God knows we all spend way too much time looking at our phones. Whether you're texting, tweeting or chasing imaginary Japanese monsters, it seems like people constantly have their eyes glued to tiny screens. At best, it can be a wee bit anti-social. At worst, it can actually be really dangerous. Case in point: this teenager who got hit by a car while playing Pokémon Go. Fortunately for the technology-addicted, artist and designer Ekene Ijeoma has created a new mobile app designed to get people to tear their faces away from their phones. Look Up New York City causes your phone to vibrate whenever you're approaching an intersection, while also drawing data from the New York Department of Transportation to give each intersection an "energy score." The higher the score, the more frequent the number of accidents that take place there, and the more users should maybe think about paying attention to where it is they're walking. The purpose of the app is twofold, with its creators hoping to reduce the number of accidents while also encouraging social interaction. "Whether it's strangers making eye contact and saying hello or friends hugging, Look Up hopes to tear down the digital walls we build up, opening us to seeing, acknowledging and valuing the people and city around us," reads a statement on the Look Up website. Look Up is currently available on Android devices, with an iOS app coming soon. No word on whether they're planning on branching out beyond NYC, although we can easily imagine it taking off across the world. In the mean time, if you're reading this on your phone, please keep an eye on where you're going. https://vimeo.com/171683941 Via PSFK.
Just four kilometres long and three kilometres wide, Hayman Island might be small, but it be fierce. In one day, you can snorkel with swirling schools of tropical fish, play Robinson Crusoe on very own private beach and trek through lush rainforest to Baraka-worthy sunsets. When you're ready to leave shore, there are uninhabited islands to explore, outer reef coral kingdoms to dive among and luxury yachts to climb aboard. Want to enjoy all this without spending a cent? Mastercard is giving away an all-expenses-paid Hayman Island adventure worth $6000 to one lucky, lucky Nemo. Jump over here to go in the running. This highly opulent prize includes flights, accommodation in a luxe suite in Hayman Island's only resort and a VIP dining experience with Neil Perry. In the meantime, start planning your itinerary with these ten tips. SNORKEL THE GREAT BARRIER REEF Hayman Island's busiest aquatic community is on its north-western side, at Blue Pearl Bay. Prepare to meet local resident Priscilla, an enormous Māori wrasse, among rainbow-coloured parrot fish and striped angel fish. For an off-shore escapade, catch a private boat to pocket-sized Langford Island, where you'll come across magical underwater gardens. Afterwards, you can kick back on the long, sandy spit, picnicking, swimming and lazing about. Another option is the outer reef — at the legendary giant Stepping Stones, which drop away to 40 metres. You'll be gliding among magnificent rays and scary-looking-yet-utterly-harmless reef sharks. TAKE A HIKE To get your bearings, start with a short climb to Cook Lookout, Hayman Island's highest point. At 250 metres above sea level, it gives you a bird's perspective on surrounding reef formations and the rugged shores of neighbouring Hook Island. Come late afternoon, set off for Whitsunday Lookout, from where you can see the sun setting over the Whitsunday Passage, or to Dolphin Point, Hayman Island's northernmost tip. Alternatively, for a d0-nothing day on perfect white sand, take a stroll to Blue Pearl Bay. Don't forget your swimmers and snorkelling gear. STAY IN AN ULTRA-LUXE SUITE Hayman Island is privately owned and there's but one accommodation option, appropriately named One&Only Hayman Island Resort. Fortunately for you, it's a bloody masterpiece. An array of room types are available and they're all ultra-luxe. We're talking Royal Family-level linen draped across four-poster beds, massive ensuites with separate showers and baths, dressing rooms fit for Marilyn Monroe and private balconies overlooking the resort's tropical gardens or the ocean — depending on where you are. Facilities include two pools, seven bars and restaurants, a spa and a fitness centre, for those who, inexplicably, can be bothered moving. GET PADDLING To see Hayman Island from the water, at human-powered speed, jump in a kayak or man a paddleboard. If you're a newbie — or not very brave — there's no need to travel far for beautiful views and, thanks to the island's crystalline waters, flashes of aquatic life. Meanwhile, Bear Grylls types can venture further afield, perhaps even attempting a circumnavigation. Along the way, be sure to stop by Coconut Beach, where you can regain your energy by sinking into a sun lounge, and Blue Pearl Bay. SWIM IN A 'LAGOON' SEVEN TIMES THE SIZE OF AN OLYMPIC POOL The likelihood of bumping into another guest in the One&Only Hayman Island Resort's behemoth of a pool is next to nix. It's seven times the size of your average Olympic Pool. So, whether you're lapping, synchronised swimming or simply bobbing about in between cocktails, no one's going to get in your way. There are day beds aplenty and four private cabanas. Super-keen swimmers can book a suite in the Hayman Pool wing, where the rooms open directly onto the water. Should you find yourself working up an appetite, swing by the nearby On The Rocks Restaurant and Bar. EAT DINNER WITH NEIL PERRY Even a multi-hat winning chef's gotta go troppo every now and again. So, why not join him for the ride? In July, Neil Perry AM (of Rockpool and $10 burger fame) will be cooking up a feast on Hayman Island and then hosting you while you munch your way through it. He hasn't given away any of the culinary details yet, but we imagine there'll be no shortage of seafood inspiration, as well a handpicked selection of fancy wines to match. The only catch is, the only way you can experience this hedonistic evening is by entering the comp mentioned above or by laying your card down — it's one of Mastercard's Priceless Dinners and spots are strictly limited. GET A MASSAGE FLOATING IN THE SEA No tropical holiday is complete without a massage. And, on Hayman Island, you can take yours next level by ordering it outdoors. For water babies, there's the 90-minute 'Ocean Dreaming' experience, which involves pretty much what you see in the pic above: lying on a bed, floating on still water and surrounded by clear sky. If you're more Jungle Book, book into a 'Rainforest Massage'. You'll be ushered into a private, canopy-sheltered cabana and given a massage according to your specific bodily needs. Yogis might also be interested in the 'Sun Salutation', inspired by Oriental techniques and involving acupuncture, stretching and rocking motions. LEARN TO SCUBA Yet to scuba? There's no more classic place to learn than the Great Barrier Reef. Except, of course, that it might make dives closer to home seem somewhat anti-climactic. On Hayman Island, you'll kick off with a basic coaching session, before starting your underwater explorations in the safe, shallow waters of Blue Pearl Bay. Next up is a guided tour of nearby The Maze, so named because wandering through it feels a bit like twisting and turning through a coral labyrinth. You'll then be taken to The Fish Bowl, which is absolutely teeming with diverse fish species. RIDE A SEAPLANE Many a traveller has seen the Great Barrier Reef through a snorkelling mask or from the deck of a boat, but, there's no more startling way to get your head around its extraordinary proportions than from the window of sea plane. So, if you can scrape some dosh together, make it happen. You'll soar high above the Great Barrier's 350,000 square kilometres (which is divided into 2800 separate reefs altogether) swoop down for a closer look, and even take a break for a spot of snorkelling in Hardy Lagoon. CLIMB ABOARD A LUXURY YACHT Go James Bond-style and travel to and from Hayman Island via luxury yacht. Or, while you're there, charter one and design your own Great Barrier Reef cruise. You can loll about on the deck doing not much, cruise on the bow pretending to be Kate Winslet or watch the crew in action. Needless to say, fine dining and premium beverages will be at your disposal. You're the boss, after all. Want to enjoy all this without spending a cent? Mastercard is giving away an all-expenses-paid Hayman Island adventure worth $6000 to one lucky, lucky Nemo. Jump over here to go in the running. Images: One&Only Hayman Island/Mastercard.
Obliterating your eardrums by throwing mad shapes too close to the speakers at Listen Out is one thing. Wearing a subwoofer on your own personal wrist so you can feel that bass is another. One of these things is much better for your body, and it's being funded on Kickstarter as we speak. Because 2016, the world's first wearable subwoofer is seeking crowdfunding, claiming "sound is meant to be felt, not just heard." Created by a Berlin-based startup founded by Daniel Büttner and Gwydion ap Dafydd from Ableton and Native Instruments, The Basslet is a watch-like gadget that sits on your wrist and delivers the beats directly to your body, letting you "experience powerful bass — anywhere you go." Best bit? It's 100 percent silent to the rest of the world. Y'hear that, beats-hungry commuters? SILENT. Intending to block out every other sound from the world around you, The Basslet works with music, gaming and VR, connecting to your smartphone, laptop, console, VR headset — even with your old Walkman. It doesn't need an app and promises a powerful, wholly immersive sound experience beyond headphones — with the full bass spectrum (10-250 Hz). Rather than being just a mere force to eat up hectic Hud-Mo drops, The Basslet could have some serious potential for people who are deaf or have limited hearing. Sound isn't the only way to enjoy music. Check out The Basslet's Kickstarter page. Via Protein.
With beloved cult series Broad City now entering its fourth season, co-creator Abbi Jacobson is taking on a new podcast project that could push My Dad Wrote a Porno off our daily hitlist. A Piece of Work delves into the enigma that is modern art and answers questions you may have been too afraid to ask — like what significance a bicycle wheel atop a stool could possibly have, or why Andy Warhol was so obsessed with soup cans. A collaboration with WNYC Studios and MoMA, the ten-episode series will premiere on July 10 and air twice weekly on Mondays and Wednesdays. Each episode focuses on a different theme, from everyday objects and pop art to abstraction, performance and text-based art. Jacobson will specifically discuss individual works by big name (and at times, especially confusing) artists including the above mentioned Warhol, along with Jackson Pollock, Yves Klein and Marcel Duchamp, whose noted Bicycle Wheel will be topic of discussion in the first episode. Jacobson also welcomes a legendary roster of guests each episode, including musician Questlove, comedian Hannibal Buress, actress Tavi Gevinson and television personality RuPaul — who features in the not-to-be-missed episode six, in which they'll discuss Yoko Ono's provoking 1964 Cut Piece performance. If you're wondering how Jacobson became an authority on modern art, she actually holds a degree from Maryland Institute College of Art and has also published a colouring book series, Color This Book, and a book of illustrations, Carry This Book — in which Jacobson imagines items found in the pockets and bags of celebrities like Oprah, historical figures like Amelia Earhart and artists like Frida Kahlo and Banksy. A Piece of Work will be available on Apple Podcasts and WNYC, with a teaser and full list of themes, guests and artworks available on Entertainment Weekly. Via Entertainment Weekly. Image: MoMA.
Brunswick Street Mall boasts a plethora of bars, markets on weekends and a once-a-year festival, but it doesn't have a permanent indoor space where thousands of people can watch a band or show. Come mid-2019, that will change, with the folks behind The Tivoli, The Triffid and Splendour in the Grass teaming up to build a brand new live entertainment venue. 312 Brunswick Street is the address that'll be undergoing quite the revamp, in what'll be a massive $40 million project bound to change both Fortitude Valley's and Brisbane's live music scenes. The 2500-square-metre site next door to McWhirters will be repurposed to become a mid-sized venue for concerts, events and productions, with a capacity of 3300. By comparison, The Tivoli holds 1500 and The Triffid only 800. In addition to theatre and functions facilities, the space — which was first built as a Coles in 1957 and most recently known as The Optus Centre — will include retail stores, restaurants, cafes and bars. Inside, the live venue will be designed by the same acoustic and service team responsible for The Triffid. Outside, the exterior will feature a modernised '50s-style exterior that nods to the place's history. Given the city's lack of comparable places since Festival Hall was turned into apartments over a decade ago, there's certainly room for it — and if anyone would know Brissie's needs in this area, it'd be Scott Hutchinson of Hutchinson Builders, who helped rescue The Tivoli when it was slated to become units; former Powderfinger bassist John Collins; and Paul Piticco from Secret Sounds, the group behind Splendour in the Grass, Falls Festival and more. Together, they own and operate The Triffid at Newstead — so they've all already played a part in adding a new live music venue and hangout to Brissie's cultural scene. "We've learned a lot since the early days of The Triffid," explains Collins. "I guess our hunch about the potential growth of the live music scene back then has paid off in spades… I think that venues created for music by musicians add something extra to the whole experience for both audiences and performers." Image: The Triffid.
A supermarket in Denmark has committed to fighting food wastage by only selling produce past its use-by date. Located in Copenhagen, the recently opened Wefood has been set up by not-for-profit organisation Folkekirkens Nødhjælp, selling expired food at a discounted rate with the hope of reducing the 700,000 tonnes of food that goes to waste in Denmark each year. "Wefood is the first supermarket of its kind in Denmark and perhaps the world as it is not just aimed at low-income shoppers but anyone who is concerned about the amount of food waste produced in this country," spokesperson Per Bjerre told The Independent. The supermarket came into being on the back of a successful crowdfunding campaign, which raised one million Danish kroner, or just over $200,000. The supermarket is staffed by volunteers, with profits being used to help fund Folkekirkens Nødhjælp's work in some of the poorest countries in the world. The supermarket also has the support of local government officials. "It's ridiculous that food is just thrown out or goes to waste," said Eva Kjer Hansen, Danish Minister for Food and the Environment. "A supermarket like Wefood makes so much sense and is an important step in the battle to combat food waste." According to the United Nations, human beings throw away around 1.3 billion tonnes of food each year. Given that one in nine people around the world don't have enough to eat, that's a fairly depressing statistic. In Australia alone we waste more than four million tonnes a year, although organisations like Second Bite and OzHarvest are doing their best to reduce that number. Perhaps we could use a Wefood of our own? Via The Independent.
It won't be the liquor that's making your head spin at Mexico's Biré Bitori. Designed by architectural firm Tall Arquitectos on behalf of chef Maria Andrea Payne, the proposed two-story bar and restaurant would stick out over the edge of a cliff near the Basaseachic Falls, the second highest waterfall in the country. And if that weren't enough to kick your vertigo into gear, the bar and dining area will feature a transparent glass floor, offering breathtaking/terrifying views of the canyon below. The bar and restaurant (and nausea-inducing glass floor) would be located on the first level, while upstairs patrons would find a panoramic observation platform and pool. No word on what the menu might look like, although given the incredible surroundings we can't imagine it would be all that cheap. The falls themselves are located in the Basaseachic Waterfalls National Park, around three and half hours drive west of Chihuahua in the country's north. Via Traveller.
Musicians dream of many things: playing packed-out gigs, releasing a hit album that rockets up the charts, and attaining Kanye-levels of fame and fortune, just to name a few. Getting your own beer has to be on the list as well — and that's a rockstar achievement DZ Deathrays now has covered. No, bandmates Shane Parsons and Simon Ridley haven't cooked up a batch of homemade ale (well, that's not what they're unleashing upon the world right now, at least). And no, there's no rum involved, even though the duo both hail from Bundaberg. Instead, the ARIA-award winning Brisbane outfit has teamed up with the fine folks from Sydney brewery Young Henrys to make their very own brew. If Queen and Pearl Jam can have their own tipple, why can't they? Called Pils 'n' Thrills (Wellington's Garage Project will be raising a few eyebrows, they've already released a beer called Pils 'n' Thrills), DZ Deathrays' beverage of choice is a Czech-style pilsner complete with a stripped-back, classic, compact malt bill and a surprisingly hoppy palm to the nose. If you don't speak beer speak, that means that it's flavoursome, tasty and refreshing, i.e. all the things you want in a pint. Of course, Pils 'n' Thrills is a limited-edition affair, so you'd best head to your local stockist to get your fix quick smart. Then, next time you indulge in one of life's simple pleasures — aka enjoying an ice-cold beer while listening to your favourite band — you can do it with DZ Deathrays' very own drinks in your mitts. For more information about Pils 'n' Thrills, check out the Young Henrys website. Image: Luke Henery.
How does chicken salt work? What's the deal with cereal puffing guns? What is the future of meat? If you're into your food and drink in a nerdier way than most, you'd better book yourself a ticket to New York this Halloween. The Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) is about to open in Brooklyn on October 28 — with exhibits you can eat. Food's had its fair share of pop-up museums and major exhibitions worldwide. There's even museums dedicated to individual foods like cheese, chocolate and Spam (yep, The Museum of Spam is opening in 2016). But after furiously fundraising for years, New York's first museum focused on food will find a permanent bricks and mortar space in Brooklyn this year. "Our mission is to change the way people think about food and inspire day-to-day curiosity about what we eat and why," says the MOFAD website. With a series of rotating exhibitions, visitors will be able to see, touch, smell and taste food, while learning about the culture, history, science, production, and commerce of food and drink. Think tastings, live demos, hands-on activities, talks, debates, heated roundtables. It's a whole multisensory, interactive museum experience to get to the bottom of noshing. How did the search for spices drive the age of exploration? What is the socioeconomic role of street food in cities? Where does soil come from, and why does it matter? How is breakfast cereal made? What is the impact of coffee on world trade? The idea is to enable people to make better, more informed food choices for themselves, their communities, and the environment, through kickass museum interactivity, like this cereal puff installation MOFAD did last year. "Why isn't there a museum devoted to food at the same level of something that's like the Natural History Museum or the Smithsonian?" MOFAD president and founder Dave Arnold asked CNN. "If I want to learn about you, I'm going to go to your house and we'll break bread. We'll have dinner. Then I feel like I'll know who you are. And it's that idea that we can experience cultures through what we eat and how we eat and the history of how we eat. That (idea) needs a museum because you can't eat on TV. You can't read about food and have tasted it." MOFAD's first exhibition, according to NPR, will focus on the flavour industry and the modern quest to manufacture smell and taste. You can probably assume it'll touch on ol' wafty Subway. The Museum of Food and Drink will open its permanent site on October 28 in Brooklyn, site yet to be revealed. For more info, check out the website. Via NPR. Images: MOFAD, Dollar Photo Club.
One of Australia's most redeeming qualities is its ability to give good afternoon sun. There's something about its familiar glow that almost demands casual drinks – whether it's cracking open a cold beer after a day out, heading to the pub after a long day of work, or deciding on a whim that your backyard is perfect for having friends over. We love summer afternoons, so we've spoken to a few of our favourite chefs, musicians and artists, to get their insights on creating the perfect balmy afternoon. And what's better than a barbecue? For advice, we asked the boys from Three Blue Ducks. Mark LaBrooy specifically — he's one of the co-founders of the restaurant-cafe hybrid that was born in Bronte but ended up being so popular it expanded to Byron Bay and, most recently, Rosebery. He and the team at Three Blue Ducks have made working with barbecue flames and smoke a priority at their venues. At their Rosebery location, there's a barbecue, a wood-fired oven and an outdoor charcoal pit. They're experts in barbecue. And more than that, they're experts in taking the standard barbecue fare you usually whip up to the next level, and LaBrooy has shared some tips so you can do the same. He's also given us some recipes, for a burrata salad, a seafood prawns main, and a charred pineapple dessert. "They're all about spring and summer flavours," he says. "Inspired by warm weather and catching up with friends." The burrata salad is a green (but hearty) vegetarian option for your barbecue friends who don't eat meat, while the prawn dish is "light, and great for entertaining because it's not rocket science to prepare". The pineapple recipe is LaBrooy wanting you to try something a little different by charring your fruit. "People should experiment more with fruit on the barbecue, vegetables too," he says. He says the first thing to think about when you're cooking is that produce is key to a good barbecue. He suggests going elsewhere than the supermarket to grab your ingredients. "Go to a real butcher, not a supermarket. Go to the fish markets to get your prawns, and a local organic growers market for your fruits and vegetables." Let the ingredients lead you — if the produce is good, just put it on the barbie and see what happens. "Like a whole bunch of Dutch carrots or something, just give them a wash, put on some good quality olive oil, salt and pepper and char it up. Don't be shy — the hotter the better." "Barbecuing is the cooking technique that fits in best with us," he says. "It's connected to the environment and there's something really intimate about using the fire — it's inconsistent, there's a real element of maintenance and care in the cooking process." When finished, all three dishes will look incredible, but don't get too caught up with perfection when you're hosting a barbecue. Part of the fun is that barbecue-ing isn't always pretty. "It's a bit ugly and charred," he says. "You can get those really aggressive, black tones in the appearance and colouration of your cooking." Follow these three recipes and transform your afternoon barbecue into one that's worthy of being on the menu at Three Blue Ducks. BURRATA WITH CHARRED ZUCCHINI AND SPRING ONIONS Ingredients: 4 pieces of burrata (about 100 grams each) ¼ bunch parsley ¼ bunch basil 1 clove garlic 100ml virgin olive oil 1 tsp Dijon mustard 1 lemon zest and juice salt and pepper 1 bunch spring onion 3 zucchini cut in ¼ 100g toasted hazelnuts roughly chopped Method: Make a nice coal fire on the grill side of your barbecue. Char off the zucchini and the spring onions after giving them a good season and a splash of olive oil. When the zucchini and spring onions get some good colour, take them off the heat and start plating up. Take a food processor and place the herbs, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, zest and Dijon inside. Give it a good whizz until a bright green paste forms. Season well and set aside. Take a plate or bowl and arrange the zucchini and spring onions around the outside, making a well for your burrata to sit in. Flick in a few teaspoons of the herb puree, place the burrata in the centre and sprinkle over some hazelnuts. Season the burrata and drizzle a bit of olive oil if you feel you need it. Squeeze a bit of extra lemon juice over everything to finish off. CONFIT GARLIC AND CHILLI BBQ PRAWNS WITH BUTTERMILK AVOCADO AND RADICCHIO Ingredients: 1 bulb garlic peeled 3 long red chillies deseeded 1 cup olive oil 16 large king prawns cleaned and butterflied 3 avocados 1 lemon juice and zest 2 tablespoons olive oil 100ml buttermilk 1 large radicchio with the outer leaves pulled off and cut in ¼ Salt and pepper Method: Take the chillies and garlic and place in a small saucepan. Add the cup of olive oil and cover with foil. Bake at 160-degrees for 1-30 mins, then place in a food processor and give it a whizz. Using a pastry brush baste the prawns just before grilling on the barbecue. Take your food processor and add the avocado, olive oil, lemon juice and zest and the buttermilk, give it a whizz and set aside for when your plating up. Grill your prawns and radicchio on super high heat, season well and brush with olive oil. This should only take a few minutes. Give a good whack of buttermilk avo purée. CHARRED PINEAPPLE WITH CASHEWS, THAI BASIL AND LEMONGRASS GRANITA Ingredients: 1 pineapple skinned and cut into quarters 1 tablespoon brown sugar For the granita: 350ml water 180g sugar 3 stalks lemongrass, roughly chopped 2 chillies roughly chopped 80g ginger roughly chopped 100ml lemon juice 100g yogurt 1 vanilla bean scraped and deseeded ¼ bunch Thai basil 80g toasted and salted cashews Method: The granita needs to be made the day before and set in the freezer over night. To serve all you have to do is scrape it with a fork or give it a quick whizz in a food processor. Make sure you put the bowl in the freezer first so you don't melt the granita too much. Take a medium sized pot and add the sugar, lemongrass, chilli, and water. Bring to the boil and then set aside and let it cool down on the bench, then strain and add the lemon juice, and put in the freezer to set overnight. Sprinkle the pineapple with brown sugar and place on the grill on high heat. You're looking to get some good colour and charring on the pineapple, cooking it at the same time. Cut into chunks and set aside. Take a small bowl and add the yogurt and the vanilla give it a good mix. To plate up, arrange the pineapple on the base of the plate and a few dollops of the vanilla yogurt. Take a large spoon of granita and place in the centre, then sprinkle with cashews and Thai basil. Images: Kimberley Low.
Imagine that you could spend an entire week or so at an overseas film festival. If time and money wasn't a concern, and you could put your everyday life on hold, which movie bonanza would you go to? Cannes, Berlin, Venice, Toronto: they're all good choices. If you're after new indie flicks, you're probably already thinking about packing your bags for Sundance. Of course, Robert Redford's annual Utah event isn't the only early-in-the-year American film festival worth dreaming about. Come March in Texas, there's another fest making movie buffs envious. Since 1987, South by Southwest has proven a launching pad for music and technology — and, from 1994, for indie flicks, too. On the film front, SXSW's 2016 program keeps the good stuff coming with 137 features, including 89 world premieres and 52 efforts by first-time filmmakers. Alas, here at Concrete Playground we're watching from afar between March 11 to 20, rather than hopping on a plane to Austin. To soothe our jealousy, we've put together a list of the ten films from SXSW we're hoping will come to Australia. If we can't go to them, fingers crossed that they can come to us. DON'T THINK TWICE If you saw Sleepwalk With Me back in 2012, you're probably a fan of Mike Birbiglia. The comedian's first directorial effort, based on his one-man off-Broadway show and accompanying book of the same name, offered a breezy but insightful look at the problems of relationships, careers and planning for the future. His next film effort sounds just as subtly charming, with an improv troupe at its centre. Birbiglia stars again, joined by Keegan-Michael Key and Gillian Jacobs, should you need any more reasons to get excited. COLLECTIVE:UNCONSCIOUS Five filmmakers. Five dreams. Five attempts by the former to make movies out of the latter. Cinema is often called dreamlike, but collective:unconscious takes that description to another level. In stories involving the Grim Reaper hosting a television show and a sports class taking place inside of a volcano, among others, the group of indie directors doesn't just bring their own nocturnal imaginings to their screen. Instead, Lily Baldwin, Frances Bodomo, Daniel Patrick Carbone, Josephine Decker and Lauren Wolkstein attempt to make movies out of each other's unconscious musings. BEWARE THE SLENDERMAN You might've heard of the Slenderman. The very thin, very tall creature started popping up online in 2009, and was rumoured to stalk, abduct and generally terrorise and terrify people, particularly children. Slenderman was actually the creation of an online forum user, who created the figure as part of a Photoshop contest. That didn't stop two 12-year-old girls from killing their best friend in the hopes of meeting the faceless man, with documentarian Irene Taylor Brodsky dissecting their story, the impact of the darker side of cyber space, and how an internet meme inspired a murder. UNDER THE SHADOW We might've left Under the Shadow off of our Sundance list, but we won't make the same mistake twice. There's a reason that the Farsi-language film from Jordan, Qatar and the United Kingdom is playing a US festival again so soon after its world premiere in January, after all. Compared to The Babadook, Babak Anvari’s feature debut tells of a mother and daughter who begin to suspect that they’ve been targeted by evil spirits. Netflix has the rights to the frightening flick, but this sounds like something that really needs to be seen on the big screen. MY BLIND BROTHER Admit it: even the most serious film fans out there can't resist the lure of an impressive cast. Getting a group of great actors together doesn't always pay off, but when it does, it's magic. Here's hoping that's the end result for My Blind Brother, which stars Adam Scott, Nick Kroll and Jenny Slate. Yes, the fact that they've all either starred or popped up on TV sitcom Parks and Recreation is part of their appeal, but they're not the movie's only drawcards. Director Sophie Goodhart might be a first-time feature filmmaker; however she's adapting her own short film of the same name, which screened in competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. TOWER Sadly, mass shootings in US schools are a much-too-common occurrence — but it wasn't always this way. In 1966, when an ex-Marine sniper turned University of Texas engineering student started gunning down people from a tower looming over the tertiary institution's campus, no one had ever contemplated the possibility of such horrors occurring at a place dedicated to learning and education. Keith Maitland's documentary explores this bleak chapter in American history, albeit in an unusual fashion. Telling the previously untold stories of the witnesses, heroes and survivors, he not only delves into archival footage, but combines it with surreal, animated recreations. THE TRUST Two words: Nicolas Cage. We have more words to share about The Trust than that, of course — but we'd be lying if we didn't confess that the man who can be either the world's best or worst actor, depending on the film, wasn't the main attraction. With Elijah Wood, he plays a cop who stumbles upon a mysterious bank vault. If the combination of Cage and the storyline doesn't pique your curiosity, this might: writer/directors Alex and Ben Brewer are better known for their music video work, including winning an MTV Video Music Award for working with Justin Bieber. Yes, really. KARAOKE CRAZIES Karaoke and cinema go hand in hand. Plenty of movies feature everyone's favourite form of amateur singing; however surprisingly few make it their main focus (and yes, we're ignoring Gwyneth Paltrow vehicle Duets for a reason). In Karaoke Crazies, Korean filmmaker Kim Sang-Chan sets his feature in a karaoke bar, lets a serial killer loose, and makes the latter obsessed with the former. If that's not an ingenious idea for a movie, well, we don't know what is. IN A VALLEY OF VIOLENCE Ti West has played with satanic panic in The House of the Devil, and toyed with found footage and religious fanaticism in The Sacrament. He also charmed Aussie audiences in person when he visited the Melbourne International Film Festival in 2011 to present his haunted hotel effort, The Innkeepers. In his next film, In A Valley of Violence, West swaps scares for revenge and horror for the western genre. Ethan Hawke and John Travolta tag along for the ride, stalking through a small town in the 1890s, and playing a drifter and marshal, respectively. EVERYBODY WANTS SOME Okay, okay, so Richard Linklater's latest film — and his first after the awarded and applauded Boyhood — is one of the titles we know for certain will grace Australian cinema screens. That doesn't make us any less enthused about Everybody Wants Some, which has the honour of opening SXSW's film lineup, and has been called a spiritual sequel to his 1996 effort Dazed and Confused. Don't expect a sleazy Matthew McConaughey trying to hit on high school girls, this time around. Do expect another wild series of events, this time set over a weekend in college in the '80s.
Until the Internet becomes a universal, ever-present thing that radiates down from the sky and lets us check Instagram anywhere in the world, we're apparently destined to be stuck with offline maps and or paying through the nose for international roaming when travelling (read: getting lost) overseas. Until that blessed day comes, Google is trying to make life easier for travelling smartphone-wielding folk with their new travel planner app, Google Trips. Earlier this week Google unveiled the new app (which is available on iOS and Android), which is designed to help you plan your trip and help you explore your destination when you get there. It's both a planning tool and a place to store all your important travel docs in one place — and it lets you access that information when you're out and about and without access to 4G or Wi-Fi. So what can you use it for? First off, it will pull all your important travel info like flights, bookings and reservation numbers from your Gmail inbox and organises them into a chronological 'trip'. You can save these to access offline; it's meant to help you avoid that momentary panic where you get off the plane, go to look up the information for your Airbnb and then realise you can't access your emails. The more fun aspect of Trips though are the planning features. The Things to Do feature will give you a list of, well, things to do in the city you're in. These are pulled from what both you and other Google users have searched for in that city, and can be filtered by area of interest. The Day Plans feature gets a little more specific. The app will suggest a whole heap of things to do based on where you're staying and how much time you have — so if you only have an afternoon in a city, it will bring up the best things to do based on what's around you and what's open. You can then create a point-to-point itinerary that will show you where everything is and how to get there. You can save this offline too. Google have called this app "magic", and while we certainly wouldn't go that far (can tech companies stop calling themselves wizards?), it is a very useful tool if you're travelling without access to internet and is a handy way to use Google Maps offline. The planning tool looks like a smoother version of Stay.com, an app we've found useful for pinning places on a map when travelling. You can download the Google Trips app here.
In European rural communities, wine-making has been an inclusive experience for centuries. What better way to forge village connections than by the mass squashing of grapes and shared sampling of the results? Here in Australia, however, exorbitant distances mean that our quaffing usually happens a long way from the bottle’s source. Even if you are curious about setting up your own winery, it all looks rather pricey and tricky from the outside. Three guys in Melbourne want to change all that. They’re set on opening the city’s first interactive ‘urban winery’. And, through their Pozible campaign, they’re hoping to enlist your help. At Noisy Ritual, you’ll be able to take a hands- and feet-on role in the creation of people-powered, group-owned, premium quality wine, using old-school strategies — from the messy luxury of the mid-March stomp, to the squidgy fun of early-April pressing, to the spring magic of bottling — without leaving the Melbourne met area. The project came about when winemaker Alexander Byrne (of Lethbridge Wines) discovered a fermentation tank beneath the Thornbury house of schoolmate, Cam Nicol. “We decided then and there that we’d have to make use of it, because it was the only logical thing to do,” Cam says. “So, in autumn this year, Alex brought two half-tonne batches of shiraz grapes up from Geelong, from where he works. A few friends put in money to buy them, and we formed a basic winemaking syndicate. When it came to labour time, we’d have mini-parties, doing our stomping or pressing downstairs then coming upstairs, to eat and socialise.” Before that, Cam, a "music industry multi-tasker", was new to winemaking. “The process was a massively educational one for me,” he says. “I’d never known much about wine, so being involved in the making of it was a doorway into wine culture. It was something I’d always felt intimidated about and found it hard to converse about, because there’s a lot of assumed knowledge when you’re talking to people who actually know about wine.” Nervous whenever you sidle up to a wine-tasting counter? Not sure about deciphering the difference between a leather tone and a blackberry one? Noisy Ritual intends to have you demystified in a matter of months. Figuring that other people might benefit from the same learning curve, Cam suggested to Alex and another winemaking school buddy, Sam Vogel (Provenance Wines), that they take their neighbourhood operations citywide. Once funding is secured for Noisy Ritual, they’re planning on moving from Cam’s place to a bigger space, somewhere near Brunswick. In 2015, members (join up by pledging) will be able to take an active part in winemaking, in a party atmosphere fuelled by live music, DJs, wine tastings and food. To stem your loneliness in the lapses between the action, there’ll be special events and ample opportunities to drop in, to "taste the wine straight from the barrel, take some measurements, bend a winemaker’s ear or just give a barrel a hug". Images by Tajette O'Halloran.
Located in the Wide Bay-Burnett Region just past Gympie (about three hours' drive from Brisbane), Rainbow Beach takes its name from the multi-coloured dunes that line its shores and stem from deposits of minerals such as rutile, ilmenite, zircon and monazite. The former sand-mining site turned Sunshine Coast holiday town might be big on different shades of the granular stuff that gets between your toes, but it's tiny in terms of population. Just over 1000 people call it home, in fact — so when we say it's small, we really do mean it. It's gorgeous, and just the right kind of quiet, and as Rainbow Beach is perched on the edge of the Great Sandy National Park it overflows with outdoorsy activities. Whatever type of experience you're after, here's our guide to the ultimate Rainbow Beach weekend. From pristine beaches and bountiful wine regions to alpine hideaways and bustling country towns, Australia has a wealth of places to explore at any time of year. We've partnered with Tourism Australia to help you plan your road trips, weekend detours and summer getaways so that when you're ready to hit the road you can Holiday Here This Year. While regional holidays within Queensland are now permitted, some of the places mentioned below may still be closed due to COVID-19 restrictions. Please check websites before making any plans. [caption id="attachment_580490" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Arcobaleno on the Beach[/caption] EAT AND DRINK Whether you're hungry or thirsty, your first point of call really should be the Rainbow Beach Hotel. And probably your second and third, too. It's the number one watering hole in town, with a typical seasonal bistro menu of pizzas, pastas and pub food to satisfy the stomach. You'll also find more Italian offerings at Arcobaleno on the Beach at the same address, as well as a hearty breakfast selection. Next, because every beach spot has a pub and a surf club, you owe it to yourself to grab a meal at the latter. Rainbow Beach Surf Life Saving Club is open for brekkie on Sundays with bacon and egg rolls, pancake stacks or eggs benedict. Go for lunch or dinner and you'll find family favourites like fish and chips, burgers, seafood platters and schnitzels. [caption id="attachment_773286" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Great Sandy National Park via Tourism and Events Queensland[/caption] DO The main reason anyone would want to visit Rainbow Beach is so obvious that it's right there in the town's name, and it really doesn't disappoint. Spying as many as 72 different colours of sands in the cliffs two kilometres from the main township is a bucket list moment (make sure your phone is charged so you can take plenty of pics), but it's not the only thing to do. Visit the Carlo Sand Blow to witness 15 hectares of sandy land that has been compared to a moonscape, and looks particularly stunning at sunset and sunrise. It was actually named after one of Captain Cook's deckhands, and shares its historical links with Double Island Point, a popular dive spot to the south that's accessible via 4WD, and is also home to a 132-year-old operating lighthouse. Alrighty, so you've seen some absolutely stunning natural sights — now it's time to get active in the elements. Want to ride a horse along the beach (or swim with one in the ocean — yes, really)? Or grab a rod, throw a line in and fish from the shore? Great, because you can do all of that here, plus kayak, hang glide, paraglide and skydive. If you're not feeling that adventurous, make a beeline to Rainbow Beach Sports and Recreation Club instead. That's where you can enjoy a game of barefoot bowls or a spot of tennis. Hey, everyone needs a rest now and then. [caption id="attachment_773285" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism and Events Queensland[/caption] And, don't forget that Rainbow Beach is just a ten-minute barge ride away from Fraser Island via the nearby Inskip Point, which is just seven kilometres north of the main drag. Booking onto a tour is your best bet given that 4WDs are the only appropriate form of transport on the biggest sand island in the world. Boom, that's a whole day's itinerary sorted. Thankfully, you really can't get enough of the great outdoors out here. [caption id="attachment_580483" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Plantation Resort[/caption] STAY In a town this cosy, accommodation options aren't what you'd call abundant. Here, it's all about quality over quantity, but there's still something available for every budget. If it's luxury you're after, then you'll want to check into either Plantation Resort at Rainbow or Rainbow Ocean Palms Resort. Both feature the type of furniture, fixtures and facilities you'd expect of resort-style hotels, plus beach-adjacent locations and panoramic views. Or, venture a few streets away from the shore to find peaceful, more modest homes-away-from-home that are the Rainbow Getaway Apartments. Rainbow Sea Resort is also a bit further away from the water, but offers ocean views from its more modern digs. And don't overlook Debbie's Place, a motel perfect for one-night stays run by someone who just might be the friendliest of hosts. A handful of hostels can also be found in Rainbow Beach for those really looking to save their pennies (and are up for sharing their holiday experience with strangers). Whether you choose Dingo's Rainbow Beach Hostel or Pippie's Beachhouse, they're located on the same block, so they're rather easy to find. Whether you're planning to travel for a couple of nights or a couple of weeks, Holiday Here This Year and you'll be supporting Australian businesses while you explore the best of our country's diverse landscapes and attractions. Top image: Great Beach Drive, Tourism and Events Queensland.
Master of all smooth tunes and poster child of Melbourne's enduring obsession with beards, Chet Faker has just announced a huge national tour for 2015. And we really do mean huge — this local legend is returning from a string of massively successful European and American shows to play Sydney's Hordern Pavilion, Melbourne's Palais and the freakin' Brisbane Convention Centre. His shows are officially pulling the same numbers as the G20. This is no doubt welcome news for those that missed out on his national tour earlier this year. With Hordern Pavilion holding roughly 4,000 more people than the Enmore where he played in June, tickets will be much easier to come by. In Brisbane that difference will be even more pronounced. The Brisbane Convention Centre can host a whopping 8,000 rampant Chet lovers. All this hype comes after a stellar run of critical acclaim for the Melbourne musician. He's been nominated for a spectacular nine ARIA awards this year including Best Male Artist and Best Breakthrough Artist — and he's already won three, including Producer of the Year at the ARIA Artisans. His much-loved debut album Built On Glass is also a hot tip for winner of Australian Album of the Year at the J Awards. However this arena setting is sure to affect the show itself too. Specialising in croony electronic ballads and music that makes you feel all warm and gooey inside, it's hard to see how Chet will translate well to the big stage. How are we supposed to snug up and get a little intimate around the stage where Barack Obama talked just a few months prior? Melbourne, on the other hand, may get treated to a rare glimpse of this intimacy. His show at the Palais — assuming it's still standing by then — will actually be smaller than when he played the Forum earlier in the year. Get ready for some hometown lovin' — after he picks up all of the ARIAs he'll probably be graduating to Rod Laver Arena. Tour dates: Wednesday, February 11 – ANU Bar, Canberra Friday, February 13 – Hordern Pavilion, Sydney Saturday, February 14 – Convention Centre, Brisbane Friday, February 20 – Chevron Gardens, Perth Festival Saturday, February 21 – Chevron Gardens, Perth Festival Friday, February 27 – Palais Theatre, Melbourne Saturday, February 28 – Thebarton Theatre, Adelaide Tickets go on sale 9am, November 20. To find out more about about Chet Faker and his killer debut album check out our interview from earlier in the year.
Inspired by New York's steakhouses and decked out with the dark fixtures to match, Walter's Steakhouse and Wine Bar is a place to flock to when you're in the mood for a decadent steak lunch. The house speciality, a prime Australian grain-fed piece of beef that's been dry-aged and cut in-house, is considered one of the city's best for a reason — even though it's only served for at least two people and the price isn't on the menu. While you're soaking in the old-school vibe, overlooking the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens and enjoying the scenic view, you can also pick from a culinary lineup that includes prawn cocktails, maple bacon oysters, crab cakes and a pumpkin Wellington with hazelnuts, ricotta and carrots. To wash it all down, we recommend the classic bloody mary — with the tomato and spice going just as well with either steak or seafood. There's also a very classy wine bar at Walter's, perfect for a pre-dinner drink or an after-work tipple. The focus is on Australian drops but the list features great wines from all around the world, with many of them only available via Coravin. It has a light bar snacks menu, and the team whips up classic cocktails with ease.
Each winter, inside a brick-walled suburban garage, hundreds of families brave the cold for the start of the salami season. All hands young and old, are on deck to clean and clear space, so that hundreds of kilos of meat, can be turned into neatly packed parcels of pork. For Frank Bressi, co-owner of North Melbourne's Saluministi, this is bigger than tradition. Salumi making is an art form — an epicurean labour of love. And as anyone who grew up in and around these garages would know, these recipes have origins deeply rooted in necessity. As Frank explains, the difference between a homemade and store-bought salami is starter culture. "All commercially made salami needs a starter culture," he says. "It's illegal to sell without it." But it's this starter culture that increases the acidity in the meat, causing it to change flavour and sometimes become tangy. Alternatively, the people making it without the culture have had to show that their process is equal, if not more effective than what a commercial starter culture might be able to do. This process is reliant on moisture instead of acidity, and depending on the variety, homemade salami may have to reduce in weight by half before it’s safe to eat. The result is a salami with a much more complex and delicate flavour profile. These days, homemade salami isn't an activity just for Italian families; with companies such as Home Make It selling specialist equipment to those new to the process, there's clearly a new wave of salami makers looking to try their hand at the homemade stuff. And this weekend's Melbourne Salami Festa (now in its fourth year), will be showcasing just how good homemade salami can be. The amateur salumi-making competition sees a wide range of entrants vying for the title of best salami maker — and with team Saluministi having placed in the top three two years running, we caught up with Frank to learn more about why people are so passionate about homemade salumi, and to get some tips on making your own. BREAKING DOWN THE PIG In the old days, a salami would’ve never been made in isolation. A whole pig would be broken down into its different parts and used to make prosciutto, porchetta and a range of other cuts. "Everything else, all the other bits of meat and fat, were chopped up, ground and turned into salami," says Frank. There are eight main cuts of pork used in the Italian school of curing, and each has a traditional purpose. A salami is ground meat, so it can come from any part of the pig — but female pork is a must. Male pigs will produce a 'boar' taste, which is undesirable in cured meat. "Once you get a cut of meat, it can be hard to tell whether it's male or female," he says. "But a female pig should smell perfectly clean." If you're not game enough to tackle an entire pig, find a butcher that you trust and go from there. According to Frank it's the shoulder, due to its sweetness and good, lean meat-to-fat ratio, that's the cut of choice for many. However, it all comes down to what you like. "Everyone has ideas about what part of the pig produces the best salami," Frank says. "But ultimately, as long as the meat is fresh, it's personal preference after that." THE EQUIPMENT For the best chance of getting your salami working, Frank recommends a good mincer. But if you can't afford one, there are definitely ways around it. Mincing by hand is still an option. It's also a good idea to sterilise and wash your tools, then stick them in the freezer before you use them. That means your bowls, knives and anything else that will come into contact with the meat. They should be so cold you shouldn’t be able to touch them. You'll need gloves. Good temperature control is what stops your salami from going bad. If you're mincing by hand, try to work quickly to limit the time the meat is out of the fridge. Although Frank has a trick: "Stack a steel bowl on top another bowl filled with ice," he says. "That way, whatever goes in is always going to stay cold until you can get it back in the fridge." If you're serious about your salami and want to buy some proper equipment, Home Make It is a good place to start. THE RECIPE The main ingredient in salami is salt. In fact, in the old days, salt and pepper would be nearly all you'd use. As both an ingredient, and as a core part of the curing process, it's important to use a good-quality (non-iodised) salt. You'll need to use 3% of the total weight of meat, but no more, as the salami begins to become too salty. With very fresh meat and a very clean process, lower dosages may work — but anything closer to 2.5% starts to become risky, and may not be salty enough for the salami to cure. Popular additions include chilli flakes, paprika and red wine. Fennel is the traditional ingredient of northern Italians, while pepper sauce (a wet, capsicum-based sauce), is more popular among southerners. But that’s not to say there aren’t younger salumi makers breaking trends and blurring lines. THE CASINGS While the sausage casing you choose won't impart much in flavour, your choice will have an impact on the process. There are both natural casings, which come from the hog, and artificial casings, which are made of a natural collagen. If you're hoping to make a very large-sized salami, you may have no choice but to choose an artificial casing, as hog casings lose up to anywhere between 30-50% of the weight in the curing process. Plus, artificial casings come pre-formed and pre-tied on one end — a real convenience if you're hanging several hundred kilograms of meat at a time. But if you're looking to let in more of the outside world — such as smoke or an aromatic profile from your curing room — the natural casing will absorb this better. Otherwise, stick to using them for your smaller sized salamis. DRYING TIMES Drying times will depend on your meat-to-fat ratio. For a homemade salami with a fat ratio of 20-30%, you will need to lose 30% of the total weight before it should be safe to eat. It's also dependant on the diameter of the salami, as it will take much longer for a thicker salami to cure. So how do you keep track of the shrinking? "If you have two or three different sizes to hang: take one of each, weigh them and start a diary," Frank says. From there, monitor their progress regularly — and once your salami has reached that 30% weight loss goal, it should be safe to eat. For a firmer salami, continue drying until it's reached a 40-50% reduction in weight. On the opposite end of the scale, 'nduja, which is a spreadable fermented sausage, only needs to lose 15-20% of its weight. Due to its 50-60% fat ratio, it requires little drying time and is normally cured in two weeks. As a rough guide, a small, cacciatore-sized salami may take three to four weeks, while a larger salami may take six to eight. If you're still curious, book yourself into one of the salami making courses at the festival. They're being held in a pop-up garage, with DIY salami specialists Home Make It, whose Team BGS were crowned the winners of the first Salami Festa (pictured above). STORING YOUR SALAMI If stored in the right environment, a salami can last indefinitely. Frank admits that the right conditions are hard to come by, so "unless you’ve got that, or a cave in the middle of the sea, the best way around it is to vacuum pack them." Vacuum sealing machines are relatively common and pretty affordable. By vacuum packing your salami, it can easily last for a year in the refrigerator. Unless, of course, you eat it. For those who seek instant gratification, this year's Salami Festa will also play host to a Salumi Market and a range of pop-up food stalls. You may fill your baskets with a range of cured meats from around the country, and fill your bellies with the best of D.O.C., Ombra Salumi Bar and Frank's own baby, Saluministi. Espresso will be served by none other than St. Ali, and sweet treats will be courtesy of Gelato Messina. View the full program at the Salami Festa website. Top and third images: Dollar Photo Club. Second and fourth images: Home Make It. Final image: Saluministi.
Low restaurant lighting, basic plating and ineffective Nashville filters ruining your damn life? This social media-savvy restaurant knows your struggle. Israel establishment Carmel Winery have been working tirelessly against low-lit, poorly-composed foodstagrams, teaming up with Tel Aviv restaurant Catit to create special Instagrammable meals on tailor-made crockery. Available only on certain nights, the art project/gastronomy experience/publicity stunt is called 'Foodography' and is probably the most serious control we've ever seen a restaurant take over their social media presence. Created by ceramic design artist Adi Nissani, the Foodography dishes have been crafted to make your food look as good as it possibly could on Instagram. There are two types: This one comes with a little shelf to pop your smartphone into, to minimise pesky hand-created blur and give you that studio backdrop your poor dinner's been missing. Then things get truly crazy... It's like a Lazy Suzan, or the rotating pedestal they had Sofia Vergara perched on at the 2014 Oscars. 'The 360' allows you spin your food around to either get the perfect angle for your snap or take a weirdly hypnotic Vine of your dinner slowly rotating and let's be honest, probably getting truly cold. Look at it go! To be fair, that's some near-perfectly distributed sauce. It's not a cheap escapade of online whimsy; one Foodography session runs at $155 an hour. Yup. Granted, it's five epic-sounding courses (just the first course is bonito fish cured in red wine with grilled organic beetroots and carrots in salt and pomace crust dough, malt crumble, rhubarb jelly, red tune prosciutto, Uzbek apricots) and cheaper than a Blumenthal sitting — and obviously you'll take significantly superior Instagram photos — something that's only sort of acceptable and important with this level of food presentation. It gets better though. Because a bespoke studio setting doesn't make a primo foodstagrammer out of a novice. There are workshops (yep, workshops) on offer with leading Israeli food photographer Dan Perez to maximise your snapping wizardry. Although the concept isn't available in Australia as yet, Carmel Winery told BuzzFeed they were looking to expand internationally. Suck it, Nashville. You never truly work anyway. Via BuzzFeed. Images: Carmel Winery/YouTube.
Once, Brisbane was just the home of XXXX. Now, this beer-loving town has a brewery on every corner, or so it seems. It's no wonder, then, that Brewsvegas sprung up to celebrate the city's plethora of places for a yeasty pint — and it's back in 2019 for its sixth massive year. From Friday, March 15 through until Sunday, March 24, you'd best prepare to quench your hard earnest thirst with an ice cold brew. Plenty of beverages will be sunk across the ten-day period; however there's more to Brewsvegas than just knocking back beer. Fancy pairing your boozing with doughnuts? A scavenger hunt? A riverside food truck party? A parkside meet-up for doggos and their drink-sipping owners? Several other pooch-friendly events? That's all on the agenda. The list goes on, and includes a heap of beer match-ups — think beer and ice cream floaties, beer with fondue, beer with other types of cheese, beer with coffee, and beer with chilli, for starters. Also on the bill is everything from three-legged races through the Valley, helping design a new brew choose-your-own-adventure style, laneway shindigs and getting crafty, to pinball and 90s tunes, buskers singing their hearts out, trivia and a battle of the bands. And saying 'cheers' a whole heap, obviously. Image: Sea Legs Brewing Co.
The Victorian government have officially begun their push to become the first state in the country to legalise medicinal marijuana. Delivering on a pledge made during the last election, the Andrews government yesterday tabled a report in parliament by the Victorian Law Reform Commission. Among its recommendations: a licensing scheme allowing for the production of medicinal cannabis, for the purposes of treating serious illnesses including cancer, epilepsy, multiple sclerosis and HIV/AIDs. "During the election we committed to legalising medicinal cannabis for use in exceptional circumstances, and we’re delivering on our promise," said premier Daniel Andrews in a statement that accompanied the announcement. "I’ve seen first-hand how medicinal cannabis can change people’s lives. This landmark reform means Victorian families will no longer have to decide between breaking the law and watching their child suffer." Now before you start celebrating too hard, we should make clear that this isn't the same as legalising pot for everyone. Under the report's recommendations, licensed cultivators will be able to produce legal cannabis products, including oils, sprays and capsules, which will be available at pharmacies to patients who have received authorisation from a specialist doctors. Smokable marijuana will also remain illegal — so keep your homemade bongs in your sock drawers for the time being. Still, progress is progress — and this is especially great news for people suffering from the kinds of chronic pain and illness that marijuana use can help alleviate. Assuming he can get a tick of approval from the federal government, Andrews expects to make medical cannabis available by early 2017, with children suffering from severe epilepsy expected to be the first to benefit. Via The Age. Image: Dollar Photo Club.
Eleven years ago, Taika Waititi was a writer for hire, working on an adaptation of a beloved New Zealand book. Today, he's about to leap into the Marvel Cinematic Universe as the director of the forthcoming Thor: Ragnarok. Progressing from the former to the latter hasn't been easy; however as Waititi's career has continually proven, he likes to stray off the beaten path. Indeed, before he embraces the superhero realm, he's bringing a dose of adventurous anarchy to cinema screens courtesy of his fourth feature, Hunt for the Wilderpeople. After exploring unconventional family dynamics with Eagle vs Shark, Boy and What We Do in the Shadows, Waititi ponders similar territory again. But this time, he's telling the tale of city kid Ricky Baker (Julian Dennison), his cranky foster uncle Hec (Sam Neill), and their attempts to escape an over-enthusiastic child services officer (Rachel House) by trampling through the New Zealand wilderness. And, he's actually returning to that project he started scripting more than a decade ago. Expect plenty of humour and heart, Terminator references, a dog named Tupac and Rhys Darby as an eccentric conspiracy theorist — all in a movie that has "synthesizers and a score from the '80s, and car chases and flipped police cars and all that stupid stuff," as Waititi puts it. There's a reason Hunt for the Wilderpeople has become New Zealand's biggest homegrown box office success of all time (knocking the filmmaker's own Boy off the top spot, actually). With the film's Australian release under way, we spoke with Waititi about great buddy comedies, getting annoyed at New Zealand's landscape and not being able to connect with bank robbers, and about the movie of the moment, of course. ON WHAT ATTRACTED HIM TO THE WILDERPEOPLE "I think it was just that I loved the idea of this character being on the run, sort of like Thelma and Louise or The Fugitive or Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid. All those kind of buddy flicks that, even films like Up, have two mismatched characters who are thrown together and stuck together. It's always been a winning combination in cinema. Paper Moon, 48 Hours, the list goes on. So I love that style and I thought it'd be a cool thing to see." ON WORKING WITH NEW ZEALAND'S UNPREDICTABLE WILDERNESS "We were shooting on locations, and we didn't really have much of an idea where we were going to shoot things, and what the weather was going to be like. We ended up in a whole lot of really remote places in New Zealand. At one of them ... we had a huge dump of snow. We had to kind of regroup that morning as the snow was falling on us, and we were like an hour from the main road, we had just driven deep inland. It was too expensive and it would lose the whole day moving everyone out of there. So we just basically decided to shoot and to set a part of the film in the snow. And that's when we got that cool 780-degree shot that turns around and around — we shot that, and spent a few hours shooting that ... While we were doing that, I was trying to figure out what we were going to do for the rest of the day. Now the film has this whole breadth of seasonal change through it. And it makes it even more epic, the fact that it has snow and it spans months and months." ON CELEBRATING THE FILM'S NEW ZEALAND HERITAGE "I'm very proud of where I come from, and I think [New Zealand's] a very beautiful place. Sometimes we take it for granted, how beautiful the land is. I think we get pissed off with it. It's like 'god you can't look anywhere without seeing some beautiful landscape'. And you forget that no one in the world has seen stuff like that. I think that's it's not often nowadays that we make films that celebrate what New Zealand looks like or like, the culture, the people, and how crazy we are. I wanted to do that. I wanted to use so much of that in there. So many parts of the film are inspired by '80s New Zealand films and Australian films. We used to make so many car chase films with people trying to drive from one end of the country to the other, and we stopped doing all that stuff. I think we started taking ourselves too seriously, and I don't do that." ON MAKING FILMS ABOUT UNCONVENTIONAL FAMILIES "Well, my family is crazy. I'm from a very crazy family — but I actually think every family is crazy. I think every single person has some insane part to their family. Every family, there's a criminal somewhere in there, there's a crazy person, there's someone who has just found religion, there's someone who's just left religion, there's someone who's been divorced, there's someone who has just fallen in love. Families are just really messed up, and they're a macro representation of earth, really. All parts of humanity all crammed into a couple of households. And it is the one thing I've found that everyone relates to the most: family dynamics. I don't relate to bank robbers. I've seen a lot of those films, and I get really bored. I don't care about the stakes, and I don't care about what they're trying to do, and I don't care about bank robbery, so I lose interest. But if you set it around a bank robber who's trying to get together with his ex-wife, at least there's something to hold on to there." ON JUMPING FROM INDIE FILMS TO DIRECTING MARVEL'S FORTHCOMING THOR MOVIE "There's not a huge difference really, to be honest. There's just a little bit more time, and you get a few more opportunities to do things that, in the normal indie world, you'd have to find cheaper ways of doing or you'd just have to have a character talk about rather than actually showing something blow up. So parts of your imagination, you actually get to shoot — and that's quite cool. It also could be dangerous to give people that much freedom, creatively. But it is very similar to the indie world in terms of it is still a bunch of people wanting to make a really good story and to make a good film." Hunt for the Wilderpeople opens in Australian cinemas on May 26.
Ah, the tinnie. The refuge of the second-rate beer, right? Wrong. With improved technology obliterating the old argument that cans damage the taste of beer, more and more craft brewers are moving to the once humble can. Sometimes favoured for their retro feel, cans actually boast both a lower carbon footprint and longer shelf life than their bottled counterparts, making it likely their booming popularity will only continue rising. For many craft beer makers, the tinnie is actually an essential part of their craft; the makers of acclaimed Heady Topper urge their customers not to pour their beer into a glass, lest it lose the carefully cultivated hop aromas the can preserves. Here are ten of the best canned wonders. JAMES SQUIRE ONE FIFTY LASHES PALE ALE Named after a convict rapscallion who is believed to have created Australia’s first commercial brewery, Sydney-based James Squire produces a distinctly Australian range which has become synonymous with local craft beers. Newly available in cans, this is an approachable variety which makes an inspired addition to your next beach hang or spring picnic. With a light citrus burst and faint notes of passionfruit hitting the palate first, and the malted wheat giving it a silky smooth finish, it’s an ideal session beer. MOUNTAIN GOAT SUMMER ALE One of the first Australian craft beer makers to stock their product in cans, Victorian microbrewers Mountain Goat initially thought of doing a limited one-off run of these tinnies, but were soon overwhelmed with the response and turned it into a permanent fixture. A gold-hued ale perfect for sneaking into your picnic baskets, this offers inviting citrus and tropical aromas. With no hint of acidity, it’s an easy drinking delight and an ideal choice for the newer craft beer drinker or seasoned hop head alike. BREWDOG PUNK IPA Back in 2007, James Watt and Martin Dickie were two 24-year-olds with “scary bank loans” and a passion project selling their craft beer out of the back of a battered van. Today, they are the kingpins of a Scottish craft beer success story, overseeing more than 350 employees pumping out their abrasively flavoured brews to great acclaim. The Punk Indian Pale Ale is a must, a great introduction to their in-your-face style. Also look out for the mightily bitter Jackhammer, which is about as subtle as its name. HEADY TOPPER Ranked number 2 among all the world’s beers on the encyclopaedic Beer Advocate, Heady Topper is less a beer than a phenomenon. Initially considered unlikely to have widespread appeal, Heady Topper actually became so popular that the Vermont brewery which made it regularly had people cuing for hours and had to limit hordes of customers to one case each. It’s a complex beer with notes ranging from grapefruit to pine and spice and just about the quintessential craft beer tinnie. Image: Carter Brown. SIERRA NEVADA PALE ALE With its instantly recognisable pastoral artwork, Sierra Nevada’s Pale Ale has long been warmly regarded as one of the classic craft beers. The pioneering brewery now produces over 50 varieties, but the pale ale accounts for more than half their sales. Famously using only whole cone hops, they have a commitment to quality ingredients that has produced a consistently good and almost universally liked beer. Heavy on the hops, it’s a beer that pairs well with some spicy Mexican. YO-HO TOKYO BLACK PORTER Japan is a relatively new player in the world of craft beers, having effectively legislated against microbreweries until the mid '90s. Now some 200 microbreweries have moved into a once stagnant market. One of the first breweries to spring up when the laws changed were Yoho, who have since been named Japan’s best craft beer brewery. Based in the snowy mountains of Nagano, they produce a nice variety of beers, including this rich black number which draws you in with its treacly aroma, roasty character and a head like foamy coffee. YOUNG HENRYS REAL ALE While the range of craft beers available in cans was quite limited just a few years ago, today there’s an abundance of options and this is a great example of a local take on the traditional British bitter. Made with both Australian and British malts, it’s light but flavoursome and took Young Henrys all the way from their inner west base to the International Real Ale Festival, where this bad boy picked up a gold medal. EVIL TWIN HIPSTER ALE An American Pale ale hailing from (where else?) Brooklyn, Evil Twin market this colourfully packaged beer as a homage to anyone who “feel(s) excluded because you’re hip but your city is not”. Even for those in a cutting-edge hip city, this is a very drinkable ale with some complexity to keep you interested. The colour is like a light honey, and you’ll get notes of everything from biscuits, toffee and caramel to more zesty citrus. FERAL BREWING HOP HOG IPA Credit Feral Brewing company with putting beer on the map in the fabled Swan Valley wine district. This is their most famous product, an American-style Indian pale ale with hops added both during the boil and late in the fermenting. It’s proven a hit both with the craft beer-loving public and the critics who raved about its balance and drinkability and made it the number 1 pick in their Australia’s Best Beers annual roundup. SIX STRING DARK RED IPA Like many craft brewers, Six String began as a couple of friends with a love of beer and a desire to make something better than the mass-marketed product. After lengthy battles with bureaucratic red tape, Chris Benson and Adam Klasterka were able to enlist the support of their community and set up a boutique brewery in the Central Coast. Their beers proved worth the wait. Among their staples is a dark red IPA. It’s full-bodied, really dark and really good. Top illustration by Barry Patenaude.
We owe more than a tip of our sombreros to the 2 million square kilometres that make up the nation of Mexico. Just try imagining your youth — or your next beachside holiday — without tequila or the mighty margarita. Then there’s the less obvious stuff. Unless you were listening hard during history lessons, it might have slipped under your radar that Mexico's ancient civilisations played a major role in bringing us chewing gum and chocolate. And since then, we’ve been kindly introduced to Frida Kahlo, Gael Garcia Bernal, Guillermo del Toro and Rodrigo y Gabriela. Here are ten excellent things to thank Mexico for. CHOCOLATE From the ancient evidence uncovered so far, cocoa seeds were first turned into drinkable chocolate by people of the Mokaya cultures, who lived in modern-day Mexico between 1900 and 650 BC. In Chiapas, which lies on the Pacific coast, archaeologists have found vessels containing cocoa residue dating back to 1900 BC. What’s more, it appears that cocoa was used not only for its sweet warmth but also for its intoxicating potential. Even back then, the sugars of the seeds were fermented and turned into alcohol. MODERN CHEWING GUM Humans have been chewing bits and pieces of sticky stuff for thousands of years. But gum, as we know it today, was born in the 1860s, when General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, a former Mexican President, took a substance named chicle to New York. The Aztecs had used it, for both chewing and pasting, and Santa Anna wanted to show it to his secretary, Thomas Adams. Thomas decided chicle was best cut into strips, packeted and sold as Adams New York Chewing Gum. Later on, he joined forces with William Wrigley Jr. NACHOS Nachos were created by accident in Piedras Negras — right near Mexico’s border with Eagle Pass, Texas. On an unknown date in 1943, a bunch of American ladies popped into an eatery there. Tired after a day of shopping, they were ready for a feast. The chef-owner, Ignacio Anaya, was about to shut up shop, so he put together a quick snack with what he had left, which happened to be tortillas, cheese and jalapenos. When the customers asked for the dish’s name, Mr Anaya answered "Nacho’s especiales", nacho being a shortened version of his first name. COLOUR TELEVISION Like that of film, the evolution of colour television involved a number of crucial steps, which happened neck-and-neck in various parts of the world. Guillermo Gonzalez Camarena, a Mexican engineer, was awarded one of the most important relevant patents in 1942 for his invention of the chromoscopic adaptor, which could be attached to a black-and-white television. On August 31, 1946, Camarena facilitated his first colour transmission from his laboratory in Mexico City. CORONA It’s now 90 years since the first bottle of Corona was brewed. Now present in 186 countries, Corona is the number one Mexican beer in the world and still to this day every bottle of Corona is brewed in Mexico. It’s become synonymous with sun, surf and relaxation. Usually enjoyed pulled out of an icy bucket, with a wedge of lime in the top and with good mates in tow, it's your little gustatory holiday to the Mexican coast. CINCO DE MAYO This whizz-bang celebration, which happens mainly in the US and Mexico but has been adopted around the world, is held on May 5 every year. In case you’re wondering, Cinco de Mayo is Spanish for fifth of May. Wherever the party occurs, folk dancing, patriotic songs and feasting take over the streets. For school kids in Mexico, it’s a major score, because all the teachers take a day off. Cinco de Mayo is in honour of Mexico’s victory over the French at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862. It’s not to be confused with Mexican Independence Day, which is celebrated on September 16. RODRIGO Y GABRIELA Since meeting and falling in love at Mexico City’s Casa de Cultura (House of Culture) back in the late ‘80s — when they were just 15 years old — Rodrigo Sanchez and Gabriela Quintero have become international guitar legends. They bring classical virtuosity to a bunch of genres, from flamenco to rock to heavy metal. After moving to Dublin in 1999 and busking about the place, in 2004 they released their debut album, Rodrigo y Gabriela, which smashed its way straight to the top of the Irish charts. These days, they’re no longer dating, but their musical partnership remains in fine form. FRIDA KAHLO Fierce feminist painter Frida Kahlo is undoubtedly one of Mexico’s major contributions to 20th century art. Her bright colours and striking imagery combine Mexican and Indigenous traditions with surrealist influences; Andre Breton, the French writer and poet, described her work as “a ribbon around a bomb”. At the age of 18, she was injured in a horrific bus crash, which left her in immense, recurring pain for the rest of her life — a significant influence on her intense art works. GUILLERMO DEL TORO This film director, screenwriter, producer and novelist has brought us a plethora of darkly beautiful movies, including the gothic horror creations The Devil’s Backbone (2001) and Pan’s Labyrinth (2006) and unusual blockbusters Hellboy (2004) and Pacific Rim (2013). Del Toro was born into a Catholic family in Guadalajara, Mexico, and his obsession with filmmaking began when he was just eight. One of his earliest shorts featured a serial killer potato that wanted to take over the world. GAEL GARCIA BERNAL Born in 1978 in the same town as Guillermo del Toro — Guadalajara — Gael Garcia Bernal was a bit of a hit on Mexican TV as a teenager. At 19, he made tracks to London, where he became the first Mexican to study at the Central School of Speech and Drama. Fast forward to 2000 and he (along with Birdman director Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu) caught our attention in Amores Perros, followed closely by Alfonso Cuaron's Y Tu Mama Tambien and Pedro Almodovar's Bad Education. Since then, he’s appeared in Babel, The Science of Sleep, Blindness, No and Rosewater, among numerous other films, while taking on a stack of other projects, from directing documentaries for Amnesty International to founding his own film company, Canana Productions.
Your days of eating last night's leftovers alone at your desk may soon be at an end. A new app on the market called Never Eat Alone is linking employees in large companies with co-workers keen to grab lunch. Better yet, some businesses are already encouraging their staff to log on. The app is the creation of Marie Schneegans, who told TechCrunch she came up with the idea while completing a summer internship with finance company UBS. Eager to meet people in different departments, she started emailing people to set up lunch dates, and eventually wound up dining with the company CEO. Unlike most social networking apps, Never Eat Alone is being pitched directly to the heads of large businesses, who can then choose to distribute it to their employees as a means of improving company culture and morale. Once an employee has the app on their phone, they're able to create a profile that lists their interests – and before they know it, they're breaking down the latest Game of Thrones episode over sushi with Linda in accounting. Never Eat Alone is currently only available in France, but there are apparently plans to expand into the United States in the next few months. Via TechCrunch.
Forget about the upcoming movie. Fans of Goosebumps need to get their butts to London, where a live, immersive theatre show based on R.L. Stine's popular children's stories will have its world premiere in April next year. Written and directed by acclaimed participatory theatremaker Tom Salamon, the show is a collaboration between London-based arts and theatre venue, The Vaults, and the book series' publisher, Scholastic. Audience members will be taken deep into the abandoned tunnels beneath Waterloo railway station, where performers will recreate bloodcurdling scenes from some of the series' best-known titles — including Night of the Living Dummy, Say Cheese and Die! and One Day at Horrorland. Just as long as there's nothing from Monster Blood. We don't need those childhood nightmares coming back, thank you very much. The series' original illustrator Tim Jacobus will create artwork for the production, while cult London music trio The Tiger Lillies will provide the score — the show they did at the Biennale of Sydney a few years back was creepy enough. Goosebumps will run for an initial six-month season and is aimed primarily at older audiences, although there will also be a child-friendly version that runs on weekends and during the school holidays. "Immersive events have become the lifeblood of London culture... and Goosebumps is perfectly suited to the genre," The Vaults' director Kieron Vanstone told The Guardian. "These stories were made to be experienced up close, with every shiver, sound and unsettling sight." Via The Guardian. Image: jozerC (Flickr CC).
As a treat to us for being such good eggs (or so we like to think), the National Gallery of Victoria are hosting a huge exhibition next year featuring the works of French Impressionist artist Edgar Degas as part of the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces. The exhibition will run from June 24 to September 18 at the NGV International and is comprised of over 200 works by Degas, from collections the world over. For those of you who don’t know, Degas is a pretty big deal in the art world and practiced during the late 1800s-early 1900s. At a time when many artists where still painting posed works, Degas and a sect of bohemian Parisian artists (including Honoré Daumier and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec), were cultivating the first big art movement that focused on candid impressions of subjects en plein air (meaning in ‘open air’ style, as opposed to in the studio or from memory). A lot of his pieces feature ballerinas and inevitably, this did lead to a lot of lurking around backstage at the ballet and, in Lautrec’s case, in a tonne of brothels (for the artistic potential, surely). Degas’ work also focused on an infrequently explored subject: the everyman. Blue collar workers in their natural habit where a recurring and novel theme in his work; French Impressionism tapped into that vein of human curiosity that makes reality TV so popular (“They’re just like us!”). Degas actually rejected the Impressionist mantle and referred to his style as realism, so intent was he on representing the world around him. In fact, according to art historian Carol Armstrong, Degas said “No art was ever less spontaneous than mine. What I do is the result of reflection and of the study of the great masters; of inspiration, spontaneity, temperament, I know nothing". Well damn. We can’t wait to check it out. Degas: A New Vision will be displayed at the National Gallery of Victoria International from June 24 to September 18, 2016. Image: Edgar Degas, In a café (The Absinthe drinker) 1875–76, oil on canvas, Musée d'Orsay, Paris, Lemoisne 393, © RMN-Grand Palais (musée d'Orsay) / Martine Beck-Coppola.
Did you know you can dive with whale sharks, trek through ancient temples and hike an active volcano, all while being pampered in some of the most luxurious boutique hotels in the world? Asia is home to some breathtaking wonders, from the turquoise waters of the Maldives to the wildlife in Sri Lanka and the natural hot springs of Japan, but it's also home to some incredible hotels. A true holiday is the perfect blend of adventure and relaxation. To get the best of both worlds on your next holiday, we've partnered with Mr & Mrs Smith to suggest five adventure and accommodation pairings. PICNIC ON A PRIVATE ISLAND IN THE MALDIVES, STAY AT COMO MAALIFUSHI The Maldives are best known for their pristine white-sand beaches and turquoise waters. Enough reason to visit the island is Como Maalifushi. This hotel is the only man-made structure on the island it resides in, and it's made up of luxurious, stilted villas that are set on a boardwalk surrounded by crystal clear waters and a visible coral reef beneath. The Maldives islands make up the world's lowest-lying country, reaching just a few metres above sea level, which makes it an ideal spot for snorkelling and scuba diving. You can take a dip right into the sea from your villa, but for a truly special dive experience, ask the hotel to organise a private scuba trip where you'll have the chance to see whale sharks and other exotic sub-aquatic life. Once you're ready to dry off, there's no better way to finish off the afternoon than a sailboat ride to a nearby private island, where a gourmet picnic will be prepared for you. VISIT THE ANGKOR WAT TEMPLES IN CAMBODIA, STAY AT PHUM BAITANG Angkor Wat is hands down the number one reason to visit Siem Reap, and Phum Baitang is ideally located close to the UNESCO heritage site, but is far excluded from the bustling town itself. Hidden away in the countryside among rice paddy fields, the private homes of Phum Baitang are constructed as traditional Khmer wooden houses. The stilted log cabin-like structures each come with private plunge pool and the hotel offers spa and yoga pavilion for further relaxation. Head to Angkor Wat in style with the hotel's exclusive sunrise temple tours, where you can beat the tourist rush to the popular Bakheng Hill. Once you've finished a morning of hiking, move back out to the countryside where you can have a relaxing swim in a pool overlooking the rolling hills and rice paddies. GO ON SAFARI IN SRI LANKA, STAY AT THE CHENA HUTS The 14 domed pavilions of the Chena Huts are set on seven acres of lush jungle, which affords each villa the utmost privacy and is a true nature getaway. The floor-to-ceiling glass walls open onto a private plunge pool and offer views of the blue lagoon on one side and a private beach on the other. The property is within the protected Yala National Park, so it's an ideal location for nature lovers. The park is a haven for biodiversity and the perfect spot for immersing yourself in the surroundings. Guests can watch giant turtles nesting on the beach and baby turtles hatching there, as well as storks and ibises wading through the lagoon. If you're keen to see more, take a guided safari tour where you can see some of nature's most majestic creatures, including leopards and elephants. VISIT ISE-SHIMA NATIONAL PARK IN JAPAN, STAY AT AMANEMU Wade in healing hot springs and the natural onsen inside Japan's Ise-Shima National Park, then return to your room at Amanemu. The stunning, minimalist hotel has rooms that were built with traditional techniques using natural materials, each with a private soaking tub and hot-spring taps. The hotel overlooks the scenic Ago Bay, where the majority of Mikimoto's pearls are planted and harvested by the Ama—female pearl divers whose ancient tradition dates back 2000 years. The 'Sea Women' impressively dive without tanks and Ise-Shima is one of the very few places in the world where the Ama can be observed. Visitors can enter the popular Ama hut, Satoumian, meet and talk with the Ama and prepare their own freshly caught seafood over a fireplace. HIKE UP MOUNT RINJANI IN INDONESIA, STAY AT THE LOMBOK LODGE The very exclusive Lombok Lodge only has nine suites available at a time. It's breezy and modern, with poolside suites offering ocean views. The boutique resort is set in a secluded coast of Lombok island, acting as a seaside oasis from every day life. The biggest attraction on the island is Mount Rinjani—an active volcano that is the second highest in all of Indonesia. Most visitors trek the mountain to swim in the natural hot spring and crater lake, which is impossibly blue and said to have ancient healing properties. The lake is located approximately 2000 metres above sea level and estimated to be about 200 metres deep. For those only making the trek to the lake, one overnight is required, but if you're a serious hiker and keen to make it all the way to the summit, at least three nights on the mountain should be expected. Make sure to plan your dates around the local weather, though, as the climb is generally closed at certain points of the year. If you decide to take a trip this Easter long weekend, visit Mr and Mrs Smith to book your accommodation. Images: Mr and Mrs Smith.
Go on, get feasting in one of Sydney's newest tunnels. Nigella Lawson wants you to. Either part of the Vivid Sydney Dinners series setup — the unique location or the famous chef curating the menu — is reason enough to head along. Combine the two and you have one of the key events of Vivid 2025. The setting: Martin Place's Muru Giligu pedestrian tunnel. The spread: whatever takes Lawson's fancy. And to make a great event, or three, even better, a light and sound experience will work its magic on the tunnel while you dine. As announced in 2024, Vivid 2025 runs from Friday, May 23–Saturday, June 14, celebrating its 15th year with all things dreams its theme. A bucket list-type meal overseen by Lawson? Well that's a dream inclusion. So are Tangerine Dream and Anohni and the Johnsons on the music lineup, an immersive Stranger Things experience at Luna Park, and the fact that the entire Vivid Light Walk is free. In fact, more than 75 percent of the entire program won't cost you a cent to enjoy. On the Vivid Light Walk, that includes installations and 3D projections spanning across new backdrops, such as the Museum of Sydney, The Bond in Barangaroo and Challis House in Martin Place. At those locations and beyond — at the Argyle Cut in The Rocks and the CTA Building in Martin Place, too, to name just a couple of other spots — this lit-up reason for scenic stroll will feature swings, seesaws, animation activated via voice, a tennis match made out of light and 150 pieces a week designed by patrons. Still on the broader Vivid Light strand, Sydney Opera House's sails will boast work by the late David McDiarmid, Vincent Namatjira will take over the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia's facade and House of Romance, hailing from fashion label Romance Was Born, has a date with Customs House. Alongside German electronic-music icons Tangerine Dream at City Recital Hall and Anohni and the Johnsons at the Opera House, the Vivid Music bill includes Sigur Rós performing with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Portishead's Beth Gibbons , Japanese Breakfast, Marlon Williams, Soccer Mommy, RONA, Ravyn Lenae and Pete & Bas. On the lineup as well: Heartbreak High star Ayesha Madon, Prince's former bass player MonoNeon, V-pop via Mỹ Anh and Chi Xê, Winston Surfshirt, Grammy-winner Dobet Gnahoré, Mall Grab, Ngaiire, Skegss and more. The Upside Down has come to Sydney before, but Stranger Things: The Experience will make its first trip — and add a must-attend event to the Vivid Ideas portion of the program. Get ready to visit 1986, and Hawkins, of course, in what promises to be an immersive and interactive stint of Stranger Things-loving fun. Locations from the show are part of the event, as is a supernatural mystery. Vivid Ideas is also bringing TIME Magazine Creative Director DW Pine this way to deliver the keynote 'Where Do Ideas Come From?', tasking scientist Professor Matthew Walker with diving into why we sleep, amassing First Nations storytellers at Barangaroo Reserve each week and getting Sydney's Legs on the Wall performing new theatre work Endling. And, it's why Haus of Horror screenings of Poltergeist and Edward Scissorhands are on offer, too. At Vivid Food, Vivid Fire Kitchen will be back at The Goods Line; Vivid Chef Series will enlist Jean-Philippe Blondet, James Lowe and Brent Savage teaming up with Sydney eateries; Maryanne Street is becoming the festival's Spice Lounge; and Golden Age Cinema, Hollywood Hotel and The Soda Factory will feature in food and gig trails in the Hollywood Quarter in Surry Hills. The Carriageworks Night Market returns, and so does eating on the Sydney Harbour Bridge's southeast pylon thanks to Luke Mangan. This year's Vivid is focused on five zones, spanning Circular Quay and The Rocks, Barangaroo, Martin Place and CBD, Darling Harbour, and The Goods Line and the inner city, with each hosting Light, Music, Ideas and Food events. [caption id="attachment_946027" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Vivid Sydney 2023, Destination NSW[/caption]
You'll never run out of juice in the Big Apple again, thanks to a new kind of public seating popping up around the city. Over the next 30 days, the Parks Department in Manhattan will unveil five solar-powered park benches that double as mobile charging stations for New Yorkers on the go. Developed by the MIT Media Lab, Soofa Benches come fitted with solar panels and a pair of USB charging ports, where pedestrians can plug in their phone or tablet for a much needed top-up. The first of the three person benches will be installed at Highbridge Park in the Bronx next week, with the rest due to pop-up over the course of the coming month. "We are super-excited about New York City," Soofa CEO and co-founder Sandra Richter told New York Daily News. "People are staying outside longer and using parks as their backyards. The Soofa benches are a perfect fit." Soofa Benches are already in use in a number of US cities, including Los Angeles and Boston. In addition to providing the public with a handy place to recharge, they can also keep track of park visitor numbers by counting Wi-Fi enabled devices as they go by. Via NY Daily News.
Equal parts delicious and disturbing, Dark Mofo is an immersive celebration of the winter solstice that descends upon Hobart to flaunt the gruesome and the visceral, exploring ancient ritual and ceremony from the past to the present day. Kicking off on June 8, the 14-day festival features a slew of music, food, performance art, light and sound installations alongside exhibits that are beyond the boundaries of regular categorisation. Presented by the Museum of Old and New Art (Mona), the festival is the brainchild of the museum's founder David Walsh and creative director Leigh Carmicheal, and 2017 will be its fifth iteration. Mona was built as an extended, underground labyrinth, 11 kilometres north of Hobart — an easy 25-minute ferry ride along the Derwent River — with the private fortune of Walsh. It's explicit and unashamed, and is affectionately referred to as 'the museum of sex and death'. In short, you have to go. And Dark Mofo is the perfect excuse to head down to Tassie and make a weekend of it. Spectacular events (like this one) are worthy of a big trip, and aside from casual laziness and a little lack of inspiration, there's really nothing stopping you from squeezing Dark Mofo into your schedule. We've teamed up with Mazda3 to help you plan your out-of-the-city trips ahead of time, so you can detour from your regular routine and inject a little adventure into your life. The festival will keep your schedule jam-packed, but you should make some time to explore Hobart too. Here are the best places to eat, drink and stay if you're visiting for Dark Mofo. Pack a coat (and gloves, and a beanie) and bring a palate laced with intrigue — hedonism is the order of the day. [caption id="attachment_619495" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dark Mofo's Winter Feast, shot by Rémi Chauvin.[/caption] EAT It's no coincidence that Hobart's restaurant scene is undergoing a new wave. Local chefs are giving restaurateurs on the mainland a run for their money, establishing eateries that significantly reduce the time it takes to transport produce from paddock to plate. No visit to Hobart would be complete without a Saturday morning trip to Salamanca Market. Every weekend, the harbourside suburb becomes a bustling marketplace, showcasing a broad and delicious range of local produce, artisanal crafts and food stalls. Be sure to drop by Machine Laundry, a cafe that doubles up as a laundromat serving some of the best coffee in town. Another honourable mention for coffee and brunch is Room for a Pony — it's located up the hill in North Hobart. While Salamanca is an iconic (and necessary) weekend tourist stop, it's worth noting that the market can get very busy, particularly over the festival period. A quieter alternative is the Farm Gate Market, which closes off Bathurst Street every Sunday from 8.30am until 1pm (late enough for you to sleep away the sins of the previous night). Brimming with local farmers, this is the place to source some of Tasmania's best game and fresh meat, as well as fresh-from-the-farm produce, such as pickles and chutneys. Bathurst Street is also a hotspot for brunch options; The Flipped Egg serves a mean breakfast burger, while Bury Me Standing is your go-to for pot-boiled bagels. Tasmania is also said to boast some of the freshest fish outside of Japan and the Farm Gate Market is lucky enough to host Masaaki Koyama's hugely popular sushi stall. And you absolutely need to get a dozen oysters (yes, even for breakfast). If your budget extends beyond market nosh, make time to have a meal at Franklin. David Moyle's ten-tonne Scotch oven warms up the concrete space with a tight but top-notch menu of modern Australian dishes and some prized Tasmanian seafood. It's also totally fine to drop by for a drink and a snack before or after a show, so you can still visit without spending up a full storm. In the evening, Dark Mofo offers two avenues for gluttonous excess. Set along Hobart's waterfront, the Winter Feast is a holy pilgrimage for the hungry. Local and international chefs serve hawker-style hedonism within a medieval-themed banquet hall, lined with naked flames and a diverse range of food outlets. Otherwise, head down to Dark Park at Macquarie Point — this is the free and interactive epicentre of Dark Mofo. The space is an industrial expanse littered with art installations, food trucks and the obligatory fire pit — a must for anyone still fanging for sensory stimulation. [caption id="attachment_619511" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Preachers.[/caption] DRINK If you're looking to make a boozy discovery, Hobart is a bonafide goldmine. Cascade Brewery sits pretty at the foot of Mount Wellington and takes home the trophy for Australia's oldest operating brewery. For a small fee ($25-35), you can tour the 185-year-old building before enjoying a selection of ice-cold, just-pulled beers and ciders from the Cascade portfolio. If whisky's more your thing, Lark has won countless awards for its single malt, a dram that holds its own on the global market. For $75, you can take a tour of the distillery — it's located 15 minutes northeast of the CBD — and discover the intricacies of the production process. Of course, whisky tastings are included in the cost of the ticket, and you'll round off the tour with a well-earned G&T made with their Forty Spotted Gin. And if you've got access to a car, it's worth making the 20-minute drive out to Sullivans Cove. In 2015 they were awarded World's Best Single Malt Whisky at the World Whisky Awards for their French oak cask — so a dram of their stuff is hard to come by. They do tastings and tours on the hour, Monday to Friday. Back in town, Preachers is your go-to for craft beer (they have 16 on tap), cider and boutique wines. It's a laidback pub with a vibe suited to all seasons — they have open fires to warm you up on cold nights (and the nights are very cold). There's even a vintage school bus parked on the front lawn — a gimmick that doesn't seem to wear off. Keep an eye out for South Seas Cocktail Lounge too, a secretive den for rum-based cocktails and tropical vibes. It's tricky to spot and often bypassed — but be sure to look for the red abstract artwork at the front of the building, located at 13-17 Castray Esplanade. At Dark Mofo's own Dark Park, drop by the Talisker Dark Bar serving hot toddies and Irish coffees, and pairing ten-year-old single malt whisky with blue cheese jaffles — a melty fusion of Tasmanian stilton and mozzarella. DO Dark Mofo's creative director Leigh Carmichael has called this year's program the most ambitious to date. The lineup combines typical plumes of fire, feasting, bacchanalian imagery and challenging performance pieces that are as confronting as they are spectacular. Austrian artist Hermann Nitsch will exhibit 150.Action, a visceral performance piece that is not for the faint-hearted. This performance will feature 500 litres of blood and an animal carcass with the backing of a full orchestra. Heavy. On the lighter end of the spectrum, Crossing invites participants on a 200-kilometre pilgrimage north of Hobart, visiting six different churches across six different nights. Each church will provide a backdrop for soundscapes and light shows. This year, Mona will also host The Museum of Everything for its first Australian showing, a world-wandering exhibition that lays focus on the untrained, the unintentional, the undiscovered and the unclassifiable artists of the last three centuries. The musical lineup is the strongest yet. Scottish post-rock stalwarts Mogwai will perform a vast and soaring soundscape, and German experimental noise art pioneers Einstürzende Neubauten will delve into their portfolio, which spans 37 years. Dark Mofo has also secured a performance from indigenous hip-hop group A.B. Original and Norwegian black metal experimental musicians Ulver. Xiu Xiu will celebrate the music of David Lynch's Twin Peaks. Then there are the Dark Mofo regulars. The Nude Solstice Swim is a communal dip in the ocean on the first sunrise after the winter solstice, and the Ogoh-Ogoh, the traditional Indonesian monster procession, arrives in Hobart in two parts: the purging and the burning. STAY If you're visiting Hobart during Dark Mofo, you'll want to be in the thick of it. Events are scattered across the city, but are centralised around the Salamanca, waterfront and CBD areas. Filling the gap between backpackers and budget chain hotels, the Alabama Hotel offers boutique, budget-friendly accommodation at the centre of Hobart. You won't find elevators, fluffy robes or en-suite bathrooms here — rather, every room has its own decorative style, heaps of character and super-fast WiFi. The bar is well-stocked and serves a good coffee throughout the day. If you're on a higher budget, consider renting a Mona Pavilion. You won't be staying at the museum (you're only allowed to do this if you're dead, the Pavilion website kindly reminds us) but a luxury den sitting on the bank of the River Derwent. Each pavilion is named after an influential Australian architect and is decorated with Mona artworks. It's fancy. Alternatively, The Henry Jones Art Hotel is close to the waterfront and just steps away from Macquarie Point, the site of Dark Park. Rooms are pricier than The Alabama, but tastefully decorated with works from local artists. You'll also wake up to the glorious views of the harbour. Dark Mofo runs from June 8 to 21. Top image: Rémi Chauvin (2014), courtesy of Mona. Personalise your next adventure via The Playmaker, driven by Mazda3.
We're just days out from one of the Mornington Peninsula's most hotly anticipated launches, with the team behind Pt. Leo Estate announcing the cultural and culinary haven will open to the public on Wednesday, October 25. Gracing 134 hectares at the Peninsula's southern tip, the multifaceted family-owned property will boast a 110-seat restaurant, an enormous cellar door and a sprawling sculpture park, pegged to be the most significant of its kind in the country. With panoramic Western Port Bay views as the backdrop, the sculpture park will debut with over 50 large-scale works from both Australian and international artists and is set to evolve and grow over the years. Meanwhile, the semi-circular cellar door and restaurant is the work of acclaimed Melbourne architects Jolson, taking pride of place at the property's highest point and featuring sweeping views across the vineyard, the sculpture park and the Bay. The eatery's menus, created by Culinary Director Phil Wood (ex-Rockpool and Eleven Bridge) will centre around seasonal, regional produce, kicking off with dishes like a beetroot pancake with salmon roe and lemon curd, and a wallaby pie. Meanwhile, a central woodfired oven will work magic with quality local proteins like duck and beef. The restaurant's pitched as a comfy, casual venue, with a second more intimate dining space slated to open towards the end of the year. Pt. Leo Estate will open at 3649 Frankston-Flinders Road, Merricks, from Wednesday, October 25. For more info, visit ptleoestate.com.au. Images: Anson Smart.
Happy damn Friday. Friend to the high note and monarch of mindfuck music videos FKA twigs has chucked a Beyonce and dropped a surprise EP this morning, along with a trippy 16-minute film. Titled M3LL155X, the five-song EP is available from today through Young Turks, after twigs shared new tracks 'Figure 8' and 'Glass & Patron' earlier this month. Produced by the mysterious BOOTS (producer of Beyonce's surprise album), it's a pretty highly anticipated release, following the hoo-ha around her 2014 album LP1, and subsequent sold-out international touring — including her recent Australian/Laneway tour. We're pretty stoked on artist Matthew Stone's EP cover art: Let's get to that 16-minute movie huh? Fusing tracks from the new EP into one freaky, mesmerising short film, twigs has created "an aggressive statement conceptualising the process of feeling pregnant with pain, birthing creativity and liberation," according to Pitchfork. From twigs as a live sex doll to a cameo from fashion icon Michele Lamy, this is one strange escapade. Watch below, with headphones up loud. M3LL155X is available through Young Turks. Via Pitchfork. Image: Andy Fraser, Laneway Festival.
Victoria's answer to Dark Mofo, WinterWild, is returning to Apollo Bay for two weekends this August. While last year's after-dark winter arts festival was structured around the death and birth, this year's theme is 'visions and ecstasies'. Creeping into the coastal shire on the eastern side of Cape Otway, the festival will take place on the weekends of August 16–18 and August 30–September 1. Each weekend will begin with braziers on the beach, before unleashing a vivid program of music, performances, feasting and workshops — all focused on the idea of peering into the darkness for inspiration, revelations and surprises. Standout events on the program for the first weekend, running from August 16–18, include Visions of Excess, which combines kaleidoscopic visuals with the music of Black Heart Death Cult and Flyying Colours; a suitably psychedelic tribute to Jimi Hendrix; and, following on from last year, another immersive (and haunting) blend of projections, lights and sounds in the quarry. Two weekends later, across August 30–September 1, WinterWild will celebrate the music of David Bowie; pair a definitely-not vegan-meal with burlesque and puppetry at the decadent Feastiality; and make shapes outside, by the water and in the cold evening air, at Moon Garden. For those eager to make the trip twice, The Redemption unfurls across both weekends — with the theatrical production playing for free in two parts, involving the citizens of Apollo Bay, and happening by the harbour. Or, if you're keen to completely dive in, you can opt for the two workshop programs, dubbed 'The Left Hand Path' and 'The Right Hand Path'. WinterWild will run across two weekends, Death from August 10–12 and Birth from August 24–26. To see the full lineup and purchase tickets, head to winterwildapollobay.com.au.
Your Christmas lunch will soon be soundtracked by Bill Murray. We squealed about it back in October 2014 — Hollywood's quirkiest legend has teamed up with Sofia Coppola for a festive TV special involving him singing a variety of Christmas carols and decking the halls with one heck of a cast. Murray and Coppola's new project will be undoubtedly somewhat different to their last collaboration, Lost in Translation. The synopsis? The trailer came with a little peek: "This winter, Bill Murray brings an extra-special dose of holiday cheer to Netflix with the premiere of an all-star musically-driven holiday special, A Very Murray Christmas. Set inside New York City’s iconic Carlyle hotel, A Very Murray Christmas opens with Murray preparing to host a live, international holiday broadcast. After a blizzard shuts down the production, he makes the best of the situation by singing and celebrating with friends, hotel employees and anyone else who drops by." Dropped this morning, the trailer's a pretty quick look at a pretty damn big cast. Set to Murray's 'Let It Snow' duet with Miley Cyrus, the trailer revealed one heck of a lineup: Amy Poehler, Rashida Jones, George Clooney, Michael Cera, Jason Schwartzman, Maya Rudolph, Chris Rock and Paul Shaffer. Watch it here and try not to squeal: 'A Very Murray Christmas' is coming to Netflix on December 4. By Meg Watson and Shannon Connellan.
The trouble with going to the opera in Sydney is, once you're there, you can no longer see the Sydney Opera House. No stawlwart sails, no gleaming cream tiles, no spiky little silhouette. And what's the fun in that? But for one month of the year Sydney has their theatrical cake and eats it too, when Handa Opera on the Harbour sets up at Mrs Macquarie's Point. The floating outdoor opera comes with an eye-popping view of Sydney's natural and artificial bounties, including the Opera House and Harbour Bridge beyond. This year Handa Opera on the Harbour is going Egyptian for Verdi's Aida, a love triangle of epic, war-starting proportions. With Gale Edwards directing, the set by Mark Thompson includes the giant rotating head of Queen Nefertiti, live camels and plenty of fireworks. The 30m x 28m stage, 2.5 times larger than any you'll find indoors in Australia, is partially built at White Bay then trucked to Fleet Steps in the Royal Botanic Gardens, where it's lifted onto pylons and completed. The cranes actually form part of the mise en scene in this instance, with the production set in a period where ancient Egypt is decaying and a new world being built (with some more surreal and Devo-esque touches adding to the spectacle of the thing). The orchestra is housed directly beneath the stage, in an area apparently dubbed 'The Underworld'. Made possible by the continued funding of philanthropist Dr Haruhisa Handa, the previous three years' shows — La Traviata, Carmen and Madama Butterfly — have proved monumentally successful. At a time when opera is struggling to attract audiences, Opera on the Harbour not only sells tickets but lures in thousands of opera newbies. You don't need to understand opera to understand what makes the occasion great. Aida is on from March 27 to April 26 at Mrs Macquarie's Point. For more information and to book, visit the Opera Australia website. Images: Prudence Upton and Hamilton Lund.
Summer is gone, and your beachside holiday memories along with it. Don't worry — there are plenty of excuses to jet around the country this autumn. Australia's art scene is positively thriving for the next three months, so even if you're staying put, you're not going to be bored any time soon. Up and down the eastern states from Brisbane to Melbourne, everything from artistic explorations of witchcraft, to deep dives into Chinese terracotta treasures, to haute couture gems are gracing the halls and walls of Aussie galleries. The list goes on, particularly if you're eager to ponder life beyond earth by stepping into a galaxy far, far away, staring at the moon, or getting up close and personal with objects that've travelled into space. If you're someone who travels for art, you might want to book those domestic flights now. This is an impressive autumn lineup — and, come June, plenty of them will be gone. Hop to it.
The 62nd Sydney Film Festival closed on Sunday, June 14, having unleashed a number of great and good films upon the city. But 'great' isn't all we go to the festival for — we come looking for the stuff that challenges us, for the weirdest concoctions that will never get a cinema release, for the wild artistic risks that might not even work as a motion picture and, yes, for the failures that went down swinging. So with that appetite guiding our cinematic feast, here are our critics' highlights of the festival. THE BEST THE CLUB If there's one club no one wants to be a member of, it's the one at the centre of Pablo Larrain's latest film. The director of 2012's No keeps his voice political and his eyes focused on his Chilean homeland, with the injustices committed by the Catholic Church his new point of focus. That his chilling and complex tale takes place within a coastal retirement home for disgraced priests should give an indication of the dark psychological territory he traverses, though Larrain spares his judgment for the system rather than his subjects. There, he's scathing about the culture of covering up scandals, as demonstrated by a final act that just might render viewers speechless. He's also likely to cause another club to form: those of avid fans of the atmospheric feature, and of his continued contemplation of corruption. -Sarah Ward TEHRAN TAXI Road movies often take characters on a literal and emotional journey from point A to B. You know the ones. Jafar Panahi interprets driving, talking, growing and learning a bit differently; the director turns on-screen cabbie in Tehran in an effort that merges art and life on several levels. Panahi is currently banned from filmmaking, yet once again uses his limitations as inspiration — including in setting and staging his latest feature in a taxi, and in combining fact and fiction. In this year's Berlin Film Festival Golden Bear winner, he makes a statement about his own predicament while drawing attention to the restrictions prevalent in modern-day Iran. Forget heading off on holiday; his road trip takes audiences through his and his nation's everyday existence. -SW THE HUNTING GROUND It was a fantastic festival for documentary filmmaking, with titles like Going Clear and Sherpa taking on pressing real world issues with empathy and determination. But of all the docos in the program, Kirby Dick’s The Hunting Ground stands out as perhaps the most important. Over 103 devastating minutes, the Oscar-nominated filmmaker exposes the endemic rates of rape on American college campuses — crimes that administrators at many of the country’s leading universities have a shameful history of trying to sweep under the rug. It’s a grim and confronting story, but one that needs all the attention that it can get. -Tom Clift VICTORIA If you thought the long takes in Gravity and Birdman were impressive, then have we got a recommendation for you. Filmed in a single real-time take, Sebastian Schipper’s Victoria follows a young Spanish expat living in Berlin, who after a big night out finds herself the unlikely participant in an early morning bank heist. Schipper’s audacious shooting style adds a sense of immediacy to the tale, taking viewers through the city’s famous club scene and into its seedy criminal underworld on the same emotional rollercoaster as Victoria herself. Gripping and empathetic, this is experiential cinema at its finest. -TC THE WORST SHE'S FUNNY THAT WAY Screwball comedies can be a love 'em or hate 'em affair. Sometimes their fast-talking banter charms. Sometimes their reliance upon too many conveniences grates. Sometimes, like in She's Funny That Way, the latter outweighs the former. In his first film in more than a decade, writer/director Peter Bogdanovich brings together a likeable cast of Owen Wilson, Imogen Poots, Rhys Ifans, Will Forte and Kathryn Hahn, yet pushes them past the point of farce and into tiring territory. There are a few giggles to be had, alongside obvious love for genre, but it's the late-stage cameo that most will remember this movie for, and that's never a good thing. -SW AMONG THE BELIEVERS Among the Believers isn’t so much a bad film as it is a disappointing one. Documentarians Hemal Trivedi and Mohammed Ali Naqvi were allowed unprecedented access to Abdul Aziz Ghazi, the leader of the notorious Red Mosque network which is widely viewed as a breeding ground of religious extremism in Pakistan. Yet we can’t help feel that they squandered the opportunity, with the resulting documentary offering little real insight into the minds of the would-be terrorists or the social and political factors that create them. With so much media attention given to the threat of Islamic terrorism, Among the Believers needed to bring a lot more to the table to rise above the noise. -TC THE BOLDEST EXPERIMENTS ARABIAN NIGHTS Making a three-volume, 383-minute feature is a bold choice, but the length of Miguel Gomes' Sydney Film Festival competition-winning effort is actually one of the least bold things about it. Yes, he's made his movie an endurance test; however, it's his choice of content and the way he splices it together that's audacious. Often involving trials and other forms of judgment, frequently featuring animals (bees, a talking cockerel, the canine winner of Cannes' coveted Palm Dog Award, and too many chaffinches), and flitting between surreal segments and documentary-style observation, the thematically connected chapters try to achieve a feat the director himself acknowledges as impossible. That'd be seducing in narrative while acknowledging the misery of Portugal's harsh economic reality — and if it sounds like courageous, challenging work, that's because it is. -SW TANGERINE Loud, gaudy and unapologetically crass, Sean Baker’s Tangerine is a far cry from a stereotypical festival film, and honestly, that’s a big part of why we loved it. Shot on the streets of Los Angeles using tricked-out iPhone 5s, the film follows a transgender prostitute named Sin-Dee as she blazes through the city with her best friend Alexandra in tow, on the hunt for her pimp boyfriend who she’s learnt has been unfaithful. The hyper-raw cinematography suits the plot and characters to perfection: tacky and stylish and outrageously funny all at once. And beneath all the humour lies surprising emotional depth. -TC THE MOST WTF THE FORBIDDEN ROOM Guy Maddin's latest effort, as co-directed with Evan Johnson, is the kind of movies cinephiles dream of. No, it's not your usual, stereotypical serious movie fare — this really is something that feels it has been ripped out of someone's head mid-slumber, or perhaps mid-hallucination. Think tripping through cinema history, complete with mind-altering substances, and you're still nowhere close to the ride this takes through layers of stories, colours, genres, tropes and film stocks. The Forbidden Room is a movie that teaches you how to take a bath, has a wolf hunter as its hero, and relays the thoughts of a volcano and a moustache. We're not kidding. Yes, it really is that offbeat and glorious. -SW A PIGEON SAT ON A BRANCH REFLECTING ON EXISTENCE The title of this film is probably the least strange thing about it, hence its place in our coveted WTF section. The third part of a thematic trilogy by Swedish filmmaker Roy Andersson 15 years in the making, A Pigeon Sat on a Branch Reflecting on Existence consists of a series of deadpan tragicomic vignettes ostensibly ‘about being a human being’. Sexually aggressive dance instructors, a pair of morose travelling salesman and the long dead King Charles XII are just a few of the bizarre characters who inhabit this esoteric comedy, one that had us scratching our head in bafflement as often as it had us laughing. -TC
Looking for a new hobby? We've got just the thing. A Slovenian company has created the world's first self-inflating stand-up paddleboard, after their runaway crowdfunding campaign rose more than $175,000 USD. The SipaBoard Air is the latest innovation in one of the world's fastest growing sports (and one of our favourite ways to get on the water in Sydney, mind you), and comes with an inbuilt pump capable of fully inflating the board in under five minutes. The initial Kickstarter campaign has closed, but units can still be ordered via Indiegogo, with the most basic model, the SipaBoard NEO, selling for $640 USD plus shipping. Each board comes with a rechargeable battery, a streamlined fin box, a board bag and a carry leash. You can also order a collapsible paddle, although that'll cost you extra. According to the Indiegogo page, production on the boards has already begun, with orders expected to ship sometime in August — perfect timing for those of us in the Southern Hemisphere. But why take our word for anything when you can watch the SipaBoard Air promotional video? Seriously, it might be the most endearingly cheesy thing we've ever seen.
At the end of any day of sightseeing in a foreign city, you know you're going to be hungry. So what better time to sit down to a feast you'll always remember? Kick that diet of Haribo packets and "that restaurant there, that's open, that'll do" to the curb. Here are 12 dishes to add/start off your next legendary itinerary. Just don't forget to book your table before you book your airline ticket. REINDEER MOSS & CEP MUSHROOMS AT NOMA, COPENHAGEN Named no.1 in the world's 50 best restaurants, Noma serves a reinvented version of Nordic cuisine focusing on ingredients foraged from nearby forests and shores. Image: Jose Moran Moya. CHARCOAL-GRILLED KING PRAWN AT EL CELLER DE CAN ROCA, GIRONA, SPAIN The full name of this dish is charcoal-grilled king prawn with king prawn sand, ink rocks, fried legs, head juice and king prawn essence. So, yeah. After relocating in 2007, family business El Celler de Can Roca now boasts the work of head chef Joan Roca; his brother, wine aficionado Josep; and their younger sibling Jordi, a popular local pastry chef. Together they have proved their heavenly status as a culinary holy trinity. Image: Love, August OOPS! I DROPPED THE LEMON TART AT OSTERIA FRANCESCANA, MODENA, ITALY Embracing imperfection, head chef Massimo Bottura has successfully turned a "back-of-house disaster into a front-of-house legend" (as his publishing house Phaidon puts it). Two surprises here: this dish is (a) precisely constructed and (b) surprisingly savoury, with capers, lemongrass and candied bergamot. Image: Paolo Terzi MARGHERITA PIZZA AT L'ANTICA PIZZERIA DA MICHELE, NAPLES With two options on the menu, you have the tough choice between margherita and marinara when you make it to this world-famous and always packed Naples pizzeria. Choose the margherita. One member of our team who's been says she's "still thinking about it years later". Image: Mike Valore ICE SHREDS, SCARLET SHRIMP PERFUME AT MUGARITZ, SAN SEBASTIAN, SPAIN In a bid to explore a fully immersive culinary experience, head chef Andoni Aduriz seeks to create masterpieces that dance with aroma, texture and flavour, while others are designed to be provocative and invoke particular emotions. Image: Foodie Date Night DUCK CARNITAS AT COSME, NEW YORK With this dish taking nearly four days to prepare (at one point it's even doused and cooked in Mexican Coke), the $59 price tag feels like a bargain, especially when split between 2-3 people. It's at Mexi-luxe Cosme, one of the most admired new openings in New York in 2014. CHEESEBURGER AND FRIES ANIMAL STYLE AT IN-N-OUT BURGER, CALIFORNIA Cult burger chain In-N-Out may pop up in Australia from time to time, but it's a well known fact the In-N-Out chain is resistant to expanding beyond the US west coast. Even franchising is a no-no. So if you're craving something 'Animal Style', your only safe bet is that plane ticket. ROASTED LAMB SHOULDER, CARAMELISED MILK, LAMB MARMITE AND BLACK WALNUTS AT RIVERSTEAD, CHILHOWIE, USA Culinary dream turned love story, head chef John Shields and lead pastry chef Karen Urie Shields opened their own restaurant in the sleepy Virginia town of Chilhowie, where the couple are delving into the world of experimental cooking and foraging. ABACAXI COM FORMIGA AMAZONICA AT D.O.M, SAO PAULO With a focus on simplicity, Chef Alex Atala's dishes still manage to burst with ingenuity and flavours. One such example is his signature dessert of just two ingredients: fresh pineapple garnished with a dried ant. Image: This guys food blog REAL PAD TAI AT THIP SAMAI, BANGKOK Thip Samai is Bangkok's most popular destination for what might be the most famous thing to come out of Thailand. Some people claim not to be so impressed at the end of this quest for the pad thai holy grail, but it remains the destination to beat for fried noodle pilgrims everywhere. Image: Delicious Conquests PORK SKIN WITH BLACK SESAME BRIOCHE, SALMON ROE AND CHERRY SAUCE AT DIVERXO, MADRID With their website looking more like an art film than a tool with which to make reservations, DiverXo pushes the limits of what food can be. Three Michelin star chef David Munoz has not only designed his dishes down the most precise speck of 'potato glass', he's designed what implement you should eat it with, from fork to chopsticks to spatula. Image: Spanish Hipster GUINEA FOWL CURRY WITH SHAMPOO GINGER AND HOLY BASIL AT NAHM, BANGKOK Australian-born chef David Thompson has created what's widely regarded as the best restaurant in all of Asia, so it feels only right to visit him at least once. This standout dish is your chance to eat 'shampoo' without gagging. Image: Rock Star Travel.\ Top image: Noma.
If you've long felt you missed out on a decent childhood because you weren't bunking in with the Swiss Family Robinson, you can now make up for lost time. Treehouses for grown-ups are one of the latest fads sweeping global architecture, and a new apartment block in Turin, Italy is among the wildest. Named 25 Verde (25 Green) and designed by architect Luciano Pia, the five-storey apartment block doubles up as an urban forest. There are 190 trees snuggled within the structure, with 40 of them creating a tranquil courtyard garden, and the rest providing greenery for 63 uniquely luscious apartments. While the lower floor offers leafy garden-facing arrangements, apartments on the upper floor come with spacious, sunny terraces. Both, however, come with ample opportunities for making your own secret password security precautions and 'no boys/girls allowed' signs. Apart from their obviously eco-friendly presence, the trees also help to moderate temperature in the apartments — filtering sunlight on hot days and providing insulation when the weather cools. Total bosses. To pay 'em back, the trees are kept alive by an irrigation system that uses harvested rainwater. Meanwhile, heating is provided by ground water pumps and ventilated walls enable additional 'breathing'. Vertical gardening might have met its match. Via Huffington Post.
The film festival Brisbane knew and loved is now dead and gone; however the city's cinephiles have hours of must-see cinema to consume between November 29 and December 14. That's when BAPFF — the Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival — makes its maiden outing, celebrating movies made in and about the region. BAPFF may be saddled with a nigh-on unpronounceable acronym, as well as a narrower focus than attendees of Brisbane’s major film festival are used to, but it's the selection of films that really matters. With a program that boasts more than 80 films in 33 languages from over 30 countries, BAPFF is tailor-made for discerning film tastes, while also encouraging cinematic discovery. Indeed, making up your mind about exactly what to see over the festival's 16 days is a tricky task. To help make scheduling easier, we've listed the ten films we can't wait to see, whether for the first time or again — in short, the ten films you really shouldn't miss. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night We couldn't contain our excitement for this film when the full festival program was announced, and to be honest, we still can't. A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night is a Farsi-language neo-noir feminist vampire western — what about that description isn't 100 percent fascinating? Ana Lily Amirpour’s debut has been garnering rave reviews since the Sundance Film Festival premiere, and the film's also been compared to the work of David Lynch. But if ever a film didn't need hype to sell it, it's this one. Tackling Iranian tradition and American suburbia in one stylised swoop, it's set to add a delicious new twist to all things blood-sucking. A Hard Day One of the unexpected hits of the Cannes and Melbourne film festivals, no description can really do A Hard Day justice. It starts out like quite a few other movies have of late, with a man, a car, an accident and a moral dilemma, but A Hard Day isn't like other movies. What seems to be a serious Korean drama soon becomes one of the most absurd black comedies of recent times — and one of the most enjoyable. As a crooked cop tries to cope with an increasingly incredible series of events, suspense boils over as does surprise in an effort that proves anything but formulaic. Cruel Story of Youth You know about the French New Wave or Nouvelle Vague, but what about the Nuberu bagu — the Japanese equivalent? The late Nagisa Oshima was at the movement's forefront, and while the iconic auteur is best known for later work In the Realm of the Senses and Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, his second feature helped shape a burgeoning film movement. In 1960, Oshima was only 28 when he made an adventurous account of the lives and loves of two partners in crime. Fresh from showings in Cannes Classics, the glorious Cruel Story of Youth screens in all its restored and remastered splendour at BAPFF. The Dead Lands Expect to hear a whole lot more about New Zealand box office sensation The Dead Lands as it continues to scale to the heights of film history. Expect the fighting to continue off as well as onscreen too, with BAPFF's first two sessions of this film selling out — and an additional session yet to be announced. There's a reason this is shaping up as one of the most memorable movies from across the ditch, and not just because of its selection as the country's submission for the Academy Awards' best foreign language film category. Starring Boy's James Rolleston all grown up, The Dead Lands is the Maori fantasy-adventure-action epic to end all Maori fantasy-adventure-action epics. From What Is Before We accept that spending six hours in a cinema isn't everyone’s cup of tea, and that anyone attempting such a feat might actually want to bring their own cups of tea to stay alert. It's a big ask, but having the opportunity to become immersed in a meditative Filipino effort that takes up a quarter of your day is what the true festival experience is all about. After last year's Norte, the End of History, long-form master Lav Diaz returns with a nightmarish portrait of martial law. The film won the Golden Leopard at Locarno, and promises to be as emotionally angry as it is visually potent. Hill of Freedom There's something about the features of Korea's Hong Sang-soo, who, with prolific pace, seems to release something new at least once a year. From simple, slight and sweet scenarios, he wrestles astute insights into relationships, rendered with both warmth and witty comedy. His last film, Our Sunhi, furnished a romantic web with talk of filmmaking, beer and chicken in a joyous delight — and all signs point to his latest, Hill of Freedom, offering a repeat. Love letters drive the narrative, but where the work of this filmmaker is involved, rest assured that nothing will be clichéd or traditional. The Iron Ministry Harvard's Sensory Ethnography Lab has done it again. After Sweetgrass' ode to the American west, Leviathan's fishing fury and frenzy, and Manakamana's reflective ride on a Nepalese cable car, the University's cinematic documentation and experimentation now extends to China's sprawling railroads. Shot over three years, The Iron Ministry adheres to the same observational principles as its predecessors: to chronicle all facets of a fundamental aspect of Chinese society. In the space of several train journeys, public transport people watching just got much more interesting — and, given the travelogue sheen of the accompanying panoramic imagery, much more picturesque as well. The Owners From Kazakhstan comes a deadpan slice-of-life drama-comedy hybrid about outsiders trying to fit in. No, this isn't Borat; but it is an offbeat effort unafraid to journey into the unexpected. After the death of their mother, elder sibling John moves his teenage brother, ill little sister and all their meagre belongings to an inherited house in a remote village, complete with a hostile welcome by local squatters and law enforcement. In exploring their fight for acceptance and survival, The Owners offers a strong sense of honour and more than a few strange moments, as well as social commentary, bloody revenge and cathartic dancing. Tokyo Tribe If you love music videos and mobster movies, then you'll want to see Tokyo Tribe. Sion Sono’s follow-up to the gleefully genre-bending Why Don’t You Play In Hell? is a love letter to and playful parody of both, set on the neon-lit streets and to a pulsating rhythm, and creating what might be the world's first hip-hop opera. The story might be slight and silly, not to mention literally punctuated by record scratches to emphasise the point, but the spectacle more than makes up for it. As a Yakuza boss tussles with a few trifling matters, Tokyo's 23 warring tribes sing, dance, shoot and wield weapons in a lurid hip-hop mash-up. Zero Motivation Observational workplace comedies about paper pushing and pranks aren't new, nor are insights into the horrors and hardships of battle. What is new is looking at the day-to-day lives of the women who work in administration at a remote Israeli combat base, with both a comic and contemplative gaze. Zero Motivation goes beyond the bounds of Office Space, The Office and Workaholics and every war movie ever made to peer behind a system of compulsory military service and ponder its influence and issues. The monotony of office routines and the malaise of army inner workings have rarely been as frank, funny or female-oriented, in a lively debut from writer/director Talya Lavie. The Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival is on from November 29 - December 14. For the full program, see the festival website.
The illustrious restaurant Noma, the same one that consistently tops dining lists across the world, will be closing its doors after one last blowout on New Year’s Eve 2016. It will be a sad occasion, but not to worry; like the phoenix or a feathered Pokemon equivalent, Noma will rise again in 2017 in a new, evolved form. Noma head chef René Redzepi told the New York Times that although business at Noma is booming, it’s time for a dramatic change, and he was not kidding. Noma will move from its cute nook in the middle of picturesque Copenhagen to the outskirts of town where the extra space will be dedicated to an urban farm, a greenhouse, a farming team and a field that floats on a raft. The menu will be have a dramatic overhaul as well. Ex-Noma chef Trevor Moran will return to help with the expansion and commented that the menu will change with the seasons, from game and mushrooms in the fall to a full seafood menu in winter. And, rather poetically, Redzepi says when “the world turns green ... so will the menu”, meaning that, for several months a year, Noma will be a completely vegetarian establishment. If you have fat stacks and want to catch a taste of OG Noma before its closure (without travelling all the way to the Denmark), then get to its Sydney pop-up in Barangaroo, where they’ll be setting up shop for ten weeks in late January 2016. Better get in quick though; the Noma Tokyo pop-up accrued a 60,000-person waiting list, so register your interest on the Noma website ASAP. Via New York Times.
Finally, coveted New York fashion label rag & bone has landed in Australia. Now open in Melbourne's CBD shopping district, The Strand, the US brand has unveiled a characteristically minimalist, 1150 square feet space. Haven't stumbled upon it yet? Take a look. Features include a glass façade and interiors decked out in rag & bone's signature industrial style with exposed ceilings and concrete floors. Endeavouring to become a true Melburnian, the brand has also collaborated with local Australian designers to include unique fixtures in the space, like custom tube pendant lighting, brass shelving and walnut detailing. To complete this highly visually satisfying space, the label will host media installations in-store, kicking off with the SS17 campaign film playing throughout. Among the modern industrial look of the new store, rag & bone's women's ready-to-wear, /JEAN, accessories and footwear collections sit, ready to tempt your wallet with tailored silk shirts, satiny slip dresses, wide-neck and off-the-shoulder knits and plenty of denim. Australia, it's time to inject some New York style into your wardrobes. Find the new rag & bone shop at 320 Elizabeth Street, Shop T21 in The Strand.
Most people's reluctance to get tattooed stems from the niggling suspicion that Kermit the Frog may not be timeless. But before at least there was solace in the idea that when you died, your skin would rot away and all tattoo sins would be forgiven (unless we get that cheapo tattoo removal cream we’ve been promised). Now, as we always knew they would, tattoo artists have found a way to conquer death. Save My Ink is a tattoo preservation service that you never knew you wanted, offered by the National Association for the Preservation of Skin Art (NAPSA). And by preservation service, this is what we mean: when you die, they come and cut your tattoo off and frame it. (?_?) So here’s the deal if you want to preserve your butterfly tramp stamp to pass along to your children. The tattoo preservation service is only available to NAPSA members, which requires you to pay a sign-up fee and annual membership fee. Then, when you die, your beneficiaries (the lucky ones who will receive your decorated skin flap) will notify NAPSA who will send in their technicians to hack off your skin art. Within three to six months, your presumably still-grieving family will receive your tattoo and will be able to promptly try to clone you with the DNA therein. You can have as many tattoos preserved as you please, as long as they’re not on the face or genitals (that would be way too creepy). In all seriousness though, while this is a pretty morbid service, it kind of makes sense. Tattoos are often sentimental, unique and used to commemorate big life events, so for some it may be comforting to preserve them. And it would be an easy way to resolve the practicalities of issues like this. For more information, check out the Save My Ink website here.
As if alcohol alone doesn't do enough to unleash your inner, six-year-old self, you can now embrace it shamelessly — that's if you happen to be in San Francisco and anywhere near that city's latest thing: a pop-up ball pit in your local bar. Yep, you read that right. A brilliantly regressive-thinking organisation by the name of Forward Motion has turned every kidult's dream into a reality. The team is heading into willing bars and nightclubs, setting up enormous pits, and filling them to the brim with balls of all colours. And you're welcome to jump straight in — even if, or especially if, you're armed with a cocktail. Forward Motion held its first pop-up on Saturday, March 19 and Sunday, March 20 at San Francisco's Romper Room. "It took a little over a year to actually make it happen, as the biggest obstacle was trying to raise enough money to purchase 40,000 ball pit balls," Forward Motion founder Ryan Lum told Mashable. "After several failed crowdfunding attempts, I decided to just start selling tickets to [the] event that didn't even exist. It took a long time trying to raise the money but it was all worth it in the end." Not only did stacks of people attend, they made the most of it. Some dressed as brides and one as a kangaroo. There were ball fights, conga lines, limbo matches and Macarena displays. The bar staff got on the bandwagon, too, throwing a plastic green turtle into the pit and offering a free shot to the first person to find it. Forward Motion, you are hereby officially invited to Australia. In the meantime, readers can cry with envy at ball pits happening on the other side of the Pacific by following announcements on Facebook. Via First We Feast and Mashable. Images: Dollar Photo Club and Miracles Ramirez/Forward Motion.
Team Zissou, pack your vintage suitcase and meet us in Italy. Wes Anderson has designed a bar/cafe in Milan. Snuggled inside Prada's new art and culture complex, Fondazione Prada, set to open this weekend, Bar Luce has been designed by the baron of twee himself — and it predictably looks straight out of one of his films. As if planning a theme park with Devo's Mark Mothersbaugh wasn't enough work. Resembling some kind of Grand Budapest Hotel lobby cafe, Anderson's cafe is filled with pastel Formica furniture, faux-cornice patterned wallpaper, veneered wood wall panels and terrazzo flooring — an attempt to recreate the vibe of a typical Milanese cafe. The aesthetic, according to Fondazione Prada, is reminiscent of '50s and '60s Italian popular culture; something Anderson actually employed for his Prada short film Castello Cavalcanti, starring (as always) the excellent Jason Schwartzman. Anderson's also given aesthetic nods to Italian neorealist cinema classics like 1951's Miracolo a Milano (Miracle in Milan) and 1960's Rocco e i suoi fratelli (Rocco and His Brothers), both set in Milan. But for modern Anderson fans, there's even a Zissou pinball machine. One to usually keep things symmetrical, Anderson told Fondazione Prada, "There is no ideal angle for this space. It is for real life, and ought to have numerous good spots for eating, drinking, talking, reading, etc. While I do think it would make a pretty good movie set, I think it would be an even better place to write a movie. I tried to make it a bar I would want to spend my own non-fictional afternoons in." The Bar Luce menu is yet to be revealed, but we're going to hope there's a few Anderson references in there; perhaps sweet lime drinks, Mendl's Courtesan au Chocolats, or Red Remarkable winter apples. If you're stopping Milan, Bar Luce is open to the public and can be accessed from Via Orobia, Prada. It's open from May 9, from 9am to 10pm. Via Wired. Images: Candy, Prada and Fondazione Prada.
After yesterday's Oscar snub, Richard Linklater could be looking at another go at Boyhood. Maybe. According to a probably-too-hopeful Flavorwire, the director has tossed up the epic idea of creating a sequel to the Best Picture nominee 12-years-in-the-making. In a recent podcast interview with Jeff Goldsmith, Linklater was asked about a potential sequel; an idea he had blatantly discarded until recently. But there could be a glimmer of possibility for the already Academy Award-winning director. "To be honest… this film first met its audience exactly a year ago and for the first six months of the year, my answer to that was absolutely not. This was 12 years, it was first grade through 12th grade; it was about getting out of high school. I had no idea about another story, there’s nothing to say. It hadn’t crossed my mind. "But I don’t know if it’s been a combination of finally feeling that this is over or being asked a similar question a bunch over the last year, that I thought, well, I wake up in the morning thinking, 'the 20s are pretty formative, you know?' That's where you really become who you’re going to be. It’s one thing to grow up and go to college, but it’s another thing to… So, I will admit my mind has drifted towards [a sequel]." Sure, this isn't a confirmation, but we can dream. Could we see another Before trilogy set-up happening with Boyhood? Poor Ellar Coltrane thought he was out of the water. Via Flavorwire.
Shelves of board games. Rows of arcade games. A wall of old-school consoles with retro televisions to match. Daytona given pride of place. The sound of The Simpsons' theme filtering through the playing space. Welcome to Netherworld, which earned the honour of being Brisbane's first arcade game bar when it opened in 2017. If you like hitting flippers, smashing buttons and passing go, all while drinking brews and eating burgers, you'll like it here. Trust us. Don't go thinking that this is a nerd dungeon, however. The Fortitude Valley venue is accessible for everyone that's keen on pairing their beverage with something fun. Like Holey Moley Golf Club just a few blocks away, having a good time is the name of the game here (and yes, shuffling between the two is one of Brisbane's best pub crawls). From the moment that you walk into Netherworld, you'll notice a laidback vibe — and games a plenty, unsurprisingly. If cards, counters, dice and decks all form part of your preferred kind of gaming, you're in luck. Everything from a Fallout-themed edition of Monopoly to Settlers of Catan to Balderdash can be or have been found on Netherworld's shelves. They're all be free to play for patrons — and if there's a better thing to do while knocking back one of the bar's craft beers, with a focus on local brewers, we can't think of one. [caption id="attachment_622335" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sarah Ward[/caption] Okay, maybe we can: roaming between the venue's rooms pumping shiny Netherworld tokens or coins into pinball and arcade machines, the main attraction. Mosey past the heritage-listed bar itself — which has been given a nice touch-up, but still boasts the requisite retro feel for anyone feeling nostalgic — and you might NBA Jam, Space Invaders, Frogger, Centipede, Double Dragon, Street Fighter, Pac Man, Donkey Kong and more, with the range changing and rotating. Pinball-wise, tables devoted to Ghostbusters, The Addams Family, Metallica, The Twilight Zone, Batman, Tales from the Crypt and Flash Gordon could await. There's more, namely Nintendo, Sega and Atari video game consoles hooked up to classic TVs (because you can't go OG with one and not the other), plus bright, lively murals pushing Netherworld's monster theme, and a few spooky characters if you look up in the right spot. A stage, projector and pull-down screen sit at the end of the space, with live gigs and film screenings also on the hangout's agenda. For a place named after somewhere hellish or hidden, it's all rather inviting, which also fits the food and drink lineup. At the Hellmouth Diner, American and Japanese influences infiltrate a selection of bar fare that aims higher than the greasy usual bites to eat. All standard items such as burgers, karaage and bowls are also vegan-friendly, though meat and dairy can be added. Images: Cole Bennetts / Sarah Ward.
If there's one place in New South Wales — well, besides Sydney — that's embraced the state's newly liberated small bar culture, it's Wollongong. Like that of the harbour city, The Gong's night life used to be all about rowdy pubs and dance clubs. Now, we're not saying there's anything wrong with that — sometimes, there's no better way to end a working week than sinking a few and tutting like you're Taylor Swift in utter anonymity — but, like the great Latin writer Publilius Syrus quipped: "The most delightful pleasures cloy without variety". And during the past decade Wollongong, which you'll find just a 90-minute drive south of Sydney, has diversified. In the city's easily walkable centre, you'll stumble across a bluesy whiskey den, a laneway warehouse plastered with street art, a pocket-sized wine bar with a giant-sized wine list, a hatted hideaway serving French degustations and a waterfront pub championing microbrews. And that's just the start of it. Beyond the streetscape, there are beaches, mountains and woodlands galore. In one weekend, you can ride a horse through rainforest, picnic by a waterfall, cruise clifftops on the back of a Harley, loop de loop in a WW2 biplane and, needless to say, take your pick of beaches to swim at. Speaking of which, Wollongong's sandy coastline gives you two options, north and south of Flagstaff Point. On one side, there's the calm, swimmer-friendly North Beach, while on the other is the wild, 3.1-kilometre long City Beach. For more, skip town to visit the string of seaside villages that make up the outer northern suburbs, watched over by the spectacular, 400-metre high, sandstone Illawarra Escarpment. Here's your guide to eating, drinking and adventuring your way through a Wollongong sleepover. [caption id="attachment_569010" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Sage Hotel via Wotif[/caption] STAY To wake up just a stumble away from a swim, check into the Sage. Once known as the Chifley and taken over by Silver Needle Hotels in 2015, this four star, 11-storey, 168 room hotel is across the road from City Beach. For fantasy novel-inspiring panoramas of a morning mist-enshrouded Mount Keira, ask for a north facing balcony room or suite. Wherever you are, you'll get invigorating ocean breezes, a super comfy bed, a 40-inch tele and cosy armchairs. When the surf's too rough for a dip, plunge into the spacious lap pool. Buffet brekkie — served on the hotel's Five Islands Terrace — comes with dazzling ocean views, while downstairs at Cold Water Creek Restaurant and Bar, you can slip into a red-cushioned booth anytime and build your own burger. [caption id="attachment_569278" align="alignnone" width="1280"] South Coast Bike Hire[/caption] DO To make zipping around town a cinch, rent a bicycle from South Coast Bike Hire, who'll deliver the bike to your doorstep. Stick to scooting from one bar to another or, if you're keen to counter your excesses with a workout, conquer the waterfront cycleway, which runs between Port Kembla and Thirroul, where you can cool off in a 1930s ocean pool, grab a coffee at Gidget's, browse local art or take a surfing lesson with Illawarra Surf Academy. All in all, Wollongong has 42 kilometres of shared paths. For more scenery (at a much faster speed) take a High Adrenaline Ride and Fly Tour. Just Cruisin' Tours' Steve Melchior will roll up at your hotel, pop you on the back of his Harley and lead you on a twisting, turning, coast-hugging journey along Grand Pacific Drive, which runs as far north as the Royal National Park. Hold on when you hit Sea Cliff Bridge, a dizzying series of curves suspended 665 metres above the ocean, backdropped by sheer cliffs. If you're travelling with a mate, book the Boom Trike. [caption id="attachment_569088" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Southern Biplanes[/caption] Afterwards — or perhaps before — Steve will transport you to Southern Biplane Adventures, where you'll jump aboard a fire truck-red biplane known as Lilly Warra. She's a bonafide World War Two veteran, built in 1943 to perform military aerobatics. Your pilot will strap you into the open-air cockpit and take you soaring hundreds of metres above the Illawarra coastline. Just how gnarly things get is up to you; settle in for a straightforward right-way-up joy flight or order as many tricks as you can handle, from a wingover (a steep climb followed by a sideways fall) to a loop de loop (a 360-degree, upside down turn). To see the Lilly Warra — and hundreds of other stunt planes — in action, head to Wollongong on the weekend of April 30 for the annual Wings Over Illawarra Air Show. And, for a journey through Australia's aviation history, swing by the nearby Historical Aircraft Restoration Society Museum, where you can sit in the cockpit of a Vietnam War fighter jet. [caption id="attachment_569102" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Otford Farm[/caption] Done with the adrenaline pumping? Make tracks to Otford Farm to explore at a gentler pace. This Lords of the Rings-esque property is home to 40 or so horses, who spend most of their time roaming freely across its 300 acres, but will cheerfully take you for a ride if you ask nicely. The three-hour Bald Hill Adventure trail ride is a magical journey through dense rainforest, alongside babbling creeks and across open woodlands. You'll stop at the hang gliding mecca of Bald Hill Lookout and the pretty Kellys Falls Picnic Area on the way. Short on time or not ready to commit to 180 minutes on horseback? Book a one- or two-hour stroll instead. [caption id="attachment_569091" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Caveau[/caption] EAT UK-born Peter Sheppard was just a kid when he decided to become a chef. Some years later, after training at Sydney's Banc, he moved to Wollongong, where he opened Caveau in 2004. In 2005, his French-inspired creations earned a Good Food and Travel Guide Chef Hat — and they've won one every single year since then. Any day of the week, plonk down on a turquoise polka dot chair in one of the hushed, dark dining rooms and work your way through a seven-course degustation. Like the furniture, the plates are splashed with bright colours, from brilliant purple baby beets to bright red heirloom tomatoes to vibrant warrigal greens. Sheppard sources local, organic produce and pursues a nose-to-tail philosophy, ensuring nothing is wasted. Vegetarians can expect to be treated with equal respect as carnivores; the meat-free degustation is not just an afterthought, but a masterpiece in itself. For a more casual chow down in an epic setting, there's Three Chimneys. Hidden down an alleyway and covered in street art, it's a former warehouse turned hospitality kingdom, incorporating not only a restaurant and bar, but also a coffee roastery, bakery and live music venue. Flop onto a corner couch and keep to yourself, get loud at a communal table or hit the dancefloor. The share plate menu is made up of tasty, tasty morsels in generous portions, from 12-hour braised lamb sliders to crumbed camembert with cranberry sauce. [caption id="attachment_569139" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Diggies[/caption] Several cafes serve up high quality breakfasts and lunches. To start your morning right — that is, overlooking North Beach — reserve a spot at Diggies. Local brothers Stan and Aaron Crinis have been feeding ravenous surfers in this airy, heritage-listed, former cottage for more than a decade. Dig into brioche toast with strawberry compote and mascarpone cheese or sweet corn fritters with a poached egg, sour cream, smoked salmon and a rocket and zucchini salad, and you'll be ready for anything the day throws at you. [caption id="attachment_569133" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Humber[/caption] At Humber, a three-level, triangular cafe-bar in an 80-year-old building, slide onto a jade banquette and tuck into a plate of slow-baked ocean trout with eggs, or a dish called Mushroom Thyme, which features five types of local mushies. At least 50 percent of all produce comes from within a 100-kilometre radius. On the third floor, there's a lovely, laidback rooftop bar serving cocktails and tapas by evening. Throughout April, the eatery will hold Humberfest, which will see a slew of special events, from yoga lessons to mixology classes to movie nights, come to life. [caption id="attachment_569143" align="alignnone" width="1280"] lee and me[/caption] Just down the road in an 1890s terrace house, you'll find lee and me, recognisable from the bicycle in the window. There's a cafe downstairs and a retail space called THE STORE upstairs. So, you can contemplate buying fresh flowers and cool furniture, in between nibbling away on a shredded chicken sub with pickled carrot, or a roast lamb toastie with baba ghanoush, onion jam and Gruyère. Owners Benny and Naomi Hudson have a second outpost in the form of laneway burger joint His Boy Elroy, which turns classics into fun new inventions. The Heisenburg-er, for example, is packed with southern fried chicken, iceberg lettuce, hot sauce and a secret blue sauce. Take the Grand Pacific Drive back to Sydney to stop in at Thirroul (we recommend Postmans Quarter in an old 19th century building that used to house a bank) and/or one of the most spectacularly-located pubs in Australia, The Scarborough Hotel. Passing by on a clear day? Bags a table on the top floor terrace, order a seafood plate and a bottle of sparkling, and don't make any plans to go anywhere else until sundown. Should you miss out on the terrace, a table in the vast, grassy beer garden is a happy second prize — and there are Pacific Island-style thatched huts for groups. [caption id="attachment_569136" align="alignnone" width="1280"] The Throsby[/caption] DRINK For a pre-dinner wine or a quiet chat, slip into The Throsby, a 50-seater bar that's been keeping locals hydrated since December 2014. Owners Erick Zevallos and Maddie Sullivan have taken care of every detail, from the Scandi-style high stools to the hanging plants to the 53 variety-strong wine list showcasing small winemakers from all over the world. Later on, venture to dimly-lit Howlin' Wolf to sample the ever-changing 100+ whisky collection — and if you visit on Thursday, Friday or Saturday night, you'll be able to kick back to live music. [caption id="attachment_569137" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Illawarra Brewing Co.[/caption] Meanwhile, you'll get a view with your brew with a view at The Illawarra Brewery, just opposite City Beach (and not far from the Sage Hotel). Claim an outdoor seat and work your way through a tasting paddle, which covers a handful of offerings from the Illawarra Brewing Company brewhouse. In-house bistro Smoking Barrels dishes up a stack of exceptionally moreish American-style creations, including a salt and chilli-fried soft shell crab burger and sticky barbecue hot wings with smoked mayo. If you're wondering why the meat's so full of flavour, it's all slow-cooked in their custom made, Texan-style smoker. To find out more about the brewhouse, drop by its headquarters in North Wollongong, where you'll meet brewer Dave McGrath, watch the brewing process in motion and taste to your heart's content. Walking in, you'll notice a basketball hoop — manage three slam dunks and you'll be taking home a free growler, filled with your beer of choice. The Chuck Norris is very, very hard to go past. [caption id="attachment_569280" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Jonathan Mueller via Flickr[/caption] LET'S DO THIS; GIVE ME THE DETAILS Wollongong is about 90 minutes south of Sydney. You can drive or take the South Coast Line train from Sydney's Central Station to Wollongong Station. Jasmine travelled as a guest of Destination NSW. Top image: Maksym Kozlenko via Wikimedia Commons.
