First, it turned Speed into a play. Then, it gave Titanic the same treatment. They're not the only two classic flicks that've earned Act/React's attention, however — so get ready to say "yippee-ki-yay" to its version of the mother of all Christmas-set action films. Break out the white singlets, get festive and prepare to spend plenty of time watching someone crawl around in vents, because that's what happens with Die Hard hits the stage. This comedic theatre performance will transform the Brisbane Powerhouse's Turbine Platform into Los Angeles' Nakatomi Plaza, let European terrorist Hans Gruber do his worst and task New York cop John McClane with saving the day — with help from the dad from 80s and 90s sitcom Family Matters. Throw in more than a few one-liners, incredibly low-fi special effects and an all-round comic atmosphere, and that's Die Hard: The Movie, The Play, which'll unleash its mayhem from Sunday, December 12–Thursday, December 23. Yes, this is one hijacking that you'll want to witness.
Already home to gelato, doughnuts, Mediterranean cuisine, Hungarian pastries, Greek eats, the second outpost of one of Brisbane's favourite cafes and more, West End's West Village has just added a new culinary go-to to its lineup: Ippin Japanese Dining. Initially announced in 2022, and welcoming in patrons since Wednesday, April 12, it's the first Brisbane venture from Sydney restaurateur Kenny Lee, owner of the New South Wales capital's Kuon Omakase, Allta and Funda restaurants — and he has brought his popcorn lobster with him. That beloved dish from down south sits on a seafood- and meat-heavy menu heroing Queensland produce, plus products imported from Japan, in a space that also takes the same mix-and-match approach. Located in West Village's Garden Pavilion, Ippin's decor ties into its both its culinary influence and its setting, featuring minimalist Japanese design but working with the timber and brickwork that's prominent around West Village. Also a supremely Brisbane touch: the greenery views, including peering down on openair lawn The Common from its second-floor perch. Diners ascending above West Village's hustle and bustle — literally, given the levelled-up location — to the 140-seater will tuck into Japanese eats overseen by head chef Tatsuya Miwa. With owners Helen Lea and Jane Ma, too, Miwa and Lee have devised lunch and dinner menus that feature traditional seafood starters, sides, mains and desserts. You can kick off your visit with that famed lobster fare or karaage chicken, for instance, then enjoy wagyu beef tataki, soft-shell crab rolls, chargrilled octopus and yuzu panna cotta. If you're fond of bites from the robata grill — wagyu, chicken and prawn skewers; miso-marinated toothfish; honey, coriander and mint duck breast; and 48-hour dry-aged coral trout, to name a few options — your tastebuds will also be tempted. The same goes for raw bar fans, with 12- and 24-piece sea-to-table sashimi sets on offer, plus a salmon-only ten-piece set. Or, go for kingfish carpaccio, and catch-of-the-day sushi sets in six or 12 pieces. The dessert lineup also spans to dark chocolate hemispheres filled with red fruits and topped with raspberry icing, plus caramel puddings. And, while all of the above dishes spring from the a la carte menu, Ippin is launching with a $118 chef's menu until Monday, April 17 — an 11-course range that starts with bluefin tuna paired with sea urchin and caviar, also includes wagyu tartare and tempura Moreton Bay bugs, and finishes with roasted green tea warabi mochi over vanilla ice cream. No matter when you drop by, with the restaurant open for lunch from Friday–Sunday and dinner Monday–Sunday, sake is a big drawcard, sitting alongside a lineup of cocktails and spirits, and a list of Australian, French and Italian wines. So, expect to sip Umenoyado's fruit-flavoured sakes (think: peach, orange, lychee and pineapple), yuzu whisky sours and Matcha-gronis (made on matcha-infused gin, matcha powder, Midori and vermouth), plus a range of Japanese gins and whiskies. Although the entire space is both secluded, diners can also choose between two private dining spaces that seat ten–12 guests. Find Ippin Japanese Dining at West End's West Village precinct, 97 Boundary Street, West End — trading from 11.30am–10pm Monday–Sunday.
If you've ever fantasised about sleeping over in the hallowed grounds of the MCG, get ready to make those dreams a reality. For one night only — and for just two lucky guests — the iconic sports stadium will moonlight as a unique overnight stay. It's all thanks to booking.com, which is transforming one of the MCG's lofty guest boxes into the Unforgettable Legends Lounge — a special private guest suite for two, which is popping up for just one night to coincide with the final match of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2022. Two guests will get to experience the stay on Sunday, November 13, enjoying a full VIP package with all the trimmings. That includes return flights to Melbourne, an indulgent pre-game massage in the suite, and a top-shelf food and drink offering courtesy of a personal bartender (making cocktails on demand) and personal chef. Guests will also score a gift pack featuring personalised cricket merchandise for the ultimate memento. The suite itself is a little slice of sophistication, overlooking the ground from on high. It's decked out with a large double bed, a kitchen and a living area with sweeping views across the famed turf below. It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity — but of course, you'll have to put up a fight to make it yours. The exclusive stay will go to the first person to jump online and book with their speedy little fingers from 9am AEST on Friday, October 28. So yes, you'll want to be quick — cue the madness. The Unforgettable Legends Lounge and VIP experience is available to book exclusively for one person and their guest, for $30, with reservations opening at 9am AEST on Friday, October 28 at booking.com. 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.
Not all that long ago, the idea of getting cosy on your couch, clicking a few buttons, and having thousands of films and television shows at your fingertips seemed like something out of science fiction. Now, it's just an ordinary night — whether you're virtually gathering the gang to text along, cuddling up to your significant other or shutting the world out for some much needed me-time. Of course, given the wealth of options to choose from, there's nothing ordinary about making a date with your chosen streaming platform. The question isn't "should I watch something?" — it's "what on earth should I choose?". Hundreds of titles are added to Australia's online viewing services each and every month, all vying for a spot on your must-see list. And, so you don't spend 45 minutes scrolling and then being too tired to actually commit to anything, we're here to help. We've spent plenty of couch time watching our way through this month's latest batch — and, from the latest and greatest to old favourites, here are our picks for your streaming queue from August's haul of newbies. BRAND NEW STUFF YOU CAN WATCH IN FULL RIGHT NOW PREY No stranger to voicing iconic lines, Arnold Schwarzenegger uttered one of his best-known phrases yet 35 years ago, in a franchise that's still going today. "If it bleeds, we can kill it" has been quoted frequently ever since — even by champion AFL coaches — and it's no spoiler to mention that it pops up again in the latest Predator film Prey. Trotting out that piece of dialogue won't surprise anyone, but this fine-tuned action-thriller should. It's one of the saga's best entries, serving up a lean, taut and thoughtful kill-or-be-killed battle set in the Comanche Nation 300 years ago. The Predator series hasn't been big on highlights over the years — Predator 2 is forgettable to put it nicely, 2010's Predators is effective, 2018's The Predator favoured its throwback vibes above all else, and the two terrible Alien vs Predator cross-over films are best left forgotten — however Prey not only breathes new life into it, but paves a welcome path for more. (Bring on a Prey sequel ASAP.) The overall premise remains the same, with the franchise's ruthless, brutal and technologically advanced alien species using earth as its hunting ground as the series has already established — and showing zero concern about leaving a body count. Trained healer Naru (Amber Midthunder, The Ice Road) is the first to notice that something is awry this time, spotting the predator's spaceship in the sky and taking it as a sign to follow her dream to become a hunter herself. Alas, that isn't the done thing. In fact, she's spent her entire life being told that she can't be like her brother Taabe (first-timer Dakota Beavers), and should focus on her assigned role instead. Now, even with an extra-terrestrial foe wreaking havoc, she's still dismissed at every turn. Midthunder plays Naru as a fierce, determined, persistent and resourceful force to be reckoned with, while writer/director Dan Trachtenberg — co-scripting with Jack Ryan's Patrick Aison — gives all things Predator the taut focus, canny shift and fresh feel he also gave the Cloverfield saga with 10 Cloverfield Lane. Prey streams via Disney+. THE BEAR First, an important piece of advice: eating either before or while watching The Bear is highly recommended, and near close to essential. Now, two more crucial slices of wisdom: prepare to feel stressed throughout every second of this riveting, always-tense, and exceptionally written and acted culinary series, and also to want to tuck into The Original Beef of Chicagoland's famous sandwiches immediately. The eatery is purely fictional, but its signature dish looks phenomenal. Most of what's cooked up in Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto's (Jeremy Allen White, Shameless) kitchen does. But he has taken over the family business following his brother's suicide, arriving back home after wowing the world in fine dining's top restaurants, and nothing is easy. Well, coveting The Bear's edible wares is across the show's eight-episode first season — but making them, keeping the shop afloat, coping with grief and ensuring that the diner's staff work harmoniously is a pressure cooker of chaos. That anxious mood is inescapable from the outset; the best way to start any meal is just to bite right in, and The Bear's creator Christopher Storer (who also directs five episodes, and has Ramy, Dickinson and Bo Burnham: Make Happy on his resume) takes the same approach. He also throws all of his ingredients together with precision — the balance of drama and comedy, the relentlessness that marks every second in The Original Beef's kitchen, and the non-stop mouthing off by Richie, aka Cousin, aka Carmy's brother's best friend (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Dropout), all included. Carmy has bills to pay, debts to settle, eerie dreams and sleepwalking episodes to navigate, new sous chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri, Dickinson) mixing up the place and long-standing employees (such as Hap and Leonard's Lionel Boyce, In Treatment's Liza Colón-Zayas and Fargo's Edwin Lee Gibson) to keep happy. Every glimpse at the resulting hustle and bustle is as gripping as it is appetising — and yes, binging is inevitable. The Bear streams via Disney+. A LEAGUE OF THEIR OWN The year: 1943. The place: America. The sport: baseball. Misty faces: apparently not allowed. Yes, there's no crying in baseball, again — and yes, after proving a hit on the big screen back in 1992, A League of Their Own is back as an eight-part streaming remake with those rules about waterworks still intact. That said, in both versions, there definitely are tears in the sport. Someone proclaims there shouldn't be, although Tom Hanks doesn't do the honours the time around. And, when it arrives in Prime Video's series, that line isn't code for the entire perspective that A League of Their Own is rallying against: that the bat-swinging pastime isn't for women anyway. The new show's characters are still forced to deal with that abhorrent view, though, and the same storyline and same societal journey slides through the show's frames, too. But Broad City's Abbi Jacobson, who leads, co-writes and co-created this A League of Their Own, helps ensure that this fictional look at the All-American Girls Professional Baseball League broadens its playing field. Obviously much is familiar about this movie-to-TV do-over, including following a small-town star catcher (Jacobson's Carson Shaw) chasing her lifelong dream while her husband serves in the Second World War, a ragtag group of other women living their fantasies as well, a world that sees them as a joke and a male manager (Nick Offerman, The Resort) who used to be a major star but is only in this gig to restart his own career. Also included here: the tale of Max Chapman (Chanté Adams, Voyagers), an immensely talented pitcher who isn't allowed to audition, let alone play, due to her race. Another warm-hearted sports comedy results — and in what proves a worthy extra innings, there's never any doubt that the new series is firmly a 2022 creation. A League of Their Own's gorgeous ladies of baseball span an impressive cast, too, with standouts D'Arcy Carden (The Good Place), Melanie Field (The Alienist) and Roberta Colindrez (Vida) hitting it out of the park. A League of Their Own streams via Prime Video. Read our full review. GLORIOUS During his seven seasons on HBO's slinky supernatural drama True Blood, and in his 223 episodes on Home and Away before that, Ryan Kwanten navigated any actor's fair share of wild scenarios — and soapy and melodramatic, obviously. In Glorious, he's firmly in out-there territory, but as a troubled man conversing about life, love, loss, loyalty, the universe, gods, men, women and plenty more in a dank and grimy rest-stop bathroom. So far, so straightforward. Unexpected connections and cathartic chats can happen in all manner of places with all manner of people, after all. But Wes, Kwanten's character, is conversing with a glory hole. There's a powerful deity behind it, but all that Glorious' protagonist and the audience see is glowing neon light emanating from the circle between cubicles, and a pulsating orb of flesh hanging below the stall walls. Filmmaker Rebekah McKendry (Psycho Granny), plus screenwriters David Ian McKendry (All the Creatures Were Stirring), Joshua Hull (Chopping Block) and Todd Rigney (Headless), aren't shy about their Lovecraftian nods; not thinking about the sci-fi author's brand of cosmic horror and its focus on unfathomable terrors is impossible. Indeed, this'd make a fine double with Color Out of Space — a sincere compliment given that phantasmagorical delight is adapted from the author's words, while this feels like it should've been. Aided by cinematographer David Matthews (Jakob's Wife), McKendry cements the film's clear tribute via its aesthetic and atmosphere, with vibrant pink hues contrasting with the grotty bathroom, and the claustrophobic setting doing the same with the vastness emanating from Ghat, Wes' talkative new acquaintance. That JK Simmons (Spider-Man: No Way Home) lends his distinctive tones to the movie's pivotal voice does much to set the mood, understandably, but Kwanten's layered performance, a twisty narrative and an inspiredly OTT premise executed with flair also make Glorious memorable. Glorious streams via Shudder. THE SANDMAN Fantasy fans who are also TV fans, rejoice — the Game of Thrones realm is back (see below), The Lord of the Rings is about to hop over to the small screen as well, and Neil Gaiman's The Sandman has also been turned into a streaming series. With all three, one word probably comes to mind: finally. But while lovers of Westerosi power struggles and battles against Sauron have already had something to watch at least, The Sandman first played out in comic books between 1989–1996 and, despite efforts otherwise, that's where it has remained until now. Entertaining things come to those who wait, though, even if the first season of Netflix's adaption does take its time to kick into gear. Perhaps that's apt, especially given how the titular figure, the Robert Smith-esque Dream King (Tom Sturridge, Irma Vep) — who is also known as both Dream and Morpheus — spends much of the first episode. British aristocrat and occultist Roderick Burgess (Charles Dance, The King's Man) attempts to lure in Death (Kirby Howell-Baptiste, Hacks) instead, in an effort to bring his son back to life. Disappointed with obtaining the wrong captive, he imprisons Dream for more than a century. That incarceration has consequences, with Dream's kingdom bearing the brunt, and his powers unsurprisingly suffering (yes, cue the season's main storyline). Again, The Sandman doesn't completely click from its first frame; however, while it's putting its pieces together, it cements its dark, otherworldly and suitably gothic mood — and has quite the cast to play with. Because every TV show has to have multiple links to Game of Thrones, Gwendoline Christie (Flux Gourmet) plays Lucifer, memorably so. Elsewhere, Boyd Holbrook (The Predator) swaggers around as The Corinthian, Vivienne Acheampong (The Witches) is a delight as Dream's offsider Lucienne, Jenna Coleman (The Serpent) makes the most of her gender-swapped Constantine (yes, like the Keanu Reeves-starring film) and the always-reliable David Thewlis (Landscapers) leaves an imprint as Burgess' son. And when The Sandman works, whether at a performance or an episode level or more broadly, it is indeed a fantasy aficionado's dream. The Sandman streams via Netflix. THIRTEEN LIVES Hollywood couldn't have scripted the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue better if it tried. As monopolised the news at the time and keeps fascinating filmmakers since, the situation started when 12 pre-teen and teenage soccer players and their 25-year-old coach went into the cave system in Chiang Rai Province in northern Thailand, heavy monsoonal rains caused flooding, and it was widely feared that the stranded team wouldn't be recovered. Thankfully, there was a happy ending — although it took nine days until divers even confirmed they were alive, another nine to both work out the logistics of extracting them safely and follow through, and other lives were lost in the process. The Tham Luang caves can be cavernous, but that just means more room for more water in the wet season. And saying that its tunnels are narrow and difficult to navigate, even for the best of the best below the water, is an understatement. All of the above shines through in the rousing Thirteen Lives, a survivalist and procedural drama starring Colin Farrell (After Yang) and Viggo Mortensen (Crimes of the Future) as cave divers John Volanthen and Richard Stanton, plus Joel Edgerton (Obi-Wan Kenobi) as Australian anaesthetist Richard Harris. For viewers who've seen the two other recent movies about the same situation, stellar documentary The Rescue and subpar docudrama The Cave, the details will be familiar — and how well the film's three biggest names portray their IRL counterparts will stand out as well. Tension drips through this take on the tale, with director Ron Howard (Hillbilly Elegy) enlisting claustrophobic cinematography and sound design to edge-of-your-seat effect. That said, cataloguing an extraordinary extraction job done under dangerous circumstances is Thirteen Lives' main aim. In a film committed to letting the dramatised events themselves set the emotional tone, surveying the contributions beyond the now well-known faces, the context behind their efforts and the impact within the community — for the boys' families, and politically — also gets Howard's attention. Thirteen Lives streams via Prime Video. RETURNING GEMS WITH FULL NEW SEASONS TO BINGE SOLAR OPPOSITES Justin Roiland has one of the most recognisable voices on television right now, especially if you're a Rick and Morty fan. While you're watching Solar Opposites, though, you won't just be thinking about that beloved animated hit and its schwifty dimension-hopping antics — or even counting down the days till it returns, which is soon, while dipping whichever food you like in Szechuan sauce. You'll be too busy laughing, getting drawn into this also-Roiland co-created gem, and trying not to miss anything in its joke-a-second comic onslaught. Solar Opposites and Rick and Morty share more than a little in common, of course, including aliens, strangeness descending upon a suburban family, sci-fi antics, a raucous sense of humour and the fact that literally anything can happen. But while Rick and Morty is basically the new, far-more-anarchic Back to the Future, Solar Opposites has big Third Rock From the Sun vibes — and Futurama, too, if instead of jumping to the year 3000, it followed a ragtag group of extra-terrestrials residing on earth. Roiland voices Korvo Solar-Opposites, the team leader on a mission to terraform this blue marble to replace his exploded Planet Shlorp. But first, his family is trying to make the best of life right here exactly as it is — well, with plenty of science-fiction gadgetry to keep things interesting. Hijinks ensue, involving Korvo, his partner Terry (Thomas Middleditch, Silicon Valley), and the younger Yumyulack (Sean Giambrone, The Goldbergs) and Jesse (stand-up comedian Mary Mack), as well as their cute alien infant Pupa. There's also Aisha (Tiffany Haddish, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent), the artificial intelligence onboard their spaceship, plus a wall filled with shrunk-down people (thanks to those sci-fi toys) who've started their own society in Yumyulack and Jesse's bedroom. Now three seasons in, Solar Opposites has perfected the ideal balance between fish-out-of-water alien shenanigans and those increasingly poignant miniature human interludes (complete with Mad Men's Christina Hendricks and This Is Us' Sterling K Brown helping voice the latter) — and it's just as ace as Roiland's better-known hit. Solar Opposites streams via Disney+. BREEDERS You don't need to have children of your own, plan to soon or ever think you will to keenly relate to Breeders. Now in its third season, the British comedy about a London family understands one inescapable truth about life: that chaos is an unavoidable constant, and much of that chaos springs from people being people. Based on an idea by star Martin Freeman (and partly derived from his own experiences), this series explores that notion in a microcosm, and without the rosy hues that usually tint sitcoms about parenting. Indeed, you could be forgiven for thinking that the Sherlock, The Hobbit, Fargo and The Office actor has been through more than a few ups and downs as a father — and he will have, because everyone who has kids does — due to Breeders' refreshing frankness. His character's frustrations, and his inability to remain calm while facing mayhem, mess, mania and everything in-between, also proves not just welcomely honest and hilarious, but vicariously cathartic. That often-anguished man is Paul Worsley, dad to Luke (Alex Eastwood, Creeped Out) and Ava (Eve Prenelle, To Olivia) — and partner to Ally (Daisy Haggard, Back to Life). No, none of those relationships are perfect. The same applies to his status as a son to the set-in-their-ways Jim (Alun Armstrong, Sherwood) and Jackie (Joanna Bacon, Benediction), with Breeders examining family ties in multiple directions. The chaos deepens each season, with this batch of episodes opening with Paul staying elsewhere because his presence, and his quick-to-anger temper, are exacerbating Luke's anxiety. Rippling consequences spread throughout the characteristically astute, smartly written, well-performed and cannily amusing new season, as Paul makes a new friend (Sally Phillips, How to Please a Woman), but doesn't tell Ally; the latter adjusts to his absence; Ava tussles with faith, friends and her future; and Jim and Jackie show that even lifetime-long relationships still have their secrets and struggles. Breeders streams via Disney+. NEW AND RETURNING SHOWS TO CHECK OUT WEEK BY WEEK BAD SISTERS Bad Sisters begins on the day of an Irish funeral, farewelling John Paul Williams (Claes Bang, The Northman) — after his widow, Grace (Anne-Marie Duff, Sex Education), makes sure that the corpse's erection won't be noticed first. He's long been nicknamed 'The Prick' anyway, with his four sisters-in-law all thoroughly unimpressed about the toxic way he treated his wife. In flashbacks, they joke about saving her by getting murderous, and exactly why is made plain as well. Bonded by more than blood after their parents died, the Garvey girls are used to sticking together, with the eldest, Eva (Sharon Horgan, The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent), stepping in as the maternal influence over Grace, Ursula (Eva Birthistle, The Last Kingdom), Bibi (Sarah Greene, Normal People) and Becka (Eve Hewson, Behind Her Eyes). She's fierce about it, too, as characters played by the Catastrophe and This Way Up star tend to be. When a guest offers condolences at John Paul's wake, Eva's response is "I'm just glad the suffering's over" — and when she's then asked if he was ill, she replies with a blunt and loaded "no". If this scenario sounds familiar, that's because Belgian TV's Clan got there first back in 2012, which means that Bad Sisters joins the ever-growing list of series that largely exist to make the leap into English. That isn't a criticism of the end result here, though, which proves itself a winner early. Also part of both shows: two insurance agents, aka half-brothers Thomas (Brian Gleeson, Death of a Ladies' Man) and Matthew Claffin (Daryl McCormack, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande) here. Their family-run outfit is meant to pay out on John Paul's life insurance policy, but it's a hefty amount of cash and will bankrupt the firm, which is why Thomas starts asking questions. It seems an obvious setup, but this is a series with both bite and warmth. Brought to the screen by Horgan, Bad Sisters finds both the pitch-black comedy and the drama in its whole 'offing your arsehole brother-in-law' premise, and the tension and banter as well — and the sense of sorority between its quintet of main ladies, too. Bad Sisters streams via Apple TV+. RESERVATION DOGS One of the best new TV shows of 2021 is back for a second season — and it quickly proves one of the best returning shows of 2022, too. That series: the gloriously heartfelt and perceptive Reservation Dogs, which may riff on a Quentin Tarantino movie with its moniker, and also started with a heist when it first hit the screen, but proves dedicated to diving deep into what it's like to be an Indigenous North American teenager today. Bear (D'Pharaoh Woon-A-Tai, Beans), Elora (Devery Jacobs, Rutherford Falls), Willie Jack (Paulina Alexis, Ghostbusters: Afterlife) and Cheese (debutant Lane Factor) are those restless Oklahoma adolescents, and they've shared a California dream since the show began. But when the first season wrapped up with a tornado, as well as a figurative storm of hard truths and buried feelings, the gang's relocation fantasy didn't play out as expected. The lure of family and culture remained strong, as did holding onto a past that's brought happiness as well as pain (getting a fresh start after losing a friend is a big motivation for their escape plan). That said, Elora still attempts to go anyway. In season two, the more things change, the more they stay the same — until they don't. For Bear, Willie Jack and Cheese, staying on the reservation requires facing life on the reservation. For Elora, being on the road with enemy-turned-travelling companion Jackie (Elva Guerra, Dark Winds) gets tumultuous. Made with such an evident commitment to minutiae, and to feeling lived-in at every moments, Reservation Dogs spins both its episodic stories and its long-running coming-of-age arcs, themes and emotions into something wonderful again and again. Co-creator/executive producer/writer Sterlin Harjo (Mekko) deserves all the kudos that can be showered his way, and so does Taika Waititi as one of the series' fellow creators, executive producers and writers. There are many reasons to be thankful for the New Zealand filmmaker as his resume keeps attesting (including fellow recent sitcom Our Flag Means Death); however, using his fame to help bring this insightful gift into the world is one of them. Reservation Dogs streams via Binge. HOUSE OF THE DRAGON In its very first moments, House of the Dragon's opening episode delivers exactly what its name promises: here be dragons indeed. Within ten minutes, the Iron Throne, that sprawling metal seat that all of Westeros loves fighting about, also makes its initial appearance. By the time the 20-minute mark arrives, bloody violence of the appendage-, limb- and head-lopping kind fills the show's frames as well. And, before the debut instalment of this Game of Thrones prequel about House Targaryen's history even hits its halfway mark, a brothel scene with nudity and sex is sighted, too. Between all of the above, the usual GoT family dramas, squabbles over successors and power struggles pop up. Of course they do. House of the Dragon was always going to check all of the above boxes. None of this can constitute spoilers, either, because none of it can come as a surprise. Game of Thrones' fame and influence have become that pervasive, as have its hallmarks and trademarks. Everyone knows what GoT is known for, even if you've somehow never seen this page-to-screen franchise yet or read the George RR Martin-penned books that it's based on. After green-lighting a different prequel to pilot stage, scrapping it, then picking this one to run with instead — and also making plans to bring novella series Tales of Dunk and Egg to TV, working on an animated GoT show, exploring other potential prequels and forging ahead a Jon Snow-focused sequel series — House of the Dragon is the first Game of Thrones successor to arrive in streaming queues, and it doesn't mess with a formula that HBO doesn't consider broken. Its focus: the Targaryen crew 172 years before the birth of Daenerys and her whole dragon-flying, nephew-dating, power-seeking story. Cue silky silver locks aplenty, including cascading from King Viserys I's (Paddy Considine, The Third Day) head as he takes to the Iron Throne over his cousin Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best, Nurse Jackie). She had a better claim to the spiky chair, but gets passed over because she's a woman. Years later, the same scenario springs up over whether the king's dragon-riding daughter Princess Rhaenyra (Upright's Milly Alcock, then Mothering Sunday's Emma D'Arcy) becomes his heir, or the future son he's desperate to have, or his headstrong and shady younger brother Prince Daemon (Matt Smith, Morbius). House of the Dragon streams via Binge. Read our full review. SHE-HULK: ATTORNEY AT LAW What do 90s lawyer comedies, recent TV sensations, Captain America's sex life and the fact that it isn't easy being green all have in common? The Marvel Cinematic Universe's latest streaming series. What gives Tatiana Maslany (Orphan Black) a worthy comic showcase, sees Marvel's ever-sprawling franchise make a rare admission that The Incredible Hulk exists, and gifts Sorcerer Supreme Wong (Benedict Wong, Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness) a hilarious new buddy dynamic, too? Yes, the MCU's likeable She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, which proves savvy, self-aware, silly and satirical all at once. What refuses take itself too seriously, knows it's in busy territory, and winkingly responds to the world that's helped it even come to fruition? This Kat Coiro (Marry Me) and Anu Valia (And Just Like That...)-directed show, too, which just keeps ticking a long list of boxes. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law is astute and amusing, skewers popular culture's obsession with superheroes, and unpacks the way society treats women — superpowered and otherwise. And where its immediate small-screen predecessor, Ms Marvel, loved the MCU more than its audience ever will, this playful sitcom about Marvel's emerald-hued lawyer sees plenty about the ever-expanding on-screen saga to parody. Jennifer Walters (Maslany) starts out the show as a Deputy District Attorney — and also a hulk. In flashbacks, head writer Jessica Gao (Rick and Morty) gets the obvious question out of the way, aka "how did Jen end up aping Bruce Banner?". In that jump backwards, Jen heads on a road trip with her cousin (Mark Ruffalo, Dark Waters), ends up in a car accident, gets splashed with his gamma-radiated blood and wakes up sharing his traits. Smart Hulk hops into action, training Jen in the ways of being giant and grass-coloured whenever her emotions bubble up, although that's what being a woman today entails anyway. With new powers comes an upended life, however, as well as a new job juggling cases covering everything from Emil Blonsky/the Abomination's (Tim Roth, Sundown) past misdeeds to Asgardian elves and wily magicians. This series has as much in common with Ally McBeal and Fleabag as it does with its fellow spandex-clad cohort, and it's all the better for it, striking an entertaining, perceptive and well-cast balance between the obligatory caped crusader nods and spinning a lawyer comedy about a caped crusader. She-Hulk: Attorney at Law streams via Disney+. Read our full review. Need a few more streaming recommendations? Check out our picks from January, February, March, April, May, June and July this year. You can also check out our running list of standout must-stream 2022 shows so far as well — and our best 15 new shows from the first half of this year, top 15 returning shows and best 15 straight-to-streaming movies. Top image: Photo by David Bukach. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
Peanut butter and jelly, that beloved lunchbox combo, was a trendsetter. Before every other food mashup anyone can possibly think of started tempting tastebuds, it had the concept down pat. You know how the idea works, because it just keeps happening: take two edible items that don't usually go together, mix them into one dish and, voila!, a new culinary marvel has emerged from Frankenstein's kitchen. The latest such dishes: pizza burgers and burger pizzas, all courtesy of a collaboration between OTT burg joint Milky Lane and Crust pizzas. How you feel about it will probably depend on how you normally react to decadent burgers and fruit on pizza. So, you're either ravenous already or instantly know it's not for you. A Hawaiian pizza, but as a burger? Milky Lane's beef burg, but as a pizza? You can try both for a limited time. They're two of the key offerings during this team up, which hits menus at both brand's stores Australia-wide from Tuesday, August 30. Over at Milky Lane, there's that pineapple pizza-inspired burger, called the 'Notorious P.I.G.'. It comes with a double-smashed beef patty on a cheese, bacon and pineapple milk bun, and is then topped with mozzarella, streaky bacon, shaved leg ham, Mexican shredded cheese and deep-fried pineapple. Or, you can opt for the 'Peri J Blige', which mashes up Crust's peri peri chicken pizza and Milky Lane's chicken burger. That means southern fried chicken on a peri peri milk bun, alongside peri peri sauce, red capsicum strips, mozzarella, Napoli sauce and mixed Italian herbs, with a deep-fried mozzarella patty on top. If you're heading to Crust instead, their pizza-burger hybrids span 'The Big P' and the 'Chic-Kanye'. The first takes its cues from a Milky Lane favourite, and combines slow-cooked pulled pork, ground beef, caramelised onions and mozzarella on a barbecue base with an onion-ring crust. It then adds dill pickles, maple bacon bits, a Mexi cheese mix and Milky Lane's signature burger sauce. Crust's second special pays tribute to one Milky Lane's chicken burgs, featuring fried chicken tenders coated in Milky Lane's southern seasoning, as well as bacon, caramelised pineapple, roasted potato and mozzarella. That's all popped on a barbecue base, and topped with maple bacon bits, a Mexi cheese mix and Sriracha aioli. Yes, just reading the above should make you hungry. Milky Lane and Crust's mashup menu is available at both brand's stores Australia-wide from Tuesday, August 30 — for a limited time.
This article is part of our series on the diverse highlights of NZ's Canterbury region, from city to snow. To book your Christchurch trip, visit the 100% Pure New Zealand website. Bars on buses, pop-up public buildings and shipping container shopping centres — it's what you expect to see in some of the most cutting-edge cities in the world, but is it what you expect to see on the South Island of New Zealand? This is the land of the long white cloud's inventive, industrious and inspiring city of Christchurch today. Excitement and opportunity are stirring everywhere in a city with a fresh slate. It's in the small bars that have appeared in deserted streets, the designers who have started working a disused tannery and the locals who just want to contribute to the new incarnation of their city. For most, it's an inspiring time to be in New Zealand's second largest city, and there's no better time to visit. Here are four areas in which the city is thinking laterally and pulling off big things. Hospitality: C1 Espresso Christchurch is catching up to Auckland and Wellington in the cool stakes and forging its own rep for great coffee, small bars and a focus on local produce.. "We're all starting again and we've got an opportunity to redefine ourselves," says Sam Crofskey, owner of High Street's C1 Espresso. Pioneering the second wave coffee movement through to the third in Christchurch since 1996, C1 is famous for its pneumatic tube system that delivers burgers and fries to you at 100 km/hr. While there is something very Fifth Element about it, but this system is actually more in tune with the past than the future, as the tubes are part of the building's former life as a bank. "There is so much opportunity in the city," Sam says. "You can open a bar in an alleyway or upstairs above a shop or whatever." And people are. Bars specialising in whiskey, craft beer and local wine have popped up in unlikely places and are almost always buzzing with crowds. Retail: Re:START A temporary structural solution is driving the retail industry: shipping container shopping. Re:START encouraged retailers to establish temporary spaces in shipping containers to grow their businesses. Located in Cashel Square, Re:START has been one of Christchurch's biggest successes. (It's also home to Dimitri's, possibly the best souvlaki in the South Island.) In addition to what's happening in the city centre, retail has found an unlikely home-away-from-home in the industrial side of town. Ten minutes drive from the CBD in Woolston, an old tannery has become the new home of Christchurch's boutique designers and retailers. After owning the site for near on 20 years, Alasdair Cassels was able to redevelop the space into an arcade-like shopping mall, aptly dubbed The Tannery. Giving designers a place to create and sell their wares, The Tannery became a meeting place as well as a shopping destination — at a time when the city had nothing else like it. Art: Gap Filler Colour flows through Christchurch in the form of street art. From almost any vantage point you're bound to be in viewing distance of at least two pieces of work, with murals painted on the sides of buildings both abandoned and inhabited and outdoor installations littered over disused blocks. What's happened in Christchurch has shown that adversity exemplifies creativity. Seeing a way to breathe new life into the city, artists have used bare walls to redefine the mood and vision of the urban area. A mural painted We got the sunshine lights up Madras Street, a super-size Rhone portrait sits on one side of Cathedral Junction and local artist Wongi 'Freak' Wilson has left his mark all over town. As well as this, 'Gap Filler' projects are placed all over the city, activating vacant spaces with interactive installations. Walking around, it's likely that you'll hear someone playing the drums (in the Sound Garden), see someone having a boogie in front of a washing machine (at the Dance-O-Mat) or sitting on a giant Astroturf couch. Once a super conservative city, Christchurch now thrives on new work that will continue to shape and develop with it. If you're an artist with a crazy idea, Christchurch is the one city that might just let you do it. Infrastructure: Cardboard Cathedral As well as Re:START, which can be moved at any time, the Cardboard Cathedral is an incredible example of how great transitional architecture can be. Erected as a place of worship by emergency architect Shigeru Ban, the structure is made largely from cardboard tubes and looks like a picture of perfect symmetry from the inside. It's temporary, but it's meant to last around 50 years. But permanency is the ultimate goal, and plans for infrastructure and urban living are well underway. New Christchurch looks like it's going to be one hell of a city. Feature image and Rhone mural image courtesty of Jocey K, Cardboard Cathedral courtesy of Forgemind ArchiMedia via photopin.
How much of what we draw is memory and how much is imagination? It's a tricky question, that has no concrete answer, but it's something two Brisbane artists have been exploring for some time now. Michelle Roberts and Sony G Peters are diverse in their art practices, creating work and artistic theories that compliment as often as they clash. Their joint exhibition re: cognition/re-cognition delves into themes and concepts of subjective reality and autobiographical memories, through intense research of both artist’s behalf. Michelle Roberts is a PhD candidate at Griffith University Queensland College of Art, and she currently investigates the capabilities and influence memory and imagination can have on the future. Her counterpart Sonya G Peters is currently completing her Doctorate in Visual Studies at the same school, where she also teaches. Her current research focuses on the act of drawing, and the notions of what is remembered and what is imagined from an autobiographical perspective. Opening night for re: cognition/re-cognition is this Wednesday at 5pm, and you can catch the exhibition until the September 1. Don’t forget.
Dear Concrete Playground Readers, With the growing concerns surrounding COVID-19, we wanted to take a moment to check in. Going out might not be at the top of your to-do list right now, but you can continue to support small, local businesses without leaving your apartment. These businesses have had a tough run of late — battling through the lockout laws in Sydney, the bushfires in regional areas and, now, coronavirus fears — and they need our support now more than ever. Buy from artists who've had their shows cancelled, order gift cards and merch from venues that are struggling or just book in a dinner for that birthday a few months away. Then, when we come out the other side — which we will — we'll be raring to get out there and hit up concerts, food festivals, comedy galas and charity raves once again. And we'll be there with you every step of the way. In the meantime, keep washing your hands — to the chorus of Lizzo's 'Truth Hurts', of course — and get in touch if you have any questions, concerns or just want to chat. Love, CP To stay up-to-date with the events postponed and cancelled in your city, head over here. 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.
Put down your Kit Kat, for we’ve just discovered a break that's even better than snappable chocolate-covered wafers: smashing stuff. To be more specific, we mean smashing stuff with a baseball bat — and it's a legitimate, all above-board activity at new Melbourne pop-up, The Break Room. Currently housed in the back of a Brunswick shoe warehouse-turned-espresso bar Kines, an appointment at The Break Room is a five-minute, sweaty task that puts you behind thick, plastic walls, wields you with a pink baseball bat and some protective headgear and lets you go to town on some very satisfyingly smashable items. For the moment, they’re using plates and glasses as collateral. But if anyone can produce it, our ‘ultimate smashable’ would be a ceramic Matryoshka filled with glitter. The Break Room was born in a moment of frustration (and through the efficacy of podcasts) by founder Ed Hunter, after he realised that everybody wants to blow off steam in their own way. And while some might prefer to hit the gym, Hunter is inviting you to hit some crockery off a stool instead. Speaking of the stools, notches of pink residue from the so-coloured bats have been passionately left on them; reminders that other members of the baseball bat cathartic club (do I hear badges?) have bashed their way to sanity before you. For anyone studying their swatch patterns, the pink is Baker-Miller, and has been used in correctional facilities across America to help calm violent inmates. Yet Hunter heeds that The Break Room’s goal isn’t violence, but rather to reduce stress and harness those destructive tendencies in a controlled and fun way. A video posted by The Break Room (@thebreakroom) on Feb 10, 2016 at 8:46pm PST At $50 to smash your way to calmness for five minutes, this emotional outlet may seem a bit on the spenny side, but the beauty is in the fact that you’re not breaking your own stuff — and some other guy will be picking up the pieces after you. These pieces are, in fact, added to the pile that hides further out back, where both shattered crockery and snapped pink swords from liberated brethren lay, which is a good indicator that the allocated time is probably ample. So wait until the shutters go down, don your best Joaquin Phoenix impersonation and swing away at those inner aliens of yours by taking your aggression out in some organised chaos. The Break Room is currently located in Brunswick, Melbourne and is open from 3pm every day. For more information, visit thebreakroom.com.au.
For two nights in March, your plans can include checking out more than 100 motorbikes, drinking, tapping your toes to DJs and listening to live music. That's all on the agenda at The Motorcycle Up Late, because the Gallery of Modern Art is doing what it usually does whenever it hosts a major exhibition — that is, throwing a couple of huge after-hours parties. Until the end of April, The Motorcycle: Design, Art, Desire is on display across GOMA's floors and walls. You can see the results everyday over the next few months, in fact. Or, you can head along from 6pm on Friday, March 19 and Saturday, March 20, wander the gallery, get revved up, watch performances, grab a bite and enjoy a few beverages. There'll various bars around the place, so a drink won't be hard to find. On Friday evening, you'll also be able to listen to tunes by The Hi-Boys, Tia Gostelow and WAAX, with Black Amex, Lori Lee and Sweaty Baby on DJ duty. If Saturday better suits your diary, prepare for JK-47, Tex Perkins and Friends, and VOIID, plus Eamon Sandwith, Paolo and Patience Hodgson on the decks. Tickets cost $34–38 for one night and $57–64 if you're keen on going to both. If you'd like to wear a leather jacket, that's up to you. Images: Installation view The Motorcycle: Design, Art, Desire. Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. Photograph: Chloë Callistemon, QAGOMA
Imagine taking a photo with your fingers. A prototype for a new type of camera, known as the Ubi-camera, has been created by researchers at the IAMAS, allowing you to do just that with the help of a small device. By connecting the little device to your index finger the rectangle becomes the viewfinder. Then, by pressing down on the device with your thumb, you are able to take a photo. A built-in range sensor depicts the amount of space between the photographer's face and the camera. For example: if you put your face close to the camera you can create a wide angle shot and if you move your fingers further away this will give you a close up photo. The infrared technology range sensor still has a few glitches, such as the difficulty to detect faces, that developers hope to overcome in the near future. [via Mashable]
If you've been looking to keep your wardrobe choices as ethical as possible, then shopping local just got a little easier. Long-running fashion not-for-profit Ethical Clothing Australia (ECA) has launched a new online map that pinpoints all the Aussie stores featuring ECA-accredited brands on their racks. The new digital tool currently maps out over 300 accredited ethical retail destinations, allowing shoppers to easily hunt down ethically conscious fashion with just a few clicks on their smartphone or other device. In order to nab that all-important ECA accreditation, a business must be able to show that all workers involved in its manufacturing operations are being paid properly, working in safe conditions and receiving all the necessary legal entitlements. ECA conducts these audits looking deep into the whole manufacturing process, from design to dispatch. [caption id="attachment_800970" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Clothing the Gap[/caption] Some of the ethical businesses to have earned themselves a spot on the map include 53-year-old brand Cue, popular jeans label Nobody Denim and high-end designer favourite Manning Cartel. And Victoria especially looks to be flying the flag for conscious fashion, with 120 store mapped in that state alone, including The Social Studio, Vege Threads, Remuse Designs and the newly opened Clothing the Gap store. The new map comes as more and more Aussies are choosing to hunt down ethical producers when they shop. A recent ECA survey showed that a huge 70 percent of local textile, clothing, and footwear manufacturers reported their customers were asking more questions about the labour rights of their workers than ever before. On its website, the ECA also has a comprehensive directory listing all of its ethically accredited fashion businesses. To check out the ECA Digital Shopping Map, jump over to the website. Image:
One of the best known and most important figures in Australian history is Woollarawarre Bennelong, a senior Eora man who was captured by Governor Phillip in 1789, but then escaped, later becoming an interlocutor between Indigenous Australians and European settlers. His curiosity, diplomacy and humour were legendary, and played a major role in ensuring his community survived the trauma of invasion. Now Stephen Page, Bangarra's artistic director, has put Bennelong's story into an epic new dance piece that's about to tour the nation. Expect to be immersed in powerful soundscapes, stunning design and extraordinary movement. Bennelong will premiere at the Sydney Opera House in June before heading to Brisbane from August 25 till September 2. Check out the trailer below. Image: Vishal Pandey.
Take your protein pills and put your helmet on. Picture yourself face to face with David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust 1972 bodysuits, Kansai Yamamoto’s trouser suits for the '73 Aladdin Sane tour, the Union Jack coat designed by Bowie and Alexander McQueen for the '97 Earthling album cover, props from Jim Henson's Labyrinth. We know, you're sweet to start freaking out. Opening next July, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) will play host to the acclaimed David Bowie is exhibition, celebrating the kickass career of the man himself. Created by London's Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A), the exhibition is a Bowiephile's dream — an unprecedented collection of over 50 stage costumes alongside tour sets (including the designs for the '74 Diamond Dogs tour), handwritten set lists and lyric sheets, Bowie's own sketches, rare live and interview videos, musical scores and diary entries, photographs and album artwork. Basically, if you're a Bowie fan, this is next level squealworthy material. "The mystery of David Bowie as an enigma is so lovingly explored in this incredible immersive exhibition you’ll feel as if you’ve stepped inside the mind of this astonishing cultural and pop icon," says ACMI Director & CEO, Tony Sweeney. "Bowie is a figure whose social and creative influence and significance far exceeds his status as a pre-eminent rock performer and in David Bowie is, his incredible career is showcased in glorious detail." Presented exclusively in Australasia by ACMI as part of Melbourne Winter Masterpieces, the exhibition explores Bowie's influences and legacy in a lengthy narrative layout (tracing Ziggy Stardust through Berlin and Thin White Duke phases), delving into his career as a musician, of course, but also reminding fans of his top notch cult film career, stints as a writer and his lifelong ability as a stage performer. V&A curators and brains behind the whole Bowie show, Victoria Broackes and Geoffrey Marsh, handpicked over 300 objects and films for the exhibition — a research process we're pretty damn jealous of. "The exhibition looks in-depth at how Bowie’s music and radical individualism has both influenced and been influenced by wider movements in art, design, film and contemporary popular culture over an incredible 50-year career and demonstrates how Bowie has inspired others to challenge convention and pursue freedom of expression," they said. The exhibition comes to Australia under a furious amount of buzz — its world premiere this March in London became V&A's fastest selling exhibition ever, recording record numbers of over 311,000 visitors. As the exclusive venue for David Bowie is, ACMI have crafted a specially-curated program of talks, screenings, live performances and special events to pair with the Major Tom-a-thon. David Bowie is will open at ACMI on 16 July 2015 as part of the Victorian Government’s Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series. Tickets go on sale to the general public in November 2014. To register for exclusive pre-sale ticket opportunities, visit acmi.net.au/bowie.
Before it was a ten-part Prime Video series, Daisy Jones & The Six was a book. And before Taylor Jenkins Reid's 2019 novel jumped back to the 70s rock scene, Fleetwood Mac lived through, stunned and shaped the era. No matter where or when an adaptation popped up, or who took to the microphone and guitar in it, bringing Daisy Jones & The Six to the screen was always going to involve leaning into Mick Fleetwood, Stevie Nicks, John McVie, Christine McVie and company's story. Reid has said that she took loose inspiration from the band; "it's a Fleetwood Mac vibe," she's also noted. Those parallels are as obvious as a killer lyric in Daisy Jones & The Six. Creators Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber have a recent history of riffing on true and classic tales, too — their last two projects were The Disaster Artist, which they co-scripted based on Greg Sestero's memoir about making Tommy Wiseau's The Room; and Rosaline, a retelling of William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet from the titular Romeo-spurned character's perspective. With directors James Ponsoldt (The End of the Tour), Nzingha Stewart (Inventing Anna) and Will Graham (A League of Their Own), the duo approach Daisy Jones & The Six exactly as that pedigree brings to mind: it's heightened, impressively cast, and well-versed in what it's tinkering with and recreating; it also isn't afraid of romance and tragedy, or of characters going all-in for what and who they're passionate about. On the page, this melodramatic tale of sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll unspools as an oral history. On streaming, it's framed by two-decades-later documentary interviews where key figures — Daisy Jones (Riley Keough, Zola), members of The Six and other pivotal folks in their careers — share memories to-camera. The eponymous musicians burned bright but flamed out fast together, opening text on-screen informs the audience before anyone gets talking. A huge stadium gig at Chicago's Soldier Field late in 1977 was their last, coming at the height of their popularity after releasing hit Rumours-esque record Aurora. Viewers immediately know the ending, then, but not what leads to that fate. Introduced in the show's flashbacks as the ignored child of wealthy parents, Daisy couldn't be more obsessed with music. A childhood spent internalising her mother's cruel comments that she doesn't have the voice or talent to follow her dreams holds her back in Daisy Jones & The Six's first episode, however, even as she couldn't spend more time hopping between Sunset Strip's venues. Cue another piece of IRL rock history, of course, thanks to Keough's pitch-perfect casting. She doesn't play her part like she's playing Elvis Presley's granddaughter — aka herself — but she makes fantastic use of her rockstar genes, including in her energy, swagger, stare, volatile temperament, and all the ferocious singing that the American Honey, The Girlfriend Experience and The Lodge star does herself. Daisy Jones & The Six takes its time putting the two parts of its moniker together, but follows The Six's origins from the outset as well, when Billy Dunne (Sam Claflin, Book of Love) agrees to front his younger brother Graham's (Will Harrison, Madam Secretary) high-school band. The full group initially spans guitarist Eddie Roundtree (Josh Whitehouse, Valley Girl), drummer Warren Rojas (Sebastian Chacon, Emergency) and bassist Chuck Loving (Jack Romano, Mank). But when dental school and the security it represents beckons the latter, and British keyboardist Karen Sirko (Suki Waterhouse, The Broken Hearts Gallery) joins their number, there's still just five band members moving from Pittsburgh to Los Angeles to make a proper go of it after tour manager Rod Reyes (Timothy Olyphant, Amsterdam) tells them that's where the serious action is at. Aspiring photographer Camila (Camila Morrone, also a Valley Girl alum) is the sixth person with The Six; she's Eddie's crush but Billy's girlfriend, then his wife and the mother of his child. She's also one of the reasons that the love-hate pull he feels towards Daisy earns two oft-used words: it's complicated. As much as Daisy Jones & The Six is a portrait of a band and a snapshot of an era, it's firmly a love triangle, too. Does great art only spring from deep feelings? Does faking it till you make it apply to discovering your artistic groove with someone and selling a bond that'll sell albums? What's the difference between finding a soulmate and seeing your own reflection peering back in another's eyes, struggles and life? They're all queries the series ponders. Fleetwood Mac's tumultuous relationships and breakups are a matter of history, which no one needs to know when sitting down to Daisy Jones & The Six. As Keough twirls onstage, adores shawls and lengthy sleeves, glares pure determination and fire, and self-medicates heavily, though, consider this a condensed fictionalisation. The Buckingham to her Nicks is Claflin, obviously, as duelling lead singer-songwriters Daisy and Billy keep circling around each other from the moment that ace record producer Teddy Price (Tom Wright, True Story) puts them together. She's desperate to make it big and not just be her lyric-stealing ex-boyfriend's, or anyone's, muse, but seeks solace all day with pills and booze. He's sober and trying to get his band another shot after a tussle with drink and drugs derails their first tour, almost ruins his marriage and sees him miss his daughter's birth. No one needs to have seen Almost Famous, either, to know where Daisy Jones & The Six heads. Still, this quickly engrossing series engages in the moment like a catchy refrain. Spinning a familiar but nonetheless involving story of chasing dreams, fame's excesses and troubles, and learning whether someone is a mirror or a kindred spirit, it looks the part in every wardrobe choice — including the disco attire worn by Daisy's pal Simone Jackson (Nabiyah Be, Black Panther), who gets close to her own episode about trying to make it in an industry unwelcoming to Black and queer artists, and the embrace she finds in New York with DJ Bernie (Ayesha Harris, Abbott Elementary) instead. Daisy Jones & The Six's songs are earworms as well, whether the show is giving the suite of 70s-style tunes written by Phoebe Bridgers, Marcus Mumford, Jackson Browne and more a whirl, or dropping a soundtrack of other cuts that, yes, even features Fleetwood Mac. Check out the trailer for Daisy Jones & The Six below: Daisy Jones & The Six streams via Prime Video.
There are plenty of ways to cut a rug — different styles, spots and reasons among them — but the best way is just to hit the dance floor and go for it. That hasn't always been possible over the past two years; however, that's not the only motivation to bust out your fanciest footwork at the The People's Dance Party. The number one reason to head along: because there's nothing like losing yourself to the music. Losing yourself to dance is firmly the main aim at this inclusive shindig hosted by Bring a Plate. Here, it doesn't matter how you dance — or why. Whichever shapes you choose to make, you'll be showing off your smoothest dance floor movies amid professionals and community performers, with this 75-minute party also including pop-up showcases that just might teach you a thing or two to try out yourself. It all takes place at Metro Arts' New Benner Theatre, with tickets costing $25 and two parties being held on Saturday, April 2. If your afternoon could use some cutting loose, make a dance floor date at 3.30pm — which'll be a relaxed show with reduced lighting and sound. Or, strut your stuff to start your night at the evening session at 8.30pm. Images: Janna Imperial.
From towering mountains and serene fiords shrouded in mist, to black sand beaches and forests housing some of the world's oldest trees, Aotearoa New Zealand's natural landscapes truly are something else. No matter when you visit, you'll feel the wairua (spirit) of New Zealand's landscapes drawing you in as you're immersed in them and they envelop you. This is scenery you'll feel, rather than merely 'view'. Winter transforms vistas as the skies darken, mountains rising from the horizon are dusted in snow and the seasonal passing by of wildlife occurs. During autumn and spring, you'll be bathed in warmer temperatures and lingering sunlight that casts a different light over the landscapes. We teamed up with 100% Pure New Zealand to unveil some of the most awe-inspiring scenery New Zealand has to offer each season, so you can plan a trip that's made all the more memorable by these breathtaking encounters. Flick the switch for our top picks of experiences to have in autumn, winter and spring and see how New Zealand changes with the seasons. Jump to switcher
Beloved camping music festival Beyond the Valley returns to its regular programming this year, set to ring in the new year at Barunah Plains, west of Melbourne, from December 28, 2022–January 1, 2023. And it's got a stacked lineup to celebrate, too, headlined by none other than the legendary Nelly Furtado — the Canadian singer behind 'I'm Like a Bird', 'Turn Off the Light', here for a one-off Aussie-exclusive performance. Joining her on the eclectic bill: Denzel Curry, Dom Dolla, Kaytranada, BENEE, Yeat, Flight Facilities, Honey Dijon, Lime Cordiale, Patrick Topping, Charlotte De Witte, Diplo and more. That includes Bicep, which'll come as no surprise if you saw the video earlier in the year announcing the fest's return, which was set to the sounds of 'Glue'. The fest's sprawling new Barunah Plains home comes complete with a 100,000-square metre-natural amphitheatre, playing host to its three usual stages (main stage, dance tent and multi-level dance spot Dr Dan's), as well as a new podcast stage featuring live and interactive recordings. The 2022 instalment will also include a beach club for swims; a small space that's only accessible via secret entrance called Schmall Klüb; and the Poof Doof 'pride patrol'; plus speed-dating, yoga, pilates, meditation, open mic sessions and a fortune teller. Beyond the Valley has released a range of ticketing options, including single-day passes and multi-day entry — though you'll want to be quick as they're all expected to sell out. [caption id="attachment_866660" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mackenzie Sweetnam[/caption]
For artist Sarah McCloskey, there was never really a question whether or not she would pursue a career in art. "There's never been another thing that I've been interested in," she says. Growing up in Perth, McCloskey explains that she "always, always had a pencil in [her] hand". After graduating from high school, she completely immersed herself in that world. She worked part-time in an art gallery and started a university degree in fine art, all while steadily honing her craft. In February 2019, she moved to Sydney to pursue being an artist full-time. It was one of several choices that McCloskey has made over the last decade in a bid to shape her career and find her unique creative voice. This year, McCloskey joins a slew of visionary creatives collaborating with Miller Design Lab — the home of creativity and self-expression built by Australia's leading minds in design, art, technology and fashion. The platform is a celebration of our nightlife and its impact on culture to deliver exceptional moments to you and your home. Here, we speak to McCloskey about seeking new challenges that shape her creative voice and finding inspiration. There's something that's really clear when talking to McCloskey: she isn't afraid of facing a challenge. In fact, she welcomes it. "I think the things I feel most proud of come from throwing myself into something new and giving it my best shot," she says. Although the bulk of her current work is painting murals, it's a relatively new medium for her after concentrating on graphite illustrations for the first part of her career. Explaining how she fell into the medium, she says, "I just was lucky enough to be working in a space and surrounded by some people who had been painting walls for decades." Since then, McCloskey's painted murals for several arts festivals, including Wonderwalls Festival in Port Kembla. But there are plenty of tricky aspects of it. "They were some of my largest walls and had tight timeframes. I learned a lot and was super proud. I do love painting murals, but I definitely feel it afterwards. Especially if I'm painting something really big in a short amount of time in the sun or the rain.....It is pretty physically taxing." Acknowledging that she can't continue with murals long-term, she started "dipping her toe" into yet another new challenge last year: oil painting. And she began with what she describes as "a pretty vulnerable choice to paint a sad selfie". Now, rather than seeing the cancellation of much of her upcoming mural work at festival and events (due to COVID-19) as a setback, McCloskey's taking it as an opportunity to keep forging ahead in her career path. "I'm in the studio constantly and actually putting time into some oil paintings that I've had sitting here waiting for me to finish. I want to build up a body of work with a view to have an exhibition." One of the most recent oil paintings that McCloskey has produced was for Miller Design Lab, which she describes as "pretty true to my style... which is very much portrait-based. I do have an interest in strong colour palettes, so I chose neon to be my light source, which is something I hadn't done before." Delving further, McCloskey explains how customisation plays a role in her process. "Through the years, I would take a photo reference [from Pinterest or Instagram] and tweak it to make it my own... I like to keep the realistic aspects and the things that make it recognisable, especially if it's a face, but turn it into something that doesn't really exist in this world. Through painting, especially murals, that's something I do using colour and other botanical elements." It's no surprise then that McCloskey considers nature a huge source of inspiration. She mentions the Royal Botanic Garden and Wendy Whiteley's Secret Garden as two of her favourite places in Sydney to visit. And, when the sun goes down, the inspiration keeps flowing. "The nightlife of the city is that perfect time at the end of the day when everybody gets to go out and connect with people. Whole creative industries exist in the night for our pleasure and entertainment, and being able to get out amongst that is an amazing way to recharge." For Sarah, that means tracking down live music. "I'm always that person who is trying to drag all my friends to some gig. That's the perfect place to see a bunch of other creative people in their element on a stage. I always feel pretty motivated by that — seeing people smash it in their own creative field. I'm not a musician at all but seeing one is like 'Fuck yeah, I'm going to go and be good at my thing now'." For more, check out Sarah McCloskey's collaboration with Miller Genuine Draft here. For more ways to celebrate your city's nightlife and recreate its energy in your own space, head this way. Images: Reuben Gibbes
After beginning the year with a devastating bushfire season, then following it up with a global pandemic that rid the area of tourism, the Blue Mountains, it's fair to say, has has a tough 12 months. In response, Mount Tomah's Blue Mountains Botanic Garden has turned to an unlikely partner on its road towards bushfire recovery: gin. In collaboration with Sydney-based gin brand Grown Spirits, the Botanic Garden has released the Blue Mountains Grown Gin in a limited run of just 1000 bottles. All profits from the gin go to supporting the garden's horticultural and scientific staff in their efforts to restore hundreds of specimens and areas of the Blue Mountains Botanic Garden destroyed in the bushfires earlier this year. The Blue Mountains Grown Gin was created by Grown Spirits and Master Distiller Philip Moore at Distillery Botanica in Erina. It combines local eucalypt plant the silver-leaved mountain gum with juniper, valencia orange and liquorice root for a textural gin with a hint of spice. "In creating a gin homage to the Blue Mountains and the Garden, there was one botanical I was immediately drawn to, eucalyptus pulverulenta, or "Baby Blue" as some people call it," Moore said in a statement. "It brings fresh, cooling qualities to the gin much like the mountains themselves." The team recommends serving it in a G&T or a martini with a lime zest. You can also try it at Dead Ringer in Surry Hills, shaken into a cocktail called Evergreen. If you're looking for ethical holiday gifts this time of year, the Blue Mountains Grown Gin fits snuggly into a Christmas stocking. Not a gin enthusiast, but still keen to support the area? You can take a trip to the Blue Mountains — and the Garden — and spend liberally on local businesses. To start planning your adventure, check out our guide to the upper Blue Mountains and these enchanting local stays. The Blue Mountains Grown Gin is now available now for $129 at the Garden Grown Gin website or at select bottle shops across Australia.
Pencil in this one for a future getaway: a sprawling 100-acre spot in the Yarra Valley that's home to a 300-bed hotel, an outdoor concert venue, three restaurants, lakes and gardens to roam around, and an arts and craft village. Come 2024, that's set to become a new place to add to your holiday itineraries, all on the Maroondah Highway just over an hour's drive from Melbourne. Here, you'll be able to see a gig, then not only bunker down for the night but truly make a weekend of it. It's envisaged that the new site will play host to big names, spanning both local and international acts — and also showcase local growers, artisans, winemakers, distillers and brewers. Specifics such as who'll run the hotel and what the restaurants will offer haven't yet been revealed, however, and development plans are still to be lodged. That said, helping boost the state's tourism and live entertainment industries after the past couple of tough years is one of the project's big aims. The just-announced $200-million precinct springs from Cedar Mill Group, which is owned by Newcastle-based property development firm Winarch Capital, and has just snapped up the land to bring this plan to fruition. It's the company's third such development in the works, and the first in Victoria — following Cedar Mill Lake Macquarie, which is revamping a golf course and adding a 30,000-person concert venue, cafes, restaurants, accommodation and a huge aquatic park; and Cedar Mill Hunter Valley, a 40-hectare spot in in Pokolbin that's set to open in late 2023 with a 22,000-person amphitheatre, a 100-room hotel and a wine museum. Cedar Mill Group is also still looking for other sites around Australia — so that list might grow in the near future. And, yes, adding new spots for Aussies holidays to your getaway bucket list is becoming easy of late. There's also the in-the-works new hotel in the Barossa, smack bang in the middle of a vineyard; the about-to-open QT Newcastle, which includes a rooftop bar and a suite in a clock tower; and Sydney's Porter House Hotel, which'll launch in July with a five-story restaurant and bar hub next door. And, there's the just-opened first Down Under outpost for Ace Hotels, the soon-to-open The Langham on the Gold Coast, design-driven Marriott chain AC Hotels' first Aussie site and the 2025 local debut of The Waldorf Astoria, too. The Cedar Mill Group's Yarra Valley site is expected to open in 2024. For more information about its plans, head to the company's website.
Perhaps your 2023 is off to a gorgeous start. Maybe you've broken your resolutions already. Whichever fits, a ray of sunshine is coming your way if you like Gelato Messina's decadent specials, the chain's frosty treats in general and all things red velvet. Behold Messina's new red velvet hot tub, aka its latest OTT creation — which is arriving just in time to add something sweet to your Valentine's Day. Messina's hot tubs are the brand's extra-special, always limited-edition treats. No, the word 'hot' doesn't reflect the required temperature. Indeed, in this case, the tub comes with layers of cream cheese gelato with red velvet cake and red velvet fudge, all to be eaten cold. On top: toasted red velvet cake crumbs, plus piped cream cheese chantilly. While the dessert is timed for the supposedly most romantic day of the year, who you share it and your Messina love with is up to you. Grab a spoon with your significant other, go all in for Galentine's Day instead, or treat yo'self to multiple days of pink- and red-hued gelato, cake and fudge — the choice is obviously yours. Tubs cost $40 each, and you'll need to place your order online on Monday, January 30. Because Messina's specials always prove popular, the brand now staggers its on-sale times — so folks in Queensland and the ACT are able to purchase at 9am, Victorians at 9.15am, and New South Wales customers are split across three times depending on the store (with tubs from Bondi, Miranda, Randwick, Circular Quay and Surry Hills on sale at 9.30am; Darlinghurst, Brighton Le Sands, Parramatta, Tramsheds and Manly at 9.45am; and Darling Square, Newtown, Norwest, Rosebery and Penrith at 10am). Wherever you live, you can then pick up the red velvet hot tubs between Saturday, February 11–Tuesday, February 14. Fans of Messina will know that the gelato fiends are quite fond of making these kinds of indulgent — and supremely tasty — specials, after previously serving up everything from its the chain's take on the Viennetta, Iced Vovo gelato and lamington sticky scrolls to a scoopable Ferrero Rocher flavour, Basque cheesecake gelato and fairy bread cookie pies. Gelato Messina's red velvet hot tub will be available to order from on Monday, January 30, from 9am local time in Queensland and the ACT, 9.15am in Victoria and between 9.30–10am in New South Wales.
One of Australia's all-time great comedies, an Oscar-winner for Best Costume Design and a film that's made the leap from the screen to the stage as well, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert turns 30 in 2024. But that isn't the only reason to celebrate the movie right now. The Guy Pearce (The Clearing)-, Hugo Weaving (The Royal Hotel)- and Terence Stamp (Last Night in Soho)-starring flick is receiving a follow-up, with writer/director Stephan Elliott announcing a sequel. The filmmaker with Welcome to Woop Woop, A Few Best Men and Swinging Safari similarly on his resume has confirmed that a second Priscilla, Queen of the Desert picture is on the way — with Pearce, Weaving and Stamp all returning. They'll reprise their roles as Adam aka Felicia Jollygoodfellow, Tick aka Mitzi Del Bra and Bernadette Bassenger, respectively, with starting shooting in Australia this year the plan. Elliott, who is writing and directing again, revealed the news to Deadline. "I'm not repeating myself, we'll start the new film in Australia, but by god, we're going on one helluva journey," he advised the publication. "The original cast is on board, I've got a script that everybody likes, we're still working out deals... It's happening," he continued. Alongside stepping back into the lives of the three drag queens who drove a bus across the outback in the 1994 movie, the as-yet-unnamed sequel will introduce new characters. Elliott flagged that Weaving's Tick had a seven-year-old son in the OG film; "he's grown up now," he said. Soundtrack-wise, after the initial flick featured ABBA, Gloria Gaynor's 'I Will Survive' and Alicia Bridges' 'I Love the Nightlife', viewers can expect "old disco classics, but we'll be moving into contemporary as well," Elliott also noted. There's no word yet of a release date, or other cast members — or where in Australia the film will take place, after the first movie journeyed from Sydney to Alice Springs via Broken Hill and Coober Pedy. But it's certainly a big time for Aussie cinema greats with links to Broken Hill scoring new instalments right now, given that the Mad Max franchise is about to drop Furiosa. There's obviously no sneak peek at the sequel to The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert yet, but check out the trailer for the original movie below: There's no release date yet for sequel to The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert — we'll update you when more details are announced. Via Deadline.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. THREE THOUSAND YEARS OF LONGING No one should need to cleanse their palates between Mad Max movies — well, maybe after Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, depending on your mileage with it — but if anyone does, George Miller shouldn't be one of them. The Australian auteur gifted the world the hit dystopian franchise, has helmed and penned each and every chapter, and made Mad Max: Fury Road an astonishing piece of cinema that's one of the very best in every filmic category that applies. Still, between that kinetic, frenetic, rightly Oscar-winning movie and upcoming prequel Furiosa, Miller has opted to swish around romantic fantasy Three Thousand Years of Longing. He does love heightened drama and also myths, including in the series he's synonymous with. He adores chronicling yearnings and hearts' desires, too, whether surveying vengeance and survival, the motivations behind farm animals gone a-wandering in Babe: Pig in the City, the dreams of dancing penguins in Happy Feet, or love, happiness and connection here. In other words, although adapted from AS Byatt's short story The Djinn in the Nightingale's Eye, Three Thousand Years of Longing is unshakeably and inescapably a Miller movie — and it's as alive with his flair for the fantastical as most of his resume. It's a wonder for a range of reasons, one of which is simple: the last time that the writer/director made a movie that didn't connect to the Mad Max, Babe or Happy Feet franchises was three decades back. With that in mind, it comes as no surprise that this tale about a narratologist (Tilda Swinton, Memoria) and the Djinn (Idris Elba, Beast) she uncorks from a bottle, and the chats they have about their histories as the latter tries to ensure the former makes her three wishes to truly set him free, is told with playfulness, inventiveness, flamboyance and a deep heart. Much of Miller's filmography is, but there's a sense with Three Thousand Years of Longing that he's been released, too — even if he loves his usual confines, as audiences do as well. "My story is true," Swinton's Alithea Binnie announces at the get-go. "You're more likely to believe me, however, if I tell it as a fairy tale." Cue another Miller trademark, unpacking real emotions and woes within scenarios that are anything but standard — two people talking about their lives in a hotel is hardly fanciful, though. The tales that the Djinn relays, with debts clearly owed to One Thousand and One Nights, also dwell in the everyday; some just happened millennia ago. The Djinn loved the Queen of Sheba (model Aamito Lagum), but lost her to the envious King Solomon (Nicolas Mouawad, Mako). He then languished in the the Ottoman court, after young concubine Gulten (Ece Yüksel, Family Secrets) wished for the heart of Suleiman the Magnificent's (Lachy Hulme, Preacher) son Mustafa (singer Matteo Bocelli). And, in the 19th century, the Djinn fell for Zefir (Burcu Gölgedar, Between Two Dawns), the brilliantly smart but stifled wife of a Turkish merchant. What spirits the Djinn's time-hopping memories beyond the ordinary and into the metaphysical, and Alithea's narrative as well, is the figure first seen billowing out of blue-and-white glass, then filling an entire suite, then slipping into white towelling. Something magical happens when you pop on a hotel bathrobe — that space and that cosy clothing are instantly transporting — and while Alithea resists the very idea of making wishes, she gets swept along by her new companion anyway. As a scholar of stories and the meanings they hold, she knows the warnings surrounding uttering hopes and having them granted. She also says she's content with her intellectual, independent and isolated-by-choice life, travelling the world to conferences like the one that's brought her to Turkey and then to the Istanbul bazaar where she spies the Djinn's misshapen home, even if her own backstory speaks of pain and self-protective mechanisms. And yet, "I want our solitudes to be together", she eventually declares, and with exactly the titular emotion. Read our full review. ORPHAN: FIRST KILL What's more believable — and plot twists follow: a pre-teen playing a 33-year-old woman pretending to be a nine-year-old orphan, with a hormone disorder explaining the character's eerily youthful appearance; or an adult playing a 31-year-old woman pretending to be a lost child returned at age nine, again with that medical condition making everyone else oblivious? For viewers of 2009's Orphan and its 13-years-later follow-up Orphan: First Kill, which is a prequel, neither are particularly credible to witness. But the first film delivered its age trickery as an off-kilter final-act reveal, as paired with a phenomenal performance by then 12-year-old Isabelle Fuhrman in the pivotal role. Audiences bought the big shift — or remembered it, at least — because Fuhrman was so creepy and so committed to the bit, and because it suited the OTT horror-thriller. This time, that wild revelation is old news, but that doesn't stop Orphan: First Kill from leaning on the same two key pillars: an out-there turn of events and fervent portrayals. Fuhrman (The Novice) returns as Esther, the Estonian adult who posed as a parentless Russian girl in the initial feature. In Orphan: First Kill, she's introduced as Leena Klammer, the most dangerous resident at the Saarne Institute mental hospital. The prequel's first sighted kill comes early, as a means of escape. The second follows swiftly, because the film needs to get its central figure to the US. Fans of the previous picture will recall that Esther already had a troubled history when she was adopted and started wreaking the movie's main havoc, involving the family that brought her to America — and her time with that brood, aka wealthy Connecticut-based artist Allen Albright (Rossif Sutherland, Possessor), his gala-hosting wife Tricia (Julia Stiles, Hustlers) and their teen son Gunnar (Matthew Finlan, My Fake Boyfriend), is this flick's focus. Like their counterparts in Orphan, the Albrights have suffered a loss and are struggling to move on. When Leena poses as their missing daughter Esther, Allen especially seems like his old self again. As also happened in Orphan, however, the pigtail- and ribbon-wearing new addition to their home doesn't settle in smoothly. Orphan: First Kill repeats the original movie's greatest hits, including the arty doting dad, the wary brother, taunts labelling Esther a freak and a thorny relationship with her mum. Also covered: suspicious external parties, bathroom tantrums, swearing to get attention and spying on her parents having sex. And yes, anyone who has seen Orphan knows how this all turns out, and that it leads to the above again in Orphan, too. Thankfully, that's only part of Orphan: First Kill's narrative. Twists can be curious narrative tools; sometimes they're inspired, sometimes they're a crutch propping up a flimsy screenplay, and sometimes they seesaw between both. Orphan: First Kill tumbles gleefully into the latter category, thanks to a revelation midway that's patently ridiculous — although no more ridiculous than Orphan earning a follow-up in the first place — and also among the best things about the movie. It's a big risk, making a film that's initially so laughably formulaic that it just seems lazy, then letting a sudden switch completely change the game, the tone and the audience's perception of what's transpired so far. That proved a charm for the thoroughly unrelated Malignant in 2021, and it's a gamble that filmmaker William Brent Bell (The Boy and Brahms: The Boy II) and screenwriter David Coggeshall (Scream: The TV Series) take. Working with a story by David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick (The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It) and Alex Mace (who earned the same credit on the original), it's one of their savviest choices. Read our full review. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on June 2, June 9, June 16, June 23 and June 30; and July 7, July 14, July 21 and July 28; and August 4, August 11, August 18 and August 25. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Mothering Sunday, Jurassic World Dominion, A Hero, Benediction, Lightyear, Men, Elvis, Lost Illusions, Nude Tuesday, Ali & Ava, Thor: Love and Thunder, Compartment No. 6, Sundown, The Gray Man, The Phantom of the Open, The Black Phone, Where the Crawdads Sing, Official Competition, The Forgiven, Full Time, Murder Party, Bullet Train, Nope, The Princess, 6 Festivals, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Crimes of the Future, Bosch & Rockit, Fire of Love, Beast, Blaze and Hit the Road.
In The Boys, wins and chaos are rarely far away from each other. Something goes right for its characters — its namesake group fighting corrupt caped crusaders, or vice versa — and then something often goes pear-shaped. Fans of the series are in that situation themselves right now, with season four about to start streaming from Thursday, June 13, 2024, but showrunner Eric Kripke freshly revealing that there's only one more season left after this. The Boys was renewed for season five back in May, before season three hits, but now Supernatural alum Kripke has advised that it'll be a last hurrah. "The Boys season four premiere week is a good time to announce: season five will be the final season! Always my plan, I just had to be cagey till I got the final okay from Vought. Thrilled to bring the story to a gory, epic, moist climax," he tweeted. #TheBoys Season 4 Premiere Week is a good time to announce: Season 5 will be the Final Season! Always my plan, I just had to be cagey till I got the final OK from Vought. Thrilled to bring the story to a gory, epic, moist climax. Watch Season 4 in 2 DAYS, cause the end has begun! pic.twitter.com/3p7Wt4jGA6 — Eric Kripke (@therealKripke) June 11, 2024 Since first making the jump from the page to the screen from Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson's comics series of the same name in 2019, The Boys has told of a version of earth where caped crusaders are real, as are superpowers, and a group called The Seven are placed above all superheroes. But, digging into the dark side of the scenario, not everyone thinks that should be the status quo. The series has always stood out as an antidote to narratives about powerful folks who are supposedly better than most, by both satirising and questioning that very idea. Here, superheroes work for Vought. They're still the main form of entertainment, but they're real, the most-famous celebrities there are and inescapable in daily life. While The Seven are the absolute top talent, most are hardly role models when the public isn't looking. Yes, that has made quite the change from the usual cinematic universes as the Prime Video show has kept notching up the seasons. The Boys has never been afraid to splash OTT violence — gory carnage, too — across its frames along the way, or to parody reality within its superhero tale. The same proved true in 2020's second season and 2022's third, and also in college-set spinoff Gen V, which arrived in 2023 and has been renewed for a second season as well. In the cast: Karl Urban (Thor: Ragnarok), Jack Quaid (Oppenheimer), Antony Starr (Guy Ritchie's The Covenant), Erin Moriarty (Captain Fantastic), Claudia Doumit (Where'd You Go, Bernadette), Chace Crawford (Gossip Girl), Jessie T Usher (Smile), Laz Alonso (Wrath of Man), Tomer Capone (One on One), Karen Fukuhara (Bullet Train), Colby Minifie (I'm Thinking of Ending Things) and Cameron Crovetti (Boy Kills World) — with Jeffrey Dean Morgan (The Walking Dead), Susan Heyward (Hello Tomorrow!) and Valorie Curry (The Lost Symbol) joining for season four. There's obviously no trailer for season five yet, but check out the trailer for The Boys season four below: The fourth season of The Boys starts streaming via Prime Video from Thursday, June 13, 2024. Read our reviews of The Boys season three and Gen V. Season five doesn't yet have a release date — we'll update you when one is announced.
Sitting outside, eating tapas, drinking good wine: that's what summer in Brisbane is all about, isn't it? It's certainly what Quysine Bar and Restaurant is all about, and it has a great bayside location to prove it. You'll find the new addition to Cleveland just a street away from the shore, serving lunch and dinner six days a week. Ample outdoor seating takes care of the al fresco dining situation. The usual beer, wine, cider, cocktail and non-alcoholic beverage selection takes care of everyone's drinking needs. And, then there's Quysine's range of meals. Because sharing is caring, tapas is on the menu here, spanning smoked pork croquettes, ham and cheesy garlic bread, Portuguese peri peri chicken livers, and the chef-recommended likes of salt and pepper calamari, and tiger prawns. Those on the hungrier side might want to opt for the roasted pumpkin and haloumi salad, or a choice of two steaks, pasta, chicken or fish.
When you're watching Blade Runner 2049, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and The Creator, or playing Cyberpunk 2077 and Saltsea Chronicles, possible futures unfurl before your very eyes. As these imaginings play out in cinemas and on televisions, how prophetic will they prove? No one can know for certain what tomorrow will bring; however, the tales told on screens big and small, and through games and comics as well, have delivered plenty of visions of what might come. At The Future & Other Fictions, these peering-forward works are in the spotlight. Will androids dream of electric sheep? Will a Keanu Reeves (John Wick: Chapter 4)-voiced rock star and terrorist make their presence known? Will Afrofuturist technologies transform life as we know it? These are some of the potential scenarios conjured up by beloved pop-culture titles — and they're all part of the Australian Centre for the Moving Image's world-premiere exhibition as well, which is filled with 180-pieces, such as artworks, sets, costumes and props, as well as scripts, clips and original design materials. Open since Thursday, November 28, 2024 and running until Sunday, April 27, 2025, this is a love letter to and deep dive into futuristic storytelling, including pondering the significance of humanity's thoughts about what could be in store. It's also the Melbourne screen museum big summer showcase. "Film, TV, videogames and art spark our imagination and help shift our thinking about how the future might, or should, be. The crafts of screen culture — visual effects, costume design, character creation and model building — are powerful tools that bring future visions to life," explained ACMI Director and CEO Seb Chan. "The Future & Other Fictions asks us to consider some of the worlds we're familiar with and imagine the worlds we'd like to see." "For thousands of years cultures have shared ideas through storytelling. It is an extraordinary common language. I hope a key takeaway of the exhibition is the importance of sharing stories about the futures we want to live in — be they greener, more sustainable, more harmonious or more diverse. Stories are products of culture and in turn produce it. As we write stories, we write the world," added director and artist Liam Young, who co-curated The Future & Other Fictions with ACMI's Amanda Haskard and Chelsey O'Brien. Before he was just Ken, Ryan Gosling (The Fall Guy) starred in the 35-years-later sequel to Blade Runner — and before he brought Dune and Dune: Part Two to the screen, Denis Villeneuve directed Blade Runner 2049. The Future & Other Fictions lets attendees follow in their footsteps via miniature sets, which are one of the exhibition's definite must-sees. Black Panther: Wakanda Forever gets the nod thanks to Academy Award-winning costumes by Ruth E Carter, while sketches from comic series NEOMAD also features — as does concept art showing The Creator and Cyberpunk 2077's cityscapes, plus more from Saltsea Chronicles. As it celebrates how screens imagine the years ahead, The Future & Other Fictions also features a film season focusing on Björk, complete with Björk: Biophilia Live on the lineup. Within the exhibition's halls rather than in ACMI's cinema, the Icelandic icon also pops up via the dress and headpiece from her music video for 'The Gate'. This showcase isn't just about well-known renderings of the future, though, thanks to work by Olalekan Jeyifous, Osheen Siva and Tāgata Moana art collective Pacific Sisters. Plus, via new commissions, DJ Hannah Brontë has her own take, and so do Young and Natasha Wanganeen (Limbo). The first, Birth of Dawn, is all about the circle of life. After the End, the second, muses on a future without fossil fuels. On The Future & Other Fictions' events program, visitors can look forward to four days of short films in February that highlight Australian cinema's future, a video-game showcase focused on emerging developers, the return of ACMI's annual symposium, and talks on topics as varied as artificial intelligence and pop-culture predictions. Fancy making your sci-fi movie — or, to be accurate, playing a text-based choose-your-own-adventure game about that very scenario? That's part of the exhibition, too, via INT. SPACESHIP — NIGHT, which you can access for free via the QR code in the ACMI foyer. The Future & Other Fictions is on display at ACMI, Federation Square, Melbourne, from Thursday, November 28, 2024–Sunday, April 27, 2025. Head to the venue's website for more details. Images: Eugene Hyland.
When Australia's annual Spanish Film Festival returns this year, it'll offer cinephiles a two-for-one affair. Fancy seeing the latest and greatest movies from the European country? Keen to watch fresh flicks from Spanish-speaking Latin America too? They're both on the lineup. While Latin American cinema has received its own dedicated Aussie fest over the past three years, in 2019 the Cine Latino Film Festival will form part of the Moro Spanish Film Festival. In short: this year's April–May fest presents the best of both worlds across a 32-title program. In Brisbane, it kicks off on Wednesday, April 24, with the Aussie premiere of applauded and acclaimed Spanish comedy Champions, which picked up this year's Goya award for best film, as well as the best new actor prize for star Jesús Vidal. The feel-good flick follows an amateur Spanish basketball team comprised of players with mental disabilities and an arrogant coach who's sentenced to community service to help them bounce their way to glory. At the other end of the event is a bona fide classic: Pedro Almodóvar's Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown, the 1988 black comedy is one of the movies that first helped bring Antonio Banderas to fame. Other program highlights include action-packed bank robbery drama 70 Big Ones and comedy Super Crazy, which focuses on a woman who suddenly can't stop speaking her mind. If you've ever wanted to know all there is to know about olive oil, there's also a documentary on the topic: Virgin & Extra: Jaén, The Land of the Olive Oil. And from the Cine Latino contingent, Argentinian title Rojo delves into corruption before the country's mid-70s coup, while Tremors explores a Guatemalan family's secrets. Across its full slate, the Spanish Film Festival also showcases 11 titles by female filmmakers, ranging from established talents to up-and-comers. Watch out for romance Carmen & Lola, which has proven a hit on the queer circuit; star-studded comedy-thriller Crime Wave, which stars Maribel Verdú, Javier Cámara and Luis Tosar; and the 1982-set The Good Girls, which follows the wives of wealthy Mexican men. The Moro Spanish Film Festival will screen at Brisbane's Palace Barracks and Palace James Street from April 24 to May 15. For more information and to book tickets, visit the website.
Already boasting Yellowface author Rebecca F Kuang and Roman Empire scholar Mary Beard on its program, and tapping into two huge facets of 2023 in the process — one of the most-talked-about books of the year and one of TikTok's biggest memes — the 2024 All About Women festival has dropped its characteristically packed full lineup. Now in its 12th year, the Sydney Opera House event will span 24 sessions with 40-plus artists, and will again make its chats and panels available both in-person and online. All About Women explores gender, justice and equality, doing so as a concise one-day event on Sunday, March 10 after expanding to two days in 2022 and to three in 2023. Kuang heads to Sydney to chat about her satirical novel, which dives into cancel culture, cultural appropriation and diversity in the world of publishing — and Beard is coming to the Harbour City fresh off the release of her latest book The Emperor of Rome to explore misogyny, power, murder and gossip. From there, held as the week of International Women's Day wraps up, All About Women will see Grace Tame join a discussion about who controls women's bodies, which will also feature Indigenous social activist Tanya Hosch, tattoo artist Madison Griffiths and documentarian Tara Rae Moss. Miles Franklin-winning author Anna Funder will unpack the patriarchy, Glossy: Ambition, Beauty, and the Inside Story of Emily Weiss's Glossier's Marisa Meltzer will step through the beauty industry's changes, and Consent Laid Bare's Chanel Contos has porn and consent on the agenda. A Lonely Girl is a Dangerous Thing scribe Jessie Tu is part of a panel about "sad girl" novels, The Wren, The Wren's Anne Enright will talk about her latest book, and stylist Aja Barber will examine fast fashion. Or, there's Barkaa and Steph Tisdell unfurling who gets to be an anti-hero in pop culture, plus Osher Günsberg in a discussion about parenting gender roles. [caption id="attachment_936209" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Luke Currie-Richardson[/caption] Plus, life behind bars, influencer culture, storytelling as a way of creating social change, mothering on the margins and the role of gossip all feature in their own sessions. Among the workshops for folks attending physically: mindful journalling, candle-making, femininity through dance and supporting someone dealing with gender-based violence. Sydney Opera House Talks & Ideas's Chip Rolley has put together the 2024 program alongside Clementine Ford, Nakkiah Lui and Bri Lee, each of whom have co-curated specific sessions. [caption id="attachment_929572" align="alignnone" width="1920"] John Packman[/caption] All About Women 2024 takes place on Sunday, March 10 at the Sydney Opera House, and also stream online. Tickets for the full program go on sale at 9am on Thursday, January 18 with pre sales from 8am on Wednesday, January 17 — head to the event website for more details. All About Women images: Jaimi Joy / Cassandra Hannagan.
Whether it's a birthday, promotion, anniversary or celebration of general adulting (taxes in and laundry done), there are times you just want to treat yo-self with some luxurious daytime dining. Luckily, Brisbane has no shortage of restaurants where you can park yourself for hours, feasting and clinking glasses upon glasses of celebratory vinos. To make it easy, we've partnered up with Citi to narrow down some top Brissie faves for a leisurely lunch, spanning the spectrum from Italian along the river to Vietnamese fare with an extra French twist. Plus, there are a few wine pairing suggestions in there, too. All you have to do is make the booking. What's more, if you've got a Citi card, you can kick things off with a free bottle of wine, thanks to the Citibank Dining Program. Sad desk salad be gone. Book at any participating restaurant, mention the offer upon arrival and settle in for a long lunch complete with a free bottle of wine — just make sure to tap that Citi card at the end.
Award-winning Brisbane artist Victoria Reichelt brings her latest exhibition Future Ruins to Jan Murphy Gallery. Continuing her investigation into society's shift from the analogue to the digital, this series of skilfully crafted paintings looks at our past and digital future through abandoned haunted interiors of libraries and archive spaces. Since graduating from the Queensland College of Art in 2005, Reichelt has shown work across the nation and been the recipient for of some of Australia's most esteemed and sought after art prizes and grants. She has been a finalist in a number of significant prizes including the Archibald Prize, the Doug Moran National Portrait Prize and the Brett Whiteley Travelling Art Scholarship. Reichelt was also the 2013 winner of the Sulman Prize, and her art is held in the BHP Billiton collection, QAGOMA, Artbank and the Universty of Queensland gallery, as well as many more national and international collections. Future Ruins exhibits at Jan Murphy Gallery from October 6 to 31.
With breweries seemingly popping up on every corner, it's no wonder that Brisbanites have an appetite for a few cold ones. And given the city's close proximity to plenty of waterways, it's no surprise that we're rather fond of seafood either. Sure, Brissie residents like other things as well, but we're particularly fond of spending entire days devouring drinks while eating the ocean's finest bounty. Waves & Haze is your latest opportunity to do just that, with Bacchus Brewing Co in Capalaba throwing a free one-day festival from midday on Saturday, September 14. It'll be pouring its own New England-style IPAs, including old faves, some newbies, and tipples to enjoy on the spot and take away. There'll also be live music to keep everyone entertained, Ballandean Estate Wines if you need something other than a brew, and the other part of the beer and seafood equation: the seafood. If you like oysters, mussels and prawns, then Mussel Brothers will have you covered.
Anyone who went to school in Queensland and sweltered through the state's summers in sticky, sweaty classrooms has heard a persistent rumour: if the temperature reaches 40 degrees, you get to go home. You've outgrown that dream notion now, obviously, but Ben & Jerry's is spinning its own version by handing out free ice cream when the mercury next hits 31 degrees. First, the obvious — and glorious — part of that news: 31 degrees in southeast Queensland in summer is a frequent occurrence. Now, the caveat: it'll need to reach 31 degrees at Burleigh Heads, because those freebies will be handed out from Ben & Jerry's just-launched new store on the ground floor of the Surf Living Saving Club on Burleigh Heads beach. Whenever the 31-degree temperature next arrives at that exact location, the new shop will hand out free scoops from 1–6pm that day. Ben & Jerry's is leaving the giveaway open throughout February — so if we get a few under-30 days for a while and it doesn't get to 31 degrees or over again for a few weeks, those freebies could still be on their way. So that you don't have to keep checking forecasts for the area, the ice cream chain will take to the Burleigh Heads Surf Life Saving Club's social channels when the 31-degree mark is hit — and it'll be basing it off of a thermometer outside the store. Because we know you're know wondering, the current Bureau of Meteorology forecasts for Surfers Paradise and Coolangatta — so, in the vicinity of Burleigh — predict 30-degree days on Thursday and Friday, but nothing over that for at least the next week. Ben & Jerry's will give away free scoops from 1–6pm on the next day in February that the temperature reaches 31 degrees or over. Keep an eye on the Burleigh Heads Surf Life Saving Club's social channels, as that's where the chain will confirm the temperature when it's reached — and the giveaway.
Every Easter long weekend for 29 years, Bluesfest has descended on Byron Bay for five days of blues and roots. But this year, the acclaimed festival's 30th anniversary, may be its last in the Northern Rivers location. In a scathing letter addressed to the NSW Government, Festival Director Peter Noble has revealed that Bluesfest might leave the state because of the government's strict new policies on music festivals. "I am saying now, Bluesfest will leave NSW. We have no choice it's a matter of survival," the letter, originally published on The Industry Observer, said. "Will the last festival to leave NSW please turn out the light of culture in this soon to be barren state?" You can read the full open letter, which was shared with Concrete Playground, below. Noble described the new policies — which include a strict new licensing regime — as "poorly thought-out", "unbalanced" and "the Lockout Laws Version Two for festivals", highlighting that the State Government had neglected to fully consult those in the industry. He also revealed that the 30-year-old festival is having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to comply with recently implemented policies. Bluesfest, if relocated, will be just the latest casualty of the NSW Government's new policies, with both the Mountain Sounds and Psyfari teams cancelling their 2019 festivals in the last seven days, stating "the government's war on festivals", particularly "newly imposed safety, licensing and security costs", as reasons. Both said they were also required to spend thousands of dollars to comply with the new policies, but were unable to do so at such short notice. The new music festival licensing regime follows advice from the government's expert panel on music festival safety, which was assembled in September after two young people died of suspected drug overdoses at Defqon 1. Since then, three more young people have died from suspected drug overdoses at NSW festivals. The NSW Government is continuing to ignore increased calls for pill-testing as a harm-minimisation technique at festivals. Read Peter Noble's full letter below. Letter from Peter Noble OAM, Bluesfest Festival Director re NSW Government's policy changes to festivals in the State: Bluesfest may well be celebrating our last festival in NSW, should the sitting NSW Government proceed with its plans for its policies. Even though we are Australia's most highly-awarded festival both nationally and internationally – having won Best Major Event at the NSW Tourism Awards three years in a row; and in representing NSW we came in second in the Australian Tourism Awards (beating Victoria's F1 Grand Prix) – we have been designated a 'high risk event'. This will cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars to comply with a policy where we and every other event in this State have had zero opportunity to have any consultation or input into a policy where we will need to spend significantly more money to put on the event this year with zero notice. The policy will see our full-strength liquor approval denied, while a myriad of other costs may be levied costing us hundreds of thousands of dollars. The NSW police regularly state that our policies are those of an industry leader in the supply of alcohol, field hospital, and crowd security and care. But, due to headlines in the media, our 30-year-old professional business is to be seriously damaged in a new policy imposed regarding festival presentation by a government who has rushed the judgement of our industry without full consultation of stake holders, or meetings with entertainment industry professionals. I charge the Government with a systemic failure in fairness here and implore all politicians from all parties to quickly become involved with what is a serious injustice. We, like most events in this State, supply a significant level of culture – we don't receive a cent from government even though we cause thousands of people to be employed – and bring tens of millions of dollars into NSW through Tourism. In the recent study done by the NSW government into the arts, it was found NSW is significantly behind Victoria and Queensland. I ask the Premier, the Minister for the Arts, Tourism and Major Events and EVERY sitting politician: WHY? Why do you seem to be hell-bent on destroying our industry? We provide culture to the people of this state, and Australia, through our good works. Most festivals haven't had drug deaths and contribute greatly to our society through presenting well-run, professional, world-class events. Why have we been given zero recognition in this government's actions? It seems the new policies are poorly thought-out and through their implementation will decimate our industry, should our government not see good sense. Will the last festival to leave NSW please turn out the light of culture in this soon to be barren state? I have in my 50 years in presenting music NEVER EXPERIENCED such poorly thought out, unbalanced legislation. Surely a professional governing body could do better. It's the Lockout Laws Version two for festivals. This is NOT a vote winner in the upcoming election. Thank you, Peter Noble OAM Presenter, Bluesfest and the Boomerang Indigenous Festival Bluesfest 2019 is scheduled to run from April 18 to April 22 at Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, Byron Bay. More details and ticket info here. Image: Joseph Mayers.
So far, 2020 has dished up some tough times all round and you're probably busy hunting for ways to up your quota of good days. Sydney couple Jacob Leung and Sarah-Jane Ho certainly were, but they've now landed on the answer. The pair has dreamt up a nifty cure for the pandemic blues with their new feel-good online gift store, Good Day People. This local-loving business is reimagining the humble gift hamper, swapping out the standard bath soaps and boring bickies for fun, quality goodies, and finishing it all off with some bright, mood-boosting packaging. It's serving up a smart edit of gifts and themed gift packages you'd actually want to receive, heroing small Aussie businesses and doing some good for the environment at the same time. If you're forever left stumped by that fussy friend who's 'impossible to buy for', consider this a treasure trove. You'll find 36 different hampers at the moment, including one for 'Gourmet Greg' — packed with Drunken Sailor relish, Maya Sunny honey, a bottle of local wine, Olsson's sea salt and some Bramble & Hedge nougat — and, for 'Perky Pam', an assembly of Bottl(ed) cocktails, Grandvewe sheep whey gin, a pack of cowhide coasters from Mr and Mrs White and Hey Tiger Fairy Wings vegan milk chocolate. The 'Casual Clare' curation comes stocked with some Wondaree macadamias, Poor Toms gin and bottles of Strangelove tonic; while other hampers might star the likes of Noble's luxe maple syrup, batched negronis, Mayde teas, boozy treats from Love Can, a Horse watch, or Hey Bud's moisturising hemp facial mask. There's even a pack for 'Pregnant Polly' including some all-important booze-free rosé. With this lot, it's a safe bet you'll be making someone's day a very good one. Prices start from an easy $49, ranging up to $359 for the top-of-the-line collection. You can say goodbye to the cardboard box and cellophane situation, too. These gift hampers come packaged in your choice of five funky printed cans, splashed with bold colours and cheeky messaging. And as an added bonus, Good Day People also carbon offsets its deliveries, so that ol' planet of ours can have a good day as well. Check out the Good Day People online store to shop the full range of hampers.
It’s time to fire up your barbecues and perfect your spice rub recipe, because the big boys are in town — and they're about to show you how it's done. The Yaks Barbecue Festival is about come to Melbourne for the second year, and Sydney for the first time. The one-day event will feature free classes and demonstrations, more barbecued meat than you can poke a skewer at, live entertainment and, of course, the great barbecue cook-off. The cook-off is sanctioned by the too-legit-to-quit Kansas City Barbeque Society, and the winner will go on to compete at the world championships in the U.S., as well receive as a sweet cash prize and — most importantly — unrivalled barbecue glory. And just because you're not able to attend the festival doesn't mean you can't learn a thing or two — we spoke to festival director Matt Vitale about getting into the craft, the different styles of American barbecue, and got all the pro tips on how to barbecue like a boss. MEET THE EXPERT: MATT VITALE Matt had always been an avid backyard barbecue cook, and a few years ago he decided to try his luck at the big time by entering a barbecue competition for the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival. Matt teamed up with his wife and they won — sending them to the World Championships of barbecuing, held at the Jack Daniel’s distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee. "It was an amazing experience, and unexpected," he says. "I met a bunch of great people from the Kansas City Barbeque Society (KCBS), which is the largest organisation of barbecue enthusiasts in the world, and the organising body for this sport — it is a sport in the States.” The KCBS wanted to sanction a contest to Australia, and with Matt's assistance the first Yaks Barbecue Festival was brought to Melbourne. Now, it's back for a second year, with the festival also being held in Sydney for the first time. THE FOUR TYPES OF AMERICAN BARBECUE According to Matt, there are four different regional styles of barbecue in the U.S. Texas barbecue is mostly beef-focussed; the rubs are a lot simpler, mostly salt and pepper, with not much sauce that is usually served on the side. In Memphis, they generally favour a dry rub on their ribs, and again sauce is usually on the side. North and South Carolina have more of a focus on pork where the sauce is more vinegary with a bit of chili thrown in for good measure. But it's Kansas City, Matt says, that takes the best elements from all of the regions. "They're really well known for their beef brisket and burnt ends, which are these cubes of meat taken from the point end of the brisket. They’re also known for their ribs with rich, tomato, sticky sauce, which I think a lot of people really associate American barbecue with. That’s what Kansas City barbecue is really famous for.” [caption id="attachment_555155" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Dollar Photo Club[/caption] HOW TO COOK THE PERFECT BBQ CHOOK Kansas-style barbecue may be well known for their trademark tomato-based sauce, but sometimes it's worth knowing how to perfect the basics before you go slathering on a sticky sauce left, right and centre. One never-fail barbecue recipe that Matt is happy to divulge is his cherrywood-smoked chicken. "Smoked chicken is an achievable dish to do," he says. "A lot of these things you need to cook for a long period of time, but chicken you can get done in a couple of hours." So how do we recreate this magic for ourselves? First, grab a split chicken from a good butcher or poultry and game supplier, as getting it split makes it easier to cook. You're going to need a smoker for this recipe — a very worthy investment if you're serious about your meat. Fire it up to a bit over 100 degrees celsius, and put some wood chunks in there. Matt recommends cherrywood because it's easily available in Australia. Cook the chook for about an hour and a half breast-side down, then turn it over, baste it with olive oil, and leave it for another 30 minutes. Unlike beef brisket, which can take 10-12 hours, this takes a little over two hours and you're ready to eat. Matt recommends pairing this with fresh vegetables cooked over charcoal, such as charred corn, sliced eggplant and asparagus, as they get nice and caramelised. Drink of choice? Beer, of course — either a Fat Yak or a Lazy Yak goes perfectly with any barbecue. PRO TIPS FOR BBQ NOOBS While a lot of Australians love to consume barbecued goods, not all of us are as talented at making it as we are eating it. Matt recommends starting with a solid fuel BBQ to get the most out of your meat. "Gas BBQs are great, but there's so much more that you can do on a solid fuel BBQ. Cooking with wood and charcoal, you'll always get a better result.” Another piece of advice Matt leaves us with is to not be afraid to just give it a go: “sometimes you’ll get it right, other times you’ll get it wrong, but the more you practice, the more you'll get it right." The Yaks Barbecue Festival is happening in Sydney this Saturday, January 30 and Melbourne on Saturday, February 6. For more information, check out the event. Top image: Dollar Photo Club
Cinemas may be closed around the world at present but, thanks to the proliferation of streaming platforms over the past few years, film buffs can still get their movie fix from the comfort of their own couches. If you're a fan of going to your local picture palace for more than just the flicks, though, you might be currently missing some of the other elements that come with heading out to see a movie — enjoying the communal viewing experience, attending premieres and listening to Q&A sessions afterwards, for example. Enter FanForce TV, the new streaming offshoot of theatrical distributor FanForce, which usually organises screenings of new films as driven by community demand. If you're part of a local group looking to screen a particular movie to support a specific cause, it also helps you host your own sessions. Like plenty of other businesses, FanForce has been forced to adapt to the current COVID-19 situation — so it's now shifting its setup online. Just launched — and available not just Down Under, but globally — FanForce TV lets you rent movies you'd like to watch on a pay-per-view basis. So far, so standard; however the streaming platform will also live stream Q&As, complete with live chats so you can join in from home. You'll be able to talk to fellow viewers, and direct your questions at filmmakers and expert panellists — and, if you're still eager to host your own virtual screening of a specific flick for a particular group, you can do so via FanForce TV's 'Home Premiere' function. Film-wise, the current FanForce TV range includes Oscar-winner Parasite, eco-conscious documentaries 2040 and The Biggest Little Farm, and Aussie music flicks Mystify: Michael Hutchence and Gurrumul — plus Adam Goodes-focused doco The Australian Dream, the puppy-fuelled Pick of the Litter, eerie true-crime tale Ghosthunter and even Banksy's Exit Through the Gift Shop. The list goes on, spanning docos on college sexual assault The Hunting Ground, organ transplant Dying to Live and outback dirt-racing Finke: There and Back as well, among other titles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmahNqD3Dvw More films are set to join the service, too, such as Sydney-shot comedy Standing Up for Sunny, whales in captivity documentary Blackfish and — with accompanying Q&A sessions — moving Aussie doco In My Blood It Runs. If you not only like watching movies, but recommending them, FanForce TV also boasts an affiliate program that'll pay customers cash for directing their friends to watch a particular film. For further details — or to stream a movie or organise your own online community screening — visit the FanForce TV website.
After being unearthed by Triple J just over a year ago, Brisbane locals Ball Park Music have experienced a flurry of successes and are showing no signs of slowing down. Returning home for their most ambitious national tour yet, The 180 Degree Tour finds our creative crew gallivanting across the nation playing their collection of colourful and catchy tracks such as iFly, Sad Rude Future Dude and Rich People Are Stupid from their debut album, Happiness and Surrounding Suburbs. The six piece are notorious for their energetic performances and will be back at the Hi-Fi on March 24. Our local indie sextuple sure are something to be proud of. Having toured with a wide array of acts such as Hungry Kids of Hungary, Boy & Bear, DZ and international giants Radiohead, it's been a fast journey up the road to success. As the band said themselves, they can't wait to make love to their fan's ears. So put on your dancing shoes and join the party.
As fun as parties, feasts and downing eggnog all are at this time of year, one thing can make them better: games. We're not just talking about guessing how long until your uncle falls asleep after lunch, or seeing who knows all the words to every pop Christmas carol. Instead, we're talking about eating, drinking, playing and being merry in Brisbane's very own bar-slash-arcade. 'Tis the season for all of the above at Netherworld, and they're throwing quite the shindig to prove it. Just bring your button-mashing self, some cash for tokens, brews and a Hellmouth roast, and a wrapped can of beer that you can swap for another in the Secret Santa pit. It all takes place from 5pm on Saturday, December 22, complete with Santa pictures in-between rounds of whatever pinball, arcade, console or board game takes your fancy. Photos require a donation, with funds going the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. And a karma keg will be pouring at the bar, raising more cash for those needing some festive help. Image: Cole Bennetts.
Anyone can drink a lager, pilsner or pale ale. Not everyone can knock back a stout or porter. And while the former are available everywhere, you won't find a celebration of the latter just anywhere. That's why Milton's favourite dive bar started the Weekend of Darkness. Since 2013, the Scratch has dedicated a couple of days year to showing their love for brews on the blacker end of the beer spectrum — and offering a home for those who feel the same way, of course. If it's yeasty, liquid and overflowing with smoky, coffee, chocolate, spiced and even bourbon flavours, you'll find it here. You'll also find snacks, offbeat vibes and strange happenings galore. This year's sixth dalliance with the dark side runs from Friday, July 27 to Sunday, July 29, with five sessions of dark-coloured drinks on offer for another year. Expect a hefty beer lineup, as well as some hearty grub to go with it courtesy of the Hellmouth Diner. Expect everything, be it food, booze or atmosphere, to warm up your insides too. There's a reason this takes place in winter, after all.
If getting a double dose of Tom Hardy is the stuff your dreams are made of, then your wishes are about to be fulfilled. In Legend, the man last seen driving vehicles in Locke, Mad Max: Fury Road and London Road transforms into notorious thugs Reggie and Ronnie Kray. And yes, twice the Tom can only be a good thing. Playing the twins who were known for terrorising London in the 1960s, Hardy offers up completely different performances to bring the fearsome duo to life. Reggie was suave and business oriented, particularly when trying to impress the woman, Frances (Emily Browning), he wanted to settle down with. Ronnie was more unpredictable, and though both could be violent, you really wouldn't want to get on the wrong side of this sibling. Whichever one Hardy is playing, he's impossible to take your eyes off of, which director/director Brian Helgeland — the scribe behind crime dramas LA Confidential and Mystic River — knows how to make the most of. Helgeland also knows how to make the most of his handsome period setting in his engaging addition to the gangster genre. Legend is in cinemas nationally from October 15, and thanks to Studiocanal, we have 10 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
The ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come are set to descend upon Australia — just as things are getting merry, of course. After haunting Ebenezer Scrooge on the page since 1843, and sparking the miserly Charles Dickens-penned character's change of attitude on stages for almost as long, they'll work their magic Down Under courtesy of The Old Vic's version of A Christmas Carol, which is heading our way for the first time. While A Christmas Carol itself has been delighting theatre audiences for close to two centuries — the first stage production reportedly debuted in the UK mere weeks after Dickens' novella was published — this new take on the tale initially premiered in London back in 2017. It has proven a huge smash since, including picking up five Tony Awards for its Broadway run. Next stop: Melbourne from November. Just in time for festive season, A Christmas Carol will enjoy its first Aussie season at the Comedy Theatre, kicking off on Saturday, November 12 and playing till Saturday, December 24 (of course). Whether it'll also hit up other Australian cities yet hasn't been revealed — but tickets to see it in Melbourne would make a mighty fine early Christmas present. This version hails from two Tony-winners, too: director Matthew Warchus (Matilda the Musical) and playwright Jack Thorne (Harry Potter and the Cursed Child). The list of impressive talent involved also includes Aussie actor David Wenham, with the Lord of the Rings, Seachange, Goldstone, Lion, Top of the Lake and Elvis star playing Scrooge. "A Christmas Carol is a ripping yarn, this production is as compelling as it is surprising. I'm counting the days to get back on the stage in the role of Scrooge. It's a story of hope, redemption and community. I guarantee the audience will leave the theatre feeling better about themselves and the world at the end of the show. A perfect story to be told at Christmas time," said Wenham, announcing the show's Australian debut. The rest of the local cast is yet to be revealed — and, story-wise, the production obviously still focuses on its selfish and greedy central character that's become synonymous with curmudgeonly behaviour, his Christmas-hating ways, and his journey of compassion and redemption with help from the spirits of Christmas Past, Christmas Present and Christmas Yet to Come. Not only does the play work through that beloved story, but it also incorporates 12 Christmas carols, including 'Joy to the World' and 'Silent Night'. The words you aren't looking for: "bah humbug!", unless you truly do despise Christmas — and haven't yet been given your own ghostly reasons to rethink your stance. A Christmas Carol will host its Australian premiere season in Melbourne, playing the Comedy Theatre, 240 Exhibition Street, Melbourne, from Saturday, November 12–Saturday, December 24, 2022. Tickets go on sale at 10am on Friday, September 16 — for more information, or to join the ticket waitlist, head to the musical's website.
They're no Virgin Oceanic submarine, but the the new U-Boat Worx - the 'personal submarines for yacht and tourism' - might just have to suffice for those ordinary folk among us who are desirous of exploring the depths of the ocean but who suffer the misfortune of not being Richard Branson. That being said, however, by 'ordinary folk' it is of course meant those with a spare $100,000 odd to spend on this underwater charter. There are two U-Boats available - the C-Questers and the C-Explorers - both offering a 360 degree view of the deep through fully acrylic hubs, and a minimum 100m depth (the C-Explorers range from 100m-1000m in depth, whereas the C-Questers stay above the 100m mark). The C-Explorer family is geared more towards professional pursuits, whereas the C-Quester subs provide their leisurely-minded passengers with 8 hours of air conditioned glee in the sea. For your $100,000, U-Boat Worx will transport the sub from their base in Norway to anywhere in the world, and bring with it support staff, insurance and parts. It's costly, but then again, Water Walking Balls are child's play. U-Boat Worx is the real, submerged deal.
Queensland's gradual lifting of COVID-19 restrictions is set to continue, with Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk bringing forward the next stage of the state's loosening of lockdown conditions. It's a result of the "tremendous job that everyone in this state has been doing," the Premier advised. And if you've been eager to travel to anywhere in Queensland, have more than a few friends over, head out with a big group of your mates or go to the gym, it's all great and welcome news. Since the beginning of May, the state has been easing restrictions in stages, including announcing a roadmap for the government's plans between May–July. At present, up to five visitors are allowed inside homes, gatherings of ten are permitted outside, retail shopping is back on the cards, Queenslanders can travel within 150 kilometres within the state, and cafes, restaurants, pubs and hotels can welcome ten people at a time. Now, today, Sunday, May 31, the Premier has outlined a heap of additional activities that will be permissible from midday tomorrow, Monday, June 1. The majority of the newly announced changes were already planned to come into effect in mid-June, but are now happening at the beginning of the month, with all of the following allowed: Up to 20 people in your home, including both residents and visitors. Gatherings of up to 20 people outside of the house, for outdoor, non-contact activities — such as personal training, hiking in national and state parks, swimming in outdoor and indoor pools, visiting public spaces such as South Bank Parklands (including the lagoons), and heading to parks, playgrounds, skate parks and outdoor gyms. Up to 20 people in gyms, health clubs and yoga studios. Up to 20 people in libraries. Weddings with up to 20 people. Church gatherings of up to 20 people. Funerals with up to 50 people. The reopening of entertainment and cultural venues such as galleries, museums, historic sites, indoor cinemas, arcades, zoos, concerts, theatres, arenas, auditoriums, stadiums and outdoor amusement parks — with 20-person limits. Non-contact community sporting activities, both indoors and outdoors, with 20-person limits. Dining in and/or seated drinks at cafes, restaurants, pubs, hotels and licensed clubs, with up to 20 people allowed inside at any one time. Open homes and auctions with up to 20 people. Beauty therapy services, with up to 20 people allowed in-store at any one time. Recreational travel, camping and accommodation, including caravan parks, anywhere in the state — including overnight stays. In addition, cafes, restaurants, pubs and hotels with more space will be allowed to permit 20 people per defined area from midday on Friday, June 5, rather than just 20 customers in total in their entire space — but only if they have an approved COVID Safe Industry Plan in place. Some venues, such as places of worship and tourism experiences, will be required to collect and keep the names and contact details of people visiting their sites to assist with contact tracing. Notably, given the debate on the issue in recent weeks, Queensland's borders still won't be opening to interstate visitors as yet. No timeframe has been announced; however the new announcement does advise that "current interstate border control measures will remain in place and [be] reviewed for Stage 3 of the Roadmap, commencing on 10 July". Here's Queensland's updated stage-by-stage rundown, reflecting the changes announced today: If all goes well, the next stage of eased restrictions will come into effect on July 10. That said, the Queensland Government will continue to assess community transmission and testing rates before giving the go-ahead to loosen more limits. When the next stage does start in Queensland, people limits will increase to 100, and nightclubs, food courts and gaming areas will also be able to reopen with those caps. At each stage, the standard social-distancing requirements still apply — so sticking with physical distancing, maintaining four square metres per person indoors, hand and cough hygiene, and frequent cleaning and disinfection. https://www.facebook.com/annastaciamp/photos/a.523591701005345/3203690996328722/?type=3&__xts__%5B0%5D=68.ARBQ8sFM861RNmz7gHdttGcQE-HINUGw6jMm13M3Iqvl9uGZ7-ccRiova23CP1-SJP27MXKjTSFdhzlBMO-K-eCY8zePOiOq-m0yX9oJkpXYwXUm9VHY7l5M9tuqLliMFXOgnrmsEQeUExJrFAIojVkhNmoPu7G3ozujF2bsEMxu81D9GnPqc0yUA75qw1JhDioLgcZ417qNhaLSDP7GdRstmEE_WBOD5Ecxos0HbOWHkejm8nJtlwv4O-p2Vi97mGS-0RtvUQ0o-HTy0befST_Pi-lFU-LZKISyErywum6UIn2pwt3PVrETA9GyjOEgcbQaa8-nh5XrKBeXlNzfLxQtxw&__tn__=-R Announcing the eased restrictions, Premier Palaszczuk also advised that Queensland only has five active cases of COVID-19 at present, with zero new cases overnight. To find out more about Queensland's easing COVID-19 restrictions, and the status of the coronavirus in the state, visit Queensland's online COVID-19 hub. 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. Top images: Nick Boustead, Tourism and Events Queensland / Atlanta Bell.
When Cocaine Bear made its leap from a true tale to a movie that was always bound to fall short of reality, it arrived with a promotional online game where a bear chomps on cocaine, plus people who get in its way, in a playful riff on Pac-Man. Called The Rise of Pablo Escobear, the game is more entertaining than the film, but it isn't the best low-fi button-clicking tie-in of 2023. That honour now goes to Feed Eggs, which anyone that's seen I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson season three will immediately want to play. How does a sketch comedy where assholes take centre stage work in a game about feeding eggs to a bigger egg? The answer to that is sublime, impossible to foresee, and completely in tune with the show's obsession with office culture at its most grating — and people being oh-so unbearably irritating. Eat-the-rich stories are delicious, and also everywhere; however, Succession, Triangle of Sadness and the like aren't the only on-screen sources of terrible but terribly entertaining people. I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson has been stacking streaming queues with appalling folks since 2019, as usually played by the eponymous Detroiters star — and long may it continue. In season three, which dropped in full on Netflix on Tuesday, May 30, the show takes its gallery of assholes literally in the most ridiculous and unexpected way, so much so that no one could ever dream of guessing what happens in advance. That's still this sketch comedy's not-so-secret power. Each time that it unleashes a new batch of six episodes, all screaming to be binged in one 90-minute sitting, there's no telling where Robinson, co-creator and co-writer Zach Kanin (Saturday Night Live), and their committed colleagues will venture. Three key constants: Robinson giving his rubbery facial expressions a helluva workout, memes upon memes flowing afterwards and a fresh round of quotable lines that'll never get old — even if you used to be a piece of shit slopping up steaks, and babies know it. Each of I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson's skits tend to hone in on someone being the worst in some way, doubling down on being the worst and refusing to admit that they're the worst (or even that they're wrong). And, while everyone around them might wish that they'd leave — that feeling is right there in the name — the central antagonist in every sketch is never going to. Nothing ever ends smoothly, either. In a comedy that's previously worked in hot dog costumes and television shows about bodies dropping out of coffins to hilarious effect, anything can genuinely happen to its parade of insufferable characters. In fact, the more absurd and chaotic that I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson gets, and the more unpredictable, the better that the show gets as well. It should come as zero surprise, then, that no description can do I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson's sketches justice. Almost every one is a comedic marvel that has to be seen to be believed, as again delivered in 15-minute episodes in the series' third run. The usual complaint applies: for a show about people overstaying their welcome, the program itself flies by too quickly, always leaving viewers wanting more. Everything from dog doors, designated drivers and novelty venues to HR training, street parking and wearing the same shirt as a stranger are in Robinson's sights this time, plus people who won't stop talking about their kids, wedding photos and proposals, group-think party behaviour, paying it forward and boss-employee beefs as well. Game shows get parodied again and again — an I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson staple — and gloriously. Season three also finds time to skewer viral videos and folks desperate to make them, obnoxious audiences not once but twice, one-note pundits enamoured with the sound of their own voices and the kind of competitive romantic shows that reality TV is filled with. Indeed, although the nine-to-five grind has always been a treasure trove for I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson's jerks, so have the screens that are as deeply entrenched in our lives. That innocent idea that every kid has about the people beamed into their homes, how wonderful they must be and wanting to be just like them? Robinson douses it with vodka shots. The series also makes plain that a camera is just a magnifying glass, especially when it comes to vexing traits. I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson may thrive on being erratic, but it's easy to see its evolution from the cancelled-too-soon Detroiters. In the 2017–18 sitcom, Robinson and I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson regular Sam Richardson (The Afterparty) play best friends, next-door neighbours and colleagues, the latter at a Detroit advertising agency specialising in low-budget ads that are frequently OTT and ludicrous. Kanin co-created the series with Robinson and Richardson, plus Joe Kelly, who went on to co-develop Ted Lasso. Sans moustache, Jason Sudeikis also executive produced and gave Detroiters its first big guest star — someone dealing with over-eager characters who weren't assholes, but also wouldn't take no for an answer. In its instant-gem debut season, its equally wild and wonderful second season in 2021, and now the just-released season three, I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson has kept evolving. More often than before, Robinson lets his co-stars play the asshole, too. Some have been here and done that magnificently before — Richardson, of course, plus the also-returning Will Forte (Weird: The Al Yankovic Story), Patti Harrison (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law), Conner O'Malley (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Tim Heidecker (Killing It) and Biff Wiff (Jury Duty) — while some pop up as they do in seemingly every comedy ever made, which is where Fred Armisen (Barry) and Tim Meadows (Poker Face) come in. Among the newcomers, when Jason Schwartzman (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse) and Ayo Edebiri (The Bear) join in, they're also on the pitch-perfect wavelength. Social awkwardness and awfulness is infectious within I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson's frames. It's also the driving force behind Netflix's best-ever comedy, and the best way that anyone can spend an hour and a half — or four-and-a-half hours now, to be honest, because watching one season of this sidesplitting series always sparks the need to re-binge the others ASAP. Check out the trailer for I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson season three below: I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson streams via Netflix. Images: Netflix.
When the weather's fine, and you want to celebrate making it through another week of deadlines, meetings and emails, there's nothing better than sippin' a cocktail in the afternoon sun. So, we've got some good news: a new lush oasis has arrived and you'll find it right by the beach. Tanqueray has taken over Garden Kitchen and Bar in Broadbeach until the end of April. The Deck Bar in Garden Kitchen and Bar will be transformed into a botanical oasis, complete with foliage and hanging flower garlands. And not only will you get to wash the work week away with some tasty drinks, you'll get to do it while also flexing your gin connoisseur skills. Yep, you get to design your ultimate gin and tonic here. Begin by selecting a Tanqueray gin — you'll have a choice of London Dry ($10), Rangpur ($11), Sevilla ($11) or No.10 ($13) — and one of seven tonics to pair with it. Once you've received your base mix from the bar staff, make your way over to the mini botanical greenhouse to pick some garnishes that'll complement it. You can opt for something fresh, like cucumber, lemon, lime and mint, or something spicier, like dehydrated orange, ginger and cinnamon — or get really experimental with rosemary, coriander or pepper. If decision-making is not your strong suit, there are also some predesigned cocktails on offer — like the Rangpur Sour with Tanqueray Rangpur lime gin, green chartreuse and grapefruit and the Sevilla Spritz with Tanqueray Sevilla gin, Aperol, Davidson plum syrup and prosecco — for $16 each. The Tanqueray Terrace pop-up bar is open on Fridays from 4pm–late and Saturdays and Sundays from 1pm–late until Sunday, April 28. Images: Atlanta Bell.
At the end of September, Newstead farewelled a recent favourite, with City Winery pop-up Carl's Bar and Bistro closing its doors on Wyandra Street as part of a move to a yet-to-be-revealed new location. But the team that gave Brisbane its first inner-city winery isn't done with the space, or with pop-ups there. Ahead of a new concept that'll also focus on vino — unsurprisingly — the crew has launched a temporary seasonal bar and bottleshop for the holiday period. Dubbed City Winery Christmas Pop-Up, the Wyandra Street site is currently serving wines by the glass, cheese and charcuterie, and pintxos-style bites — and selling bottles for customers to take home. So, you can stop in for a drink and something to eat, chat about ace vino and nab something for your wine rack. The pop-up is operating six days a week, from 3pm Tuesday–Friday and from midday on Saturdays and Sundays — with public holiday closures from December 25–27 and January 1–2 — and is likely to stick around until the end of January. When it says farewell, the City Winery team will move onto renovating the venue for that aforementioned new concept, with details about what'll settle into the space permanently still under wraps. While City Winery opened its doors in Fortitude Valley three years back, the Wyandra Street address has been in use for four, with Carl's initially starting as a pop-up before City Winery's Wandoo Street flagship launched. It proved so popular, however, that the hole-in-the-wall wine bar and bistro stuck around until outgrowing the venue. Hence the move, with City Winery co-founder Adam Penberthy still looking at new spaces when Carl's finished trading at its OG home. For now, patrons at Carl's short-term successor can expect Australian wines aplenty, as well as a curated selection of European drops. And, as for those bites, the City Winery Christmas Pop-Up has the likes of caramelised onion jam and goat's cheese tarts with candied walnuts, truffle mushroom duxelle tarlets with confit button mushrooms and sage, citrus-cured trout with smoked crème fraîche and dill, and mini pavlovas with house-poached strawberries on its menu. Find City Winery Christmas Pop-Up at 22 Wyandra Street, Newstead — operating six days a week, from 3pm Tuesday–Friday and from midday on Saturdays and Sundays — likely until late January. Keep an eye on City Winery's socials for further details.
Power your house with a bottle of water. It's a claim reminiscent of the glory days of cold fusion. Like cold fusion, creating an artificial leaf and hacking the natural process of photosynthesis has long been a scientific holy grail. Unlike cold fusion, it seems someone has attained it. Daniel Nocera, a professor at MIT, has created a 'leaf' of silicon and a proprietary mix of cobalt and phosphate, which when placed in a jar of water can produce electricity more efficiently than modern solar panels. The yet-to-be-published findings will be a major scientific breakthrough, and a game-changer in the question of global power supply. India's largest business conglomeration, the Tata Group have bought the tech and plan to develop it to serve the "bottom of the pyramid" — being small, cheap, and able to run on even waste water, it is hoped that this will provide a clean and affordable way to power the developing world. Homes without access to power will be able to generate their own, foregoing the need to develop large power stations and electric cable infrastructure. As well as powering the development of the "bottom of the pyramid" the technology could change the face of power production and consumption worldwide. Nocera estimates that it will be possible to meet the world's power demands with little more than a swimming pool of water every day. [via Fast Company] https://youtube.com/watch?v=WD9yr-Bf-Kw
Cycle-fashion: most people consider the term an oxymoron, bringing to mind images of brightly coloured lycra, or even worse, cycling shorts worn so thin that they’ve become transparent. If you’ve been afraid of joining the cycling revolution for fear of committing a crime against fashion, then allow British fashion designer Paul Smith to put you at ease. His new collaboration with cycle clothing brand Rapha brings some style to the two-wheeled set. Their new spring/summer range blends Smith’s fashion sense with Rapha’s cycling nous to create cycle-wear with a stylish look, but maintaining the technical and functional elements needed to stay comfortable on a bike. Unfortunately, style comes at a price, so the hip pockets of hipster cyclists will be a little light if they’re sporting these threads. And of course, compulsory helmet laws in Australia mean you can’t legally look as cool as these models. [via Hypebeast]
