Open up your eager eyes, Australia and New Zealand: The Killers are headed our way. With international tours starting back up again, the Las Vegas-born rockers will hit up a heap of arenas Down Under in November and December 2022 — and a few Aussie wineries, too, if you're keen on sipping vino while singing along to 'Mr Brightside'. Destiny is calling you to shows in Brisbane, Sydney, Perth and Melbourne in Australia, plus winery gigs in the Barossa Valley, Geelong and the Hunter Valley, with most of the latter taking place as part of next year's A Day on the Green tour. In NZ, you'll be doing just fine at Auckland and Christchurch concerts — and no, there won't be any sick lullabies to swim through. Given the band's lengthy back catalogue, Brandon Flowers and company won't just be playing 'Mr Brightside' on repeat, but will be making a hot fuss over plenty of their hits — including tracks from their 2020 album Imploding the Mirage. The tour is named after that record, even though they released another one, Pressure Machine, this year. That's what happens when live gigs get put on hold during a pandemic, clearly. Remember: somebody told you that you'll be dancing along to 'Somebody Told Me', 'Smile Like You Mean It', 'When You Were Young', 'Bones', 'Human' and 'The Man' as well. While the Aussie leg of The Killers' 2022 tour includes plenty of outdoor venues, the timing means that they won't be repeating their AFL Grand Final berth after stealing the show back in 2017. [caption id="attachment_831494" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Raph_PH via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] THE KILLERS 2022 AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND TOUR DATES Auckland — Monday, November 21, Spark Arena Christchurch — Friday, November 25, Christchurch Arena Brisbane — Tuesday, November 29, Brisbane Entertainment Centre Barossa Valley — Saturday, December 3, A Day on the Green at Peter Lehmann Perth — Tuesday, December 6, RAC Arena Geelong — Saturday, December 10, A Day on the Green at Mt Duneed Estate Melbourne — Tuesday, December 13, Rod Laver Arena Hunter Valley — Saturday, December 17, Hope Estate Sydney — Monday, December 19, Qudos Bank Arena The Killers will tour Australia and New Zealand in November and December 2022. Pre-sale tickets go on sale at staggered times on Thursday, November 11, with general tickets on sale on Monday, November 15. For further details, head to the tour and A Day on the Green websites.
Ever wanted to tap into Melbourne's rich indigenous history as you walk around the city? Well, now there's an app for that. The brainchild of AIATSIS — the Australian Institute of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Studies — the Melbourne Dreaming app launched late last year as a new platform for sharing stories and information about the area's vibrant cultural heritage. With it, users can customise self-guided tours exploring significant sites around the city, from the former hunting grounds of Chapel Street, to the Burnley Ngargee (or 'corroboree') tree in Richmond. The app is loaded with travel information to help streamline your historical explorations, and even comes with handy audio commentary. "Aboriginal culture is a living breathing part of Australian life that is easily accessible if you know where to look," explained AIATSIS CEO Craig Ritchie. He said the app is designed to help users "see past the concrete jungle and be exposed to real and local Aboriginal culture right in the middle of one of the world's top cities." Download the Melbourne Dreaming app now from iTunes and Google Play.
We've all got that one friend whose media diet exists solely of documentaries. They're usually, to be honest, the most interesting of us all wielding their accumulated eccentric knowledge. However, documentaries and doco-style films have long become mainstream and the capitalist marketplace has heard our hungry cries for more. Introducing DocPlay, the new Netflix for docos. It's an Australian and New Zealand-based service that lets you stream documentaries directly. Their libraries are stuffed full of all the big names — Blackfish, Exit Through the Gift Shop, Advanced Style — complemented by some niche Aussie and international titles with a big emphasis on music. A premium member fee of $6.95 a month (or $69.95 a year) will grant you access to their ever-growing library. And if sign up to a free account, you'll get access to their rotating selection of docos. This week features Annie Leibovitz: Life Through A Lens, Academy Award winner The Cove, Ai Wewei: Never Sorry, and A Complete History Of My Sexual Failures amongst others. Not bad, not bad at all. If you don't want to cough up though, you can expect ads aplenty. It's still a pretty fresh service and can only get better with time. But anything that enables us to while away a Sunday watching back-to-back docos can only be good thing.
This tour will get you smiling like you mean it: The Killers are returning Down Under in 2024, playing the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Monday, December 9. The Las Vegas-born rockers were last here in Australia in November and December 2022, and are coming back two years later to get crowds singing 'Mr Brightside' and 'Somebody Told Me' again. Hot Fuss, the album that gave the world those two beloved tracks — and 'Smile Like You Mean It', 'Jenny Was a Friend of Mine', 'All These Things That I've Done' and more — is the reason for the visit. 2024 marks 20 years since it first released, so Brandon Flowers and company are celebrating in the best possible way. [caption id="attachment_972409" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Raph_PH via Flickr.[/caption] Open up your eager eyes, Brisbane: destiny is calling you catch the group's Rebel Diamonds show, pumping through the group's hits across their entire career. Given the band's lengthy back catalogue, The Killers won't just be focusing on Hot Fuss tunes, but have plenty more songs to bust out. Also likely to get a whirl as well: 'When You Were Young', 'Bones', 'Human', 'The Man' and latest single 'Bright Lights', just to name a few. The Hot Fuss gigs have been receiving a workout in the group's hometown this year as well, where they played a soldout residency at Caesar's Palace from mid-August till early September. Sadly, this Aussie tour's November/December timing means that The Killers won't be repeating their AFL Grand Final berth after stealing the show back in 2017. They will be in the country for the AFLW Grand Final, however, if you want to start crossing your fingers. [caption id="attachment_972411" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Photo © 2022 Chris Phelps.[/caption] Top image: Raph_PH via Wikimedia Commons.
Almost a quarter-century has passed since Keanu Reeves uttered four iconic words: "I know kung fu". The Matrix's famous phrase was also the entire movie-going world's gain, because watching Reeves unleash martial-arts mayhem is one of cinema's purest pleasures. Notching up their fourth instalment with the obviously titled John Wick: Chapter 4, the John Wick flicks understand this. They couldn't do so better, harder, or in a bloodier fashion, in fact. Directed by Keanu's former stunt double Chad Stahelski, who helped him look like he did indeed know wushu back in the 90s, this assassin saga is built around the thrill of its star doing his violent but stylish best. Of course, The Matrix's Neo didn't just know kung fu, but gun fu — and Jonathan, as The Continental proprietor Winston (Ian McShane, Deadwood: The Movie) still likes to call him, helps turn bullet ballet into one helluva delight again and again (and again and again). The John Wick movies — the first blasting into cinemas in 2014, John Wick: Chapter 2 hitting the target in 2017, John Wick: Chapter 3 — Parabellum shooting straight in 2019, and now this striking four years later — seem like they should be oh-so simple. Slip Keanu into a black suit, let his 90s grunge-style hair frame his face, get him next to an array of dazzling backdrops, let him raise hell against whoever is thrown his way: that's the basic formula. And, wanting nothing more than a quiet life with the dog left to him by his deceased wife, then the pets that've replaced that pooch since, the eponymous Wick doesn't like to overcomplicate anything. Witnessing a John Wick film, though, means seeing how much stunning action choreography, energetic cinematography, lightning-fast editing and stellar production design goes into making these pictures flow so smoothly. Reeves is so in his element that he'll always be remembered as John Wick (and Neo, Bill & Ted's Theodore 'Ted' Logan and Point Break's Johnny Utah), but the John Wick movies are spectacular technical achievements. All that gun-fu mastery spins through a story — one that is similarly straightforward, but also meticulously constructed to look and play that way. Initially, the happily retired but recently widowed John got dragged back into the hitman life over that aforementioned puppy and a full-hearted quest for revenge. Since then, that move keeps sparking consequences in an action franchise that mixes the western genre's gunslingers and crusades for vengeance, plus their strong, silent types and scenic use of backgrounds, with a musical's rhythm, steps and set pieces. So, Jonathan tried to stay out of the game. Then, he endeavoured to escape the death-for-hire business after its powers-that-be, aka the High Table, started meting out punishment for breaking their rules. Summing up the situation brings another epic crime saga's words to mind: "just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in!". Picking up where its immediate predecessor left off, John Wick: Chapter 4 saddles its namesake with the Marquis (Bill Skarsgård, Barbarian), the High Table's emissary, as his new adversary. After Wick puts the assassin realm's head honchos on notice during an early trip to the Middle East, the series' latest nefarious figure wants rid of him forever, wasting no time laying waste to the few things left that John loves. The Marquis has company, too — seeking a big payday in the case of the mercenary known as Tracker (Shamier Anderson, Son of the South), who has his own devoted dog; and due to a familiar deal with Caine (Donnie Yen, Mulan), a martial-arts whiz who is blind, and an old friend of John. That said, Wick has pals in this clash between the hitman establishment and its workers, which doubles as an eat-the-rich skirmish, including Winston, the Bowery King (Laurence Fishburne, All the Old Knives), and the Osaka Continental's Shimazu (Hiroyuki Sanada, Bullet Train) and Akira (Rina Sawayama, Turn Up Charlie). Retaliating against the High Table, and just trying to stay alive, involves jumps to Japan, Berlin and Paris — starting from New York, naturally — and shooting, stabbing, slicing and battling through hotels, nightclubs, apartment blocks and more. In the latter category sits two of the saga's most ambitious locations yet, where two of its most glorious fight scenes take place: the traffic circle around the Arc de Triomphe and the 222 steps up to Montmartre's Sacré-Coeur Basilica. Indeed, with Stahelski a four-film John Wick veteran, cinematographer Dan Laustsen (Nightmare Alley) up to three, and editor Nathan Orloff (Ghostbusters: Afterlife) dropping in seamlessly as a newcomer, all 169 minutes of John Wick: Chapter 4 is an action marvel. More John Wick has long been a good thing, whether more movies or more in those movies; the last hour here, as Wick and the Marquis' conflict sprawls across Paris, is the franchise's pièce de résistance. With frenetic frays such a focus, and so expertly and inventively executed — doorbell sensors and bulletproof vests have significant parts, gun fu becomes car fu, and filming flats from above is mesmerising — it'd be easy for anyone new to the ways of John Wick to assume that the plot is secondary. Or, that screenwriters Shay Hatten (returning from Chapter 3) and Michael Finch (American Assassin) have built John Wick: Chapter 4's narrative around the onslaught of carnage, not vice versa. These are lovingly crafted films, however — and layered and thoughtful, as seen when Winston name-drops Ned Kelly and his supposed last words "such is life". The John Wick series is deeply steeped in its own mythology, which swirls around John aka the Baba Yaga, the High Table's workings and love of retro tech, the various Continentals, and all the regulations that underscore the to-ing and fro-ing that leads to such a massive body count, so referencing an IRL figure also steeped in myth is a smart and knowing move. Casting has always worked comparably, drawing upon McShane's Deadwood standing, Lance Reddick's The Wire pedigree, Franco Nero's history as the OG Django in Chapter 2 and Skarsgård's time as Pennywise, for instance. No one is as immaculately cast in the John Wick universe as Keanu, who continues to invest everything into his stoic-faced character by playing it just right — never adding anything superfluous, never undercooking his performance, and always dancing through the franchise with the weight and agility it needs. Still, Yen is his absolute equal, to zero astonishment given that he's Donnie Yen. Physical feats so fleet that they stand out even in this highly physical flick, charm and wit in spades, pitch-perfect doses of comedy: they're all on show. Yen also delivers a gleaming Point Break nod, and owns John Wick: Chapter 4's debt to Japan's swordplay-heavy Zatoichi pictures (a homage he knows well thanks to Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, but he's not repeating himself). No matter how a John Wick movie finishes, it ends with viewers wanting more — and this is no exception, including more of Yen as Caine alongside Keanu.
Redfern is getting itself a facelift. Commissioned by the City of Sydney, renowned street artist Reko Rennie and a team of young Aboriginal artists have designed and painted a mural covering an entire Redfern terrace as a tribute and monument to the neighbourhood's rich history of Aboriginal activism and urban culture. Entitled Welcome to Redfern the mural was launched today and marks the first step in the City of Sydney Council's ambitious Eora Journey project to give Indigenous culture and issues more public recognition. The local artists — Nahdia Noter, Trae Campbell, Ji Duncan-Weatherby, Tyrrelle McGrath, Brandon Phillips, Isaac Phillips, Josh Addo and Josh Nolan — helped to paint the mural's bold stripes in red, yellow and black and added paste-ups of 'local heroes', including colonial leader Pemulwuy and activists Charles Perkins and Mum Shirl. "These young artists have grown up in and around The Block, and the imagery is a colourful reminder of these incredible leaders to make sure the next generation will remember them, too," said Rennie, a Kamilaroi man and Archibald finalist who's also responsible for the bright pink T2 Building at Taylor Square. But why are art murals like this significant? While these sort of public projects undoubtedly do much to brighten the aesthetics of rundown urban landscapes, there is a legitimate concern that they offer little more than a highly visible and PR-friendly band-aid solution to the deep and divisive problems that have plagued the local Indigenous communities. The disparity between Indigenous and non-Indigenous Australians in terms of life expectancy, education and unemployment levels remain glaringly pronounced and so the question remains: what does a mural have to offer as a tactic for urban renewal? One of the biggest advocates for street art as a means of urban renewal has been the Dutch duo of Jeroen Koolhaas & Dre Urhahn, who more commonly go by the name of Haas and Hahn. These pioneering muralists — with the help of local artists and enthusiasts — have converted some of the world's poorest urban landscapes into living, breathing works of art. Their project in the slums of Rio de Janeiro converted the once derelict and incredibly dangerous area into a sprawling, breathtaking mural described by the New York Times as a "radiant, updated form of real-life Cubism". The remarkable effect that these murals have on the local community can be more clearly seen in Haas and Hahn's 18-month endeavour to spice up Philadelphia's Germantown. Not only did this project employ dozens of locals but it has also stimulated economic growth and development in the area and given the poverty-stricken region a new lease of life. Mohammed, one of the painters and leaders of the 'Philly Project' told documentary maker Jon Kauffman that the murals had an amazing capacity to lift the hopes and spirits of the artists and the local community. "Everybody's had hard times," he said, "but since I've been working here it's kinda like getting me away from my little troubles." It is these sentiments that give credence to Haas & Hahn's street art philosophy: "what feeds the heart feeds the soul". Closer to home, large-scale murals Melbourne's inner northern suburbs have become a hub for cultural, artistic and political expression thanks to a long series of Indigenous murals dating back to the early 1980s. The murals of the Collingwood Housing Estate often depict traditional Aboriginal iconography such as of the Australian landscape pre-settlement/invasion and Indigenous elders in warpaint and traditional dress, but it is the process of their creation that is perhaps of greater interest. These murals were born out of collaboration between a collection of local muralists known as the BEEM artists and a number of homeless Aboriginal people who live in the nearby park and identify themselves as 'parkies'. The contrasting styles of the artists and the resulting murals — with the street graffiti style of the 'parkies' often in conflict with the more refined portraits of the BEEM artists — is demonstrative of this unique collaboration. According to Denise Lovett, one of the leaders of the project, these murals have provided the local Indigenous community with a sense of cultural ownership over the urban landscape and banded the community together across lines of socio-economic status and ethnicity. So will the City of Sydney's newest mural provide this sort of urban renewal to the Redfern area? For his part, Rennie led the young Redfern artists through workshops covering artistic techniques, as well as other valuable skills. "We talked about how art can benefit an individual, and how success as an artist can be measured, such as by the ability to travel and work in other communities," he said. And Welcome to Redfern is only the very tip of the iceberg. The sweeping reforms of the Eora Journey include not only a further six Indigenous art projects to be scattered across the city but a number of other cultural and economic projects, including a permanent Indigenous Cultural Centre. One thing we can be certain of: the 'Welcome to Redfern' mural has far more to offer the urban landscape than simply pretty colours. Top image of Reko Rennie, Sydney Lord Mayor Clover Moore and curator Hetti Perkins.
In 2016, a French documentarian with Senegalese heritage attended the trial of a Senegalese French PhD student who confessed to killing her 15-month-old daughter, who was fathered by a white partner, by leaving her on the beach to the mercy of the waves at Berck-sur-Mer. The filmmaker was fixated. She describes it as an "unspeakable obsession". She was haunted by questions about motherhood, too — her mum's and her own, given that she was a young mother herself as she sat in the courtroom. That story is the story of how Saint Omer came to be, and also almost exactly the tale that the piercing drama tells. In her first narrative film after docos We and La Permanence, writer/director Alice Diop focuses on a French author and literature professor with a Senegalese background who bears witness to a trial with the same details, also of a Senegalese French woman, for the same crime. Saint Omer's protagonist shares other traits with Diop as she observes, too, and watches and listens to research a book. A director riffing on their own experience isn't novel, but Saint Omer is strikingly intimate and authentic because it's the embodiment of empathy in an innately difficult situation. It shows what it means to feel for someone else, including someone who has admitted to a shocking crime, and has been made because Diop went through that far-from-straightforward process and was galvanised to keep grappling with it. What a deeply emotional movie this 2022 Venice International Film Festival Grand Jury Prize-winning feature is, understandably and unsurprisingly. What a heartbreaking and harrowing work it proves as well. Saint Omer is also an astoundingly multilayered excavation of being in a country but never being seen as truly part it, and what that does to someone's sense of self, all through Fabienne Kabou's complicated reality and Laurence Coly's (Guslagie Malanda, My Friend Victoria) fictionalised scenario. As Laurence gets her time in court, Diop takes it all in. "It would make life easier" is the defendant's early characterisation of her crime, a gut-punch of a way to describe infanticide. But before Laurence unravels the minutiae of her life prior to and after moving from Senegal to study — and her daughter Lili's brief existence and death — Rama (film debutant Kayije Kagame) is dreaming, being comforted by her French partner Adrien (Thomas de Pourquery, Perfect Nanny), teaching and finally making the trip for the trial. When she packs, she grabs a sleeping bag. When she checks into her hotel, she replaces the bed's quilt with this small piece of home. It's a revealing gesture, conveying how intensely that Rama is already connecting with Laurence and her journey through the justice system; they're strangers but, as Rama gathers specifics for her book, which will compare Laurence's plight to Medea, this is never anything less than personal. The bulk of Saint Omer is chatter, as Laurence is questioned about what happened, why, her studies, her hopes and dreams, and her relationships with her mother (Salimata Kamate, Represent) and Lili's father (Xavier Many, Notre Dame on Fire). In France's legal setup, interrogating isn't limited to attorneys — the judge (Valérie Dréville, Wonder in the Suburbs) guides the proceedings, with Laurence's lawyer (Aurélia Petit, Rosalie) and prosecuting counsel (Robert Cantarella, My Best Part) inquiring sporadically. The defendant states from the outset that she killed her baby, but doesn't consider herself responsible. She wants the trial to inform not just the court but herself as to why this tragedy occurred. She brings up sorcery, and the immediate incredulity that hangs in the air in a room with only two other Black people, her mum and Rama, is among the plethora of ways that Diop calls attention to the contrast between France as a racially diverse nation and the truth of not being white in the European country. Befitting a movie about a writer, language is one of Saint Omer's stars, courtesy of a script co-written by Diop with the film's editor Amrita David, plus Marie N'Diaye (White Material). Often reworking text from Kabou's case, Laurence's story is told in such an evocative fashion that picturing what she's saying is a given. She talks, and cinematographer Claire Mathon (Spencer, and also Céline Sciamma's Petite Maman and Portrait of a Lady on Fire) hones in on that talking — always as Laurence wears skin-tone matching shirts that visually reinforce how invisible she feels; always standing against wooden panelling with the same effect; and always expressing as much in her stance, gaze and all the things she doesn't say. Occasionally, the judge takes the frame, or lawyers, witnesses or Rama, usually centred. Diop wants viewers to focus on their words, too, and the reactions betrayed by their faces and physicality. This is filmmaking at its most meticulous and emotional, with such carefully measured scenes proving puncturing and searing. As talk flows, so does judgement within the court and beyond. Rama begins querying herself — in her dreams, alone in her hotel, and via flashbacks to her childhood, where things with her mum (first-timer Adama Diallo Tamba) are complex and tense — but the scrutiny Laurence is placed under transcends her deeds. While Saint Omer doesn't excuse her actions for a second, it keeps illustrating how life in France has treated and continues to treat her, and why Rama can spy echoes between their otherwise vastly dissimilar predicaments. During a call after part of the testimony, Rama's editor (Alain Payen, Golden Moustache) notes that Laurence speaks "very sophisticated French". There's no doubting that that wouldn't be said about someone white with the same college background; Rama replies that she just "talks like an educated woman". When the judge also can't believe the claims of witchcraft, or entertain diving into what they mean, it too is a loaded response. There are no easy moments in Saint Omer, or easy answers. There can't be. Diop looks at this delicate situation with sensitivity and probing — and, in yet another parallel with Rama, questions why she's making the film, what she's saying about the situation, the role of myth in processing the incomprehensible, and motherhood's many intricacies and challenges. Indeed, this is a movie made with uncompromising rigour as well as understanding, as expected from a documentary filmmaker turning to fiction. It's a stunning legal drama that's as brilliantly crafted as Custody, another Venice standout from France about a grim situation. And, it's home to astonishing performances by Malanda and Kagame, each haunting in their own ways. Diop will never forget Kabou, and audiences won't be able to get her film, its extraordinary story or its exceptional lead actors out of their heads, either.
Valentine's Day, apparently the most romantic day of the year, can also be marred by unmet expectations and forgetful partners. If you have a significant other who you do not want to disappoint this year and are looking to show them how much you adore them, then we are at your service. We have searched and found you Brisbane's top ten places to go for Valentine's Day this year, so that you can shower them with delicious food and drinks. You're welcome, lovers. Public Voted the best new restaurant in Queensland in 2012, Public has made a huge and incredibly positive impression on Brisbane residents in the last year. Their inventive and flawless menu has diners returning to try their favourite dishes over and over. This Valentine's Day they continue to please with an $80pp menu which includes a cocktail on arrival and five courses of delicious food: an amuse bouche of red melon, crab remoulade, pork belly, BBQ wagyu and chocolate and berries for dessert. No one will be disappointed at the end of this night. Upper Level 1, 400 George St, Brisbane; 07 3210 2288; http://www.lovepublic.com.au/ Saké There is something very sensual about eating with chopsticks, which is why Sake is a wonderful place to go for Valentine's Day. Not only are the utensils sexy, but so is the food. Presented exquisitely and with exciting and unusual Japanese flavours, the food at Sake will give you plenty to be ecstatic about. Accompany this with some of Sake's unique cocktails and it will be a very special night out. We highly recommend trying the Godzilla to start off your night with some fun (and absinthe!). Sake have a special Valentine's Day banquet menu for $90pp, otherwise feel free to pick and choose your favourite dishes. Level 1, 45 Eagle Street, Eagle Street Pier; 07 3015 0557; http://www.sakerestaurant.com.au/brisbane Brents Restaurant Located in Toowong, Brents is the ideal location for an intimate, romantic dinner for two. Brents has a comfortable and relaxed feel with award-winning service and mouth-watering French cuisine. Their romantic package for two is a wonderful option for Valentine's Day. For $175 per couple you will receive six courses and a bottle of French wine. The degustation starts with an amuse bouche followed by wild mushroom cappucino, your choice of an entree and main, a sorbet and a chocolate dessert. For those living on the west side it is the perfect location close to home, avoiding the romance-killing city traffic. 85 Miskin St Toowong; 07 3371 4558; http://www.brentsrestaurant.com.au/ Olé For some Spanish flair added to your romantic evening, celebrate La Fiesta de San Valentin at Olé Restaurant South Bank. You can choose from two fiesta packages both featuring two hours of jugs of Red or White Sangria as well as wine and beer selection to choose from throughout the night. Package uno ($79pp) features a selection of tasty tapas followed by braised beef cheeks; package dos ($89pp) also has the tapas but followed by a seafood paella. Either way you are in for amuy delicioso night out. Shop B12, Little Stanley Street, South Bank; 07 3846 1201; http://olerestaurant.com.au/ Il Centro Located along Eagle Street Pier is Il Centro, Brisbane's eternally loved waterfront venue. The Italian menu is decadent, the wine list extensive, and the service impeccable without being stuffy. There are two banquet options for Valentine's Day - an early bird option with a main and dessert ($85pp), or the later option with 3 courses ($110pp). Dishes you can choose from are the famous sand crab lasagne, a Kimberly beef tenderloin or slow cooked duck leg, and a pistachio semifreddo and a chocolate tart. Eagle Street Pier, 1 Eagle Street, Brisbane; 07 3221 6090; http://www.il-centro.com.au/ Cove Bar and Dining For an evening with a view of the beautiful Brisbane River, head to Cove to share an incredibly reasonably priced three-course meal with your significant other. For $99 per couple you will receive an entree of seared scallops with fennel and lemon; your choice of a sirloin of prime beef or the fish of the day; and for dessert a chocolate parfait with wattle seed shortbread and a honey and cornflake milkshake. All meals are designed to share, just like the love that you share for each other...or at least that's the line you can use. You will also receive a glass of sparkling on arrival. River Quay, Sidon Street, South Bank; 07 3844 3993; http://www.covebardining.com.au/ First Class For all of you high-flyers out there, head to First Class, the Sky Room's new lounge dining experience and enjoy their exquisite cocktails and decadent share plates. They have two sittings, one for those of you who like to eat early from 5:30 (must be out by 8pm) for $64. This includes a 4 course set menu including a glass of Louis Roederer on arrival. Those wanting to dine later will pay $79 for the same offer. Possible dishes are the hot smoked salmon, grilled ox tongue, beef and ricotta gnocchi and jerusalem artichoke risotto. Level 1, 234 Wickham Street, Fortitude Valley; 07 3852 6337; firstclass@skyroom.com.au Next Door Kitchen & Bar Known for its 1920's vibe, Next Door Kitchen & Bar has an enticing burlesque performance by renowned dancer Sunday Lucia for your entertainment on Valentine's Day. Matching the performance with a set four-course meal and glass of bubbles, and you've lined yourself up for a pretty special night! The menu includes their delicious Russian roulette peppers, cured ocean trout and slow-cooked lamb. Dessert is a decadent dark chocolate marquis. For $95 per person this will be a Valentine's night out to remember. Shop B11, Little Stanley Street, South Bank; 07 3846 6678; http://www.nextdoorkitchenbar.com.au/ Peasant Enjoy the gorgeous ambiance of Peasant while feasting on their Valentine's Day banquet. This includes njuda croquettes, Hervey Bay scallops, your choice of trout confit or slow-cooked lamb, and a chocolate and raspberry tart. For food lovers who want to keep it simple (besides choosing the wines to match) Peasant will serve you an unforgettable feast that is certain to please. 61 Petrie Terrace, Brisbane; 07 3367 8066; http://www.peasant.com.au/home.html E'cco One of Brisbane's favourite food institutions, E'cco has always been regarded as an intimate, comfortable and delicious dining venue. The waitstaff are experts with food, wine and people, knowing how to make your night a special one. The food is perfection with Philip Johnson's signature 'keep it simple' style. You may bring your own alcohol to E'cco, so pick a special bottle from the cellar and make it a cracking night. 100 Boundary Street, (Cnr Adelaide Street), Brisbane; 07 3831 8344; http://www.eccobistro.com/default.html
Sacrifice, of the kind where ideals clash with safety and responsibility, is at the heart of A Thousand Times Good Night. The film starts with a potent example, as photojournalist Rebecca (Juliette Binoche) snaps away in Afghanistan. Secreted to a secluded spot, she starts capturing a funeral; however, it is soon revealed that her subject isn’t dead. Instead, the prone pose is part of a ritual preparing a suicide-bomber for a mission that goes awry, injuring Rebecca in the process. Juxtaposing the struggle of a woman driven to chronicle the horrors of humanity with the plights of those whose daily lives exist on the precipice between life and death, this introduction makes a strong statement. The former clearly seems trivial in comparison to the latter, but both have costs and consequences. Rebecca has a husband (Nikolaj Coster-Waldau) and two daughters (Lauryn Canny and Adrianna Cramer Curtis) restless with worry when she is out in the field. Giving up her passion for her loved ones’ peace of mind doesn’t come easily, as she is troubled in her attempts to reconcile the need to make a difference with the comforts of home and the calling of family. Alas, following on from such a striking and tense opening was always going to be difficult. The focus swiftly shifts to an account of disturbed domesticity, and so does the A Thousand Times Good Night’s effectiveness and interest. Contemplating the professional versus personal divide is admirable, and touching upon the ethics of observing versus intervening sparks questions, although both areas have been traversed more thoughtfully in other films. Here, they’re just mechanisms to incite conflict in a marriage melodrama. In such rendering of the circumstances, much is left to rest on Binoche’s talented shoulders. Thankfully, it is never tiresome to see the actress on screen, even when a furrowed brow seems her standard expression. Coster-Waldau is sadly given little to do, other than rally against the protagonist’s choices. Instead, it is young newcomer Canny that offers the best depiction of the traumatic repercussions of living with and loving someone constantly drawn to perilous situations. A Thousand Times Good Night is inspired by the early photographer years of director Erik Poppe’s own career, as conveyed in a script co-written with his long-term collaborator Harald Rosenløw-Eeg, but it is easy to dismiss its content as fiction. Only the war-torn visuals seem taken from Poppe’s experiences; indeed, some of his own stills are used, and the handsome imagery certainly eclipses the strived-for emotion. That’s the issue: the story and performances are just too concerned with heavy-handed sentiments to ring true. It seems that the key sacrifice the film makes is in its approach, preferring the appearance of resonance to taking any thematic risks.
Peter Kozak, winner of the Marie Ellis OAM Prize in 2012, presents an exhibition that is alluring and ignites curiosity. Snow is Flesh examines the idea and experience of decay — a concept so vast and involved, brought so eloquently to visual planes by simply putting pencil to paper. The aim is to conceptualise fraying fibres of strands of wool; the result are tangled, heaving bodies on the page, each with a mind and motivation of their own, working together to show the life that remains on the page, while tearing apart in an act of struggle or release. The “inevitable and uncontrollable changes that effect the human body on which we are all precariously dependent” will present a different meaning to each person who views Kozak’s work, and yet each illustration manages to collate the individual into one image. Assess and reflect in your own way; some describe viewing Kozak’s works as sharing in a meditative state, an opportunity to think about shared human experiences as well as the individuality of transience.
They're one of the country's best breweries, and they're no stranger to Brisbane's shores — but, come March 29, they're popping up for some pre-long weekend fun. That'd be Young Henrys, who are trekking from Sydney's Newtown to Brisbane's riverside to pour brews at the Pig 'N' Whistle. From midday until late, the PNW Riverside's beer garden will become Young Henrys' headquarters 2.0, with the folks behind the pints in attendance. Ask questions, find out more about their tipples and drink their brews, of course. There'll also be live music and a DJ later in the night. As for what'll be pumping through the taps, expect the yeasty goodness of both the Newtowner and The Stayer. The former is a good ol' fashioned Aussie pale ale, the latter is the mid you need if you're being sensible. Remember, though, you won't have to work the next day.
Australians, if a trip across the ditch ranks high on your wish list, the New Zealand Government has delivered some great news: across the first half of 2022, the country will start reopening its borders to international travellers. Earlier in 2021, Aotearoa and Australia had a brief international travel bubble, which allowed Aussies and Kiwis to fly back and forth between the two countries without quarantine. It was then put in pause in July after COVID-19 outbreaks in Australia — and that suspension was extended following outbreaks in New Zealand. But, in a press conference on Wednesday, November 24, NZ COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins announced that the country's international travel restrictions are set to lift in January — beginning with vaccinated New Zealanders and those who hold NZ visas early next year. From Monday, January 17 NZ time, folks who fall into those categories will be able to re-enter NZ without quarantining in NZ's managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) facilities — although a seven-day stint in self-isolation will be required. That move will then be extended to vaccinated travellers from other countries, including Australia, across a three-step process. Here's how it's going to work: STEP ONE From Monday, January 17 next year, double-vaccinated New Zealanders and other eligible travellers (such as visa holders) will be able to return to New Zealand from Australia, without a two week stay in MIQ facilities. This means Kiwis can travel to Australia, however briefly, and avoid MIQ on their return. However, they'll need to self-isolate for seven days after returning to Aotearoa, and must provide a final negative test before entering the community. STEP TWO From Monday, February 14 next year, double-vaccinated New Zealanders and other eligible travellers (such as visa holders) will be able to return to New Zealand from all other countries — not just Australia — and also avoid an MIQ stay, except after travelling to countries deemed "very high risk". The same safety precautions as above will need to be taken: they'll need to self-isolate for seven days and must provide a final negative test before entering the community. STEP THREE From Saturday, April 30, all other double-vaccinated international travellers will able to enter the country, without an MIQ stay. This might be staggered on visa levels, Hipkins added during his press conference. The requirement to self-isolate and provide testing upon return will be assessed during this period, but it's expected this will be probably be in place throughout May. So, it isn't time to go packing your suitcases for a NZ getaway just yet, but it will be soon — and just in time for ski season (if you're already thinking about your winter plans). Since the beginning of November, double-vaxxed Australians have been permitted to leave our shores for overseas holidays; however, exactly where you can head obviously depends on travel restrictions in other countries. More information about NZ's international travel three-step plan and Hipkins' full statement can be found on the New Zealand Government website. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website.
December might be all about festive viewing for some, but this year's merriest month is also delivering a new dose of TV medical nightmares. As promised since mid-2022 and feared since the first season in 2021 — if you're not fond of hospital horror stories, that is — Dr Death is returning with another true-crime tale about a sinister surgeon. The new doc in the spotlight: surgeon Paolo Macchiarini, who earned the nickname 'Miracle Man' for his innovative operations. But his charm starts to fade when investigative journalist Benita Alexander approaches him for a story — a tale that'll change her life forever, too. Once again, all of the details are drawn from reality. Once again, Dr Death is bound to prove disturbing whether you already know the ins and outs or you're set to discover them for the first time — as terrifying medical details, especially about deadly doctors, always do. The just-released trailer will get you feeling unsettled already, in fact, before the series drops all eight of its season-two episodes on Stan on Friday, December 22. Édgar Ramírez (Florida Man) plays Macchiarini, while Mandy Moore (This Is Us) steps into Alexander's shoes. Macchiarini's first reason for getting famous: leading the surgery for the world's first synthetic organ transplant. As for why else he's been in the news, that's what watching the series will tell you. When it hit streaming queues in mid-2021, Dr Death initially focused on Christopher Duntsch (Joshua Jackson, Fatal Attraction), a surgeon who was full of charm when he was trying to encourage folks with spinal pain and neck injuries into his operating theatre — or when he was attempting to convince hospitals, particularly in Texas, to hire him. But again and again, those surgeries ended horrendously. Actually, that's an understatement. Duntsch's story is done and dusted; however, he was just the first medical professional that the OG Dr Death — aka the Wondery podcast that shares the TV show's name — has explored. Since then, the audio series has released two further seasons, with its third batch of episodes now providing the basis for the second TV adaptation. Check out the trailer for Dr Death season two below: Season two of Dr Death will stream via Stan from Friday, December 22. Images: Scott McDermott/Peacock.
It's a familiar setup: a remote house, a family haunted by decades-old troubles, a murky history that's still leaving an imprint and tension levels rising when, naturally, strange things start to happen. As it has been for countless scary flicks before it, that's the broad overall premise of new Australian horror movie Relic; however this Sundance-premiering film has more than a few tricks up its sleeves. Emily Mortimer (Mary Poppins Returns), Robyn Nevin (Top of the Lake), and Bella Heathcote (Bloom) star as three generations of a Victorian-based family — with Mortimer's Kay called back to her family home when her widowed elderly mother Edna (Nevin) disappears. With her own daughter Sam (Heathcote) in tow, Kay first endeavours to find her missing mum. Then, when Edna reappears suddenly without any explanation for her absence, Kay and Sam try to ascertain just why Edna's house — and, increasingly, Edna too — seems so sinister. The feature directorial debut of Japanese-Australian filmmaker Natalie Erika James — who cowrote the script with fellow first-time Christian White — the instantly disturbing but still slow-burning Relic takes its creepy, eerie look and feel seriously, as the film's trailer shows. As it trifles with the supernatural and provides many a well-executed jump, bump and unnerving sensation, the smart and thoughtful movie also uses its concept and plot to ponder the physical and emotional impact of ageing, including dementia. Aussie audiences can get unsettled — including by the film's labyrinthine main setting and its nerve-rattling soundscape — when Relic hits Stan on Friday, July 10. Across the ditch, it arrives courtesy of the NZ International Film Festival. It follows this year's also excellent Aussie-made release The True History of the Kelly Gang in making the leap from international festivals to local streaming. Check out the Relic below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Atqf47wM5Gg Relic starts streaming via Stan from Friday, July 10. You can also watch it as part of the NZ International Film Festival from 25 July.
It's hard to get a true snapshot of a place you're holidaying in when you don't know a resident who can show you around. It can take years to truly get to know a place, and while tourist spots are the obvious starting point, they can also leave you wanting to dig deeper. We've teamed up with Pullman Hotels and Resorts to bring you a guide to Melbourne's less obvious but obviously fabulous experiences. It's not exactly a local's guide, because visitors are not exactly locals and we all want to treat ourselves while on vacay. But it is a round-up of the best of the best art, food and fun found in Melbourne. And as Melbourne has a lot to offer in the way of premium coffee, tasty treats and good times, this was no easy feat. Putting our heads together with Pullman Melbourne Albert Park's chief concierge, Rhett Constantine (a man who's been giving out recommendations for two decades), we've curated a list of must-dos that will leave you wanting more of Melbourne. Whether you're into cuisine, culture or cocktails, you'll find your perfect day out right here. Check out the rest of our Explore More content series to hone your itinerary for some of Australia's best holiday destinations. FOOD & DRINK MARKET LANE COFFEE AND QUEEN VICTORIA MARKETS Melbourne is a city that runs on coffee. It is a pillar of the economy as both a primary export and a productivity booster, and as a result, we've perfected it. And among some of the world's best coffee establishments is the king: Market Lane. The cute and efficient little operation has a few cafes in the city and inner-northern suburbs, but we recommend heading to their stall at the Queen Vic market. Pair your impeccable brew with something from their endless supply of varied baked goods. Don't miss: On Saturdays, have your coffee with a handful of doughnuts from the American Doughnut van. Some clichés make sense and coffee and doughnuts is one of 'em. CLAYPOTS SEAFOOD Melbourne's beaches may be a little frosty, but the seafood on the shores is exceptional. Claypots in St Kilda is one of the most well-known seafood eateries, so book in advance or you may miss out entirely. The menu is almost entirely seafood and changes depending on the haul of the day. You have to try their signature claypots ($20), with flavour profiles like the Orpheus (red wine, sweet pepper and capsicum) and the Singapore (chilli, coriander, and ginger sauce). We also recommend trying the king prawns and fresh fish dishes (prices vary) if you want to indulge. Usually, the atmosphere is romantic, warm and boisterous, thanks to live music and close quarters, making it the perfect destination for a special dinner. Don't miss: It's all in the name — at least one claypot is a must. MADAME BRUSSELS ROOFTOP BAR There's something hopelessly romantic about rooftop bars, and Madame Brussels is the queen of them all. Situated conveniently on Bourke Street, the iconic establishment is styled to look like a really fancy, if a little kitschy, garden party, with white lattice, fake flowers and wrought-iron chairs you might remember from your grannie's garden. The open-air deck is cosy, designed for reclining instead of standing. We recommend trying the (hilariously named) boards: the Rather Fancy and Slightly Smelly Old Cheese Plate ($28) or the Butch charcuterie board ($30). Don't miss: A jug of Pimms in the sun — it will have you feeling as fancy as the royal family. SUPERNORMAL FOR DINNER You're going to have make some hard choices when it comes to dining in Melbourne. There's just so many world-class venues and never enough evenings to explore them all. But, trust us, you don't want to miss Supernormal. Don't let the name deceive you; it's anything but normal. We recommend sharing a few smaller dishes so you can sample broadly from the menu. Try the tuna with perilla and kombu ($19) and the pot-sticker dumplings ($15), and make sure you don't overeat, because you're going to want stomach space to fit in their famous dessert. Don't miss: The peanut butter parfait ($15). It is known far and wide as Melbourne's most indulgent dessert. Seriously, this dish could run for mayor and win, it's so beloved. And it's no wonder: creamy PB parfait mixed with salted caramel and served with soft chocolate is a winning combo. ART & DESIGN VIVIEN ANDERSON GALLERY One of St Kilda's less obvious but most important art spaces, the Vivien Anderson Gallery showcases the work of prominent Indigenous artists. Over the last 20 years, the gallery has moved locations several times to accommodate for its growth, but all the while it's been dedicated to displaying and encouraging Indigenous art. It's a small and intimate gallery that lends itself well to introspection and quiet contemplation. They curate thoughtful, small-scale displays of individual works and artefacts or thematic group exhibitions, and the staff are all knowledge and passionate about Indigenous art. A must-do when visiting St Kilda. Don't miss: Picking the brains of the staff to get more insight into what's on the walls. NGV AND ACCA No trip to Melbourne is complete without a visit to the National Gallery of Victoria, the crowning jewel of Melbourne's art scene. All the big exhibitions that grace our shores can be found there, but the permanent collections are worth your time too. The international collection contains works from big names like Picasso, Monet, Renoir, Degas, Rubens, Manet and a host of Australian artists, so even if you turn up between key exhibits, there's always something pretty to stare at. And just over the way is the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, which is a work of art in itself. You'll be able to pick it a mile away for the stark, rusty steel facade and awkward angles. Don't miss: Stop at the Malthouse Theatre's cafe, which shares a courtyard with ACCA, and drink it all in. LANEWAYS TOUR (STOPPING OFF AT A FEW KEY COFFEE HOUSES) Melbourne is known for its street art scene, and nowhere is it more prominent and competitive than in the crowded laneways of the CBD. Start on Bourke Street Mall with Union Lane, a smelly but graf-heavy place. It's usually packed with tourist taking pics, so try to get in early. While you're skulking around the laneways, stop in at Dukes Coffee Roaster on Flinders Lane, one of the city's smallest but best coffee vendors. The City of Melbourne have a recommended route to hit all the best laneways and arcades, which is a good place to start. If you want to venture further afield, head to Fitzroy, where you'll the find the George Costanza mural near George's Bar and the work of renowned artist Ghostpatrol along Napier Street. Don't miss: Sniders Lane, home of the famous Kim K and Kendall mural. WELLBEING & LEISURE SOUTH MELBOURNE MARKET There are some incredible permanent markets in Melbourne that create a lot of competition for one another. On the southside, South Melbourne Market is the best of the bunch. It's a huge undertaking, so give yourself a whole morning to wander through the many stalls. Grab a coffee and almond croissant from Padre (Stall 33) to start you off right, then make your way over to Azalea, the florist and nursery in stall 49. It's always bursting with Aussie native blooms, gorgeous smells and reasonably priced plant-babies. Lunch at Proper and Son is always fresh (and realllllly well priced). We recommend the prosciutto, bocconcini and peach salad ($10.50) or field mushroom and haloumi with romesco sauce in a roll ($11.50). Don't miss: SO:ME Space, the permanent and semi-permanent installation for fashion and design. They rotate between pop-ups regularly, and you'll always find handcrafted, one-off pieces from Melbourne designers. STUDLEY PARK BOATHOUSE On a fine day, take an Uber to Yarra Bend Park. Follow the rolling hills and winding turns in the Yarra until you come to Studley Park. Over a bridge and alongside the river you'll find the Studley Park Boathouse, an idyllic little wonderland that backs onto the Yarra. At this point you can choose to rent a rowboat and cruise the river trying to look cool in a safety vest, or recline on the bank with a scone and beer and survey the rowboat carnage. Rowboat rental for two people is $40 an hour and you'll need some form of ID. And, word of warning, make sure you play nice with the duck families that cruise the waterway. Don't miss: You came all this way, so rent a rowboat and enjoy the Notebook-level romance. ACLAND STREET TO LUNA PARK WALK IN ST KILDA Even though it's only a 25-minute tram ride out of the city, St Kilda is like another world. There's a fine layer of sand on everything, people walk around with no shoes on, and everything is totally cowabunga. But the most cowabunga thing (are we using that right?) about St Kilda's main drag, Acland Street, is the bakery shop windows filled with treats. We recommend a cake crawl, stopping in at Le Bon Continental Cake Shop, Europa Cake Shop and Monarch Cakes, if you have the stamina. Don't miss: A visit to Luna Park and its rickety wooden rollercoaster — preferably before you eat all the cake. Explore more with Pullman. Book your next hotel stay with Pullman and enjoy a great breakfast for just $1.
When the Gold Coast Film Festival kicks off for 2025, it'll launch with a Carey Mulligan-starring British comedy about a man keen to get his favourite musicians back together. By the time that it wraps up after a 12-day run, the event will have seen Pete Murray and Peter Andre grace its screens as actors, and also walk its red carpets. This year's event isn't solely focusing on flicks with a connection to music, but that theme is coming through anyway. Two more examples: documentary Pavements, which focuses on the band Pavement but is far from your standard doco, and a retro session of musical favourite Grease. Mulligan (Spaceman) features in The Ballad of Wallis Island, while Murray makes his first feature film in Blue Horizon and Andre takes his first lead movie role in dramedy Jafaican. Story-wise, the first also involves a lottery winner on an isolated island, the second follows a music star who might be heading to jail and the third — which is world-premiering on the Gold Coast — focuses on a small-time criminal attempting to rustle up cash fast to look after his grandmother. Across Wednesday, April 30–Sunday, May 11, GCFF 2025 also has sport in the spotlight via documentaries Queens of Concrete, about three skateboarders trying to balance being teens with attempting to score an Olympics berth; 7 Beats Per Minute, which hones in on freediving champion Jessea Lu; and Ballkids, chronicling the eponymous position at the Australian Open. The Edge, another world premiere, chronicles the experience of being an elite athlete for three women, including Australian powerlifter Lily Riley. In The Cigarette Surfboard, too, surfer Taylor Lane uses his love for riding the waves as a way to learn and raise awareness about protecting the beaches, especially from cigarette butts. Among this years' Australian contingent — in addition to Blue Horizon and the bulk of the sports-related titles above — drama Kangaroo Island charts a homecoming to the place that gives the movie its name, Hagar's Hut puts a young girl who is escape abuse at its centre, romance Christmas Keepsake adds a festive layer, body-swapping drives Carnal Vessels and My Eyes is based on true events as it tells of an optometrist attempting to save her daughter's sight. My Tai is a comedy but it might feel timely, given that it's about a bar threatened by an impending cyclone. The international lineup includes Japanese drama Cottontail, French comedy Funny Birds, India's Together at 35, Yellowjackets star Sophie Nelisse in the World War II-set Irena's Choice and a bookseller endeavouring to avoid escaping into fantasy in France's Jane Austen Wrecked My Life — and also Architecton, a musing on architecture from Victor Kossakovsky, the director behind the 2020's stunning animal-centric documentary Gunda. For attendees keen for a feast of short films, SIPFEST, Shorts in Paradise remains on the GCFF lineup as well, screening for free on the HOTA Outdoor Stage. And for those eager to do more than watch movies, the Women in Film Lunch is back, while the Gold Coast Film Festival Awards Gala will feature a celebration of 2025 Chauvel Award-winner Robert Connolly (The Dry, Force of Nature: The Dry 2, Magic Beach). "The 2025 Gold Coast Film Festival is set to be our most exciting yet, with a bold and diverse programme that celebrates incredible storytelling from Australia and around the world. From red carpet galas and world premieres to inspiring industry events, GCFF continues to champion filmmakers, connect audiences and showcase the Gold Coast as a vibrant hub for cinema," said GCFF CEO Luke Wheatley, announcing the program. "We can't wait to welcome film lovers, industry professionals, and storytellers to experience the magic of the festival." [caption id="attachment_997752" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Screenshot[/caption] The 2025 Gold Coast Film Festival runs from Wednesday, April 30–Sunday, May 11 at HOTA, Home of the Arts and other venues on the Gold Coast. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the festival website.
Over the past few months, residents of southeast Queensland have weathered quite the rollercoaster ride when it comes to COVID-19 restrictions. The area has been through two separate lockdowns, and seen strict rules put in place after each stay-at-home stint, with requirements tightening and loosening — and then tightening and loosening once more — again and again. But, in some welcome good news, current restrictions will start to relax earlier than originally expected. And, these new changes will come into effect just in time for the weekend. From 4pm on Friday, August 20, southeast Queensland will ease some of its limits and caps even further, including rolling back existing restrictions regarding gatherings and events. So, get ready for bigger parties, more folks hanging out in the great outdoors, and busier shows, gigs and sporting matches. That's able to become a reality thanks to low local COVID-19 case numbers over the past few days, including zero new cases on Wednesday, August 18. At this stage, the new rules will apply until 4pm on Friday, August 27. Wondering what's changing in the Brisbane, Moreton Bay, Ipswich, Lockyer, Somerset, Logan, Redland, Sunshine Coast, Gold Coast, Noosa and Scenic Rim Local Government Areas? There'll be a 30-person limit on gatherings in homes or outdoors — and a 100-person cap on weddings and funerals. At weddings, 20 people will also be able to hit the dance floor. Community sport can resume with reduced spectators and in line with density requirements. Up to 30 people will be able to gather in homes and public spaces. Weddings and funerals can have up to 100 attendees, and up to 20 people can dance at weddings. — Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) August 18, 2021 Another big shift that'll hit at the same time: amending the capacity at both indoor and outdoor stadiums and events. If they're ticketed and have allocated seating, they can fill to 75-percent capacity. Also, community sport can return, albeit with the 75-percent ticketed and allocating seating capacity requirement for spectators — or the one person per-four-square-metres indoors and one person per-four-square-metres outdoors rules in effect. And, folks in the 11 LGAs that've been under tighter rules are no longer asked not to travel to regional Queensland — so yes, venturing further afield is back as well. Mask rules are changing, too, with covering your face only required in indoor spaces, while waiting for or using public transport or ride share services, at schools, and if you're outdoors and can't socially distance. Queensland has a standing mask mandate for flights, airports and stadiums, though, so you'll always need to mask up there. And, you'll still always need to carry a mask with you. Here's what you need to know about the easing of restrictions in some parts of Queensland from 4pm Friday 20 August 👇 pic.twitter.com/XeoAE7otTg — Annastacia Palaszczuk (@AnnastaciaMP) August 18, 2021 Announcing the changes — and the fact that the rules are relaxing earlier than the originally advised date of Sunday, August 22 — Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said "we faced a very tough test in the past month with the Indooroopilly cluster and two cases in Cairns. But once again, Queenslanders proved they were up to the challenge." "I have no doubt that the restrictions put in place saved lives," the Premier continued. "But we are now in the fortunate position of being able to wind back these restrictions so people can resume a life as normal as possible." Queenslanders are asked to keep social distancing, maintaining the hygiene practices that have been in place since March 2020, and checking the state's list of exposure sites — and to get tested if you're feeling even the slightest possible COVID-19 symptoms. Southeast Queensland's COVID-19 restrictions will relax further from 4pm on Friday, August 20. For more information about the status of COVID-19 in Queensland, head to the QLD COVID-19 hub and the Queensland Health website.
Maybe you love nothing more than telling simulated people what to do. Perhaps a fantasy universe is your favourite place to escape to when you're mashing buttons. More than a quarter-century back, virtual critters might've been your go-to pastime. The Sims, World of Warcraft and Neopets have all made an impact on the gaming world, and on audiences. All three are also scoring plenty of love at Game Worlds at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in Melbourne. For five months between Thursday, September 18, 2025–Sunday, February 8, 2026, this video-game exhibition is shining a spotlight on 30 iconic titles — and making attendees feel like they're stepping inside some of them, too. Expect everything from original concept art and never-before-seen designs to rare objects at the Federation Square site's Gallery 4. Expect to get playing, rather than just peering, as well. [caption id="attachment_997872" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Electronic Arts[/caption] Although the full lineup of games featured hasn't been revealed as yet, they'll span from the 70s until now, and 20 of them will be playable. Demos, games from years gone by, trying to break speed records: they're all part of the setup, which will include international hits, new Australian releases and everything in-between. ACMI has staged major video-game showcases before. This is its third, in fact, following 2008's Game On and 2012's Game Masters. Since the latter, the venue has also hosted smaller gaming exhibitions, such as 2017's Code Breakers — where women in the industry were the focus — and 2024's Honk! Untitled Goose Exhibition. Earlier in 2025, it celebrated 25 years of The Sims across one nostalgic weekend. As it regularly does with its showcases, the gallery will pair Game Worlds with talks, film screenings and other events, family-friendly activities among them. [caption id="attachment_997868" align="alignnone" width="1920"] World of Neopia[/caption] Top images: Blizzard Entertainment.
Every July, celebrating all things French is always on the agenda, all thanks to Bastille Day. Here's one particularly tasty way to do just that: free croissants. Throughout the entire month, every day from Monday–Saturday each week, King Street Bakery is handing out 100 free buttery, flaky, oh-so-delicious pastries. In total, it'll give away 2500 plain croissants across the whole of July. The two caveats: to get your hands around (and tastebuds enjoying) a croissant without paying a cent, you will need to buy a barista-made beverage. You'll also need to get in early each day, because it's a first in, first served kind of deal. There's also only one free croissant available per person per day — and if you're wondering why there's none at all on Sundays, that's because King Street Bakery isn't open then. Still, we know exactly the two words you're looking for: très bon. While you're making the trip to Bowen Hills, if you feel like tucking into the rest of the bakery's wares — such as its viennoiseries, its range of tarts (both sweet and savoury), and its Parisian-style breakfast and lunch range — that's understandable. That part won't be free, though.
This year has seen a lot of us spending a whole heap more time at home, and we can't think of a better excuse for a little domestic spruce up. Or, at the very least, a neat new rug to adorn your living room floor. If it is time for a rug refresh, expect to find some winning options among Miss Amara's huge three-week sale. The online rug retailer is dishing out deals with 15 percent off each of its three best-selling rug styles across three weeks. First up, its boho rugs, with designs like the luxe wool Camilla, are on sale from October 11–18. Then, you can nab 15 percent off minimal rugs from October 21–29, and score savings across the whole collection of tribal rugs from November 1–8. Having trouble choosing? Answer a few questions online about your space and your preferences, and Miss Amara's virtual stylist will help you find your ideal rug match. What's more, you can take your favourites for a visual test drive, thanks to the virtual room simulator. Just click the button that says 'See This In My Room' below any product, snap a photo of your space and see how well they pair. And to get even more of a taste, Miss Amara will even let you try a rug at home, with free refunds and returns if it doesn't tick the right boxes. As an added bonus, Miss Amara offers free delivery across Australia, too. https://www.instagram.com/p/CFrT2KLn0gt/ FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
Fat Freddy's Drop are no strangers to our shores. In fact they were here just last year performing one of the gigs of 2012, the jaw-dropping audiovisual album preview at the Sydney Opera House as part of
UPDATE, June 1, 2024: Godzilla Minus One is available to stream via Netflix. Since 1954, there have been few pieces of movie music as meaningful, magnificent and momentous as Akira Ifukube's Godzilla theme. It's a tune of urgency and spirit, and of foreboding and triumph alike. The OG feature that brought Japan's towering kaiju to the screen isn't a masterpiece simply due to its score, but the picture's main song contributes as forcefully as Zilly's big bite. Memorable film music doesn't solely make an impact when it is echoing, though. When Ifukube's all-timer fades away in a Godzilla flick can impart as much as when it resounds. Godzilla Minus One knows this expertly, because the first Japanese live-action entry in the franchise since 2016's exceptional Shin Godzilla is a movie about living in the silent shadow and aftermath of devastation in addition to being about its namesake making an appearance in post-World War II Tokyo. A film that deploys its theme so artfully, precisely and potently is a film that knows how to thoughtfully ponder more deeply than a gash from pop culture's ultimate giant lizard. That's evident from Godzilla Minus One's name as well, which references the desolated state that Japan was in at the 20th century's midpoint, plus the magnified ruin that comes with Godzilla being Godzilla. Writer and director Takashi Yamazaki (Lupin III: The First, Ghost Book) tackles everything in his entry to the creature-feature saga with that kind of care and insight, and the picture that results isn't just better for it — it's one of the best Godzilla efforts yet. Electrifyingly moving and heartfelt, it's the Godzilla movie equivalent of the blazing blue spikes that its chief critter now sports. It dazzles and stands out, including at a time when the kaiju is everywhere, with the American Monsterverse fresh from 2014's Godzilla, 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters and 2021's Godzilla vs Kong, plus Monarch: Legacy of Monsters on streaming, and with 2024's Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire on the way. Yamazaki doesn't just go back to Godzilla's beginnings. He ventures further into the past, albeit still to Odo Island. As the Second World War is almost at an end, the land mass is being used as an aviation hub. Kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima (Ryunokuke Kamiki, Suzume) arrives to escape having to donate his life to the war effort, only for Godzilla to emerge. The same situation awaits, and the same outcome. Kōichi survives alongside mechanic Sosaku Tachibana (Munetaka Aoki, Fence); however, this won't be anyone's last encounter with the mutated, ferocious, radiation-breathing dinosaur-like being that was initially conjured up as a metaphor for the trauma inflicted in that war, and by atomic weaponry. While Godzilla still represents the fallout from and anxiety sparked by going nuclear, and due to combat in general, Godzilla Minus One stamps its way among the series' greats by being delicately and affectingly attuned to the human toll. The fact that he still lives while others fell victim to Godzilla haunts Kōichi as Yamazaki's film tracks him in subsequent months and years. Movies about the monster who has multiple Tokyo statues dedicated to it can also turn their commentary inwards, towards Japan — so, after Shin Godzilla leaned on bureaucratic bungling to nod to the Fukushima meltdown, Godzilla Minus One tears into the military concept that a single life is expendable. Being wracked with survivor's guilt and dismay over abandoning his kamikaze mission drives Kōichi to seek redemption once Godzilla returns, and disrupts the makeshift family that he forms with Noriko (Minami Hamabe, Shin Kamen Rider) and a baby orphaned in the Japanese capital's bombing. Lingering over the narrative, though, is the truth that every person and their time alive matters, and that people banding together can take on colossal problems — yes, that means Godzilla. Kōichi's first post-war job: ridding the sea of mines, another gig where his existence is treated as expendable. Jaws sinks its teeth in as inspiration as the ragtag cleanup crew take to their task — and, of course, as a formidable figure from the deep surfaces to wreak havoc. Yamazaki matches the blockbuster thrills of Steven Spielberg's game-changer, masterfully crafting tense ocean-set sequences that are a spectacle to behold. In the air, the Top Gun flicks get a run for their money. When Zilly tramples through Ginza, complete with train carnage that tops Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One, it's another stunning moment. When you have a background in special effects, as Godzilla Minus One's guiding force does — including on Shin Godzilla — gifting the screen one of its best visual renderings of Godzilla yet isn't a given, but Yamazaki repeatedly delivers with the craggy-skinned, plate-clad critter and the damage it causes. Viewers can see it all clearly, too; there's no hiding shoddy CGI in dim night scenes here. Also as plain as not just day, but as a skyscraper-sized beast: that the people dwarfed by Godzilla Minus One's eponymous presence are suffering and grieving both individually and en masse. Although performances aren't reliably among the highlights when the king of the monsters is in the frame, film or genre, Kamiki, Hamabe, Aoki, Sakura Ando (Shoplifters) and Hidetaka Yoshioka (Dr Coto's Clinic) — the latter pair as one of Kōichi and Noriko's neighbours, and a big-thinking scientist, respectively — are all terrific. The weight and toll, stakes and pain, and fears and horrors that Godzilla is wrapped up in as a symbol are resonantly conveyed in their portrayals, which also enjoy a similar role as Ifukube's always-rousing theme song. Words, sounds and tunes can say much, and do, yet the emptiness when they're hushed can also speak volumes. Godzilla Minus One understands the importance of both, and how to balance the two. Now 37 live-action entries in, Godzilla is the longest-running film franchise ever, a feat befitting an on-screen titan in multiple senses of the word. Over the saga's 69 years to-date, almost everything that can happen in a Godzilla movie has, for better and worse — "an internet" being the saviour in the awful 1998 first American flick proving a prime case of the series' direst of developments — but Godzilla Minus One shows that the finest instances won't ever stop thundering with surprises. When a Godzilla feature is as substantial as this one, spawning seven more decades of films feels warranted. The possibilities continue to be endless. So far, no one has made a mashup movie starring the two hugely popular creatures both linked to Bikini Atoll, aka Godzilla and SpongeBob SquarePants, for example. Nothing beats Zilly blasting into the world that created it, however — back in 1954 when Ifukube's music first delighted and, with composer Naoki Satô's (Kazama Kimichika: Kyojo Zero) score assisting, also now.
Every December, fans of sparkling sights are gifted a luminous feast for their eyes. No, we're not talking about Christmas lights. Regardless of whether you're bathing in a festive glow or hardly fond of all the merriment, 'tis the season for the Geminids meteor shower to soar through the sky — starting back on Sunday, December 4 and finishing for 2022 on Tuesday, December 20. Yes, that means that this shower is visible right now. Even better: Down Under, it's at its peak on the evening of Wednesday, December 14 and the morning of Thursday, December 15. If you have a telescope at hand, it's clearly a great time to put it to use. Eager to catch a glimpse, even from just your backyard or balcony? Here's everything you need to know. [caption id="attachment_882304" align="alignnone" width="1920"] ESO/G. Lombardi via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] WHAT IS IT Lighting up the end-of-year skies, the Geminids meteor shower is considered the most spectacular meteor shower of the year. Again, Christmas lights aren't the only spectacle worth peering at this month. The Geminids is caused by a stream of debris, left by an asteroid dubbed the 3200 Phaethon, burning up in Earth's atmosphere — and it was first observed in 1862. Some years, you can catch as many as 150 meteors every 60 minutes, so this definitely isn't just any old meteor shower. [caption id="attachment_699423" align="alignnone" width="1920"] NASA, Marshall Space Flight Center, Jeff Dai.[/caption] WHEN TO SEE IT The 2022 shower kicked off on Sunday, December 4, but it really is just getting started. While the Geminids runs through until Tuesday, December 20 this year, it's expected to be at its peak in Australia overnight between Wednesday, December 14–Thursday, December 15. If you fancy a stint of stargazing, the best time to look up is on Wednesday, December 14 from around 9pm in Brisbane, 10pm in Perth, 11pm in Sydney, 11.30pm in Adelaide and 12am in Melbourne. The best time to catch an eyeful will be after midnight, when the moon has set and its light will not interfere, but before sunrise. [caption id="attachment_882301" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mike Durkin via Flickr[/caption] HOW TO SEE IT For your best chances, it's worth getting as far away from bright lights as possible. This could be a good excuse to head out of the city to a clear-skied camping spot — and pray for no clouds. To see the meteors, you'll need to give your eyes around 15–30 minutes to adapt to the dark (so try to avoid checking your phone) and look to the northeast. The shower's name comes from the constellation from which they appear to come, Gemini. So that's what you'll be looking for in the sky. To locate Gemini, we recommend downloading the Sky Map app — it's the easiest way to navigate the night sky (and is a lot of fun to use even on a non-meteor shower night). If you're more into specifics, Time and Date also has a table that shows the direction and altitude of the Geminids. The Geminids meteor shower runs from Sunday, December 4–Tuesday, December 20, and will be at its peak during the night on Wednesday, December 14–Thursday, December 15. For further details, head to Time and Date. Top image: A composite of 163 photos taken over 90 minutes during the Geminids by Jeff Smallwood for Flickr.
If you've made it to the middle of March without starting to count down until the Easter and ANZAC Day long weekends, congratulations: you're stronger-willed that most. Beginning to think about more than just a few days off sometime soon? If you're keen to travel from the very end of April 2025, you're in luck: Virgin has just dropped a new flight sale. Book in that annual leave, because you can take a discounted trip to Hamilton Island, Uluru, Bali, Fiji, Queenstown, the Gold Coast, the Sunshine Coast, Hobart and more. The sale covers one-million fares, both Australian and international destinations among them, and prices start at $45. Yes, that $45 fare is for the Sydney–Byron Bay route, for a one-way ticket. You can also head to the Gold Coast from Sydney from $65, from Brisbane to Proserpine for $69 and from Melbourne to the Sunshine Coast from $109. Prefer a Hamilton Island getaway instead? Flights there kick off at $109 from Brisbane and Sydney, and $139 from Melbourne. Other deals elsewhere span Sydney–Melbourne from $95, Brisbane–Hobart from $115, Brisbane–Uluru from $129, Melbourne-Perth from $195 and Sydney–Perth from $199. Do scenic sights further afield call your name? Your overseas options include Melbourne–Queenstown from $425, Gold Coast–Bali from $489, Brisbane–Port Vila from $499, Sydney–Nadi from $569 and Brisbane–Apia from $689, all return. You've got until midnight AEST on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 to book, unless sold out earlier. And the cheap fares, which are valid in both directions between each point in the discounted route, start with Virgin's Economy Lite option — although there are also business seats on offer. Wondering when you'll need to travel? These deals cover periods between Wednesday, April 30, 2025–Wednesday, February 11, 2026, with all dates varying per route. Inclusions also differ depending on your ticket and, as usual when it comes to flight sales, you'll need to get in quick. Virgin's March 2025 sale runs until midnight AEST on Wednesday, March 26, 2025 — unless sold out earlier. 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.
If watching a stage full of people sing and dance their hearts out is your idea of a great night out, then the next 12 months or so are going to be like musical theatre Christmas. With lockdowns in Sydney and Melbourne set to end, a heap of big musicals have firmed up their Australian dates or locked in their postponed seasons — big shows such as Moulin Rouge! The Musical, The Phantom of the Opera, Jagged Little Pill the Musical, Come From Away and Hamilton — and, in January 2022, they'll be joined by West End and Broadway hit Girl From the North Country. For Bob Dylan fans, that name will be familiar. It's the title of one of the legendary folk singer's 1963 songs — a tune that features in this musical, naturally. Indeed, the entire show uses Dylan's tracks, including everything from 'Like a Rolling Stone' and 'Hurricane' to 'Slow Train' and 'I Want You', all weaved throughout a story of American life during the Great Depression. Making its Australian premiere at the 2022 Sydney Festival, and kicking off from Wednesday, January 5 at Theatre Royal Sydney, 108 King Street, Sydney, Girl From the North Country takes place in a guesthouse in the US state of Minnesota in 1934. The story revolves around owner Nick, who is deeply in debt; his wife Elizabeth, whose mind is fraying; and their pregnant daughter Marianne — as well as a bible-slinging preacher and a boxer endeavouring to make a comeback. [caption id="attachment_827941" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tristram Kenton[/caption] Overseas, the musical has enjoyed sell-out seasons since it first debuted in London in 2017 — heading from The Old Vic to West End, next leaping to the US for an off-Broadway run, and then hitting up Toronto, returning to West End and premiering on Broadway before the pandemic in early 2022. Locally, the debut Aussie season will star Lisa McCune (The King and I, South Pacific), Zahra Newman (The Book of Mormon, Wentworth), Terence Crawford (Escape From Pretoria, 1984) and Helen Dallimore (Wicked, Legally Blonde), with more cast members set to be announced closer to the show's dates. Girl From the North Country will open at Theatre Royal Sydney, 108 King Street, Sydney from Wednesday, January 5, 2022. For further information or to buy tickets, head to the musical's Australian website.
One day, in the not-so-distant future, perhaps Brisbanites will take their pet puppers with them everywhere. For now, we'll all just have to grab our four-legged best friends and head to another doggo market. It's the trend that won't go away, and we'd all be barking mad if we wanted it to. More excuses to take energetic ol' Rufus places? More chances to go "awwwww" over other people's pooches? Count us in. The returning Doggo Day Markets are the latest such event, taking over Virginia's VEND Marketplace between 8am–2pm on Saturday, September 17. The shindig's name also acts as your instructions, so round up your woofer and take them on an outing. There's even a dress-up competition, as there usually is at these things. That's how adorable pups get even cuter. Also on the agenda: doggy stalls, a dog play area, a dog wash, a dog photobooth and dachshund races, plus the northside spot's general array of markets and greenery — and an ice cream truck (for humans), too.
NAIDOC Week is an opportunity for all people of Australia to celebrate the history, culture and achievements of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. In the past, the "National Aborigines and Islanders Day Observance Committee" were responsible for organising the events of NAIDOC Week, and since then the acronym has become the name of the event itself. NAIDOC Week will be held from Sunday, July 4 to Sunday, July 11 this year. Typically, NAIDOC Week kicks off on the first Sunday of July every year and runs for one week. The dates are a nod to National Aboriginal Day, which was previously celebrated on the second Friday of July. The theme of NAIDOC Week this year is 'Heal Country!'. Grounded in Country, this theme calls for the recognition, protection and maintenance of all aspects of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander culture. But in order to achieve this, it's essential that historical, political and administrative settings adapt in order to empower and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Check out the NAIDOC Week website for more information about the origins of the week and this year's theme. [caption id="attachment_817386" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: Supplied by Clothing The Gaps.[/caption] WHY IS NAIDOC WEEK SO SIGNIFICANT? To further understand what NAIDOC Week means for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, @blakbusiness hosted an anonymous survey across Instagram. From Trawlwoolway to Kuku Yalanji, respondents came from over 30 Aboriginal and Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait Islands) nations. When asked what NAIDOC Week means for them, the majority of respondents expressed ideas of community, pride and strength. "NAIDOC is a week of celebrating and coming together with mob from all over the country. It's a week that makes me very proud to be an Aboriginal person," one submission said. Another respondent succinctly explained that NAIDOC Week for them was a "time of reflection, remembering important people in our community, a time to celebrate but also knowing what this week comes from. Knowing that it came from resistance, strength, fighting for justice, fighting against colonialism, white supremacy, ongoing acts of genocide, and celebration of invasion. NAIDOC is for us, and for many, it's a time to celebrate who we are unapologetically, loud and proud." When asked about the importance of the theme Heal Country, one respondent explained the theme meant: "Protecting the earth, because we need her and she needs us. We came from the soil and mob who aren't with us have returned to the soil so we're looking after them too." Another submission said of this year's NAIDOC Week theme, "[It means to ensure] we look after and preserve our Country, our roots, so that the next generations have a place to call home and connect to." Respondents also shared thoughts about how they would like non-Indigenous peoples to be involved in NAIDOC Week. "I [would] love to see non-Indigenous Australia celebrating NAIDOC, getting involved in events, lending a hand, paying respect, and most importantly getting educated about our culture and our history and how they can help with healing and positive changes going forward," one anonymous respondent said. [caption id="attachment_767113" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: In My Blood It Runs.[/caption] WHERE YOU CAN LEARN MORE As some of the responses above noted, NAIDOC Week presents a great opportunity to commit to learning more about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, history and culture. But, it can be tricky to figure out where to start. To help you out, here are some resources to check out: Watch Strait to the Plate: A six-part series exploring the food, culture, language and lifestyle of Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait Islands) communities. In My Blood It Runs: An intimate 2019 documentary following ten-year-old, Dujuan, as he is challenged to balance his Arrernte and Garrwa culture with state education. You Can't Ask That — Indigenous: Part of the ABC series 'You Can't Ask That', this episode answers a range of questions about the experience of being Aboriginal. Follow Seed Mob: A branch of the Australian Youth Climate Coalition, Seed is a network of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander youth working to build a movement for climate justice. Our Islands Our Home: Our Islands Our Home is a campaign led by the people of Zenadth Kes (Torres Strait Islands) to protect their island homes from the ongoing climate crisis. Blak Business: Brings together information, knowledge and resources to facilitate broader learning and discussion about a range of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander topics. Read Fire Country by Victor Steffensen: Written by Tagalaka man and fire practitioner, Victor Steffensen, this book explores how the revival of Indigenous fire practices could help to restore our nation for all peoples. Tell Me Why by Archie Roach: Written by Bundjalung and Gunditjmara man, Uncle Archie Roach, this is an intimate and powerful memoir into the experience of being forcibly removed as a child, being raised in foster families, struggling with alcoholism and homelessness, and overcoming it all with music. Our Home, Our Heartbeat by Adam Briggs: Written by Yorta Yorta man Adam Briggs, this is a good book for young readers to learn and celebrate Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples and culture. [caption id="attachment_816553" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: Kee'ahn.[/caption] NAIDOC WEEK EVENTS Hundreds of events will be hosted across the nation by schools, community centres, local councils, workplaces and sporting clubs to celebrate NAIDOC Week. Here are five events happening IRL and online. For more events, research your local Aboriginal Land Council to see what is happening in your area. Naarm (Melbourne) Country and Culture: An evening of storytelling, poetry and music with Tony Birch (Aboriginal, Barbadian, Irish and Afghani), Larissa Behrendt (Eualaya and Kamillaroi) and Kee'ahn (Kuku Yalanji, Jirrbal and Badu Island). Meanjin (Brisbane) Cultural Cooking: Learn about Aboriginal culture through tasting native foods with Quandamooka, Kullilli and Wakka Wakka man Keiron Anderson, of Yalabin Dining. This event is suitable for kids aged 10+. Boorloo (Perth) Cultural Talk with Joe Collard: Listen to Biboolmirn Nyoongar man, Joe Collard, talk about culture and this year's NAIDOC theme. You can also check out the other events being hosted in South Perth Library. Online Free the Flag lunchtime yarn: Did you know the Aboriginal flag is currently under copyright? Clothing The Gaps are leading the campaign to have the Aboriginal flag freed. Join them for this lunchtime yarn to learn about the Aboriginal Copyright issue and the progress of the Free the Flag campaign. NAIDOC Virtual Run Walk Event: Get moving during NAIDOC Week with this virtual run or walk event. Nominate your distance of either 5km, 10km, 21.1km or 42.2km and be rewarded with a medal designed by Gunditjmara artist, Laura Thompson. Top image: Supplied by Clothing The Gaps.
Darren Hanlon has been around awhile now. I remember seeing him play at the Paddington Workers Club (which isn’t there anymore) when I was twenty (which I'm not any more), and he was top notch then. I have changed significantly since I saw Darren play all those years ago, and it seems he has too. He is no longer playing small rooms at smaller bowls clubs – he's now rocking it at the Brisbane Powerhouse. On top of this, he has supported world renowned acts, including the glorious Bright Eyes, and toured the world, jet-setting as far as Latvia, Estonia and Broken Hill! Darren is a gifted storyteller, and wins over large and small audiences alike with his particular brand of gentle folk. He has released in excess of ten albums (including EPs), and this stripped back Christmas tour will see him playing a mix of songs from all of them. For this performance is he sans band, adding a little more intimacy to the gig as he serenades audiences solo. This will be the perfect little Christmas treat, relaxing with the lovely Darren, listening to his beautiful and funny stories, and sharing a little Christmas cheer. Enjoy!
It's hard to imagine sharing anything else with a complete stranger on public transport than the very seat you both happen to sit on. But the Bibliotaxi project based in Sao Paulo, Brazil, makes sharing things on public transport sound not half-bad. The concept behind Bibliotaxi or 'library in a car' was developed by Instituto Mobilidade Verde, or Green Mobility Institute, and combines their causes of sustainability and mobility. The project also aims to encourage 'sharing' in the city of Vila Madalena. Taxi passengers who enter a Bibliotaxi are free to leisurely peruse the books inside the taxi and even borrow (and return) the books if it becomes too hard to part with once their destination is reached. What a great way to revive books. Perhaps the awkward taxi conversation may become more interesting and informed in Sao Paulo, now that there is a library at the passenger's disposal. [Via PSFK]
When St Jerome's Laneway Festival announces its lineup each year, it gives music fans a hefty piece of good news. But, that's never the end of the story. As well as taking to the stage for the fest's main shows in Brisbane, Sydney, Adelaide, Melbourne, Perth and Auckland, plenty of artists on Laneway's bill do sideshows — and the 2024 batch of gigs has just been announced. If you're keen to catch Steve Lacy, Raye, Unknown Mortal Orchestra and AJ Tracey doing their own concerts, now you can. Also on the list: Blondshell, Faye Webster, d4vd, Paris Texas, DOMi & JD Beck and Hemlocke Springs. The one caveat: as can be the case with festival sideshows Down Under, this batch is not only east coast-focused, but almost all about Sydney and Melbourne. Still, you now have more chances to hear 'Bad Habit and 'Escapism', including the former at the Sydney Opera House Concert Hall for two big shows — which is where Unknown Mortal Orchestra will bust out their tunes for one night. If you're wondering about Stormzy and Dominic Fike, they're doing exclusive Laneway tours. Accordingly, if you want to see either (or both), you'll only catch them at the fest. Also, Lacy is exclusive to Laneway in Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth, hence the Sydney-only sideshows. [caption id="attachment_916473" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Callum Walker Hutchinson[/caption] LANEWAY FESTIVAL 2024 SIDESHOWS: BLONDSHELL Friday, February 9 — Corner Hotel, Melbourne Sunday, February 11 — Oxford Art Factory, Sydney FAYE WEBSTER Wednesday, January 31 — The Croxton Bandroom, Melbourne Thursday, February 1 — Metro Theatre, Sydney STEVE LACY Wednesday, January 31–Thursday, February 1 — Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, Sydney UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA Tuesday, January 30 — Sydney Opera House Concert Hall, Sydney Thursday, February 1 — Odeon Theatre, Hobart Friday, February 9 — Forum, Melbourne AJ TRACEY Friday, February 2 — Enmore Theatre, Sydney Thursday, February 8 — Forum, Melbourne PARIS TEXAS Thursday, February 1 — Oxford Art Factory, Sydney Thursday, February 8 — Night Cat, Melbourne DOMI & JD BECK Friday, February 2 — Brunswick Picture House, Brunswick Heads Friday, February 9 — Factory Theatre, Sydney Sunday, February 11 — Corner Hotel, Melbourne D4VD Friday, February 2 — Liberty Hall, Sydney Thursday, February 8 — Croxton Bandroom, Melbourne HEMLOCKE SPRINGS Friday, February 2 — Night Cat, Melbourne Wednesday, February 7 — Oxford Art Factory, Sydney RAYE Wednesday, January 31 — Enmore Theatre, Sydney Thursday, February 1 — Forum, Melbourne St Jerome's Laneway Festival will tour Australia and New Zealand in February 2024. Head to the festival's website for further details and tickets. The festival's sideshows run throughout January and February, with ticketing dates depending on the show — find out more via the Steve Lacy tour website, Unknown Mortal Orchestra tour website and Handsome Tours.
When Super Mario Kart first rolled onto Super Nintendo consoles back in 1992, it came with 20 inventive courses and endless hours of fun. Nearly three decades later, the game has become a beloved phenomenon — not just speeding through desert tracks and rainbow roads, but into reality, through Google Maps and now into theme parks. Come 2020, you'll be able to enjoy a real-life Mario Kart experience as part of Super Nintendo World, which is joining Universal Studios in Osaka. First announced back in 2017, the park is due to open before next year's Tokyo Olympics, with the racing component described as "a new kind of attraction" by Mark Woodbury, President of Universal Creative and Vice Chairman Universal Parks & Resorts. Exactly what the ride will entail is yet to be confirmed; however it's safe to assume that fans will be able to strap into some kind of moving kart. Osaka's Super Nintendo World will also take over multiple levels — fitting for a gaming-themed space — and recreate the brand's popular characters and themes, complete with other rides, restaurants and shops. Again, specific details are sparse; however given that Nintendo's stable includes everything from Super Mario Bros and Donkey Kong to Tetris and The Legend of Zelda, there's plenty to play with. Our suggestions: a tunnel and brick Mario maze and a Donkey Kong water ride that uses the game's iconic aquatic music. Based on the park's adorable groundbreaking ceremony, the first idea mightn't be too far-fetched. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKCqJ8llKuA Can't make it to Japan? Universal Studios is also planning Super Nintendo Worlds for its other parks in Hollywood, Orlando and in Singapore. The latter was just announced this month, and is set to open by 2025. When Super Nintendo World launches at Universal Studios Osaka next year, it'll join Japan's growing list of pop culture-themed attractions — including the towering Godzilla and Gundam statues, the existing Studio Ghibli Museum, the forthcoming Studio Ghibli theme park, Tokyo Disney Resort in general and the Japanese park's upcoming Toy Story hotel, to name just a few. On the international theme park scene, it's also a great time to live out your love for your favourite films, shows and games. As well as all of the above, both Walt Disney World and Disneyland in the US are about to gain Star Wars theme park zones, a Star Wars hotel is also coming to Walt Disney World, and a Marvel hotel is slated for Disneyland Paris.
Debuting in line with this year's BrisAsia Festival, but also remaining on display until Sunday, April 18, the Museum of Brisbane's latest exhibition explores an emotional and important topic with far-reaching repercussions. The artist behind it, documentary photographer Tammy Law, draws from her own family's history with Fractured Dreams & Indefinite Scars — which tackles forced migration and displacement, the ripples it causes and the fact that the aftermath can linger even among those who didn't experience it firsthand. When Law's mother Jenny Phang was pregnant with her in 1986, three generations of her family were deported from Queensland. So, this exhibition cuts close to home in multiple ways. Law has also called upon her siblings Michelle and Benjamin for assistance, with the MoB showcase aiming to get people talking about her subject matter, and to explore the topic from a personal perspective. Fractured Dreams & Indefinite Scars is part of a broader residency, too, with Law hosting open studio sessions from 10am–2pm every Wednesday and Sunday. Accordingly, you can head along to see her work, or to see her in action. An interactive paper-folding activity is also part of the exhibition, if you'd like to take part as well. Images: Tammy Law.
French photographer Léo Caillard is here to remind us that today's classical was once just plain old contemporary with Hipster in Stone. The new photographic series presents some of Western art's most iconic sculptures dressed to impress in a wardrobe more traditionally found tempting us into American Apparel. His show is currently on display at the Art Basel Fair, Switzerland, but the 27-year-old's images have made a (near-viral) impact on the net. One small suggestion, why not call it Kawa à la Musee du Louvre? Art-lovers, relax; you will not be spending that dreaded six hours lined up with the hordes at the Louvre to find this guy anytime soon. As Caillard told the Daily Mail, "The museum wouldn't let me touch the statues", so he went with the trusty ol' Photoshop switcheroo. All he needed was collaborator and digital touch-up man Alexis Persani, some crafty lighting work and his patience during the model castings. Personally, I am pretty keen to see some of the pre-sculpture-imposed versions of these photos. I know we are meant to be pondering questions of fashion identity, the status divide in art and how outward appearances impact on the lived experience — but this man must be built like a wall. Oh, and bearded boys, look away, or prepare for some serious beard envy courtesy of my friend Aristaeus, God of the Gardens: If you're super keen you can pick up your own 30 x 45 inch print of one of these bad-boys (or girls), mounted with plexiglass for a lazy £1500 each ($2480), or just stalk Caillard's website. Via Daily Mail.
The lengthy summer has finally come to an end. And while we may be entering the cosiest seasons of the year, that doesn't mean taking shelter in Oodies with cups of tea in hand. There's still so much to enjoy in this city of ours, even as the chill starts to set in. So we've gathered some of the most exciting events on offer in Sydney this Autumn — from immersive historical exhibitions to elaborate stage shows and community events for good causes. Add these to your to-do list. Ramses & the Gold of the Pharaohs Where else in Sydney can you learn about the life and legacy of one of Egypt's greatest-ever pharaohs than the Australian Museum? It's there you'll find Ramses & the Gold of the Pharaohs — an exclusive multi-sensory, immersive experience for all ages, and it's ending soon. The exhibition explores the life and reign of the late Ramses the Great, Egypt's second longest-reigning Pharaoh, and showcases more than 180 objects, each dating back approximately 3000 years to Egypt's Nineteenth Dynasty. Ramses II lived well into his 90s (extremely uncommon for his day) and each object in this exhibition captures important details of the era of his rule. These include jewellery, ceramics, small mummified animals, royal masks, as well as the immaculately preserved sarcophagus where Ramses was entombed. For an additional fee when booking, there's an optional multi-sensory VR experience that transports you to two of the era's most iconic monuments: Queen Nefertari's tomb and the Abu Simbel's temples. The exhibition is entering its final weeks before it leaves on Sunday, May 19, so get your tickets booked ASAP (tip — it's open over the full Easter weekend). The Greatest Showman Brunch Another significant historical figure (although maybe not quite as significant as Ramses II) is famous showman and con-man PT Barnum. Though a real historical figure, his story was made famous in the 2017 musical film The Greatest Showman starring Hugh Jackman in the title role. The box office hit proved as popular for the soundtrack of bangers as it did for the story itself. Now the PT Barnum circus experience is coming to life for a special Greatest Showman Brunch event at the Potts Point Hotel on Sunday, April 28. Sing, dance or just smile your way through the biggest musical numbers as live performers take to the stage in front of you for a two-hour show. Your ticket includes entry, a welcome drink and a themed brunch to pair with the show. Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour — West Side Story There are musicals, and then there are the musicals that will live forever. West Side Story is one such production and one of the most popular musicals ever to grace the stage since its original run in 1957. It's a classic star-crossed lovers tale inspired by Romeo & Juliet and is one of the seminal popular works by composer Leonard Bernstein, lyrics by musical theatre great Stephen Sondheim, with iconic choreography by the legendary Jerome Robbins. And it's returning to Sydney's most spectacular stage from Friday, March 22 to Sunday, April 21. If you've never had the pleasure, Handa Opera on Sydney Harbour hosts productions of some of the biggest musicals worldwide on a floating stage with the stunning cityscape as its backdrop. The show is just part of the experience. First enjoy the sunset with a drink and dinner from the on-site pop-up eateries, then enjoy a spectacular show with a drink in hand under the stars. Ramadan Nights Lakemba One of the biggest, most beloved events of the season is Ramadan Nights Lakemba. Running every Thursday to Sunday from March 9 to April 8, this free-entry event is one of the most vibrant multicultural events in the entire city. If you've never been, more than 75 local businesses take part in a massive food market from dusk to 3am on Lakemba's Haldon Street. The event is to celebrate the most sacred month in the Islamic calendar, and with steady year-on-year growth in popularity, it is expected to draw in over a million visitors from the local area across Sydney, Australia, and even from overseas. Wandering the busy street, you'll find cuisine from Indonesia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Lebanon, Syria and many more international communities. Expect everything from shawarma and kaak to Syrian ice cream, knafeh and Lebanese coffee. Our tip? Arrive close to dusk to beat the crowds. The Rocky Horror Show The Rocky Horror Show is a classic tale of sex, rock 'n' roll and mad science. Since its debut in 1973 from maestro Richard O'Brien (and the beloved film adaptation in 1975), the raunchy musical has had a meteoric rise from cult to icon status. Now, it's touring Australia for the ongoing 50th anniversary tour, visiting Theatre Royal Sydney from Sunday, March 31 to Sunday, May 12. In case you're among those who haven't had the pleasure of viewing this wild rock masterpiece, it follows a squeaky-clean young couple who experience car troubles while driving on a remote highway and walk to a nearby castle to find help. Waiting in the castle is a mad scientist, his mad staff and an even madder creation. What follows is a night of song, dance and debauchery like no other. [caption id="attachment_945318" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Wild Women On Top[/caption] Coastrek 2024 Coastrek is a massive fitness event that encourages everyday Aussies to strap on some walking shoes and stroll along our stunning coastal walkways on Friday, May 3. The Sydney route stretches along the Northern Beaches from Palm Beach to Balgowlah Heights covering 50km of track. You don't have to walk the full 50km though; registrations are open for 20km or 30km courses too, starting from Long Reef and Mona Vale respectively. Either way, you'll be walking some of the most picturesque beaches in the world. Most importantly, it's all for a good cause, with each registered team tasked to raise $2000 for the Heart Foundation. Ramses & the Gold of the Pharaohs is ending soon on Sunday, May 19. For more information or to book tickets visit the website. For more to do in Sydney, keep exploring here on Concrete Playground.
If you live in Brisbane, you've heard all about the city's connections with Asia; we are the home of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art and the Asia Pacific Screen Awards, after all. Since 2013, the BrisAsia Festival has also been on that list, paying homage to the culture of our neighbours. Timed around Lunar New Year — and running from Monday, February 1–Sunday, February 28 this year — the 2021 program features yet another mix of traditional and contemporary Asian arts, channelled into events across Brisbane. And while some of the unmistakable highlights will serve up a feast for your stomach — including the returning BrisAsia Bazaar with markets and street food, a big food fest, and classes that'll teach you to to make dumplings and momos — that's just the beginning of the fun. Where do we start? There's 30-plus events at 20 Brisbane suburbs, so you won't be lacking in things to do. Attend a K-pop celebration, or head to Chinatown to watching lion dances. You can also listen to multiple genres of live music, farewell summer at a South Bank dance party and get decked out in bright hues at Holi – Festival of Colours. Top image: Kim Borg, Ozwide Photography.
It is the one day where national figures for barbecues and house parties spike tremendously, Aussie flags fly proudly and snags are consumed by the million. Australia Day is taking place this weekend, and while most people choose to enjoy it with family and friends in the backyard, there are plenty of other options for those looking to celebrate with style. The South Bank parklands are hosting a great Australia Day party which will be a lot of fun for everyone involved. Australia day activities and performances by great musical talent like Busby Marou and Evermore will ensure that everyone will have a memorable day. Get involved and do what we Aussies do best: party.
When Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows dropped its last terrible three words on us at the close of the book, all was not well. It would never be well without Harry, Ron, Hermione fighting the Dark Lord in a series of fantastical and wholly engrossing scenarios. But, little did we know, this would not be the end of the Age of Harry Potter. Thanks to the internet and the sheer demand for all things HP, Harry has lived on through new books, fan website Pottermore, the Fantastic Beasts film spinoff series and all manner of events dedicated to the franchise. One of the biggest things to come of the post-Harry Potter era has been Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, of course — aka the West End play that's essentially the eighth book in the series. It first arrived in Australia in February 2019, hitting up Melbourne's Princess Theatre, and proved unsurprisingly popular. Now, after closing down during the Victorian capital's 2020 lockdowns, the production has announced that it's returning in 2021. Muggles, rejoice. Harry Potter fandom aside, this is also something that all theatre-goers can get excited about. Since debuting in London in July 2016, the production has won a swathe of awards and has proven a repeated sell-out — in the West End, on Broadway and in San Francisco, too. Melburnians — and other Australian Harry Potter and/or theatre aficionados — can mark Thursday, February 25, 2021 in their diaries, as that's when the magic is returning. The show will resume after a 49-week hiatus, with tickets currently available until Sunday, July 18. If you already hold a ticket for shows originally scheduled for January 20–February 24, those performances are being postponed and rescheduled — and you'll be automatically moved to an alternative date from July 21 onwards (and with the same seats you originally booked). You'll also be given the option to exchange your ticket to an earlier show, if you'd prefer. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gp6ekBcNYY&feature=emb_logo So what exactly is The Cursed Child about? Well, it picks up 19 years after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows and that abominably cheery epilogue on Platform 9 3/4. Harry is now an overworked Ministry of Magic employee, and the play focuses on both him and his youngest son Albus Severus Potter as they grapple with the past and future. The production is presented in two parts, so you'll have to book into two performances, either on the same day (matinee and evening) or on consecutive evenings. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child returns to Melbourne's Princess theatre from Thursday, February 25, 2021, with tickets on sale now. Top image: Evan Zimmerman for Murphy Made.
If there's one region that put the Australian wine industry on the world wine map, it's the Barossa. Its signature style of bold, juicy, and age-worthy red wines has stunned wine critics, experts and novices worldwide. You can't get shiraz like a Barossa shiraz anywhere else. One wine brand that is spruiking its prestige in the region is Krondorf Wines. We chatted with Krondorf's head winemaker and Barossan native, Nick Badrice, about the brand and what makes the Barossa region so special. Tell us a little about yourself and your time at Krondorf Wines. I grew up in the Barossa Valley, so it was natural that I was immersed in the wine industry from a young age. This [current] vintage will see me having completed 35 vintages. I have made wines from many of Australia's premium wine-growing regions including Tasmania, Yarra Valley, Eden Valley and the Barossa Valley. But I also spent several vintages working overseas in Spain making wines from the region's extremely old grenache and tempranillo bush vines. I drive my knowledge and experience from this time to fuel my passion for producing super premium wines under the Krondorf label, using fruit from some of the Barossa Valley's oldest vines. As a native Barossan, do you think wine runs in your veins or is it less nature and more a case of nurture that led you to join the industry? My father and grandfather both worked in the wine industry which led me to do a vintage. My aim was to earn some money to be able to travel overseas, but this didn't go as planned. I ended up loving it — and here we are now. What, in your opinion, sets the Australian wine industry apart from the old-world wine regions of Europe and the new-world wine regions of the Americas and South Africa? The Australian wine industry is always pushing the boundaries to try new things and advance ourselves. Whether it's technology, winemaking techniques, advancements in equipment, or viticulture [grape-growing], we are continually striving to be at the forefront of the industry. The history of the Barossa Valley extends back almost two hundred years and includes the oldest vines in the world — do you think it was always destined to be a wine country, or was it purely chance that led those settlers there? The Silesians [people of Central Europe] who first settled the Barossa in the 1840s practised diversified farming. This includes farming livestock, growing crops, maintaining fruit orchids and small vine gardens. After the first few years, they discovered the grape vines doing particularly well on the fertile soils of the Barossa, which led to further plantings. So, what was once a 'cottage industry' is now recognised as a region that produces some of the most sought-after wines in the world. What makes the region such a perfect spot for this red variety? The Barossa has a warm climate that experiences cool, wet winters and warm, dry summers with low humidity and plenty of sunshine. This combination of dry, sunny days broken by short spells of rainfall creates an uninterrupted ripening period, which allows the grapes to achieve optimum ripeness. It's ideal conditions for full-bodied red wines with exceptional depth, flavour and richness, such as shiraz, cabernet sauvignon and grenache. What time of the year does the region really shine? As a winemaker, harvest time is always the most exciting — the anticipation of the new vintage and the opportunity to create new wines is super exhilarating. The Barossa comes alive during this time. The community also comes together for the bi-annual Vintage Festival, which is a major drawcard for tourists coming to the area during the harvest season. If a complete wine rookie were to ask you 'why should I choose to buy Krondorf?' what would you tell them? Krondorf's winemaking approach is one of minimalism. We use traditional techniques to create wines that showcase the terroir of the wine — the characteristics of the soil type and microclimate of the sites on which the grapes are grown. The range includes super-expressive wines, some of which are made from the oldest vineyards in the region. The Krondorf Kings Mantle Shiraz is the icon shiraz in our range — it's the epitome of Barossa shiraz. What's your recommended care plan to get the best glass out of a bottle of Krondorf shiraz? Do you recommend cellaring or are your wines drinkable now? The Krondorf range includes wines that are delicate, highly fragrant and medium-bodied and made to be drinkable now, and those that are made to be cellared. These wines are typically full-bodied and have amazing richness, concentration, depth of flavour and structure, which will only get better with time. I would recommend carefully cellaring these wines which means storing them somewhere that sits between 12-14 degrees Celsius, with no light and has minimal changes in temperature. A seldom-used wardrobe or cupboard is better than the top of your fridge. Krondorf recently opened a cellar door; what experiences does that offer visitors? The cellar door is located in the township of Tanunda and delivers a high-end, relaxed atmosphere without the stuffiness that can sometimes come along at certain wine tastings. At the cellar door we share a range of sub-regional wines from individual vineyard sites at our masterclass tastings, where the wines are matched with local, regional produce. We immerse our guests in the history of Krondorf and the lives of the early Silesian settlers to the Barossa. What are some local spots in the region for first-time visitors to check out? The Barossa is steeped in history and has so many amazing historical destinations for visitors to experience. My personal recommendation is to visit the historic village of Seppeltsfield, it has an excellent spectacle of palm trees that line the roads and is a must-see. The historic Seppeltsfield winery offers wine tastings, a restaurant and specialty shops, plus it's surrounded by gorgeous gardens. Obviously, the other place I'd recommend for visitors to relax and enjoy a drink is the Krondorf Wines cellar door. Be honest: when you go out for dinner, do you order wine, or do you like to keep your work life out of your personal time? Whenever I'm out to dinner, I always like to check the wine list out of curiosity to see what's on offer. There's often a wine I'd like to drink. As a winemaker, there is always something new to experience, whether it be Australian or international. How do you go about pairing wines? Are you a classic red wine and steak person, or do you have any unusual pairings up your sleeve that always work? To be honest, I don't have any rules here. It's all about experimenting and discovering what does or doesn't work for you. My personal favourite is Barossa grenache matched with fried pig's ears and spicy Sichuan sauce. What's exciting you about the wine industry right now? At Krondorf, we are always looking for better ways to combat climate change and lessen our carbon footprint, it's an important part of our brand's future. We're in the process of transitioning several of our vineyards to organic farming and certification. Our customers are searching for high-quality organic and biodynamic wines, and we want to meet that demand. Plus, increasing sustainable agricultural practices is key to the future of the Australian wine industry. Discover Krondorf Wines and its story at its cellar door in the township of Tanunda in the heart of the Barossa. Book a tasting on the website.
James Bond has never really been comrades with Russia. In fact 007 novels and films were officially banned in the USSR for decades due to their perceived anti-Soviet rhetoric, so the last thing to expect would be the Russian Army Choir covering Adele's sultry Oscar-winning eponymous track to Skyfall but that is exactly what has been delivered to us — and it is fantastic. The singing military septet performed the song in full on Russian breakfast television dressed complete in military garb, supplying a tidal wave of intensity to a song already drowning in it. Singing entirely in English — with a little clipboard help and some minor slip-ups that can be forgiven by their commitment — the youthful soloist beautifully introduces the song before his stern choristers join in to roar the chorus and have the hosts of the show (dressed in their favourite Wiggles block colours) swaying along. The singing sensations have now been viewed more than 1 million times on YouTube. Amidst the (deserved) uproar over Russia's anti-gay laws, brought to light in particular by Stephen Fry's impassioned plea to boycott the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics, hopefully this love ballad can melt the hearts of the Russian administration behind this legislature. Whilst incredibly unlikely, at least we can still enjoy this tingling rendition. Also, check out those hats. Via Huffington Post.
In too many music biopics to count, a star is born — and also rises to fame after putting their talents towards a dream that's inspired them as long as they can remember. Weird: The Al Yankovic Story looks set to follow same formula, and also parody it. It wouldn't be a movie about Weird Al Yankovic if it didn't take something that already works, then give it a satirical spin, now would it? "My whole life, all I wanted was to do... was make up new words to a song that already exists," Yankovic, as played by Daniel Radcliffe (The Lost City), says in the just-dropped full trailer for Weird — in case you thought the film wasn't going to be gloriously ridiculous. This line bookends glimpses of a childhood Al happily thumbing through accordion magazines and getting caught at a polka party. In other words, this humorous look at the man behind oh-so-many humorous songs is taking the exact approach a film about Weird Al really has to. The new trailer follows a teaser back in May, and gives viewers plenty of gifts: accordions, obviously; recreations of Weird Al's film clips and live performances; chaotic meetings with Madonna, as played by Westworld's Evan Rachel Wood; and origin stories behind tracks like 'My Bologna' and 'Like a Surgeon'. The list goes on, and also includes Radcliffe having an absolute ball in the lead role. In his time playing Harry Potter, Radcliffe did many things. He didn't cut like a surgeon, get himself an egg and beat it, or lose on Jeopardy, though. And, he certainly didn't don the curliest of wigs, swan around in Hawaiian shirts with his chest hair flapping in the breeze or pick up an accordion, either — but Weird is making all of the above magic happen. With Radcliffe seemingly having the time of his life as the musician behind 'Another One Rides the Bus', 'Smells Like Nirvana' and 'Amish Paradise' — plus comedic riffs on pretty much every other big song of the past four-plus decades that you can think of — Weird: The Al Yankovic Story really is exactly what it sounds like. It sounds wonderful, too, naturally. Radcliffe sports wire-framed glasses, those shirts, that hair and Yankovic's instantly recognisable moustache in the music biopic, which feels like it was cast by the internet. Made for the Roku Channel in the US, and arriving in America on November 4 — with no details yet dropping about where it'll air Down Under, or when, sadly — this is 100-percent an authorised bio. Yankovic is one of the screenwriters, in fact, alongside director Eric Appel (a TV sitcom veteran with Happy Endings, New Girl, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and top-notch cop-show parody NTSF:SD:SUV on this resume). If the man in the spotlight's career has taught us all anything apart from the wrong words to pop hits, however, it's that he doesn't take a single thing, including himself, seriously. Also set to feature: Yankovic's rise to fame, all those songs, everything from "his torrid celebrity love affairs" to his "famously depraved lifestyle", and a story that follows his journey "from gifted child prodigy to the greatest musical legend of all time" — at least according to the original press release revealing the flick, which sports a healthy sense of humour. When the film was announced, Yankovic gave his input too, of course. "When my last movie UHF came out in 1989, I made a solemn vow to my fans that I would release a major motion picture every 33 years, like clockwork. I'm very happy to say we're on schedule," he said. "And I am absolutely thrilled that Daniel Radcliffe will be portraying me in the film. I have no doubt whatsoever that this is the role future generations will remember him for." Check out the trailer for Weird: The Al Yankovic Story below: Weird: The Al Yankovic Story releases in the US on November 4, but doesn't yet have a release date Down Under — we'll update you when further details are announced.
Expressions Dance Company (Brisbane) and Cathy Sharp Dance Ensemble (Basel, Switzerland) have teamed up for a 60min performance, giving Australians the rare opportunity to experience European-styled contemporary dance at its very best. Inspired by old-fashioned letter writing and modern social networking between dancers from both companies, Scripsi Scriptum is a program of two dance works where the art of communication is questioned. Following the evolution of communication, conversations and questions are explored uniquely through each company’s own style. Although physically and visually contrasting, refined subtleties link the program and take the audience on a thought-provoking journey. The show comes to us after a successful opening season at The Roxy Theatre in Basel, Switzerland, where both companies enjoyed standing ovations every night. Each group are highly regarded in their own countries and the fusion of the two is proving to be an incredible success. Described by the European Press as striking, sophisticated, playful, sexy and acrobatic, each company paint imaginative pictures with their own distinctive choreography and unique style. Come explore the questions of communication and enjoy a completely new fusion of European and Australian styles of contemporary dance through this highly praised program.
Maybe you look forward to winter for the warmer attire. Perhaps you're all about getting cosy at home. Or, if you're a fan of loading up on sweets and carbs, you could have National Doughnut Day marked in your calendar — circled, of course — for a date with free doughnuts. Each year, Krispy Kreme gives away an extremely excessive number of doughnuts. You're probably now wondering what constitutes an excessive amount of doughnuts — and no, polishing off a packet by yourself doesn't count in this instance. Krispy Kreme's giveaway is going big, with the chain slinging 100,000 original glazed doughnuts for the occasion. Whether or not you're a big fan of food 'days', we're guessing you are quite fond of free doughnuts. To snag yourself a signature glazed freebie, head to your closest Krispy Kreme store in New South Wales, Victoria, Queensland, South Australia and Western Australia on Friday, June 7. That gives you a heap of places to flock to, with Sydneysiders able to hit up 18 stores stretching from Penrith to the CBD, Victorians needing to visit nine locations from Chadstone to Collins Street, and Queenslanders given eight different doughnut shops to pick from (with the most central in Albert Street in the CBD). Residents of Perth can make a date with one of four Krispy Kreme locations, while Adelaide has a raft of stores to visit. The National Doughnut Day deal isn't available anywhere other than Krispy Kreme stores, or via online orders or third-party deliveries. There's also a limit of one freebie per person, and the giveaway only applies to the original glazed variety. The 100,000 doughnuts will be spread across the participating shops, so you'll want to get in relatively early if you want to kick off your Friday with a free sweet and doughy treat. Obviously, whether you nab one or not is subject to availability. Krispy Kreme's free doughnut giveaway is happening in the chain's stores around the country on Friday, June 7, 2024. To find your closest shop and check its opening hours, head to the Krispy Kreme website.
UPDATE, September 17, 2021: Another Round is available to stream via SBS On Demand, Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. Even the most joyous days and nights spent sipping your favourite drink can have their memory tainted by a hangover. Imbibe too much, and there's a kicker just waiting to pulsate through your brain and punish your body when all that alcohol inevitably starts to wear off. For much of Another Round, four Copenhagen school teachers try to avoid this feeling. The film they're in doesn't, though. It lays bare the ups and downs of knocking back boozy beverages, and it also serves up a finale that's a sight to behold. Without sashaying into spoiler territory, the feature's last moments are a thing of sublime beauty. Some movies end in a WTF, "what were they thinking?" kind of way — for a recent example, see Wild Mountain Thyme — but this Oscar-shortlisted Danish film comes to a conclusion with a big and bold showstopper that's also a piece of bittersweet perfection. The picture's highest-profile star, Mads Mikkelsen (Arctic), is involved. His pre-acting background as an acrobat and dancer comes in handy, too. Unsurprisingly, the substances that flow freely throughout the feature remain prominent. And, so does the canny and candid awareness that life's highs and lows just keep spilling, plus the just-as-shrewd understanding that the line between self-sabotage and self-release is as thin as a slice of lemon garnishing a cocktail. That's how Another Round wraps up, in one the many masterstrokes splashed onto the screen by writer/director Thomas Vinterberg (Kursk)) and his co-scribe Tobias Lindholm (A War). The film's unforgettable finale also expertly capitalises upon a minor plot detail that viewers haven't realised had such significance until then, and that couldn't typify this excellent effort's layered approach any better. But, ending with a bang isn't the movie's only achievement. In fact, it's full of them. The picture's savvy choices start with its premise, which sees the quiet and reserved Martin (Mikkelsen) and his fellow educators Tommy (Thomas Bo Larsen, Veni Vidi Vici), Peter (Lars Ranthe, Warrior) and Nikolaj (Magnus Millang, The Commune) all decide to put an out-there theory to the test. Motivated by real-life Norwegian psychiatrist Finn Skårderud, they conduct an experiment that involves being permanently sauced. Skårderud has hypothesised that humans are born with a blood alcohol deficit of 0.05 percent, so, with some cajoling needed on Martin's part, the quartet work that idea into their daily lives. Ground rules are established, and the shots, sneaky sips and all-hours drinking swiftly begins. Another Round's concept might initially seem like a gimmick. Contending that constantly being under the influence of alcohol is better for humans than sobriety sounds like something that a teenager might mix up, after all. And yet, that premise is never treated as a goofy stunt by Vinterberg, Lindholm and their cast (even if it's easy to imagine how the sure-to-happen US remake will handle the situation). Instead, Another Round uses its underlying idea to uncork a wealth of sharp and raw insights into men, midlife malaise and group behaviour. It pours out more than a few observations on the weight of societal expectations, and the male tendency to internalise rather than express one's feelings as well. These notions are evident when Martin and his pals start drinking to commence their days and to get through them, but they only get more potent as the film goes on. As the four teachers commit to doing whatever they need to maintain their sloshed state, it doesn't take long for them to veer away from their own guidelines. Also quick and easy: straying away from the high-minded notion that they're getting drunk in the name of science and not just because they're each unhappy with their lives in their own ways. Whether you're a keen social drinker or you stay away from the hard stuff completely, Another Round doesn't trade in unrealistic revelations — because we all know that no amount of alcohol, or lack of it, can ever solve all of life's problems. But the film approaches its subject with equally clear, playful and melancholy eyes, especially where Martin is concerned. Before his friends suggest non-stop day-drinking, he's in a rut. When he asks his wife Anika (Maria Bonnevie, Becoming Astrid) if he's boring, it's obvious that she wants to say yes. At school, his students are so worried about his absence of enthusiasm that they tell him they think his bland teaching could cost them marks in their exams. Then, one drop at a time, he starts proving Skårderud's theory. He's creative, confident and courageous, and feels more like himself. It takes an immense amount of skill on Vinterberg's part to convey that change, ground it in reality and never lose sight of the grim repercussions of overindulging. As aided by the movie's naturalistic colour scheme and graceful framing, it takes just as much to ensure the entire film remains frank, unflinching and yet also warm and sometimes humorous. One of Denmark's best directors, Vinterberg was always going to rise to the challenge. Earning the same description in his own field, the always-excellent Mikkelsen was always going to do the same. They make an exceptional pair; when they last teamed up for 2012's The Hunt, the difficult drama about a teacher accused of acting inappropriately with one of his kindergarten students was one of the cinematic highlights of that year. As everything from Festen to Far From the Madding Crowd have also shown, Vinterberg consistently casts his films well, and Mikkelsen is in top-notch company here. Still, Another Round needs its leading man's versatility, and his ability to flit between stoicism, desperation, quiet despondency and charming swagger in particular. There's a reason that, thanks to the likes of Casino Royale, A Royal Affair, Hannibal, Doctor Strange and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, Mikkelsen has become one of film and television's most engaging performers — and Another Round will have you saying cheers to that, and to its astute tragicomic look at coping with mundane lives and the realities of getting older in an extreme fashion. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V5R46NgopPw
A star of movies as well as music, Elvis Presley has rarely been far from screens. First, he was acting in flicks. Then, features were made about his story. He'll be back in the building in Priscilla, although it doesn't tell his tale from the usual angle. As the name makes plain, Sofia Coppola (On the Rocks) is exploring his marriage to Priscilla Presley from the latter's perspective. Coppola reteams with American distributor A24 after On the Rocks and The Bling Ring before it to adapt Elvis and Me, Priscilla's 1985 memoir that was co-written with Sandra Harmon. This isn't the first time that the book has hit the screen thanks to a 1988 TV movie, but it clearly has its namesake's approval given that she's one of the film's executive producers. (Another: Coppola's brother Roman.) The focus: the tale from when a teenage Priscilla Beaulieu met rock 'n' roll superstar Elvis Presley at a party, following their courtship and marriage. It's a well-told affair both on-screen and in the media, taking the couple from a a German army base to Graceland, with Coppola's version seeing its ups and downs — thrills and struggles, too — through Priscilla's rather than her hip-swinging husband's eyes. In both the initial teaser and just-dropped full trailer, Priscilla and Elvis' romance rides highs and lows towards heartbreak, including their first meeting, her arrival at Graceland, their wedding, her pregnancy and being a mother to Lisa Marie. Elvis' music stardom and fame also feature, plus Priscilla's yearning to be her own person. Playing the rock 'n' roll couple, thank you very much: Mare of Easttown, Devs, On the Basis of Sex, Bad Times at the El Royale and Pacific Rim: Uprising actor Cailee Spaeny as Priscilla, with Australian Euphoria and The Kissing Booth star Jacob Elordi as Elvis. Spaeny won the Best Actress award at the 2023 Venice International Film Festival for her performance. Coppola writes and directs Priscilla, making her first film since 2020's On the Rocks, while Succession and Hello Tomorrow!'s Dagmara Dominczyk also stars. The movie is due in US cinemas in November, with release details Down Under yet to be announced. And, if you're wondering whether the Presley family's story is angling for a trilogy, each with a different cast, different acclaimed filmmaker at the helm and different person in the spotlight, that's understandable. Baz Luhrmann's Elvis arrived in 2022, and now Priscilla takes that trilogy idea two-thirds of the way there. Whether there'll also be a Lisa Marie movie is yet to be seen. Check out the trailer for Priscilla below: Priscilla doesn't yet have a release date Down Under — we'll update you when one is announced.
Two years ago, Pappa Rich gave tastebuds across Australia the culinary hybrid they didn't know they were craving: a nasi lemak burger. They were originally sneakily trialled in Sydney stores in 2018, then rolled out for a limited time in 2019. Now, they're back. The burger takes the typical accompaniments in this Malaysian rice dish and sandwiches them all between two toasted burger buns. There are layers of crispy Malay fried chicken, spicy sambal, peanuts and anchovies, all topped with cucumber, lettuce and a fried egg. As a side? Expect Pappa Rich's deep-fried chicken skin, of course. You can also opt for chips if you prefer. The Malaysian hawker chain is returning the nasi lemak burger to its menu — at all of its 31 stores countrywide, but only until Sunday, May 30. If you're instantly hungry, you'll want to pop into one of Pappa Rich's outlets, which includes Wintergarden, Garden City, Indooroopilly and Coorparoo Square in Brisbane.
It's taken a long time to get here, but today the Federal Government will finally legalise the sale of medicinal marijuana in Australia. According to The Courier Mail, Federal Health Minister Greg Hunt will today officially announce that cannabis can now be distributed in Australia to those who need it for health and pain relief reasons. At present, thanks to laws passed last year, patients can request medicinal marijuana from their GP, but, as there is no legal market in Australia, are forced to import the drug from overseas (or source it illegally). This change will essentially open up a whole new legal cannabis market in Australia, and allow companies to distribute (and eventually cultivate) it as a medicine. "We are now making it easier to access medicinal cannabis, while still maintaining strict safeguards for individual and community safety," Hunt told The Courier Mail. "As part of these changes, importers can source medicinal cannabis products from a reputable supplier overseas and store these in a safe, secure warehouse in Australia." The new rules will mean that people with chronic illness and pain — like epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and cancer — will be able to access the drug much more quickly and with much less rigmarole, although they'll still have to get a prescription from their doctor. Imports will initially make up the country's inventory of cannabis while domestic cultivation is established. According to News Corp, 14 crop licenses are already under consideration. Just to be clear though, recreational use of marijuana is still very much illegal and laws vary state-to-state. This approval is a huge (and necessary) win for people who need marijuana for medical reasons, which will hopefully be implemented very soon. Via The Courier Mail.
Apollo Bay's seafood extravaganza will return to the Great Ocean Road for three big days in February 2020, dishing up world-class seafood, sourced locally, to the people of the beautiful coastal town. The main event takes place on Saturday, February 15, where you can take your pick from the morning's catch directly from the fishermen at an 'off the boat' seafood market, which will see stalls brimming with oysters, caviar and prawns. Then, Harbour Day continues with live music, pop-up restaurants, interactive demonstrations, sailing lessons, casting competitions, and plenty of craft beer, wine and cocktails to sweeten the deal. Feast on lobster rolls, prawn dumplings, paella, abalone sashimi and more, as the festivities continue into the evening. Bookending the festival are two ticketed events for the true seafood enthusiasts. On Friday night there will be an ocean-to-plate gala feast, which will see top Melbourne chefs dishing up a huge dinner showcasing locally caught produce, complete with matching wines and an ocean-themed dessert. On Sunday afternoon, guest speakers and experts will discuss sustainability in the fishing industry, with oysters, lunch and champagne on the menu.
Sydney can prepare to see a few less dockless share bikes around, as one council makes good on its promise to start impounding those that are left lying around damaged or abandoned. Waverley Council — which covers Bondi, Bronte, Vaucluse, Dover Heights, Bondi Junction, Waverley and parts of Rose Bay — last week backed a motion by Mayor John Wakefield to start clearing wayward bikes from the streets, with Business Insider Australia reporting as many as 60 were impounded on Monday alone. Currently, it costs operators $70 to get each bike back, though the council says it's looking into charging as much as $500 a pop under environmental legislation. There are plans to recycle any unclaimed bikes after one month. Waverley is one of the six councils that teamed up last December to write a new set of share bike guidelines, giving operators three months to step up their game and fix the many problems their bikes appear to have created. Later this month, there'll be a review of the companies' responses to the new guidelines, which call for bikes to be removed from dangerous spots within three hours, require bikes to be unlocked for council staff upon request and state that any damaged bikes must be deactivated immediately. Right now, there's an estimated 2000 share bikes around Sydney, though who knows how much longer that will be the case if their owners don't lift their game. Via Business Insider.
Brisbane's penchant for a party boat has a long history, from The Island to Seadeck and now Yot Club. Haven't had the joy of revelling on the water while cruising down the river? Give it a try for Halloween. Yot Club has been making quite a big splash, as you'd expect from a huge yacht with two bars, a stage, a dance floor and a 400-person capacity. The glamorous, custom-built vessel calls itself "the world's first super yacht entertainment venue", and it's certainly something that southeast Queensland hadn't seen before it hit our waters. Sprawling over two levels, it measures nearly 40-metres long and over 22-metres wide, and blends a licensed floating club and a luxe function space. With lounges across an open deck and undercover, a VIP room in the hull, and the promise of bands and DJs on its lineup, Yot Club wants to be the region's one-stop watery hangout. It serves up more than water, of course, thanks to a menu of classic and creative cocktails, plus brews chilled in the 45-keg-capacity cool room. Yot Club sets off from City Botanic Gardens River Hub — and its Halloween bash on Friday, October 27 includes spooky-themed cocktails, a photo booth to snap all those costumes and prizes for best dressed as well. Yes, you do need to don something to suit the occasion to hop onboard; "only guests in full costume will be allowed on the cruise," the venue advises. Prices vary, starting at entry from $49.95 with drinks and food purchased separately, and also including a $99.95 option with a sip upon arrival. Images: Richard Greenwood / Yot Club.
Residents of Warrnambool, a huge festival is coming your way. Music lovers, you're heading to the Victorian town. The coastal spot has been named the host of Triple J's One Night Stand for 2024, with G Flip, Ruel, What So Not — with some friends — and Thelma Plum leading the lineup. Warrnambool was picked by the Australian radio station from a huge 2087 submissions, with the nation clearly excited about the return of the fest for the first time in five years. The roster of talent taking to the stage at Friendly Societies Park three hours out of Melbourne also includes Sycco and DICE, a competition winner from Unearthed, and special guests as well. [caption id="attachment_966668" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Callum Walker Hutchinson[/caption] Triple J announced back in April that the event would make a comeback this year, then revealed at the beginning of July that it'd return on Saturday, September 14, 2024. Next came the lineup details, and now finally where the fest is rolling into town. Victoria was the site of the very first One Night Stand, too. Twenty years ago, the ABC station gave the town of Natimuk a day to remember when the spot 300 kilometres out of Melbourne hosted its very own major music fest, with Grinspoon, Eskimo Joe and The Dissociatives (aka Daniel Johns and Paul Mac) all getting behind the microphone. So began an event that became a yearly tradition, but taking place in different regional locations, with Triple J putting on a fest every year between 2004–2014, then again from 2016–2019. There's no prizes for guessing why One Night Stand pressed pause from 2020, but that gap in the event's history is finally coming to an end. The all-ages event is returning at time when the Australian live music scene has been suffering, and after a spate of festivals have been cancelling or saying farewell forever. In 2024 alone, both Groovin the Moo and Splendour in the Grass announced lineups, then scrapped this year's fests mere weeks later. Summergrounds Music Festival, which was meant to debut at Sydney Festival 2024, also didn't go ahead. As announced in 2023, Dark Mofo took a breather this year — and Mona Foma, the summer fest also held by Tasmania's Museum of Old and New Art, has advised that its 2024 event was its last ever. With the state of the industry in mind, bringing back One Night Stand is not only much-needed and well-timed, but will also raise funds Support Act, the charity for the Australian music industry. In the past, the event has also been to Ayr, Dalby and Mt Isa in Queensland; Port Pirie, Tumby Bay and Lucindale in South Australia; Cowra and Dubbo in New South Wales; Collie and Geraldton in Western Australia; Sale and Mildura in Victoria; Alice Springs in the Northern Territory; and St Helens in Tasmania. One Night Stand Lineup 2024: G Flip Ruel What So Not + Friends Thelma Plum Sycco DICE triple j Unearthed Competition Winner + special guests 2024's triple j One Night Stand will take place on Saturday, September 14 in Warrnambool, with tickets on sale from 19am on Thursday, July 25. For more information, head to the radio station's website. Top image: Drew de F Fawkes via Wikimedia Commons.
