Each individual member of How I Met Your Mother seems to do something cool. Jason Segel resurrected the Muppets. Neil Patrick Harris produces interactive theatre and dresses his adorable babies in adorably elaborate Halloween costumes. Alyson Hannigan was Willow freakin' Rosenberg. When you break it down, the omnipresent sitcom might be less than the sum of its parts. Josh Radnor, the personal pronoun of How I Met Your Mother, follows suit by being an indie film writer and director of some repute, having won the Sundance Film Festival Audience Award for 2010's happythankyoumoreplease. His newbie, Liberal Arts, is about a 35-year-old demi-achiever, Jesse (Radnor), who works a dull job as a university admissions officer and reads dead-tree books constantly, while walking even. When he visits his alma mater to honour his retiring former professor, Peter (Richard Jenkins), Jesse also starts a romance with sparky 19-year-old student Zibby (Elizabeth Olsen). Between her exuberance for new knowledge and the campus's leafy, Midwestern nourishment, he rediscovers some of the wide-eyed optimism of his own college days — and also learns why he can't have them back. Really, you can't blame anyone for falling a bit in love with Olsen. She elevates the whole movie, bringing a flood of beauty and intelligence to a character already written to be quite beautiful and quite intelligent. She's not a manic pixie dream girl, although the film pales from being made in an MPDG world. The story of 'unremarkable pre-middle-aged male seeks shaking up, via female, into remarkable life' is a little tired. Sure, seedy, equivocating men deserve our empathy, but arguably they've already had their time in the sun. We know you shouldn't sleep with the girl; we don't need to see your working out. There are other flaws in the film that follow on from all this obviousness: One character, Dean (John Magaro), a random student among thousands, appears in front of Jesse 'by coincidence' with such frequency he'd have to be a ghost stalking our protagonist (he's not), and his arc becomes too foreseeable. Perhaps Liberal Arts would have meant something more if all these other characters didn't so perfectly serve Jesse. They awaken him, confront him, absolve him, and release him. That said, arts graduates will nod in recognition of post-modern theory references, and Allison Janney fans will delight in her cameo as an ironically hard-hearted Romantics professors. There are several estimable bon mots. Liberal Arts may make a forgettable thesis, but you'd still find a couple of passages within it to highlight.
When Brisbane Festival unleashed Riverfire's fireworks in 2022, it moved them to the beginning rather than the end of its annual September run. That shift was a hit — brightening up the sky is always a hit whenever it happens, of course — so now the yearly arts fest is locking in the same kind of spring start in 2023. Brisbane Festival will run from Friday, September 1–Saturday, September 23 this year, with Riverfire getting dazzling on Saturday, September 2. The fireworks display has now settled into its new slot after a chaotic few years, which saw it scaled back in 2019, then replaced with a light and laser show in 2020 due to the pandemic, and finally returning in 2021. If you're the type of person who plans your entire day around staring upwards, mark your diary now. Initially, Riverfire moved to shift out of school holidays. No matter when it's held, more than 500,000 people usually attend. If you've been to South Brisbane when it's on — even hours earlier — you will have seen the masses of people to prove how popular it is. In fact, head anywhere with a decent vantage over the river and crowds await. Even if fireworks aren't usually your thing, you might still be interested in the Riverfire shindigs that always pop up on the night, with bars around town usually throwing plenty of parties with quite the lit-up backdrop. Full details about the this year's Riverfire won't be revealed until the Brisbane Festival program is released later in the year, with a few key events set to be announced in late May ahead of the full program in early July. Naturally, Riverfire itself will be as straightforward as it usually is — with fireworks doing their thing for more than 20 minutes across the evening, and folks around Brissie finding the right spot to look up. As for the rest of Bris Fest, it'll be Artistic Director Louise Bezzina's fourth at the helm, and promises another array of local, national and international artists putting on must-see shows. The event will also be endeavouring to build on 2022's successes, which saw it prove a hit not just with locals but visitors — notching up 71,866 visitor nights in Brisbane, and $12 million in spending from folks from out of town. "Brisbane really does become the stage for great art over September, and it is a great thrill and privilege to program events that amaze, inspire, thrill and challenge audiences, both local and from interstate," Bezzina said. "To this end, we are finalising the 2023 program and will have a few surprises in store that will offer even more compelling reasons to visit Brisbane this spring." Riverfire 2023 will take place on Saturday, September 2, during this year's Brisbane Festival. Further details will be announced with the full Brisbane Festival program later in 2023.
Being named the world's best gin producer for two years running, selling half of its business to beer behemoth Lion and opening a Sydney bar in the middle of the pandemic — they're just some of reasons that Four Pillars has had a big couple of years. The Australian gin company is in for a hefty 2021, too, especially at the Healesville site it calls home. Over the next 12 months, it's undertaking a $6 million redevelopment, which'll enable twice as many juniper spirits-lovers to head to the Yarra Valley and enjoy its tipples. Come December 2021, you'll be able to visit Four Pillars' Lilydale Road address and check out a much larger setup. New hospitality, production and bottling facilities will be part of the revamped site — including the company's sixth German-designed Carl still — as will an events space. The latter will be able to house 250 guests, and there'll also be a retail space and something that Four Pillars is calling 'a special sensory surprise', should you want to do more than just taste its gin. Giving the site an eye-catching new facade designed by Breathe Architecture, the new works are taking place adjacent to Four Pillars' existing distillery, and are designed to blend the two together seamlessly. So, if you're fond of the current setup — as around 100,000 people were in 2019 — it's sticking around. When the new addition opens, however, the Healesville facility will be able to welcome more than 200,000 visitors per year. [caption id="attachment_799170" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Artist's impression of Four Pillars' distillery redevelopment. Breathe Architecture/Neverstop.[/caption] "When we began making Four Pillars, the Yarra Valley was always intended to be our home — and when we found our original site, we couldn't believe our luck," said Four Pillars co-founder Cameron Mackenzie. "When the opportunity came to buy the land next door, we simply had no choice but to roll the dice and back our Yarra Valley dream to the hilt." Four Pillars' current distillery and hospitality space will continue operating as normal while the new works are taking place, and continue serving up the brand's award-winning range — which includes barrel-aged, bloody shiraz, rare dry, spiced negroni, Christmas, overproof, olive leaf and summer-inspired gins. And, if you've made the visit since the Healesville spot reopened over the summer, only to find queues snaking outside, that's one of the things the big revamp is designed to address. Four Pillars' revamped distillery will open at 2–6 Lilydale Road, Healesville, in December 2021. The company's existing site at the same address is still open as usual during the redevelopment.
Brisbane is pretty much like an extra family member to me. I’ve known it my whole life; complain pretty frequently about what it lacks yet am super protective if anyone from Sydney/Melbourne should throw some chat northward. It’s also pretty good at surprising me with greatness, whether it’s an awesome Christmas present, or the even awesome-er ‘Thousand in Twenty’ celebrations for Rave Magazine’s birthday. This magnificent event was born out of two massive Rave Magazine stats that occur this year: its 20th birthday and its 1000th issue. The main theme that the organisers seem to have chosen is highlighting how super the Brisbane music scene actually is, and they have succeeded. Opening the night the night are local cool kids Inland Sea, Velociraptor, and Dave McCormack & The Polaroids. Following them is The Brisband Experience, a crazy collaboration including but not limited to Katie Noonan (george, Elixir), Dan James (Drawn From Bees), Caleb James (Rhubarb), Thomas Murphy (The Bloodpoets), Ben Dalton (Hungry Kids Of Hungary), Tony Garrett (The Boat People), and Steve Pope (Transport, Kate Miller-Heidke). Finally, headlining this celebration of Brisbane is a super mystery act that Rave refuses to announce but suffice to say, given the caliber of the other acts I’m sure everyone will be happy with their choice. Now, has anyone actually finished reading this without buying a ticket yet? What’s wrong with you?! Go forth and purchase!
As far as crowd-pleasing music goes, it's hard to top a Fleetwood Mac playlist. Formed in the late 60s, the British American rock band cemented itself in musical history with now-classic tunes like 'Little Lies', 'The Chain', 'Dreams' and more. Sadly, the band members themselves have hung up their guitars, but that doesn't mean we can't continue to enjoy their hits live. Thanks is due to Concerts By Candlelight, the event series you've no doubt heard about on social media. The concert group is rolling out the 2025 event program and the first item on the agenda is The Music of Fleetwood Mac By Candlelight. With a live band and a cast of West End singers performing all the hits (and selling out shows in the UK), the tour is hitting Australia and New Zealand throughout February and March. After a series of shows across the ditch, The Music of Fleetwood Mac By Candlelight will kick off an Australia-wide tour. First up is QLD, with the concert hitting the Gold Coast and The Star Theatre on Friday, February 28. Then, on Friday, March 7, it's Sydney's turn at Darling Harbour Theatre — followed by a stop at Melbourne Town Hall on Tuesday, March 11. Later that week, it crosses the country to PCEC Perth for a show on Friday, March 14, before finishing at Her Majesty's Theatre for an Adelaide performance on Friday, March 28. The Music of Fleetwood Mac By Candlelight will tour across cities in Australia and New Zealand from Friday, February 14 to Friday, March 28. For more information or to book tickets, visit the website.
You're soon about to lead an existence in which you carry chicken salt and vinegar in your bag at all times. Australian hot chip vending machines are about to be all up in your grill. Again, slower. Hot. Chip. Vending machines. According to the ABC, the Perth-based Hot Chips Company have been cooking this up for the last five years, inspired by Australian '90s models and similar developments in Dubai, Japan, the UK and Belgium. They've been working with WA potato processor Bendotti Exporters to create the perfect take-away solution for late night snackery — reppin' the Western Australian potato industry while they're at it. Stephen Bendotti (of Bendotti Exporters) told the ABC the chips will be freshly cooked while you wait, all inside the machine. "You put your money in and it goes from frozen to the fryer and in your cup within two minutes and 20 seconds," he said, with an aim to whittle that waiting time down to two minutes. And in case you're freaking out over the hefty price of Perth airfares to try this out, these babies are going national. According to the ABC, Bendotti's friends over at WA Chip are going to roll them out Australia-wide. So how long will we have to wait for the mighty hot chip robots? Apparently we're looking at national distribution by December 2015, with trials and development continuing until then. We're still waiting on details for condiments, salt options and cost, so watch this space for your chippie deets. Via ABC. CORRECTION 29/1 3:15PM : We initially ran this story reporting that these were Australia's first hot chip vending machines. They aren't, in fact, the first, as numerous models have made their way through Australian cities since the '90s. Apologies for the wrong info, we got way too excited about the prospect. Image: will ockenden via photopin cc
If you're fond of spending your time browsing through stalls, looking at local wares and buying everything from arts and crafts to fashion and homewares, then you've probably made a visit to a BrisStyle market. The Brisbane group hosts several regular events around town, including the Brisbane Twilight Markets in King George Square and The Handmade Markets outside the Queensland Museum. It doesn't usually focus primarily on greenery, though — which is one of the reasons that its returning Plant Market is so special. Here are two others: it's happening in spring, so it's the ideal time for it; and it's happening in Roma Street Parklands. From 9am–2pm on Saturday, September 23, you'll want to head to Roma Street Parklands's Celebration Lawn to get shopping. Yes, you'll be looking for greenery while surrounded by greenery. As well as plants, there'll be pots, gardening accessories and floral-themed homewares on offer, with more than 25 stallholders selling their goods. You'll also be able to chat to experts to get some tips about putting your green thumb to best use. Expect food vendors onsite as well, because we all know that trawling the markets is hungry and thirsty work. Or, you can grab a picnic basket — if you pre-order first — from Roma Street Parklands' The Garden Room Cafe. Either way, live tunes will provide a soundtrack. Before or after your purchasing and picnicking, take a wander to the site's Spectacle Garden, too, where 10,000-plus flowers are blooming.
A lot of doco makers rely on the adage that 'truth is stranger than fiction'. A few supremely lucky ones find a story that is so mind-bogglingly strange that they could sit back and let the film make itself. The Imposter is just such a story, at every stage revealing another layer of the bizarreness of which human beings are capable. British director Bart Layton is no slouch, either; the film is slickly made, metring out its tantalising information and almost single-handedly reviving the use of re-creation as a respected documentary tool. The subject is an incident in 1997 in which a 17-year-old Texan boy, Nicholas Barclay, was returned to his family after having been missing for three years. Except he turned up in Spain, had no physical resemblance to the missing blue-eyed boy, was noticeably older, and spoke with a French accent. He was accepted back into the family regardless. His sister thought she could recognise that smile anywhere. From the relatives to the authorities, everyone around him seemed ready to excuse the differences, taking the 'he's not the little boy you knew' trope to extreme and literal levels. In reality, the boy was French con man Frederic Bourdin, a 23-year-old obsessively seeking the comfort of childhood. At first, it seems the documentary reveals his identity prematurely, almost right from the beginning — but that's just because you don't know, at that point, of all the twists that remain for the story to take. The supremely tense Imposter features sensitive, in-depth interviews with almost all of the major characters in the incident, including Bourdin, the FBI agent who handled his repatriation, the PI whose suspicions uncovered the truth and Nicholas's mother and sister. Without them, no number of re-creations could have carried the story so far or got you close to understanding any of these people's motivations. And as for the re-creations, they're filmed with a keen cinematographer's eye and a sense of enigma, putting them at a long distance from those we're used to on made-for-TV specials. https://youtube.com/watch?v=mENui3UdMOY
A few people are saying the Simon Pegg/Nick Frost/Edgar Wright partnership is getting tired. There might be some truth to that, but it isn't tired yet. The World's End — the third film in their 'Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy', a series of comic genre mash-ups that also happen to feature a random Cornetto ice-cream in each one — is a whirlwind of exuberant humour it's easy to get swept up in. Sure, some of the surprise of the mash-up twist has faded since 2004's breakthrough Shaun of the Dead, but the team has also matured as actors, filmmakers and observers of the human condition. The particular human condition they're concerned with this time around is the sad state of being stuck in one's halcyon days, particularly when they're situated in high school, particularly when you're now nearing 40. Pegg plays the thusly afflicted man-child, and it's far from the loveable, self-effacing type of loser character we're used to seeing him be. As Gary King, he is a real loser, still sporting his teenage sludgy black hair and greatcoat, still driving 'The Beast' registered in someone else's name, still embarrassingly overconfident and still sleazing onto women in the loos. He's so close to being unlikeable, yet there's just enough good in him — and just a smidge of relatability — that we want him to win on his ridiculous quest to unite his high school buddies and claim the victory that should have been theirs 20 years earlier: completion of a 12-stop pub crawl known as the Golden Mile. Gary's more capably adult friends — Andrew (Frost), Steven (Paddy Considine), Oliver (Martin Freeman) and Peter (Eddie Marsan) — want out of the caper not long after arriving back in their insular home town, Newton Haven. But then they discover the place has gone Invasion of the Body Snatchers in their absence, and fighting off invading alien robot hordes takes precedence over fighting each other. All the while, following some spectacular drunk-person reasoning, they continue the course of their pub crawl to the mythic World's End bar. In some ways, The World's End doesn't feel like the final movie of the trilogy; it has the anarchic, careening, appropriately drunken energy of an early oeuvre picture, but one suspects that mood is actually harder to control than it looks. The movie is also unexpectedly mature in its human drama, teasing out the fraught relationship we have with our histories and ultimately encouraging us to go a little less hard on our past selves. There's great joy in watching The World's End, and plenty of rewards in the team's signature brand of comedy. Maybe it is time to move on from the genre mash-up, but this is a thundering way to go out. https://youtube.com/watch?v=7ibQvQUpMTg
Let’s face it, the past few months have been a boon for Mayan 2012 doomsayers. Floods in Australia, Christchurch flattened by an earthquake, and most recently Japan suffering the triple blow of quake, tsunami, and nuclear catastrophe. The scenes of devastation have led people to donate cash and their own time to help with relief efforts. But what do you do if the tyranny of distance and the fact you’re a struggling artist make it impossible to help out? Well, why not donate your art? Proving that the internet can actually be used for good, BuzzFeed has collated a gallery of art works inspired by the disaster in Japan, with the artists donating proceeds to relief efforts. A number of the works are from the Threadless Japan and Pacific Relief T-shirt Challenge, which called for designs reacting to the events in Japan — the most popular design will soon go into production and be sold to raise money for the Red Cross. Others come from the Poster Cause Project, which gets artists to design posters for a new cause each month and donates 50% of all profits to charity. Others still, like the charitable storm troopers are the artists’ own initiative. Browse the Art for Japan gallery and, if something grabs your attention, don’t be afraid to purchase – after all, it’s going to a good cause. Or, if you’re feeling arty, why not donate your creative juices to something meaningful? Threadless are now calling for submissions on the theme ‘Acts of Green’ to support Earth Day.
Cards on the table: thanks to Russian Doll and the Knives Out franchise, Natasha Lyonne and Rian Johnson are both on a helluva streak. In their most recent projects before now, each has enjoyed a hot run not once but twice. Lyonne made time trickery one of the best new shows of 2019, plus a returning standout in 2022 as well, while Johnson's first Benoit Blanc whodunnit and followup Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery were gems of the exact same years. The latter also saw the pair team up briefly — Lyonne and Johnson, that is, although getting a Russian Doll-meets-Knives Out crossover from the universe, or just the Netflix algorithm, would be a dream. Until that wish comes true, there's Poker Face. It's no one's stopgap or consolation prize, however. This new mystery-of-the-week series is an all-out must-see in its own right, and one of 2023's gleaming streaming aces already. Given its components and concept, turning out otherwise would've been the biggest head-scratcher. Beneath aviator shades, a trucker cap and her instantly recognisable (albeit sun-bleached here) locks, Lyonne plays detective again, as she did in Russian Doll — because investigating why you're looping through the same day over and over, or jumping through time, is still investigating. Johnson gives the world another sleuth, too, after offering up his own spin on Agatha Christie-style gumshoes with the ongoing Knives Out saga. This time, he's dancing with 1968–2003 television series Columbo, right down to Poker Face's title font. Lyonne isn't one for playing conventional detectives — not that she couldn't, or wouldn't nail it hands down. Streaming on Stan in Australia and TVNZ On Demand in New Zealand, Poker Face casts her as Charlie Cale, who starts poking around in sudden deaths thanks to an unusual gift and a personal tragedy. As outlined in the show's ten-part first season, four episodes of which arrive on Friday, January 27 with new chapters dropping weekly afterwards, Charlie is a human lie detector. She can instantly tell if someone is being untruthful, a knack she first used in gambling before getting on the wrong side of the wrong people. Then, when a friend and colleague at the far-from-flashy Las Vegas casino where Charlie works winds up dead, that talent couldn't be handier. Poker Face's 1970s-inspired debut episode sets up three whys: why its charmingly wry and affably no-nonsense protagonist knows when anyone around her is fibbing, why the series itself follows her road-tripping across America in a rundown Plymouth Barracuda, and why an episodic array of murders in different places is in her future. Courtesy of her gift, she's soon fleeing casino boss Sterling Frost Sr (Ron Perlman, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio) and his enforcer Cliff Legrand (Benjamin Bratt, DMZ), then taking whichever odd jobs she can find from town to town. The show's second instalment sees her car break down, requiring a mechanic to patch it up — while its third takes her to a famed brisket barbecue business, and its fourth involves a hit 90s metal band attempting to reclaim past glories on tour. In Poker Face's fifth episode, an aged-care home is the scene of a crime. And in its sixth, two former TV co-stars bicker their way through a play until someone becomes a victim. "Why?" isn't just a question that Johnson — as Poker Face's creator, the writer and director of its first instalment, a helmer twice more, plus a scribe once again as well — has to establish, and fast. As Charlie notes about her preternatural ability, "the real trick of it is figuring out why: why somebody is lying". People spout fabrications and deceptions all day every single day, as she can't avoid everywhere she goes. Mostly, they're minor and have little impact on anyone else, Charlie advises. But it's the reasoning behind the bigger falsehoods that she's interested in. So, the show moves her from place to place, has her hear a lie just as a body shows up, then saddles her with puzzling out what's going on — and, yes, why. Poker Face doesn't hide its own formula, laying it bare from the outset. In its opening episode and all that follow, the focus initially sits with someone who isn't long for this world, their killer and the surrounding players. Viewers watch what happens to that chapter's fated person, scope out all the connected parties, then team up with Charlie — learning where she fits in and witnessing her getting to the bottom of the latest death. Poker Face's audience has the advantage of already seeing what occurred, of course. But, as it does for Charlie, the why still requires unravelling. Often she's putting together what viewers know, but adding further details or context, or seeing the various pieces from different angles. She's also openly calling bullshit frequently, with Lyonne uttering it as often and distinctively as she does "cockroaches" in Russian Doll. In the era of peak TV — peak streaming also — as populated by hook-heavy series demanding non-stop binges, Poker Face does something old-fashioned: it revels in its standalone chapters. Wanting to watch one after another after another is still the end result, but soaking in each mystery rather than constantly setting up the next twist is the show's main aim. Some elements bleed from one instalment to the next, as Charlie keeps trying to evade her pursuers. But for between 45–60 minutes per episode, there's a whodunnit to solve, a contained cast of players, and plenty of Lyonne being a sharp, droll and astute delight. Sometimes she's tasting pieces of wood, too, or calling a dog a fascist. In fact, in the same very episode that contains the timber chewing and canine altercations, she also introduces someone to Bong Joon-ho's Okja — because Poker Face's small joys are many. As comes with the case-of-the-week territory — see also: one of the all-timers in this genre, Law & Order — this series' sweet sleuthing baby is joined by a masterful cast of familiar guest stars. When Lyonne isn't squaring off against Adrien Brody (See How They Run), she's hanging out with The Menu's Hong Chau and Judith Light, or with Lil Rel Howery (Deep Water) and Danielle MacDonald (The Tourist). Her Russian Doll mother Chloë Sevigny (Bones and All) leads those aforementioned metal rockers, while Joseph Gordon-Levitt (Pinocchio), Ellen Barkin (Animal Kingdom), Nick Nolte (The Mandalorian), Cherry Jones (Succession), Jameela Jamil (She-Hulk: Attorney at Law) and newly minted Oscar-nominee Stephanie Hsu (Everything Everywhere All At Once) also feature. Throw in Johnson's own history with mysteries, hailing back to his stellar 2005 movie debut Brick and also including Looper, and Poker Face couldn't boast a better winning hand. Going all in for the series and its big bag of fun is the natural response. Check out the full trailer for Poker Face below: Poker Face streams from Friday, January 27 via Stan in Australia and TVNZ On Demand in New Zealand. Images: Peacock.
First, it turned Speed into a play. Then, it gave Titanic the same treatment. Now, Act/React is saying "yippee-ki-yay" to the mother of all Christmas-set action films. Break out the white singlets, get festive and prepare to spend plenty of time watching someone crawl around in vents, because Die Hard is coming to the stage, too. This comedic theatre performance will transform the Brisbane Powerhouse's Turbine Platform into Los Angeles' Nakatomi Plaza, let European terrorist Hans Gruber do his worst and task New York cop John McClane with saving the day — with help from the dad from 80s and 90s sitcom Family Matters. Throw in more than a few one-liners, incredibly low-fi special effects and an all-round comic atmosphere, and that's Die Hard: The Movie, The Play, which'll unleash its mayhem from Thursday, November 21 to Sunday, December 1. Playing as part of this year's Wonderland festival, this is one hijacking you'll want to witness.
The inaugural Vivid Residence is the headline event in Vivid Sydney's huge new food lineup. The two-week residency brings a hotly sought-after international chef behind the pass of one of Sydney's most beloved fine diners. The bad news: this exceptional dining opportunity is completely sold out — and with good reason. The once-in-a-lifetime event will give hungry Sydneysiders the chance to savour a menu from Daniel Humm — of New York's three Michelin–starred Eleven Madison Park — at Aria Sydney between Tuesday, June 6–Saturday, June 17. [caption id="attachment_902234" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Steven Woodburn[/caption] The good news: deliciously, we managed to secure a few tickets (five pairs, specifically), just for you. If you're not already aware, along with its starry reputation, Eleven Madison Park and its plant-powered plates have previously sat at number one on the World's Best 50 Restaurants list. Backdropped by the glittering harbour, Humm and his team, with the support of Aria, will offer a nine-course tasting menu (and a slightly shorter lunch menu) capturing the essence of NSW. In this exclusive Concrete Playground Trips package, you and your date will choose between a lunch and dinner service at Aria, stay in a superior heritage room at the Harbour Rocks Hotel and then enjoy breakfast the next morning. All the makings of a standout winter trip to Sydney. To secure one of the last five spots, book your package stat. Eleven Madison Park takes over Sydney's Aria from Tuesday, June 6 till Saturday, June 17. Take in the full Vivid Sydney experience with Concrete Playground Trips' exclusive event package, which includes lunch or dinner for two at the Eleven Madison Park x Aria Vivid Residence, one night at The Harbour Rocks hotel and breakfast for two the next morning. For more information, head to the website. Specific dates and dining times apply.
So, you've always wanted to explore Australia, but keep jetting off overseas instead. Or, maybe you like the idea of travelling more than actually doing it. For anyone keen to experience destinations they haven't yet visited — and for those that are happy enough to pretend that they're on holiday instead of hopping on a plane — virtual reality offers a solution. And, with their new VR app, Qantas is jumping on that bandwagon. Fresh from announcing that they're closing in on non-stop flights between Australia and Europe, the airline has released their next attempt to change travelling as we know it. Courtesy of 13 immersive 360-degree videos, you can now enjoy everything from a world-first virtual fly over of Uluru to diving at the Great Barrier Reef off Hamilton Island. Heading to Sydney's VIVID, climbing the Harbour Bridge, taking a sunset river cruise through Kakadu National Park, and discovering the spectacular sights and inhabitants of Ormiston Gorge — they're all on the agenda (and once you've felt just like you're there, Qantas is clearly hoping that you'll book a real trip). You can also glide in a hot air balloon over Alice Springs and sail to Whitehaven Beach as part of your virtual tour of the country. Additional content showcasing other locations will be rolled out over the coming weeks, so if you've caught the VR travel bug, your journey is just beginning. And while the Qantas VR app is currently available on iPhone, Android, Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive devices, don't stress if you don't have the requisite headwear — you can also watch in 2D mode on your phone.
If you're a vegetarian, worshipper of eggplant or just a keen home cook, chances are Yotam Ottolenghi has had some impact on your life. In fact, we bet you've got at least one of his bestselling cookbooks in your cupboard. Next year, you'll be able to learn a few more tips and tricks from the renowned Israeli chef as he heads to Down Under for a speaking tour. The trailblazing chef, author, TV personality and restaurateur whose name has become its own cooking style is touring the country in 2023 off the back of his book Ottolenghi Flavour, which builds on his love for innovative vegetable-based recipes. And yes, this'll sound familiar, as he was planning to head Down Under in 2021 and at the beginning of 2022 — but we all know what got in the way. [caption id="attachment_864021" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Stuart Simpson[/caption] Yotam Ottolenghi — Flavour of Life will hit Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide, Brisbane, Melbourne, Auckland and Wellington in January — and, as well as dishing up a few spicy secrets behind mouthwatering hits like miso butter onions and spicy mushroom lasagne, the show will provide an opportunity to hear directly from the man himself about his influences and experiences. It also promises to delve into Ottolenghi's experience as the owner of famed London restaurants Nopi and Rovi, how he approached home cooking during the COVID-19 pandemic and how you can dial up the flavour in your own kitchen. [caption id="attachment_768174" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Flickr/Stijn Nieuwendijk[/caption] YOTAM OTTOLENGHI 2023 AUSTRALIAN TOUR: Saturday, January 21 — Canberra Theatre Centre Sunday, January 22 — ICC Sydney Monday, January 23 — Adelaide Convention Centre Wednesday, January 25 — Kiri Te Kanawa Theatre, Aotea Centre, Auckland Friday, January 27 — Michael Fowler Centre, Wellington Saturday, January 28 — QPAC Concert Hall, Brisbane Sunday, January 29 — Hamer Hall, Arts Centre Melbourne The Yotam Ottolenghi — Flavour of Life will tour Australia and New Zealand in January 2023. For further details or to buy tickets, head to the tour website.
Love may not cost a thing, as many a pop song has told us, but a nice date often requires a little cash. The good news, of course, is that taking your significant other out for dinner needn't empty out your bank account. On the other hand, if you have some money to splash around, there's always a top-notch place to do so. Brisbane's dining scene caters for both scenarios and everything in between at that. If you're all about quality time rather than dolling out the cash; if your wallet is feeling healthy, but not too stuffed; and if you're eager to go all out for a special occasion (or just because) — we've teamed up with Suncorp to find a tiptop date spot for any budget. Suncorp's Platinum Credit Card* works with your existing spending habits, earning you extra points for every dollar you spend on everyday essentials like groceries, that cheeky mid-week wine or this date you're now planning. Read on to discover five places for your next date night — whether you're looking to spend under $40 or ready to make it rain. [caption id="attachment_637609" align="aligncenter" width="1620"] Anwyn Howarth.[/caption] UNDER $40: TARO'S RAMEN, ASCOT A trip to Tokyo isn't the most affordable date, sadly, even if you're an online shopping wizard and manage to nab super cheap airfares. A trip to Taro's Ramen will make you feel like you've made the flight anyway, however, even it takes far less time to get to one of its authentic-style eateries around town. Heading to the original spot in Ascot is recommended, as is sitting outside on Racecourse Road, ordering a fiery bowl of tonkatsu and slurping away. A spicy, noisy broth makes the heart grow fonder, perhaps? Of course it does — and a delicious noodle soup from one of Brisbane's premiere Japanese joints, paired with a refreshing splash of sake, most definitely will. UNDER $60 PER PERSON: NOTA, PADDINGTON Taking over the Paddington space formerly occupied by relocated fine-diner Montrachet, Nota is big on casual style — but refreshingly light on your wallet. On the menu are "simple but satisfying meals", according to owners (and ex-Moda alumni) Kevin Docherty and Sebastiaan de Kort, aka the kind that go well with a few relaxing wines and great conversation. Standouts include the slow-cooked octopus with raspberry emulsion, fennel and citrus; and the Brisbane Valley quail with sweet corn polenta and burnt butter. And if you're after more of a snacks-and-vino kind of date, and less of a sit-down affair, you can get cosy at the bar and tuck into a range of bites that start from $5. UNDER $80: HELLO GORGEOUS, NEWSTEAD You've gotta love a bar and restaurant with a name that doubles as an ace greeting for your date. Grab your gorgeous partner, take them along to this Newstead spot and welcome them to a neon-hued meal with a cruisy tropical vibe. Cocktails are a huge highlight at Hello Gorgeous — and if you or your other half prefer flavoursome beverages with a bit less booze (or one of you has to guide the chariot home), both non-alcoholic and low-alcoholic options are available. As for the food, it's all designed to share, like the fun you'll be having. Go small with oysters, ceviche, beef carpaccio or stuffed chilli crab; graze over a charcuterie, cheese or vegetarian board (or several); or opt for tuna loin burgers, lamb cutlets or black angus tenderloin from the mains selection. UNDER $100: MR PERCIVAL'S, BRISBANE CITY Are you a firm believer that a stellar date needs a sublime location? If so, then Mr Percival's is the place you're looking for. One of the first spots to open at the CBD's revamped Howard Smith Wharves precinct, this bar and restaurant isn't simply sat next to the river; as the movie pelican it takes its name from, it's perched on top of it. That means that you and your partner can snuggle up inside an overwater octagon, take in the view and swoon over the pastel pink decor (when you're not swooning over each other, naturally). Nosh on lobster rolls, whipped cod roe served with a warm baguette, and anchovies topped with olive oil, lemon and garlic, because seafood is unsurprisingly a focus here. Then, pick from 17 different cocktails or 50 wines — and feel the love. ONE BIG BLOWOUT: 1889 ENOTECA, WOOLLOONGABBA If the way to your loved one's heart is through their Italian-loving stomach, you'll want to make a beeline to Woolloongabba's resident Roma-style restaurant at the cosy end of Logan Road. 1889 Enoteca has been a Brisbane favourite for years, not only thanks to its heaped bowls of sugo-topped rigatoni, sand crab linguine, succulent veal saltimbocca or espresso-soaked tiramisui, but because you'll get comfy in a booth and never want to leave. For those who are really heading in for the long haul, the four-course Roma menu is a top way to tuck into many of the eatery's signature dishes — and comes with matched wines in both half and full-glass options. Speaking of vino, 1889 Enoteca is known for its packed cellar, so expect to be spoiled for boozy choice. Seize the day, make your everyday moments count and get rewarded all the while with Suncorp. *Issued by Citigroup Pty Limited ABN 88 004 325 080 AFSL No. 238098 Australian credit licence 238098.
If this Cinco de Mayo finds you in Byron Bay (and if it does, let it be known that we’re jealous), salsa on down to seasprayed local cantina Miss Margarita. This colourful shack does the kind of vibrant, uncomplicated, flavourful Mexican nosh you’d expect from the beachside town and once hub of hippiedom, and they’re joining forces with Corona to celebrate the now-international day of Mexican culture appreciation (slash excuse to challenge yourself to a fajita-eating competition of one). Head down at lunch, hand over $15, and you get a Corona and two of Miss Margarita’s super fresh tacos. These guys are no mean feast, with varieties like tropical pork with pineapple, shredded chilli and tamarind beef, and house black beans with feta and jalapenos that’ll have you lip-smacking and finger-licking your way out of there. They’ve also got $25 Corona buckets all day long (or one for $7.50) and a $5 happy hour from 5–6pm. That’s a deal we can say ¡Salud! to.
Luxury spas and wellness clubs are popping up all over Australia right now, but more affordable alternatives are a little more difficult to find. Most of us can't fork out hundreds of dollars a month to relax our stressed-out minds and restore our tired bodies. Enter P3 Recovery, a not-so-spenny Queensland-based wellness brand that's got big expansion plans across the country's east coast. It currently has four locations — two in Brisbane, one on the Gold Coast and now, one in Port Melbourne — but there are over ten more in the works, in big cities and regional towns all along the eastern seaboard. No venue is exactly the same, but you'll likely find infrared saunas, hyperbaric chambers, hot and cold baths, and a range of therapy treatments — from compression therapy and IV therapy to breathwork classes and contrast therapy. These are available to those recovering from injuries, training to be fitter or simply looking to unwind. Compared to the luxury spas that dominate this kind of comprehensive wellness scene, weekly memberships and individual sessions are somewhat cheaper — but prices do vary from site to site. The entry-level memberships give you access to wet therapy spaces (from about $25–$35 a week), while the incrementally more expensive options let you try more and more of the technologies available — these can get a lot pricier. You can also just book a one-off session if that's more your jam, either by yourself or with mates. P3 isn't as swish as the best spas in Melbourne, Brisbane or Sydney, but you don't necessarily need all the bells and whistles when seeking that self-care life. Current P3 Recovery wellness centres can be found in Brisbane, Gold Coast and Melbourne, with plenty more locations to come. For more information, head to the brand's website.
Coles, Woolworths and Aldi could be in for some stiff competition, as German supermarket giant Kaufland announces plans to open Down Under. Having launched way back in 1984, the chain's owned by the Schwarz Group, which takes out the title of the fourth largest retailer in the world. Now, with close to 1300 international stores under its belt, Kaufland wants a piece of the Aussie pie and it's revealed the locations of its first three local one-stop supermarkets. Set to drop a cool $459 million in initial investment, the group's scored planning approval to build stores in Dandenong, Chirnside Park and Epping in Victoria. Each site will be around 4000 square metres, with its own butcher, bakery and bottle shop, and an assortment of small businesses — such as nail salons, sushi bars and cafes — adjacent, too. Kaufland has also kicked off construction work on a mammoth, state-of-the-art distribution centre in the northern suburb of Mickleham. Taking up around 115,000 square metres — or the size of six MCGs — this building will be the largest of its kind in the country. Three further local retail sites are currently waiting on approval, with plans to open a stack more across the country after that. Kaufland is also planning to base its Australian headquarters in Melbourne and says it will source local products to stock its stores wherever possible. Kaufland's website states it's out to 'disrupt the Australian retail sector', delivering competitive prices across a hefty range of food and non-food items. Kauflands are slated to open at 592–594 High Street, Epping; 266 Maroondah Highway, Chirnside Park; and 1–5 Gladstone Road, Dandenong. We'll let you know as soon as opening dates are announced.
Immersing yourself in a treasure trove of theatre, art, cabaret, comedy and burlesque is enough to kick your appetite into overdrive. That hunger you're feeling isn't just for Wonderland's bustling lineup, but for tasty food and a relaxing beverage too — and the festival delivers on both counts. At the Wonderland Food Markets each Thursday to Sunday from 6pm 'til 10pm, Brisbane's best food trucks, market stalls and other culinary traders will converge on the Powerhouse Plaza to serve up all the things your stomach desires. Bring some extra cash on Saturdays, because the Wonderland Treasure Markets will also be out in force. Yes, you can see a show, enjoy a meal and take home some eclectic vintage wares, because Wonderland has thought of everything.
Some bands are so influential, so pioneering and so ahead of their time that they change the course of music history. Electro trailblazers Kraftwerk are one such group. Forming in Düsseldorf in 1970, they quickly segued from krautrock to diving into the electronic scene — and imagining the future, including experimenting with robotics, in the process. The song 'Computer Love'? Back in the 80s, it foresaw internet dating. Unsurprisingly, Kraftwerk have left their mark on everything from their chosen genre and techno to synth pop and hip hop since. Also, more than five decades later, the German outfit is still touring. Kraftwerk's live shows are an experience, combining the band's electronic music computer animations and performance art. Take note, audiences Down Under, because the group is heading to Australia and New Zealand in November and December. The multi-media project founded by Ralf Huetter and Florian Schneider, and that aims to create "gesamtkunstwerk — a total work of art" — in each gig, will play seven shows in total across both countries. The 2023 tour starts in Wellington on Wednesday, November 29. From there, Kraftwerk will take to the stage in Auckland, Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, then end their trip in Perth on Friday, December 15. Expect synthetic voices and computerised rhythms aplenty — it is what Kraftwerk's music is known for, and were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame for — plus a visual show that ponders man and machine to match. Kraftwerk's latest visit Down Under comes after the band played Vivid in 2015, as part of 3D Kraftwerk — The Catalogue 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8, which saw them perform eight albums from 1974's Autobahn through to 2003's Tour de France over four nights at the Sydney Opera House. Since starting their retrospective gigs at the Museum of Modern Art in New York in 2012, they've hit up everywhere from London's Tate Modern and Bilbao's Guggenheim Museum to Tokyo's Akasaka Blitz and Los Angeles' Walt Disney Concert Hall. KRAFTWERK AUSTRALIA AND NEW ZEALAND 2023 TOUR: Wednesday, November 29 — TSB Arena, Wellington Friday, December 1 — Spark Arena, Auckland Monday, December 4 — Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, Brisbane Wednesday, December 6 — Aware Super Theatre, Sydney Friday, December 8 — Margaret Court Arena, Melbourne Tuesday, December 12 — Adelaide Entertainment Centre Theatre, Adelaide Friday, December 15 — Riverside Theatre, PCEC, Perth Kraftwerk tours Australia and New Zealand in November and December 2023, with pre-sale tickets available from 11am local time on Monday, July 17 and general sales from 10am local time on Wednesday, July 19. Head to the tour website for tickets and further details.
Mirik Milan knows what it takes to keep the pulse of a city racing long into the night. For the past few years he's held the office of the Night Mayor of Amsterdam, a title given to the head of an advisory NGO tasked with building bridges between various stakeholders, including business owners, residents and government officials, to ensure the hours between sundown and sunup can be enjoyed by one and all. Sounds nice huh? Incidentally, if you're in Sydney right now, sobbing softly into your keyboard, please trust us when we tell you: we feel your pain — especially one day after the NSW Government has decided to 'relax' the lockout times by a mere 30 minutes. For the record, Milan feels your pain too. The former club promoter turned after-dark crusader was in the Harbour City last week as a guest of the annual Electronic Music Conference — and yes, he had plenty to say about the lockouts. [caption id="attachment_578891" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Night Mayor, Mirik Milan[/caption] "The lockouts are a symptom of an undereducated State Government," Milan tells Concrete Playground. "If you want to create behavioural change it needs to come from the grassroots up. If the idea is that you'll create behavioural change by imposing stricter laws on operators, you're blaming operators for a societal problem." "In my opinion, the reason why governments find it easier to clamp down on nightlife and just blame the operators is because that's the cheapest way to deal with it," he continues. "Starting a bunch of initiatives to inform people how to behave and to encourage people to drink less is much more expensive, and the risk of failing is much higher." Nevertheless, Milan believes the rewards of a bustling nightlife are well worth the effort. "Why is it important to have a vibrant nightlife?" asks Milan. "Because it will attract a lot of young, creative people. When you have a lot of young, creative people in a city, you have a lot of creative industries, and this is an engine for economic growth." So what would it take for Sydney to turn its nocturnal fortunes around? Below, Milan shares his tips on how to create a safe, prosperous and energetic nightlife. Let's just hope Mike Baird subscribes to our newsletter. TAKE CUES FROM INTERNATIONAL INITIATIVES THAT HAVE ACTUALLY WORKED Both the NSW and Queensland lockouts were introduced to stamp down on alcohol-related violence. But wouldn't it be nice if there was some way to do this without punishing those of us who can have a drink without throwing a punch? In Amsterdam's bar-filled Rembrandtplein district, the answer came in the form of so-called 'square hosts', whose job it is stop confrontations before they start. "They walk the street every Friday and Saturday night in the nightlife area and they try to de-escalate situations when there's something going on," explains Milan. "Unfortunately, when people have something to drink and they see the police, they see [them] as an aggressor. These square hosts are non-aggressive." Meanwhile, the City of Amsterdam has also developed an app that allows people to report antisocial behaviour to nearby community officers. "It means that complaints are dealt with really effectively," says Milan. "We understand that it can be super frustrating for residents that live around the nightlife square, and every weekend you have the same complaints and problems. With this system, you can [be in] direct contact with the community officer… and [it] really gives the residents the feeling that their problem is being listened to." But according to Milan, the biggest accomplishment of the project has been the introduction of 24-hour licenses. "What was really radical about this process was that for the first time in Amsterdam, licenses were given out not on the basis of whether you had four walls, a roof and a bouncer in front of the door, but on the basis of content," he says. "And when you focus on content you get a different kind of audience. These venues are all multidisciplinary. They have a bar, restaurant, live music, gallery space, some venues even run kindergartens." [caption id="attachment_602520" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Night Mayor Summit, nachtburgemeester.amsterdam[/caption] WORK WITH THE STAKEHOLDERS When it comes to making positive changes, Milan understands that collaboration is key, having discussed countless stakeholder viewpoints in community meetings, one-on-one talks and even at a dedicated Night Mayor Summit, the first of its kind, held in Amsterdam in April 2016. "Bring all the stakeholders together and try to come up with a solution and find a middle ground where everyone can benefit," he says. "Bridge the gap between the municipality, policy makers, small business owners and city residents. We always say by having a dialogue you can change the rules of the game." Milan also recommends fighting opposition with evidence instead of emotion. "We deal with [opposition] by making people aware that the baby steps that we make are reasonable," he tells us. "We like to run pilots, to see if [an initiative] works, to see if it doesn't have too much of an impact on residents, and then [we can make] an educated decision. Often these [initiatives] are tailor made for a certain area, because cities are becoming more and more complex… it's really about working together, and bringing operators and residents together, and seeing what works for your area." Ultimately, it helps that the economic incentive is there. "The value of the nighttime economy has become much more important for cities around the world over the last 10 to 15 years," says Milan. "I've never heard of mayors or city councils who want to kill jobs." [caption id="attachment_560788" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Kimberley Low.[/caption] GIVE PEOPLE THE RESPECT THEY DESERVE While you're never going to be able to get rid of every dickhead, in Milan's experience most people who go out at night want to do the right thing — especially when you treat them like grown-ups. "Send out a positive message," he suggests. "[Tell people] you can go out later, but you have to take care of your community." "For example, the Amsterdam Dance Event attracts 375,000 people to the city in five days," says Milan. "When people come into the airport, the first thing they see [are signs] saying, 'Welcome to ADE, be safe and have a great time.' And I get so many good responses from people saying, 'Wow, I feel so respected, I feel so welcome here, I will take care.''" "Give people the responsibility to take care of themselves," asserts Milan. "Of course, you have to have good legislation in place as well, but give them the right to take care of their community. This is a community that is open minded and willing to listen to these kinds of messages." Top image: Bodhi Liggett.
When it came time to get rid of my break up shoes (the ones my ex bought for me as he dumped me, a misguided attempt to soften the blow) to avoid wearing any more evidence of my heartache, I (anti-climactically) threw them in the bin. But what are you meant to do with everyday objects that remind you of lost love? Where do the gifts, love notes and left-behind odd socks end up? In 2006, Croatian-based artists and exes Olinka Vištica and Dražen Grubišić found themselves with a number of physical reminders of their broken relationship. What started as 'what do we do with all this crap?', grew into the Museum of Broken Relationships — first a travelling exhibition, then a permanent museum in Zagreb, Croatia, with an outpost in Los Angeles and a virtual collection online. Now, as part of the Melbourne Writers Festival's love-themed 2019 program, the cathartic exhibit has set up camp in the CBD's No Vacancy Gallery for the month of September. After a call for submissions, Vištica and Grubišić have curated a selection of items evoking memories of heartbreak and healing donated by Melburnians, which appear alongside favourites from the museum's permanent collection. Each piece is presented with a story — some simply a few words, others long tales of another time and place — and reflects how we love, and how we cope with loss. The exhibition will be open in Melbourne until the end of September — here are the highlights. [caption id="attachment_740627" align="alignnone" width="1920"] "Marie, I am getting a flat for myself, I will be back here Sunday night to sort my things out."[/caption] DECEMBER 25, 1975, AUSTRALIA The 1970s equivalent of getting dumped by text: ending a ten year relationship with a note. In just a couple of sentences, Marie conveys the hollow feeling we've all felt when disappointed by someone we loved. Did she keep this in a shoe box under the bed, forgotten about for four decades? Did she get it out occasionally and think back on the man she married, who left her for his secretary on Christmas Eve, just months after they found out she was unable to have children? With Marie's parting line we sense how heartache heals over time: "No signature. How dare he assume I would know who it was from." JUNE, 2006–DECEMBER, 2007, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA The owner of a dozen duct-tape roses says, looking back, they serve as a reminder that difficult things pass. Made by a high school girlfriend for Valentines Day many moons ago, the roses are a symbol of the carefree spirit of young love, kept gathering dust for more than a decade, long after that love fizzled out, because it just didn't seem right to throw away a gift made with so much skill, time and patience. MAY, 2016–FEBRUARY, 2018, MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA Amid hundreds of artefacts in the museum's worldwide collection, revenge and vindication are pretty common themes — from the axe used to hack an exe's furniture to pieces, to a toaster taken across the country ("how are you going to toast anything now?"), to voodoo dolls made from shirts belonging to former lovers. Sometimes our methods of coping with pain are more productive than others. These buttons were cut from the clothing of a Melburnian's cheating ex before his possessions were given back to him. The story reads, "I found this act incredibly cathartic in itself, apart from knowing it would annoy him immensely. Sometime later, I sent him some buttons. Not necessarily the right ones." THIRTEEN YEARS, HELSINKI, FINLAND If we're looking for themes among the artefacts, infidelity sure is up there — a universal experience felt from Melbourne to Helsinki. In 2012, a wife sat on the floor of her hallway, cutting a small plastic figurine into pieces, waiting for her husband to come home so she could confront him about his affairs. His response to being caught out in his lies? To take the postcards of two American silent film stars, which his wife had said reminded her of them, from their place on her dressing table mirror, and tear them to pieces in front of her face. AUGUST, 2003–MAY, 2006, SAN FRANCISCO, USA A belt left on the back seat of a lover's car, a mere week before a move away brought the passionate relationship to a stuttered end. Under the anonymity of the museum's format, the belt's accidental owner speaks candidly of watching meteor showers, naked, in a playground: "Kinkiness on a park bench underneath a blazing sky, there was more on fire than just those shooting stars." The item is donated as a way of saying thank you to the man that made them feel alive: "I never got the chance to tell him that I love him, but at least everyone who reads this will know." SUMMER, 1993, ZAGREB, CROATIA Pieces in the museum aren't all representative of tumultuous, decades-long marriages ending in tears. We all have so many relationships throughout our lives — with family, friends, our bodies, fleeting romances and brief encounters — and the collection has become a space for saying goodbye to absent parents, lost limbs, and people we knew for just a little while. From in the middle of the Croatian War of Independence, a first sexual experience is remembered with a little yellow flag from the ship that witnessed it. The Museum of Broken Relationships is at No Vacancy, Melbourne, from September 1–29. Entry is free and the gallery is open Tuesday–Friday, 12pm-6pm, and Saturday–Sunday, 12pm–5pm. Images: Tracey Ah-kee.
Remember when Pizza Hut announced that monstrosity with whole cheeseburgers baked inside the crust and everyone thought our country was reaching a critical moment in the obesity epidemic? Well, good news! American burger chain Carl's Jr is coming to Australia. Well-known in the US for their total disregard of the health conscious, Carl's Jr is a bastion of oil-soaked gluttony that makes McDonald's look like a salad bar. Many of the burgers on their regular menu contain more than 1000 calories — more than double the content of a Big Mac — and suggestions of their move to Australia were last year met with comments from the Federal Health Department. Though the franchise already has 15 locations across New Zealand, Carl's Jr will be trialling its run across the Tasman with some isolated stores on the central coast of NSW and none in our capital cities. But, much like our well-balanced blood sugar levels, that won't last long. Currently looking for franchisees, Carl's Jr is reportedly aiming to open 300 Australian stores within the next 10-15 years. Of course, there's not much you can do about fast food like this. Even with the mandatory nutritional information printed on the side, if a dude wants to eat a heart attack in a bun, he'll eat one. C'est la vie. It's the corporation's marketing strategy which might cause bigger problems. Since they employed Paris Hilton to ineffectually wash this car in 2005, Carl's Jr's advertising has perpetuated some pretty heinous crimes against feminism. Their ads, which have featured the likes of Kim Kardashian and Heidi Klum, all operate on a somewhat basic mathematical level: sauce = jizz, burgers = vajayjay, dumb people's erections = profit. Prior to their launch in NZ, a similarly offensive Carl's Jr ad was actually banned from airing at all. So we're not hugely looking forward to what they come up with in Australia but understand it's a bit of a mixed bag. Carl's Jr Australia: great news for sex pests and very bad news for people with high cholesterol. Via Gizmodo.
Picking where to have brunch isn't always easy, especially in a city that likes mid-morning meals as much as Brisbane does. Here's a new way to make a choice: opting for the venue that lets you hang out by the pool afterwards. Located at the W Brisbane hotel, Three Blue Ducks is adding a top-notch meal and bottomless booze to your Sundays, starting from October 10. Each week between 11am–2pm, you can book in for an al fresco brunch session that comes complete with seafood dishes, breakfast favourites and desserts. Think: Moreton Bay Bugs with fermented chilli and lemon, freshly shucked oysters with mango hot sauce, and grilled local prawns with pickled seaweed, chilli, garlic and avocado mousse — plus harissa scrambled eggs on sourdough with grilled chorizo, pickles and red onion, as well as sea salt meringues and vanilla ice-cream sundaes. The food spread will cost you $90 per person, and if you'd like to add two hours of drinks — including spritzes and mimosas made using Australian Distilling Co's gin — that'll up your price to $126 each. That's all great, and so is the live tunes providing a soundtrack; however, the best part comes afterwards. Once you're done eating and drinking, you can access the hotel's Wet Deck — to either laze around by the eye-catching zebra-patterned pool or swim in it.
By this point in Netflix's lifespan, and in its history of releasing original series, viewers know what marks the streaming service likes to hit. It's mostly fond of well-known faces, twisty tales and unfurling stories at a fast pace. It also likes ending each jam-packed episode with a big reveal or a new mystery — yes, a cliffhanger — so that you'll keep watching the next one straight away. We don't call these kinds of series 'clickbait', because serialised TV has been leaning on all of these elements since before the term was around, and far longer than we've been streaming television shows via internet platforms, too. But that word is apt when it comes to Netflix's latest eight-part limited series, which is Clickbait by both name and nature. The setup is designed to lure viewers in quickly. The casting is as well. And, they're both meant to be buzzy enough to keep you watching after you've clicked the buttons on your TV remote or laptop, then clicked them again — another task that's easily achieved. Here, the day after a tumultuous family dinner ends with Nick Brewer (Entourage's Adrian Grenier) telling his sister Pia (Zoe Kazan, The Big Sick) that he wants her out of his life, he can't be found. Worse: a video has popped up on the internet featuring him looking bloody, dishevelled and unhappy, and making a shocking claim. In the clip, he holds a card that says "I abuse women. At 5 million views, I die." People start clicking, because of course they do. While attending to a patient at work, nurse Pia sees it and understandably freaks out. Quickly, she starts doing anything she can to try to find and save her brother. So too does Nick's distressed wife Sophie (Betty Gabriel, Get Out), teenage sons Kai (Jaylin Fletcher, Snowpiercer) and Ethan (Camaron Engels, R#J), and detective, Roshan Amiri (Phoenix Raei, Stateless), who has been assigned to the case — and seeing how a situation like this spirals out, looping in more and more people as they watch, chase leads, share information, search online and offer their two cents' worth, is all part of the drama. Playing fictional movie star Vincent Chase for eight seasons — and in the forgettable (and terrible) Entourage movie, too — Grenier got rather comfortable playing someone who was constantly in front of the camera. It's his most famous role, and audiences know it. Clickbait leans upon that awareness, but thankfully not via any overt winks or nods. The series casts him as a man thrust into the spotlight unwittingly. It tracks how his nearest and dearest handle the situation without him, given that he's missing. In multiple ways, it flips the situation that viewers have associated with Grenier for almost two decades now, and plays it for pulpy, tensely directed thrills (as helmed by Hounds of Love's Ben Young, The Newsreader's Emma Freeman, Beirut's Brad Anderson and Thank God He Met Lizzie's Cherie Nolan). Across eight episodes, Clickbait follows the efforts to locate Nick, and to discover why the kidnapping, video and everything it sparks have come about — all by switching between different characters' perspectives. As conveyed through performances a tad weightier than the narrative, the nervy, flighty Pia kicks things off, before the ambitious, promotion-chasing Roshan gets his time in the spotlight, and then the shocked but slightly aloof Sophie. Next comes other figures, including some only revealed as the story dives deeper. The show's structure teases and taunts, and strings out the detail a little longer than it should, but it also remains bingeable. This is a detective tale, with almost everyone on-screen either sleuthing or proving a suspect — among a cast that also spans Daniel Henshall (A Sunburnt Christmas), Abraham Lim (The Boys), Ian Meadows (Dead Lucky) and Jessica Collins (Free State of Jones) — and, even after just an episode or two, viewers get invested enough to want to learn the outcome. Created by Australian filmmaker Tony Ayres (Stateless, Cut Snake) with screenwriter Christian White (Relic) — both of whom pen several instalments — Clickbait also aims to make larger statements, including about the big, important and constantly relevant intersection between our identities and our increasing use of social media. Just how our online and real-life selves can differ, and what types of behaviours we might indulge virtually that we wouldn't IRL, is only going to continue to garner the world's attention. So, this Melbourne-shot series attempts to tap into the conversation, and to make other broad nods towards issues such as racism and sexism. It's less successful in its pondering than in its puzzling, including when it thinks it's making giant swerves in unexpected directions to stress various points about the repercussions of our digitally mediated existence. As the name makes plain. Clickbait is still slick, suspenseful and very easy to keep devouring, though. Check out the trailer below: All eight episodes of Clickbait are available to stream via Netflix. Top images: Ben King/Netflix.
If you're looking to host a house party soon, you might want to enlist the help of Behringer. The German electronics company has just revealed the iNuke Boom - a 700 pound, four-foot tall, eight-foot long dock and speakers for the iPod. While these speakers are wildly disproportionate to the device, they'll have a sound to match their size, with the capability of cranking out 10,000 watts. They are being released in January and will set you back a cool $30,000. The iNuke Boom is unusual given that electronic companies are constantly trying to make everything more minuscule and compact. Behringer are reminding everybody that size does matter. Dust off your old Snoop Dogg and NWA records, upload them onto your iPod and see how the old classics sound coming out of this absolute beast. Just keep your fingers crossed that the bass power doesn't cause the iNuke Boom to collapse and crush somebody. [via Gizmodo]
Godzilla is still big, but the picture around cinema's most-famous kaiju gets smaller in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, the Japanese-created creature's new TV series. This ten-episode show sits within the American Monsterverse, which has previously filled movie theatres with 2014's Godzilla, 2017's Kong: Skull Island, 2019's Godzilla: King of the Monsters and 2021's Godzilla vs Kong — and it hits streaming, arriving on Apple TV+ from Friday, November 17, with a scaled-down focus on family drama. People matter in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters, far more than they have in any of the US franchise's instalments so far. The folks hopping around the globe chasing the giant critter and its fellow titans are also worth caring about. As a result, there's nothing little about how engaging Monarch: Legacy of Monsters proves. Getting Kurt and Wyatt Russell involved helps. The real-life father-son pair portray the same character — not for the first time; see: 1998's Soldier when Wyatt (Under the Banner of Heaven) was still a child — with not just ease but charisma. That isn't surprising; as the younger Russell's resume keeps demonstrating through Cold in July, Ingrid Goes West, Lodge 49, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and more, the apple hasn't fallen far from the tree when it comes to acting talent. Wyatt slips into Lee Shaw's military uniform in the 1950s, Kurt (Fast and Furious 9) plays the retired elder version in the mid-2010s, and jokes reference how well the pivotal figure has aged to make the maths work out (in the later timeline, Shaw has to be in his 90s). Needing to make that gag is worth it for such stellar and captivating casting. Monarch: Legacy of Monsters isn't about Shaw's family, however — at least not as bonded by blood. In 2015, a year after the G-Day events of the 2014 film, San Franciscan teacher Cate Randa (Anna Sawai, Pachinko) is suffering from kaiju-inflicted PTSD and mourning her missing father Hiroshi (Takehiro Hira, Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story), making a trip to Japan to pack up his Tokyo apartment challenging several times over. There, she finds artist Kentaro (Ren Watabe, 461 Days of Bento), a shared history and links to secret government monster-hunting organisation Monarch. Those ties comes courtesy of a satchel filled with documents that Bill Randa (John Goodman, returning from Kong: Skull Island) is seen tossing into the sea in a 70s-set prologue; having possession of it sparks chaos for not only Cate and Kentaro, but also the latter's hacker ex-girlfriend May (Kiersey Clemons, The Flash). When a shadowy international outfit is on your trail, who can assist? Given that Shaw was a 50s-era colleague of Hiroshi's parents Keiko (Mari Yamamoto, also Pachinko) and Bill (played by Inventing Anna's Anders Holm in the earlier timeline), his help is swiftly needed. Amid Cate, Kentaro, May and Shaw's attempts to evade the "like the CIA, but for Godzilla" operation pursuing their every move, Monarch: Legacy of Monsters also dives into Shaw, Keiko and Bill's backstory. Shaw is enlisted into the monster realm exactly because he's enlisted, then deployed to ensure Keiko's safety as she follows her research into strange radiation trails in The Philippines — a phenomena that fellow scientist Bill is also interested in. While the Russells provide Monarch: Legacy of Monsters with its biggest names, and add depth to Shaw's emotional journey by perfecting the same mannerisms and line deliveries — not to mention letting that family charm kick in — series co-developers Chris Black (Severance) and Matt Fraction (Da Vinci's Demons) have cast their show well across the board. When beastly behemoths are simply being talked about rather than sighted, the human story never feels like filler padding out the frame until the next monster melee, which stems as much from the performances as the commitment to ensuring that pixels aren't the sole attraction. Each with their own Russell, both groups provide space for everyone's part of the narrative, plus the portrayals that go with it, to make an impact. Screenwriting convenience and cliche comes into play in fleshing out some backstories, but Clemons and Yamamoto especially have no trouble selling it. In addition to excellent casting, the series welcomely makes an even better move: taking the Monsterverse back where all things Godzilla started off-screen, aka Japan. When the creature that has multiple Tokyo statues devoted to it, plus a dedicated store as well, first erupted into cinemas in 1954 to spark a 33-film homegrown saga, it was in the shadow of World War II as an indictment of nuclear conflict's destruction and consequences — and those origins get the most meaningful nod yet in the US franchise through Keiko, Cate and Kentaro. All things Godzilla thankfully haven't moved to America IRL. Godzilla Minus One returns the kaiju to live-action Japanese movies in 2023 for the first time since 2016's exceptional Shin Godzilla, while three animated flicks (2017's Godzilla: Planet of the Monsters, and 2018's Godzilla: City on the Edge of Battle and Godzilla: The Planet Eater) have filled the gap in-between. But there's been an emptiness to the Monsterverse when it has barely cared about that history, even if making titans a worldwide threat and noting that Zilly doesn't respect national boundaries has merit. Call them kaiju, call them titans, call them massive unidentified terrestrial organisms (or MUTO): they're as meaningful as they've always been in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. While the show's main attention might reside with two eras of people on two different searches, Godzilla and its fellow critters aren't ignored. They wander, smash and swim. They cause awe and fear alike. They tower, sleep, destroy and — with Zilly in particular — protect. As Monarch: Legacy of Monsters hones in on people, in fact, it explores the array of reactions that Godzilla can inspire, the range of thinking as well and, as intended for almost seven decades, the self-reflection about atomic bombs and warmongering that the very idea of Godzilla was designed to conjure up. Balancing heart and weight while feeling grounding amid gargantuans isn't a tiny task. Making sure that people and titans are equally as important to the narrative isn't a minor feat, either. Nor is using special effects to wow with onslaughts and dwarf with scale, getting a theme tune echoing into earworm territory almost as much as the stone-cold classic original Godzilla music and making a TV entry to a franchise that plays like the main attraction. Whichever Godzilla tales that Japan spins will always be the kings of the saga, and long may they continue charging onto screens — but Monarch: Legacy of Monsters puts down a giant footprint for Hollywood's dalliance with the atomic lizard, and a much-needed one given that more will only keep coming, including the silver screen's Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire in 2024. Check out the trailer for Monarch: Legacy of Monsters below: Monarch: Legacy of Monsters streams via Apple TV+ from Friday, November 17, 2023.
On a standard visit to Sydney's Central Station, you're likely too busy dodging fellow commuters or rushing for your train to really give much thought to its past. But, in fact, the bustling CBD hub boasts quite the dark and eerie history: it once home to the city's first major colonial-era cemetery. And now you can dig even deeper into the unsavoury stories of that era, thanks to gripping new local podcast The Burial Files. True crime buffs, grab your headphones — this'll be right up your alley. The State Library of NSW curator Elise Edmonds has been busy diving into the colourful history of the Devonshire Street Cemetery, chatting to leading historians, archaeologists, forensic experts and railway enthusiasts to create her six-part audio series. You'll hear tales of mischief, madness and questionable activities, grim accidents and scandalous crimes, glimpsing into the lives of some of the 30,000 residents that were buried here between 1820 and 1900. The one-time burial ground was deemed overcrowded by 1860 and finally abandoned in 1867, with (most of) the remains exhumed in 1901 to make way for the site's next use. In The Burial Files, you'll discover the history behind the exhumations, as well as the building of Central Station, from humble tin shed to the grand stone structure it is today. Along with the podcast, the sketchy stories of the Devonshire Street Cemetery and the surrounding parts of old Sydney have also spawned a new exhibition at the State Library of NSW. Dubbed Dead Central, it's brought to life through a 35-minute audio recording and curation of historic photographs. The first two episodes of The Burial Files are available now to download and stream from your favourite podcast platform. Further episodes will be released in the coming weeks. Dead Central is showing at the State Library of NSW until November 17.
Australia's love of whodunnits and crime stories helped make Jane Harper's Aaron Falk books a hit on the page. In cinemas, The Dry brought the character to the screen back in 2021 and proved a huge success there, too. Next came sequel Force of Nature: The Dry 2, also based on one of the Aussie author's novels, also starring Eric Bana (Blueback) as the determined detective and also helmed by Robert Connolly (Paper Planes) — and now you can check it out at home. The second move in the franchise took its time getting to the silver screen. Initially, Force of Nature: The Dry 2 was the most-anticipated new Australian movie of 2023; however, it was postponed from its planned August 2023 release amid the SAG-AFTRA strike and moved to Ferbuary 2024. The picture is still in cinemas at the time of writing but, if your busy schedule has gotten in the way of you catching it so far, you can make a date to see it on your couch instead. When Bana stepped into Falk's shoes in The Dry, more movies were always bound to follow. On the screen, the film became a massive Australian box-office smash thanks to its twisty mystery, determined protagonist, stunning scenery and spectacular cast. So, throw that formula together again and you have Force of Nature: The Dry 2. This second effort sees Falk again investigating a case, looking into the disappearance of a hiker from a corporate retreat attended by five women. Alongside fellow federal agent Carmen Cooper (Jacqueline McKenzie, Ruby's Choice), Falk heads deep into Victoria's mountain ranges to try to find the missing traveller — who also happens to be a whistle-blowing informant — alive. Also featuring in Force of Nature, which has a powerhouse list of Aussie talent just like its predecessor: Anna Torv (The Last of Us) as missing hiker Alice Russell, plus Deborra-Lee Furness (Blessed), Robin McLeavy (Homeland), Sisi Stringer (Mortal Kombat) and Lucy Ansell (Strife). Richard Roxburgh (Prosper), Tony Briggs (Preppers) and Kenneth Radley (The Power of the Dog) pop up, too, while Jeremy Lindsay-Taylor (Heartbreak High) is back in the role of Erik Falk. Reteaming not just after The Dry, but also Blueback in the middle, Connolly and Bana make quite the pair when it comes to Aussie crime cinema — with Connolly the producer of one of the best local crime movies ever made, aka 1998's unnerving The Boys, and Bana famously the star of the similarly excellent Chopper. Fans of Harper's work also have The Survivors to look forward to, but on the small screen. It's heading to Netflix from the pages of the author's text of the same name, and isn't linked to The Dry or Force of Nature. Here, the Tasmanian-set story follows families still coping with the loss caused by a massive storm in their seaside town 15 years earlier, then faced with a new murder. Check out the trailer for Force of Nature: The Dry 2 below: Force of Nature: The Dry 2 is currently screening in Australian cinemas, and also streaming via YouTube Movies and Prime Video. Read our review of Force of Nature: The Dry 2, and of The Dry — plus our chat about Force of Nature with Eric Bana and Robert Connolly. Images: Narelle Portanier.
Money might not grow on trees, but furniture and artworks sure do. Visit Full Grown's field in Derbyshire, UK, and you'll see what we mean. The trees there are "grown into" chairs, pendant lamps and sculptures straight from the ground, albeit with slight human intervention. Think of it as a natural factory where unique objects are created with sunlight, water and soil, rather than on production lines. Full Grown's founder, Gavin Munro, has been working on the concept for a decade. "We started out ten years ago in a plant pot in my mum's garden," he says in his Kickstarter video. "But we quickly moved on to trying it out in a field." The process takes between four and eight years. It begins with training and pruning young trees to grow over "formers". Along the way, they're grafted together, ensuring they grow into a solid object. Then, it's a matter of nurturing the tree, so it becomes strong as it matures. The harvest takes place in winter, followed by drying out, planing and finishing, to expose the wood's textures and grain. Munro says it's important to "let the trees take the lead", yet be present "at the right times, to make subtle changes to the shapes and patterns that we want". He describes it as a "kind of zen, 3D printing". The practice has roots in ancient Greece and Egypt, where people "grew" stools. And, now that the Full Grown team has perfected the art, they're ready to take on the world. They're looking for your help to expand operations through a crowdfunding campaign. With 25 days to go, a £10,000 goal has already been smashed. Donations of £5 plus are welcome. Throw 850 quid or more their way to score a raw pendant lamp. The Full Grown Kickstarter campaign finishes on January 30, 2017. For info and to donate, visit their Kickstarter page.
Cycling escapades through artsy neighbourhoods, banquets in medieval castles, kayaking expeditions through incredible scenery to local breweries, cocktail masterclasses and late-night parties in century-old spa baths. Cruises may've once been targeted at retirees, but they're not anymore. U By Uniworld, a branch of global river cruise company Uniworld, has waterborne odysseys for all ages — and the ships, where you'll spend a good chunk of your time, aren't just ships. They're part floating boutique hotel, part restaurant, part yoga studio, part night club. And, as moveable hotels, they can also park in the heart of some of Europe's most exciting cities. Still don't believe us? We're willing to help you change your mind. We've joined forces with U By Uniworld to give away an eight-day cruise for two people. Worth up to $7,598, the prize gives you a choice of four cruises leaving port in 2018. To see France from a whole new perspective, jump aboard The Seine Experience. You'll spend eight days on the river that travels through the heart of Paris. Possible adventures include a foodie tour around Paris's secret laneways, paragliding through a nature park, a small bar crawl in Rouen's magical old city and a visit to a cider farm in Normandy. More in the mood for beer? Opt for the Germany's Finest, which meanders along the Main and the Danube. You'll take a midnight walking tour of cosmopolitan Frankfurt, a visit to Germany's biggest beer-producing region where more than 400 drops are up for tasting, a bike ride around Nuremberg and a visit to the world's oldest sausage restaurant. Meanwhile, a multi-country experience can be had on the Danube Flow. It begins in southeast Germany with a night out in mysterious, medieval Regensburg, and finishes in Budapest, Hungary, where the ship's chef will take you on a tour of a local market. Finally, you could win a spot on Rolling on the Rhine, which starts with a night out in Amsterdam, travels through The Netherlands — where you can go sea kayaking and visit the Church of Beer — and ends in Frankfurt, Germany. Whichever you choose, your prize includes accommodation, activities, port taxes, gratuities and meals for two. It doesn't, however, include flights so keep a keen eye out for any specials — this may be the perfect excuse to book that Europe tour you've been talking about for months. To enter, see details below. [competition]650728[/competition]
There is only one direction to build in Hong Kong: up. The island is so densely populated by both humans and towering structures that buildings just get taller and taller as the population swells ever larger. These monolithic buildings of commerce and habitation dwarf the masses on the streets below, and this feeling has finally been captured in a series of photographs that truly convey the dizzying depths of the tiny island. Romain Jacquet-Lagreze, a French graphic artist, captured the city from the ground looking up. Using the diverse range of vertical perspectives that Hong Kong has to offer, including shopping centres, commercial skyscrapers and residential towers, he showcases the uniqueness of a "relentlessly growing city" for his book Vertical Horizon. Hong Kong appears to be the subject to capture at the moment, with this series following earlier exhibitions concerning life in Hong Kong. In early April, Michael Wolf showcased the artistry of architecture and density of the nation's skyscrapers for a project celebrating the unseen beauty of Hong Kong's heights. His depiction of stunning symmetry conveys an urban painting that beautifies even the plainest towers. This followed the Society for Community Organisation's commissioning of vertigo-inducing photographs to highlight the claustrophobic nature of Hong Kong life, with whole families living in less than 40 feet of space. With more than 110,000 people per square kilometre in Hong Kong, these artworks highlight the unseen problem of inadequate housing. If more space is to be sourced, expect Hong Kong to get taller and taller. Via PSFK, Inhabitat and PetaPixel.
Solar power helps save the world and is one of the easiest renewable energy sources to tap, and now you can source it from the comfort of your own home, office and even on a plane. Designers Kyuho Song and Bao Oh have created the Window Socket, a plug socket that harnesses solar energy to charge your appliances. Just attach it to any window that receives sunlight using the suction plate, and the solar panels on its rear will start collecting energy from the sun, which is then transformed into electrical energy via an in-built converter, which is then stored on an internal battery for immediate or later use. The socket takes 5-8 hours to charge completely and will last up to ten hours once fully charged. The greatest thing about the Window Socket is that it was designed for portability to allow electronic accessibility everywhere. So once charged you can carry it on the move and rejuvenate the iPod in your bag or take business outside and power your laptop in the park. This revolutionary technology is an evolution of pre-existing solar battery backup technology and will transform the accessibility of solar power for everyday users. However, the product is still in its concept phase, with the designers wanting to further improve its storage capacity and product efficiency before placing it on the market, so keep an eye out. [Via PSFK]
Good things come in small packages. Many small packages. Up to ten courses, in fact. This is the beauty of the degustation menu. Degustation is a fancy French word for tasting carefully in order to fully appreciate. It’s an experience, not just a feed, and it’s well worth the price tag. If you’re of the foodie persuasion, move with haste to get yourself in front of one of these fantastic Brisbane degustation menus. Urbane In Brisbane, Urbane is synonymous with the finest of fine dining. Executive Chef Alejandro Cancino (The Good Food Guide’s 2013 Chef of the Year) designs the five ($110) and seven ($135) course menus around the freshest local produce and his team’s favourite cooking techniques, resulting in an innovative and unique dining experience. Dishes may include octopus with green apple, avocado and rye, or egg yolk with watercress and leek. As an added bonus, both the five and seven course menu are available as vegetarian. Add matching wines to the five-course menu for $60, or to the seven-course for $100. 181 Mary Street, Brisbane Esquire Brisbane’s only three-hatted restaurant is adored by many, and its Campari, orange, curds and whey dessert is considered one of Brisbane’s iconic dishes. The degustation menu, ranging from seven to fifteen courses, changes daily depending on the freshest local produce and the whim of Executive Chef Ryan Squires and Head Chef Ben Devlin and will set you back around $130. Sample menu items include the aforementioned curds and whey, pork tail with malt, thyme and cabbage, suckling pig leg ham, and blue mackerel with cavolo nero, onion and juniper. 145 Eagle Street, Brisbane ] Sake The contemporary Japanese dining menu at Sake is a big one. This is where the ‘Cherry Blossom’ ($88) and ‘Shinichi’s Spring Selection’ ($115) tasting menus come in handy. Crafted by Head Chef Shinichi Maeda, both are eight courses long, and dishes include the tender sunomono snow king crab on a fresh tomato consume & bonito jelly, an ever-changing sashimi selection, venison tataki, wagyu dumpling and more. Complement your meal with a little something from the cocktail menu, such as the ominously named Godzilla (absinthe, lychee liqueur, lime and shiso leaves, $22). 45 Eagle Street, Brisbane Restaurant II Restaurant II is another longstanding fine dining icon, having operated in the beautiful 2 Edward Street building under the watchful eye of Head Chef David Pugh for more than ten years. The ten-course modern Australian degustation menu is based on local produce, changes each month, and costs $150 (plus $60 with matching wines). Possible courses include seared scallops, smoked venison loin, roasted quail, and raspberry and lemon grass soup. 2 Edward Street, Brisbane Deer Duck Blink and you’ll miss this cosy nook on Milton Road, Auchenflower. Deer Duck offers old school decadence and is also the only restaurant on this list that offers BYO ($10 corkage) as well as matched wines. You can choose from a five-course ($75 plus $35 with matching wines) or eight-course ($120 plus $55 with matching wines) menu, featuring dishes including textures of beetroot with tomato and goats curd, pressed lamb with cauliflower puree, and chocolate forest. Head Chef Nicholas Cooper has also created equivalent vegetarian menus for the less carnivorous among us. 396 Milton Road, Auchenflower Sono Refined, elegant and delicious, Sono’s 6 course tasting menu ($88 plus $45 with matched beverages) is a tasty journey into contemporary Japanese cuisine. Fresh salmon sashimi, tuna belly sushi, seared wagyu, and the most delicious crab meat croquette all make an appearance along with expertly matched wine and sake, and the service is just as good as the food. 39 Hercules Street, Hamilton Anise With its intimate atmosphere, bar style seating, and hardworking record player, Anise is one of Brisbane’s best date locations. And what better way to while away a few of hours with the one you love than with Head Chef David Grant’s seven course degustation ($100 plus $55 with matching wines). Scallops, wagyu and duck liver parfait all feature on the current menu, and the matching wines are well worth the extra dosh. 697 Brunswick Street, New Farm View all Brisbane Restaurants.
How do you know when an event has well and truly become a part of a city's cultural landscape? When you can't remember a time before it graced the annual calendar, that's when. MELT, Brisbane Powerhouse's celebration of queer arts and culture, has only been doing its thing since 2015 — but based on the program on offer in the festival's third year, you wouldn't know it. Over the course of 12 days from January 25 to February 5, MELT will be living up to its name by melting hearts with its celebratory, inclusive and diverse lineup. Think LGBTI+ art, theatre, cabaret, comedy, music and ideas, all in one huge package. Yes, it's Brisbane's answer to Mardi Gras and Midsumma — and yes, you should snap up tickets to these six must-see eventsas soon as you can.
Chocolates are often a last-minute gift option. You've forgotten a big occasion, your choices are limited and you know that the recipient of your present has a sweet tooth. Gelato Messina's Mother's Day chocolates don't fall into that category, however — and not just because you need to order them in advance. There's boxes of chocolates and then there's this annual box of chocolates, which puts the gelato chain's winning way with desserts into action without ice cream. In 2024, Mother's Day is happening on Sunday, May 12, in case it temporarily slipped your mind. And if you pick up this showstopper, you'll be vying for favourite-child status. An important note: back when Messina first started doing Mother's Day choccies, they came filled with gelato. That hasn't always been the case, though, and isn't this year. 2024's chance to win brownie points is a box of eight chocolate bars, each made in-house by the dessert brand's chocolatiers — and each sporting a brand-new flavour. Is your mum a salted caramel fan? Raspberry caramel? Passionfruit yuzu caramel? There's three bars covered. Other varieties include cannoli and hazelnut, strawberry cheesecake, chocolate brownie and cafe latte. And if your mother has always wondered what tea and biscuits would taste like in chocolate form, they can now found out. It's not just the filling that's different on each bar. So is the outer shell, ranging from 65-percent dark chocolate, light milk chocolate, raspberry chocolate and coffee white chocolate to passionfruit chocolate, strawberry chocolate, earl grey tea chocolate and milk chocolate with brownie crumbs. So, your mum will have quite the variety to feast on. And hey, if she doesn't like one of the flavours, maybe she'll share it with you. Each box costs $55 a pop, and will be available to order from 12pm AEST on Monday, April 29 for delivery, or for pick up at the brand's Marrickville store in Sydney. Gelato Messina's 2024 Mother's Day chocolate bars are available to order from 12pm AEST on Monday, April 29 for delivery, or for pick up at the brand's Marrickville store in Sydney.
She's been compared to Bjork, Fever Ray and Bat for Lashes, but Elizabeth Rose has a sound that's all her own. Layering whimsical pop riffs with shadowy samples and her own sublime vocals, the 21-year-old Sydney producer has moved from community radio stations to bigger and brighter things in the space of only six months. Ahead of her first headlining tour, we had a chat to Elizabeth about making songs on GarageBand, the craziness of the Internet and hanging out with Gotye. How did you get into producing? I've been playing keyboard and writing music from about the age of seven onwards and have always been interested in learning how to construct a song from scratch. My older brother Anthony is a DJ/producer under the name of Hook N Sling and growing up whilst he was living at home had quite an impact on me — it looked like so much fun to produce music that I wanted to do it too. I really started getting into proper producing when I was nearing the end of high school back in 2008, on GarageBand, then progressed onto Ableton the following year and have been using that ever since. I'm the kind of person who likes to learn things by myself and do my own thing, so I guess it was kind of a natural progression on from just songwriting — it made sense to produce and mix my work too so I could have a finished song in front of me without having to wait on anyone else. What is it about a particular track that makes you want to remix it? It always comes down to the vocal melody and the song meaning for me; they're the two main things I listen out for when listening to a potential remix. From there I get ideas on chord progressions and how I can manipulate the vocals and create my own sound around them. You've been invited to play at pretty much all the major festivals over the last few months — Peats Ridge, Parklife, Field Day, Harvest and Playground Weekender — which was your favourite to play? Ooh, this is a toughie — each festival has been incredible in its own way. Well definitely not Playground Weekender because it was cancelled and I was meant to play the main stage — boo! — But in terms of lineup I'd say Harvest was the best. It was the "dream" festival where everyone was there purely to bathe in the awesomeness of each act that graced the stage — I didn't see one fight break out or any boys in tiny shorts/no shirt/muscles out... A rarity these days! I saw Portishead live for the first time at Harvest and it really blew me away, I'll always have that memory with me. In close second place was Field Day, but only because I got to hang with Gotye and since then he's been giving me great feedback on my demos, which has been invaluable. You were the only female artist featured on Radar Music's 'Top 20 Aussie Electronic Artists You Need to Know'. How do you think being one of a small number of women producers has affected the reception of your music? Yeah! There certainly aren't a lot of Aussie female producers out there (yet) but being in the minority has really pushed me into the spotlight as being somewhat "special". I don't know why but it seems to be hard for some people to believe that a girl can sing and write her own music and produce her own stuff. I guess it's quite a masculine job to be a music producer, which people see as being something nerdy. I've always had a tomboy streak in me since primary school so maybe that's where it came from. I'm wanting to push through that stereotype though. Do you think music blogs are a big part of the reason your music has gained a following so quickly? I definitely think it's one of the reasons why I've gained such a quick following. It's so bewildering to think that some dude over in the Ukraine could be listening to a bedroom recorded demo of mine right now when I've made the track all the way over here in Australia in my teeny tiny bedroom. Music blogs are a blessing — information can spread like wildfire over the internet, and I also love to discover new music by searching through them too. How did you come to collaborate with (UK producer) Sinden? The guys over at EMI music thought it would be a great opportunity for me to work with him as he was looking for a vocalist to work with when he was out here in Sydney late last year. We had two intense studio sessions together and out came this funky little track that I can't wait to share with everyone. I've been very lucky — the folks at EMI have been in contact with me since they found my music on my MySpace page back in 2007. Again, the internet is such a crazy place! What can we expect from your debut EP? The Sinden collab is going to be on the EP, which I am really excited about. I'm not going to give too much away, but you can expect a mix of dark, slightly poppy but still experimental and atmospheric sounds from the EP. It's been a long time coming but I finally feel that I am ready to get it out there. Elizabeth Rose will play Brisbane's Lambda @ Alhambra Lounge on Thursday, 31 May and Sydney's The Standard on Friday, 8 June. To win two tickets to see Elizabeth Rose play in Sydney, make sure you're subscribed to Concrete Playground then email hello@concreteplayground.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=YVNcEsuzxAA
Feeling the need for speed, posing as an assassin, faking a romance, battling tornadoes: thanks to Top Gun: Maverick, Hit Man, Anyone But You and Twisters, they've been Glen Powell's recent tasks. The actor's next job is to flee, and also to survive, in the second big-screen adaptation of a dystopian novel written by one of the most-famous authors there is under a pen name. His The Running Man gig under director Edgar Wright (Last Night in Soho) also involves following in Arnold Schwarzenegger's (Fubar) footsteps. 2025 is the perfect year for another take on the thrilling page-turner that Stephen King released in 1982, but as his pseudonym Richard Bachman. This is the year, in fact, that The Running Man is set on the page — and when King imagined that healthcare in the United States would favour the wealthy, leaving everyone else in such a scramble for medical treatment that signing up to compete in a literally killer television show is the only option. As the just-dropped first trailer for The Running Man shows, Powell's Ben Richards is the man in a bind in a near-future society. He's 35, married, has one child and is facing a medical crisis, needing a doctor for his sick daughter. He's also both unemployed and blacklisted from working. Josh Brolin (Outer Range) plays TV producer Dan Killian, who convinces Ben that entering the hit small-screen series that shares the film name could solve all of his problems. The aim, then, is for the lethal game's newest contestant to make it through 30 days while professional assassins are trying to hunting him down — and as the world watches on to huge ratings success. When Schwarzenegger portrayed Richards in 1987, the film didn't stick as closely to King's storyline. Back behind the lens for the first time since 2021's trio of films — Last Night in Soho, Sparks documentary The Sparks Brothers and concert film What the Hell Is It This Time? Sparks Live in London — Wright has also enlisted Michael Cera (The Phoenician Scheme) to lend Powell's protagonist a hand, plus Colman Domingo (The Four Seasons) as the host of The Running Man. His cast spans everyone from Lee Pace (Foundation) and Jayme Lawson (Sinners) to Emilia Jones (Winner), William H Macy (Accused) and Daniel Ezra (All American), too. The film hits cinemas Down Under on Thursday, November 6, 2025 — and its debut trailer has also dropped with ideal timing, given that watching competitors attempt to survive a deadly game was at the heart of Squid Game, which just wrapped up its third and final season, and also clearly owes King's novel a debt. Check out the first trailer for The Running Man below: The Running Man opens in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, November 6, 2025.
Your flights are booked, your bags are packed and your holiday excitement/anxiety has begun. And the last thing you want to be doing is dropping a stack of spending money on getting to the airport, either in a cab or — for those lucky enough to have an airport rail link this century — on the train. So, you'll be happy to know that, on Friday, July 26, ride share service Ola is offering its customers a pretty sweet deal. It isn't just reducing the price of trips to major Australian airports, as it has done before. This time, it's making the journey for free, up to a total value of $30 per ride. Customers in Melbourne, Brisbane, Sydney, Perth, Adelaide, Canberra and the Gold Coast can score the budget-friendly trip all day, as long as you're one of the first 1000 rides booked using the Ola app. If your journey clocks in at over $30, the extra distance will be charged at the usual price. You'll be given an estimate of your fare when you book, and tolls will also be at an extra cost. Depending on how far away from the airport you live, the $30 deal mightn't get you all the way there; however it will still save some precious cash from your travel budget — or let you use those funds for something more fun than transport. It's worth noting that the offer only applies to journeys to the airport, so don't count on it after you disembark at the other end. To take advantage of the special, you'll need to sign up to Ola and download the app, and use the code OLAVFF. And if you're wondering why Ola is feeling so generous, that's because it has just teamed up with Velocity Frequent Flyer. If you're a member of the latter, you can now earn points on every Ola ride — one point for each $1 spent on everyday rides, and two points for every $1 you fork out on rides to and from the airport. Ola's airport offer is valid for the first 1000 rides booked on Friday, July 26.
What did a negroni taste like in the 70s? That's one of the questions that Stan's, the new lounge bar at Howard Smith Wharves, now answers. Here's another: does Cantonese restaurant Stanley need a Hong Kong-inspired watering hole that combines XO sand crab cigars, lobster and truffle dumplings, design-your-own martinis, DJ-spun tunes and a late-night dance floor, all on its second level? The answer to the latter is a hearty yes. A night out at at one of Brisbane's top eateries now doesn't have to start or end with dinner. An evening at Stanley can expand beyond your meal without leaving the premises, in fact. While there's no change to the restaurant's operations downstairs in its heritage-listed 1930s-era former water police building by the river, the upstairs space has relaunched — which is where Stan's comes in. As a result, one of the city's best places to eat is now one of Brissie's must-visit places for a drink as well. Stanley announced its new addition early in September 2024, then opened its doors in October. So, when you're not tucking into a feast of dishes on the ground level — including yum cha daily for lunch — you'll want to head up a floor for beverages over snacks in a newly transformed part of the site. At Stan's, the vibe and the decor take inspiration from Hong Kong — and the idea is to mix old-world touches with modern flourishes as well. Think: jewel-hued furnishings and decor, such as rich red seating and velvet curtains in emerald tones; dark and moody lighting; antique mirrored wall panels, including the back bar; timber aplenty as accents; hand-painted mural walls across the private lounge; and aged brass cocktail tables to sit at. This is also a place to make shapes or simply enjoy the DJ's music picks, thanks to a vintage JBL sound system. The promise for the tunes: extensive and eclectic. The bar has folks on the decks most evenings, and is also hosting album listening sessions in the middle of the week. Turning the space into a late-night dance floor is encouraged. Naturally, cocktails feature prominently on the beverage list — and the approach here is classic-meets-new, too. Martinis and daiquiris are highlights, with the signature martini menu letting patrons pic their gins or vodkas, bitters and extracts to taste. If you're just after spirits and you have some cash to splash, a collection of vintage tipples from around the world, some dating from as far back as the 60s, is also a drawcard. You'll find the range of rare drops on display in a custom-built cabinet, and those 70s-style concoctions as well. Stanley Executive Chef Louis Tikaram isn't just focusing on the main restaurant downstairs now that Stan's is up and running. He's whipped up a new range of Cantonese bites just for the upper floor, designed to match the beverages. Options span steamed lobster and truffle dumplings, rolled peking duck pancakes, rock lobster buns, painted tropical crayfish, fried prawn toast and more, ensuring the venue's luxe vibes come through in its food offering. Find Stan's on level two at Stanley, Howard Smith Wharves, 5 Boundary Street, Brisbane — open Monday–Thursday 3pm–1am and Friday–Sunday 12pm–1am. Head to the venue's website for more details.
Since Netflix dropped the third season of Stranger Things way back in mid-2019, fans of the 80s-set sci-fi/horror series have been left with plenty of questions. Some were answered relatively quickly, with Jim Hopper's (David Harbour, Black Widow) immediate fate covered in an early teaser back in February 2020. Other queries took a while to answer, with the streamer only revealing an exact release date for the show's fourth season in February this year. But here's one train of thought that's been going through absolutely no one's minds until now: do they play guitar in the Upside Down? Arriving after a heap of shorter sneak peeks over the past year or so — with a couple more teasers released in May 2021, then another one in August, followed by yet another in September and one more last November — the full trailer for Stranger Things season four resolves that axe-shredding question. The answer: a wailing yes. But if you're now wondering the obvious — aka why? — you'll need to wait till the show's first new episodes arrive on Friday, May 27, or maybe even until its second batch of season four instalments hit on Friday, July 1. Also covered in this long-waited return trip to Hawkins: mysterious packages, an angry Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown, Godzilla vs Kong) setting off sparks, a new D&D club and a levitating Max (Sadie Sink, The Last Castle). Oh, and a new monster who looks like it should've crawled out of The X-Files. And yes, the vibe here is all old-school horror — which is hardly surprising given that one of those past teaser trailers had Steve (Joe Keery, Spree), Dustin (Gaten Matarazzo, The Angry Birds Movie 2), Lucas (Caleb McLaughlin, Concrete Cowboy) and Max exploring an eerie haunted house. Across the clips so far, viewers have also been taken to California, which is where Eleven, Joyce (Winona Ryder, The Plot Against America), Will (Noah Schnapp, Waiting for Anya) and Jonathan (Charlie Heaton, The New Mutants) have washed up following season three. Eleven is settling in as well as she can settle in anywhere, as she explains in a letter to Mike (Finn Wolfhard, The Goldfinch) — but she also can't wait until she can see him in person again. And, we've headed back to Hawkins Laboratory and its whole creepy setup, too. So, piece all these trailers together and Netflix has dropped plenty of clues about what's in store — but facing a new supernatural threat and trying to put an end to the Upside Down's horrors is the gang's main aim in season four. If it feels like series' creators Matt and Ross Duffer are working on their endgame, that's unsurprising. The pair announced a few months back that there'll only be one more season to follow after season four. But, this season has "a runtime of nearly twice the length of any previous seasons," the Duffer brothers also advised. It certainly has a whole heap of trailers, and the full sneak-peek clocks in at over three minutes. May 27 can't come soon enough — but until then, you can check out the Stranger Things season four trailer below: Stranger Things season four will be able to stream via Netflix in two parts, with Volume One dropping on Friday, May 27 and Volume Two hitting on Friday, July 1. Images: courtesy of Netflix.
The evocative lyrics of Oh Mercy's new album Great Barrier Grief has had listeners hooked from the get-go. The band is currently touring Australia to promote the new release, exciting existing fans and attracting plenty of new ones as they go. The band relates the experience of listening to the album to "sailing on a beautiful boat on a calm blue sea in a cloudless sky." Sounds peaceful right? Except there is a shadow lurking beneath the water, a dark twist to each song that presents a challenge to accept and overcome. This one's an emotional rollercoaster. The acoustic pop sound of the album was inspired by the Australian way of life and makes for an energetic live show. Singles 'Keith St' and 'Stay, Please Stay', already familiar favourites from the album, will be brought to life with a new sound throughout the tour to keep fans guessing. https://youtube.com/watch?v=oYMSJFwtmcM
Appeteaser is the latest collection from Lucy Folk, and boy, is it tempting. This season Folk has used sterling silver, rose and yellow gold vermeil, freshwater pearls, powder-coated steel, 22 carat gold, rubies, white and black diamonds, tsavorite garnets, ceylon sapphires and a playful bout of colour in a series of pieces designed to make you look delicious. Some of the old favourites are back, but with a twist. There's gold corn chip necklaces, peppercorn earrings and mini-taco-adorned friendship bracelets. But expect an element of decadence with this seasons offerings, as elegant pearls and precious jewels are added in subtle ways. A couple of examples we are loving from this collection include the silver and rose gold ‘Caviar Rings’ dotted with sapphires and diamonds to add some sparkle to the seduction. Anchovy cuffs for your wrists and your ears add an intriguing texture to staple pieces, and the peppercorn and pearl earrings are delicate and divine. Probably the standout piece of the collection, however, is the Appeteaser Aphrodisiac necklace. A shucked freshwater oyster shell in either sterling silver or rose gold — with a pearl in the centre, of course — it is sure to make you the topic of conversation at any dinner party. At $750 (silver)/$850 (rose gold) a pop, you might be dining out on the cheap for a while, but if you feel like treating yourself to something scrumptious, you’d be hard pressed to beat this beauty. The Lucy Folk Appeteaser collection hits stores today and is also available online. Check out the saucily tongue-in-cheek campaign video for a little more amuse(-bouche)ment.
Long before cozzie livs entered Australia's vocabulary, the Sunnybank Food Trail was serving up bargains. The one-day culinary event previously included a $2 price in its moniker, because that's how much everything that you could eat cost per plate. That gold-coin amount isn't stuck to as firmly these days, but it's still a cheap feast, including when the self-guided foodie adventure returns in 2024. This year marks the tenth iteration of this beloved excuse to hit up its namesake Brisbane suburb's shopping hubs, then delight in dining in quite the affordable fashion. Pre-pandemic, around 22,000 people showed up annually to satisfy their tastebuds, so expect to have plenty of cost-of-living-conscious company from 2–8pm on Saturday, July 13. While 2023 saw the Sunnybank Food Trail was make its long-awaited return, hosting its first event since 2019 following a break for COVID-19 reasons, 2024's run will be all about celebrating turning ten with discounted bites. Some of this year's dishes will still cost $2, while others will set you back $3 or $5. Either way, that's a whole heap of your change being put to excellent (and tasty) use. As in previous years, both Sunnybank Plaza and Sunny Park will play host to the trail. How does it work? Attendees walk between a heap of local cafes and restaurants, all at their own pace. The range of eateries taking part is usually hefty — in 2018, more than 45 places served up dishes. Covering everything from deep-fried dumplings, noodles and curries to hot cakes, cream buns and bubble tea, every participating joint will feature a range of authentic Asian cuisines. You'll feast on Chinese, Japanese, Hong Kong-style, Vietnamese, Korean, Malaysian and Taiwanese food — and, with such an array of steaming soups and sizzling stir-fries on offer, we don't recommend eating lunch or dinner first. In fact, you'd best arrive feeling as hungry as possible. Snacking on signature dishes is the main course — or several — but there's also plenty of non-edible appetisers, too. Enjoy live music, watch traditional lion dancers, and and check out the roaming entertainment as you feast and wander, adding the perfect garnish to every meal by setting the mood. Images: Zennieshia.
Iconic filmmakers dropping huge films: thanks Martin Scorsese's Killers of the Flower Moon, Michael Mann's Ferrari and Ridley Scott's Napoleon, that's the current cinema story. The latter picture also sees the director reteam with Joaquin Phoenix, step into history and make an epic. And yes, the last time they did that turned out well for the pair. Back in 2000, exploring a brutal (and fictionalised) slice of the past brought both Scott and Phoenix both Oscar nominations. Repeating the feat 23 years after Gladiator, they might be hoping for the same outcome — or better. In Napoleon, Phoenix (Beau Is Afraid) is on a campaign to rule France as the movie's namesake, and Scott (House of Gucci) also returns to a period he dived into in his debut feature The Duellists back in 1977. [caption id="attachment_922708" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Aidan Monaghan[/caption] The focus this time is clearly all there in the title, charting Napoleon Bonaparte's rise to French Emperor, then fall from the post. No, ABBA's 'Waterloo' doesn't feature in either the film's first sneak peek or in the just-dropped trailer. Present instead is a whole lot of wars being waged in a quest to first fight for and then to hold onto power, as well an examination of Napoleon's relationship with Joséphine de Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby, Mission: Impossible — Dead Reckoning Part One). The hat, the determination, the military and political scheming, battle scene after battle scene: they all get a look in the Napoleon trailers, too, in a movie that's being touted by distributor Sony as boasting "some of the most dynamic practical battle sequences ever filmed". Also accounted for: lines of dialogue, as scripted by All the Money in the World's David Scarpa, establishing Napoleon's arrogance. "I'm the first to admit when I make a mistake. I simply never do," Phoenix notes in the initial glimpse. When Napoleon hits cinemas Down Under in November, Phoenix and Kirby will be joined on-screen by everyone from Tahar Rahim (The Serpent) as Paul Barras and Ben Miles (Hijack) as Caulaincourt to Ludivine Sagnier (Lupin) as Theresa Cabarrus — plus Catherine Walker (House of Gucci) as Marie-Antoinette, whose fate is seen in the two trailers. After a silver-screen date, the movie is also headed to Apple TV+, just like Killers of the Flower Moon. Check out the latest trailer for Napoleon below: Napoleon releases in cinemas Down Under on November 23, 2023. Images: courtesy of Sony Pictures/Apple Original Films.
The Tinder trawl just got a little more rom-com; brand new dating app Happn aims to take your missed Meet Cutes and turn them into potential dates. Using the GPS function on your phone, Happn encourages you to "find the people you've crossed paths with" in an attempt at fast-tracked 'romance'. If you've ever wondered if the babe in the cereal aisle was giving you the eyeball, now you can check without risking an ego-shattering diss. Invented by three Frenchmen (growth hacker Fabien Cohen, entrepeneur Didier Rappaport and computer engineer Antony Cohen), Happn is generating serious buzz in Europe with its cut-to-the-chase hook up philosophy. While Tinder's flick left or right mechanism is undoubtedly based on looks, lack of Southern Cross tattoos and inclusion of Distracting Hot Friends in profile pics, Tinder also brings up shared interests (if you both like Game of Thrones on Facebook, it'll show up so there's something to talk about rather than "Sup, wanna bang?"). Happn leaves this behind in favour of distance to dates. If you're within 250 metres of each other, Happn uses your phone's GPS to flag your potential romance-o-meter. Of course, your mystery spunk has to have Happn installed on their phone too (so you might be waiting a while to hear from your eyelash-battering stranger if they ain't connected). The timeline shows you the profiles of all the people you’ve crossed paths with, in real-time. Every time you come across someone in real life, their profile appears on your app. Passing someone in the supermarket aisle just got a little more loaded. Happn's sole philosophy is based around celebrating coincedence, "boosting luck" and saving you from "missed connections." But although it sounds simultaneously romantic and an easy carnal escapade, the whole GPS situation is creeping some of us out. Importantly, your position on Happn isn't saved and remains completely invisible to other members — the coordinates of where you passed another Happn user is the only thing registered; the bus stop where That Guy hopped on, the record store where you noticed Her in the hip hop section, the park where your terrier 'accidentally' found itself off leash and headed toward a swoonworthy husky owner. But what of unwanted attention from creepos using technology to be predatory, like many, many creepos tend to do? "The app is designed to guarantee the safety of all users and the confidentiality of their data," say the Happn team. "You can decide at any given time that a profile doesn’t interest you anymore; you’ll never cross paths with each other on Happn again, and they’ll never know. Also, you can report any unwanted behaviour or block a profile by clicking on the little flag at the bottom of every profile." Avoid the creeps, follow up your Meet Cute and let us know where the reception's at. You can download Happn in the Google Play Store or Apple App Store. Via Guardian.
Australians, if you need to renew your passport — or just find wherever you stashed it away more than 18 months ago — the time is now. When Monday, November 1 arrives, Aussies will be permitted to travel internationally again. Of course, given that the COVID-19 situation varies in each state, jetting off won't be as straightforward as it used to be; however, Prime Minister Scott Morrison has confirmed that the Federal Government will be allowing Aussies to leave the country and return from that date. Back at the beginning of October, the PM advised that Australia's indefinite ban on holidaying overseas — a ban that came into place in March 2020 to control the spread of COVID-19 — would lift sometime in November on a state-by-state basis. At the time, Morrison announced that "international travel is on track to reopen safely to fully vaccinated Australian travellers" when each state and territory individually hits the 80-percent double-jabbed threshold. Now, on Friday, October 15, the Prime Minister confirmed the exact date that Aussies will be allowed to travel internationally — after New South Wales Premier Dominic Perrottet announced that quarantine requirements will be dropped for folks who've had both their jabs from Monday, November 1, too. Also in NSW, caps on the number of double-vaccinated overseas arrivals will also lift on the same day. "I'm very pleased that the New South Wales Government has advised, as you've learnt today, that they will be in a position to move to a no quarantine arrangement for people arriving back in Australia from the 1st of November, which enables us to be in a position to ensure that we can lift the caps for returning Australian citizens, residents and their families from the 1st of November into New South Wales," said Morrison. He continued: "this also means is that we will be allowing Australians, permanent residents and citizens and their families, to leave Australia from wherever they live in Australia and return, but obviously the capped arrangements in other states will continue because of the vaccination levels in those places and the arrangements they have in place in each of those states and territories." Accordingly, if you wanted to hop on a flight out of NSW to an overseas destination from the beginning of November onwards, you can — and, if you're then returning to NSW and you're double-jabbed, you won't need to quarantine (not in a hotel, and not at home either). In response to the news, airlines have started bringing forward their international flight dates, so you really can start booking. Qantas has brought forward its London and Los Angeles routes from Sydney (the former now going via Darwin) to November 1, after initially intending to take to the skies again mid-November, and is also looking at possibly bringing forward the restart dates for flights to Singapore, Fiji, Vancouver and other destinations from mid-December. At this early stage, the international border will open for double-jabbed Aussies heading outwards and coming back — and permanent residents and citizens and their families, as the PM noted — but not for international travellers and international students. Plus, for those who aren't double-dose vaxxed, hotel quarantine will remain compulsory upon entering Australia, and caps upon arrival numbers will still apply. In NSW, mandatory 14-day hotel quarantine will remain in place, and only 210 overseas arrivals who aren't double-jabbed will be permitted each week. Media release: reopening roadmap update. #NSWPol #auspol2021 pic.twitter.com/mKbxdO0W53 — Dom Perrottet (@Dom_Perrottet) October 14, 2021 Arrangements in states and territories other than NSW, including the quarantine requirements upon return for double-vaccinated folks and the caps on arrivals from November 1, haven't yet been confirmed by the respective state and territory leaders. Also, exactly where Aussies can travel to out of NSW from November 1 obviously depends on border rules and requirements in other countries. The trans-Tasman travel bubble with New Zealand is presently on hold until at least mid-November, for instance, while Fiji will reopen to Aussies from Thursday, November 11. For further information about Australia's plan to restart international travel, head to the Prime Minister's website. More details about the National Plan to transition Australia's National COVID Response can be found on the same site. And, details of the New South Wales Government's current plans can be found on its website. Also, to find out more about the status of COVID-19 in Australia in general, head to the Australian Government Department of Health's website.
Room is by no means an easy film to watch. Based on the critically acclaimed novel by Emma Donoghue, which was in turn inspired by the crimes of Josef Fritzl, it's a tale whose existence is rooted in horror and misery, and the perverse fascination such stories tend to inspire. And yet despite its grim subject matter, Room never wallows in darkness, but instead stares defiantly into the light. It is a tale not of depravity but of resilience, and the incredible, unbreakable love between a parent and their child. Room is told from the perspective of Jack (Jacob Tremblay), a five year old boy who lives with his mother Joy (Brie Larson) in a small, dishevelled shed called Room. Jack was born in Room, and its meagre contents, including a bed, a bath, a sink, a wardrobe and a skylight, are all he has ever known. Joy tells him nothing of the outside world in order to protect him from the truth: that they are captives of a man named Old Nick (Sean Bridgers), and that Jack is the product of rape. Very few films ask as much of their lead actors as Room does of Larson and Tremblay. There's barely a frame of the film in which one, if not both, are not present, particularly during the initial harrowing hour. Larson is tipped to take home an Oscar, and it would be hard to fault the Academy for that decision. Her performance communicates with unflinching clarity both the years of abuse that Joy has suffered, and the lengths she is willing to go to to keep her son from experiencing the same fate. Tremblay is, if anything, even more impressive, capturing the optimism of a child unburdened by adult comprehension, without ever dipping into the kind of forced cutesiness that scuppers so many young performers. Tremblay's flawless performance also validates the risky decision to tell the story from Jack's point of view. In the film's bleakest moments, Jack's innocence is like a life preserver, and the only thing that keeps us from drowning in despair. Likewise, when he is finally exposed to the world outside his prison, we share in his sense of wonderment. So palpable is his emotion that it feels like we, too, are discovering the world for the very first time. Director Lenny Abrahamson is largely invisible behind the camera, and perhaps that's for the best. There's a lot he could have done, through camerawork and editing, to ratchet up the unease or foster a sense of claustrophobia, but to do so would run the risk of distracting from the performances – and ultimately, it's by the performances that the movie lives or dies. Even as the film ventures into more conventional narrative territory in its latter half, Larson and Tremblay make it impossible to look away. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6C6fZ-fwDws
