Coldplay is currently in the middle of their Mylo Xyloto Australian tour, which has seen them pack out arenas with adoring fans, treating them to a stunning show of music and light. The band was in the country last year for a brief festival appearance, but promised to return and give the numerous fans a show to remember. Mylo Xyloto (Coldplay’s 5th studio album) has continued the trend of success for Coldplay, with singles such as ‘Paradise’ and ‘Every Teardrop Is a Waterfall’ charming long-time fans and casual listeners. The album has been called ‘uplifting’, ‘inspirational’ and ‘music that aims for the heart’. Coldplay will be supported by The Temper Trap and The Pierces. There are still tickets available for the show at Suncorp Stadium, but don’t count on them still being there at the last minute. Get in quick before they are gone!
UPDATE, July 13, 2021: Due to travel and quarantine requirements stemming from Greater Sydney's current lockdown, the 2021 2021 Brisbane Night Noodle Markets have been postponed. With many of the event's vendors based in New South Wales, the markets can't go ahead as planned on from Wednesday, July 21–Sunday, August 1. New dates haven't yet been announced, but we'll update you when they are. Usually when July rolls around, Brisbane's culinary scene gets thrust into the spotlight, all thanks to Good Food Month. In 2020, things were a little different, with the jam-packed celebration of all things food and drink taking place in November instead. This year, though, Brisbanites will be hopping between eateries to warm up their winter once more. It's the eighth year that Good Food Month has hit the city, and 2021's program takes its cues from one of the big culinary trends of the past decade. Yes, it's skewing local and heroing homegrown talent — including by welcoming back acclaimed chef Alanna Sapwell (ex-Arc Dining and Bar), with her pop-up Esmay returning for a day of dishes at Spring Hill's Alliance Hotel. Among the other Brisbane stars making an imprint, Louis Tikaram will lend his skills to this year's Young Chefs Lunch, which will serve up a four-course meal prepared by the Stanley chef with the city's culinary up-and-comers — and Ben Williamson will open Agnes up to celebrated Melbourne restaurant Embla, teaming up with the latter's Dave Verheul on a one-night-only meal. Over at Gerard's Bistro, Adam Wolfers will join forces with Shane Delia (Maha Bar, Layla) for a night of Middle Eastern cooking. And Za Za Ta Bar and Kitchen will play host to Shannon Martinez (Lona Misa), with a plant-based, Tel Aviv-inspired feast clearly on the menu. Also on the lineup: a five-course truffle degustation at Otto, a murder mystery dinner at Alchemy, a shawarma party at Gerard's Bar and Libertine's Bastille Day French-Vietnamese menu. Montrachet will host a decadent five-course dinner, E'cco Bistro is dedicating an afternoon to cheese and wine at and The Gresham will roll out Whisky Appreciation Month sessions. Plus, over at the Living Room Bar at W Brisbane, a three-course cocktail degustation will let you sample its new menu created by the team behind London's Oriole Bar. And, the Night Noodle Markets are returning as part of this year's Good Food Month, too — this time at the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. Top image: Libertine.
So. You've watched all the documentaries on VICE's YouTube channel. You're up to your second viewing up just about everything on SBS's Food Network. You definitely don't want to watch A Current Affair. What's a news-hungry millennial to do? In answer to your free-to-air TV dreams, SBS and VICE are teaming up to create not only a new show, but a whole goddamn TV channel for your viewing pleasure. The new channel was announced earlier this year, but they've just let slip that it will launch at 4pm on Tuesday, November 15, replacing SBS 2. It will be an extension of VICE's online TV channel VICELAND, and will be called by the same name. So far details about programming are skint, but the new channel will feature SBS 2's news, sport and entertainment programs, as well as the best stuff from VICELAND. VICELAND launched online earlier this year with a collection of Spike Jonze-produced docos. Apparently more details will be released in the next few weeks. Until then, SBS is directing would-be viewers to make a free call to 1800 321 511. We don't know exactly why — but it can't hurt to give it a go. SBS VICELAND will launch at 4pm on Tuesday, November 15.
The Social Network offered a chilling prophesy of the impact of social networking sites, foreseeing the fracturing of friendships and a disturbing shift in human interaction. But a new study by the University of Milan reveals that the cyber world is a much cosier place than we thought. According to the study, the 6 degrees of separation that lie between the Earth’s inhabitants is, by social networking standards, as intimate as the dismal attempts at on-screen chemistry between an expressionless Robert Pattinson and his wooden Kristen Stewart. For us friendly Facebookers, however, there are only 4.74 degrees separating us from any other user around the globe. Zuckerberg ain’t lying when he tells us he’s ‘connecting people’. In layman’s terms, the rather precise 4.74 degrees translates to 5 ‘hops’ between users. As Facebok continues to grow this figure has steadily diminished, first measured at 5.28 in 2008. When you limit the measurement to a single nation, which tends to contain the majority of our friendships, the world shrinks even more; most citizens of the same country are separated by only 3 degrees. But does a tight knit cyber community translate to an increase in real, flesh and blood friends with whom we communicate beyond the ‘Wall’? It could be that the smaller the degrees in the cyber world, the greater they grow in reality, as increased Facebook interaction dilutes the quality of our face-to-face relationships. Either way, Facebook has proven that it really is a small world after all. [Via Wired]
It's been a crazy year all round, but there's one thing that's tracking along as nicely as ever and that's Apple's plans for its latest iPhone creations. The tech giant has just dropped all the hot little details for its next highly-anticipated iPhone 12 releases; the standard, Mini, Pro and Pro Max. True to form, Apple's new phones come fitted out with its finest suite of features yet, rendering all those before them instantly uncool. We're talking about an all-new design, complete with super speedy A14 Bionic chip, next-level pro camera, 5G and the largest edge-to-edge Super Retina XDR display to ever feature on any iPhone. Here are seven details about the new iPhone 12, served up in handy dot point form for your next debrief with mates. YOU CAN DOWNSIZE YOUR UPGRADE, WITH THE MINI VERSION The standard iPhone 12 clocks in at 6.1 inches from corner to corner, pretty much dwarfing the 5.8 inches of the old iPhone X. But if you'd prefer something that actually fits in your hand, the same features also come neatly packed into the iPhone 12 Mini, which measures at a more manageable 5.4 inches. That now lays claim to being the smallest, lightest and thinnest 5G phone on the market. THERE ARE NEW COLOURS TO CHOOSE FROM Once again, Apple is tempting buyers with a range of fun phone colours, with the iPhone 12 and mini edition available in red, blue, green, black and white aluminium finishes. The Pro and Pro Max keep things a little more subdued, with a choice of gold, graphite, silver or pacific blue. IT CHARGES WIRELESSLY...BUT DOESN'T ACTUALLY COME WITH A CHARGER Yep, Apple's caused a big stir with this one. The new iPhone 12 has been optimised for use with a MagSafe wireless charging system, featuring a special magnet in the back that's designed to work seamlessly with a newly released line of wireless charging devices and other phone accessories. But you'll find exactly none of them included with your new phone purchase. In what's apparently an environmentally friendly move, Apple's not supplying any new chargers or AirPods in its iPhone 12 boxes — instead, it wants buyers to keep using their old gear, or buy new ones separately. IT'S MUCH HARDER TO DESTROY If you're the kind of person that leaves a trail of ruined smartphones in their wake, these new models might have you breathing a little easier. Clumsy hands don't stand much of a chance against the ceramic shield cover, which is infused with nano-ceramic crystals and apparently makes the phones four times more likely to survive a drop than their predecessors. Spills aren't an issue either, with all four models boasting an industry-leading IP68 water resistance rating, protected up to six metres for up to 30 minutes. IT'S A GAMER'S DREAM The main thing you need to know about the new A14 Bionic chip is that it's 50 percent faster than any other smartphone chip out there. Which in short, means the iPhone 12 promises a console-quality gaming experience, without burning through that battery all in one hit. THE PRO CAMERA IS BETTER THAN EVER Phone snaps and Tik Tok videos are about to kick up a few gears, if the new iPhone 12 cameras have anything to do with it. Apple's incorporated night mode for both the wide and ultra-wide cameras, and a host of improvements mean low-light shots will be better than ever. The camera is also the first device in the world to enable an end-to-end Dolby Vision experience, which is a game-changer for smartphone video. IT'S NOT AS PRICEY AS YOU MIGHT HAVE EXPECTED The good news is, you can snap up one of Apple's latest for even less than you forked out for the iPhone X. The Mini starts from $1199, while the standard iPhone 12 will set you back $1349 for a 64GB, moving up to $1599 for the 250GB edition. Up the other end, the cheapest Pro clocks in at $1699 and the Pro Max starts from $1849. You'll be parting with a cool $2369 if you want the 512GB version, though. The iPhone 12 varieties will be available to pre-order from October 16. Head here for the standard and Mini, or here for the Pro editions.
A musical comedy – there really is no better kind; a delightful combination of catchy tunes that make you pee your pants with the giggles at the same time. What a treat, what a joy! Big Brother, Little Brother combines family politics with two real life biological brothers performing together, Adam and Matthew Hedditch. Adam is the big bro and is an accomplished triangle player, and Matthew is the little bro and rocks the guitar. Together they tell mad brotherly stories with music and a smile. Since winning the Greenfaces national comedy award in Canberra in 2002, the siblings have gone on to tour the globe, and have appeared on the Footy Show and the Comedy Channel, as well as numerous radio spots, three trips to Iraq to entertain the troops, and hundreds of corporate gigs. They are now heading up Brisbane way and helping local audiences bring in the New Year, with shows on the 30th and 31st of December. The old tale is that you start the new year as you mean to go on, some people like to do that drinking, others pashing, perhaps the best option though is laughing!
Don't already have a date with Taylor Swift's Eras tour booked when it hits Australia in February 2024? Perhaps it won't be a cruel summer after all: more tickets are releasing on Friday, November 10. When Sydney and Melbourne stops for Swift's career-spanning showcase were announced back in June, it sparked a rush for seats. Before general sales even started, the 'We Are Never Getting Back Together', 'Shake It Off' and 'Bad Blood' musician had announced an extra gig in both cities. And, the Victorian Government even declared her Melbourne stint a major event so that anti-scalping legislation would apply to tickets. So, the response has clearly been huge — and now Swifties will have another chance to head along. Tour promoter Frontier Touring has announced that additional tickets will drop across all Aussie concert dates, with the Sydney shows releasing their extra tickets at 10am and the Melbourne shows doing the same at 4pm — all AEDT. Included among the new batch will be seats with a partially obstructed side view, with prices starting at $79.90. There'll still be limited tickets in the new release, but accessibility options will also be on offer. Expect another busy Ticketek day, obviously, with the singer-songwriter's Australian shows already garnering "historically unprecedented demand". Swift is playing the MCG in Melbourne across Friday, February 16–Sunday, February 18, and then heading north to hit the stage at Sydney's Accor Stadium from Friday, February 23–Monday, February 26. At all gigs, she'll have Sabrina Carpenter in support. [caption id="attachment_907314" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ronald Woan via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] That blank space in your calendar that you were hoping to fill with Swift working through her entire career so far, playing tracks from each of her studio albums in a three-hour, 44-song, ten-act spectacular? You now have another attempt to do so. Sadly, Swift still hasn't added concerts in any other cities across Australia — as Frontier has previously advised, "no further dates will be added for the Australian tour". This'll be Swift's first tour Down Under since 2018, when she brought her Reputation shows to not only Sydney and Melbourne, but Brisbane and Perth, too. And if you're wondering what's in store, then you clearly haven't seen Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour as a movie, aka a concert film of her latest shows that's been screening in cinemas Down Under since October. TAYLOR SWIFT: THE ERAS TOUR AUSTRALIAN DATES 2024: Friday, February 16–Sunday, February 18 — Melbourne Cricket Ground, Melbourne Friday, February 23–Monday, February 26 — Accor Stadium, Sydney Taylor Swift will bring The Eras Tour to Australia in February 2024. Additional seats will go on sale on Friday, November 10 — at 10am AEDT for Sydney shows and 4pm AEDT for Melbourne shows. Head to the tour website for further details.
"It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at pictures; one must, without doubt, without hesitations, with assurance, admire what is beautiful." These are the words of one Vincent van Gogh, part-time ear surgeon, all-time famous artist, declaring the artistic beauty inherent within books. Some artists have elected to take his words literally, adopting literary works as their medium and through careful artistic surgery have constructed intricate and engrossing works that put even the greatest of pop-up books to shame. The best of these have now been collated together by Laura Heyenga in the new book Art Made From Books: Altered, Sculptured, Carved, Transformed. The volume features the varied book-based work of 27 different artists, each with their own technique of sculpting. Whether it is transforming a hardback book into a miniaturist tableaux of surgical precision or carefully operating with scalpel and tweezer to encapsulate a new literary work like the one below, each artist has their own means of message-construction. "Some of these artists are making comments about the role of reading in contemporary culture, others find that books are a handy art form," says Alison Kuhn, author of the introduction to Art Made From Books: Altered, Sculptured, Carved, Transformed, in an interview with Fast Co.Create. "They see books as a backdrop for their creativity." Whilst some may think of these works as vandalism, many are merely breathing new life into tired books or outdated telephone directories. "The information is outdated, the paper is probably yellowed or worse, so the fact that a book can become something charming and creative and valuable in a new light is kind of great." Amidst the depths of the digital age and the advent of the Kindle, these works just go to show that van Gogh was right; there is no replacing the enchanting aura of a book. Let the bookception begin. BRRRRRRRAAAAAWWWWRWRRRMRMRMMRMRMMMMM!!! Via Fast Co.Create
Each year, the National Gallery of Victoria commissions a new temporary structure to evoke a fresh perspective on the gallery. Previous years have seen a pink car wash and an openair maze pop up in the NGV's Grollo Equiset Garden, but 2018's Architecture Commission, announced today, will be a direct reflection of the gallery itself. A collaborative effort between Melbourne firm Muir and landscape architecture studio Openwork. Doubleground draws inspiration from past and present aspects of NGV International. The design is centred on a dramatic passageway that recalls the triangular patterns found within the NGV's Great Hall glass feature wall and on the gallery's roof. Elements of the NGV Garden will literally be raised up as sections of the garden become sharp embankments, creating canyon-like passageways below. The Sir Roy Grounds-designed building also provided inspiration for Doublegrounds decking area, which echoes the NGV International's foyer, while a bamboo garden reflects the building's former bamboo courtyard. Architect Amy Muir used her memories of visiting the gallery as a child to compose a blueprint for the new commission. "The 2018 Architecture Commission provides an intervention that challenges the role of the NGV Garden," Muir said of her studio's designs. "Acknowledging the intent and architectural language of the original Roy Grounds building, the Commission seeks to bring the memories of place back into play." Promoting the positive relationship between architecture, landscape and civic space, Doubleground was chosen ahead of 73 other entries from around Australia due to its collaborative and multi-disciplinary approach. As 2018 marks the 50th anniversary of the NGV International, gallery Director Tony Ellwood explained the new commission "offers visitors a unique opportunity to reflect upon and re-examine the history and design of the Gallery as an integral part of Melbourne's public realm". The 2018 NGV Architectural Commission will be free to visit in the Grollo Equiset Garden at NGV International from November 2018 until April 2019.
Ideas and inventions are usually intimately linked to the place they originate, displaying a wonderfully intricate relationship between form, function, culture and the environment. Think of the Hills Hoist in Australia, where people have the space and sunshine to use them, or the guillotine in France, where there was a severe excess of knives and nobility. If ever an idea sprang from completely the wrong place, surely it's the amphibious ice-cream truck floating around the UK. Thanks to ice-cream company Fredericks, the waterways of the British Isles are being bombarded with Rod Stewart's We Are Sailing whenever the HMS Flake 99 hoves into view to sell some ice-cream. The boat-truck is touring the UK to highlight the decline in ice-cream trucks due to rising costs, noise complaints, and childhood obesity fears. I'm sure buying a boat, blasting Rod Stewart and getting kids to eat more ice-cream will help... Jokes aside, an ice-cream boat is a great idea — it just should have been an Australian one. Wouldn't that boat look more tempting if it were cruising down our local waterways instead of under that leaden British sky! Sure, it's winter here now, but that just means you've got six months to source a boat and a freezer to make it happen. And when it comes to the music, why not announce your presence with The Lonely Island's I'm On A Boat? [via designboom]
There's less than a month left of winter. If that's reason enough to get you planning your next holiday, Virgin Australia understands. The airline is starting August 2024 with everyone's favourite excuse to book a getaway — yes, that'd be a flight sale — but you've only got three days to nab the 500,000 discounted fares. This new 72-hour sale runs until midnight AEST on Wednesday, August 7, 2024, unless sold out earlier, and focuses on domestic flights. You'll be travelling between Tuesday, September 3, 2024–Wednesday, April 30, 2025, so you'll be taking a spring, summer or autumn vacation, with prices starting cheap at $45. Where can you head? To Byron Bay, Launceston, Hamilton Island and Uluru, for starters. By now, everyone knows that the Sydney–Byron Bay route always has the lowest cost, which is $45 one-way this time around. From there, other discounts include Melbourne–Launceston from $59, Sydney to the Gold Coast from $65, Sydney to the Sunshine Coast from $69, Melbourne–Hobart from $75, Brisbane to Cairns from $89 and Melbourne to Hamilton Island from $129. Among your other options, Sydneysiders can take a trip to Cairns from $115, Melburnians to Uluru for the same price, Brisbanites to Uluru from $119 and also to Darwin from $169. This sale kicked off on Monday, August 5, 2024 — and the cheap fares, which cover both directions between each point in the discounted route, start with Virgin's Economy Lite option. With the travel periods available, all dates vary per route. Inclusions also differ depending on your ticket and, as usual when it comes to flight sales, you'll need to get in quick if you're keen to spend some, part or even most of September–April anywhere but home. Virgin's '72-hour Flight Frenzy Sale' sale runs until midnight AEST on Wednesday, August 7, 2024 — unless sold out earlier. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
Let's call it the seven-, eight- and nine-month itch: that point when a year reaches its halfway point, and as winter starts to give way to spring, when holidays, holidays, holidays is all that's on anyone's mind. Is that you right now? Been spending every spare moment dreaming of summer getaways, and also making travel plans right into 2023? Then Virgin's latest sale arrives at the right time. More than one million fares are up for grabs as part of the Bring On Summer sale, covering both Aussie and international destinations. Yes, that means that you've got options, no matter where you'd like to head. Among the domestic routes, one-way fares start at $49, which'll get you from Sydney to Byron Bay. Other sale flights include Brisbane–Whitsunday Coast from $75, Melbourne–Gold Coast from $79, Melbourne–Adelaide from $79 as well and Sydney–Hobart from $85. And if you're wondering when you'll need to travel, you can book trips between January 17–June 24, 2023. Internationally, return fares cover getaways to Bali, Fiji, Vanuatu and Samoa — from Sydney (from $489 to Fiji, $549 to Bali and $560 to Samoa), Melbourne ($549 to Bali and $579 to Fiji) and Brisbane ($475 to Vanuatu, $529 to either Bali or Fiji, and $559 to Samoa). Again, that means you've got choices, including if multiple getaways to different spots are in your ideal future. As always when it comes to flight sales, you'll need to get in quick. Virgin's discounted fares are now on offer until midnight AEST on Monday, September 5 or sold out, whichever arrives first. In total, the sale is taking up to 30-percent off Virgin's economy fares to 34 locations. Yep, best grab your suitcase now. Virgin's Bring on Summer sale runs from until Monday, September 5 — or until sold out.
The popularity of Harry Potter has proven as enduring as comparable world-beating IP like Star Wars, for which the audience's appetite for newness and further exploration of the world has no apparent ceiling. Case in point: the epic two-part production of Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has enjoyed a huge run in Melbourne's Princess Theatre since debuting in February 2019. The production estimated 326,500 theatre-goers experienced the show in the first year alone — not bad for a play with a five-and-a-half hour run time. The two-parter finally wraps up its run this month with the final show on March 27. But, fortunately for theatre lovers and Potter stans alike: as one Cursed Child closes, another one opens! Tickets are now on sale for the new, condensed version of the play opening at the Princess Theatre from May 4, 2022 — a one-part iteration that's currently in the midst of a hugely successful Broadway run. The run time for the reimagined version comes in at far more manageable three-and-a-half hours (including one interval) and, while a third of the length has been removed, none of the magic has. It's the same story, just streamlined. And the brilliant Australian cast from the two-parter is almost entirely the same. So, what exactly is The Cursed Child about? The story picks up 19 years after Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. Harry is now a Ministry of Magic employee, married to Ginny Weasley and the play focuses on his youngest son Albus Severus Potter coming of age at Hogwarts in the shadow of his famous father, as both father and son grapple with the past and the future. It's a fantastic production with plenty of heart, humour and incredibly well-executed magic, which is a credit to those pulling the literal and figurative strings (ropes?) behind the scenes. The new shorter format will mean a much wider audience can experience what is destination theatre-going. Harry Potter and the Cursed Child is playing at Melbourne's Princess Theatre in its two-part form, running until Sunday, March 27, 2022. It switches to a one-session production from May 4, 2022, with tickets for the latter on sale now. For more information, head to the play's website. Top image: Tim Carrafa. Cast images by Dan Boud.
Fashion is aligned with many areas of the art world but none so more than in the realm of photography. Fashion photography has its well-known greats but there are some who have been forgotten along the way. The QUT Art Museum will help us remember one of these greats as they present a National Gallery of Australia retrospective of the photographs of Anton Bruehl. The Australian born photographer created one of the most famous and inventive studios in New York during the decade when magazines and advertising agencies were switching over to photographic rather than graphic art illustration. Best known for his elaborately staged, densely coloured advertisements and theatrical tableaux, he created inventive and perfectly realised photographs for magazines such as Vogue and Vanity Fair and was a leader in the new field of colour photography. To explore the work of this creative and the ideas fashion in art and photography, QUT have put together a panel of national fashion photographers, style makers, artists and curators. Held in conjunction with the Queensland Festival of Photography, head along to the QUT Art Museum to become an overnight expert on the questions of art and fashion. Plus there will be ‘light refreshments’ which are always sure to a draw card.
It's been an explosive year for beer and brewing in Australia. Some old hands at the craft game sold to major international corporations, while new independent brewers continued to develop and expand. From fruit-infused sours to bold, hoppy IPAs, the discerning beer drinker has never enjoyed so much choice from both local and international markets. While there will always be a time and a place for a cold tinnie of VB, the following ten brews offer a range of flavours and unique styles to help you beat the heat this summer. The best places to find these beers, aside from the locations below, are specialist bottle shops. We've rounded up our favourites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. XPA, PHILTER BREWING The XPA style is still somewhat unclear, though the acronym stands for Xtra Pale Ale, but in the case of Philter's flagship brew — a pale yellow, slightly hazy session ale — the 'Xtra' refers to both the light colour and the depth of flavour. Head brewer Sam Fuss has put the myth to rest that brewing is a man's game with her brewing prowess. Packaged in retro blue and white cans, Philter XPA opens with a delicate bouquet of floral and summer fruit aromatics, notes of rockmelon, passionfruit and mango. On the palate expect little to no bitterness with some citrus and notes of freshly cut grass, balanced out by a subtle wheat and honey flavour from its malt base. Philter XPA won Best Pale Ale at the 2017 Craft Beer Awards, after only being on the market for four months. Available in cans at Liquor Emporium, St Peters, and as Beer of the Month at The Botany View Hotel, Newtown. EARL PEAR, MERCHANT BREWING COMPANY In the height of the Australian summer, a 6.9% ABV Belgian-style blonde ale seems like a strange choice. But the boys over at Merchant have taken some bold steps to create one ripper of a beer. Blending the toffee apple malt flavour with extracts of pear and earl grey tea, this beer is inventive and exciting without being gimmicky. The beer pours slightly cloudy, is dark orange in colour and has a strong aroma of pears, apricots and a touch of citrus. The immediate flavour is pear with a hint of tart funkiness, then the sweet malt flavour gives way to a light kiss of floral citrus rounded out by the herbaceous bitterness from the tea. Incredibly well-balanced and surprisingly delicate, this beer would make a fine match for seafood or a fruit-based summer salad. Just like the monocle-sporting sloth on the label, this is a sophisticated and fun slow sipper for those looking for something a little different this summer. Earl Pear is currently available on tap at Quarrymans Hotel, Pyrmont. PASSION OF THE PUSS, WAYWARD BREWING CO Between Parramatta Road and the backstreets of leafy Annandale, Wayward Brewing Co's tap room is the perfect place for those seeking shelter from the hot days. Housed in a converted wine cellar, the brewery boasts an impressive selection of vintage 70s-style couches, a wall-mounted Royal Enfield motorcycle and a labyrinth of rooms and spaces catering to crowds of all sizes. Passion of the Puss is a new spin on Wayward's incredibly popular Sour Puss Raspberry Berliner Weisse, but this time it favours passionfruit and yuzu. The result is a a bright, aromatic brew with plenty of passionfruit notes giving way to the acidity of the yuzu to round it out. This is a great beer for those looking to get into sours as it has enough complexity and balance to remain refreshing all the way through the pint. Sitting at only 3.8% ABV, it's great for session, and a reliable hangover cure. Passion of the Puss is currently available in 640ml bombers from Wayward Brewery Co, Camperdown. WEST COAST IPA, BATCH BREWING COMPANY Pioneers of the Sydney craft beer scene, Batch Brewing Company has maintained a steady rise to prominence in inner west Sydney, the cradle of brewing culture in Sydney. While the current trend among brewers seems to be about who can brew the biggest, hoppiest and strongest IPAs, this little gem from Batch's core range is a reliable and refreshing take on the classic American style. Over the years, Batch have made many IPAs, yet this is the only permanent fixture and with one sip you'll quickly see why. The blend of three hop varieties with three base malts achieves a beer that is supremely well balanced. Pale gold and ever so slightly cloudy, this beer is dominated by tropical fruit aromas of mango and pineapple, followed by fresh citrus notes. A subtle but firm bitterness rounds out the finish and leaves you wanting more, and as it sits at an approachable 5.8%, why not have another? Batch West Coast is currently available in cans, bombers, growlers and on tap at Batch Brewery Company, Marrickville. DIPA, HOPE BREWHOUSE When getting into the boozier side of brewing, some beers tend to almost drift into wine territory. With this in mind, it's incredibly comforting to know that Hope's head brewer, Matt Hogan, is indeed a former winemaker. This training in nuance and delicacy translates in the surprising form of a double India pale ale — a style famous for its in-your-face flavour. Hope's offering, however, is a joyously well-balanced beer; it has a pale straw colour with a beautiful floral nose, citrus aromas, big tropical fruit notes and a piney, resiny mid-palate. The light malts offer some sweeter notes of honey and biscuit, while a substantial bitter finish makes this big bold beer a truly dynamic flavour experience. Sitting at 9% ABV this DIPA would be suited to fans of Pirate Life Brewing's Double IPA. Hope DIPA is currently available in cans at Liquor Emporium, St Peters, and on tap at the The Local Taphouse, Darlinghurst. SAUCY SAISON, SAUCE BREWING COMPANY Starting a microbrewery in a warehouse in Marrickville is a tried and tested idea. With the craft cradle booming, however, offering something new and exciting can be a challenge. Enter Sauce Brewing Company, a strong team of brewers covering a broad range of styles with charm and reliability. Oh, and did we mention their converted warehouse space features a large, family-friendly beer garden? This beer is a modern take on the classic French/Belgian style where the yeast is the dominant flavour. A special Belgian ale yeast gives smooth notes of banana and clove with some light fruity esters, followed by a twist of citrusy hop flavour, all wrapped up in a smooth honey malt. For those seeking a less hop-driven beer, that still has a bit of a kick to it this summer, treat yourself to something a little different, after all, 'tis the 'saison'! Saucy Saison is available from Sauce Brewing Company, Marrickville in cans and growlers, and in cans at Red Bottle, Sussex Street. SERPENT'S KISS, GRIFTER BREWING CO Pilsner is a style that many beer nerds will scoff at, as it's often thought of as a bland boring lager. In the current game, however, the ability to produce an interesting lager-style beer is one hell of a trump card to play. This is exactly what the team at Grifter has done. With five-plus years in the Sydney brewing scene, their approach to this widely loved style of beer is sure to appeal to a wide range of drinkers. This light-bodied, easy-drinking brew is the perfect, refreshing drop for a sunny afternoon, it has a low level of bitterness complemented by a delicate fruitiness from the inclusion of real watermelon. The watermelon flavour is light, natural and not overly sweet, resulting in a beautifully sessionable beer with a fruity twist. Available in cans from the Grifter Brewing Co, and currently on tap at the White Cockatoo Petersham. OXYMORON, BRUNY ISLAND Traditionally, darker beers are reserved for drinking in the cooler months, but tradition goes straight out the window with this beer made by a cheese company from Tasmania. The aptly titled Oxymoron is a sort of Swiss-Army-knife beer, in that it's perfect for a multitude of occasions all year round. The style is billed as a 'dark pale ale' so expect some robust roasty notes of smooth cocoa and a touch of spice from the use of malted rye. This is wonderfully countered by a superb blend of four Tasmanian-grown hop varieties offering floral, citrus and light peach notes, rounded out by a firm bitterness. This is a beer that will serve as a refreshing, yet smooth and rich, alternative to the plethora of American-style pales dominating the market at present. A relative newcomer to the scene, even moreso the mainland, Bruny Island's beers are most reliably sourced through its online store, but keep an eye out for them in your local craft pub, bar or bottle-o. NORMAN AUSTRALIAN ALE, YULLI'S BREWS About halfway down Crown Street in Surry Hills there's a small, unassuming restaurant with a well-deserved reputation for serving some of the finest vegetarian food in town. To make it even better, they're also responsible for one of the finest local drops on the market. Created by bar staff seeking an approachable and casual beer that could also stand alongside fine dining, Norman is a light, refreshing summer ale with notes of apple and pear, followed by a gentle, clean, bitter finish. The green and gold cans adorned with a charmingly idiosyncratic cartoon character make for a staple in any Aussie fridge this summer. Perfect for a barbecue or beachside evening picnic, Norman is a friend you want to have around again and again. Available from Yulli's restaurant, Surry Hills, on tap and in cans at The Clock Hotel bottle shop. [caption id="attachment_648241" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA[/caption] TONIC, DOCTOR'S ORDERS The Sydney brewing scene's equivalent of the eccentric cartoon mad scientist Rick Sanchez (from Rick and Morty), 'Dr' Darren Robinson has been brewing weird, wacky and wonderful styles of beer since 2009. The latest seasonal prescription from the Doc is a sessionable witbier with an impressive array of botanicals including orange peel, juniper berries, lemon myrtle and cinchona bark. This inventive blend of flavours is enough to make for a beautiful summer drop all by itself, however, it is also a brilliant mixer with your favourite gin. This is the second seasonal release of the Tonic, which was a massive success last year and sure to become a summer favourite of both gin and beer enthusiasts. Available from the The Wine Cellar, Newtown, in cans.
Here's two ways that 2025 will be better than 2024: The White Lotus will return for season three, as will The Last of Us for season two. If you've been hanging out for more holiday chaos and dystopian tension, you can now start marking your calendar. Neither show has exact return dates yet, but HBO has just gotten more specific about when each will be streaming. In February 2025, it'll be time to check in again. Your destination this time: Thailand. Walton Goggins (Fallout), Carrie Coon (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), Jason Isaacs (The Crowded Room), Michelle Monaghan (MaXXXine), Leslie Bibb (Palm Royale), Parker Posey (Mr & Mrs Smith) and Lisa from BLACKPINK are among the new cast of The White Lotus season three, all playing characters that are bound to learn — and the anthology series' on-screen figures always do — that getaways and bliss don't always go hand in hand. From season one, Natasha Rothwell (How to Die Alone) is also returning. HBO is planning to drop big tentpole shows a few times a year — so it'll be in 2025's second quarter, which is autumn Down Under, that The Last of Us will return. There's no exact month as yet, but Joel and Ellie will be back. In their shoes, so will Pedro Pascal (The Wild Robot) and Bella Ramsey (Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget), of course. This time around, the series' main duo have company from both familiar faces and a heap of newcomers. Rutina Wesley (Monster High) and Gabriel Luna (Fubar) return as Maria and Tommy, while Kaitlyn Dever (Good Grief), Isabela Merced (Alien: Romulus), Jeffrey Wright (American Fiction), Young Mazino (Beef), Ariela Barer (How to Blow Up a Pipeline), Tati Gabrielle (Kaleidoscope), Spencer Lord (Family Law) and Danny Ramirez (Black Mirror) are the season's additions. The US cable network revealed the timing for both shows during a Wells Fargo-hosted conference, also advising that new Game of Thrones prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms is set to arrive in summer in the US — which is winter in Australia and New Zealand, fittingly. And if you can't wait for more Euphoria, the long-delayed and eagerly anticipated third season is now expected to arrive early in 2026. If you're wondering what else is in store for HBO in 2025 and beyond — or even to close out 2024 — the network dropped a trailer back in November teasing the slate to come. Also on the way, and also debuting never-before-seen footage in the clip: IT prequel series Welcome to Derry, season four of Hacks, season two of The Rehearsal, a new show led by Bottoms and Saturday Night's Rachel Sennott, two-part documentary Pee-Wee as Himself, The Righteous Gemstones season four, Peacemaker season two, The Pitt with ER veteran Noah Wyle, Mark Ruffalo (Poor Things)-led FBI series Task and Tim Robinson (I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson) comedy The Chair Company. Season three of And Just Like That... and The Gilded Age also feature in the trailer, albeit without any new material, with each series joining the list for 2025. You can spot scenes from Dune: Prophecy, season three of The Sex Lives of College Girls, the animated Creature Commandos and limited series Get Millie Black, too, all of which are 2024 releases. From 2025's lineup, newcomer Duster with Lost's Josh Holloway and season two of Conan O'Brien Must Go scored a look as well. Where Australians will be watching all of the above is yet to be revealed, however, given that HBO has confirmed that its own streaming service Max will launch here sometime in the first half of 2025. Watch HBO's most-recent 2024–25 roundup trailer below: The shows highlighted in HBO's new trailer will arrive across the end of 2024 and in 2025. At present, the bulk of the network's programs stream via Binge in Australia and on Neon in New Zealand. Images: HBO.
Tanks have featured in countless war movies yet rarely been the focus of those films. Slow, hulking and claustrophobic, they lack the 'glamour' of planes, the scale of battleships and the vulnerability of the lone soldier. Two rare exceptions are 1943's Sahara and 1988's The Beast of War, both of which centred on lone tank crews bravely engaging the enemy against seemingly impossible odds. In that vein, Fury is a fitting new addition. In the closing stages of the Second World War, a single US tank (baring the nickname from which the film takes its title), is tasked with holding a vital crossroads deep behind German lines. Its crew (Shia LaBeouf, Michael Peña and Jon Bernthal) is a hardened bunch of veterans dutifully falling under the command of 'Wardaddy' (Brad Pitt), and none of them take kindly to their new, fresh-faced draftee Norman (Logan Lerman), whose mobile armoured experience consists of knowing how to operate a typewriter. Norman's initiation is quick and uncompromising. His first job is to wipe down the tank's interior and scrub away the fleshy remains of his predecessor. Then its straight into action, where the true horrors of the conflict are seen, felt and heard all around. One thing Fury does exceptionally well is demonstrating precisely how devastating a tank was to anything less than another one (unless that other one was the German 'Tiger', whose forward-facing armour made it invulnerable to all US counterparts). "Ideals are peaceful", explains Wardaddy, "history is violent", and the sound of enemy shells tearing holes through the sky as they blaze past or into the American units is a terrifyingly violent experience. Indeed, all the combat scenes in Fury are brutally graphic, offering a Saving Private Ryan level of gruesome reality to the war experience. Bodies are burned, shredded and liquified, yet what truly confronts is the matter-of-factness with which the other soldiers regard it all. This is the final stage of the conflict, remember, by which time most troops had experienced years of dehumanising savagery. "It's just war!" one of them explains to Norman, whose revulsion to the death around him is neatly reflective of the audience's. If there's a problem with Fury, it's Pitt's character, Wardaddy. It's not just that he's unlikeable and almost impossibly calm under pressure, he's also a war criminal. The Hague Conventions are blatantly ignored as he periodically executes POWs, including one particularly sadistic sequence used to familiarise Norman with killing. 'Ideals are peaceful', yes, but they're also binding, and in what may well have been the last war fought for noble reasons, robbing your hero of his morality has a flow-on effect to the rest of the film. Corny jingoism has no place in the post-Private Ryan universe, and it's good to see the darker side of the Allied war effort not being overlooked, but as the credits roll it's hard not the feel like director David Ayer ultimately retreated from that position and allowed his star to reclaim a little bit of the Hollywood treatment. https://youtube.com/watch?v=WYm2Jru6Wzc
For everyone who's yearned for a sunny, sandy, surf-filled holiday over the past few years, screens big and small have come with a warning: be careful what you wish for. In M Night Shyamalan's Old, hitting a gorgeous beach meant ageing quickly. In The White Lotus, it sparked eat-the-rich dramas. While the horror movie remake of Fantasy Island arrived just before lockdowns and travel restrictions, it unleashed terrors in scenic surroundings (and a terrible movie upon audiences). And in the Tim Roth-starring Sundown, escaping to Acapulco permanently isn't as blissful as it sounds. Come the end of July, The Resort will keep this chaotic vacation streak going, all via an eight-part streaming series that'll hit Australia via Stan from Friday, July 29. Here, Nick Offerman (Pam & Tommy), Cristin Milioti (Made for Love) and William Jackson Harper (The Good Place) star in a comedy-thriller that's also a mystery and a coming-of-age love story. Plenty can happen on a getaway, after all. Milioti and Harper play Emma and Noah, two high-school teachers who've been married for ten years and head off on a trip to the Yucatan to celebrate. But while seeking a stint of vacation bliss, as well as attempting to reinvigorate a routine relationship and life that Noah at least is content with, they stumble upon a 15-year-old mystery involving Sam (Skyler Gisondo, Licorice Pizza) and Violet (Nina Bloomgarden, Good Girl Jane) — when they were each making the trip to Oceana Vista Resort with their respective parents back in 2007, but weren't seen again. As The Resort's trailer shows, Offerman plays Violet's father, who is still looking into the mystery, too. Also making an appearance: Luis Gerardo Méndez (Narcos: Mexico) as Oceana Vista Resort's head of security a decade and a half back, Gabriela Cartol (Hernán) as the concierge where Emma and Noah are staying, and Parvesh Cheena (Mythic Quest) and Michael Hitchcock (Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar) as two Teds who are married to each other. The cast also includes Ben Sinclair (Thor: Love and Thunder) as resort owner, Debby Ryan (Insatiable) as Sam's girlfriend, and IRL couple Dylan Baker (Hunters) and Becky Ann Baker (Big Little Lies) as Sam's parents. Behind the scenes, The Resort hails from showrunner, writer and executive producer Andy Siara (Palm Springs, Lodge 49), as well as producers Sam Esmail (Mr Robot) and Chad Hamilton, and was shot throughout Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. Check out the trailer for The Resort below: The Resort will start streaming in Australia via Stan from Friday, July 29. Images: Marisol Pesquera / Peacock.
In Swiss Army Man, Daniel Radcliffe plays a dead guy with a rather particular set of skills. Manny is prone to excessive bouts of flatulence, and uses his explosive gift to assist his only friend. After he washes up on a deserted island, he's just what Paul Dano's stranded and suicidal Hank needs to help him find his way back to civilisation. Manny also comes in handy in a host of other ways: his erections act as a compass, he spits fresh water out of his mouth, and he simply gives Hank some much-needed company. You may have already heard about the so-called farting corpse movie, particularly after it reportedly prompted mass walk-outs at this year's Sundance Film Festival (where it also won the Best Directing award). In truth, there's a lot more to Swiss Army Man than the emphasis on bodily functions would suggest. The feature filmmaking debut of Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert (known collectively as DANIELS), consider it the sweetest film you're likely to see about a deceased dude who looks like Harry Potter letting rip. Indeed, every burst of air expelled from Manny's buttocks provides a reminder of why everyone is so obsessed with the noisy but amusing phenomena. Put simply, to fart is to be human. Remembering what it is to be alive is just what Hank needs after much too long spent in isolation — and if it takes being forced to explain the ins and outs of love, family, masturbation and more to a cadaver whose chatter could simply be a figment of his imagination, then so be it. Sure, it's a rather absurd way for a film to address existential concerns, but hey, it works. As silly as it all appears, there's a careful balancing act at the heart of Swiss Army Man as it charts the unlikely duo's time together, including the stories Hank tells Manny about the girl (Mary Elizabeth Winstead) he had a crush on before his current predicament changed his life forever. Kwan and Scheinert might seem to spend a little too much time revelling in scatological humour, but after inspiring laughs, they also spin a story that contemplates plenty of hard truths. Actually, it's not just the toilet gags that may throw viewers off, but also the film's dream-like look and feel. Yet it's also why the end product isn't only insightful, but also so utterly disarming. It takes confidence to go from boy wizard-level fame to zipping around the ocean like a human jet ski. Radcliffe proves not just up to the challenge, but adept at bringing his dead character to life. While some sequences follow in the footsteps of '80s comedy Weekend at Bernie's, Manny is more than a prop — he's the film's not-quite-beating heart. Across from Radcliffe, Dano does what he does best, although he's much more effective when he has his co-star to bounce off of. With that in mind, you can add tender buddy comedy to Swiss Army Man's list of qualities. In short, this fart-filled flick will move you in more ways than one.
In response to the latest local case of COVID-19 in Brisbane, in a hotel quarantine worker, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced that the entire Greater Brisbane region — spanning the Brisbane, Logan, Ipswich, Moreton and Redlands local government areas — is going into lockdown for three days. The shutdown will start at 6pm on Friday, January 8 and run through until 6pm on Monday, January 11. "All residents living in those areas will be required to stay at home. Think of it as a long weekend at home," the Premier said at her daily press conference today, Friday, January 8. "We need to do this... If we do not do this now, it could end up being a 30-day lockdown. So we will do a very strong three-day lockdown in those areas," she continued. The Greater Brisbane region will return to the rules in place during March's lockdown — which means that you're only allowed to leave the house for four reasons. So, you can only head out for work or education if you can't do that at home, for essential shopping, for exercise in your local area, and for health care or to provide support for a vulnerable person. https://twitter.com/AnnastaciaMP/status/1347309459891109888 While Queensland has had community cases of the coronavirus before — including back in July and August, when restrictions were tightened only weeks after they had been relaxed from the first lockdown — the state is being particularly cautious in the current instance because it involves the new, more contagious UK strain of COVID-19. In today's press conference, Chief Health Officer Dr Jeanette Young noted that this strain is 70 percent more infectious, hence the need to lockdown to try to get any community spread under control. As part of the lockdown, there is a limit of two visitors in homes. Masks are also compulsory for the three days of lockdown, and are required to be worn everywhere in Greater Brisbane's local government areas, other than if you're at your own home. Cinemas, entertainment and recreation venues will all close, as will places of worship, while cafes, pubs and restaurants are only allowed to open for takeaway service. Weddings can only have ten guests, and funerals can only have 20 attendees. Also, folks who decide to come to the Greater Brisbane region during the lockdown will be bound by the same restrictions, although travel is discouraged — and no one should leave Greater Brisbane during this period. The government strongly encourages non-residents currently in Greater Brisbane to remain until the end of the lockdown. https://twitter.com/qldhealthnews/status/1347396828833017857 And, if you've been in the Greater Brisbane area since January 2 but you're now elsewhere, you still must quarantine wherever you are. You'll also need to wear a mask when you leave your home — for one of the permitted reasons. Announcing the news, the Premier said that "we have learned from Victoria, South Australia and New South Wales that a short, sharp lockdown is better than a long one — and this a more contagious strain. All we can do is stay home and stay safe and please get tested". Queensland Health is maintaining an active register of locations that have been visited by positive COVID-19 cases, which you can check out on its website. Extra testing clinics have been set up, and you can find a rundown of clinic locations online as well. For more information about the status of COVID-19 in Queensland, head to the QLD COVID-19 hub and the Queensland Health website. More details about the lockdown and associated restrictions can also be found on the Queensland Health website.
Joining vinyl records and 8-track tapes on the dusty shelf of obsoleteness, CDs have fallen by the wayside. In 2011, the number of people in the US who downloaded their music had far surpassed that of people who bought physical albums. In an era when our grandchildren won't know what a Walkman is, what are we to do with our now-digitised CD collections? As it turns out, Amazon wants them. Beginning last week, Amazon launched alterations to its Trade-in Program, which allows customers to swap their old stuff for Amazon store credit. Amazon has previously accepted pre-loved items such as Kindles, textbooks, and DVDs in exchange for credit but hasn't accepted used CDs until now. The store credit can be used to buy new, downloadable albums, or any product from the site. We can't decide which we are more excited about: an extra buck or two, or forever banishing our questionable '90s music decisions.
If you've ever dreamed of constantly being the life of the party, then this creation by Joey Andolina will be right up your alley. Instead of the standard carrying of a boombox in the hand or over the shoulder, this boombox is attached to a vest and can be worn with ease. The vest features two motorcycle speakers which protrude from the shoulders. Furthermore, an 8” Boss Audio Bass900 subwoofer is located on the back of the vest for more bass power. The whole device is powered by a rechargable battery, and volume can be adjusted from the hip. Arriving just in time for summer, this vest boombox allows you to show off your fashion prowess while blasting European hardstyle relentlessly as you walk around the block. If you're serious about partying, you know you'll have to wear the sunglasses like the model in the above picture.
The team behind Trainspotters have been putting on some great live music shows for a few months now and are looking like they will continue to do so for the foreseeable future. This weekend they have a great line-up of musicians to keep any Australia Day revellers partying! Headlining this week’s bill is Grand Atlantic (pictured), who are jumping back into a series of shows after taking time off to record their third album, Constellations. The band, which formed in 1996, have toured the world and have gained a steady following. They will surely be entertaining at Trainspotters. Supporting Grand Atlantic Sabrina Lawrie & The Hunting Party and The Ninjas.
First, Coachella excited music fans worldwide with its 2020 lineup, with Travis Scott, Frank Ocean and Rage Against the Machine topping the bill. Then, when COVID-19 started having an impact on gigs around the globe — and travel to gigs, too — the huge Californian fest postponed this year's event from April to October. Now, in a move that's hardly surprising, it's scrapping 2020's festival altogether. Instead, it'll aim to return in 2021 in its regular April time slot. Revealing the news, fest organisers announced that "Under the continuing health guidance of the County of Riverside, Coachella and Stagecoach 2020 will not take place this October as previously rescheduled". Just what'll happen with Coachella's much-anticipated 2020 lineup — and whether Scott, Ocean and RATM will feature next year — is yet to be advised, with the festival saying, "we look forward to sharing our new lineups and more information." The cancellation comes after Coachella's parent company, Anschutz Entertainment Group (AEG), told staff earlier this week that it'd be cutting back its workforce, including layoffs, furloughs and pay cuts, the Los Angeles Times reports. Coachella ticketholders will be able to use their passes for the 2021 festival and the company will be emailing information about refunds by Monday, June 15. https://www.instagram.com/p/CBT6AgsHdY5/?igshid=70jfi1nudmg Fallout from the coronavirus on this scale has been predicted for the music industry for months, with some experts forecasting that concerts, festivals and international touring won't return to normal until late 2021. Just this week, Australia's own Splendour in the Grass also canned its 2020 fest, after earlier announcing a move to October, just as Coachella had. Splendour will instead celebrate its 20th-anniversary event in July 2021. Of course, since Australia and New Zealand's international borders are currently firmly shut — and, if they reopen anytime soon, they only look likely to open to each other as part of an Australian–New Zealand travel bubble — music lovers from Down Under weren't going to be able to attend this year's Coachella anyway. If you had been preparing to to watch the always-popular livestream across the weekends of October 9–11 and 16–18, though, you'll need to cancel your plans. Or, you can check out the free YouTube documentary Coachella: 20 Years in the Desert, which does an entertaining — albeit highly official, and therefore highly celebratory — job of exploring the fest's origins, growth and success. The doco also includes some killer performance footage, highlighting performers who've graced the Indio stage over the past two decade, such as Jane's Addiction, Bjork, Daft Punk, Madonna, Amy Winehouse, Beyonce and Prince, plus Tupac in hologram form. Coachella will no longer take place in 2020, and is expected to return from April 9–11 and April 16–18, 2021. For further information, visit coachella.com.
Brisbane, prepare to up your dining game to new and glorious heights – First Table has launched across the city. You'd be forgiven if you've never heard of it, though. First Table may be a new concept, but it's life-changing one at the same time. After launching in New Zealand two years ago, Sydney has enjoyed it for the last twelve months and Melbourne for the last month. Now, it's our turn. The premise is simple: get 50% off your bill when you book an early table. Restaurants often struggle to get diners into the early slot, so First Table have the solution. Each eatery decides how many tables get the deal and what time patrons have to dine, and then you secure your half-price table (for 2 to 4 guests) online beforehand. Everyone wins, and there's no surprises at bill time. Just to be clear, this isn't an early-bird special as you know them. There's no set menu, no watery promo cocktail to disappoint you and no corner of the menu that's off limits (apart from booze – that one you still have to pay for). "You want [new clients] to experience the restaurant how it really is," says First Table founder Mat Weir. "Then you've got a reason to get entrees, mains and desserts which they may not have ordered otherwise, and then you get to actually experience the restaurant how the chef would like, a full experience". And, making great news even better, more restaurants are being signed up in Brisbane all the time (at the time of writing, Dutch Courage Officers' Mess, Mecca Bah, Corbett & Claude, Fogata, and The Catchment Brewing Co are among the eateries featured). After a year of First Table fun, Sydney boasts some prestigious dining experiences on their list, as well as local eateries. As Weir says, a big drawcard for both customers and restaurants is allowing people to try new places and dishes they might not be able to afford otherwise. Half-priced dinners at fancy restaurants AND an early bed time? It's like Christmas come early. For more information about First Table, visit their website.
If the many Mexican eateries popping up around the city have proven one thing, it's that Brisbane likes Latin American cuisine as much it likes burgers, wings and fries from its northern counterpart. Perhaps that's why Fogata Latin Fusion Bar and Restaurant is opening its doors in Fortitude Valley. Why limit yourself to one international cuisine when you can feast on delicious dishes from an entire region? You'll find more than just tacos and burritos at the new addition to James Street when it starts trading at the end of August. Referencing its fusion of food in its name should've made that plain — but if it didn't, then a selection of classic offerings given a modern twist will. Think tapas, share plates and main meals heavy on Caribbean-style seafood and plenty of meat, just to name a few key influences and ingredients. Ceviche, the citrus-cured serving of raw fish that's popular in Ecuador, Colombia, Chile and Peru, will also be on the menu. The 70-seat-plus eatery will boast an outside dining area as well as a bar, so expect to enjoy outdoor meals and knock back appropriately-sourced beers and themed cocktails. If that's not a great way to celebrate and cherish Latin American culture, cuisine, costumes and lifestyle right in the heart of Brissie, then we don't know what is. Find Fogata Latin Fusion Bar and Restaurant at 2/79 James Street, Fortitude Valley from the end of August. Keep an eye on their Facebook page for more details.
Dust off your petticoat and get your doublets out of the attic, because London's historic Globe Theatre is popping up in Melbourne later this year — well, sort of. Pop-Up Globe is the world's first, full-scale replica of the historic theatre, which was built by Shakespeare's playing company and housed his greatest works. Melbourne's version will set up shop at the Sidney Myer Music Bowl from September 21 until November 12 this year. History buffs and Shakespeare enthusiasts alike will have the opportunity to soak in plays As You Like It, Henry V, Othello, Much Ado About Nothing, and a special performance titled Around the Globe in 60 Minutes, which details the theatre's colourful history (it famously burned down in 1613 and was reconstructed a year later). It will be the first time the Pop-Up Globe has travelled outside of Auckland. With the round, 900-seat, three-storey venue, no member of the audience will ever be more than 15 metres from the stage, and all performances will be conducted without the use of mics, just as it was in 1614. Also keeping with tradition, tickets will offer the "groundling" option – standing room only, directly in front of the stage for only $20 a pop. Organisers promise that Pop-Up Globe won't host 'dusty' versions of Shakespeare — rather, performances will be more like a party. Pop-Up Globe will be at Melbourne's Sidney Myer Music Bowl from September 21 till November 21, 2017. For more info and to buy tickets, visit popupglobe.com.au.
When a TV show comes to an end, it isn't always the end. Plenty of beloved favourites have returned after they've said farewell, from Twin Peaks and Veronica Mars through to the about-to-drop Party Down revival. But one series that looks like it's staying gone is Mindhunter, the absolute best true-crime effort that Netflix has ever created — and one that's been missing from our screens since 2019. In the platform's ongoing quest to keep our eyeballs glued to the small screen, it pumps out new original shows with frequency. There are now so many to choose from, you could easily watch nothing else. But, both as a true-crime series and a Netflix series in general, Mindhunter has always stood out from the crowd. Combine filmmaker David Fincher ( Gone Girl, Mank), non-fiction book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit and a whole heap of real-life serial killer cases, and you get the greatest show the streamer has ever made. Naturally, after season one in 2017 and season two in 2019 — both of which were exceptional — viewers were keen for more of Mindhunter's look into the origins and operations of the FBI's Behavioural Science Unit. They're the folks who interview mass murderers to understand how they think, then use the learnings to help stop other killings, with the series drawing on its factual source material to dramatise the unit's beginnings. Alas, additional episodes haven't eventuated, with Netflix letting the cast's options expire in early 2020, and now David Fincher confirming that Mindhunter won't be getting a third season. "I'm very proud of the first two seasons. But it's a particularly expensive show and, in the eyes of Netflix, we haven't attracted a large-enough audience to justify such an investment," Fincher said in a new interview with French publication Le Journal du Dimanche (as per a translation). "I don't blame them, they took risks to launch the series, gave me the means to do as I dreamed Mank and they allowed me to venture on new paths with The Killer [Fincher's upcoming film, which'll hit the service before the year is out]." Mindhunter really does boast the kind of concept that easily could span on forever. The show's main characters are fictional, such as agents Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff, Knock at the Cabin) and Bill Tench (Holt McCallany, Nightmare Alley), plus psychologist Wendy Carr (Anna Torv, The Last of Us), but the details they're delving into aren't. Also real: notorious figures such as Ed Kemper (Cameron Britton, A Man Called Otto), David Berkowitz (Oliver Cooper, The Goldbergs) and Charles Manson (Damon Herriman, Nude Tuesday), to name a few. With a hefty lineup of killers and cases to cover — and still prove fascinating and gripping in this always-meticulously made show — season three wouldn't have lacked in inspiration. But hopes for a third season have long looked as paltry as Holden Ford's social etiquette, and just keep getting dimmer. Fincher has still been rather busy making other things for Netflix of late. That includes producing Love, Death and Robots, then directing Mank and now The Killer — which stars Michael Fassbender (X-Men: Dark Phoenix) alongside Tilda Swinton (Three Thousand Years of Longing), and sees Fincher return to his fondness for crime (see also: Seven, Zodiac). Check out the trailer for Mindhunter's second season below: Mindhunter's first and second seasons are available to stream via Netflix. Via Le Journal du Dimanche. Images: Merrick Morton/Netflix.
There’s something very telling about what happens when you type ‘Point Break’ into Google. The first result is the Wiki for Kathryn Bigelow’s iconic action crime thriller starring Keanu Reeves and Patrick Swayze, whereas the second one is ‘Point Break (2015 Film)’. The order alone says much about its place in the filmic world order, but the name is the real giveaway: Point Break...2015 Film. Yes it’s still technically Point Break, but of the Degrassi: The Next Generation variety — related, yet unworthy of the original title. This remake, starring nobody, is slated for release on December 25 and is hence the most unwanted Christmas present since that clay ashtray your nephew Declan made. It’s one thing to re-do a film that didn’t get it right the first time — or even several times round (*cough* The HULK) — but when you stray so heavily into ‘unnecessary remake’, you come perilously close to not just making a bad movie, but somehow tarnishing the original too. Consider, then, 2008’s Man on Wire. This outstanding documentary by James Marsh won all manner of accolades for its gripping, diligent and wildly entertaining retelling of Philippe Petit’s astounding high-wire walk between the two towers of the World Trade Centre in 1974. Combining interviews, real-life footage and the occasional re-enactment, it captures every bit of the energy, ebullience and foolishness that defines both Petit and his iconic feat. It is, in short, an outstanding film and a definitive account, making it almost inevitable then that Hollywood should promptly designate it prime material for a retelling. So it is that we have The Walk, perhaps tellingly presented by Google as 'The Walk (2015 Film)’ despite there being no predecessor of the same name. Directed by Robert Zemeckis, the bulk of the movie is presented as a something of a comedic, carefree caper with almost clowning levels of performance and dialogue. In the lead, Joseph Gordon-Levitt is at once excellent and terrible. His spoken French and Fred Astaire-esque lightness sparkle, but his to-camera narration and ‘English with zee accent’ scenes are cringeworthy, bordering on parody. With the jazzy soundtrack, nifty editing and whacky cast of accomplices, the majority of the film seems almost desperate to let you know it’s having fun, oftentimes more than you, and it’s not until we first arrive at the Towers that the seriousness sinks in. Thankfully, too, that's when The Walk undergoes a swift and marked transformation, and where its use of 3D finds a welcome home. 3D cinema has, to date, been almost exclusively an unnecessary gimmick and unwelcome expense, but that’s not to say it doesn’t have its place. When employed correctly it can be a powerful storytelling device, drawing the viewer deeper into a moment and sharing the experience with you rather than just showing it. As Petit finally arrives in New York and beholds the Towers for the first time, the sensation is deeply unsettling — a sort of vertigo from the ground up — and you absolutely participate in his sudden fear and uncertainty. The sensation then compounds exponentially as he travels to the top and peers down over the edge, at which point you’ll be hard pressed not to tightly grip the arms of your chair. As such, it is ‘the walk’ within The Walk where the film is at its best, and the exhilaration of experiencing the moment from Petit’s perspective almost exonerates all that precedes it.
Take a wild real-life story, turn it into a docuseries, then release it during a worldwide lockdown — and the result is one of Netflix's huge current hits. True-crime series Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness was always going to draw plenty of viewers, as you'd expect of a show that includes lions, tigers, eccentricity, polygamy and murder-for-hire. Indeed, the series has proven such a success that Netflix is now releasing a new special about all things Joe Exotic. The Tiger King and I will hit the streaming platform today, Sunday, April 12; however it's not merely another episode in this so-strange-it-must-be-true saga. Instead, it's an after-show special that features new interviews with many of the folks featured in the seven-part series' frames — not the incarcerated Exotic, but John Reinke, Joshua Dial, John Finlay, Saff, Erik Cowie, Rick Kirkman, and Jeff and Lauren Lowe. The one-off special is hosted by Joel McHale, who'll clearly be drawing on his time hosting pop culture show The Soup and Netflix's similar but short-lived The Joel McHale Show with Joel McHale more than his time on sitcom Community. McHale will chat with the aforementioned lineup of Tiger King figures about what has happened in their lives since the series. https://twitter.com/NetflixANZ/status/1248372365542604800 If Tiger King has somehow passed you by until now, the series focuses on mullet-wearing zoo owner Joe Exotic. Obviously that isn't the name that he was born with. But given Joe's love of big cats, line of work and over-sized personality, he obviously decided that the moniker fit. Between 1999–2016, he created and ran The Greater Wynnewood Exotic Animal Park in Oklahoma, which was home to hundreds of tigers, lions and other large felines. Joe also took his tiger show on the road and, because he just adored tigers so much, he literally sang about them as well. His first country music album was called I Saw a Tiger, because of course it was. He found time to run for Governor of the state and, in 2016, President of the US. He's fond of guns and just as fond of marrying more than one person at once. Oh, and the zookeeper tried to hire a hitman to get one of his rivals — Big Cat Rescue animal sanctuary's CEO Carole Baskin — killed. That's the jaw-dropping tale that Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness tells — and, soon, so will a new Kate McKinnon-starring TV drama that's set to recreate these events. Check out the trailer for Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=acTdxsoa428 Tiger King: Murder, Mayhem and Madness is available to stream now on Netflix. The Tiger King and I will hit the streaming platform on Sunday, April 12, with new Netflix shows usually dropping at 5pm AEST. Top image: Netflix.
It's a fact that some architectural firms use Lego to privately demonstrate building layout ideas. How adorable it is to imagine a room of dashing young architects tinkering with the colourful plastic blocks of their childhoods. But now Lego has launched a sophisticated, minimalist, all-white set of bricks that can help make you an architect yourself. Maybe you could you be the next Harry Seidler. This is no children's toy; part of the adults' mini-architecture line, the Lego Architecture Studio is for ages 16+. It's a great example of how the accoutrements of playtime can become a lifelong educational tool, aimed at aspiring architects, designers and construction enthusiasts. Apart from its 1210 bricks, in lieu of an instruction booklet it comes with the true bargain of the set — a 272-page illustrated book that puts forth the fundamentals of architectural design. Christopher Turner edited the book, which was written with architecture firms including KRADS, MAD, REX, SOM, Sou Fujimoto, Winy Maas, Safdie and Tham & Videgaard. There are exercises included that will help you, poised on your living room floor with plastic blocks in hand, grasp the notions of scale, surface, texture, density, modules, voids, repetition and more. Online reviews of the Studio are packed with squeals of delight from architecture students the world over. The set even comes with sorting trays for your bricks — how advanced is that? — so invest and let your dreams of yore live anew. A world of speculative Lego layouts in tasteful Modernist white awaits. Via Hyperallergic.
The first teaser trailer for science-fiction film Jupiter Ascending has hit the web, and it looks epic. It's the first original story from the Wachowskis since the Matrix trilogy, and judging by the trailer, it will showcase more of the cutting-edge visual effects that have become the benchmarks of their films. From the streets of Chicago to far-flung galaxies, Mila Kunis is a lowly janitor who, unbeknownst to her, may hold the key to the universe. On the brink of her assassination, a genetically engineered ex-military hunter (played by Channing Tatum) charges in, kicks arse and teaches her of her genetic destiny. The first glimpse of the film is packed with jaw-dropping visuals of intergalactic warfare. There's a dark, post-apocalyptic flavour to the cinematography, with otherworldly cityscapes, futuristic demons, fractured planets, plenty of thrilling gadgets and gravity-defying fight scenes. The film also sees the Wachowskis reunite with their longstanding collaborators, including Oscar-winning cinematographer John Toll, whom they worked with on Cloud Atlas. Unfortunately, we'll have to wait until July next year to see the film. But it will be interesting to see whether they can match the high standards they've set themselves.
Start practising your royal wave: it's time to bid farewell to The Crown. Netflix's hit regal drama is wrapping up with its upcoming sixth season, which now has both a release date and a first teaser trailer. If you're wondering when to get watching, you have two dates to put in your calendar. The Crown's final season is being split into two parts, with both arriving before 2023 is out. The first four episodes will stream from Tuesday, November 16, and then the second from Saturday, December 16. As well as saying goodbye to the series overall, viewers will also be moving on from The Crown's time in the 20th century in this sixth and final season. Although the just-dropped initial sneak peek is all about the past, permanence and legacy — Claire Foy (Women Talking) and Olivia Colman's (Heartstopper) versions of Queen Elizabeth II both feature, in fact — the hit show will embrace the 21st century in its latest run. Accordingly, The Crown will cover the early days of Prince William and Kate Middleton's relationship, and focus on the man currently second in line to the throne after Queen Elizabeth II's passing in 2022. Screen debutant Ed McVey takes on the role of Prince William, while newcomer Meg Bellamy is slipping into Middleton's shoes. The show's sixth season will follow the IRL pair's first meeting at university in St Andrew's, starting the story that's played out in plenty of headlines and a ridiculous amount of worldwide media coverage since 2001. While everything that's popped up in the series draws its details from history — dramatised history, of course, but still history — this next instalment is bound to feel even more familiar. Getting closer to our current time will do that. When The Crown began, it kicked off with Queen Elizabeth II's life from her marriage to Prince Philip back in 1947. The first season made its way to the mid-50s, the second season leapt into the 60s, and season three spanned all the way up to the late 70s. In season four, the royal family hit the 80s, while season five covered the 90s. Just like in season five, Downton Abbey, Maleficent and Paddington star Imelda Staunton dons the titular headwear in season six, while Game of Thrones and Tales from the Loop's Jonathan Pryce wears Prince Philip's shoes — and Princess Margaret is played by Staunton's Maleficent co-star and Phantom Thread Oscar-nominee Lesley Manville. Also, Australian Tenet, The Burnt Orange Heresy and Widows star Elizabeth Debicki returns as Princess Diana, with The Wire and The Pursuit of Love's Dominic West as Prince Charles. News around the show's fifth and sixth seasons has changed a few times over the past few years. At the beginning of 2020, Netflix announced that it would end the royal drama after its fifth season. Then, the streaming platform had a change of heart, revealing it would continue the series for a sixth season after all. Check out the first teaser trailer for The Crown season six below: The Crown's sixth season will hit Netflix in two parts, with the first four episodes streaming from Tuesday, November 16, and then the second from Saturday, December 16. Images: Alex Bailey / Keith Bernstein / Netflix.
Whilst Twitter likes to keep things short and sweet, Facebook has rocketed in the other direction - and users can now post status updates, messages and wall posts to over 60,000 characters long. Importantly, Facebook also highlight that this is roughly one ninth of a novel. I guess this may become useful if authors begin transcribing their works to their fans over Facebook in nine segments. In September 2011, Facebook upped it's character limit from 500 to 5,000. These numbers seem miniscule and rather pathetic with today's gargantuan 60,000 character limit. The possibilities are almost endless. So if you ever break up with your girlfriend, Facebook now allows you to spill all of your emotions in one long, complex status update. Hopefully 60,000 characters will be enough for you to say how you feel. [via Mashable]
We've already seen some of the vibrant powerhouse that is 21st-century Chinese art — so bright, witty, and full of winking commentary on politics and pop culture. Now we have the chance to see the stage version of that with Fight the Landlord (Do Di Zhu), on as part of the Brisbane Festival in 2013. Its set-up is a card game evocatively known in China as Fight the Landlord. Here it is played by three panda-costumed women of unspecified relation, which shifts dramatically with every round. But it's their wry chatter that will keep you rivetted, as they discuss their love lives, gossip mags, the role of work, and the housing crisis, among all else, as the game escalates around them. The cross-cultural co-production between Ireland's fun and subversive Pan Pan theatre and Beijing's Square Moon Culture has been recognised as representing the heights of contemporary Chinese absurdism in reviews from China and Melbourne. You can get a particularly close perspective on it if you pull up your chair to the big, round game table, as the audience sits on stage with the actors (although for the apprehensive, more distant seats are also available).
This may not be a revelation worthy of a David Attenborough doco, but after years of hotel sleuthing, boutique travel experts Mr & Mrs Smith tell us they have the check-in patterns of men and women down pat: he sizes up the entertainment system while she susses out the bathroom situation. Then, after flicking on remotes and getting a whiff of Aesop toiletries, both gather to scope the contents of the minibar. When those half serves of wine and teeny bottles of gin won’t do, we suggest checking into one of these stylish wine region stays, all within cork-popping distance of world-class vineyards. 1. MONA Pavilions, Hobart Where: 655 Main Road, Berriedale, Tasmania What: Pinot noir and aromatic whites It may be the head-scratching artworks in the museum that draw crowds to MONA, but this multi-tasking maverick has much to keep you entertained once the gallery shuts its oversized doors. Situated on the edge of Hobart’s Derwent River, MONA Pavilions mixes a serene setting with ultra-contemporary pavilions and original art from luminaries such as Arthur Boyd and Brett Whiteley. There’s also lip-smacking restaurant Source and a cellar door that offers tastings of Moo Brew beers and elegant Moorilla Estate wines, made using cool-climate grapes from Huon and Tamar Valley. Book through Smith and you’ll get a private cellar door tasting and a bottle of Muse Series wine. More info 2. Spicers Vineyards Estate, Hunter Valley Where: 555 Hermitage Road, Pokolbin, New South Wales What: Semillon and shiraz Just a two-hour drive north of Sydney, the Hunter Valley is the ultimate wine-lovers getaway. Give yourself an early mark on Friday afternoon to beat the throngs on the F3, then check into Spicers Vineyards Estate, an adults-only sanctuary set among shiraz and merlot vines. Pop open a bottle of the estate-grown wine (free if you’ve booked through Smith), before slipping into the double spa bath. After a wow-worthy dinner in the hotel’s restaurant Botanica, a country-chic space mere metres from your suite, nab a spot by the fireplace in the cosy communal lounge. The next day, after a fortifying breakfast in the dining room, let Spicers staff arrange a bespoke tasting tour to standouts such as Keith Tulloch, Tyrrell’s and Andrew Thomas. More info 3. The Louise, Barossa Valley Where: Seppeltsfield Road, Marananga, South Australia What: Shiraz and grenache The Barossa may be best known for its big, ballsy reds and Teutonic tendencies, but there’s refinement to be found in the vale, too. Boutique hotel the Louise is a case in point: 15 sleekly styled suites with spa baths and private courtyards, plus one of Australia’s finest regional restaurants, Appellation. Reception can help arrange cellar door visits to Penfolds, Henschke and other regional heavyweights – bring a high tolerance level for intellectual wine-speak as you taste the best Barossa drops (expect to hear ‘toasty’, ‘berry’, ‘liquorice’ and ‘tobacco’ used at least thrice daily). Smith bookings score a bottle of sparkling wine on arrival, the perfect pre-dinner pep-up. More info 4. Empire Retreat & Spa, Margaret River Where: Margaret River region. 1958 Caves Road, Yallingup, Western Australia What: Sem-sauv blancs and cabernet Housed in an old stone farmhouse among rows of chardonnay and cabernet vines, Empire Retreat & Spa is a soul-soothing sanctuary in the heart of Margaret River. There are 10 modern-rustic rooms located in and around the central lodge, ranging from contemporary Lodge Suites to Luxury Villas, which feature a sunken lounge area, spa bath and courtyard shower. Hop between Margaret River’s surf beaches and cellar doors, such as Moss Wood and Vasse Felix, then head back to Empire. Here, fireside couches beckon for a grazing plate and a glass of wine (you’ll nab a bottle on arrival if you book through Smith), and the decadent day spa delivers sigh-inducing treatments including the three-hour Opulence session. More info 5. North Bundaleer, Clare Valley Where: RM Williams Way, Jamestown, South Australia What: Riesling all the way There’s more than a lilting hint of Victorian luxe to North Bundaleer, a lavishly decorated homestead on a 400-acre sweep of farmland. This is a decadent, all-inclusive affair, with meals and drinks included in the room rate, including evening canapés, killer Clare Valley wines and an open bar. Oh yes. Lord it up in the Red Room Suite, home to a canopied four-posted, sitting room with open fire and a bath and shower in what was once the conservatory (how very Cluedo). Nearby, notable locals include Sevenhill, Crabtree and O’Leary Walker for refined riesling and elegant reds. If you need to work off all of that indulgence, climb to the top of Maslin Lookout for sublime sunset views. More info
Johnny Stimson is explaining through music what human men and human girls should do, The Swiss just want to connect and St. Lucia are ready to elevate your entire weekend. 1. 'HUMAN MAN' - JOHNNY STIMSON Johnny Stimson may not be a name many have heard of yet, but it won't stay that way for long if he keeps making melodies as catchy as this. 'Human Man' is groovy, there is no denying it, and the soulful vocals and hooks that Stimson lays down will have your toes tapping all weekend long. 2. 'WELL ABSOLUTELY' - BODY LANGUAGE This latest offering from Brooklyn outfit Body Language is feelgood music at its finest. The boisterous vocals and upbeat nature of this synth pop hit make it suitable for all occasions, and if this is anything to go by, be sure to keep an ear out for their upcoming album Grammar, due September 10. 3. 'CONNECT' - THE SWISS Adelaide duo The Swiss this week dropped the video for their party anthem 'Connect', and it accents the track perfectly. Every beat constructs the next step on the Japanese-animation-themed clip, and you can be sure that every beat will move your feet as soon as you hear it through the stereo. The best part is that you can download it here for free. 4. 'IMPOSSIBLE LIKE YOU' - HOLY HOLY 'Impossible Like You' is an example of excellently constructed modern rock and roll. The vintage '70s sound is perfect for a relaxing Sunday afternoon, as are the haunting vocals that add raw emotion to the newest single from Australian act Holy Holy. Just download it (another freebie), close your eyes and listen on repeat. 5. 'ELEVATE' - ST. LUCIA Whilst it may not be summer in this hemisphere, this track sure makes us wish that it was. This tropical pop number is a teaser of what to expect of St. Lucia's highly anticipated debut album, When the Night, due to drop in October this year. Whilst you may have to wait a few months for the full offering (and for summer), you can enjoy this track liberally in the meantime — just don't get too immersed and throw on your finest sun-inspired outfit only to catch a cold.
Winter may still have a couple of weeks left for 2023, but summer is well and truly on the Australian festival scene's minds already. In the space of mere days, Beyond The Valley, Field Day, Good Things and Meredith have each dropped lineups, while Heaps Good has announced expansion plans. Now, Wildlands has confirmed its return with 2023–24 dates and venues. It's been four years since Brisbane welcomed Wildlands to the city, with the teams behind Victoria's Beyond The Valley and Perth's Origin Fields fests giving the Sunshine State a big new summer party. Fast-forward to 2023, and the event will return again to see out another hectic 12-month period and welcome in a new one. And, after expanding to Perth and Adelaide over the summer of 2022–23 as well, it's heading back to Western Australia and South Australia, too. This year's party will get started on the biggest night there is for celebrations: New Year's Eve. That's when Wildlands will kick off its latest run at Brisbane Showgrounds, before embracing 2024 on Saturday, January 6 at Claremont Showgrounds and Sunday, January 7 at Ellis Park. Wildlands boasts a focus on dance music, electronic beats and hip hop, but it hasn't announced its new lineup as yet. That said, it has been teasing his year's fests with a video set to RÜFÜS DU SOL — and RÜFÜS DU SOL are also playing Beyond The Valley and Field Day around the same time. Wildlands' last tour featured Diplo, Denzel Curry and Dom Dolla, plus Yeat, Aitch, Kaytranada, Tkay Maidza, Honey Dijon and BENE — and Yung Lean, Shygirl, Remi Wolf, Kanine and SG Lewis, too — which should give you an idea of the kind of bill that's in store. The fest does like going big — its first-ever event back in 2019 featured Tyler, The Creator, after all, as well as RÜFÜS DU SOL. In 2021, The Veronicas, Spacey Jane, Cosmo's Midnight and more did the honours. WILDLANDS 2023–24 DATES AND VENUES: Sunday, December 31, 2023 — Brisbane Showgrounds, Brisbane Saturday, January 6, 2024 — Claremont Showgrounds, Perth Sunday, January 7, 2024 — Ellis Park, Adelaide Wildlands will hit Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide across December 2023–January 2024. We'll update you with lineup details when they're announced — and you can register for ticket pre sales via the festival website in the interim. Images: Jordan Munn / Mitch Lowe.
What's better than eating a meal cooked up by the acclaimed chef behind the world's best restaurant? Enjoying his delicious fare... in the sky. Forget land — and forget planes, hot air balloons, or any other form of air-based transport that might've come to mind, too. This dangling dinner straps patrons into an all-in-one kitchen and table, hoists them into the air with a crane, and lets the dining fun begin. The aptly named Dinner in the Sky has been around since 2006; however, to mark its third year in Mexico, it enlisted Massimo Bottura of Osteria Francescana in Modena to help celebrate. The man behind the first Italian restaurant to be crowned the globe's number one eatery took 88 people 45 metres in the clouds over Teotihuacán to feast on a 90-minute meal on January 4 and 5, with dishes with names like "the crunchy part of the lasagne" and "oops I dropped the lemon cake" on offer. https://www.instagram.com/p/BO56cnyBf1P/?taken-by=milenayanes The concept has popped up, literally, in 45 countries so far, suspending folks over scenic sights in Monaco, Casablanca, Las Vegas, London, Paris, Sydney, Tokyo, Venice, Toronto and more for the ultimate meal with a view. The 2017 season will head from Mexico to Brussels, then around the United Kingdom and France, but it doesn't come cheap. Dinner with Bottura set patrons back US$2000 per head. Via: Design Boom / El Universal.
Resembling vintage photos from a bygone era, these time-aged Postcards from Above are actually aerial images taken from Google Maps and reworked by Hungarian art director, Akos Papp, ad agency at BBDO New York. Instead of just using Google Maps as a directory tool, Papp takes snaps of businesses, schools, shipping yards, airports and more, retouching them to look of a 1950s postcard. Papp was inspired by the idea of being able to show loved ones the various foreign places he has travelled using mesmerising aerial imagery, and creates a pleasant reminder of a way we once communicated. Here are 12 examples from Akos Papp's collection.
If you're looking for new activewear from a local brand, look no further than Active Truth, which is offering big promotion as part of the Boxing Day sales. The Aussie retailer is offering $50 off your shop when you spend over $200, or $100 off when you spend over $300. If you order now you'll also nab free express shipping, so you'll have your activewear at your doorstep and be ready to hit the gym in no time. Active Truth is accessible to gym-goers of all shapes and sizes, with a wide range of activewear from XS to 3XL, as well as a selection of active maternity wear and swimwear. The brand is also committed to sustainable business practices, including using locally sourced Merino wool. The promotion will run up until Wednesday, December 30. Jump onto the Active Truth website to browse the catalogue and score an end-of-year deal to help motivate you to stick to your 2021 fitness regime. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
There are some marketing ideas that are so bizarre, so outrageous and so goddamn random, they're bound to work. The beloved Sydney sinners at Poor Toms Gin are currently executing one such campaign, and it's proving to be very effective. Basically, if you call 1800 GINSUS, say "Forgive me Ginsus for I have sinned,", and proceed to confess your juiciest sins to a most-certainly-non-ordained figure, Ginsus, he will bestow both forgiveness and free gin upon you (#blessed). The best/worst confessions are being anonymously published on the 1800 GINSUS website, and the winners will pick up a bottle of Poor Toms limited edition strawberry gin. Plus, the biggest sinners are in with a chance to win the mantle of best confession and a $600 prize pack — which is probably a better prize than your local church is offering for your confessions. Makes perfect sense to us. Some of the things confessed are so mouthwatering they truly deserve a bottle of gin — even if it's just to wash away the shame. Confessions published so far include "I made out with my first cousin," "I rubbed one out at work", "I got mad at my friends for suggesting my boyfriend looked like my father (he did)", "I told my sister I was too drunk to help her move [house] but I was not drunk at all", and "I made out with someone on the grass and rolled in dog shit. We went back to his tent and had sex then I stole some of his clothes to replace my dog shit clothes”. If you've got a sin to get off your chest, this really is a win-win — all those shameful experiences you've be keeping secret can now be transferred into sweet gin... which may or may not fuel the creation of more shameful experiences and so on. It's the sweet, sinful circle of life. For your chance to win some Poor Toms gin, call 1800 GINSUS and start confessing. The hotline will be open until midnight Tuesday, December 15. For more info, visit the 1800GINSUS website.
Brazil certainly seems to have it going on at the moment. Not only are they in possession of the world's 8th largest economy and have come out of the GFC relatively unscathed, they are also playing host to the 2014 World Cup and the Olympics in 2016. Brazil is shaping up to be the place to be (or at least watch on TV) over the next few years. And if the winning design of the Rio 2016 Olympic Park Urban Masterplan is anything to go by, it looks like it is going to be quite an attractive place to be as well. Announced last week by the Brazillian Municipal Olympic Company and the Brazil Architects Institute, the Olympic Park's winning design by British firm AECOM combines both utility and aesthetics, providing a strong vision for the games, but perhaps more importantly, a strong vision for how the space can be strategically and sustainably used after the Olympics. Inspired by Brazil's rainforests and unique flora and fauna, the winning design consists of five villages, parks, sporting facilities and exceptional transport facilities. It also works with and protects the environmental features of the area, in particular a local lagoon. Brazilians have always had a reputation for knowing how to throw a damn good party. And with these designs they''ll have another great place to do it too. https://youtube.com/watch?v=JdLRuwczjwc
iAustralia's COVID-19 vaccination rollout has been unfurling at a snail's pace, and amid much confusion — especially regarding which jabs are available to Aussies under 40. They're not the only dilemmas when it comes to getting vaxed, however. Actually being able to access the vaccine is a big issue, obviously, but getting to and from appointments might also be causing you troubles if you don't drive and aren't too keen on catching public transport. To help make travelling to vaccination appointments easier, ridesharing service DiDi is offering discounted rides to hubs and clinics, and to GPs giving the jab — and back as well. The special will give you up to $10 off both trips, with each person getting access to two discounted fares. The discount is available in all areas that DiDi operates in, which includes plenty of places. Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Canberra are all on the list, as are Cairns, Coffs Harbour, Geelong, both the Gold and Sunshine coasts, Newcastle, Ballarat, Bendigo, Townsville, Toowoomba and Wollongong. Also included: Bunbury, Bundaberg, Busselton, the Central Coast, Gladstone — Tannum Sands, Hervey Bay, Mackay, Port Macquarie, Rockhampton, Shepparton and Wagga Wagga. All up, DiDi is committing $1 million to the scheme, which'll equate to around 100,000 trips. Folks eager to take advantage of the discounted program — which the company is calling DiDi Vaccinate — just need to jump onto the company's app and complete a short questionnaire to get access. "The recent lockdowns across the country, particularly in Sydney, has shown that Australia's vaccination rollout needs to kick up a gear to avoid future snap lockdowns occurring," said DiDi Australia spokesperson Dan Jordan in a statement. "We're happy to be able to play our part in supporting the vaccination drive as we are aware that not everyone has easy access to a vaccination hub, so we're trying to make the process as easy as possible to support Australia's full recovery from the pandemic." DiDi Chuxing launched in China in 2012 and has quickly become a huge player in the global ridesharing game — it has since bought out Uber's Chinese operations and has stakes in numerous companies, including Ola, Taxify, Lyft and Grab. To get your two discounted DiDi Vaccinate trips, download the service's app (for iOS or Android).
After such a long wait, it's only fitting that Australia's first batch of legalised same-sex marriages be celebrated with a healthy dose of fanfare. So on January 9 — the first day that Aussie same-sex couples can formally tie the knot — Sydney Festival will play host to a massive communal wedding reception, celebrating a huge moment in Australian history. And, it's free. Setting up in the Meriton Festival Village in Hyde Park from 6-8pm, the Love Is Love Wedding Reception will be a far cry from your average wedding, featuring the likes of karaoke carousel, JOF's 10-minute dance parties and even a hot pink swimming pool. After you take a dip and belt out some of your own tunes, Sydney DJ Charlie Villas will have guests breaking a sweat on the dance floor as he spins classic wedding bangers well into the night. Of course, you can't have a wedding without some celebratory cake, so some of Sydney's best-loved dessert maestros have been busy creating their own bespoke wedding cake designs for the event. While supplies last, there'll be a five-tier rainbow pavlova from Black Star, a limited-edition salted caramel and fior di latte creation from Messina, and an epic vegan cake from My Little Panda Kitchen's Annabelle McMillan. Those rocking fabulous wedding get-ups can enjoy free glasses of Piper-Heidsieck Champagne to match, though it's first in, best dressed for both the cake and the bubbly. Celebrate the Love Is Love Wedding Reception at Hyde Park North (entry via Central Ave Walkway) from 6-8pm on Tuesday, January 9.
Kevin Spacey finally had his moment in the Cranston-less sun, Billy Bob Thornton nabbed gold for his terrifying, terrifying role in Fargo, Boyhood quite rightly cleaned up, Keira Knightley wore a dress it took 30 people to make and Emma Stone and Lorde wore pants to make every fashion magazine have a social media kitten about. PANTS?! EGADS. But apart from the red carpet scrutiny and award-giving, here are the bits from that made the 72nd Golden Globes worth it, having just wrapped up at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Los Angeles. When Tina Fey and Amy Poehler Fired a Bill Cosby Joke Straight Off the Bat "We're gonna make it a party... what are they going to do fire us?" Cahmaaaahhhn, it's their third year presenting, all bets were off. When The New Yorker's Bob Eckstein Started Live Drawing the Event Even though no one really understood them, classic New Yorker. Check them out here. When Ricky Gervais Couldn't Help But Insult the Whole Audience (Again) "I wouldn't want to insult any of you rich, beautiful, overprivileged celebrities." Then does. When Prince Popped In Presenting this year's Best Original Song to John Legend and Common for 'Glory' from Selma, the legend himself dropped by with one of his fluffiest fros yet. When Everyone Freaked Out Over Jared Leto's Braid HuffPost called him 'a rockstar, award-winning actor and apparently, hairsyle maven'. FFS. When Benedict Cumberbatch Photobombed Meryl Streep and Margaret Cho Taken by Michael Keaton. Too good. When Kevin Spacey Dropped an F-Bomb Accepting Best Actor in a TV Drama "This is just the beginning of my revenge... I cannot believe I fucking won." When Kristen Wiig and Bill Hader Didn't Nail a De Niro Impersonation Remained flawless in everyone's eyes. When Wes Anderson Accepted his Globe for Best Picture (Comedy/Musical) in a Purple Velvet Bow Tie "Wes Anderson is here tonight for the movie Grand Budapest Hotel. Per usual, Wes arrived on a bike made of antique tuba parts." — Amy Poehler. When You Didn't See Any of This Because You Were Working or Eating or Something, Anything Happy Globes y'all. Forward march to the Oscars. Image credit: justingaynor via photopin cc.
"Your nose like a delicious slope of cream / And your ears like cream flaps / And your teeth like hard shiny pegs of cream." Le Diner en Blanc — like Howard Moon's poem — will have you in all white. But sorry, Booshers: this Brisbane event is just for the sophisticated. Now popping up all around the world, the Diner en Blanc began in Paris more than three decades ago thanks to François Pasquier and friends. In 2022, Brisbane's creme de la creme will once again dress in all-white on Saturday, October 22 and flock along, with the event held at a predictably stunning location that remains secret until the very last moment. Following an evening of elegance, fine dining and live music, the 2000-plus foodies then pack up their crystal, dinnerware, tables, chairs and litter. Like ghosts (white 'n' all), they leave behind no sign of their rendezvous. That said, don't get any ideas — a white sheet thrown over your figure will not do for an outfit. Le Diner en Blanc guests must either be invited by a member from the previous event, or get on the waiting list for a ticket — with the latter open for registrations now. And, if you're wondering what the event entails — other than eating, drinking and wearing white and white only — you'll need to bring a table and two white chairs with you, as well as your own picnic basket, glassware, white tablecloth and white dinnerware. You can order a catered picnic, though, if you don't want to bring your own. Booze-wise, you'll either need to opt for wine or champagne via the event's e-store, or be happy bringing your own non-alcoholic beverages. Wondering where Le Diner en Blanc might pop up this time? In past Brissie outings, it has brought its all-white setup to Eagle Farm Racecourse, New Far Park, Roma Street Parklands and the Brisbane City Botanic Gardens. Images: Balvin Productions.
Few actors have splashed into Hollywood like Maria Bakalova. Few actors have had Sacha Baron Cohen completely change their lives, too. Jump back to 2020 and the Bulgarian talent was 24, working since she was 12, but a fresh face internationally. Then, mere months into 2021, she was the Oscar-nominated breakout star of Borat Subsequent Moviefilm: Delivery of Prodigious Bribe to American Regime for Make Benefit Once Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan — for playing Borat's teenage daughter Tutar Sagdiyev with fierce comic commitment that upstaged everyone around her, even Baron Cohen. How do you follow up that kind of whirlwind? For Bakalova, the challenge is seeking out interesting approaches, "because at the end of the day, all of the scripts, all of the stories have been written back in the day," she tells Concrete Playground from a hotel room in New York. "It's only the way that this production company, this director of photography, this filmmaker are going to share the story that's the difference between stories that have been the same over and over and over," Bakalova notes. Cue Bodies Bodies Bodies. Bakalova is spot on; there's much that's familiar about the latest horror gem from audience-darling studio A24. It brings together a group of wealthy twentysomethings in an empty mansion, where a party naturally ensues. It strands them with an encroaching hurricane, but that's the whole reason they're drinking tequila by the pool anyway. As the Halina Reijn (Instinct)-directed film's name makes plain, there are soon bodies, bodies, bodies, starting when the gang play the Mafia- and Werewolf-style game that also shares the movie's moniker. Avoiding becoming the next victim, pointing fingers among themselves while looking for the culprit, working through their Gen Z baggage: if you've seen a slasher flick, a whodunnit or Euphoria, you've seen plenty of Bodies Bodies Bodies' components before. Bodies Bodies Bodies isn't the film that audiences expect from there, though. It's savage, hilarious, playful, twisty, raucous and chaotic all at once — and it makes the utmost of a cast that enlists Bakalova as Bee, the quiet, working-class girlfriend to Amandla Stenberg's (Dear Evan Hansen) Sophie, and the outsider in the group of rich kids played by Pete Davidson (The Suicide Squad), Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby), Chase Sui Wonders (Generation) and Myha'la Herrold (Industry). It's another movie-stealing performance and, with Bodies Bodies Bodies opening in Australian cinemas on September 15, Bakalova chatted us through fangirling over A24, seeking out a character far removed from Tutar and, yes, playing Bodies Bodies Bodies with her costars. ON DECIDING WHAT TO DO AFTER BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM "To be honest, I believe that most of the actors I like and most of the people that I look up to — I have been acting for a while, because I started when I was 12, it's been 14 years so far — most of the people that I admire in their work have always wanted to have longevity. That's pretty relevant to me as well. So that's why I always try to find something that is different than what I did before, something that is completely the opposite of my last character. Reading the script of Bodies Bodies Bodies and seeing that there is a character like Bee — somebody that is exactly the opposite of Tutar in Borat, the role that took me to America and made people somehow relate to me and root for the character — was challenging and interesting to approach and try to work on. Because she has nothing in common with Tutar, and she has nothing in common with myself. And I wanted to work with A24 as well — a lot. I love most of their movies, if not all of them. I believe they're all of them, but to not sound like a creeper, I will say most of them. Plus, I loved Halina's work. She's also a theatrically trained actress, as I am, and I was interested to work with her. I always like to work with women in charge, because every time you see a movie that has been led by a woman, there is this specific sensitivity that somehow triggers you in a different way. So with this script, with Halina in charge, with all of these female characters involved, I was excited to explore what's happening." ON GETTING DRAWN INTO BODIES BODIES BODIES' TWISTS "I was very happy to read a script where people are speaking the way that we're speaking. Bee is not the most outspoken person in the script, but the dialogue itself is just beautifully written, so all my respect towards Sarah DeLappe [Bodies Bodies Bodies' screenwriter]. You see these people, you hear them, you feel them. You see a real person in front of you. So I was excited while I was reading it, and I was questioning myself: 'Who is it? Who is it? You have to know! You have to feel it! You have to sense it!'. And at the end of the script when I get to the point that, 'oh my god, it's this!'. It's quite relevant to the decade that we live in, because we're all a little bit manipulated by some of the tools that we have access to. And we often forget to communicate, and just sit down and discuss what's happening — 'who are you, why are we friends, why are we a couple, what are we doing now?'. You just jump and judge and start blaming each other because the trust doesn't exist and you're not honest with each other. I was very thrilled by the script and the twist at the end, because that's what's the most exciting part of every single script that you're reading — you cannot wait to get to the end and see how this mystery will be solved." ON PLAYING THE OUTSIDER OF THE GROUP — AND FINDING AUTHENTICITY "I respect Bee's decisions — some of her decisions… She's way smarter than people think she is, and way stronger than their perception of her. The only similarity between me and Bee is that we're both from different countries, but that can be universal as well, because every one of us has felt sometimes where you're in a place and around people that you do not really know, do not really relate to, and you try to belong. So as much as she's similar to people like me, like Halina, as newcomers to this new big beautiful country dreamland, it's also a universal feeling of the desire to belong somewhere with someone. The process of Bodies Bodies Bodies has been really interesting because we got to work, to experiment, to think, and then shoot for a very quick period of time — and work with one location and a lot of settings, a lot of physical blocking. That's difficult for a theatrical play, which of course came from Halina and her desire to make this as authentically as possible — and with as long takes as possible. And Jasper Wolf, our director of photography, has just been a dream because he was following every single movement and every single decision we make in the moment. He captured things that haven't been written, haven't been rehearsed, they just happen in this moment, because Halina never said — not never, but a lot of times — she didn't say cut or stop, and we just kept going." ON PLAYING BODIES BODIES BODIES WITH THE CAST OF BODIES BODIES BODIES "We were shooting in this humongous, tremendous villa in the middle of Chappaqua [in upstate New York] in the woods, and we were staying at this very scary hotel around Chappaqua. Every single night, we wanted to spend time together rehearsing — and just hold hands and tell each other that we're worth it, we're loved and we're good, we're not bad people, because we were traumatised by the movie we were shooting somehow, and by the horrible people that we had to play. One of the nights we wanted to play Bodies Bodies Bodies, or as we call it, Mafia or Werewolf. And if was very interesting. I think it made us more into the game. And it was one of the first nights we were together, so it was interesting to explore what happens there." ON HOW LIFE HAS CHANGED SINCE BORAT SUBSEQUENT MOVIEFILM "It became more bicoastal, universal. I've been working like crazy ever since I was a child, and trying to do as many things as possible — if they're good quality — but I just want to keep working, it makes me happy. It makes me happy to have the chance to portray all of these different people and try to think like them. And maybe somehow, it makes me understand people more, because I have to read the lines of this character, create their backstory and believe them. When you get the chance to explore different characters and their reasons, you are not so judgemental when you meet people in real life. That's why I'm passionate about acting and working. But the biggest change is that I hope people will pay more attention to people from my region of the world, people like me, people who haven't been in the spotlight yet and haven't been given a chance." Bodies Bodies Bodies screens in Australian cinemas from September 15. Read our full review. Images:Erik Chakeen / Gwen Capistran / The cast and crew of Bodies Bodies Bodies / A24.
The days are dwindling down, and you've come to a stressful realisation: you've left your Christmas shopping until late in the season again. Let's face it, you're not alone. Thankfully, trawling the mall isn't your only option when it comes to finding a gift or grabbing ingredients for a delicious meal. Returning for another year from 6–10pm on Friday, December 14, the Carseldine Markets is hosting a twilight event brimming with the spirit of the season. Get your list ready, because all the art, craft and fresh produce stalls you know and love will be on site, just waiting to help you out of a festive fix. In 2017, there was more than 180 of them,. Prepare to tuck into festive treats, too (because you'll need to eat while you browse), as well as ample entertainment. Yes, it's a Christmas wonderland. Warning: if you're more of a Grinch than one of Santa's elves, you'd best prepare yourself for an overdose of holiday cheer. Image via Carseldine Markets.
If all you want for Christmas is a trip further than your own backyard — or city — Virgin's latest sale is here to help. Jumping in on all the Black Friday and Cyber Monday discounts set to tempt your wallet over the next few days, the airline is slinging 700,000 cheap flights for both domestic and international destinations. So, whether you're keen to see your mates interstate or head overseas on a holiday, you've got options. Among the domestic routes, one-way fares start at $49 — which'll get you from Sydney to Ballina, from Melbourne to Hobart, or from Adelaide to either Hobart or Launceston, for instance. Other sale flights include Brisbane–Launceston from $59, Sydney–Maroochydore from $65 and Melbourne–Gold Coast from $79. And if you're wondering when you'll need to travel, you can book trips between January 1–March 30, 2022. Internationally, return fares cover getaways to either Bali or Fiji — including from Sydney (from $509 to Bali and $459 to Fiji), Melbourne ($479 and $489) and Brisbane ($489). They're available for travel between March 27–June 23, 2022, with Virgin Australia set to resume its short-haul international services in the coming months, starting with Fiji flights from December 16. As always when it comes to flight sales, you'll need to get in quick. They went on sale today, Friday, November 26; however, they're only available until midnight AEST on Monday, November 29 or sold out, whichever arrives first. Only some fares cover seat selection and checked baggage, however, with the airline announcing back in August that it is now splitting its economy flights into three types. Economy Lite doesn't include checking any baggage or picking your seat, but Economy Choice does — and Economy Flex gives you extra flexibility (hence the name) if you have to change your plans later. As we are still in the middle of a pandemic, flying is little different to normal. Virgin has introduced a range of safety measures, including hand sanitisation stations, contactless check-in and face masks provided to all passengers. Wearing masks on flights also became mandatory in Australia in January. And, depending on where you're travelling to and from — both domestically and internationally — you'll obviously need to check border restrictions and any entry requirements. Virgin's Black Friday and Cyber Monday sale runs from today, Friday, November 26–Monday, November 29 — or until sold out. Find out more about current Australian border rules via the Australian Government's Health Direct website and its Smart Traveller website.
