As Brisbane starts to cool down and you find yourself asking ‘do I even own a jumper?’ and ‘do I need to shave my legs?’ chances are you’ll start to feel even less like leaving the comfort of your doona. We’ve piled together the top 10 places to keep warm as the mercury drops. Papa Jacks Cheaper than a flight to New Orleans, Papa Jack’s is the new heart of Creole South. When the thick velvet curtains are drawn the space becomes warm and intimate, and if you’re as lucky as us a seven-piece jazz band will take the stage. My cocktail had a ginger syrup so zesty I swear the bartender dug it from the ground himself mere hours before – that’s sure to scare off any lingering cold. PS. Papa Jack’s is celebrating cocktail week with a round-the-world drink tour until Tuesday Fourth Wall Velvet-covered padded crates, guitars, curtains, candles and wall art make up the interior and give this bar a comforting atmosphere. Fourth Wall uses the luxury of being a small bar to throw away the tangible cocktail menu, ask a few questions and tailor you a cocktail that fits like a glove. Drink in hand, jump up on one of the cushioned crates by the window to see throngs of very cold, semi-clothed women line up for the GPO – queue your own warm and smug feeling. Schadenfreude at its finest Three Monkeys Tea Room Nothing says warm and cozy like a hot drink the size of your face. Those seasoned with trips to Three Monkeys will have come across the breakfast-bowl-sized chai this iconic West End cafe serves up nightly. Though the line out the door can sometimes be intimidating, it is always worth the wait for that late-night slice of cake and hot drink of your choice. Three Monkeys is always done best in comfy clothes (they won’t judge you for trackies) and with friends. Garuva There may not be a sign over the door, but most Brisbane restaurant-goers know where to find Garuva. Through a narrow doorway on Wickham St, down a green-hued and tree-lined path lies a rabbit warren of curtained dining areas. The first time I walked into Garuva, I thought I’d accidently found a brothel or massage parlour – four walls of white curtains surround each table and diners are seated on the floor. Cosy up with crossed legs and enjoy a warm Asian fusion menu. Cobbler Bar From the street Cobbler Bar doesn't look like much, but open the door to this speciality whiskey and cocktail bar in West End and it's like opening the door to a world of Edgar Allan Poe. Inside are dimly lit tables, melted red wax candles and floor to ceiling wooden shelves filled with not books but every single genre of booze, malt and spirit imaginable. Pull up a leather padded bar stool, bop your head to the sounds of 50's rock and cast your eyes over the ever changing cocktail list, which stretches from the traditional to the tropical to the innovative and quirky. The End Never has the saying 'good things come in small packages' rung truer than at West End's boutique bar, The End. The deep, dark hue of the walls, interesting artwork, low hanging lights and pot plants make for a cozy interior. While the long tables with high stools and opposing comfy couches add to the snugness of the venue and make it almost impossible to not meet new people or run into friends at The End, mirroring the friendly West End vibe. Death Before Decaf New kid on the block, Death Before Decaf is a caffeine lover’s dream. Serving top quality grinds 24 hours a day, seven days a week, we can guarantee DBD will keep you warm any time of day. With skate decks covering the walls, DBD is our only 24/7 espresso bar, and they play hardcore, metal, rap and hip-hop all day, every day. Make yourself at home. Southside Tea Room Cold weather calls for comfort food, and nothing says comfort food like grilled cheese and a taco plate. We’ve all dreamed of what it would be like to have rock stars for parents, and while there is no chance of that happening, you can let the South Side Tea Room temporarily adopt you. Owned by Brisbane band The Grates, this cozy space is fitted retro kitsch. Sit back on an old sofa, complete with crochet throw, and tuck into a Cuban sandwich. The Gresham There is something warm about rich mahogany. On the floor a large rug covering wooden floors is topped with custom-made Chesterfield couches, cedar tables and red leather bar stools. Behind the bar wooden shelves are lined with a wall of every premium whiskey you can imagine; a ladder is needed to reach the top shelf. The Gresham is a place to sit and savour, a place to be cozy, and (if smoking indoors was still legal) a place to smoke cigars. Lefty's Old Time Music Hall Mix velvet with nostalgia and a live band and Leftie’s has warmth down pat. Inside the cavernous building that used to belong to gentleman’s club The Velvet Cigar, you can now find a portal to an entirely different place and time. The first strains of country and rockabilly music will reach you as you pass through the first set of doors, and by the time you’re really inside, you’ll have well and truly forgotten that you just came from Caxton Street, Brisbane.
Coulrophobia affects many people. If the fear of clowns is a common cause of apprehension and panic in your mind, this is definitely not the show for you. If you're the type of person that has balls of steel, can laugh in the face of Pennywise and actually enjoys the circus, than chances are this is your type of entertainment. And the Birds Fell From the Sky is a twenty minute sound and video experience taking you on a trip through a parallel world populated with Faruk clowns. Combining cinema and theatre, this performance takes extra precautions to make you feel detached from reality equipping viewers with video goggles and headphones to create an intense and intimate journey. Actually, intimate may be the wrong word to describe the content of this performance as there is really nothing sexual or cozy about a world colonised by clowns. Finding your eyes and ears hijacked and thrown into the realm of the Faruk clown it's easy to get lost in this wild, anarchic, fictional world. Live interactions are also incorporated into the experience just in case you didn't feel involved enough already. Be ready for a conscious nightmare.
Daniel Craig's run as Bond, James Bond might be over, but that just gives him more time to spend as Benoit Blanc. Back in 2019, the British actor added sleuthing his way through murder-mysteries to his resume, playing the private detective in star-studded whodunnit Knives Out. The end result was not only ace, but also such a hit that Netflix hopped on two sequels. The first followup, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, arrives this December — to stream on December 23, in fact, so consider it any early Christmas gift. It's also filled with famous faces, as the just-dropped first trailer illustrates. Joining Craig: Edward Norton (The French Dispatch), Janelle Monáe (Antebellum), Kathryn Hahn (WandaVision), Leslie Odom Jr (The Many Saints of Newark), Jessica Henwick (The Gray Man), Madelyn Cline (Outer Banks), Kate Hudson (Music) and Dave Bautista (Thor: Love and Thunder). In this chapter of the Knives Out franchise, the action moves to Greece. If you saw the original — or any murder-mystery involving a motley crew of characters brought together in one location when someone turns up dead — then you'll know how it works from there. There's a lavish setting, that aforementioned big group of chalk-and-cheese folks, threats aplenty and just as much suspicion. Glass Onion takes place on a Greek island, but also sends its various players on a cruise — and yes, thinking about Agatha Christie, including this year's Death on the Nile, is a natural reaction. "Lock the doors. Stay in your rooms. Everyone is in danger," Blanc advises in the sneak peek, because all of that goes with the territory as well. Is the culprit Bautista's Duke Cody on the yacht? Hudson's Birdie Jay in the games room? Hahn's Claire Debella by the pool? You'll have to watch to find out. Just like its predecessor, Glass Onion is both written and directed by Rian Johnson, with the filmmaker moving onto the franchise after 2017's Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi — and still indulging his love of on-screen puzzles, as shone through in Brick and Looper as well. Check out the first trailer for Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery below: Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery will be available to stream via Netflix from December 23. Images: John Wilson/Netflix © 2022.
If you're thinking of heading to Tassie for Dark Mofo this year, this could be the clincher. MONA has just announced its next big exhibition, Zero — a celebration of Germany's radical artists of the 1950s and 60s. The show gets its name from the term the artists used, collectively, to describe themselves. They didn't identify as belonging to a movement, style or group, but instead felt connected by a "vision of the things", as explained by Otto Piene, one of the founders. "Zero's philosophical foundation was that art was not something to be painfully extracted in solitude, but assembled and constructed with others, using whatever materials came best to hand: metal, cardboard, glass, plastic, cloth, mirrors and smoke," says MONA's Senior Research Curator Jane Clark. "They banged nails, smashed bottles, poked holes and cut up each other's canvases." The show will feature artworks by original Zero artists, as well as those that have since absorbed their influence. These include Heinz Mack, Otto Piene, Günther Uecker and Adolf Luther from Germany; Lucio Fontana, Nanda Vigo, Grazia Varisco, Enrico Castellani and Gianni Colombo from Italy; with Marcel Duchamp, Yves Klein and François Morellet from France; Henk Peeters from The Netherlands; Christian Megert from Switzerland; Jesús Soto from Venezuela; and Yayoi Kusama from Japan. Given that these artworks were often ephemeral, many will be reconstructions. Expect sound effects, music, optical illusions, moving parts, shifting lights and reflective materials. There'll be a particular focus on vibration, which Mack described in 1958 as "resting restlessness…the expression of continuous movement, which we call 'vibration'…Its harmony stirs our souls, as the life and breath of the work." Taking care of curation is Mattijs Visser, founding director of the international Zero Foundation. "Zero is one of the most significant, yet largely forgotten, art movements since the Second World War...Zero needs to be discovered now, while several of their speakers are still with us," he says. Zero will open with a big party on Saturday, June 9 — and it's free for the public to attend (with registration). If you're in town for Dark Mofo — which will run from June 15–24 — it might be a good reason to head to Hobart earlier. The full lineup will be announced on April 6 — we'll keep you updated on that one. Zero will run at the Museum of Old and New Art in Berriedale, Hobart from June 9, 2017 until April 22, 2019. For more info, visit mona. Image: Gianni Colombo: Elastic Space, shot by Matteo Zarbo, courtesy of the Institute for Contemporary Archaeology.
How does an object change once it's presented on a plinth in a museum? How does a pile of bones differ from a crowbar, a trio of glass vessels, or a nude, when each is placed on the same simple white cube and viewed from a uniform angle? These are questions raised by New York-based artist and photographer Simon Harsent’s latest series, White Cube, a meditation on both stillness and change. In Harsent’s own words, "I'm quite intrigued by how keeping a locked-off camera position but changing a single element in a photograph can change perception, ideas and assumptions." A successful photographer working in advertising, Harsent has long been fascinated with change. A decade ago in the series Salt Moon his camera remained in a fixed position, capturing the moonlit ocean on a slow exposure. Approaching the theme of change from another angle, 2009's Melt is a spectacular landscape series capturing the slow decay of icebergs. So how did the artist decide what items to present on the austere white cube? Harsent says they were selected "based on what I thought they could achieve in both their aesthetic appeal and their ability to offer up a myriad of options of stories; not in a literal sense, but each object could potentially have a story behind it. After all, most things in museums are just objects with a history, so by replacing the object each time, a new story is potentially conceived." Historical readings and assumptions collide in possibly the most loaded image of White Cube, a beautiful nude black woman relaxing on the cube as though she were just another museum artefact. How did she enter the mix? After shooting the objects, Harsent wanted to add a human element. "At one point I was thinking of having someone’s body painted like a statue, but I felt that was the wrong thing to do, and I decided to shoot the girl as she is in the final image." As with the rest of this series, the photograph's meaning is supplied by you. What's inspiring Harsent right now in the art world? He's taken with abstract expressionism, and with Richard Serra's current show at the Gagosian in New York. "I love [Serra’s] use of space," he says. "It feels like you are walking in a three-dimensional Rothko painting." He also enjoyed the Richard Avedon exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in Canberra. "The one thing that struck me were the imperfections in the images that make them so special. There is one image in particular of Bjork where you can see an impression that stockings she must have been wearing has left on her legs. Today that most likely would have been retouched out by an art director and in doing so, the image would have lost the most valuable thing in it." You can view the White Cube series in full and more of Simon Harsent's work on POOL Collective's fancy app, downloadable from iTunes. White Cube is on display at The Pool Collective Redux exhibition at The Black Eye Gallery, 138 Darlinghurst Road, Darlinghurst, Sydney, from December 5 to 23.
If you ask me, there is nothing at all to fault about the 90s. Back in the days when you could catch The Fresh Prince, Saved by the Bell and The Secret World of Alex Mac on Nickelodeon every afternoon, you could get around in a pair of jeans that didn't cost you your bank account and you would actually pay for CDs to play in your discman. Health Ledger was still alive, Macaulay Culkin wasn't all coked up and Justin Timberlake wasn't trying to spam the genres. It was a good decade, best spent riding bikes or figuring out cheats on Nintendo games, not lurking Facebook and reblogging memes on Tumblr. It’s time we all got together to appreciate the good things that decade gave us. This Thursday is your chance to get nostalgic and up in the 90s grill. Childhood 4 Change is a 90s party committing to two good deeds - it gives you the excuse to dress up as you long lost 90s hero whilst also raising funds for the Oaktree Foundation’s Ba Futuru Project in East Timor. Don’t be clueless. Head out to Limes Hotel this Thursday for discounted drinks and a night of the nineties.
Got a taste for design? Enjoy your music? I might have an event you’d enjoy. You might have heard that BIGSOUND is on this week, it’s pretty large. Well, this year, the team behind BIGSOUND are introducing a new component to festivities; the BIGSOUND Music+Design Conference. Music and visuals have become intrinsically linked ever since the birth of moving pictures, maybe even before that. Album art, poster design, music clips – there are so many aspects of music that are enhanced by some good visuals. BIGSOUND is celebrating that element of music. On the conference panels are a massive list of who’s who in Music/Design. Perhaps one person that is worth name dropping is rock-god superstar, Nick Cave. Yes, the Nick Cave. In addition, several design houses are on hand to showcase some of their ideas and projects. Though a ticket might cost you a pretty penny, there are some freely accessible sections for the public to enjoy. The Artisan Beer+Design Lounge will be open from 2pm until 8pm where patrons can sample delicacies from Street Food Australia and craft beer from The Scratch – not to mention, they can have a squiz at some great design work. This is bound to be revolutionary aspect of the BIGSOUND conference. If you are in any way intrigued about music and design, this could be for you.
Oh, the forward march of the aging process. It is unrelenting. Just as one birthday passes, another, bigger one is just around the corner. This is quandary Bella is facing. It is the year of the Rabbit and she is turning 29, and with 30 looming over her in bright, fluorescent lights she finds herself seeking solace in a big birthday piss up with her nearest and dearest. Unfortunately what should be a night of frivolity with mates descends into birthday hell when her attendees are not actually ‘friends’ but evil hangers-on, and her uninvited father. In the end her birthday party becomes a night of facing the past rather than forgetting it. Productions of Rabbit, written by Nina Raine, have received rave reviews the world over, and this staging is sure to be no exception with The Good Room aka the unbearably talented Daniel Evans, and the equally impressive Amy Ingram bringing the show to town. If there previous productions (Holy Guacamole, Single Admissions, The Reunion) are anything to go by this will be a fantastic dose of theatre bliss!
We've all tried to soundtrack our lives, whether by creating an iTunes playlist reminding us of that excellent birthday party or by listening to those annual So Fresh CDs that commemorate each individual year of our childhood. Now media artist Brian House has taken it to the next level by literally recording an entire year of his life and etching it onto a playable vinyl record, the Quotidian Record. House tracked his location using an app called OpenPaths for 365 days, assigned each place he visited a certain point on the musical scale and designated each city a key. He then ordered each location by how much time he spent there as well as the regularity of his visits. Whilst there was a distinct repetitiveness as in all daily routines — home, work, the daily commute — the changes offered by daily life, such as travel, provided House with musical creativity. "The more common places were generally given more consonant harmonies, so throughout most of the piece you get a major third repeating, which is basically me sleeping at home," House says to Fast Co.Create. "As I’m moving around more, it gets more complex.” This complexity can be seen on the vinyl itself as it is marked with dates and places so that House and other listeners can jump ahead and experience an exact moment in time. Neatly, an entire day can be heard in just one full revolution of the record, meaning a full year can be musically manifested in 11 minutes. However, despite the data-centric focus of the project and his endeavour to prove that all data is qualitative, House just wants his personal rhythmic signature to be felt like all other music. “It's a framework for a set of memories,” he says. “I hear my commute and my travels through a lens of expectation. I love the sound of my trip into the Colorado wildness, in particular. I re-enact that when I listen, and it’s especially meaningful to me". Due to House wanting to preserve the sanctity of the work on vinyl, you cannot hear the full recording online. However, he has provided a teaser of his year, and despite the unconventional method of composition, it is surprisingly catchy. [Via Fast Co.Create.]
To those yet to finger the face of Ghostface Chilla, Snapchat's mascot stuck in a state of eternal smugness, don't believe everything you've heard. Snapchat is much more than just sexting. In fact, it's hilarious. This app du jour, first launched by four Stanford students in September 2011, allows users to send a predetermined viewable media from one connection to the other before deleting it from both devices forever (lest, of course, someone screenshots what you send, but you'll be notified of that, don't worry). Naturally, targeting those raised suckling the teat of social media, it was a huge hit and by May 2012, 25 images were being sent a second. These days the small American venture is valued between US$60 and $70 million and more than 20 million photos and videos are shared between friends a day. Trust us, they're not all pictures of genitalia in various states of arousal. Honestly. Let us present a brief list of five functions that make Snapchat that little bit awesome. Don't get us wrong, it's ridiculous, it's stupid and it's one of the silliest things you can possibly spend your time doing. But if you can't do and be all of those things with your mates, then you need to find new ones. Gross/freak out your pals Snapchat's greatest asset is its self-defeating, inhibition-killing philosophy. Your more 'creative' chums might brew up some less-than-settling situations like our little baby head here. And don't be surprised if you ever open a Snapchat to find a friend, how should we put it, taking a dump. Check out hot people on the street It's natural, it's normal and there's nothing wrong with being mesmerised by that hot tradie's bulge. So why not share the beauty? Sure, some may argue it's 'breaching' their 'privacy', but as we all learned this Mardi Gras, it's perfectly legal to capture anything on camera/film in a public domain. Become a director Screw you Spielberg, we're a brand new generation and we cry dislike to your feature-length, permanent creations. That's right, we have a camera, we have tools to add text and colour and we have an audience prone to a short attention span at the tap of a screen. Alter reality With the aforementioned added bonus of being able to go cray cray with a paint function, it's always fun to mix things up a little and not so subtly bend reality. Make that hungover selfie just that little more true to life. After all, authenticity sells. Play a game of 'Guess Where I Am' If Twitter has taught us anything, it's ok to show off as long as you're not humble about it. Own that self-righteousness you brilliant genius, and what better way to brag your tits off (not literally) than sending, say, a bed-ridden sick friend a little reminder that you're still functioning like a normal person? All images by Jack Arthur Smith.
In sad news for Stateside fans of St Jerome’s Laneway Festival, this year’s Detroit event has been cancelled. Sad – but unavoidable. Unfortunately, the promoters have been unable to book the acts necessary to the Laneway vision. “We tried to get the very few acts that we felt would be appropriate for Laneway and none of them were available,” promoter Danny Rogers stated. “We had one that went all the way to the wire and then changed its mind at the very last minute – bless their beautiful heart, too; they were under so much pressure to be everywhere and anywhere and something had to give. “We decided that we needed to be honest with ourselves and sit it out this year and review it again next year.” Laneway first hit Detroit in September 2013, with a line-up that included Sigur Rós, The National, Chet Faker and Flume. Rogers said the event “delivered what I genuinely believe was the most awesome festival I have ever been part of.” Earlier in 2013, Laneway hit Auckland and Singapore before making its way to Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Fremantle, with performances from Lorde, Kurt Vile, Haim, Earl Sweatshirt, Four Tet, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, The Jezabels, Vance Joy and CHVRCHES, among others. Via TheMusic.com.au.
If you're heading to Byron Bay this summer, get ready to ride the world's first solar-powered train. The two-carriage chugger was built in Sydney in 1949, but, as of later this year, will travel along a three-kilometre track between downtown Byron Bay and Northbeach Station up near Sunrise Beach and the Byron arts and industrial estate, driven solely by the sun's energy. Byron Bay Railroad Company, which is operating as a non-profit, has spent four years restoring the train, which was in disuse. There are seats for 100 passengers, as well as standing room for extras and, importantly, space for surfboards and bicycles. To begin, the train will run once per hour between 8am and 10pm, at a cost of three bucks per person. Back in the day, the train ran on diesel. Its conversion took place at the Lithgow Railway Workshop, where solar panels were added to the roof and solar-charged batteries installed. While Indian Railways did launch a solar-powered train earlier this year, the sun only powers the lights, fans and displays on that vehicle. By comparison, on this train, the batteries can power every system, including lighting, air compressors, control circuits and traction. And, should the sun hide its face for a while, they'll gain energy from the grid's green arm. One diesel engine has been removed and replaced with an electric drive package. The remaining diesel engine is staying on-board for to provide emergency back up in the case o an electrical glitch. The Byron Bay Railroad Company will commence its first service by the end of the year. For more information, visit byronbaytrain.com.au.
A year-long program of design events could be headed Sydney's way, and a two years' worth of bragging rights as well. The New South Wales capital is currently in the running to be crowned the World Design Capital, making the shortlist for the 2020 title alongside Lille in Northern France. If successful, Sydney will play host to six signature events between January and October, with an opening ceremony at the Sydney Opera House, a World Design Street Festival throughout the CBD, an array of exhibitions and conferences in the lead up to Vivid, and a forum coinciding with Sydney Fringe Festival all currently outlined in the city's bid. Masterclasses, a new Festival of the Front Yard that focuses on post-war design and a design camp on Cockatoo Island are also mooted, in a proposal that seeks to "engage, collaborate and design a new model of social impact for an increasingly urbanised world." Beyond the showcase events, much of the suggested program focuses on Parramatta and its surrounding suburbs — and if you're wondering why, there's a good reason. The bid hasn't been put together by the City of Sydney, with the Parramatta council helping to lead the charge as part of a not-for-profit organisation backed by 40 other outfits, institutions and agencies. Still, "Sydney, World Design Capital" has quite the nice ring to it. As for that moniker and how it comes about, the World Design Capital is designated by the World Design Organisation, highlighting cities that use of design to drive economic, social, cultural and environmental development. The 2020 choice will be announced in October, with Sydney potentially joining previous picks Torino (2008), Seoul (2010), Helsinki (2012), Cape Town (2014), Taipei (2016) and Mexico City (2018). Via Sydney Morning Herald / ArchitectureAU. Image: Vivid / Ash Bollard
UPDATE: MARCH 17, 2020 — Splendour in the Grass has been postponed until Friday, October 23–Sunday, October 25, 2020. This one-off spring edition is 'an effort to ensure a safe Splendour in the Grass experience' in such 'unpredictable times' as well as in response to the Australian Government's ban on public gatherings in excess of 500 people. Many artists have confirmed they'll be playing over these new dates, including Flume, The Strokes and Tyler, The Creator. The below article has been updated to reflect this. To find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia and how to protect yourself, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website. Throw those GoPros, bubble bottles and novelty gumboots in your rucksack, Splendour in the Grass is returning to North Byron Parklands for another year of festival merriment. Its 20th year, in fact. As usual, speculation has run wild in anticipation of the lineup announce — will Frank Ocean finally come to Australia? Will the recently reunited Rage Against the Machine be on the lineup? Will Flume be playing? — but the details for Splendour 2020 are finally here. And we're happy to report that some of the rumours were true. Flume — AKA Harley Edward Streten — himself will be Splendouring. He'll be heading back Down Under for his only Aussie show. Speaking of Splendour exclusives, Tyler, The Creator will also only be playing at the festival, performing hits off IGOR including the always-banging 'EARFQUAKE'. The Strokes will be heading to the festival to perform their first new album in seven years, The New Abnormal, and, while the Rage Against the Machine rumour isn't true, another recently reunited big-name band will be playing: Midnight Oil. The Aussie rockers have recently started recording music together for the first time in two decades. They're collaborating with First Nations artists for a new mini-album called The Makarrata Project, which they'll be performing at Splendour. There's also a big female contingent — that is kick-ass but still nowhere near as big as the pool of male performers — which includes Stella Donnelly, Thelma Plum, Jack River, Alice Ivy, Sampa The Great and George Alice (and more). The lineup seems to go on forever, including the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Denzel Curry, Violent Soho, the list goes on. Anyway, we know what you're here for. We'll cut to the chase. [caption id="attachment_735766" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tyler, The Creator by Sam Rock[/caption] SPLENDOUR IN THE GRASS 2020 LINEUP Flume (only Aus show) The Strokes Tyler, The Creator (only Aus show) Yeah Yeah Yeahs Midnight Oil (The Makarrata Project) Glass Animals Denzel Curry Duke Dumont Live Violent Soho Mura Masa 100 Adrian Eagle Alex The Astronaut Alice Ivy Andy Golledge The Babe Rainbow perform The Velvet Underground's Loaded Bad//Dreems Baker Boy Banoffee Benee The Big Moon Brame & Hamo Bruno Major Charlie Collins Cry Club Cub Sport Dillon Francis DMA'S Dom Dolla Dro Carey & DJ Scorpion Fazerdaze G Flip George Alice Georgia Gerry Cinnamon Greentea Peng Grinspoon Grouplove Gryffin Hooligan Hefs Idles Illy Inhaler Jack Garratt Jack River Jarreau Vandal Joy Crookes JPEGMAFIA Julia Jacklin Julia Stone The Jungle Giants King Krule King Princess Kllo The Lazy Eyes Lex Deluxe Lillie Mae Lime Cordiale Mako Road Mall Grab Memphis LK Methyl Ethel Mickey Kojak Miiesha Mildlife Miss June Mo'Ju (fka Mojo Juju) Muna Northeast Party House Oliver Tree Petit Biscuit Pink Matter PUP Rolling Blackouts CF Ruel Sampa The Great Shaed Shannon & The Clams Sly Withers Sofi Tukker The Soul Movers Starcrawler Stella Donnelly Stevan Still Woozy Surfaces Thelma Plum Tierra Whack Tim Minchin Triple One Wallows Splendour will return to North Byron Parklands on Friday, October 23, Saturday, October 24 and Sunday, October 25, 2020. Tickets go on sale Thursday, February 27 at 9am AEDT sharp. For more info, head to the official Splendour In The Grass site. Image: Bianca Holderness and Charlie Hardy
Did you know that it's illegal to store an ice cream in your back pocket in Alabama? One dare not imagine the horrifying tragedy that must have engendered this law. The destruction of such a very fine pair of acid-wash Levi's. The cruel, undeserved fate of the ice cream. Ludicrously entertaining, yes, but this is just one of infinite madcap laws that have been passed in the US over time, and now a young photographer is cleverly drawing attention to them through a series of images titled I Fought the Law. Recent School of Visual Arts grad, 22-year-old Olivia Locher, is working through every American state in turn, selecting the weirdest law of each to express as a photograph. Known for her colourful work and currently seeking Kickstarter funding for a fairly bizarre and intriguing cult-inspired film featuring lean girls in matching underwear, Locher has chosen the literal route for representing the unusual laws, and you can scope them all out here. Below we have included some of Locher's chronicle of what's verboten, to act as a kind of visual warning manifesto. Back that fixie away from the diving board, hombre, because in Cali it's absolutely forbidden to ride a bicycle in a swimming pool. Enjoying more than two dildos in the privacy of your own Arizonan home? The cops are onto you. (But this instructional video may prove helpful, should you choose to defend your hobbies). Meanwhile, in enlightened Wisconsin, serving apple pie without cheese is an illegal act. Why? Why should this be so? Does cheese even taste any good with apple pie? The boys in blue don't care for your existential line of inquiry. Coins can't legally be placed in human ears on the island of Hawaii, and Texan children are denied the legal right to get a weird haircut. Little Bobby wants a groovy mullet? Cuff 'im. Via PSFK
Earlier this year, Scotland's BrewDog created the world's first craft beer hotel at its US base. Of course, if you're keen to head to Ohio for a boozy holiday, you'll need to get there somehow. Enter the world's first craft beer airline, which the beer fiends have aptly named BrewDog Airlines — and yes, it's all about drinking craft brews at 30,000 feet. In fact, BrewDog has also created its own beer that tastes better at a flying altitude. If you hop on board its airline, you'll be among the first to try it out. Cathay Pacific did something similar back in 2017, launching a bottled beer that was made to taste as great in the air as it does on the ground — but that's not the only brew-focused flourish on BrewDog Airlines. Boarding a Boeing 767, passengers will also enjoy a spot of beer tasting, tuck into a BrewDog-inspired menu that's paired with matching beers, watch the brewery's BrewDog Network — its own streaming platform — and receive a branded eye mask and blanket. More brews will be served during the flight, obviously. And, once the plane lands, you're in for a tour of BrewDog's Columbus facility, as well as a brewery-hopping day trip to Cincinnati. You can also stay at The DogHouse, the brewery's hotel, for an extra fee. If you're keen to take the trip, it's only flying from the UK to America on February 21, 2019, then making the return leg on February 25, 2019. You'll also need to be of BrewDog's Equity Punks, which is what it calls its shareholders — and pay £1,250 per person (or £2,250 for two people sharing a room). That said, the brewery is also giving away ten spots, if you're feeling lucky. With BrewDog also opening an Australian base in Brisbane in 2019 — albeit without a hotel — here's hoping it brings this idea with it. Image: BrewDog.
If you are part of the wider majority of the ‘good’ music loving population there is a greater than high chance you, like me, and the rest of our penny-less majority cannot afford a ticket to the most expensive, envious and fun loving festival of the year – Splendour in the Grass. You may have cried about it, you may have begged your parents for a hefty loan, or you may have contemplated using a few months of Centrelink payments to buy yourself a ticket. Someone wise once said that the best things in life are free. I would, for this situation, alter this statement to read the best things in life are cheap and in following that notion this means a ticket to Splendour may not the best thing out there. But a ticket to Too Poor for Splendour just might be. Featuring a rather full lineup of good local bands that will definitely get you in the festival façade without the multi hundred-dollar entry fee. Plus, there’s a licensed bar that promises not to be as overpriced. You don't need a tonne of money to appreciate good music. Head on down to the poor man’s (and woman’s) Splendour this Saturday. Image credit: Lily-Pearl
Days after winter has officially landed, HBO has gone and announced something totally off The Wall. Just as we were prepping to find alternate means to secure Game of Thrones for another Monday night, the giants of television have announced that Game of Thrones: The Exhibition will open in Sydney in July 2014. And now they've confirmed the venue and dates: the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia from July 1-5. Presented by Google Play, the immersive exhibition will highlight all key GoT locations, characters and narrative ERHMAGHERD moments, with nearly 100 props, weapons, costumes and bits and pieces from the show — season four included. Because they're Stark raving mad legends, Game of Thrones: The Exhibition will be open to the public FO FREE. It's been confirmed that the exhibition is the same one that has been touring the globe of late, so we're in for a big ol' dragon-sized treat. The existing HBO exhibition started in New York in January then moving to Mexico City, Austin, Rio de Janeiro, Oslo, Toronto and Belfast and Vancouver. Included are cloaks galore, an Iron Throne you can sit on and an interactive virtual reality experience powered by Oculus Rift. If the exhibition saw numbers anything like those from the Powerhouse's past Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or Star Wars blockbusters, Google Play and HBO will rub some gleeful paws in the merchandising aftermath. With the amount of gore and boobery in GoT, however, major kiddie target markets are almost totally ruled out. For all the details, check out the exhibition website. Updated June 17, 2014.
No one should ever need a specific excuse to celebrate Australia's First Nations culture, but Quandamooka Festival offers one anyway: a three-day event on Minjerribah, also known as North Stradbroke Island, that heroes Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, music, dance, food, stories and more. Returning to Country for the first time since 2019, this year's event has locked in its August dates and first program details — with Roger Knox, Shakaya and Electric Fields leading the music lineup. Also on the bill: Emma Donovan and the Putbacks, Joe Geia, Benny Maza, Georgia Corowa, Keely and CKNU. And, given that the festival also heroes Quandamooka talent — with the Quandamooka Peoples hailing from the Moreton Bay region — local musicians Sachém, Nix Grose and Maibre Grenfell will also perform. [caption id="attachment_862591" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Morgan Sette[/caption] They'll take to the stage across the fest's three-day run between Friday, August 26–Sunday, August 28, as part of a wide-ranging program that'll also include everything from eco boat tours and art exhibitions through to whale watching and cultural tours — and more. Dance groups will come from across southeast Queensland and northern New South Wales to perform, and storytelling, plus insights into the region's cultural heritage, will fuel the lineup as well. There's plenty to celebrate; the Quandamooka Peoples, the Traditional Custodians of the Quandamooka Estate, have ties to Minjerribah dating back 20,000 years. Quandamooka Festival also highlights the diverse landscape across the Redlands and Moreton Bay islands, and the creatures that call it home, as explored from a First Nations perspective. The festival includes food stalls and artisan market stalls, too, alongside fibre art and weaving workshops, plus Kunjiel (corroboree). Announcing the music lineup, Quandamooka Yoolooburrabee Aboriginal Corporation CEO Damian Miley said that "QYAC is excited to be holding the Quandamooka Festival again for the first time since 2019". "We are looking forward to welcoming our community and visitors to Country to celebrate Quandamooka, art, culture, music and people." Quandamooka Festival 2022 runs from Friday, August 26–Sunday, August 28 on Minjerribah (North Stradbroke Island). For more information, or to buy tickets, head to the festival's website.
Along with the Tokyo fish market, Kyoto during cherry blossom season and eating as much ramen as possible, spying Mout Fuji ranks highly on most traveller's Japanese to-do list. Actually getting a glimpse of the mountain isn't always as easy as it sounds, however. If the weather isn't right, even someone staying in a hotel specifically built to give visitors the iconic view they're after might be greeted by clouds rather than a towering peak. One such hotel, Yamanashi prefecture's aptly named Hotel Mt Fuji, has come up with a solution. If you visit between January 9 and 19, and you're unable to enjoy the sight of Mount Fuji for more than a minute between checking in and checking out — including at night — then you'll receive a free night's stay next time you return. And, while you're sitting, waiting and trying to see the mountain, you can do so in their semi-openair hot water bath. There are a few conditions, understandably. The deal is only available to guests who checkout after 7am, so anyone who leaves before the sun comes up the next day isn't eligible. It won't be offered to people who book a stay either the same day, or the day prior, to avoid folks purposefully planning to visit in bad weather conditions. And, it is being offered during a window of time considered to be peak Mount Fuji-viewing season. Still, if spending a night with a stellar vantage of the enormous landmass is in your short-term future, it's a decent backup plan. Better than simply buying some of the plentiful Mount Fuji merchandise on offer anywhere you look, or trying your luck seeing it from quite the distance from Tokyo Tower. Via PR Times.
It has been said that describing Burning Man Festival to a person who has never been is like trying to explain what a particular colour looks like to a person who is blind. But perhaps this is no longer the case. Aerial footage has been released of the recent 2013 Festival, taken from a drone. Held two weeks ago, Burning Man was captured on camera by San Franciscan filmmaker Eddie Codel. Taken from a DJI Phantom Quadrocopter — a pilotless mini-aircraft with four propellers — fitted with a GoPro camera, the impressive HD footage is currently one of the best and fastest available introductions to the famous festival. This 360-degree tour pans slowly over the festival during the daytime, functioning to communicate a snapshot of the immense size and sparsity of the constructed city. It reveals close detail of the installations and artworks set up in the desert and at times comes very close to people. Held in the Black Rock Desert in northern Nevada, Burning Man draws in a crowd of approximately 50,000 each year. First established in 1986, the seven-day event welcomes attendees from all over the world, encouraging radical art and self-expression through the construction of a temporary community. The city is built the week before Labor Day, on an ancient lake bed, 100 miles north of Reno. Perhaps it's true that to truly understand Burning Man, one must participate. In the meantime, however, the drone tour certainly gets you very close. https://youtube.com/watch?v=m2ThTb6iffA Via Mashable.
Already home to stunning sights across its coastal landscape, Victoria's Great Ocean Road is set to welcome a new attraction: a 50-acre nature park dedicated to observing and learning about native animals in their natural setting. Called Wildlife Wonders and expected to commence construction this year, the site will sit just outside Apollo Bay, overlooking the ocean — and will offer guided walking tours conducted by qualified conservationists. Under their guidance, visitors will stroll through bushland to see Australia's native critters living freely — and predator-free — in their own habitats. Expect to spot the area's animals like you've never been able to before, spying koalas sleeping in trees, bandicoots scampering through the foliage and kangaroos hopping wherever they please. More than that, patrons will mosey through an experience designed by Brian Massey, the art director on the Lord of the Rings and Hobbit films. If you're thinking "wasn't he blessed with great landscape on those flicks?", well, you're not wrong — but he also turned landscape designer with New Zealand's Hobbiton tourist attraction. Here, he'll be involved in a site that includes a themed field-research base, a visitor arrivals building, and a cafe and retail outlet that'll highlight local products. The Victorian Government will support Wildlife Wonders via a $1.5 million grant to the Conservation Ecology Centre, while the Federal Government has already $2 million to the project. When it's up and running, the park's profits will be used to further the centre's conservation efforts, including ecosystem restoration, ecological research, species recovery programs and community education programs. For more information, visit the Conservation Ecology Centre website.
If you were planning on catching an Uber to work or uni this morning, you may need to think again. Thousands of drivers have logged off the app — during Monday's peak hour — in a bid to curb upfront pricing and penalties. At present, drivers receive an upfront amount instead of being paid for time and distance travelled and are penalised for opting out of UberPools. Drivers also want rates increased by 15 percent, which were reduced back in 2016. The strike comes amid strong competition from Ola and Taxify, both which offer cheaper fares for riders and take a smaller commission cut compared to Uber — Taxify takes a 15 percent cut compared to Uber's 20-25 percent. The drivers will strike until 9.30am today in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Perth. via news.com.au
The red light man never gives us much joy in life. Holding us up from catching the train or making us that crucial extra bit late for work, he is the cause of much frustration and general bad vibes in your day. Faced with his staunch neon presence we must choose to stand and stare at his mocking little face or dangerously make our way through oncoming traffic. Tough call. To combat this frustration and make the streets a whole lot safer, Smart — the people behind the Smart car — found a way to keep us satisfied at the lights. Operating at an intersection in Lisbon, Portugal earlier this year, The Dancing Traffic Light put an interactive and entertaining spin on the red man — he danced. Made in real-time, the dancing red man was controlled by the movements of other pedestrians nearby. Let loose inside a little dancing box with their own choice of soundtrack, passersby could manipulate the red man into all manners of disco, hip hop and salsa moves. Those waiting at the lights were then treated to the bizarre sight of a twerking pedestrian signal. Produced as part of a Smart advertising campaign promoting safety, the experiment was designed to keep people entertained enough to not jaywalk. And, for the most part, it worked. The ad claims that 81 per cent more people stopped at the lights to watch. Though there are no plans to bring the dancing red man to other parts of the world, those seem like the kind of figures we should listen to. Imagine if we could not only bring the number of pedestrians injuries down next to nil, but also provoke daily dance mobs every morning. Forget about elaborate motorways and public transport ticketing that doesn't ever work, the next state election is all about dancing red man. Via Mashable.
It's supposed to be the most wonderful time of the year. Thanks to Black Mirror, it's about to become the bleakest. A release date for the fourth season of Charlie Brooker's dystopian TV show hasn't yet been announced, but it is expected to drop on Netflix sometime this month. In the interim, the streaming platform has been ramping up the excitement by revealing episode-specific trailers. With each approximately hour-long instalment of Black Mirror standing alone in the story department — while always tying into the anthology series' satirical musings about humanity's relationship with technology — the individual sneak peeks offer a glimpse of just what's in store. Four have been released so far, stepping into areas such as the evolution of surveillance, high-tech misdeeds and dating apps. The clips join the previously revealed whole-of-season trailer, and once again, things look grim. It's likely two more will follow, given that full season will consist of six episodes: 'Arkangel', 'Black Museum', 'Crocodile', 'Hang the DJ', 'Metalhead' and 'USS Callister'. Brooker himself wrote every new instalment, while the likes of Jodie Foster, Australian filmmaker John Hillcoat (The Road, Triple 9), Peaky Blinders' Colm McCarthy and American Gods' David Slade are sitting in the helmer's chair. On screen, expect a cast that includes La La Land's Rosemarie DeWitt, Nocturnal Animals' Andrea Riseborough and Fargo's Jesse Plemons getting up to the kind of sci-fi antics that no one wants to dream of. Check out latest trailers below, and prepare for more bleak thrills before the year is out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5N_Tq1EtRQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CV0J3Bq3BIc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d-NCySETRIc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yef_HfQoBd8
Thirty-four-metres long, more than twice as big as a regular hot air balloon and ripped straight from Patricia Piccinini's inimitable mind, Skywhale might just be one of Australia's most recognisable recent pieces of art. It's a sight to see, and the largest-scale example of the artist's fascination with the thin line that separates nature and technology — and it's about to meet its match. Come February, the National Gallery of Australia will unveil Piccinini's new Skywhalepapa, which is designed to form a family with Skywhale. It was originally scheduled to premiere in 2020 — but, after joining the list of things that didn't turn out as planned last year, it'll take to the sky on three mornings in 2021 instead. Both Skywhale and Skywhalepapa will float above Canberra at 5.30am on Saturday, February 6, then again on Monday, March 8, and finally on Saturday, April 3, as part of an event called Skywhales: Every Heart Sings — with the second bulbous sculpture commissioned as part of the gallery's Balnaves Contemporary Series. Although art lovers can check out the event for free, you do need to register if you'll be in Canberra on any of those dates, and fancy getting up early and going along. Of course, that's hardly surprising in these COVID-19-safe times. [caption id="attachment_751759" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Skywhalepapa, 2019/20 (artist's sketch), Patricia Piccinini. Courtesy of the artist.[/caption] Just how big Skywhalepapa will be is also yet to be announced but, given the impressive size of its companion, expect it to be hefty. And if seeing two Skywhales isn't enough, the NGA has been hosting Patricia Piccinini: Skywhales, an exhibition dedicated to them, since March 2020. It'll wrap up on August 1, 2021. If you can't make it to Canberra to see the growing Skywhale clan, it'll also head around the country for an NGA touring exhibition. Locations and dates haven't been announced as yet, and are set to be confirmed in the future. Skywhales: Every Heart Sings takes place at the National Gallery of Australia, Parkes Place East, Parkes, ACT — with the floating sculptures taking to the sky at 5.30am on Saturday, February 6, then again on Monday, March 8, and finally on Saturday, April 3. For further information, visit the NGA website. Top images: Skywhale, 2013, Patricia Piccinini. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra. Gift of anonymous donor 2019, Australian Government's Cultural Gifts Program. Photo: Martin Ollman Photography.
If you’re keen on your gin but not so passionate about the fake flavours that too often creep into your mixer, Karolina Partyka has a solution. She's the brains and brawn behind Blood Moon: an Australian, handcrafted tonic syrup that hit its $10,000 Pozible target in just three days and is now well on its way to a $20,000 stretch goal. Partyka has spent countless hours in her kitchen, grinding spices with an old-school mortar and pestle and mixing batch upon batch of tonic syrup, to come up with a winning recipe. She's also been digging up some ancient brews — and the rituals to go with them. Blood Moon is a non-alcoholic, concentrated syrup that's made to be diluted with either soda or still water and then matched with your favourite gin. Its key ingredient is cinchona bark — a 17th century answer to malaria and (most importantly) a natural source of quinine. This is what gives tonic its characteristically bitter hit, one far too often achieved via synthetic means. According to Partyka's Pozible campaign, one of Blood Moon’s early samplers described it as 'the difference between a single-origin cold-drip coffee and instant'. Not only does the syrup provide quinine as created by Mother Nature, it also delivers a rich, complex flavour profile — and therefore mixes well with tequila and whiskey too. Three variations will be released: Traditional Cinchona, which contains a combination of cinchona bark, citrus, herbs, spices and floral hints; Australian Native, which is the Traditional blend revamped with native fruits, seeds and leaves; and Unsweetened, which features all the goodness of the Traditional syrup, but without any sweeteners (real or artificial) at all. It's one for the sugar-quitters. To get yourself a bottle, get on board with Blood Moon’s Pozible campaign, which will run for another sixteen days.
Pirates of the digital kind will be well aware of Village Roadshow's quest to rid the country of internet plundering, with the film company stepping up their efforts in the last year or so. This time twelve months ago, they commenced legal action against one movie streaming site. In October, co-chief executive Graham Burke announced plans to start suing illegal downloaders. A successful bid to stop Australians from accessing The Pirate Bay and four other sites followed in December — and they're just getting started. In their latest move, the folks responsible for releasing films such as the Harry Potter and Fantastic Beasts franchises, The LEGO Movie, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and more on our shores have filed a Federal Court application to block 41 additional piracy-enabling culprits. Torrent sites, streaming portals and direct download sites are included, spanning the likes of Demonoid, EZTV, ExtraTorrent, LimeTorrents and Torrent Downloads, as well as CouchTuner, 123Movies, Putlocker, WatchFree and WatchSeries. In many cases, multiple URLs are included for each site. Given their success last time around, Roadshow wants the next round of bans to be modelled on the last, which didn't include rolling injunctions — that is, the ability to add proxy and mirror sites to the list as they spring up. To combat that inevitable occurrence, they're proposing that ISPs file and affidavit and pay $50 per domain name whenever a new site arises. For anyone with access to a VPN, this news probably won't drastically alter your content acquiring behaviour. Or, the awareness that the driving force doesn't always keep in step with the rest of the globe when it comes to releasing big films. Indeed, one of Roadshow's most eagerly awaited titles of the year — The LEGO Batman Movie — arrives on Aussie screens more than a month and a half after most of the world. In a nation already known to swashbuckle when it comes to timely access to new films and TV shows, that might just send them flocking to their computers rather than the cinema. Via Computerworld. Image courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
The minds at Barossa Australia and vinous event organisers Revel have another specialised wine exploration to add to your calendar, this time devoted to the famed South Australian wine region that is the Barossa Valley. From 11am–8pm on Saturday, May 27, Barossa. Be Consumed makes its Brisbane debut after popping up in previous years in Sydney and Melbourne. Wine lovers can expect a one-day celebration of the Barossa's finest, showcasing a more than 40 of the region's wineries — and 200-plus vinos from them. You'll have the chance to meet producers while you sample their best creations, and then have bottles of your favourite wines shipped straight to your door. Drops from the likes of Henschke, Seppeltsfield, Torbreck, Purple Hands, Brothers at War and Lienert Vineyards will be among the liquid offerings. Your $55 ticket includes entry, all those tastings and a take-home wine glass — plus vino knowledge and an appreciation for the Barossa's tipples that'll last a lifetime.
As the weather gets colder it makes more sense to stay indoors and watch movies than to brave the icy winds. So, for your viewing pleasure, we've put together out top five trailers for this week to help you into hibernation mode. From directors such as Paul Thomas Anderson and Sam Mendes, we are sure you will find a film of your choice in our five favourite trailers this week. Hyde Park on Hudson Hyde Park on Hudson stars the great Bill Murray as Franklin Delano Roosevelt, also known as FDR. The film is based on FDR's love affair with his distant cousin Margaret Stuckley and a weekend when the King and Queen of England visited his upstate New York property in 1939. Tapping into an era which is all the rage at the moment, this film is definitely worth a look. Dark Blood An unfinished film featuring the late River Phoenix which was thought to never be shown, Dark Blood is a film by George Sulzier which was only days from being completed when Phoenix died of a drug overdose. Sulzier has now decided to share Phoenix's final performance, alongside co-stars Jonathan Pryce and Judy Davis who have aged almost twenty years since the film was first made. Anchorman: The Legend Continues This trailer is more of a teaser for the film as it doesn't give much away, except for the fact that you can't help but laugh. Anchorman fans have been waiting a long time for this sequel and it's almost here. It will be interesting to see what the Channel 4 News team have to say this time around. Skyfall Directed by Sam Mendes, this is Daniel Craig's third performance as James Bond. Co-starring Ralph Fiennes and Javier Bardem, the film is action packed and tests James Bond's loyalty to M, keeping 007 fans on the edge of their seat. The Master The Master boasts an incredible cast - Joaquin Phoenix, Phillip Seymour Hoffman, Amy Adams and Laura Dern. A drama directed by Paul Thomas Anderson, the film discusses the idea of a a young drifter who becomes the right hand man for a post World War II religious organisation known as 'The Cause'.
Game of Thrones might be coming to an end, but hope's not all lost for fantasy fans, with news that a Lord of the Rings television series is in the works. According to Variety, the folks at Warner Bros. Television and the estate of author J.R.R. Tolkien are in talks with Amazon Studios, and and are planning to make all your binge-watching dreams come true with a TV adaptation of the legendary novels. Sources have told Variety that the Tolkien estate and Warner Bros. have already been playing around with ideas for a series and apparently Amazon wants to be the studio to make it happen. The move comes just weeks after Amazon Studios farewelled three key executives, as it overhauls its programming in favour of large-scale shows with broader international appeal. Warner Bros' involvement is especially interesting, with the company recently ending its huge legal dispute with the Tolkien estate over the use of Lord of the Rings film characters in online games. No deal has been made and the talks appear to be in the very early stages. But we'll keep our eye on this precious tidbit and wait for confirmation from Warner Bros. or Amazon. Via Variety.
This is the way: after starting out on the small screen as the very first live-action Star Wars streaming series for Disney+, The Mandalorian is making the leap to cinemas. This news might be about as surprising as a trip to a galaxy far, far away that features lightsabers, but it still means that the bounty hunter played by Pedro Pascal (The Last of Us) and Grogu, aka Baby Yoda, have a date with the big screen. Disney has revealed that it's making a movie about Din Djarin and Grogu, which is set for a theatrical release. There's no date yet as for when you'll be able to head to your local picture palace, nor any cast announcements. The Mouse House has unveiled the film's director, however: Jon Favreau, who created The Mandalorian series to begin with. And, the picture will go into production in 2024. "I have loved telling stories set in the rich world that George Lucas created," said Favreau, announcing the movie. "The prospect of bringing The Mandalorian and his apprentice Grogu to the big screen is extremely exciting." Favreau will also produce the flick with LucasFilm President Kathleen Kennedy and The Mandalorian writer/director/executive producer Dave Filoni, with the latter also behind 2023's Ahsoka. Filoni is set to be busy thanks to Disney's other just-dropped piece of Star Wars news: a second season of Ahsoka. No other details have been advised there yet either, including a release date, other than the fact that more of the Rosario Dawson (Haunted Mansion)-led series about Anakin Skywalker's former padawan is in development. If you're new to Star Wars' small-screen adventures, The Mandalorian follows its namesake; however, it's his encounter with a fuzzy little creature first known as The Child, affectionately named Baby Yoda by everyone watching and officially called Grogu that's always had everyone talking. As for Ahsoka, it saw Dawson return to the eponymous role after playing the part in both The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett. As well as sporting those ties to Anakin from before he became Darth Vader, Ahsoka Tano is now an ex-Jedi Knight battling threats to the post-Empire galaxy — and the series is Disney+'s first series focused on a female Jedi. There's no trailer for the movie about The Mandalorian and Grogu yet, or for Ahsoka season two, but you can check out sneak peeks of The Mandalorian season three and Ahsoka season one below: The movie about The Mandalorian and Grogu doesn't yet have a release date, and neither does Ahsoka season two — we'll update you when more information is announced. The Mandalorian and Ahsoka both stream via Disney+. Read our review of Ahsoka season one. Images: © Lucasfilm Ltd & TM. All Rights Reserved.
Let's face it: we're a fast-paced, high-stress society — and although we would like life to slow down for a second (or for Internet to go down just for a few days, at least), it's not going to let up. To manage your physical and mental health in this crazy world, UK-based startup Vinaya have created a bracelet that is wholly concerned with tracking your emotional wellbeing. The wearable device — the first of its kind — is the first to measure sleep and fitness, as well as happiness, stress and mindfulness. It even tracks fertility (kind of creepy, we know). The wearable, named Zenta, was 100 percent crowdfunded on Indiegogo in record time this week, raising a whopping $137,191 USD in just 41 hours. The product looks like a more stylish version of a Fitbit, and is available with a sports band ($119 USD) or a leather band ($149 USD). And while you can purchase one now, the bracelets won't ship until mid-2017. Here's how it supposedly works. The biometric sensors track your heart rate, movement and perspiration, as well as respiration, electrical activity and oxygen levels. These patterns will then be cross-referenced with the information (like your calendars, meeting schedules and social media use) from your smartphone — though you only share as much (or as little) as you want. The Zenta app is essentially meant to 'learn' your patterns and determine your normal emotional state, as well as decipher any variations from your norm and indicate what caused those variations. As Zenta learns, the idea is that it will require less input from you and get smarter about shifts in your emotional state. Vinaya is already talking with research institutions, mental health organisations and mindfulness experts to make sense of the Zenta data. We must admit, we're sceptical about where this data will end up — the thought it landing in the hands of advertisers, marketers or Google is a pretty frightening concept. Still, if the device helps bring some sense of calm to the stressed-out masses, we would like to see it in action. Zenta is currently available for purchase through Indiegogo. The estimated shipping date is mid-2017.
Why is it the most controversial topics that make us laugh the hardest? Perhaps it's catharsis. Perhaps it's because we dare not make the jokes ourselves. In either case, Sacha Baron Cohen's latest film The Dictator requires no introduction. But let's just say, Baron Cohen's newest creation - supreme leader General Aladeen - is on a mission to safeguard his beloved (oppressed) nation from the clutches of democracy. That's right. The man behind Borat and Bruno is no stranger to controversy; to promote his upcoming release he famously turned up to the 2012 Academy Awards (despite being initially banned from attending) bringing with him "the ashes of Kim Jong-il". Later spilling those "ashes" (reportedly pancake mixture) over well-known American TV host, Ryan Seacrest. Don't call that funny? Then it's likely that The Dictator may offend. Starring Anna Faris, Ben Kingsley and John C. Reilly alongside Baron Cohen, and loosely based on Saddam Hussein's novel Zabibah and the King, the film is hitting cinemas on May 16. Concrete Playground has 20 double passes to give away. To get your hands on a pair of tickets, make sure you are subscribed to Concrete Playground, then email your name and postal address to hello@concreteplayground.com.au
Now, more than ever, bees need friends too. Like Frankenstein’s monster, they might seem scary and potentially aggressive from the outside. But the truth is, wild bees are more concerned with keeping out of your way than with launching a mega sting attack. Plus, as you probably know by now, bee populations are on the down and down, which for us may well lead to diminished food supplies. So, Netherlands-based artist AnneMarie van Splunter has conjured up a public sculpture that’s all about helping humans and bees to get to know one another better. Dubbed the Buzzbench, the gorgeous artwork is a park bench, but not of your usual rectangular variety. Made of cane and bamboo stalks, placed between curved boards, it takes the shape of an enormous flower. For humans, the Buzzbench provides a dreamy place to sit, which looks like something straight out of Alice in Wonderland. For bees, it offers teeny-tiny, cosy crevices, where they can rest while taking a break from their busy pollinating activities. "Wild bees spend a large part of their lifespan looking for a suitable place to lay their eggs — providing a nesting opportunity really helps them," van Splunter explained to Co.EXIST. "We tend to keep our distance from bees because we are afraid to get stung. But actually, the chances you get attacked by wild bees are nil." The sculptor hopes to install the Buzzbench in a park in Amsterdam and has launched a crowdfunding campaign to help raise funds and build awareness. Van Splunter says that once it’s in place, she’ll be able to maintain it for at least a decade, by replacing the cane and bamboo whenever necessary. "It's important to maintain it to make it work," she says. "I would like it to be a place that many people feel involved with, for example as an educational tool, or as a place of research for experts, or just as a place for park visitors to rest." Via Fast Company.
After recent exploits in the US and Europe, PVT are becoming old hands at the whole ‘touring’ thing. They’ve supported high profile acts such as Bloc Party, Menomena and Gotye and, over the course of their career to date, have toured Australia several times in support of their creative efforts. The latest of these efforts is Homosapien, a thrilling example of PVT’s instrumental prowess and creative capabilities. This album is their fourth, and it brings together all of the great elements of their previous releases dating back to 2005 (released under the name Pivot). They have wasted no time in inserting themselves into the Australian music consciousness. Indeed, the trio have had taken the country by storm with their brand of electro-laden music that blends ethereal elements with grounded, contemporary hooks. Homosapien sees the band place more emphasis on vocals, adding an intimate element to their experimental soundscapes. Joining PVT on their tour is the up and coming electro-RNB duo, Collarbones, who have been making waves since releasing Die Young last year. They are being hailed as a great genre-bending talent, much like their tour buddies, PVT. Get in quick and secure a ticket. Trust me, you’ll be blown away.
Apple has set its fair share of technology trends, but today it seems more accurate to say they're chasing one — Apple has today announced HomePod, a seven-inch wireless speaker which acts as your voice-activated DJ and home assistant. Their newest product will be available just in time for the December holidays in the Australian, US and UK markets, but, at around $470 AUD a unit, this gift will be reserved for your nearest and dearest. HomePod will feature an Apple-designed upward-facing woofer with A8 chip, a custom array of seven beam-forming tweeters, automatic room-sensing technology, a six-microphone array with advanced echo cancellation, siri waveform, automatic detection and a balance of two speakers using both direct and reflected audio. To put it in plain terms, this means the speaker can sense its location in a room and automatically adjust audio. The six microphones allow users to control the speaker from across the room, as Siri can supposedly distinguish your voice among even the loudest music. Apple's new nuts and bolts should make for distortion-free, quality sound and means this tiny speaker can get seriously loud. Of course, this one is designed to work with an Apple Music subscription and Siri can track your personal music preferences for different moods, as well as handling advanced searches within the music library — meaning users can ask specific questions about the musicians they're listening to or create an 'up next queue'. As a home assistant, HomePod can provide remote access throughout the house, even if you're not home, including turning on lights and closing shades, sending messages and getting all internet updates or searches read out to you. In typical Apple fashion, there's a catch — HomePod is only compatible with iPhone 5s or later and must run on iOS 11. We wouldn't quite call HomePod the "breakthrough" they're positioning it as, with multiple home speakers already on the market that serve nearly identical functions at a much cheaper price point — HomePod is nearly double the price of Google Home and Amazon Echo and even more than Sonos' Play:3, which was previously the more expensive home speaker at $300 USD. As with any Apple device, it looks great, but with so much competition, they'll need more than looks to sell this one. Image: Apple.
Every time one of your friends has posted something incredibly sad on Facebook and you've 'liked' it? Things are about to get a little more appropriate on the social media IV drip. After Facebook co-founder and known hoodie-wearer Mark Zuckerberg announced the possibility of a 'dislike' button in September, the site has now launched a set of Facebook 'Reactions' which shake up the mere 'like' function. There are now six new little emojis Facebook users can use to react to posts, alongside the OG 'like' button. Users can now respond to posts with love, laughter, happiness, shock, sadness and anger. We're sadly going to have to wait a teeny spell before we can branch out into Facebook's new set of emotions, with the new feature starting out as a test in just two markets, Ireland and Spain — according to TechCrunch, these two countries have been picked mainly because their national user bases have mainly limited international friend networks, so they make a more concentrated test group. If the test is a success, Facebook will roll it out worldwide. Yep, they look exactly like emojis — which is why this will probably immediately work for Facebook. We've been using them this whole time. Via TechCrunch. Image: Dollar Photo Club.
Every year, when spring hits Toowoomba, the regional city becomes the brightest place in southeast Queensland. Blooms blossom, greenery sprouts and flora reaches towards the sun — that's right, it's Carnival of Flowers time. Running from Friday, September 20 to Sunday, September 29, the annual event showcases all of the gorgeous florets, growths and gardens around town — usually including everything from park tours to ikebana displays to specific shows for orchids, bonsai, clivia and bromelaids each year. Outdoor dwellers can also expect daily live music in bloom-filled parks, while pub and dinner walks are also on the agenda. In total, more than 1100 hectares of public parks and private gardens will be on display in 2019. And, they'll boast more than 180,000 blossoming bulbs and seedlings. The event also kicks off with a three-day food and wine festival across September 20–22, and features an illuminated night garden between September 26–28, so there's no bad time to visit — and you might want to make the trek more than once. Indeed, when it comes to scenic spring sights, there's no prettier place to be. And, given it takes less than two hours to head up the mountain from Brisbane, it's perfect for a weekend day trip. Make a playlist, take a picnic and there's your Saturday or Sunday sorted. Image: Tourism and Events Queensland
If the phrase 'cheap beer' is music to your ears on a stinkin' hot day, then the bartenders at the Abbotts Hotel are about to become your favourite musicians in the city. The Waterloo pub has started offering beer prices based on the barometer or 'beer-o-meter' as they're calling it. When the temperature reaches 38 degrees — on the Bureau of Meteorology app, not your dodgy car thermometer — schooners are knocked down from $6 to $3.80. As the temperature continues to rise, the prices keep dropping until it hits 45 degrees (otherwise known as 'hell'). At this point, your beer is free. Yep, that's right, free. You'll never complain about the weather again. Abbotts will be honouring these discounts if anywhere in greater Sydney is sweltering, so keep an eye on your app and keep the bar accountable. The offer will run for the foreseeable future (with whispers of the beer-o-meter swapping in winter to sling cheap stouts when the temp drops) so we'll be crossing our fingers for a steamy March. Abbotts Hotel is located at 47 Botany Road, Waterloo. In the event of free beer, it will be limited to one per person, per day.
Fitz (Jason Priestly), a devilishly handsome low-life of a used car salesman, is missing something. After years of womanising and substance abusing, he's on the hunt for his long-lost conscience. Fitz just didn't think he'd find him sitting at the office desk opposite his. Never much concerned with ending his sleazy ways, Fitz has a change of heart when, during a test-drive he is sure will secure him 'Employee of the Month' status, he crashes. The accident unleashes something with Fitz, a twinge of guilt and emotion we didn't know he had, that comes embodied in his conscience-turned-business partner, Larry (Ernie Grunwald). Now forced to face Larry each and every day, Fitz must (unwillingly) reexamine his dodgy ways. The hilarious pair and their bickering antics lend a humourous twist to this black comedy of a 'buddy' TV series. To win one of four Season One Call Me Fitz DVDs, just make sure you are subscribed to Concrete Playground then email your name and postal address through to hello@concreteplayground.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=MKEZS6DoX3E
With the rise of the mp3 and the gathering of the cloud, the concept of physically owning your music has gradually begun to disappear. Yet for many music lovers, the tactile nature of analogue media still holds a powerful nostalgia. How else do you explain last year's record-breaking vinyl sales? But while the record may have experienced a bit of a resurgence as of late, what about the humble audio cassette? Well, it turns out there may be a market for that too. Inspired by the success of Record Store Day, Cassette Store Day is a celebration of all things magnetic tape and plastic. Its third iteration is set for October 17 — and for the first time, the southern hemisphere is getting in on the action. Australian label Rice Is Nice and New Zealanders Arch Hill Recordings will join Germany’s Mansions & Millions, America’s Burger Records and original UK founders Suplex Cassettes, Kissability, and Sexbeat in organising the 2015 edition, an international party marked by a slew of events, sales and releases. Last year saw such big name artists as Karen O and There Might Be Giants drop tapes for the occasion, among more than 300 others. Of course, not everyone is so enamoured with these chunky slabs of plastic. Last year Tone Deaf penned an article titled ‘Why International Cassette Store Day is Stupid’, arguing that the event is simply nostalgia taken too far. And look, the killjoys may have a point. Although vinyl fans insist that records sound ‘warmer,’ it’s a lot harder to make that argument for the compact cassette. Still, anything that gets people supporting local music stores is okay by us. Besides, who doesn’t secretly want an actual mixtape from their crush? CASSETTE STORE DAY AUSTRALIAN RELEASES Courtney Barnett — Sometimes I Sit And Think And Sometimes I Just Sit Summer Flake — Time Rolls By EP Bloods — Work It Out Ocean Party — Light Weight Step-Panther — Strange But Nice Dollar Bar — Paddington Workers Club Dollar Bar — Hot Ones Red Riders — Drown In Colour Demos The Finks — Lucklaster Fraser A. Gorman — Slow Gum Ouch My Face — Bunyip Raindrop — Crowded Brain EP Rice Is Nice Records — Vol. 3 Mixtape (various artists) Ft. Blank Realm (unreleased), Black Zeros, Tired Lion, Lowtide, The Living Eyes, Pearls, Love of Diagrams, Day Ravies, Us The Band, Zeahorse, White Dog, Weak Boys Wonrowe Vision — Triple Cassette Mortification — Scrolls Of The Megaloth Double Cassette Barrow-man — Dog Tales Betty & Oswald — King Of Bohemia Tutu and the Bodyrockets — The Ballad of Bonnie Bigfish Hills Hoist / Piqué — Cool Change / Kitty Australian labels and store owners that want to be part of this year’s Cassette Store Day can apply via Rice Is Nice starting from July 11. Image: Dollar Photo Club.
Telling your co-workers to wash their damn plates has never looked so suave. Comic Sans, the "I'm not like a regular mom, I'm a cool mom," of the font world, has been given a streamlined, minimalist makeover and is lurking dangerously close to legitimate suavity. Taking cues from the more sophisticated typography go-tos like Helvetica Neue, Comic Neue could potentially be suited for more than passive-aggressive staff kitchen notices and school canteen specials. Constantly scorned for its combination of rounded edges and likeness to the Foundation Handwriting font taught at preschools, Comic Sans has long worn the crown for biggest lamebot in the font family. Writers at McSweeney’s tried to convince us otherwise, but until graphic designer Craig Rozynski decided to give the font a new pair of pants, it was doomed to the Angelfire blogs of yesteryear. Japan-based Australian designer Rozynski saw an overlooked elegance in the world’s most ridiculed font. “Comic Sans wasn’t designed to be the world’s most ubiquitous casual typeface,” he says on the font’s own website. “The squashed, wonky, and weird glyphs of Comic Sans have been beaten into shape while maintaining the honesty that made Comic Sans so popular.” Sporting a makeover to rival Rachel Leigh Cook’s She’s All That staircase descent, Comic Neue is sure to score all the invites to prom with its new schwanky look. Rozynski believes teaching a an old dog new tricks will impress even the biggest font snobs. “Comic Neue aspires to be the casual script choice for everyone including the typographically savvy.” You can test drive Comic Neue over here for free for a limited time. Go on, lightly warn the good people about the consequences of taking people's fridge food. It's going to look damn classy. Via Mashable.
Blending Homer Simpson and Piet Mondrian might be the most unlikely of team-ups, but two Russian designers have begged to differ. Seeing a primary colour-based no-brainer in the pair, Constantin Bolimond and Dmitry Patsukevich have created a line of wine bottle packaging called Wine, or maybe not?. Stripping Homer and Marge back to minimalist Mondrian-like lines and restricted colour areas, the Simpsons have rarely looked so MOMA Gift Shopworthy. Although there's no wine yet created to inhabit the Simpsons, we'd be happy to chuck some Duff in there, work a couch groove and tune into the rest of your life. Via Fubiz. Images by Constantin Bolimond and Dmitry Patsukevich. Keen for more minimalist pop culture wine design? Sure you are. We're on it, head over here for a drop of Westeros.
Maybe hitting the ski fields just isn't your thing. Perhaps, after a few days spent snowboarding, you'd like to see the slopes from a different angle. You could just like climbing up to lofty peaks and peering down on everything underneath. Or, maybe walking over suspension bridges is your preferred adrenaline-fuelled activity. If some of the above apply to you, then add Whistler's newly opened Cloudraker Skybridge to your travel bucket list. A word of warning, however: spanning 130 metres from Whistler Peak across to the viewing platform at West Ridge lookout, it's also 2000 metres above the Whistler Bowl. Acrophobics, you might want to sit this one out — but for everyone that's fine with heights, it's the next reason to head to the famed Canadian region. The cantilevered walkway extends 12.5 metres out from the West Ridge, giving visitors a stunning view — and while that includes a bird's-eye vantage over those skiing below during winter, the skybridge is open all-year-round. Those eager to make the trip will need to buy a PEAK 2 PEAK 360 Experience ticket, which cost between AU$75–81. That also includes a heap of other activities, such as rides on the site's open-air chairlifts and gondolas, walking along its lengthy walking trails, and catching a video or an expert talk at the Alpine Theatre 1860 metres above sea level. Image: Mitch Winton via Whistler Blackcomb.
Let me preface this by saying that I am by no means an expert in the world of movement. However, what I can offer to you dear readers is a review from the perspective of someone who appreciates dance but can’t tell the difference between a plié and a pirouette. Last Friday night I was fortunate enough to be privy to a performance of the world-renowned Sydney Dance Company doing their latest production The Land of Yes and The Land of No. I was slightly hesitant as I attended alone, however my fellow audience members and alone time made the situation ripe for eavesdropping. A mixed bag of people whose only apparent shared interest was dance, numerous conversations floated around me discussing the performance ahead. A lucky seat next to a knowledgeable couple meant I was witness to a quick course in the history of the director Rafaela Bonachela, and what was in store for me for the next 70 minutes. Bonachela has established himself as a leader in contemporary dance choreography, and this performance was to be a representation of that. The storyline of The Land of Yes and The Land of No was created as a representation of how our chaotic world is so crowded with signs, directions and instructions on such a large scale that overwhelmed people miss all of them as they go about their lives. The beauty of the performance is that it clearly highlights that at different times everybody goes through the same feeling of isolation within a busy crowded world and though we may sometimes feel alienated, people will always come to our assistance. The particular collection of dancers that were performing from the Sydney Dance Company formed a very attractive cohort indeed. The variety of male and female performers, each with very diverse and beautiful looks, all acted so equally it was impossible to identify any one dancer as the lead. I would guess this was done on purpose to represent the cacophony that is the human race. The attire that adorned the dancers may not have been pointe shoes and tutus, but it was a perfect fit for the production regardless: bare feet and simple white outfits, although all unique in styling were obviously linked to each other through a repeated use of fabric and pleating. This choice in wardrobe worked well for the performance is it again highlighted the link between humans despite their differences. The set production played a very important role in The Land of Yes and The Land of No, as the entire choreography was set around it. There were a large number of fluorescent light bulbs arranged on stage that would definitely not look out of place in a Daft Punk or Justice concert, but added an interesting youthful element to an otherwise plain stage. Throughout the show there was a level of anticipation to see how the light changes related to the scene ahead as they occurred prior to dancers entering. And change they did right from the beginning. The performance opened with a black out and then from the light bulbs a singular doorframe emerged. The first dancer on stage was a lone female whose solo to a quiet classical piece represented a struggle with living in this century. Shortly after a male companion with the task of ‘saving her’ joined her on stage. It was interesting to note how there were clearly two different levels of choreography that Bonachela had created for the piece as, after the slow beginning a larger number of lights were turned on, the music became more dominating and a larger cohort entered the stage. Throughout the show these two levels continually alternated. The sections where either all or the majority of dancers were on stage were my favourites; the way the choreography was created was very clever in highlighting how everybody goes about their life doing the same activities without generally noticing each other. In a style that was highly reminiscent of primary school music canons, the dancers would go about doing the same routines at different times before sometimes overlapping or falling into sync briefly. As the show wore on, the interaction between the different dancers became more and more frequent in both the slower and faster paced sections. Perhaps as a representation of how humans need to look to each other in order to find sanity in this crazy world. Overall I would recommend The Land of Yes and The Land of No as it addresses some very current and universal themes about the way society is conducting itself and the detriment it is doing to humans. It’s a lecture on humanity in dance form! The Land of Yes and The Land of No opens at Sydney Theatre on October 18.
The producers of Serial and This American Life have teaming up on a brand new true crime podcast hitting the digital airwaves next month. Better yet, they're taking a page out of Netflix's book and dropping every single episode at the exact same time. Today. The non-fiction S-Town is set in rural Alabama and will investigate "the son of a wealthy family who's allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. But then someone else ends up dead, sparking a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man's life", according to the website. We're in. "This story takes so many unexpected turns," said This American Life presenter Ira Glass in a statement. "Every episode is a new surprise. And the story has this feeling and mood that's different from anything else we've done. I don't think people have heard a show like this." S-Town is one of three new podcasts being launched under the 'Serial Productions' banner. It will be hosted by long-time This American Life producer Brian Reed, and all seven episodes are available from the S-Town website. Image: Peabody Awards, CC.
It must be tough being a local artist. Breaking through to audiences is tough without some spark to ignite the fuel of fanaticism for art. Sometimes you just need a helping hand. Well then, thank the powers that be for the Institute of Modern Art. Their annual exhibition, Fresh Cut, is dedicated to shining a light on emerging artists from Brisbane and Queensland at large. Since 1997 (16 years, for those counting at home) IMA and Fresh Cut have shown works by dozens of artists who have never had the opportunity to be displayed on their hallowed walls. Thanks for BCC’s Creative Sparks grant, each member of the Fresh Cut exhibition receives $5000 to help them create their work – a nice sum of money! This allows each artist to go all out and realise their potential for the betterment of their careers. The lucky artists-du-jour are Joseph Breikers, Caitlin Franzmann, Anita Holtsclaw, and Ruth McConchie. Joseph and Caitlin will be presenting their works in the first instalment in the Fresh Cut series. Go have a look and see what hard work and dedication can achieve.
One of the most lauded films of last year’s festival circuit and the winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, Mommy is a masterpiece of melodrama from 26-year-old Quebecois wunderkind Xavier Dolan. This is a movie you can’t afford to miss. An emotional roller coaster presented in 1:1 aspect ratio, the story follows a brassy single mother whose teenage son suffers from violent mood swings as well as ADHD. Anne Dorval and Antoine Olivier Pilon are both stunningly good, their performances positively glowing with uninhibited feeling. This is a funny, earnest, devastating film, one that's vitalised, rather than limited, by its intriguing technical conceit. Seriously, if this film doesn’t make you cry buckets, you flat out haven’t got a heart. Mommy is in select cinemas on April 9, and thanks to Sharmill Films, we have ten double in-season passes to give away. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter and then email us with your name and address. Sydney: win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au Melbourne: win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au Brisbane: win.brisbane@concreteplayground.com.au
Perhaps it’s the simplicity of this practical, environmentally-friendly and rather smart looking pallet garden that’s so inspiring. It looks like something every urban dweller should be doing - it’s neat, space-saving, and an ideal solution for maintaining a herb, flower or veg garden in the city. Better looking than the average window box too. The new trend is popping up on balconies, aside garages and on roof tops. It’s such an achievable way to recycle unwanted crates or pallets that can be found at local supermarkets and factories, yet it looks so good - we only wish we’d thought of it ourselves. [Via Lost At E Minor]
