In April, Australia scored a promise of international hotel luxury, when global chain Waldorf Astoria announced plans to open its first Aussie outpost in Sydney in 2025. Then, we learned famed Marriott-owned hotel brand the Ritz-Carlton is set to open a sprawling property on the Gold Coast by 2026. But before that all comes to pass, it's Melbourne's turn for a slice of the action, with the Ritz-Carlton also gearing up to launch in the Victorian capital in March 2023. Perhaps best known for its iconic Manhattan hotel that overlooks Central Park and has starred numerous times on the big screen, the Ritz-Carlton will now be making its home on Lonsdale Street. And it's on track to be Australia's tallest hotel, soaring high at an ear-popping 80 storeys, with 257 guest rooms and suites. [caption id="attachment_881631" align="alignnone" width="1920"] By Gabriel Saunders[/caption] The hotel itself will have all the high-end trimmings you could imagine, including marble bathrooms, custom-made leather and velvet furniture, and a heated indoor infinity pool with views across the city. The glam lobby is perched all the way up on that 80th floor, too. It's also set to deliver some primo food and drink offerings, if the newly-appointed culinary team is anything to go by. Taking the reins as Executive Chef is the renowned Michael Greenlaw, who counts stints at London's Bibendum, Gilt in New York and Vue de Monde on his star-studded resume. Backing him in the role of Culinary Advisor is Aussie food legend, and the celebrated chef behind classics like Peninsula Bistro and Marque, Mark Best. The Ritz-Carlton Melbourne's upscale dining offering will include a restaurant perched high up on the 80th floor, open to both hotel guests and visitors. [caption id="attachment_881634" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Best and Greenlaw[/caption] Find the Ritz-Carlton Melbourne at 650 Lonsdale Street, Melbourne, from March 2023. We'll share more details as they drop.
If you've ever wanted to take a deep dive into some of the most iconic moments of the late 1960s, here's your chance. Kicking off this April, a major exhibition devoted to the huge international impact of these five momentous years is coming to the Melbourne Museum. Dubbed Revolutions: Records and Rebels, the exhibition originated at London's Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), and it pulls together over 500 objects sourced from the famed art and design museum, as well as international loans and Melbourne Museum's own impressive collection. It's a captivating exploration of 1960s youth culture and how collective action at the time spurred revolutionary shifts all across the Western world, from the tunes to the fashion to the political protests and defining moments and events like Woodstock. You'll revisit these game-changing elements in the context of their lingering impact today, five decades on. To that end, expect to catch a rare glimpse of items like Mick Jagger's signature stage costume, John Lennon's legendary glasses, handwritten lyrics for 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' and even a guitar that was smashed on stage by Pete Townsend of The Who. Closer to home, historic items will reference pivotal Australian moments of the time, such as the anti-Vietnam War protests and the recognition of Australia's First Peoples in the 1967 referendum. State-of-the-art audio guide technology will feature a carefully curated musical soundtrack played through Sennheiser headsets, changing according to your position in the gallery. Think, Jimi Hendrix's live Woodstock set, Bob Dylan's 'The Times They Are A-Changin' and a whole lot of The Beatles, interspersed with interviews, videos, film screenings and light shows.
It's the kind of dazzling space that you could easily lose a whole day to, and it seems that plenty of people have. A year after opening, Tokyo's teamLab Borderless Digital Art Museum has revealed that it welcomed more than 2.3 million visitors in its first 12 months, making it the most visited single-artist museum in the world. In this case, the term 'single artist' doesn't mean that everything that graces the site's walls, floors and ceiling is the work of just one person, with teamLab comprised of a collective of creatives. Still, Borderless' entry figures for the year exceed the other top single-artist venues, eclipsing the Van Gogh Museum's 2017 record high, the last reported figures for Spain's Dali Museums in the same year and the Picasso Museum's numbers for 2018. The first, in the Netherlands, saw 2.26 million patrons through the door, while the second reached 1.44 million across three sites and the third hit 948,483. [caption id="attachment_701274" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Sarah Ward[/caption] While plenty of Japanese locals have made the trip to teamLab's permanent Odaiba facility, almost half of Borderless' visitors hail from overseas. Folks from more than 160 countries and regions made the trip, with the most coming from the USA, followed by Australia, China, Thailand, Canada and the United Kingdom. teamLab's other Tokyo site, teamLab Planets in Toyosu, also attracted huge numbers over its first year. Another immersive space — this time asking patrons to walk barefoot through its digital artworks — it received 1.25 million visitors from 106 global locations. It's safe to assume that patronage at teamLabs two current pop-ups — across 500,000 square metres of Japanese forest and hot springs, and in old oil tanks in Shanghai — will also prove rather healthy. For Australians keen to get a glimpse of the collective's work without jetting overseas, it's bringing its sculptures of light and "cascades of shimmering luminescence" to this year's Melbourne International Arts Festival in October. Find teamLab Borderless Tokyo: MORI Building Digital Art Museum in Odaiba Palette Town, 1-3-8 Aomi, Koto-ku, Tokyo, Japan. It's open seven days a week — for more information, visit the museum's website. Via Business Wire.
That soothing feeling that sweeps over you when you spy a cute canine, spend too much time watching internet cat videos or even just spot a picture of a newborn animal — that's the feeling at the heart of Australia's newest wellness sessions. Sure, you've been to kitten yoga and puppy pilates, and they're both great. But we're guessing that you haven't tried meditating with baby goats or getting mindful with soft, cuddly lambs. Currently held in Brisbane and on the Gold Coast, attendees at Karmably's classes attempt to find inner bliss while they're surrounded by rescued baby farm animals. In short, it's the best way to de-stress when life's got your goat. After all, who can remain overwhelmed, exhausted or annoyed when they're sharing their chill-out session with actual goats? The classes focus on relaxation techniques, like Breathe In & Bleat Out, which gives you an idea of just what's in store. Those heading along can expect three parts to the session: mindful stretching, meditation and snuggling the four-legged participants. If you're wondering where the concept came from, it was inspired by organiser Berenice Tan's own experiences trying to find something other than the usual mindfulness classes within Australia. Unimpressed with the options already available, she flew to Los Angeles, New York and San Francisco "and experienced every meditation class under the sun," she explains. "Funnily enough, I heard about goat yoga and laughed it off as something ridiculous I wasn't interested in trying." Upon returning to Brisbane, Tan began to research animal therapy and, after learning of the benefits (and realising that everyone loves cute critters), her sessions with goats, lambs and even piglets were born. The bliss goes both ways, too — with Karmably not only helping humans to relax in a fun manner, but also assisting animals in need. Tan works with sanctuaries, rescue centres, and organisations such as Harmony Hooves Healing Hearts, Brisbane Pony Parties and My Little Farm Friends. They're all outfits that raise baby creatures who have either been rejected by their mothers or lost their mums in other ways, and hand-rear them until they can be adopted out as pets to families who live on suitable properties. After setting up shop in August, classes are already selling out two months in advance — but there's currently spaces for the latest Brissie session at 8.30am on Saturday, May 11. The calming cuteness takes place at Raw Dance Company at Moorooka. Updated March 25.
Every year, when spring hits Toowoomba, the regional city becomes the brightest place in southeast Queensland. Blooms blossom, greenery sprouts and flora reaches towards the sun — that's right, it's Carnival of Flowers time. Usually, the carnival only runs for ten days. In 2021, however, it's sticking around for an entire month. Accordingly, mark all of September in your diary — from Wednesday, September 1–Thursday, September 30 — and start planning a weekend trip west for the event's 72nd year. As always, the Carnival of Flowers will bloom at a variety of Toowoomba locations — including Laurel Bank Park and the Botanic Gardens of Queens Park — showcasing all of the gorgeous florets, growths and gardens around town. Each year, more than 170,000 blossoming bulbs and seedlings are planted, so this huge (and free) carnival won't be short on natural splendour. Attendees can also expect everything from park tours to kaleidoscopic arrays of tulips, petunias and poppies. Food trucks slinging bites to eat, a food trail showcasing local eateries and a ferris wheel with a blooming great view are also on the bill, as are a series of talks in local pubs, a dog-friendly program so that your pooch can get in on the action, both guided and non-guided walking tours, a big food and wine festival, a cinema under the stars and a floral parade. And, yes, the illuminated night garden will return as well. If you're keen to check out live tunes in flower-filled parks, the lineup for this year's ticketed Festival of Food and Wine within the broader carnival includes Sarah Blasko, Ash Grunwald, The Beautiful Girls, Grace Knight, Wendy Matthews, Richard Clapton and GANGgajang. They'll be hitting the stage between Friday, September 10–Sunday, September 11. Basically, there's no bad time to visit — and you might want to make the trek more than once. Indeed, when it comes to scenic spring sights, there's no prettier place to be. And, given it takes less than two hours to head up the mountain from Brisbane, it's perfect for a weekend day trip. Make a playlist, take a picnic and there's your Saturday or Sunday sorted. Naturally, the event will be adhering to COVID-19 requirements — so expect some social distancing with your bouquets. Image: Tourism and Events Queensland Updated June 1.
Squid Game is finally returning for season two, and Heartbreak High as well. A new take on Tom Ripley is also on the way. They aren't the only things that you'll be watching on Netflix in 2024. As it does to begin every year, the streaming platform has unveiled a teaser video for the TV shows — returning and new — and movies that'll be added to its catalogue over the coming 11 months, while also dropping a heap of details. Get ready for plenty of time spent glued to the small screen. The sheer number of series and films that the service releases each year is always massive (see: 2022's and 2023's lists of features). 2024 is set to be no different. Starting with episodic fare, more Bridgerton will arrive in May, season three of hilarious girl group comedy Girls5eva is due in March and That '90s Show will be back by midyear. Also among the returning shows: Mo, Heartstopper, The Diplomat, Emily in Paris, Monsters, The Night Agent, Outer Banks, Sweet Tooth, Cobra Kai, Drive to Survive, Unstable and The Umbrella Academy. [caption id="attachment_938940" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Emily V Aragones/Netflix © 2023[/caption] More than a few of Netflix's new series additions in 2024 have been announced previously, but that doesn't make them any less exciting. Sci-fi thriller 3 Body Problem brings the book of the same name to the screen; Avatar: The Last Airbender turns the beloved animated effort into live-action; and The Gentlemen takes its cues from the Guy Ritchie movie of the same name — with Theo James (The White Lotus), Kaya Scodelario (The King's Daughter), Vinnie Jones (Bullet Proof) and Giancarlo Esposito (Better Call Saul) among the cast, and Ritchie producing. That said, you mightn't have already heard about Black Doves, starring Keira Knightley (Boston Strangler) as the spy wife of a UK politician; Eric, with Benedict Cumberbatch (The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar) as a father searching for his missing nine-year-old son; or No Good Deed, about two families trying to buy the same house, and with Lisa Kudrow (Space Force), Ray Romano (Bupkis), Linda Cardellini (Dead to Me), Luke Wilson (Fingernails), Teyonah Parris (The Marvels) and Abbi Jacobson (A League of Their Own) starring. The Perfect Couple is Nicole Kidman's (Expats) next small-screen stint and Terminator: The Anime Series battles Skynet in animation. The Good Place's Ted Danson and Mike Schur are also reteaming on a new comedy series that's based on the Oscar-nominated documentary The Mole Agent, Gabriel García Márquez's iconic novel One Hundred Years of Solitude is scoring an adaptation, and Senna dramatises Ayrton Senna's life. Movie fans, there's no shortage of highlights for you, too — including Spaceman, Damsel, Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story and Hit Man. The first sees filmmaker Johan Renck (Chernobyl) take Adam Sandler (Leo) to space, while the second riffs on fairy tale and fantasy stories with Millie Bobby Brown (Stranger Things) in the lead. As for the third, it marks Jerry Seinfeld's film directorial debut, and tells exactly the tale that its title makes plain. And the fourth is Richard Linklater's (Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood) latest, with Glen Powell (Anyone But You) co-writing and starring. From there, on a roster that goes on — as its television counterpart also does — His Three Daughters boasts spectacular casting thanks to Carrie Coon (The Gilded Age), Elizabeth Olsen (Love & Death) and Natasha Lyonne (Poker Face); Japanese animation The Imaginary hails from Studio Ponoc (Mary and the Witch's Flower); Irish Wish and Our Little Secret both feature Lindsay Lohan (Mean Girls); and the Thomasin McKenzie (Totally Completely Fine)-, James Norton (Happy Valley)- and Bill Nighy (Role Play)-starring Joy is about the world's first test-tube baby. [caption id="attachment_938943" align="alignnone" width="1920"] John P. Johnson / Netflix © 2024.[/caption] The Beverley Hills Cop franchise returns in the new Eddie Murphy (Candy Cane Lane)-starring instalment that's aptly subtitled Axel F; Atlas pits Jennifer Lopez (The Mother) against AI, and Back in Action sees Jamie Foxx (The Burial) and Cameron Diaz (in her first film since 2014's Annie) as married spies brought back into the espionage fold. A Family Affair has Joey King (Bullet Train) playing a woman who works for a movie star (Zac Efron, The Iron Claw), Laura Dern (The Son) is a novelist who has an affair with a younger man (Liam Hemsworth, Land of Bad) in Lonely Planet, and Saving Bikini Bottom: The Sandy Cheeks Movie joins the SpongeBob SquarePants world. Or, there's Scoop, which goes behind the scenes on Prince Andrew's Newsnight interview, and features Gillian Anderson (Sex Education), Keeley Hawes (Orphan Black: Echo), Billie Piper (I Hate Suzie) and Rufus Sewell (The Diplomat); Shirley, the Regina King (The Harder They Fall)-led flick about the first Black congresswoman; That Christmas, a family-friendly festive effort based on the books by Love Actually filmmaker Richard Curtis; and Thelma the Unicorn, by directors Jared Hess (Napoleon Dynamite) and Lynn Wang (Unikitty!). Anna Kendrick (Scott Pilgrim Takes Off) helms and leads Woman of the Hour, about an aspiring actor and a serial killer; French fare Family Hour werewolves battles werewolves; Spanish horror hit The Platform gets a sequel; and South Korea's Uprising is produced and co-written by Decision to Leave's Park Chan-wook. We hope your couch is comfy — because you're going to be spending quite a bit of time on it. Check out Netflix's trailer for its 2024 slate below: New movies and TV shows will hit Netflix throughout 2024 — head to the streaming platform for its current catalogue. Top image:
This winter, Tim Burton's cult classic film Beetlejuice is coming to life on stage at Melbourne's Regent Theatre for Beetlejuice The Musical. Starring Australia's own Eddie Perfect in both the lead role and composer of the original score, the show is as bold, fun and camp as you'd expect. Playing at the Regent Theatre, within the city's unofficial 'East End Theatre District', you'll be at the grand entry point to Melbourne itself with laneways, late-night bars and must-try dining experiences just steps away from the show. Whether you're heading in early for a pre-show drink or looking for some late night flavour and fun, you'll find it all within walking distance. All you have to say is Melbourne, Melbourne, Melbourne. Pellegrini's Espresso Bar If you want to start your evening with a little old-school charm, step into Pellegrini's. This Melbourne institution has been slinging short blacks and lasagne since the '50s, and walking through its doors feels like entering a time warp (in the best way). Just a few minutes' walk from the Regent, it's perfect for a quick espresso or a pre-show bowl of gnocchi. Arlechin Hidden down a laneway just a couple of blocks from the Regent Theatre, Arlechin feels like the kind of bar Beetlejuice himself might have slipped into for a negroni. Open until 1am, at the helm of Melbourne restaurateur and chef, Guy Grossi, this moody late-night Italian bar has a low cork ceiling, dim lighting and impressive wine list. Self-identifying as the meeting place of food, drink and mischief, Arlechin is where you'll want to settle in and debrief the chaos you just witnessed on stage. Kafeneion Over on Spring Street, inside the Melbourne Supper Club building, Kafeneion is a hearty restaurant that oozes character. With its vintage fit-out, simple white table clothes and homemade-style Greek menu, it's the kind of cosy, warm place that wants you to settle in for late night hangouts. Perfect for a long lunch before a matinee or a feast after an evening show. Flinders Lane If you'd rather play things by ear, wander down Flinders Lane (aka Melbourne's unofficial eat street) and you'll quickly see why it's a pre and post-show favourite. From cult fine diners like Cumulus Inc. and Supernormal to classic Melbourne-style cocktail bars in laneway basements, this entire street is packed with options. It's the kind of place where one drink turns into dinner, then dessert, then a nightcap. Curious If you're craving something theatrical on the other side of town, Curious at W Melbourne is your next stop. Located inside an architectural wooden tunnel, the bar itself is a work of art, but it's the drinks that really get you excited. Order something from their 'Elemental Playground' cocktail menu like the 'Honey, I Burnt the Beets' or the 'Checkerboard', each inspired by the elements of earth, water, air, and fire. Experimental, bold and very photo-worthy, it matches Beetlejuice's vibe perfectly. Yaowarat Open until midnight every night with nothing over $16, Yaowarat brings the flavours and energy of Thailand and China to Melbourne's CBD. This spot is great for a no-fuss, high-flavour meal after seeing Beetlejuice The Musical, especially if you're hungry for something spicy and shareable. Order your favourite noodles, grab a cold beer, and soak up the buzzing, neon-lit atmosphere. Siglo Want to get some late-night fresh air? Head to Siglo, the rooftop bar perched above Spring Street. Classic white tablecloths are paired with skyline view and a solid drinks list, making this a great wind-down spot once you've had your fill of the city's non-stop energy. Order a dirty martini and look out over Parliament House as the streets buzz below. Melbourne was made for unforgettable nights. If you're heading to Beetlejuice The Musical, continue the fun beyond the theatre doors. There's no better place to go out and get a little spooky in. Head to visitmelbourne.com.au to discover more of what makes Melbourne. Every bit different. By Jacque Kennedy.
It took 30 years, plus a warp pipe from live-action to animation, but Super Mario Bros finally gained a cinematic mushroom. While these are peak product-to-screen times — see also: The Last of Us, Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, Tetris and Air, plus the upcoming Barbie, BlackBerry and latest Transformers flick — Nintendo's plumber siblings were long flushed out of movies thanks to their underperforming first outing. 1993's Bob Hoskins (Snow White and the Huntsman) and John Leguizamo (Violent Night)-starring film, the first-ever live-action video game film, isn't terrible. It followed its own dark path and hit its own wild blocks, something that stands out even more now that slavish obsession to intellectual property and franchise-building is king. If 2023's The Super Mario Bros Movie is a response to its predecessor, it's a happily dutiful one, doing its utmost to copy the video game. The strongest feeling it inspires: making viewers want to bust out their old NES or SNES or Game Boy, or emulators of any of them, or Nintendo's current Switch, and mash buttons as the red-capped, moustachioed, overalls-wearing Mario. These are also peak product-to-screen-to-purchase times; selling more Super Mario Bros, Mario Kart and Super Smash Bros games is a clear and obvious aim of The Super Mario Bros Movie. To do that, the film truly is as enthusiastic about recreating its various source materials as Mario has been about collecting coins, completing levels and saving Princess Peach since way back in his 8-bit days. Under directors Aaron Horvath and Michael Jelenic, creators of Teen Titans Go!, the animation looks like it's been ported straight from the console — a feat that's hardly unexpected given that it's all shiny pixels. It's also unsurprising due to Nintendo's recent success in mirroring the games IRL in Universal's Osaka and Hollywood theme parks. The Super Mario Bros Movie will help sell more tickets to those, too. In those impressive images, Italian Americans Mario (voiced by Chris Pratt, Thor: Love and Thunder) and Luigi (Charlie Day, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia) essentially find themselves in the Super Mario Bros version of The Wizard of Oz. Like the 90s flick, they're also transported to another realm where a villainous creature lusts for power— Bowser (Jack Black, Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood) here, with an army of the turtle-like koopas doing his bidding. A sewer flood whisks Mario and Luigi out of their own world, after they try to fix it to drum up customers for their plumbing business. On the other side of the tunnel, Mario lands in the Mushroom Kingdom and Luigi ends up Bowser's prisoner. Cue a quest, including along the rainbow road, to reunite the brothers, stop Bowser and keep him away from Peach (Anya Taylor-Joy, The Menu) — who definitely isn't a damsel in distress, but the target of Bowser's obsessive affections. Screenwriter Matthew Fogel (Minions: The Rise of Gru) has kept The Super Mario Bros Movie's story slight, just as Horvath and Jelenic ensure that the tone stays light. Still, while it might star Pratt, there's no The Lego Movie-level smarts, satire and hilarity on offer. Instead, the fun-enough picture is packed with as many nods to the games as it can possibly fit in — and to as many games as it can manage. It's been four decades since Mario Bros initially hit arcades, spinning off from Mario's 1981 introduction in the first Donkey Kong, so there's much to reference. The film brings in the big gorilla (Seth Rogen, The Fabelmans) and his simian pals (Wednesday's Fred Armisen voices Cranky Kong). It gets speeding along that beloved rainbow road, with shells flying and Mad Max: Fury Road coming to mind. The list goes on and cuts far deeper than the obvious; it isn't accurate to say it's full of Easter eggs, though, because it's simply a Super Mario Bros movie stacked with attention to Super Mario Bros detail. Released beforehand, but still a sight to see within the complete flick, Mario's arrival in the Mushroom Kingdom and his introductory tour by the mushroom-headed Toad (Keegan-Michael Key, Schmigadoon!) is a visual treasure trove. When Peach has him prove he's up to the Bowser-battling mission by hopping through an obstacle course that mirrors Super Mario Bros' levels, it's also spot on. Before that in Brooklyn, rushing to a job gets the side-scrolling treatment — and it's an entertainingly playful touch. Nintendo composer Koji Kondo's famous tunes are worked and interpreted by composer Brian Tyler (Scream VI), too, and well. Of course, a game-to-movie effort can't just splash around familiar sights and sounds, actively court nostalgia, and call it all a film. This one doesn't, but the plot remains noticeably thin, including in its siblings-stick-together theme. It's also indebted to the Minions franchise in much of Bowser and the Koopas' storyline. That's animation house Illumination cribbing from itself, given it's behind Despicable Me and its sequels and continues, and now this. If the bright, bouncy, vivid and immersive imagery is The Super Mario Bros Movie's main power-up, which it is, it's still no invincibility star. Neither is the fast pace, aka the default mode for most family-friendly animated fare that isn't made by Pixar, Studio Ghibli or Wolfwalkers' Cartoon Saloon, and where the key focus is on throwing constant chaos at kids so that they don't get distracted. And when the stock-standard needle-drops start, because every all-ages-friendly movie has to jam in recognisable songs like 'Holding Out for a Hero' and 'Take on Me' like it's a jukebox musical — a lazy and grating genre staple that won't go away — there's basic Spotify playlist vibes. It might've sparked the Gentleminions fad among cinemagoers who grew up watching yellow babbling critters, but Minions: The Rise of Gru did the same. Cosplaying in red or green outfits to The Super Mario Bros Movie, which'll happen seeing that all things Mario are that adored, won't patch over the template at work here either. Although it doesn't seem like it when the picture presses start, Horvath and Jelenic are well-aware that they can't have Pratt let's-a-going his way through the film with a stereotypical accent, and don't. They're also comically knowing about it. That said, his casting is neither a coin box nor a banana peel — but his co-stars are winningly chosen. The expressive and energetic Day helps make the case for a big-screen Luigi's Mansion outing to come next. Taylor-Joy gives Peach pluck and determination, on par with the script's commitment to make the character anything but someone who needs rescuing. Key is lively and squeaky, Black growls and pines for Peach with Tenacious D-style glee and Rogan is audibly having a ball. And, while this can't be said about the bulk of this endearingly loving but supremely by-the-numbers film, that's something that The Super Mario Bros Movie delivers but the games can't.
Whether it's launching yourself off a snow-covered mountain when the stars are out, diving headfirst into a gorge on a bungee jump, exploring the depths of a cave network, or taking in the sights from a balloon in the sky, Aotearoa New Zealand is packed with experiences guaranteed to get your heart racing and adrenaline flowing. You can experience the country's most breathtaking settings on foot, by air, or in a balloon, to name just a few. We've teamed up with 100% Pure New Zealand to help you seek out some of the most exciting, adrenaline-pumping activities — plus the best time to experience them — so that your next adventure in New Zealand is one for the memory books. Flick the switch for seasonal adventures waiting for you in autumn, winter and spring. Jump to switcher
Aaaaaah, bacon. Is there any dish it can't improve? No. No, there is not. But, as great as the plain old store-bought variety can be in pretty much any meal you can think of, we're always up for taking our bacon game to the next level. In fact, it's as simple as knowing what to do. Enter Shank Brothers, those barbecue-loving fiends that they are, with the kind of workshop that public holidays were made for. We Can Bacon That won't just teach you how to use bacon — it'll show you about building smoke flavours, preparing and curing, trimming and marinating, and turning a variety of meats into the rashers you love. And if you think that making bacon even better isn't really possible, we'll throw some varieties at you: maple-infused pork bacon, smoked duck prosciutto or lamb bacon, anyone?
When King Kong swung into cinemas back in 1933, it reshaped movie history — and also had viewers everywhere thinking twice about great apes. Fast-forward almost nine decades, and now another giant gorilla is making an impact. You can see King Nyani IRL, however, and not just on the silver screen. Even better: you can now climb into the 30-foot-long creature's hands at Taronga Zoo. Created by public artists Gillie and Marc Schattner, King Nyani was inspired by King Kong. Consider the bronze statue — the world's largest bronze gorilla statue, in fact — a response to that pop-culture behemoth. "In the movie, Kong is seen as a ferocious beast. That was so far from our experience meeting the actual animals. We wanted to show the world that this great creature was really a pacifist who put family above all else," says Marc. Spreading a message of conservation, King Nyani first popped up in New York City — where else? — in August 2020, and understandably received a huge reaction. Now, the the first edition of the sizeable statue sits in the Brookfield Zoo in Chicago, with a second due to be installed at the Bruce Museum in Greenwich, Connecticut. Yes, that makes Sydney's version edition three. "We decided to create three editions after seeing the unbelievable response to the original Nyani in NYC. We knew that this was a cause that many people were willing to get behind," advises Gillie. "This was a chance to inspire three times as many people to protect gorillas to save them from extinction." King Nyani is definitely big — up to three people can sit inside the bronze silverback's hands, an act that serves multiple purposes. "We wanted to create a sculpture where the public could really get close to the silverback, both physically and emotionally. Being able to sit in his hand and look up into his gentle face, we hope they will fall in love and join the movement to save the gorillas," explains Gille. At Taronga, King Nyani now sits next to the Centenary Viewing Platform, underneath a giant fig tree — and mere metres away from the zoo's harbour view. You'll need an entry ticket to Taronga to check out its new addition, and to snap those pics you know are going to be all over social media, but those funds will go towards the zoo's efforts to support, care and protect wildlife, including gorillas. King Nyani is on display next to the Centenary Viewing Platform at Taronga Zoo, Bradleys Head Road, Mosman. For more information, head to the zoo's website.
Although it's impossible for viewers to tell while watching it, as over 7000 handcrafted items that took around 20 different artisans 48 weeks to make bring Memoir of a Snail to glorious life — pieces that were used to animate the film's 310,000 individual movements, too — Adam Elliot's latest feature Memoir of a Snail is the result of compromises. Every movie by every filmmaker is, of course. Existence in general is a series of bargains and trade-offs anyway. But the Australian animator's output is so distinctive, so clearly the product of its guiding force's vision, and so deeply moving in its balance of laughs and darkness, that each one plays like it's been lifted from his brain wholesale. It has almost been three decades since Elliot first made stop-motion magic with 1996's three-minute short Uncle, starting what he's dubbed a trilogy of trilogies. The plan: to make three short shorts, three long shorts and three features, all using his instantly recognisable style of animation. The fondness for brown and grey hues, the hand-moulded appearance of each clump of clay, the intricate character studies that see the ups and downs that life takes us all on: they've all continued through his two other short shorts, 1999's Cousin and 2000's Brother, and then in his lengthier efforts. 2024 marks 21 years since Elliot initially went slightly longer with the 23-minute Harvie Krumpet — and two decades since he earned one of filmmaking's highest and most-coveted honours, taking home the 2004 Academy Award for Best Short Animation. Then, six years later, came his debut feature Mary and Max, which continued adding to what's now a swag of more than 100 career accolades. The 21-minute Ernie Biscuit followed in 2015, but Memoir of a Snail arrives 15 years since Elliot first ticked off that debut full-length effort. It too has been boosting his prizes. Upon its premiere at the prestigious Annecy International Animated Film Festival in France, it was named the fest's Best Feature. At the London Film Festival, it won the event's 2024 official competition. Memoir of a Snail also opened this year's Melbourne International Film Festival — aptly given that Melbourne plays a key part in its early scenes — on its many fest stops around the world. Unsurprisingly, it's been a whirlwind few months for Elliot when he speaks with Concrete Playground about the movie. "I think this is my seventh film and each one feels like a birth. You just want to make sure the baby has all its fingers and toes, and it's a pretty baby, and no one thinks it's ugly. So it's this sort of very precarious nerve-wracking period. It's no different for any other filmmaker. It's stressful for several reasons. It's not just 'will the film work?', but 'will I have a career to continue on with?'," he advises. "But, I have to admit, not that I had low expectations, but our budget was so much lower than Mary and Max — and so we couldn't afford walking, so we had to do the Muppet technique, and there was a lot of compromises. Everybody worked on award rates. So I didn't think it would be as well received as Mary and Max, but it's still early days, but it seems it seems to be getting a better response than Mary and Max." Elliot continues. "I do find the pressure and the expectation with each film gets greater and greater. I mean, you try to block that out. But the reactions are very consistent. France, then Telluride Film Festival, Melbourne Film Festival and Spain, San Sebastian. And even with the language — France and Spain had subtitling — most of the jokes, excluding Chiko rolls, most of the jokes were understood. So that's a big relief. I think the word 'relief' is probably the word I've been using the most for the last couple of months." With Succession star Sarah Snook leading the cast — and Eric Bana (Force of Nature: The Dry 2), Tony Armstrong (Tony Armstrong's Extra-Ordinary Things), Nick Cave (The Electrical Life of Louis Wain) and Magda Szubanski (After the Trial) among the others loaning their voices — Memoir of a Snail tells another of Elliot's outsider tales, focusing on the lonely Grace Pudel. The film unfurls as Grace's reflection upon her life, from her childhood in Melbourne with her fire-obsessed twin brother Gilbert (Kodi Smit-McPhee, Disclaimer) and their widowed father Percy (French actor Dominique Pinon, The Walking Dead: Daryl Dixon) onwards, as told to a snail named Sylvia. The movie's protagonist has long loved garden molluscs, literally wearing her love for them on her head. She's also largely been happy in her shell, until she meets and befriends the elderly Pinky (Jacki Weaver, Hello Tomorrow!). Elliot coined the term 'clayography' to describe his films, which use his preferred medium to unpack rich stories about his chosen characters — figures that spring from real-life tidbits gleaned from a lifetime love of observing others. The folks in his frames are as detailed and idiosyncratic as anyone living and breathing, and his movies have always proven deeply resonant as a result. We also chatted with the writer/director about his process of building characters, and finding that mix of humour and heart. Similarly part of our discussion: Elliot's initial animation and filmmaking dream, the path to Memoir of a Snail, his approach to writing, casting the movie and more. On Elliot's Initial Animation and Filmmaking Dream — and How Everything That's Come Since Stacks Up Against It "Well, certainly an Oscar was never even in the realm of something I thought would happen, mainly because I thought my films were too arthouse or boutique, or for adults. I never have had a strong long-term ambition. I did come up with this pretentious idea of doing a trilogy of trilogies: three short shorts, three long shorts and three features. I never thought I'd be up to number seven, so I've really only got two left and then I can die. I think I was very surprised at how universal the films have become, and that they haven't really dated. I still get people who have seen Harvie Krumpet for the first time sending me emails. And I'm constantly aware of and surprised by how people's suspension of disbelief, how they really do invest themselves in these plasticine blobs. It's hard for me to be objective. I've got a friend who's a GP and she just can't watch animation. She can't pretend to believe these characters are real. I think it's quite humbling to know that people really do give over to the characters and their stories. I thought at this point in my career that maybe stop-motion would be an artform that had disappeared. I was told that when I was at film school — I was told that stop motion was a dying artform and CGI would kill it, but the opposite has happened. Stop-motion is going through a bit of a renaissance or a golden period, and there's a lot of reasons for that, but it's alive." On the Path to Memoir of a Snail "I don't want to refer to Woody Allen, but I will. I've always liked his methodology of just finishing one and going straight into the other, and not getting caught up in the hype and the buzz. And, of course, you have to do promotion as an auteur. And you are part of the marketing campaign and strategy by Madman and the distributors and sales agents. But I'm thinking to the next film, and you've got to practice what you're preaching. In Memoir of a Snail, I'm always talking about moving forwards, moving forwards — and it's literally back to the drawing board. I'm starting to think about the next characters. What are they going to look like? And more so narrative and the story and what type of film I want to do next. I'm one of those lucky few filmmakers who hasn't had to revert to TV commercials or TV series or other forms. I've been very lucky that Screen Australia and the state funding bodies, VicScreen here, perpetually fund me. I know I'm lucky. And I know we're lucky in Australia, even having government support. So, I remind myself that quite often. Having said that, I'm always prepared to criticise the funding bodies because I think they could be doing more. I'm very annoyed they no longer fund short films. I do also worry, just quickly, that each film has a lot of references to previous films I've made, and there's a lot of repeated motifs I bring back. And I do start to worry my films are becoming formulaic and repetitive. I know somebody in IMDb posted a comment 'Adam Elliot's films are all the same'. They're right." On Elliot's Entry Point Into His Films and Approach to Making Each One Stand Out From the Rest "I do start each screenplay, I have to wait until I'm agitated by something or frustrated or extremely curious. And this film, I was going through the death of my father, the grieving process, and also getting rid of all his stuff. He had three sheds full of stuff, so I became fascinated by that. So I do a lot of research. I'm a very slow writer and I have to be enthused and driven by something. I can't just force myself to sit down and write. And sometimes it takes a few years. But when I do start the writing process, I really do become obsessed with it, and I love rewriting and writing. I mean, I could just do endless drafts. I never really ever want to start making the film. I just want to keep writing. I try to create films that I don't see and that deal with subject matter you don't see. And not that I'm trying to shock or deal with taboo subject matter, I just feel that there's things — there shouldn't be rules to animation. I don't want to offend, but I get annoyed when people think that animation is a genre. It's not, it's a medium. There was someone in the audience last night, who was talking about 'oh this film's not for the young children'. The onus is not on me. The onus is on the parents. The film's rated M. And I never get this problem in France and Germany, when I go. They have a long history of adult animation, particularly in countries like Estonia and the Czech Republic, there's a lot of surrealist animation. I think it's a job of a writer and a director to push the boundaries and push themselves. I'm very self-conscious of not just becoming stale. And if the artform of stop-motion has got to survive, it's got to move beyond Wallace and Gromit. It's got to move beyond family-friendly. And there's certainly many other stop-motion artists out there who would love to sink their teeth into an adult animation or an abstract stop-motion film, or an experimental. But of course, the thing that prohibits all this is money. It's a very slow, therefore very expensive art form. And again, I'm one of the lucky few who — every year, there's probably only three or four stop-motion features made. There's only been three in the history of Australian cinema and I made one of the others, Mary and Max. So we're very, very rare." On Finding Inspiration for His Characters in Real Life "I'm self-diagnosed OCD. I haven't had a clinical diagnosis, but I know I am. I'm very, very, extremely neat, and I obsess about detail. And I start with the detail and work backwards. So I don't worry about the three-act structure and the plot and the narrative until much later. I just gather all my ingredients — and I have very detailed notebooks going back decades. I collect quotes, I collect names, I collect sounds, I collect smells. I'm a hoarder of words, I suppose. And I just love going over my notes, and there's so many that I've forgotten that I've written. I also have very long descriptions of people I've just seen on the street. And I invent stories. I write poetry. I went through a period during COVID where I would write a poem every morning before nine o'clock. And so if I ever lost these journals, I wouldn't know what to do because they're my recipe books. It's where I get all my ingredients. I love observing people. I'm always staring at people on public transport. Even today, on the plane, I got caught staring at someone, so I'll probably get arrested, too. 'Why are they wearing those shoes? Why did they choose those earrings? I wonder what their backstory is.' I love backstories. Pinky has this whole backstory that no one will ever know about. It's mentioned briefly in the film, but to create very dimensional characters, I think you really have to go into every layer and dimension of them — because I'm aiming to create authenticity and believable characters. To give them dimension, you have to give them incongruities and contradictions. And it's not a matter of just pinning the character full of all these quirks. They have to be human. They have to have contrast and contradictions. So I'm certainly character-driven more than I am plot- and narrative-driven. On Elliot's Casting Process, Knowing Sarah Snook Was Perfect for Grace and Getting Lucky with Tony Armstrong "Well, I collect voices as well. So I have long lists of people who I think have fantastic voices for animation, or I might be able to use in the future. So I had listened to Sarah's voice, one of her early films, These Final Hours, when she was just starting out. There was the quality I loved. There was a quietness and vulnerability about her voice. So she was in my head very early on. But I did then listen to the Blanchetts and the Kidmans and the Wilsons and all the others, but none of them really ticked the boxes that Sarah did. But there's always a danger, too, that you might have this fantastic voice and then the animators do some lovely animation, and you marry them together and it just doesn't gel for generally an unknown reason. A good example is the very first Paddington film, five or ten years ago, was originally going to be Colin Firth. And they paid him. They cast him and they put his voice to the animation, and it didn't work. So they had to let him go and then in the end, they got Ben Whishaw — and he works beautifully as Paddington. So you never know. And you certainly don't want to have to tell an actor 'sorry, your voice doesn't work'. But I'm very intuitive and I also love non-actors. I do like getting people who — for example, Tony Armstrong, we'd already animated Ken, and I just couldn't find the person I wanted to voice Ken. And then I was watching ABC News Breakfast and Tony came on. And not only did he look like Ken, but he had that bass to his voice, that suaveness. And I thought 'oooh, I wonder if he can act?'. So we got in touch. And my gut instinct was actually he'd work. And it did. But sometimes you can get it wrong. And also, too, with casting, they're not the actors — the actors are the animators. I always remind the actors — I call them my voice, they're loaning us their voices, really, that's what they're doing. And they get paid a lot of money for only a few hours work. So you've got to make sure when they're in the studio, you get exactly what you want. So I do work my actors, my voice talent, quite hard, and we do many, many takes." On Filling Out Memoir of a Snail's Voices with an Australian Who's Who "It ends up being quite eclectic, and luckily we don't have to cast everybody upfront. So we only cast the voices where there's lip-sync. So it's quite leisurely in a way. My producer and I, Liz [Kearney, Sweet As], had a lot of time to go through every casting book and listen to every voice. We listened to everybody from Jimmy Barnes through to politicians. Then in the end, I did some of the voices, Liz did a voice. It's just a lot of experimentation, actually — a lot of just closing your eyes and listening, and watching some clips of animation. Certainly we got our dream cast, I have to be honest. We got pretty much everyone we wanted and thankfully it all worked out. But as I say, it's risky, and sometimes it goes pear-shaped." On Balancing Lightness, Laughs and Hope with Melancholy and Tragedy to Make Audiences Both Laugh and Cry "It's the thing that keeps me awake at night, is the balance, and it has been from day one. I often think 'gee, Adam, why don't why you just doing children's TV?' or 'why are you doing something like Bluey?'. Although Bluey has wonderful darkness at times as well, and is very clever. But yes, it is a balancing act and you don't want to depress the audience. I read somewhere, someone, I think it was on Letterboxd or somewhere, said 'Adam's films are all trauma porn'. And I thought 'oh gee, maybe they are'. I'd hate for my films to be called bleak. There's a lot of bleak Australian cinema. I do try to instil moments that are uplifting — and particularly my endings, I really want the audience to come out of the cinema feeling satisfied and relieved. They might be melancholic. I love that Victor Hugo quote that melancholy is the happiness of being sad. And I wouldn't say my films are sad films, they're melancholic at times, but ultimately I'm trying for them to be life-affirming and uplifting and soulful. A word I use a lot is 'nourishing'. I really want to nourish the audience. What's that horrible quote? Chicken soup for the soul. I think that's what I'm ultimately trying to do, it's empathy, that I'm trying to get the audience to put themselves in my characters' shoes and understand what it's like to be someone with a cleft palate. Or someone who, with Mary and Max, somebody who has Asperger's syndrome, who's being bullied and teased. Bullying and teasing is something that is a thread that goes through all my films, and that's because I was bullied and teased. And in some ways, my films are not revenge but they say to the bullies 'what you do is incredibly hurtful and destructive, and there's a whole lot of us out there who've had to carry this with us our whole lives and deal with it, suffer the consequences'. And I think there's so much animation out there doing other things, pure entertainment. I don't like getting lumped in with adult animation such as South Park and Family Guy. They are adult, but they're different, they're not trying to do the same things I'm trying to do. I do feel often very alone with what I'm doing. I'm surprised there aren't more people doing what I'm doing. I think there's certainly a demographic out there. There's certainly people who really connect with the works. I often get emails — I got an email the other day from a woman who has a cleft palate saying it's the first film she's ever seen that dealt with someone having a cleft palate with sensitivity and truthfulness. So you realise as a director and a writer that you have a degree of responsibility, and that films and cinema, they have a longevity, but they also can have an impact. I wouldn't say we save people's lives. I wouldn't go that far. But it's taken me a long while to fully understand that you can have an impact, and so you better be very mindful of that and be careful what you say." Memoir of a Snail opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, October 17, 2024.
Watching Bangarra Dance Theatre light up the stage isn't something that's easily forgotten. Seeing David Gulpilil grace the silver screen falls into that category, too. Australia's pioneering Indigenous dance company and the country's biggest acting legend have something else in common as well: they've both been the subject of excellent documentaries that've hit cinemas in 2021. The first, Firestarter — The Story of Bangarra, steps through the titular dance company's formation, history and impact. Of course, it can't recount Bangarra's origins, evolution, aims and achievements without also telling the tale of Stephen, David and Russell Page, who've become its most famous names over the past three decades. The film that results is a potent portrait of an Aussie arts powerhouse, as well as an important history lesson about the factors that gave rise to the company — and that it continues to address through its performances. The second movie, My Name Is Gulpilil, is a rare treasure — because it gives audiences the chance not only to look back at its namesake's now five-decade career (complete with roles in everything from Walkabout and Storm Boy to Goldstone and Cargo), but also to spend time with him as he reflects upon his life and achievements. He tells his story in his own words and, although he celebrates his successes, he doesn't overlook the struggles. Making the film all the more meaningful: the fact that director Molly Reynolds shot it while Gulpilil battled stage-four lung cancer. Thankfully, he's outlasted his initial prognosis, which allowed Reynolds to spend even longer recording his thoughts. Both of these docos have enjoyed their slots on the big screen. Both are exceptional films, too. Now, to celebrate NAIDOC Week, the ABC is both screening and streaming them — so, whether you missed them in cinemas or you'd like to see them again, you'll be able to do so at home, and for free. Firestarter — The Story of Bangarra screens first, airing at 8.30pm on Tuesday, July 6 and hitting ABC iView at the same time. Come Sunday, July 11, My Name Is Gulpilil will do the same. There's your viewing sorted for the week — with the ABC also showing Bangarra's Dubboo: Life of a Songman, and adding a NAIDOC Week collection of films and TV shows to iView as well. Check out the trailers for Firestarter — The Story of Bangarra and My Name Is Gulpilil below: Firestarter — The Story of Bangarra screens on ABC and hits ABC iView on Tuesday, July 6 — and My Name Is Gulpilil does the same on Sunday, July 11. Top image: Firestarter — The Story of Bangarra, Daniel Boud.
Popolo's main attraction is the view. Located in the new Sidon Street/River Quay precinct on the riverfront at South Bank, Popolo has refined the art of river-watching and wine drinking. With little touches such as blankets personally brought out to you on a particularly chilly night, the staff are extremely attentive to your every request. Glancing at the menu, the name Popolo (meaning 'the people') suddenly makes sense; with an abundance of share plates and nibble-worthy starters it's clear that the theme here is the more, the merrier. However for those who suffer from only-child syndrome (it's okay, we won't judge you) you can also opt to have a half serve of the share plates. The buffalo mozzarella roulade stuffed with mushrooms and capers entree looks as impressive as it tastes, however it was just a little preview for what was to come. The slow roasted suckling pig stuffed with peaches had every person fighting for the last juicy morsel, with crispy salty skin complimented by the sweetness of the peaches. For non-meat lovers Popolo's warm caprese salad with confit cherry tomatoes and herby bocconcini is a modern take on the tri-coloured classic. To finish it off, indulge in the strawberry cannoli with sweet basil gelato - it may sound heavy, but the sweet basil gelato is a surprisingly refreshing way to end your meal.
On February 17, 1936, when Sir Reginald Ansett first took flight in his Fokker Universal passenger plane from Hamilton, Victoria, he wasn't to know that his would be a legacy in two acts. A legacy not just of iconic Southern Hemisphere aviation, but also of the dankest wearable swag this side of that $19 Bunnings cap with the built-in torch. Yet, some 82 years later, in a rural tin shed-cum-hangar-cum-museum — located at the birthplace of the aforementioned national aero-identity — lies, in mint-ish condition, the most complete collection of Ansett Australia paraphernalia you never knew you were in grave spiritual free fall without. And much of which money can buy. Because we're suckers for nostalgia and weird experiences accessible from the city, it was time to beeline — nay, V/Line — 288 kilometres west to the good township of Hamilton (town slogan: "One place, many possibilities") and examine the loot. But first: the 'museum'. There she blows. If you're not familiar with Ansett Australia, it was an airline — much like Qantas is currently an airline — until 2001 when it was placed into administration following a gnarly financial collapse. At its peak, it sponsored the cricket, provided Winnie The Pooh pencil cases and colouring books for kids, and served hot food on board when the competition bothered not to. It was the official airline of the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, flying the torch from Auckland to Uluru, and it sponsored Neighbours during the iconic Kylie era of the late 80s. The museum tells of the erstwhile airline's rise and fall (mostly the fall) and houses a neat grab of quintessential airline detritus. It also houses a heap of derelict (and creepy) mannequins — perhaps the most complete collection of derelict mannequins in the entire Southern Grampians region — cracking out in costume, for your pleasure. Some are more headless than others. About halfway through the museum, we hit a room covered with testimonials from former employees penning some pretty deep plane's-going-down truths. Some were undyingly positive — "It should not have gone down / We were fabulous / We could have blasted QF and VG out of the sky" — others more sombre — "To everyone, for everything, thank you" — and some a little bit extraterrestrial: "We might all be gone but our spirits will last forever". Also in the room was this scary unexplained bus. Aside from the reminiscing and the scrutinising decaying mannequins, what you're really here for is that euphoric airline swag of yore. Like this 90s schoolyard must-have. What a ride. If you're not ready to go home, or you can't for whatever reason, a volunteer — let's call him Gary — who'll put on a historical Ansett Australia DVD in the headless mannequin room. It's ok — two stars. Otherwise it's an exit through the gift shop, where you'll find many things you can buy with your money and wear to cool nightclubs. You can buy this stubbie cooler ($8). That you can pair with this beanie ($10). Or this fresh self-mulleting legionnaires hat ($10). And put it all in this nightclub-essential bum bag ($9). Probably drape one of these ($5) around your best finger, too. It all feels a bit like when an elderly relative dies and you have to spend a weekend going through their things — only the deceased was an airline and owned more stuff. But, hey, treasure is treasure. The Ansett Australia Museum is located just three and a half hours from Melbourne in Hamilton, and is weird and good. Did I say good? I meant strange. Entry is $10 for adults, $8 for concession, but you can also not go into the museum and just go to the gift shop — though you'll have to explain that to Gary. You can also just go to this website and buy heaps of this stuff online, but you would really be missing out on the whole experience. Ansett Museum is located at the corner of Ballarat Road and Riley Street, Hamilton, Vic. It's open daily from 9am–4pm. To book a visit call (03) 5571 2767. Images: Frank Sweet.
When you've already given Brisbane a wolf to spend time with — East Brisbane's The Wolfe, actually — what can you howl at next? Restaurateur Paul McGivern is keeping the theme going with La Lune Wine Co, which opens on South Brisbane's Fish Lane on March 24. La Lune doesn't just want you to enjoy a wine while the moon shines, though that's certainly on the menu, this newcomer wants to match those tipples with the perfect dishes. Sure, every wine-serving establishment wants to do the same, but here you'll find six menu selections that have been handpicked to match specific drops. This is a wine bar, so charcuterie and cheese will also be available, as will oysters, carpaccio, and house-made salumi, plus baguettes with serrano and cheese for lunch. Trading from midday to midnight, La Lune aims to offer Brisbanites a wine bar for all occasions — complete with what's being called an "interactive dining space", which will encourage patrons to chat with staff to get the skinny on the best vino to sip on. We'd go so far as to call this a regular dining space with good service, but we admire a spot of far-reaching conceptualisation. Design-wise, expect timber aplenty, including 103-year-old reclaimed oak taken from the chateaus and barns of the French countryside, paired with French tiles, small tables and an intimate air will also help bring a taste of Europe to our fair city. If you can't head to Paris, you'll always have South Brisbane. Find La Lune Wine Co at Shop 5, 109 Melbourne Street, South Brisbane from March 24. For further details, drop by their website or Facebook page.
If a comet was hurtling towards earth on a collision course that'd wipe out all life as we currently know it, you'd think that humanity would react — and fast. But in the trailer for Netflix's new disaster comedy Don't Look Up, only two people really care: astronomy professor Dr Randall Mindy (Leonardo DiCaprio, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) and his grad student Kate Dibiasky (Jennifer Lawrence, X-Men: Dark Phoenix). To everyone else, the impending end of the world isn't really something to worry about. The President (Meryl Streep, The Prom) and her son and Chief of Staff (Jonah Hill, The Beach Bum) barely seem to mind, the media definitely doesn't, and neither does the general public. Instead, Kate goes viral for screaming about the apocalypse as she and Randall embark on a media tour to try to convince the planet that being obliterated — in less than six months, and by a Mount Everest-sized comet that's orbiting our solar system — really is kind of a big deal. Forget Bruce Willis and Ben Affleck endeavouring to save the world from an asteroid, because that's so 1998. The former "king of the world" and Katniss Everdeen teaming up to stop a comet from eradicating earth is the firmly 2021 version. And, after first being announced at the beginning of the year — as part of Netflix's lengthy list of new flicks heading its way before 2022 hits — and then dropping a teaser trailer back in September, Don't Look Up now has a full trailer so you can catch a glimpse of how that'll all play out. The film thankfully isn't a sequel to the aforementioned Armageddon. Instead, it's the latest movie from The Big Short and Vice director Adam McKay — and it's set to hit both cinemas and the streaming platform in December. As well as its two high-profile leads, Don't Look Up also stars basically every other actor you can think of, including Timothée Chalamet (Little Women), Cate Blanchett (Where'd You Go, Bernadette), Mark Rylance (The Trial of the Chicago 7), Tyler Perry (Those Who Wish Me Dead), Ron Perlman (Monster Hunter), Himesh Patel (Tenet), Melanie Lynskey (Mrs America), Kid Cudi (Bill & Ted Face the Music) and Ariana Grande. The film will hit Netflix just in time for your Christmas break, dropping on Friday, December 24. It'll also screen in some cinemas from Thursday, December 9, if you'd like to see it on the big screen. And if you're wondering how Don't Look Up will fare tonally, McKay looks like he's in The Big Short and Succession mode, rather than harking back to his Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby and Step Brothers days. That said, Blanchett does play a TV host, so maybe the filmmaker will have audiences thinking about Anchorman as well. Check out the full trailer for Don't Look Up below: Don't Look Up will be release in select Australian cinemas on Thursday, December 9, and will be available to stream via Netflix on Friday, December 24. Images: Nico Tavernise/Netflix.
From 2025, what will Burleigh Heads have in common with Los Angeles, New York, Cannes, Bordeaux, Ibiza, Singapore, Seoul and Hong Kong? As Miami, Doha and Mexico City boast, too, it'll become home to a Mondrian hotel. Alongside fellow upcoming openings in Tulum and Dubai, the LA-born chain is launching its first-ever Australian outpost, heading to a breezy patch of the Gold Coast. For vacationers, the brand's debut Aussie site will feature 208 hotel rooms — some suites, some studios, some two- and three-bedroom beach houses. Also available for travellers: the venue's Sky House at its apex. Mondrian Gold Coast will also include residential apartments, however, if you're cashed up and looking for luxe new digs. Mondrian calls its hotels creative hives — and values its guests not just swanning in and feeling like they could be anywhere in the world, but becoming immersed in their surroundings. The 24-floor Burleigh Heads address will boast views that do plenty of heavy lifting in that regard; if you're not peering at the pine tree-lined beach, you'll have hinterland vistas. "Australia has long been a strategic focus for Mondrian's growth, and the Gold Coast was a focal point thanks to its phenomenal natural setting, rich cultural landscape and vibrant social scene," said Mondrian Hotels & Residences's Brand Chief Operating Officer Chadi Farhat. "Over the last couple of years, we have seen a rising demand for lifestyle brands, where locals and international guests are looking for authentic, creative and immersive experiences — all the hallmarks of the Mondrian brand. It felt a natural choice to bring Mondrian to the Gold Coast and we believe it will resonate strongly with the local market and lend something entirely new to the hospitality space," Farhat continued. Art, architecture, design and culture are also at the forefront of the chain's approach, with Mondrian Gold Coast skewing sleek courtesy of Australian architects Fraser & Partners and Studio Carter — the latter taking cues from the sand and pandanus shrubs for the hotel's textures and tones. Architecture and design practice Alexander &Co joins in with the as-yet-unnamed ground-floor restaurant, which will be just one of the location's spots to eat. Here, think: a space that sprawls both inside and out, complete with a sunny terrace. Up on the third floor, visitors will be able to eat with a vantage over the ocean, or enjoy kicking back at the hotel's pool club. While there's no menu details as yet, local produce will take the spotlight on the menus across the site. And for relaxing, the hotel will also feature a wellness space and sp. For partying, there'll be an events space as well. Find Mondrian Gold Coast at Burleigh Heads, Queensland, from sometime in 2025 — and head to the hotel's website for more information.
Some events feel like they've always been part of Brisbane's cultural scene, and Stones Corner Festival is one of them — even though it'll only host its eighth fest when it returns in 2023. That's the sign of something special, with this street party swiftly becoming one of the city's must-attend festivals. Come Sunday, April 30, Stones Corner Festival will once again unleash a day of food and music on the inner east. And when that happens, the event is going big. On the lineup: Art vs Science, local legends Resin Dogs and the retro stylings of Yacht Rock Revival. They'll be joined by Good Will Remedy, Jem Cassar-Daley, John Hanley & The Hurricanes, Dusty and Andy Martin. As well as dancing in the street, you can also expect more than 20 craft breweries pouring beers. Your Mates Brewing Co, 4 Pines, Slipstream, Balter, Eumundi, Brookvale Union, Stone & Wood and Green Beacon will be doing the honours, and Burleigh Brewing, Newstead Brewing, Young Henrys, Heads of Noosa and Better Beer will be on hand as well. Eating-wise, a heap of food trucks will pop up to keep your stomach lined — including with burgers, paella, tacos and pizza. And as for what else awaits on the corner of Logan and Old Cleveland roads — and during the Labour Day long weekend, handily — there'll also be market stalls via The Market Folks. If you're planning a big one, that public holiday the next day is oh so convenient. Also, this is a great day out for your pooch, too, because dogs on leashes are welcome. And, entry remains free, but giving a gold coin donation to the MND and Me Foundation is recommended.
When it comes to LGBTQIA+ history, San Francisco has a lot of firsts to its name — from California's first openly gay mayor Harvey Milk, to America's first gay bar to have clear windows at the Twin Peaks Tavern in the iconic Castro District. So it was no surprise that San Francisco celebrated another history-making first with United Airlines' first ever Pride Flight from San Francisco to Sydney in partnership with Virgin Australia. I was lucky enough to experience this journey flight travelling on United's Polaris Business Class service right in time for the official launch of Sydney WorldPride. Here's how the 14-hour journey went (up and) down... Beginning with some R&R in the Polaris lounge, I experienced the holy grail of business class travel: a luxurious shower ahead of the 15-hour Pride flight thanks to United's no expense spared partnership with Saks Fifth Avenue and Sunday Riley skincare. With skin glowing, I sauntered past the stacked buffet to try the complimentary al a carte restaurant where I chowed down on miso soup, prawn spring rolls, green tea crumble ice cream and washed it down with French champagne. And based on my direct neighbour's reaction, the cheeseburger was a must try too. Full of food and feeling my best, I headed to the airport gate to the Pride flight party. Before I even had a chance to spot the DJ or the catering by San Francisco's Hot Cookie (with flavours like 'Harvey Milk Toffee'), I spotted a majestic golden retriever decked out in a glitter boa, rainbow sunglasses and biker hat giving everyone some fluffy self care. Then, came a jaw-dropping drag performance by United's crew, a glitter confetti cannon and a message from Lori Augustine, United's Vice President of Operations. In the spirit of firsts, Lori shared that United was the first US airline to recognise domestic partnerships and the first to let customers select non-binary gender options. They also spoke about their 4,500 member LGBTQIA+ support group EQUAL, and their new guidelines which allow crew to express themselves authentically on board. If that's not putting your money where your mouth is then I don't know what is. [caption id="attachment_892768" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pride pooch[/caption] Boarding the flight was a magical experience in itself. The plane's exterior was adorned with towering koalas holding pride flags. The flight was entirely staffed by crew, pilots and flight attendants that were all part of, or allies of, the LGBTQIA+ community, and the excitement was palpable. I was ushered in by a crew member with a fabulous ruffled gown and thigh high boots, and from the crew to the customers everyone felt genuinely thrilled to be there. When I arrived at my seat I was greeted with a koala plushie with a rainbow flag, Quay heart-shaped sunglasses, commemorative Pride pyjamas and Saks Fifth Avenue bedding on the fully reclinable Polaris chairs. Throughout the flight we were served sparkling rosé from rainbow-coloured cans, an array of dining options and the famous Polaris ice cream sundae cart (though admittedly I'd had my fair share of dessert in the lounge already). [caption id="attachment_892797" align="alignnone" width="1920"] A handful of welcoming queens including Samantha Jayde.[/caption] Landing in Australia was on a whole other level. We were met with a live performance by former ARIA winner Samantha Jade who belted out bangers in a hot pink suit. Passengers were also given an acclimatisation to Australia by drag icons Etcetera Etcetera, Danni Issues and Minnie Cooper, while dancing Aussie surf lifesavers gave it their all in Aussiebum budgie smugglers. All extremely WorldPride appropriate and a quintessential introduction to Australian culture for the queer international visitors touching down for the first time. [caption id="attachment_892800" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pride flight travellers touch down for the first time in Sydney[/caption] Overall, the trip was one for the personal history books. The feeling of ease of customers and crew on the plane, and the camaraderie and joy was something to behold. And who wouldn't want to travel with a company who walks the walk, not just talks the talk when it comes to championing diversity and representation? And after the travel experience on United's Polaris service, I agreed with my colleagues who warned me: once you go business, you'll never want to go back. Concrete Playground traveled from San Francisco to Sydney on the inaugural Pride Flight as a guest of United Airlines.
Love doughnuts but don't eat animal products? Krispy Kreme has now joined the plant-based fold, launching its vegan-friendly wares Down Under. From Wednesday, November 1, the chain will be slinging round desserts made without animal-derived ingredients in both Australia and New Zealand, with two flavours on offer — and one sticking around. Krispy Kreme is no stranger to specials, whether it's giving away doughnuts for dressing up in Halloween costumes, introducing the world to duffins — yes, doughnut muffins — or making a Maxibon doughnut. But vegan-friendly doughnuts should never just be a limited-time thing. That's why the new apple custard crumble variety is joining the brand's menu permanently, although the fudge brownie doughnut is only on offer until early December. So, from now until forever — after launching to celebrate World Vegan Day, in fact — you can tuck into a shell-shaped doughnut that boasts apple custard inside, and has then been dipped in spiced icing and vanilla biscuit crumb. Or, until Monday, December 4, the fudge brownie bliss doughnut will get you eating a shell-shaped doughnut filled with brownie batter, then dunked in chocolate icing and topped with chocolate biscuit crumbs. Everyone can find the two doughnuts in Australian and New Zealand stores, online, and at 7-Eleven in Australia and bp Connect in NZ, with the fudge brownie bliss doughnut on offer until Monday, December 4. If you're wondering what vegan-friendly means, the doughnuts don't use egg or milk ingredients at all. Krispy Kreme's facilities do still handle animal products, however, so the new vegan-friendly fare is made at sites where animal-derived ingredients are present. That said, measures are taken to ensure cross-contamination. [caption id="attachment_924392" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Samuel Wiki via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] Krispy Kreme's vegan-friendly doughnut range is available in Australian and New Zealand stores, online, and at 7-Eleven in Australia and bp Connect in NZ, from Wednesday, November 1 — with the new apple custard crumble flavour here to stay and the limited-edition fudge brownie variety on offer until Monday, December 4.
If you're the kind of person who picks their getaway spots based on great travel prices, then we come bearing important news: you're going to Australia's Red Centre. That's a worthy holiday destination regardless of whether or not you can nab a deal, but Webjet's current flight sale is likely to get you packing your bags ASAP. Until 11.59pm AEST on Thursday, August 18, the travel site is slinging one-way flights to the Northern Territory from just $15 one-way — at a discount of up to $200 off in total on some fares. Of course, that first figure is just the starting point, so you mightn't score such a cheap flight depending on which day you're planning to travel, but there are still some mighty cheap prices available. The sale covers trips to Uluru and Alice Springs, for travel between September 2022 — yes, next month — through to March 2023. Fancy a spring jaunt to the middle of the country? Making summer plans to help cope with the last of the winter chill? Know that you'll be craving an early-autumn break next year? They're all options. One key caveat: the discounted prices are available for inbound flights only, so you won't receive the same discount to come home. [caption id="attachment_773731" align="alignnone" width="1920"] NT by Tourism Australia[/caption] As always, the prices vary depending on where you're leaving from, too — but, at the time of writing, $16 tickets from Sydney to Uluru, $15 from Melbourne and $17 from Brisbane are available on select dates. A variety of airlines are covered, too. Wondering what to do once you get there? Uluru's incredible Field of Light installation is a permanent recommendation — and you can also check out our guide to visiting the Red Centre. [caption id="attachment_773730" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Field of Light by Tourism Australia[/caption] Webjet's Red Centre sale runs until 11.59pm AEST on Thursday, August 18.
Your dream plans for 2025 can now include jetting off to Japan, Hawaii, Bali, South Korea, Thailand, Vanuatu, Singapore and New Zealand, then flying home for free — or, holidaying in Australia while scoring the same deal for getaways to Hamilton Island, Uluru, Cairns, the Gold Coast, Byron Bay and more. For Black Friday 2024, Jetstar has brought back its popular 'return for free' sale. You buy a ticket to your vacation destination, then the carrier covers the cost of you coming home. This time around, in this year's biggest 'return for free' sale, the airline is doing discounted flights across Australia and to a range of international destinations, including to Tokyo, Osaka, Honolulu, Bangkok, Phuket, Seoul, Auckland and Queenstown. Wherever you'd like to head, the key part of this sale is making your way back without paying for the return flight, which'll also make your holiday oh-so-much cheaper. Running from 12am AEDT on Friday, November 29 1–11.59pm AEDT on Sunday, December 1, or until sold out if that happens earlier — with Jetstar members getting an extra 12 hours to access the sale from 12pm AEDT on Thursday, November 28 — it really is as straightforward as it sounds. Whatever flights you opt for as part of the sale, you'll get the return fare for nothing. Prices obviously vary depending on where you're flying from and to, but some include Brisbane to Tokyo from $373, Sydney to Osaka from the same price, Melbourne to Bali from $219, Perth to Singapore from $165, Sydney to Port Vila from $209, Melbourne to Honolulu from $316 and Sydney to Seoul from $349. Domestic fares span deals such as Sydney to Ballina/Byron from $42, Sydney to Melbourne from $51, Melbourne to Hobart from $67, Sydney to Hamilton Island from $109, Melbourne to Uluru from $115 and Perth to Cairns from $189, You'll be travelling within Australia from mid-July to late October 2025, and from mid-February to mid-September 2025 if you're going global. The caveats that are always in place with Jetstar's 'return for free' deal remain this around. So, you need to book an outbound fare, then you'll get the return fare for free — and the deal only applies to Starter fares, and only on selected flights. Also, checked baggage is not included, so you'll want to travel super light or pay extra to take a suitcase. Plus, you have to use the same arrival and departure ports for your flights — which means that you can go from Brisbane to Tokyo and back, for instance, but can't return via another place or to another city. Jetstar's 2024 Black Friday 'return for free' sale runs from 12am AEDT on Friday, November 29–11.59pm AEDT Sunday, December 1 — or until sold out prior. Jetstar members get an extra 12 hours access to the sale from 12pm AEDT on Thursday, November 28. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
With the innocence and energy of youth, six-year-olds Moonee (Brooklynn Prince), Scooty (Christopher Rivera) and Jancey (Valeria Cotto) spend their sunshine-filled days running around their Florida neighbourhood. It's a jubilant time for the cheeky, cheerful, unsupervised trio who aren't old enough to have any worries, full of ice cream, pool dips and trips through abandoned houses. Disney World looms nearby, its fireworks often blossoming above, while the industry surrounding the theme park — oversized fast food joints, discount outlets and souvenir-shops — is all part of their playground. And although the mischievous kids don't attend school even when classes are in session, they know how to make the most of their summer. So it is, with affection, exuberance and the sounds of Kool & the Gang's 'Celebration', that writer-director Sean Baker (Tangerine) tells their story. The acclaimed filmmaker focuses in on Moonee and her young mother Halley (Bria Vinaite), with much of the movie favouring the rebellious girl's perspective. Lush widescreen visuals captured in 35mm abound, alongside personality-filled close-ups that capture a sense of youthful adventure. Crucially, however, Baker doesn't shy away from the darker side of his protagonist's lives. While vibrant, The Florida Project casts its unblinkered view over spitting at cars, selling knock-off perfumes, begging for extensions on the rent, fighting with the authorities, trifling with crime and doing whatever it takes to make ends meet. That's everyday existence in The Magic Castle, the purple-hued week-by-week hotel that's home to Orlando's poor and battling. Suffice it to say, it's a far cry from Disney's Magic Kingdom. That gap — that chasm — between the haves and the have-nots is impossible to miss. But Baker isn't interested in delivering a lecture or serving up a colourful piece of poverty porn. In much the same way he did with the iPhone-shot Tangerine, which followed a pair of trans sex workers in Los Angeles, the director's latest effort both depicts and embraces a group of people and a way of life rarely seen elsewhere, all without judging or sugar-coating. It's a film that understands that Moonee's antics are magical to her because she's never known anything else. Indeed, if every filmmaker looked at the world in the same way as Baker, we'd be living in a much kinder and more empathetic place. He also receives considerable assistance from his largely inexperienced and non-professional cast, with the movie's devotion to detail seeing Prince kick-start her career with the kind of complex performance actors five times her age or more aren't often able to muster. Vinaite, meanwhile, makes her debut after Baker found her via Instagram, proving lively, spirited and soulful as a mother who treats her kid more as a friend and co-conspirator than a daughter. Finally, there's Willem Dafoe. One of just a handful of recognisable faces in the picture, and on course to win a thoroughly-deserved Oscar for his efforts, Dafoe doesn't steal the show from Prince and Vinaite, but supports them with grace and sensitivity. As the Magic Castle's exhausted but understanding manager Bobby, the veteran actor delivers a perfect supporting turn — making everyone around him shine brighter but never jumping into their spotlight. Made with clear eyes, an open heart and a willingness to show both the highs and lows of life on Florida's margins, Baker's latest isn't the kind of film that makes it to cinemas every day. It's an honest, accessible, compassionate account of low-rent troubles and tussles – a tale that's tender, tragic and joyous with a knockout ending that's both devastating and beautiful. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv5wCO0huEA
It's easier than you think to find pockets of nature in Singapore's concrete jungle. Take a walk off the beaten path and discover some lesser-known places to get lost in Singapore's greenery. Whether you hop on a bike or venture out on foot, exploring Singapore's expansive outdoors doesn't have to cost you. We've teamed up with Singapore Tourism to showcase some of the Lion City's top outdoor trails and activities — all for free. Coast-to-Coast Trail The name gives it away, but this 36-kilometre track stretches across the whole island of Singapore, from the Jurong Lake Gardens in the west to Rower's Bay Park in the north. The trail passes through 10 major checkpoints and takes about 11 hours to complete on foot, or three hours by bike. For this reason, it's recommended that you get an early start or divide up the trip across two days, so you can finish up in time for the sunset at Rower's Bay Park. Start off at the 90-hectare Jurong Lake Gardens, which boasts a Chinese and Japanese Garden, a freshwater swamp with various wildlife, water-sport facilities, an outdoor lap pool, a skate park with a bouldering wall, and a children's water playground. You can pick up a rental bike at the GoCycling outlet here, before returning it at Punggol Jetty towards the end of the trip. From Jurong Lake Gardens, you can trek on to Bukit Batok Nature Park and Hindhede Drive to reach Adam Road. Grab some much-needed fuel at the nearby Adam Road Food Centre and take a breather at the Singapore Botanic Gardens. Rested and ready? The journey continues past Bishan-Ang Mo Kio Park, Ang Mo Kio Town Garden West, Luxus Hills Park and Sengkang Riverside Park. Make a pit-stop here to explore the man-made floating wetland, the elevated bridge across the river and over 20 species of fruit trees throughout the park — but you'll have to refrain from picking any fruit. You'll get to enjoy the views across the Jewel Bridge, Adventure Bridge and Kelong Bridge as you pass through Punggol Waterway Park, before you reach Coney Island Park and your final destination, Rower's Bay Park. Celebrate your achievement with spectacular sunset views from the waterside boardwalk or pavilion. [caption id="attachment_977504" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Danny Santos[/caption] East Coast Park With attractions like a water-sports centre, skatepark, yoga studio and beachfront bar, East Coast Park is a hub of activity for all ages. The seafront park and beach is spread across almost 15 kilometres, so you can enjoy a leisurely two-hour stroll or 30-minute cycle along the water. If you choose the latter, pick up a bike at GoCycling or Coastline Leisure. The dedicated bike lanes and flat terrain make cycling around the park a breeze. If you're feeling adventurous, you can bike to Marina Bay or head in the opposite direction, where you'll pass through the Jurassic Mile and end up at Changi Airport. If you've got tots in tow, there's no shortage of fun to keep them entertained. Kids can clamber up Singapore's tallest playground at Coastal PlayGrove; try windsurfing, stand-up paddleboarding or laser sailing at the Aloha Seasports Centre (which opportunely has a beach bar for accompanying adults); or practise their tricks at one of Singapore's largest skateparks. You've also got plenty of options when all that action inevitably rouses your appetite. Grab some local cuisine at the East Coast Lagoon Food Village, enjoy a chilli crab at popular chains JUMBO Seafood and Long Beach Seafood, keep it simple with healthy cafe food at East Coast Commune, or tuck into some Italian fare at Fico. Rail Corridor This 24-kilometre track stretching from Tanjong Pajar in the south to Kranji in the north was formerly a railroad bearing trains to and from Malaysia. Since being revitalised in 2021, it has become a popular hiking trail that takes explorers through expanses of greenery, across restored bridges and alongside native flora and fauna. The trail is divided into North, Central and South sections, if you'd prefer to split up the journey. Due to its significance to local wildlife, parts of the Rail Corridor are not lit at night, so be sure to time your visit to end by sunset — the whole walk can be completed in less than six hours. In the central portion of the trek lies Bukit Timah Railway Station. The refurbished train station and staff quarters date back to 1932, and now house a gallery and café. As you continue further north, you'll come across the Bukit Timah Truss Bridge, before passing by the Bukit Timah Nature Reserve — home to the city's largest peak. For striking views, take some time out to admire the quarries at Rifle Range National Park, Bukit Batok Nature Park and Dairy Farm Nature Park. Conveniently located about halfway through the Rail Corridor, the Rail Mall includes numerous eateries, so you can snag a much-needed feed and put your feet up before venturing on to the northern stretch. Book your Singapore holiday now with Flight Centre. Top images: Lim Wei Xiang, Marklin Ang. All images courtesy of Singapore Tourism Board.
A year after the Valley opening of B. Lucky & Sons, Funlab — the group responsible for Holey Moley and Strike Bowling — is set to open yet another kidult wonderland in Brisbane. This time it's Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq, a circus-themed arcade bar that will open in Toombul, in the city's northeast, in mid-November. The Brisbane instalment is the third for the brand, which first opened in Sydney back in December 2017 then in Melbourne a year later. The Brisbane version — which was first announced back in February — will open above the Toombul shopping centre as part of a new $35 million entertainment and dining precinct called Upstairs. The fancy redevelopment, slated for completion by the end of 2019, will also be home to ten new eateries, a cinema and a suitably vague "entertainment and lifestyle offering" — we'll update you as soon as we know more on that. The Brisbane Archie Brothers, like its interstate counterparts, will be home to dodgem cars, a bowling alley, interactive 3D theatres and virtual reality games. The other outposts feature over 60 arcade games (starting at $2 a pop), with tickets able to be used to purchase the usual assortment of random objects and plastic toys at the prize bazaar — and we're expecting Brisbane to be no different (and no less OTT). The food menu will fit right in with the circus decor and focuses on over-the-top novelty American diner grub. Think three-meat burgers, giant pretzels, and potato gems and garlic aioli that's served in a syringe. You get the idea. The drinks follow suit, with a ridiculously involved cocktails such as the boozy strawberry shakes (topped with whipped cream and candy kebabs) and butterscotch schnapps concoction garnished with popcorn. While we don't have an exact opening date for the venue yet, it is taking booking for Christmas parties now — so you can expect the doors to open in late November. Archie Brothers Cirque Electriq is slated to open at Upstairs, Toombul Shopping Centre, 1015 Sandgate Road, Toombul, in November 2019. We'll let you know when it does. This article was originally published in February 12, 2019. It has been updated to reflect new information.
"Like Fishbowl but with fruit." That's the phrase adorning a door at Fruitbowl, and it couldn't sum up the eatery's concept better. When the craving for vegetable-filled bowls strikes, Fishbowl has the answer, launching in Brisbane in 2022 six years after opening its first-ever store in Sydney. Now, next door to its original Queensland venue at Gasworks in Newstead, its new sibling Fruitbowl is doing the same with another healthy food group. On the menu here: fruit, obviously, as topping acai and froyo. Like its neighbour, Fruitbowl is all about building your own dishes, starting with your pick of base — or both if you like — then whichever fruit and toppings that you'd like. If you're after granola, that's homemade and roasted in-house. With the fruit range, obviously the freshest produce reigns supreme. And the vibe and ethos mirror Fishbowl, including the bright but casual setting and a focus on sustainability. The idea is that you'll head to Fishbowl for a meal, then to Fruitbowl for dessert, although no one will know if you skip the former. New to all things Fishbowl? Before it branched out into fruit, the chain began by heroing fast but healthy vegetable-filled bowls, all revolving around its range of house favourites. So, you can enjoy Fishbowl's original salmon sashimi number, its coconut chicken bowl and a warm 12-hour braised brisket option — among other varieties — but personalise it by choosing from brown rice, sushi rice, glass noodles, mixed cabbage, mixed leaves and soba noodles as bases. Down south, where Fishbowl operates stores across Sydney and Melbourne as well, the company serves up more than 10,000 bowls of its most popular dish — The OG, that salmon sashimi bowl with kale, savoy, beets, shallots, edamame, red onion, roasted sesame dressing, seaweed salad, tobiko and crispy shallots — every week. Since first making its name in Bondi in 2016, back when founders Nathan Dalah, Nic Pestalozzi and Casper Ettelson were all uni students, the brand has clearly expanded its footprint considerably. But it's not just about tucking into bowls, be it vegetables or fruit; Fishbowl has also set up run clubs and created its own surf team, and also opened smoothie and salad bar Side Room, seafood eatery Fish Shop and takeaway joint FSH MKT. Find Fruitbowl at Gasworks, 76 Skyring Terrace, Newstead — next to Fishbowl.
We've all been there, and more than once: a pal returns from a holiday, assaults you with an endless parade of their happy pics, and doesn't quite realise when they've tested the limits of your friendly enthusiasm. You won't feel like that while you're viewing Chris Hoopmann's journal of his 2014-15 trip to Japan. Trust us The name of his exhibition — ii kanji, roughly translating to 'good vibes' — offers the first indication that this isn't your usual snapshot slideshow. Plastering his pieces over the walls of Hoo Ha Bar is another promising sign. And then there's Hoopmann's own aim, with the Brisbane-based shutterbug seeking to create a fusion of documentary, fine art and travel log. Across his first photo series shot exclusively overseas, he achieves just that. Attempting to merge the roles of tourist and photographer, his images offer insights into Japanese culture that should fascinate seasoned travellers and newcomers alike.
2012 was a year of some serious ups and downs in the plight of the English language. The concept of 'literature' took a serious blow thanks to the likes of E.L. James and the growth of what has been aptly described as "mummy porn". The astronomical success of the Fifty Shades Of Grey trilogy has meant that such terrifying turns of phrase as "he's my very own Christian Grey-flavoured popsicle" was read by over 60 million people worldwide in 2012. Yet it wasn't all bad news for literary-lovers. Two-time Man Booker Prize winner Hilary Mantel continued to make the well-worn story of Henry VIII eminently readable and enthralling, publishing a sequel to the universally acclaimed Renaissance thriller Wolf Hall. While such highly esteemed sources as The New York Times and The Guardian have had their say on what they saw as the best books of 2012, the Goodreads Choice Awards offers readers the closest thing the literary world has to a People's Choice Award. A phenomenal 1,156,852 votes were cast in over 20 different categories ranging from Fiction to Romance to Memoir to Cookbook, and without the discerning and supercilious eye of critics to dilute the vote, many of the year's most commercially successful books were also unsurprisingly amongst the biggest winners. The Goodreads' unofficial 'Book of the Year' award for best work of fiction went this year to a woman who is no stranger to literary success: J.K. Rowling. For those of us who grew up cheering on the adventures of Harry Potter and his motley crew of magical pals, the publishing of Rowling's first adult novel The Casual Vacancy is perhaps the clearest proof that Gen Y'ers are now all grown-up. So if you are in search of a little summer reading or you want to see if your vote counted have a look at the complete list of categories and winners below. You can also check out Concrete Playground's Summer Reading Guide for our picks. Fiction The Casual Vacancy by J.K. Rowling Mystery and Thriller Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn Historical Fiction The Line Between Oceans by M.L. Stedman Fantasy The Wind Through The Keyhole by Stephen King Paranormal Fantasy Shadow Of Night by Deborah Harkness Science Fiction The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett Romance Fifty Shades Freed by E.L. James Horror The Twelve by Justin Cronin Memoir & Autobiography Wild: From Lost To Found On The Pacific Crest Trail by Cheryl Strayed History & Biography Elizabeth The Queen: The Life Of A Modern Monarch by Sally Bedell Smith Nonfiction Quiet: The Power Of Introverts In A World That Can't Stop Talking by Susan Cain Food & Cookbooks The Pioneer Woman Cooks: Recipes From An Accidental Country Girl by Ree Drummond Humor Let’s Pretend This Never Happened: A Mostly True Memoir by Jenny Lawson Graphic Novel & Comic The Walking Dead, Vol 16: A Larger World by Robert Kirkman, Illustrated by Charlie Adlard Poetry A Thousand Mornings by Mary Oliver Goodreads Author Veronica Roth Young Adult Fiction The Fault In Our Stars by John Green Young Adult Fantasy & Science Fiction Insurgent by Veronica Roth Middle Grade & Children's The Mark Of Athena by Rick Riordan Picture Books Olivia and the Fairy Princesses by Ian Falconer
When National Tim Tam Day hit earlier this year, biscuit brand Arnott's gave Australians something we didn't know we wanted: the opportunity to smell like Tim Tams all day long. That chocolate biscuit-scented perfume was a limited-time-only affair, however, but there's now an option for your home, too — or for your mum's, because this a Mother's Day special. To mark 2022's celebration of mums, Arnott's doesn't simply want you to simply give your mother Tim Tams — although it clearly does still want you to do exactly that. To really get everyone's tastebuds in a tizzy, the biscuit brand has also just launched gift packs filled with Tim Tam-smelling candles and diffusers. Try getting a whiff of that and not having instant bikkie cravings. Yes, if Victoria Bitter can make a fragrance inspired by beer, The Louvre can drop perfumes that take their cues from its famous artworks and Messina can release gelato-scented candles, then making the air around you smell like Tim Tams really isn't that outlandish at all. It's the aroma that'll make you hungry all day, and features not only cocoa notes, but also caramel, tonka bean and a hint of sandalwood as well. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Tim Tam (@timtam) The Melbourne-made, cruelty-free and vegan packs cost $100 a pop and are only on sale until Thursday, April 28, and include a 200-millilitre Tim Tam-scented reed diffuser and a 300-gram Tim Tam-scented candle, as well as packs of original and salted caramel brownie Tim Tams. So, if you're buying this as a gift, that means you won't need to take a dessert along to Mother's Day lunch. And if you're purchasing it for yourself instead, well, you're only human. Stocks are limited, though — but delivery is free Australia-wide. The Tim Tam Mother's Day gift boxes are available to purchase until Thursday, April 28.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. SPENCER With two-plus decades as an actor to her name, Kristen Stewart hasn't spent her career as a candle in the wind. Her flame has both blazed and flickered since her first uncredited big-screen role in The Flintstones in Viva Rock Vegas but, by Elton John's definition, she's always known where to cling to. After jumping from child star to Twilight heroine and then one of the savviest talents of her generation, she's gleaned where to let her haunting gaze stare so piercingly that it lights up celluloid again and again, too. Spencer joins Stewart's resume after weighty parts in Clouds of Sils Maria, Personal Shopper, Certain Women and Seberg, and has her do something she's long done magnificently: let a world of pain and uncertainty seep quietly from her entire being. The new regal drama should do just that, of course, given its subject — but saying that director Pablo Larraín has cast his Diana well, pitch-perfect head tilt and all, is a royal understatement. Larraín also trusts himself well, making the kind of movie he's made three times now — not that Jackie, Ema and Spencer are carbon copies — and knowing that he does it phenomenally. Both essaying real-life figures and imagining fictional characters, the Chilean filmmaker keeps being drawn to tales about formidable women. His eponymous ladies could all be called strong female leads, but Larraín's features unpack what strength really means in various lights. Like her predecessors in the director's filmography, Diana faces searing traumas, plus ordinary and extraordinary struggles. She scorches away tradition, and values letting her own bulb shine bright over being stuck in others' shadows. Viewers know how this story will end, though, not that Spencer covers it, and Larraín is just as exceptional at showing how Diana's candle started to burn out. The year is 1991, the time is Christmas and the place is the Queen's (Stella Gonet, Breeders) Sandringham Estate, where the Windsors converge for the holidays (yes, Spencer is now prime seasonal viewing). As scripted by Peaky Blinders and Locked Down's Steven Knight, the choice of period puts Diana in one of the most precarious situations of her then decade-long married life, with her nuptials to Prince Charles (Jack Farthing, The Lost Daughter) turning into an "amicable separation" within 12 months. Spencer's focus is on three days, not all that defined the People's Princess' existence before or after, but she can't stop contemplating her past and future. The Sandringham grounds include the house where Diana was born, and those happier recollections — and time spent now with her children (debutants Jack Nielen and Freddie Spry) — give her a glow. Alas, all the monarchical scrutiny simmers her joy to ashes, unsurprisingly. Larraín is one of today's great detail-oriented filmmakers, a fact that glimmers in his approach to Spencer — and did in Jackie, too. Both character studies let snapshots speak volumes about broader lives and the bigger narratives around them, including when poised as "a fable from a true tragedy" as the title card notes here. 'Poised' is one word for this fictionalised imagining of real events, which builds its dramas in an immaculate chamber, lets heated emotions bounce around as it tears into privilege and power, and allows audiences to extrapolate from the meticulous minutiae. Specific tidbits are oh-so-telling, such as the demand that Sandringham's guests hit the scales upon arrival and leaving, their weight gains deemed a sign of how much they enjoyed themselves. Bolder flourishes are just as exacting, like the way the place is lensed to make the Princess of Wales resemble a doll being toyed with in a playhouse, as well as a Jack Torrance substitute trapped in her own Overlook Hotel The Shining-style. Read our full review. NIGHTMARE ALLEY Don't mistake the blaze that starts Nightmare Alley for warmth; in his 11th film, Guillermo del Toro gets chillier than he ever has. A lover of gothic tales told with empathy and curiosity, the Mexican filmmaker has always understood that escapism and agony go hand in hand — in life, and in his fantastical movies — and here, in a carnival noir that springs from William Lindsay Gresham's 1946 novel and previously reached cinemas in 1947, he runs headfirst into cold, unrelenting darkness. As The Shape of Water movingly demonstrated to Best Picture and Best Director Oscar wins, no one seeks emotional and mental refuge purely for the sake it. They flee from something, and del Toro's life's work has spotted that distress clearly from his first dalliance with the undead in his 1993 debut Cronos. The Divinyls were right: there is indeed a fine line between pleasure and pain, which del Toro keeps surveying; however, Nightmare Alley tells of trying to snatch glimpses of empty happiness amid rampant desolation. That burning house, once home to the skulking Stanton Carlisle (Bradley Cooper, Licorice Pizza), is surrounded by America's stark midwestern landscape circa 1939. Still, the terrain of its now-former occupant's insides is even grimmer, as Nightmare Alley's opening image of Stan dropping a body into a hole in the abode's floor, then striking a match, shows. From there, he descends into the carny world after hopping on a bus with only a bag and a radio, alighting at the end of the line and finding a travelling fair at this feet. Given a job by barker Clem Hoatley (Willem Dafoe, Spider-Man: No Way Home), he gets by doing whatever's asked, including helping clean up after the geek act — although, even with his ambiguities evident from the outset, stomaching a cage-dwelling man biting the heads off live chickens to entertain braying crowds isn't initially easy. While set in an already-despondent US where the Depression is only just waning, the shadows of the First World War linger and more are soon to fall via World War II, Nightmare Alley still gives Stan flickers of hope. Adapted from the novel by del Toro with feature debutant Kim Morgan, the movie doesn't ever promise light or virtue, but kindness repeatedly comes its protagonist's way in its first half. In fortune-teller Zeena the Seer (Toni Collette, Dream Horse) and her oft-sauced husband and assistant Pete (David Strathairn, Nomadland), Stan gains friends and mentors. He takes to mentalism like he was born to it, and his gift for manipulating audiences — and his eagerness to keep pushing the spiritualism further — is firmly a sign. Soon, it's 1941 and he's rebadged himself as 'The Great Stanton' in city clubs, claiming to speak to the dead in the pursuit of bigger paydays, with fellow ex-carny Molly Cahill (Rooney Mara, Mary Magdalene) as his romantic and professional partner beyond the dustbowl. The tone may be blacker than del Toro's usual mode — positively pitch-black in the feature's unforgettable ending, in fact — but Stan is just doing what the director's main characters tend to: trying to find his own place as he runs from all that haunts him. "My whole life, I been lookin', lookin' for somethin' I'm good at — an' I think I found it," he says, his elation palpable. Although his first altercation with Dr Lilith Ritter (Cate Blanchett, Don't Look Up) starts with a public scene at one of his swanky gigs, he's equally as thrilled that his crowd-pleasing act attracts her attention, and by the psychologist's suggestion that they team up on wealthy mark Ezra Grindle (Richard Jenkins, Kajillionaire). But here's the thing about being a grifter, even one who was so recently a drifter: if you're fleecing someone, you're likely being fleeced back in turn. Read our full review. BELLE When Beauty and the Beast typically graces the screen, it doesn't involve a rose-haired singer decked out in a matching flowing dress while singing heart-melting tunes atop a floating skywhale mounted with speakers. It doesn't dance into the metaverse, either. Anime-meets-Patricia Piccinini-meets-cyberspace in Belle, and previous filmed versions of the famed French fairytale must now wish that they could've been so inventive. Disney's animated and live-action duo, aka the 1991 musical hit that's been a guest of childhood viewing ever since and its 2017 Emma Watson-starring remake, didn't even fantasise about dreaming about being so imaginative — but Japanese writer/director Mamoru Hosoda also eagerly takes their lead. His movie about a long-locked social-media princess with a heart of gold and a hulking creature decried by the masses based on appearances is firmly a film for now, but it's also a tale as old as time and one unafraid to build upon the Mouse House's iterations. At first, there is no Belle. Instead, Hosoda's feature has rural high-schooler Suzu (debutant Kaho Nakamura) call her avatar Bell because that's what her name means in Japanese. That online character lives in a virtual-reality world that uses body-sharing technology to base its figures on the real-life people behind them, but Suzu is shy and accustomed to being ignored by her classmates — other than her only pal Hiroka (Lilas Ikuta of music duo Yoasobi) — so she also uploads a photo of the far-more-popular Ruka (Tina Tamashiro, Hell Girl). The social-media platform's biometrics still seize upon Suzu's own melodic singing voice, however. And so, in a space that opines in its slogan that "you can't start over in reality, but you can start over in U", she croons. Quickly, she amasses an audience among the service's five-billion users, but then one of her performances is interrupted by the brooding Dragon (Takeru Satoh, the Rurouni Kenshin films), and her fans then point digital pitchforks in his direction. Those legions of interested online parties don't simplistically offer unwavering support, though. Among Belle's many observations on digital life, the fact that living lives on the internet is a double-edged sword — wielding both opportunities to connect and excuses to unleash vitriol, the latter in particular when compared to the physical experience — more than earns its attention. That said, all those devotees of Suzu's singing do rechristen her avatar as Belle, and she starts living up to that fairytale moniker by becoming fascinated with the movie's Beast equivalent. He's mysterious to the point that no one in U or IRL has been able to discern who he really is, but the platform's self-appointed pseudo-police force is desperately trying. Suzu is also mortified about the possibility of anyone discovering that she's Belle, although she's drawn to Dragon because she can sense his pain. Hosoda has repeatedly proven an inspired filmmaker visually — one just as creative with his stories and storytelling alike, too — and Belle is no exception on his resume. After the likes of The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, Wolf Children and Mirai, he's in especially dazzling form in a movie that wields its images in two distinctive modes. In U, Belle is an epic onslaught for the eyes, its animation lively, busy and hyper-real in a way that cannily mirrors the feeling of wading through always-on online realms. This is where that whale swims through the air, concerts are held in what appears to be a hollow planet and Disney-style castles turn gothic. When it's in Suzu's reality, the film opts for naturalistic tones in a look that notices the everyday beauty in the flesh-and-blood world, even amid daily routines in fading small towns filled with average teens and their families. Hosoda revels in the contrast between the two, in fact, because that clash constantly sits at the film's core. Read our full review. ONE SECOND Any new film by Zhang Yimou deserves eyeballs the world over, but One Second, the Raise the Red Lantern, Hero and House of Flying Daggers director's latest, hasn't charted the smoothest route to screens. Pre-dating the filmmaker's Cliff Walkers, which reached Australian cinemas in 2021, it was originally scheduled to show at the 2019 Berlinale. But after the festival began, it was removed from the lineup — and while a "technical problem" was cited as the official reason, Chinese censorship was floated as the real cause. One Second eventually surfaced on home soil late in 2020, and elsewhere around the globe in the last few months of 2021. It's now an immensely timely movie, although purely by coincidence. Every great feature by a great director inherently pays tribute to the medium of film, so that's hardly new for Zhang — but celebrating the silver screen, and the pandemic-relevant yearning to bask in its glory when life conspires to get in the way, isn't just a side effect here. It's 1975 when One Second begins, and crowds are flocking to makeshift small-town picture palaces to see propaganda films. The specific movie drawing in the masses: 1964's Heroic Sons and Daughters, which prison-camp escapee Zhang Jiusheng (Zhang Yi, Cliff Walkers) is desperate to catch. Alas, after finding his way into one village through mountains of sand that wouldn't look out of place in Dune, the fugitive discovers that he's already missed the showing that the night. Worse still, the film's canisters are being packed onto a motorbike to be driven to their next destination. And, he isn't the only one keen to make the movie's acquaintance, with the orphaned Liu (Liu Haocun, another Cliff Walkers alum) swiftly stealing its sixth reel before it departs town. An unlikely pair seeking the same thing for different reasons — he's heard that his estranged daughter appears in newsreel footage in the feature, while she wants the celluloid to make a lamp for her younger brother — Zhang and Liu are soon following the rest of the film through the desert to its next stop. That's where Mr Movie (Fan Wei, Railway Heroes) awaits, courting profit and glory compared to Zhang's desperation to glimpse his family and Liu's resourcefulness (that said, sporting a mug calling himself the 'World's Greatest Projectionist', the man behind the travelling cinema that's screening Mao-approved fare to entertainment-starved locales does still love his a clear fondness for his job). But the reels don't return intact, sparking a homemade restoration campaign that needs the entire town's help. Yes, loving film is also a tactile experience here. Zhang has always been able to make any kind of movie he's put his mind to, and has the four-decade-long resume to prove it. With 2009's A Woman, a Gun and a Noodle Shop, he even remade the Coen brothers' Blood Simple. One Second sees him masterfully blend film-adoring melodrama with a Cultural Revolution-era portrait that's laced with just the amount of commentary that managed to escape the censors. He revels in sight gags and chases that could've been lifted out of silent comedy greats from a century back as well, giving cinema yet another ode. The end result mightn't be Zhang's absolute best — his resume isn't short on highlights — but it easily ranks among his most endearing. One Second makes exceptional use of its dust-swept setting, too, and its trio of chalk-and-cheese main players; plus, in celebrating an artform that's both tangible and an illusion, Zhang still makes a clear statement. One Second is currently screening in Sydney and Brisbane, after opening in Melbourne in December 2021. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on September 2, September 9, September 16, September 23 and September 30; October 7, October 14, October 21 and October 28; November 4, November 11, November 18 and November 25; December 2, December 9, December 16 and December 26; and January 1, January 6 and January 13. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings, Summer of Soul (...Or, When the Revolution Could Not Be Televised), Streamline, Coming Home in the Dark, Pig, Big Deal, The Killing of Two Lovers, Nitram, Riders of Justice, The Alpinist, A Fire Inside, Lamb, The Last Duel, Malignant, The Harder They Fall, Roadrunner: A Film About Anthony Bourdain, Halloween Kills, Passing, Eternals, The Many Saints of Newark, Julia, No Time to Die, The Power of the Dog, Tick, Tick... Boom!, Zola, Last Night in Soho, Blue Bayou, The Rescue, Titane, Venom: Let There Be Carnage, Bad Luck Banging or Loony Porn, Dune, Encanto, The Card Counter, The Lost Leonardo, The French Dispatch, Don't Look Up, Dear Evan Hansen, Spider-Man: No Way Home, The Lost Daughter, The Scary of Sixty-First, West Side Story, Licorice Pizza, The Matrix Resurrections, The Tragedy of Macbeth, The Worst Person in the World, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, House of Gucci, The King's Man, Red Rocket, Scream, The 355, Gold, King Richard and Limbo.
A sunny getaway favourite for interstate tourists when the weather gets frostier down south, the Gold Coast isn't typically considered a winter wonderland. But that isn't stopping Cali Beach, the rooftop beach club that's usually about everything that Surfers Paradise's sultry climes have to offer, from embracing the dipping temperature with an alpine makeover. In 2022, the venue debuted The Rooftop Lodge, its wintry alter-ego — a place where you can still peer out over the coast, but you'll do so surrounded by snow and ice. The cold-weather revamp is returning in 2023, too, from Saturday, June 3 until the end of August. And this time, it's bringing ice skating with it. Each Friday–Sunday across the pop-up's season, you can head to the 5000-square-metre venue on a fourth-floor rooftop to pretend you're somewhere far less beachy and yet still at the beach. Yes, the bar is taking the concept seriously, with more than 60 snow-topped trees helping to set the mood and even fake snow part of the site. Expect big alpine energy and mountain chalet vibes as you get warm by the open fire pits as well. With this year's $350,000 temporary revamp, the ice-skating rink is a big addition, and has been purpose-built to replace the volleyball courts for winter. For when you're not sliding across its chilled expanse, The Rooftop Lodge will also feature ice-hockey machines, pop-up performances and market food stalls running all day from 11am till late. Cali Beach's VIP cabanas are also being decked out as luxury alpine lodges, with facades that fit the theme, more fire pits and Swiss ski village-style cosy furniture. So, gathering the gang and hanging out in your own space is still on the agenda, just adapting to the season. One key feature, so that you can still enjoy a dip on the coast: hot tubs. And, in partnership with Veuve Clicquot, The Rooftop Lodge will feature snowy igloo experiences for up to seven people, complete with the obvious drinks. Those transparent but warm spaces will also be decked out chalet-style, and whiling away your time in them will involve winter cocktail and food platters — and a $350 price tag. Wherever you decide to get comfy at The Rooftop Lodge, there'll blankets to help lock in the toastiness, plus fondue, marshmallows to roast by the fires, charcuterie boards, snowball martinis and boozy hot cocoas. Or, opt for the wintry dine-in menu at the View Deck. "Following the success of last year's winter lodge, we knew it was important to think bolder and to go bigger, providing an experienced-based activation unlike anywhere else in southeast Queensland — and hence why we've built a marketplace, [and] sourced a purpose-built ice-skating rink and interactive games," said Matthew Keegan, Managing Partner of Artesian Hospitality. [caption id="attachment_824728" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cali Beach Club[/caption] Find Cali Beach Club on the corner of Surfers Paradise Boulevard and Elkhorn Avenue, Surfers Paradise. The Rooftop Lodge will be open from 11am–late Friday–Sunday weekly from Saturday, June 2–Sunday, August 27.
When The Westin opened in Brisbane in 2018, it gave the city the Marriott-owned international brand's first location in Queensland. Also a first: Nautilus Pool Bar, the first swim-up pool bar in the city. Clearly, that's wonderful news for guests keen to splash around in the 300-square-metre swimming pool, grab a beverage and gaze out over views over the city skyline. Thanks to the hotel's new summery beach club, it's also ace news for Brisbanites in general. This isn't the first time that Nautilus Pool Bar has held public sessions, but this seasonal stint comes with an Amalfi theme, seafood towers, spritzes galore and DJs spinning tunes on the deck. Dubbed Nautilus Beach Club, it kicks off on Friday, December 16, and will run 11am–7pm Friday–Sunday until Sunday, April 16. Attendees have a couple of options for Mediterranean-influenced lounging by the pool, with a $29 ticket including access, a towel to use while you're there and your first spritz. If you and a date or mate are feeling like treating yo'selves, there's also a cabana experience for $239 for two, which gives you your own cabana to hang out in, a seafood platter and a bottle of rosé. On the menu in general: oysters, prawn cocktails, Moreton Bay bug rolls, kingfish ceviche, and both antipasto and seafood platters. The drinks lineup features spritzes made with limoncello, Campari, Aperol and Malfy gin, and there's also two Riot Wine Co vinos on tap. Those live DJ sets run from 3.30–6.30pm, with DJ Vicki Lee doing the honours on Fridays, and DJ Gloria Ansell taking to the decks on Saturdays and Sundays. And the pool itself? It's heated to 28 degrees, perfect for comfortable swims during Brisbane's sultry summer — and even through to mid-autumn. Updated February 9.
Auckland's Clap Clap Riot have a tendency to whip up a raucous, good-vibin' crowd; the dudes can't help it. Armed with catchy-as-blazes hooks, singalong singles and loud, loud amps, the foursome are rampaging across the Tasman for a short run of Australian dates down the east coast; stopping at Melbourne's Shebeen, The Brightside in Brisbane and Sydney's FBi Social for a genuine humdinger of a mini-tour. Showcasing their second album Nobody / Everybody released in February, the foursome have moved away from the more rock-steady sound of their wildly successful debut Counting Spins (which casually debuted at #1 on the Official NZ Album Chart). Produced and mixed by Kody Nielson (The Mint Chicks / Opossom) and engineered and mastered by Olly Harmer (The Naked and Famous), their second release is peppered with handclap-worthy singalongs and '60s throwbacks; a cleaner, catchier package all round. Hitting Shebeen with applauded singles 'Everybody' and 'Cold As Ice' and brand newie 'All About The Weather', Clap Clap Riot are a surefire live shindig for your Thursday. Supported by Twin Haus + Rabbit. https://youtube.com/watch?v=h6Yk0jyoIlY
Before you install that hot tub in your backyard, allow HotTug to welcome you to the future. A wood stove in the front of the boat heats the 2000 litres of water to a toasty temperature. You can rent the HutTug in two different versions, one with integrated electric motor of 2.4 KW and another with outboard engine. The office is located in The Netherlands, but don't panic: international rentals and sales (starting at around 9,000 Euros) are possible. HotTug is available in the standard black but is available in blue and red, too. All you have to do is find some friends, pick a colour and before you know it you'll be hanging out in water submerged in more water.
When SXSW's OG film festival in Austin swoons, the entire movie world can fall in love. Just two years ago, Everything Everywhere All At Once premiered at the fest, then won a swag of Oscars exactly 12 months and one day later. Over the past decade, A Quiet Place, Us, Atomic Blonde, The Disaster Artist, Bodies Bodies Bodies and Bottoms have all premiered there. 2023 Aussie horror hit Talk to Me made the influential event one of its many early stops. And in 2024, alongside everything from Immaculate to The Fall Guy, Dev Patel's feature directorial debut Monkey Man was on the program. The line spanned blocks, and the response was rightly glowing — a standing ovation included. Of course the festival that hosted John Wick: Chapter 4's premiere a year prior first introduced this propulsive new revenge-thriller to audiences. Patel's instant action classic even namechecks the Keanu Reeves-starring franchise in its dialogue. But with Monkey Man, its star, helmer, producer and co-writer (the latter with Boy Swallows Universe's John Collee and Keith Lemon: The Film's Paul Angunawela) takes a lifetime of loving his new picture's genre in all of its forms around the globe, plus his fondness for vengeance-fuelled Korean cinema and also Bollywood musicals, then mixes it with the story of Hindu deity Hanuman, all to make his dream movie — while making one of his big dreams happen as well. 2024 marks 17 years since Patel initially came to fame in his debut acting role, playing Anwar in British teen drama Skins. In his first-ever film performance in Slumdog Millionaire, he starred in an Oscar-winner for Best Picture and Best Director. If that isn't the kind of start to an on-screen resume that fantasies are made of, then nothing is. Just a decade after stepping in front of the camera, he had an Academy Award nomination for Best Actor for Australian drama Lion, too. But even as his career took him to the Aussie-made Hotel Mumbai, not one but two The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel films, TV's The Newsroom, The Green Knight, The Personal History of David Copperfield and a pair of Wes Anderson shorts (including another Oscar-winner in The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar), wanting to lead an action flick — and helm one — was always an ultimate goal, Patel tells Concrete Playground. "It was always an aspiration. It feels really far-fetched and it took a long while to realise it, and at times I didn't even think I was going to be the director," he advises. "I was pitching it to a director friend of mine, Neill Blomkamp [who directed Patel in Chappie], and slowly I think I got nudged into the director's seat or the driver's seat of this whole thing. But it was truly a very humbling experience and a dream come true all in one." Monkey Man follows a character known only as Kid, who Patel plays in a magnetic action-star performance (Bond producers, take note) — and also introduces as a Hanuman-worshipping adult donning a gorilla mask in the ring, where he gets pummelled at an underground fight club to get by. His true brawl is with far more than just whoever his opponent happens to be in any given bout, though. Searing with pain ever since his mother's murder when he was a child, he's on a quest for retribution not just against the man responsible, but the system and its authorities that let it happen in the fictional Indian city of Yatan — a mission that's also about the oppressed mobilising against the forces pushing them aside. Patel's film is many things, then. It's an underdog story. It's a revenge movie, clearly. It's a feature about faith as well. It's about a son's devotion to honouring his mother. It's a rally against corruption and cruelty — and subjugation and exploitation, too. It's also a picture that was originally destined for streaming only, until fellow actor-turned-filmmaker Jordan Peele (Nope) came onboard with his Monkeypaw Productions company. As a result, Monkey Man is also one helluva big-screen experience. With the movie releasing in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, April 4, we chatted with Patel about making it his own quest to bring his dream film to fruition, his first experiences with Hanuman, the ten-plus-year process of getting Monkey Man to theatres and its mix of elements. He also told us about the balancing act of starring, directing, writing and producing — as well as his cinematic influences, including from directors that he's worked with in the past, plus his journey from Skins to here, and the film's SXSW experience. On Taking It Upon Himself to Make the Kind of Movie That Patel Has Always Wanted to Be In "It's been over ten years since I first started with the idea, and started writing it. And at that point in my career, more so than now, I wasn't getting roles like this — and I don't think the industry saw people like myself like that. We were more going to be the comedic relief, or the guy that hacks the mainframe for the lead guy or whatever. But I love action cinema. I love Korean revenge films. And also, I've been exposed to Bollywood cinema with my grandparents and my parents. And I just wanted to put that in this one cannon and fucking blast it out — sorry, mind my French, but that's where this was born from." On Patel's First Experience with the Deity Hanuman — and When He Knew He Wanted to Draw Upon It for Monkey Man "My dad had a chain — or has a chain — around his neck with this little cool little Hanuman figure on it, and I always used to ask him about it. And he's like 'wait till your granddad comes and he'll tell you the story better than I can'. My granddad used to fly in from Kenya, and he used to sit in my little box room and I wouldn't let him leave, and he would tell me these cool stories of these big epic battles. And Hanuman was the character that I absolutely loved. He was kind of an outsider. He had superhuman strength. Half man, half monkey — just so cool. If you go to India, you'll see in every rickshaw or taxi, there's a little Hanuman thing swinging from the mirror. If you go to the gyms, they've got Schwarzenegger, the weightlifter Ronnie Coleman and Hanuman on the walls. He represents nobility, masculinity, strength, courage, all of those things." On How Monkey Man Evolved Over the Ten Years That It Took to Bring It to the Screen "It kept changing. You keep adding bits of armour to it. But the genesis of it, I wanted this guy who was inspired by this iconography to be a self-flagellating, masochistic young man who doesn't know how to deal with trauma, so he dons this rubber mask and is a literal performing monkey in this really claustrophobic wrestling ring. The politics of the world started to fill out the more I researched, and the mythology, but at its core it's a revenge film about faith — but it constantly evolved and changed." On Making a Film About Faith That's Also a Revenge Movie, a Rally Against Corruption and Oppression, and About a Man's Devotion to Honouring His Mother "It all does sprout from that one notion — so it's how can faith be manipulated and weaponised to the masses? How can it sway elections and influence officials, police brutality, violence against women? These systemic issues are global issues. They're not just Indian issues. And it kind of just started falling out of me. Once you have a guy that's grappling with his own beliefs in himself, in the iconography that he so fell in love with as a child and then faced trauma, and then stopped believing in anything, it starts writing itself in a way." On the Balancing Act of Making Patel's Feature Directorial Debut While Writing, Producing and Starring as Well "It definitely was. There was an imbalance more than a balancing act, I guess. It was chaos. It was absolute chaos. Looking back on it, I really don't know how I did it, actually, because we're in the middle of the pandemic and it was madness. I don't know if you've seen the documentary Hearts of Darkness, about the making of Apocalypse Now? It was kind of like my own version of that. There's a lot of hats to wear." On Preparing for the Film's Impressive and Relentless Action Choreography, Both as an Actor and a Director "I just spent a lot of time with the stunt team. We were just trying to push the action as far as we could without it feeling like choreo — I wanted it to feel primal and animalistic and raw. And actually, to try make choreo feel jagged and messy is the most difficult thing. So you're not preempting a move and waiting — and it's like, how does it feel like it's coming at you? You're getting caught off guard, and stumbling and tripping and sliding, and bouncing off windows and biting. That was the challenge with it. And we wanted to try to create a camera movement that was trying to keep up with the action, instead of preempting it." On Finding Inspiration in a Love of Action Cinema, the Art of Action Choreography, Korean Cinema, Bollywood and More "All of it, to be honest. I'm a huge fan of the genre. I am a fanboy and a consumer of this stuff. So everything from Bruce Lee — as a kid, who was my entry point to cinema — and Jackie Chan, Jet Li, Donnie Yen, Sammo [Hung], Iko [Uwais] from The Raid franchise to Keanu [Reeves] and John Wick. And then the Koreans, and the way they just blisteringly make the best revenge cinema there is — movies like The Man From Nowhere, Oldboy, I Saw the Devil. These guys — and the pathos they can infuse in their stories, as well as the most gory violence. And Bollywood, and that musical bombastic kind of cinema, all of it lives in this." On What Patel Has Learned From the Filmmakers He's Worked with That Helped with His First Stint as a Director "Having never been to an acting class or a directing workshop or anything like that, I didn't know about lenses or anything starting this. It was all just being super excited — and I guess through osmosis being around these great, very different kind of filmmakers, it's bled into this. You'll see little hints and hat tips to Danny Boyle [his Slumdog Millionaire director], and some humour, comedy to Armando [Iannucci, who directed him in The Personal History of David Copperfield] — or even David Lowery [The Green Knight's filmmaker] with some of the more spiritual aspects that deal with time and all of it. So it's all in there. On What Patel Makes of His Career Almost Two Decades After Skins First Made Him a Star "It's so hard to step back and take it all in. When you're in it, you have no objectivity. But I would say more than anything, it constantly surprises me how good the audiences and fans can be. Like with SXSW — I'd been away for a while, and I was like 'are people going to even remember me or show up for this thing?' It's been ten years. I've turned down a lot of work to make this thing. And then, lines three blocks down the road and a standing ovation. We won the audience award. It was amazing." Monkey Man opened in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, April 4, 2024. Read our review.
When Succession roves over New York's skyline — in its opening credits, as set to that bewitching theme tune, or just during its episodes — it gleams with wealth and privilege. Depiction doesn't equal endorsement, however, with the stellar HBO satire sharply cutting into its chosen world at every chance it gets. As one of the show's supporting cast members, Dasha Nekrasova slides into that realm, too, but that's not her only dalliance with the city's architecture, power brokers and all that both represent. The Scary of Sixty-First, the Red Scare podcast host's feature directorial debut, also savages the rich and seemingly consequence-free. It clasps onto a real-life story that's made that case inherently, abhorrently and monstrously. There's no gentle way to put it, but the fact that Nekrasova plays a woman investigating if a bargain Upper East Side duplex was one of Jeffrey Epstein's "orgy flophouses" says much about this purposefully provocative conspiracy thriller horror-comedy. College pals Addie (Betsey Brown, Assholes) and Noelle (the film's co-screenwriter Madeline Quinn) can't believe their luck when they find the cheap property, even if it does visibly need a clean — and have mirrored ceilings, as well as some questionable lock choices — and even if they don't appear completely comfortable with committing to live together. But from night one, the literal nightmares begin. Soon they're spying blood stains, scratched walls and eerie tarot cards, and feeling unsettled in a variety of ways. Enter Nekrasova's stranger, who comes sporting a dark-web rabbit hole's worth of paranoia and bearing the Epstein news. Addie and Noelle take the revelation in vastly different fashions, with the former seeming possessed by one of Epstein's child victims, and the latter diving deep into potential theories with her unnamed new friend. Letting a headline-monopolising sex offender loom large over the plot is an instant attention-grabber — and, while The Scary of Sixty-First doesn't lunge straight down that path, it feels like Nekrasova and Quinn's starting point. Their movie smacks of conjuring up a controversial premise, then fitting parts around it; thankfully, they have more than one target in their sights, plenty to ponder, and Nekrasova's bold vision bringing it all together. From the outset, there's much to mine about the hellishness of finding somewhere to live in your twenties, and in NY especially. The things you'll settle for in that situation clearly also earns the feature's focus. The same rings true of post-college life and its intrinsic awkwardness in general — and being expected to act like a fully functioning adult, and make pivotal decisions, without yet amassing the experiences to match. By contemplating the hostile real-estate market and the ordeal that is trying to find your place in the world (emotionally, intellectually and physically), The Scary of Sixty-First immediately unpacks power, money and privilege. If Addie and Noelle could afford somewhere else or had other support at their disposal, there wouldn't even be a story. When Nekrasova appears and drops Epstein's name, that excavation digs down several levels. Again, there's no shortage of ideas, directions or tangents to explore, and the script explodes as many as possible. This is a movie about a dead billionaire paedophile, the wealth of theories that've sprung up around him and the 24-hour news cycle that's made his tale inescapable. It's also about how doomscrolling has become routine, the grim routes incessant web searches can take you down, the normalisation of true-crime obsession, the proliferation of conspiracy-driven rhetoric and relentless chaos as the natural state of the world. Addie has an interminably unpleasant boyfriend, Greg (Mark Rapaport, Pledge), who also sparks an array of questions — because even when he's turned off by her descent into inappropriate baby talk during sex, he still sees his own needs as more important than anything else. Indeed, while The Scary of Sixty-First is messy by choice, and also lets its 16-millimetre frames frequently look the part, nothing here is accidental. That's true of outdoor masturbation scenes and out-there theories alike, all of which make a statement. Usually, the movie isn't coy; as the possessed Addie gets more forceful with every action, her sloppy kissing of Prince Andrew's photo couldn't be more overt. Repeatedly, though, the film sends multiple messages at once; when her glistening fingers, fresh from a stint of self-pleasure, caress Epstein's initials outside his apartment building, The Scary of Sixty-First also comments on how taboo such feverish displays of female sexuality still prove on-screen. It's still easy to see the influences coursing through Nekrasova and Quinn's screenplay, and in Nekrasova's directorial choices. If the movie itself was haunted, it'd be by 70s and 80s horror flicks and thrillers, Italian giallo cinema, every picture that's probed New York's underbelly and, quite pointedly, by Eyes Wide Shut and Rosemary's Baby as well. Making his feature debut, too, cinematographer Hunter Zimny synthesises that hefty list of touchstones into a visual style that takes little bits from everywhere, but also fittingly makes it all feel like a dreamy swirl, jittery onslaught and tormented experience. Aesthetically, The Scary of Sixty-First just keeps spiralling from the uncertain and the otherworldly to the uncontrollable, mimicking another of the script's strong observations about 21st-century life. Careening wildly is one of The Scary of Sixty-First's key traits, intentionally so, as also seen in its central performances — Brown, Quinn, Nekrasova and Rapaport all turn in committed portrayals — and its sense of humour. There's no shaking the pitch-black comedy of it all, again by design, but even the film's most absurd moments and farcical touches are steeped in reality in one way or another. Its most nightmarish inclusions are as well, and that's part of the feature's knowing, winking seesaw ride. Yes, a global paedophile ring among the elite sounds like the sickest kind of fiction and an unhinged conspiracy. Yes, there's elements of truth to such horrendous sex-trafficking. The Scary of Sixty-First doesn't always completely come together, but Nekrasova has crafted an uncompromising and compelling movie that acknowledges both, plays like a slap in the face and isn't easily forgotten.
Love it or hate it, tipping culture has steadily crept into Aussie restaurants, bars and cafes. And despite growing cost-of-living pressures, you might be surprised to learn that more of us are tipping more of the time. In fact, the average tip across the nation has increased 25 percent year-on-year, now reaching $25.20. Yet some tippers are a little more generous than others, with a recent Zeller report finding that one state stands out as the stingiest in the country. That'd be New South Wales, with the average tip just $16.90. Contrast that with Victoria — where the average tip is $39.50 — and the data starts to paint a somewhat unfavourable picture. It's unlikely people from NSW are uniquely penny-pinching, so what might have caused this chasm in generosity? According to Josh McNicol, Director of Growth at Zeller, several factors must be considered. "The potential for financial pressure to dampen tipping enthusiasm, especially in costly cities like Sydney, is a logical outcome where diners feel tight budgets outweigh tipping impulse," he says. McNicol also suggests subtle differences in hospo cultures could exist, with those in Melbourne more open to honouring stellar service. He explains: "Victoria, particularly Melbourne, has long enjoyed living in the heart of Australia's dining and hospitality sector. There's an ingrained culture where diners want to reward great service, and now smarter payment technology makes it simpler for diners to leave a tip if they choose to do so." South Australia is also highlighted in the data. The average tip has increased 64 percent, with Adelaide posting a 180 percent year-on-year increase. And for those keen to split the bill — only 2.9 percent of restaurant transactions nationally involve a split, representing a 25 percent decline. That suggests fewer big group outings — or perhaps more of us have generous friends. Whether you're a tipper or not, check out our cheat sheet to the best restaurants and bars in Sydney or discover 20 top spots in Melbourne for a cheap eat.
There's nothing unusual about ordering cocktail at London's One Aldwych hotel. Knocking back one of their beverages, however, is completely different. Before you sip on a blend of Dalmore 12-year-old whisky, Merlet cherry liqueur, grapefruit juice, chocolate bitters and Lallier Champagne, you'll get whisked away to the Scottish Highlands — without leaving your seat. The boozy concoction is called The Origin, and it might just provide a glimpse of drinking in the future. Strapping on a VR headset, taking a jaunt through barley fields and the Dalmore distillery, and then following the ingredients on their trek to theCovent Garden bar is all part of the fun. Yes, the tasting, sipping and just generally enjoying the drink part is real — it's the preamble that toys with virtual reality. "We take our guests behind the scenes to show them how the drink is made," One Aldwych head bartender Pedro Paulo explained to MUNCHIES. "Two minutes before the drink is ready, we say, 'We'd like to take you to the origin of the drink.' Then, we give them VR goggles and headphones to take them on the journey." If you find yourself in London anytime soon, The Origin will set you back £18; however, that's a cheap price to pay for a top tipple and a detour to Scotland. And it you're worried that the combination of virtual reality and alcohol mightn't go down smoothly, don't worry. "It's really quite more of a swooping, gentle experience," says Paulo. Via MUNCHIES. Image: One Aldwych.
The Hunter Valley is that perfect spot to chill out with some friends, have a romantic weekend away with your special someone (alternatively, your mum) or go and have a staring competition with a cow. Most Sydneysiders have lost count of the number of times they’ve headed north, like some kind of stocking-up-the-cellar and stuffing-their-faces-full-of-cheese migration, but for Melburnians it remains a largely undiscovered playground for big kids. Here's our take on the perfect Spring weekend away in the Hunter. Hit the Wineries Take a leisurely drive up north and don’t waste any time hitting up the wineries. Getting a few photos with the wildlife and vines along the way is a must. Make sure you stop by the tourism centre to pick up an all-important map of the wineries. You'll be surprised by how many (and spread out they all are). More so without the map (and you'll keep on seeing the same fence again and again). If you're a chardonnay lover, there's no escaping Scarborough. Seriously. They know what they're doing. You'll find it hard to leave without a case. Just remember that boot space is at a premium, and you may have to con a friend into scooching their stuff over just a little bit. The cellar-door-only White Label Chardonnay (the Yellow is also good stuff) would be easy to write an essay on, but also worth your quaffing is the dessert wine and pinot noir. Tyrells, just past the Hunter Valley Gardens, is worth stopping by, not only because of the cute little rustic shack (which the good man used to live in — not quite as comfortable as where you're hopefully spending the night), but also because of the vino. And for those who get splitting headaches the day after a long drinking session, you need to check out Tamburlaine. Yup, it's the organic stuff. This means: no headaches (or not as bad) because there's none of the naughty stuff in it. The Christmas pudding sticky is a must for any sweet-tooths out there (and makes fab Christmas pressies, too). For the sparkling lover, Peterson House will be your next destination. They have the oh-so-easy-to-drink Blush bubbles (perfect for when the girls get together), or ones with a bit more oomph like the Museum. From bubbles to balloons If you can still stand after these tastings and the bubbles haven't gotten to your head, it's time for a hot air balloon! This isn’t just for the kiddies, it's the most gentle and relaxing thrill you can get that's legal. Sunset is the perfect time for it (and remember to take some of the wine you just bought and some smelly cheeses and lavosh from the Smelly Cheese shop — they do good cheese boards here too.) One place that does ballooning is Balloon Aloft, but there's plenty of options. Apart from the noise when the gas gets released, it's like you’re floating on a marshmallow. Can't get much more romantic than that (unless the marshmallow is being toasted on a fire). If you've taken it easy on the wine tastings, another afternoon plan could be a horse ride with the kangaroos. You'll score a large dose of fresh air and most are pretty gentle rides (unless you get a particularly spirited horse who doesn't like following trails much. There's always one). Lie Down in the Valley By this point, your eyes will most likely be ready to shut (either from the wine, or the activities), so it's worth hitting the bed, pronto. You could try out a suite at the Chateau Elan at The Vintage, if spas and golf are your thing. Or for views over the Brokenback mountain range, you could try Talga Estate — a good option for a big bunch of friends. The barbecue on the verandah is perfect for your own cook-up. If you're not quite sure what you're after, Hunter Valley Resort is worth checking out. It's got a wine school, horse and carriage tours, a wine theatre, vineyard tours and a whole lot more. We figure that if you're surrounded by wine, like you are at the Hunter, you might as well know a thing or two about it. You’ll find out the correct way to swirl the wine in your glass, really give it a good looking at, create air while sipping it and feeling it in your mouth. Or you could just drink it. The Quest Singleton is near the local shopping area, and if you're already feeling a bit wine and cheesed out — you can hit the gym. Yep, there are a lot of options. Sunny Side Up Hopefully hangover free, the next morning you’ll be needing a big breakfast. There are options in all of the hotels, or you could try out Cafe Enzo for a meal next to a fountain, and then look at the antiques next door. They usually have awesome vintage cheese knives — as well as a whole lot of random goodness, and very expensive antique engagement rings. Hint hint. Botanica and Esca are fancier options for a brunch or lunch or any time really. At Esca you can arrive by helicopter if that's the way you roll. Just remember to pack oversized sunnies and a designer bag to make this really work. Make sure you try the white or red wine tasting plate, which comes with a trio of smaller meals. Or you could make a picnic and find a scenic spot to park your bottom for the day. Last-minute leisure Before you head home, remember to stock up on wine (if you've finished it all off by now), cheese, chocolates and some more fresh air. And if you’ve got time, go for a spa treatment. The Hunter is all about spoiling yourself, inside and out. Even if you spend Monday rubbing your cheese belly or feeling slightly pickled. Just make sure you pack a friend who is a good ol' responsible driver, and you'll be just fine. Regional NSW is on sale now at Lastminute.com.au. You can check out The Hunter options on sale here.
Our phones have a lot of uses these days. While they were once merely a means of communication, they are now a great way to fill time or catch up on current events as well as the perfect crutch in an awkward situation. Need to fill an unbearably long silence or look like you're doing something while alone at a party? Just whip out an iPhone. But all of these new uses seem to defeat the original purpose of the device. With a smartphone glued to the palm of our hand, can we still maintain any meaningful communication face-to-face? A new photo series entitled 'The Death of Conversation' suggests not. Picturing friends, couples and dinner dates entranced with the screens of their phones but ignoring each other, these works by London photographer Babycakes Romero are all too familiar. It's something you see everyday. Don't feel too embarrassed. We're all guilty of it. This is what inspired the photographer to create the series. "I saw that smartphones were becoming a barrier to communication in person," he told Buzzfeed. "I saw how people used it as a social prop to hide their awkwardness, to fill the silence, but as I continued to observe and document this modern phenomenon I felt that the devices were actually causing the awkwardness and the silence." There's been a growing awareness of this problem over the past few years especially. Many musicians including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Prince now ask their audiences to put their phones away and "be in the moment"; some restaurants even ban their customers from taking photos of their food. "[Using your phone] is a form of rejection and lowers the self-worth of the person superseded for a device," said the artist. "I have nothing against technology at all but I feel it is starting to affect social cohesion, and we need to know when to switch it off or we will become permanently switched off from each other." Though this behaviour is now common all over the world, it may not be as bad as it first appears. Many theorists think this kind of criticism is unfounded. With this kind of constant digital companionship, aren't we in fact being more social than ever? It's for you to decide. But, at first glance, the evidence is pretty damning. Via Buzzfeed. All photos via Babycakes Romero.
Back in 2018, the big friendly giant of the streaming world announced that it had found itself a golden ticket, with Netflix planning to bring the work of beloved author Roald Dahl to its platform. But if that news made you more excited than Charlie Bucket walking into Willy Wonka's chocolate factory, you've probably noticed that nothing else has happened over the past year — until now. While Netflix's new Dahl-based shows aren't hitting the streamer just yet, the company has revealed just what it's focusing on to begin with — and who they're working with. To the surprise of no one given that it has already been adapted into a movie twice, as well as into a stage musical, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is the first book getting the Netflix treatment. To the delight of fans of Boy, What We Do in the Shadows, Hunt for the Wilderpeople and Thor: Ragnarok, Taika Waititi will be writing, directing and executive producing two series based on the beloved tale about a poverty-stricken boy visiting a sweet and wondrous place. The first, called Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, will be based on the world and characters of the book — so you can probably expect everlasting gobstoppers and chocolate rivers aplenty, plus appearances not only by the Bucket family, but by Veruca Salt, Augustus Gloop and Willy Wonka, too. If you noticed that we didn't mention Oompa-Loompas above, that's because they're getting their own show. It's named The Oompa-Loompas, naturally, and it'll offer a new take on the factory's small human workers. [caption id="attachment_573711" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] Hunt for the Wilderpeople[/caption] Fresh from winning an Oscar for Jojo Rabbit, Waititi is presumably slotting the two animated programs onto his schedule after upcoming Marvel sequel Thor: Love and Thunder. Whenever the Netflix shows do join the New Zealand filmmaker's increasingly busy resume, they'll "retain the quintessential spirit and tone of the original story while building out the world and characters far beyond the pages of the Dahl book for the very first time," according to the streaming platform's announcement. In total, a whopping 16 of Dahl's classic books are in Netflix's sights. Teaming up with The Roald Dahl Story Company, the outfit is turning everything from Matilda to The Twits into new animated television shows — and The BFG, Esio Trot, George's Marvellous Medicine, The Enormous Crocodile, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, Henry Sugar, Billy and the Minpins, The Magic Finger, Dirty Beasts and Rhyme Stew as well. Dahl's autobiographical efforts Boy – Tales of Childhood and Going Solo will also hit the service, with one detailing Dahl's youth and the other delving into his journeys to Africa as well as his service in World War II. For many, including the tales about the author himself, it'll be the first time that they've been adapted for the screen. Netflix plans to turn Dahl's stories into event series and specials — so limited-run shows across a number of episodes, plus one-offs. There's still no word on when work will start, however, or when Waititi's or any of the other series will start dropping on the platform — although you can watch the 90s live-action versions of Matilda and The Witches on the streamer right now. If you're keen for a taste of the first-ever screen adaptation of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, revisit the trailer for 1971's Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2cBja3AbahY Top image: Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory.
Ten months in, 2020 has served up all manner of challenges and surprises. But in one area at least, it's rolling on as planned. Because few years can sneak by without serving up multiple new film and/or television adaptations of Stephen King's work, viewers are about to score 2020's latest — a new mini-series version of the author's 1978 novel The Stand. Due to hit American streaming services in December — with release plans Down Under yet to be revealed — The Stand joins HBO's The Outsider as the two new TV shows bringing King's work to our eyeballs this year. Of course, as avid fans will know, this isn't the first time this particular book has made the leap to the screen. Back in 1994, it aired as a big-budget, star-studded, four-part mini-series featuring the likes of Gary Sinise, Miguel Ferrer, Rob Lowe, Ruby Dee, Laura San Giacomo, Molly Ringwald and Ed Harris. Plenty of well-known names are onboard this time around, too, because there's quite the sprawling story to tell. And, quite the timely one, although that's obviously pure coincidence. The Stand is set in a world devastated by a plague, with a battle between good and evil playing out among the survivors. Featuring prominently is the character of Randall Flagg, a common figure in King's work (see: The Eyes of the Dragon and The Dark Tower series). Alexander Skarsgård plays Flagg, while the rest of the cast includes James Marsden, Whoopi Goldberg, Amber Heard and Heather Graham, as well as Watchmen's Jovan Adepo, Paper Towns' Nat Wolff, IT: Chapter Two's Owen Teague, Arrow's Katherine McNamara, and Australian Shirley and The Daughter actor Odessa Young. Behind the lens, The Stand is the latest project from filmmaker Josh Boone — whose latest movie, The New Mutants, hit cinemas in the past few months after years of delays. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l--4gu4CQBM The Stand screens in the US from December 17 via CBS All Access — we'll update you with an air date Down Under when one is announced. Top image: CBS All Access.
The motivation behind BY.ARTISANS isn't simply to add a new tipple to everyone's must-sip list, even if that is the aim of every distillery. For this West End-based brand, getting attention on Queensland-born artistry and Sunshine State-made products is a key reason for being. Tempting eyes towards its soon-to-open Jane Street flagship won't be hard — the slick, sleek, minimalist-leaning venue, which favours natural tones with pops of greenery and silver distilling equipment around the place, instantly stands out. "The name BY.ARTISANS reflects our commitment to craftsmanship, shining a light on the artistry and dedication behind every creation," explains Co-Founder Ginn Lai. "There are no shortcuts — each product is hand-made in small batches with carefully sourced ingredients and a focus on quality." "We wanted to create a space that challenges the preconceptions of a distillery, and offers something new and unexpected," added fellow Co-Founder and Brand Director Alexander Lotersztain said. BY.ARTISANS is launching its distillery on Thursday, November 28, 2024 — and it isn't just somewhere where spirits are made and drunk. Also part of the setup: a cafe that'll serve a curated range of food and a creative haven, where tasting rooms and the bar sit beside an event space, a retail space and room for workshops. "We have created a retreat that embraces the community, emphasises the space's multi-functionality, and is warm and welcoming during the day and at night," continues Lotersztain about an address that mirrors the pared-back aesthetics of the brand's Signature Gin, which comes in a eye-catching white bottle. "The retail space, too, has a curated selection of amazing homewares and objects from local artists and designers." As for the Signature Gin, a small-batch drop that goes heavy on native botanicals, it's been crafted under the guidance of BY.ARTISANS's third Co-Founder Alexander Bell, who is also the resident Master Distiller — and a chemical engineer. Expect to taste lemon myrtle, cinnamon myrtle, lavender, wattleseed and eucalyptus, all in a tipple made in a still designed to be one of the country's most energy-efficient by Bell. "This is a first-of-its-kind distillation system, capable of producing not only spirits but also a diverse range of essential oils and hydrosols from local botanicals," he notes. "What sets our distillery apart is its versatility. We use the same equipment to produce spirits of exceptional quality as we do to craft lifestyle products such as bespoke soaps, candles and natural dye merchandise — all while minimising our energy and resource use." Find BY.ARTISANS at 99 Jane Street, West End, from Thursday, November 28, 2024 — open 10am–late Thursday–Sunday. Head to the distillery's website for more information. Images: Florian Groehn.
Death is a very tricky subject, and one that theatre masters POST attempt to conquer in Oedipus Schmoedipus. A theatre piece like no other, this Frankenstein-style performance strays from the conventional play structure to present something far more unique and grizzly. With the finest of stitching, this play's challenging script brings together the dismembered death scenes from 200 pieces of literature in an absolute manifesto of death. This latest performance by POST draws snippets, characters, dialogues, and scenes from the best of western canon. Using the words of these old plays, poems, and stories — from Shakespeare to Shaw — POST bring to life a performance that is deeply unsettling and daringly original. Ambitiously scripted, this tongue-twister of a performance is a brilliant marriage of black comedy and dramatic death. It's part of the World Theatre Festival's scratch series showcasing work in development, so at the end you'll have the opportunity to provide feedback that will help shape its next stage of life.
If it feels like you've been seeing a lot of Benedict Cumberbatch lately, there's a reason for that. On screens big and small, the British actor has featured in no fewer than five movies in 2021. Thanks to The Power of the Dog, he even looks poised to collect an Oscar for the best of them — and, with Spider-Man: No Way Home, he's also a significant part of the flick that's certain to be crowned the biggest box office hit of the entire year. Cumberbatch popped his Doctor Strange cloak back on in the hit web-slinging movie and, as anyone with an interest in the Marvel Cinematic Universe will know — anyone who watched No Way Home, too — he's set to reprise the role next May. That's when Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness will reach cinemas, in what's both a sequel to 2016's Doctor Strange and the 28th movie in the MCU. As the just-dropped first trailer shows, this new dive into the mystic arts promises to live up to its name. In No Way Home, Doctor Strange was asked to cast a spell to make the world forget it knew Spider-Man's true identity — and that had big repercussions in that film, exposing the MCU to the multiverse. Those consequences will flow over to Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, as will trippy Inception-style imagery, Strange's brooding demeanour and Marvel's usual world-in-peril shenanigans. Few MCU movies ever just feature one of the franchise's superheroes, so a post-WandaVision Scarlet Witch (Elizabeth Olsen) also pops up — alongside Benedict Wong (Nine Days) as Wong, Rachel McAdams (Game Night) as Strange's ex Dr Christine Palmer and Chiwetel Ejiofor (Locked Down) as fellow Master of the Mystic Arts Mordo. In one of Marvel's nice pieces of symmetry, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness marks the MCU filmmaking debut of acclaimed Evil Dead franchise director Sam Raimi — the man who helmed the original three Spider-Man movies in the 00s, way back before the Marvel Cinematic Universe was even a glimmer in the comic book company's eye, and obviously long before Doctor Strange and Tom Holland's Spider-Man became pals. Check out the Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness trailer below: Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness releases in cinemas Down Under on May 5, 2022. Images: Photos courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.
