but it wouldn't likely surprise any Studio Ghibli fan if Miyazaki had magically had his Chihiro, Mei and Satsuki, or Howl moment, somehow living an adventure from Spirited Away, My Neighbour Totoro or Howl's Moving Castle. What definitely won't astonish anyone is that grappling with conjuring up these rich worlds and processing reality is far from simple, even for someone of Miyazaki's indisputable creative genius. GLOBES Won: Best Motion Picture — Animated. Where to watch it: The Boy and the Heron is currently screening in Australian cinemas. Read our full review. BARBIE No one plays with a Barbie too hard when the Mattel product is fresh out of the box. As that new doll smell lingers, and the toy's synthetic limbs gleam and locks glisten, so does a child's sense of wonder. The more that the world-famous mass-produced figurine is trotted through DreamHouses, slipped into convertibles and decked out in different outfits, though — then given non-standard makeovers — the more that playing with the plastic fashion model becomes fantastical. Like globally beloved item, like live-action movie bearing its name. Barbie, the film, starts with glowing aesthetic perfection. It's almost instantly a pink-hued paradise for the eyes, and it's also a cleverly funny flick from its 2001: A Space Odyssey-riffing outset. The longer that it continues, however, the harder and wilder that Lady Bird and Little Women director Greta Gerwig goes, as does her Babylon and Amsterdam star lead-slash-producer Margot Robbie as Barbie. In Barbie's Barbie Land, life is utopian. Robbie's Stereotypical Barbie and her fellow dolls (including The Gray Man's Ryan Gosling as Stereotypical Ken) genuinely believe that their rosy beachside suburban excellence is infectious, too. And, they're certain that this female-championing realm — and the Barbies being female champions of all skills, talents and appearances — has changed the real world inhabited by humans. But there's a Weird Barbie living in a misshapen abode. While she isn't Barbie's villain, not for a second, her nonconformist look and attitude says everything about Barbie at its most delightful. Sporting cropped hair, a scribbled-on face and legs akimbo, she's brought to life by Saturday Night Live great Kate McKinnon having a blast, and explained as the outcome of a kid somewhere playing too eagerly. Meet Gerwig's spirit animal; when she lets Weird Barbie's vibe rain down like a shower of glitter, covering everything and everyone in sight both in Barbie Land and in reality, the always-intelligent, amusing and dazzling Barbie is at its brightest and most brilliant. GLOBES Won: Cinematic and Box Office Achievement, Best Original Song — Motion Picture (Billie Eilish and Finneas O'Connell, 'What Was I Made For?'). Where to watch it: Barbie streams via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review, and Greta Gerwig, Margot Robbie, Issa Rae and America Ferrara chatting about the film. SMALL-SCREEN STANDOUTS BEEF As plenty does, Beef starts with two strangers meeting, but there's absolutely nothing cute about it. Sparks don't fly and hearts don't flutter; instead, this pair grinds each other's gears. In a case of deep and passionate hate at first sight, Danny Cho (Steven Yeun, Nope) and Amy Lau (Ali Wong, Paper Girls) give their respective vehicles' gearboxes a workout, in fact, after he begins to pull out of a hardware store carpark, she honks behind him, and lewd hand signals and terse words are exchanged. Food is thrown, streets are angrily raced down, gardens are ruined, accidents are barely avoided, and the name of Vin Diesel's famous car franchise springs to mind, aptly describing how bitterly these two strangers feel about each other — and how quickly. Created by Lee Sung Jin, who has It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Dave and Silicon Valley on his resume before this ten-part Netflix and A24 collaboration, Beef also commences with a simple, indisputable and deeply relatable fact. Whether you're a struggling contractor hardly making ends meet, as he is, or a store-owning entrepreneur trying to secure a big deal, as she is — or, if you're both, neither or anywhere in-between — pettiness reigning supreme is basic human nature. Danny could've just let Amy beep as much as she liked, then waved, apologised and driven away. Amy could've been more courteous about sounding her horn, and afterwards. But each feels immediately slighted by the other, isn't willing to stand for such an indignity and becomes consumed by their trivial spat. Neither takes the high road, not once — and if you've ever gotten irrationally irate about a minor incident, this new standout understands. Episode by episode, it sees that annoyance fester and exasperation grow, too. Beef spends its run with two people who can't let go of their instant rage, keep trying to get the other back, get even more incensed in response, and just add more fuel to the fire again and again until their whole existence is a blaze of revenge. If you've ever taken a small thing and blown it wildly out of proportion, Beef is also on the same wavelength. And if any of the above has ever made you question your entire life — or just the daily grind of endeavouring to get by, having everything go wrong, feeling unappreciated and constantly working — Beef might just feel like it was made for you. GLOBES Won: Best Television Limited Series of Motion Picture Made for Television, Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television (Ali Wong), Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television (Steven Yeun). Where to watch it: Beef streams via Netflix. Read our full review. SUCCESSION Endings have always been a part of Succession. Since it premiered in 2018, the bulk of the HBO drama's feuding figures have been waiting for a big farewell. The reason is right there in the title, because for any of the Roy clan's adult children to scale the family company's greatest heights and remain there — be it initial heir apparent Kendall (Jeremy Strong, Armageddon Time), his inappropriate photo-sending brother Roman (Kieran Culkin, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off), their political-fixer sister Siobhan (Sarah Snook, Pieces of a Woman), or eldest sibling and presidential candidate Connor (Alan Ruck, The Dropout) — their father Logan's (Brian Cox, Remember Me) tenure needed to wrap up. The latter was always stubborn. Proud, too, of what he'd achieved and the power it's brought. And whenever Logan seemed nearly ready to leave the business behind, he held on. If he's challenged or threatened, as happened again and again in the Emmy-winning series, he fixed his grasp even tighter. Succession was always been waiting for Logan's last stint at global media outfit Waystar RoyCo, but it had never been about finales quite the way it was in its stunning fourth season. This time, there was ticking clock not just for the show's characters, but for the stellar series itself, given that this is its last go-around — and didn't it make the most of it. Nothing can last forever, not even widely acclaimed hit shows that are a rarity in today's TV climate: genuine appointment-viewing. So, this went out at the height of its greatness, complete with unhappy birthday parties, big business deals, plenty of scheming and backstabbing, and both Shiv's husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen, Operation Mincemeat) and family cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun, Cat Person) in vintage form — plus an early shock, at least two of the best episodes of any show that've ever aired on television, one of the worst drinks, a phenomenal acting masterclass, a The Sopranos-level final shot and the reality that money really can't buy happiness. GLOBES Won: Best Television Series — Drama, Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Series — Drama (Kieran Culkin), Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series — Drama (Sarah Snook), Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Supporting Role on Television (Matthew Macfadyen). Where to watch it: Succession streams via Binge. Read our full review. THE BEAR The more time that anyone spends in the kitchen, the easier that whipping up their chosen dish gets. The Bear season two is that concept in TV form, even if the team at The Original Beef of Chicagoland don't always live it as they leap from running a beloved neighbourhood sandwich joint to opening a fine-diner, and fast. The hospitality crew that was first introduced in the best new show of 2022 isn't lacking in culinary skills or passion. But when bedlam surrounds you constantly, as bubbled and boiled through The Bear's Golden Globe-winning, Emmy-nominated season-one frames, not everything always goes to plan. That was only accurate on-screen for Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto (Jeremy Allen White, Fingernails) and his colleagues — aka sous chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri, Bottoms), baker-turned-pastry chef Marcus (Lionel Boyce, Hap and Leonard), veteran line cooks Tina (Liza Colón-Zayas, In Treatment) and Ebraheim (Edwin Lee Gibson, Fargo), resident Mr Fixit Neil Fak (IRL chef Matty Matheson), and family pal Richie aka Cousin (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, No Hard Feelings). For viewers, the series' debut run was as perfect a piece of television as anyone can hope for. Excellent news: season two is better. The Bear serves up another sublime course of comedy, drama and "yes chef!"-exclaiming antics across its sizzling second season. Actually make that ten more courses, one per episode, with each new instalment its own more-ish meal. A menu, a loan, desperately needed additional help, oh-so-much restaurant mayhem: that's how this second visit begins, as Carmy and Sydney endeavour to make their dreams for their own patch of Chicago's food scene come true. So far, so familiar, but The Bear isn't just plating up the same dishes this time around. At every moment, this new feast feels richer, deeper and more seasoned, including when it's as intense as ever, when it's filling the screen with tastebud-tempting food shots that relish culinary artistry, and also when it gets meditative. Episodes that send Marcus to a Noma-esque venue in Copenhagen under the tutelage of Luca (Will Poulter, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), get Richie spending a week learning the upscale ropes at one of Chicago's best restaurants and jump back to the past, demonstrating how chaos would've been in Carmy's blood regardless of if he became a chef, are particularly stunning. GLOBES Won: Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy, Best Performance by a Male Actor in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy (Jeremy Allen White), Best Performance by a Female Actor in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy (Ayo Edebiri). Where to watch it: The Bear streams via Disney+. Read our full review.
There's a few delicious things you could buy for $817. You could buy a bucketload of Messina for your entire workplace. Or you could invest in one scoop of this not-so-great-sounding ice cream, the most expensive scoop in the world. Dubai's Scoopi Cafe is claiming their 'Black Diamond' as the priciest scoop in the globe, setting you back $817 a go. According to Al Arabiya, owner Zubin Doshi spent five whole weeks picking out the ingredients. Yep. Five of 'em. What did he come up with? Madagascar vanilla bean ice cream, Iranian saffron threads, and Italian black truffle, topped with a 23-karat gold leaf. Call us ungrateful, but four ingredients we've seen before hasn't left us jumping on Webjet. The exxy part of the scoop actually doesn't come from the saffron or gold leaf. It comes from the takeaway container. Your Black Diamond comes served in a bowl from Versace — one you can take home. So basically, you're paying for singular Versace crockery and the rights to tell your 'friends' you shelled out 800 beans for an average-sounding scoop. We'll stick with Messina any day. Via Al Arabiya.
Ever wanted to try your hand at those insane Gelato Messina laboratory cakes but haven't really know where the hell to start? Want to make your own Messina cake right at home, to create your own personal cake filled with the creamy goo of the gods? Well, gird thy loins Messina fans, your favourite iced confection wizards have just released a gelato cake cookbook. Founder Nick Palumbo and head chef Donato Toce have knocked up a sexy little creation named Gelato Messina: The Creative Department which features recipes for a collection of their gelato cakes. Messina have built a reputation for their cakes, not only because they’re crammed full of that quality gelato we know and love, but also because they look incredible and a little unreal. The Dr Evil’s Magic Mushroom cake, Hazelnut Zucotto or the Black Forest are our picks for the ‘Cakes most like to make us cry with delight and not share with anyone’ category. And yes, we know ours will probably end up looking like an inside-out duck when it’s done but heck, we’ve simply got to try it. If you’re looking for the recipe for the standard gelato, you can also check out the 2014 cookbook Gelato Messina: The Recipes which details instructions on how to make those beloved foundation flavours, such as dulce de leche, pear and rhubarb, poached figs in marsala and salted caramel and white chocolate. For your own personal information, we’ll add some advice on how to best consume the resultant gelato: tape a serving spoon to each hand and don’t stop them whirring until you’ve hoovered up all the gelato in range. Grab your copy of Gelato Messina: The Creative Department from today, at all bookstores who know what's what or from the Book Depository.
The globe can now melt into a solid savasana, with thousands of International Yoga Day sessions finishing up worldwide today. From New Delhi's 35,000-strong Guinness World Record-breaking session to a bright yellow-themed session beneath the Eiffel Tower and early morning lawn sessions at Sydney's Museum of Contemporary Art, yoga newcomers and hardcore yogis alike found a moment of peace and flexibility this Sunday, June 21 for the official day of yoga. It's a UN-approved international day, introduced by Indian prime minister Narendra Modi last year after he convinced the UN to dedicate a public day to yoga — a move that hasn't come without controversy. But aside from the religious debate, corporate piggybacking and general eye-rolling surrounding the event, International Yoga Day saw hundreds of thousands of yoga enthusiasts taking part in both epic public classes and smaller private sessions, from the record-setting session on Delhi's ceremonial Rajpath boulevard, to a rainy Times Square event to seaside solo ventures. Take a peruse at these early-rising, flexible fiends. DELHI, INDIA TIMES SQUARE, NEW YORK CITY Time Square shut down for yoga! So amazing! #SolsticeTSq #yoga #yogaday #Bellavita #centerpfitall #timesquare #NYC #namaste A photo posted by 161 w 22nd street, NYC (@bellavita_wellness) on Jun 21, 2015 at 5:21pm PDT Celebrating #internationalyogaday in Times Square which ended with a very satisfying torrential downpour and a free yoga mat ?????????????? #NYC #yoga A photo posted by Anna Jordan (@ajhealth) on Jun 21, 2015 at 7:59pm PDT EIFFEL TOWER, PARIS Today, is many things. For those in the Northern Hemisphere, it’s #SummerSolstice. For those in the U.S. and U.K., it’s #FathersDay. And for all those around the world, it just so happens to be #InternationalYogaDay. #Yoga-fans took part globally, with people in more than 192 countries said to have taken to the mat. Click the link in our profile to see more striking images of record setting yoga classes around the world. #Paris #YogaDay (Image: AP Photo, Kamil Zihnioglu) A photo posted by Mashable (@mashable) on Jun 21, 2015 at 5:05pm PDT Today was the first #InternationalYogaDay! Hundreds of people practiced #yoga under the #EiffelTower. Wish we could have been there. (Pic: Getty Images) A photo posted by Huffington Post (@huffingtonpost) on Jun 21, 2015 at 7:27pm PDT SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA And.... it's a wrap! G'day everyone and thank you to all the participants of #YokoOnoPeace this morning! @lululemonausnz #yoga #Sydney A photo posted by MCA Australia (@mca_australia_now) on Jun 20, 2015 at 9:05pm PDT Namaste, world!! Sydney says good morning to @themuseumofmodernart and all #YokoOnoPeace participants around the world. Kicking off the festivities with Vinyasa #yoga courtesy of @lululemonausnz, facing the Harbour Bridge and Opera House A photo posted by MCA Australia (@mca_australia_now) on Jun 20, 2015 at 5:03pm PDT UNITED NATIONS, GENEVA VARANASI, INDIA HANOI, VIETNAM TORONTO, CANADA #internationalyogaday #summersolstice #yoga #yogaday #love #loveeverydamnday #namaste #namastebitches #lalala #bums ???? #distillerydistrict #toronto #yyz #together #the6 #6ix #mylife #life #live #livehard #bekind #kindawesome #summer #yogaoutside #everyday #peace #trueloveisbluelove #grateful #balance A photo posted by Ruby Fra (@rubytues101) on Jun 21, 2015 at 6:45pm PDT INDIAN NAVY, INS VIRAAT REDONDO BEACH, CALIFORNIA Taken at @redondopier 3rd Saturdays monthly free yoga class yesterday with @theflybuddha benefiting #cscrb #internationalyogaday #yoga #redondopier #visitredondo A photo posted by Redondo Beach Pier (@redondopier) on Jun 21, 2015 at 6:06pm PDT GANGTOK, INDIA ??????Yoga is the journey of the self through the self to the self?????? #yesterday#internationalyogaday#instagram A photo posted by Sangay Diki Bhutia ???? (@_to_the_universe) on Jun 21, 2015 at 6:36pm PDT BOARDMAN, OHIO My @puryoga family #summersolstice #108sunsalutations #internationalyogaday A photo posted by Alexa Marie (@howdoyoueatanelephant) on Jun 21, 2015 at 6:35pm PDT PORT-AU-PRINCE, HAITI International Yoga Day celebrated at the Oxygen Health & Fitness Expo at the Karibe Convention Center. #oxygenexpo #Motivation #yoga #internationalyogaday #michellelewin #enjoy #motion #fit #igfit #FitFam #fitspo #fitness #HaitiFIT #haiti #openair #nature #stretch #yogis #international #caribbean A photo posted by FloM???? (@fitness__flo) on Jun 21, 2015 at 10:43am PDT VERACRUZ, MEXICO Grabación del evento por el día internacional del #yoga con @studioyogaenequilibrio e Israel Chiang. ???????? #namaste #veracruz A photo posted by José Alfredo Zayas Rodríguez (@zayas04) on Jun 21, 2015 at 7:49pm PDT EDMONTON, CANADA Early morning yoga with this one? Not a bad way to start the day. #sunrisesolsticenamaskar #sunrise #yoga #yegyoga #edmontonyoga Thanks to @sattvamisle for leading the class and to @robindra for the sick beats. A photo posted by deantumibay (@deantumibay) on Jun 21, 2015 at 7:57pm PDT MONUMENT CIRCLE, INDIANAPOLIS Today was the first International Day of Yoga, on the Summer Solstice. Indianapolis was one of four cities given a grant to celebrate! Got to practice yoga on Monument Circle downtown. #Indy #Indianapolis #yoga #internationalyogaday #yogi #health #SummerSolstice #namaste #outdooryogis A photo posted by Eric Gettelfinger (@egettelfinger) on Jun 21, 2015 at 6:14pm PDT JAMAICA What a dream come true it was tonight to see 580 Jamaicans, from all walks of life, practicing Yoga in honor of the first ever UN designated International Day of Yoga! My heart is full. Changing Jamaica one Breath at a Time! #livefitlivelifelivelove #everythingispossible #internationaldayofyoga #yoga #jamaica A photo posted by Sharon Feanny (@sharonfeanny) on Jun 21, 2015 at 7:54pm PDT One Love. One Yoga. One Jamaica. 580 souls practicing together in honor of International Day of Yoga. So much Love Peace and Understanding tonight. This, more than anything is what Jamaica needs now! #internationaldayofyoga #everythingispossible #yoga #jamaica #livefitlivelifelivelove A photo posted by Sharon Feanny (@sharonfeanny) on Jun 21, 2015 at 8:02pm PDT TWIN FALLS, WASHINGTON Celebrating Summer Solstice with a dip in Twin Falls! ???? Connect to the light within you and around you. Share the joy of this life with each other! #aloha #spirit #dailybliss #yoga #retreat #yogamusewest #muktiyoga #dream #believe #move #unite #strengthen #evolve #manifest #magic #divine #connection #earth #sun #love #light #namaste A photo posted by Heather Archer (@heathernamaste) on Jun 21, 2015 at 7:56pm PDT BHARATPUR, INDIA #yoga #day #morning #policeparedground #bharatpur #21june #sunday #people #photography #mobilephotography #htc #health #yogaday #uniformity #instanaturefriends #india #psxxo A photo posted by Glory (@gloryxxo) on Jun 21, 2015 at 7:57pm PDT MEDAN, INDONESIA #internationaldayofyoga #medan #yogamedan #yoga A photo posted by Kamalini Yoga Studio (@kamaliniyoga) on Jun 21, 2015 at 7:55pm PDT AUSTIN, TEXAS #YogaMob #Unify #Yoga #ATX #Austin #Texas #NationalYogaDay A photo posted by Maria Lucente (@mariaisinverted) on Jun 21, 2015 at 7:47pm PDT ANAMAYA, COSTA RICA Happy International Yoga Day from all these Beautiful Souls || Surrender to the Love and Happy Summer Solstice?? #AnamayaResort #CostaRica #Montezuma #Yoga #YogaInspiration #YogaEveryDamnDay #YTT #YogaTeacherTraining #Namaste #SummerSolstice #YogaLove #InternationalYogaDay A photo posted by Anamaya (@anamayaresort) on Jun 21, 2015 at 7:43pm PDT VALENCIA, SPAIN Otra hermosa toma de este Día Internacional del Yoga. Juntos bajo el samán. Felices y plenos. NAMASTE. #Yoga #Yoga24horas #ViveEnYoga #Valencia #YogaValencia #diainternacionaldelyoga #internationalyogaday #internationalyogaday2015 A photo posted by ? Uma Devi ? (@climbyogagirl) on Jun 21, 2015 at 5:18pm PDT
It's 2017, and cinemagoers are about to see their ninth Batman movie in less than three decades — and, a few months later, their first live-action Wonder Woman film. Whether you love them, hate them, or don't mind them but are starting to get sick of a new one coming out each and every month, this year's comic book flicks highlight a disheartening point: gender equality and filmmaking really don't go hand in hand right now. Alas, the situation doesn't just apply to those fond of wearing capes and lycra. In general, watching movies about women, featuring significant roles for women, and/or made by women isn't as easy as it should be. When it comes to representing half of the world's population both in front of and behind the camera, saying that the film industry has plenty of room for improvement is both a massive understatement and a case of stating the obvious. If Hollywood isn't going to do any better, however, then the Internet Movie Database is going to do what it can to shine a light on the female-focused flicks that audiences can see. Enter the F-rating. Contrary to everything that the school grading system has made you believe, it's actually a good thing. Movies rated F boast a considerable contribution from women, be it writing, directing or acting in a sizeable part (no, playing a wife on the phone doesn't count, no matter how often great actresses are forced to do just that on screen). The rating was created back in 2014 by Bath Film Festival's Holly Tarquini in an effort to help viewers choose to watch movies that do more than give ladies a supporting role. Tick all three boxes, and a feature will receive a triple F — and a big thumbs up, representation-wise. At the time of writing, 21,890 films have been given an F-rating on IMDB, with users able to search for relevant titles just by ticking a box. Alas, searching is the only way to find the rating, which doesn't appear on IMDB's movie landing or keyword pages, but it's still a giant leap in the right direction. Or, as Tarquini sees it, it's hopefully a step on the path to better representation overall, rather than needing to actively let audiences know which female-focused films they should be seeking out. "I hope that the F rating will become redundant as the stories we see on screen reflect our culture, and that 50 percent of the stories we see [will be] told by and about women." she told The Guardian. Damn right. Via Vulture / The Guardian. Image: The Runaways.
It's absolutely true and absolutely about time. There's an official Hello Kitty diner coming to Sydney. Yep, it's not quite another kitten cafe, but we'll take it. Whether the establishment will be pop-up or permanent, the crew haven't revealed much at all yet, with a single Instagram post saying: The diner's Facebook page indicates the diner's cuisine will be primarily American, with hot dogs and burgers flagged; so it looks like it won't be the Hello Kitty yum cha style Hong Kong can look forward to at the world's first official Hello Kitty restaurant. This isn't the first Hello Kitty establishment for Australia — Sanrio's first licensed Australian Hello Kitty Cafe is in Adelaide, selling simply adorable cakes and baked goods. If you can't wait a few months until the Sydney diner reveals an opening date, just book a trip on the Hello Kitty airplane, regularly running from Paris to Taipei in all its Kitty glory. Watch this space for more info as it comes out, we're sure there's going to be adorable images of Hello Kitty-shaped burgs coming your way soon. Image: Hello Kitty pancake by Ellie, Kawaii Kakkoii Sugoi. Not part of the upcoming menu but adorable anyway.
Two of life’s greatest pleasures are joining forces, thanks to the ever-publicity stunt savvy crew at Ben & Jerry’s. Not content with their dominion over the world of iced confectionery, the company have just announced a partnership with New Belgium Brewing Company to develop an ice cream flavoured beer. Continuing the company’s long tradition of absurdly decadent flavours, the name of the brew has been announced as Salted Caramel Brownie Brown Ale. Details are still relatively scarce (and we're still unsure whether this taste sensation will taste of dreams or outright devilry), although we do know that the drink will contain 6.3 percent alcohol and is set to be released in the United States in the latter half of the year. No word yet on whether it’ll make the journey to Australia, although we’re definitely keeping our fingers crossed in weird, weird curiosity. While it may be a while until we get ice cream flavoured beer, take some comfort in the fact that beer flavoured ice cream is already totally a thing. Molecular ice creamery Nitrogenie released a Pale Ale Caramel flavour in time for last year’s Oktoberfest Brisbane, while Gelato Messina previously produced a VB sorbet for Australia Day. And now Young Henrys are making ANZAC biscuit flavoured beer, we can't really complain. According to The Huffington Post, the partnership between Ben & Jerry’s and New Belgium will benefit Protect Our Winters, an environmental organisation committed to combating climate change. A spokesperson for New Belgium said that the collaboration will “raise awareness around issues we are passionate about, and that the results will be delicious.” This isn’t the first time that Ben & Jerry’s have toyed with mind-altering substances, with the company previously floating the idea of a marijuana-infused ice cream flavour in territories where recreational cannabis use is legal. Via The Huffington Post.
Headphones aren't your crappy, service station-bought, tinny pieces of shit anymore. They can help you get high, they can edit the sound around you, they can even respond to your own damn ear. An Australian-based startup called Nura has raised over a million bucks on Kickstarter to develop a new pair of headphones that respond to the listener's various ability to perceive sound — and they casually tailor your music to fit your inner ear perfectly. The project has just hit an unbelievable AUD$1.2 million on Kickstarter (people reeeaaally want a good set of headphones) and is headed up by a Melbourne-based team. Kyle Slater, Luke Campbell and Dragan Petrovic dreamt up the scheme before teaming up with engineer Wilson Shao. Together, they're the A-Team of futuristic cochlear science. Slater has a PhD in psychoacoustics, human machine interfaces and helped design the first bionic eye. Campbell is an MD who's spent his life studying the mechanics of hearing, performing surgeries (on, you guessed it, ears!) and has a PhD in hearing science. Dragan is an electrical engineer from Berkeley with experience in product management. What a dream squad. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UXU3cZSJ2wg[/embed] So how does it work? "Some headphones sound tinny and lack beat, others have too much bass which drowns out the detail," says the Nura team on Kickstarter. "The acoustic separation of Nura's design allows for the deepest bass and clearest tones. "The over-ear cup delivers bass you can feel through your skin. The earbud prevents the bass from drowning out the detail and delivers crystal clear notes directly into your ear. Your brain combines the sensations into a fully immersive experience — you hear and you feel the music." The laundry list of achievements is probably one of the reasons their Kickstarter went off — these boys aren't playing around. But they're not the only ones getting serious (and weird) about audio quality. The future is now, so go right ahead and throw away your $2 pair of temporary headphones and prepare to hear a whole new woooooorldddd. Uh. Sorry. EAR-FREE HEADPHONES Earlier in the year, Sony unveiled their latest gadgetry: ear-free headphones. Concept N (very sci-fi name, you guys) sits around your neck and, using a series of multi-directional speakers, directs sound up towards the ears. It's a device for people who don't want to zone out completely, but still want to listen to their tunes. HEADPHONES THAT GET YOU HIGH Then, of course, there's the offering from Nervana, a startup from San Diego — a pair of headphones that gets you high. A low-power electric stimulation is synced up with whatever music you're listening to, triggering the release of dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin in the brain, which sounds like the perfect way to listen to music. The product has also been crowdfunded and isn't quite on the market yet, but testing is going well. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tzpqWMM_HrY[/embed] SOUND-PERFECTING HEADPHONES Finally, there's Doppler Lab's crowdfunded Here earbuds. They're not exactly headphones, but 'sound perfectors'. The technology aims to equalise the noise of the world and perfect your experience of sound without the noise. They allow you to turn up the volume, bass and treble, mute sounds you don't want to hear (like crying babies on planes). Best bit? There's an 'Instagram your ears' function with premade filters to overlay your hearing with selective enhancements. Only in 2016.
You might've missed out on a Splendour in the Grass ticket in yesterday's ticketing tornado, but that doesn't mean the show's over. This morning, ten Splendour artists announced sideshows in cities around Australia. For a start, Sigur Ros will be touring the Australian debut of their show, An Evening with Sigur Ros. There's no support act, which means you're in for two sets, covering material old and new. Catch the Icelandic trio at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion on Tuesday, July 25 and Melbourne's Margaret Court Arena on Thursday, July 27. Meanwhile, Two Door Cinema Club will be hitting Australian capitals with their third studio album, Gameshow, recorded in Kopanga Canyon, California with producer Jacknife Lee. Get a dose of their electro-indie-pop at Metro City, Perth, on Wednesday, July 19; Hordern Pavilion, Sydney, on Friday, July 21; and Festival Hall, Melbourne, on Tuesday, July 25. Supporting them will be triple j favourites Last Dinosaurs and The Creases. To catch HAIM outside of Splendour, you'll have to get yourself to Sydney's Enmore Theatre on Thursday, July 20 — it's the only show they're doing. Sisters Este, Danielle and Alana scored a Grammy nomination for Best New Artist for their 2013 release, Days Are Gone, and have been working on their hotly anticipated follow-up. 23-year-old English singer-songwriter George Ezra is returning to Australia after selling out his 2015 tour here. His debut album, Wanted on Voyage, sold three million copies and, yes, you can expect to hear hits 'Budapest' and 'Blame It On Me'. Ezra will be at Sydney's Enmore Theatre on Tuesday, July 18 and Melbourne's Forum Theatre on Wednesday, July 19. Another songwriter to catch is Sweden's Tove Lo. She's been writing hits — for both herself and others — for more than ten years and inspired one million album sales in the process. Her latest album Lady Wood is best known for single 'Cool Girl'. She's also lent her pen and ear to a bunch of chart toppers, including Flume's 'Say It', Coldplay's 'Fun' and Broods' 'Freak of Nature'. See Tove Lo in Sydney at the Metro Theatre on Wednesday, July 26 and in Melbourne at the Prince Bandroom on Friday, July 28. English blues man Rag 'n' Bone (Rory Graham), who mixes the blues tradition with hip hop and beats, will be making his Aussie debut at Splendour, before setting off for Sydney's Metro Theatre on Friday, July 21 and Melbourne's 170 Russell on Monday, July 24. Meanwhile, Maggie Rogers, discovered by Pharrell Williams at an NYU masterclass last year, will be playing her headline shows at the Corner Hotel, Melbourne, on Sunday, July 23 and the Factory Theatre, Sydney on Tuesday, July 25. Her debut EP, Light is Fading, is out now and its single 'Alaska' has racked up 31 million views on YouTube. LA-based songwriter Bishop Briggs, known for her gritty vocals and unique songwriting, will be at Sydney's Oxford Art Factory on Thursday, July 20 and Melbourne's Howler on Friday, July 21, while rock 'n' roll duo The Lemon Twigs will be landing in Australia after appearances at Coachella and Glastonbury, to play the Oxford Art Factory, Sydney, on Saturday, July 22 and The Curtin, Melbourne, on Tuesday, July 21. Finally, catch LANY from LA, whose track 'ILYSB' won hearts and minds online, at Max Watts, Melbourne on Friday, July 21 and Metro Theatre, Sydney, on Saturday, July 22.
