Move over Walking Dead, Zombatland has arrived. Set in Blue Lagoon Caravan Park, a tranquil paradise situated in the middle of the Australian outback, things just aren't right. Something goes wrong amongst the local wombats. Terribly wrong. A mysterious disease sweeps though the population turning the wombats into blood-thirsty demons. The Guardian described Suitcase Royale's new show, Zombatland, as, “Tom Waits meets the Mighty Boosh ” - that's one big call Guardian. But when you hear the premise of this new performance, as well as the abundance of similar reviews, pretty hard not to agree. This show is founded on Suitcase Royale's recognisable twisted humour, with a combination of live music, junkyard sets and hilariously innovative concepts and ideas. It's hard to find a show that provides a new twist on the classic Zombie story, but Suitcase Royale nail it pretty perfectly with Zombatland.
As far as crime writing goes, UK author Ian Rankin is a master of the craft. Since the release of the first book, 'Knots and Crosses' in his 'Inspector Rebus' series, Rankin has become an international bestseller and one of the biggest names in crime writing today. With books translated into 22 different languages, Rankin has risen to the ranks as one of the world's most recognised and loved crime writers. Now Brisbane is being given the opportunity to meet with this acclaimed author as he discusses his newest novel, 'Standing in Another Man's Grave'. After reader's where left hanging at the conclusion of his last book, Rankin has brought his well-loved character, Inspector John Rebus, out of retirement as he returns to investigate the disappearance of three women in all his maverick glory. Books will be on sale at the Powerhouse with the opportunity for them to be signed by Rankin at the conclusion of the event. Don't miss your chance to meet one of today's greatest crime writers.
Dust off your best bling bling and scour your wardrobe for something Anna Wintour would approve of, because James Street's RESORT is on this week. With local cult label Gail Sorronda among the highlights — albeit with an invite-only event — the annual extravaganza brings yet another fashion frenzy to New Farm. For four days, James Street will transformed into a desert oasis and shopping mirage, with exclusive collections and presentations by the local boutiques on the strip. In the lineup of talks, workshops, drinking and eating that form the street-wide celebration, everything from a stocked fashion gym to a food lab to a celebration of night culture is included. In case you're wondering, the latter is actually a black greenhouse-like structure that comments on the positive experiences that can only take place after dark. Sounds oh-so-chic, doesn't it? And, it sounds like fun. Regardless of how many Hadids you follow on Instagram or how big your wardrobe is, this is the event of events for anyone interested in the contemporary and future states of Australian fashion. Splash out on an outfit you can't afford and enjoy!
Things just got a whole lot easier for cyclists. At long last, you can now carry your two-wheelers on peak hour trains and long-haul flights without enraging fellow commuters, paying excess baggage fees and (most importantly) compromising on dimensions. A 30-year-old Italian designer by the name of Gianluca Sada has come up with a bicycle that folds down to the size of an umbrella yet boasts full-size 26-inch hubless, spokeless wheels. So, not only does it go faster than your average foldable, it’s also more stable. And it looks significantly sexier. Sada has been cooking up the eponymous bike for six years. He registered the patent on March 5, 2010 and by December 2011 had developed an aluminum alloy prototype with the help of precision engineering company Palmec SNC. Right now, he’s looking for investors. "The project may pave the way for a new system of mobility outside the classical schemes, widely accessible and easily transportable," he says. "Personal style and extreme versatility give dynamism to the traditional bicycle... increasingly required in this environmentally friendly age." Sada studied at the Politecnico di Torino, completing a degree in Automotive Engineering in 2010. His thesis, which focused on the development of the foldable bicycle, was awarded First Prize in IDEA-TO’s “most innovative thesis of 2010”, conducted by the Order of Engineers of Turin. In November 2010, Italian Minister for Youth, Giorgia Meloni, listed Sada among the "200 Top Talents of Italy". Via Gizmag.
Filled with fiery spanish rhythms and lustrous musical numbers, Francesca Zambello’s stunning production, Carmen, makes its Queensland debut at QPAC. Executed with stunning realism, this opera follows the trials of Carmen, a gypsy woman who is arrested by solider Don José. After being seduced by Carmen, José quickly learns that his attempts to tame this spirited gypsy are futile, and becomes murderously enraged when she leaves him for the great Escamillo. Dangerously presenting the complexities of sex, rebellion and violence, Zambello's production captures the very essence of Carmen. Combining rich and provocative spanish music with the powerful vocals of Kirstin Chávez as Carmen and Konstantin Andreyev as Don José, this stunning performance provides a tantalising feast for all the senses. With scenes that will both shock and touch audiences, this production provides a raw and daring take of the 1875 opera masterpiece. By combining daring, fiery music with the violent, sexual turmoil experienced by the characters, Zambello’s Carmen is truly a theatrical triumph not to be missed.
Summer might be over until the end of the year, but that doesn't mean that all of the fun is heading indoors in Brisbane. Autumn and street parties go hand in hand in the River City, including at this Labour Day weekend favourite: Stones Corner Festival. If this fest is always on your calendar, then its details for your diary won't come as a surprise. Yes, you'll be heading along on the Sunday of the May long weekend — this year on Sunday, May 4. Australian duo Busby Marou lead the lineup, joined by the throwback tunes of Never Ending 90s, Roaring Lion's Bob Marley tribute and more. You can also expect live tunes, markets, food trucks and beers from a heap of local brewers. This'll also be an extra-special celebrating, given that Stones Corner Festival is marking its ten-year anniversary. David Bowie, Mick Jagger, Martha and the Vandellas, The Kinks, Little Richard, Van Halen, the Grateful Dead: when they all sung various versions of 'Dancing in the Street', they were onto something. There's nothing quite like partying on a roadway when it's closed to cars, with traffic replaced by stalls and bars as well as stages filled with live music. That's the Stones Corner Festival setup. Some events feel like they've always been part of Brisbane's cultural scene and this is one of them, even if it is only hosting its tenth fest this year. That's the sign of something special, with this free street party on the corner of Logan and Old Cleveland roads swiftly becoming one of the city's must-attend celebrations. The Market Folk is in charge of the stalls filled with preloved, handcrafted and eco-friendly wares. The all-ages event will also include family-friendly entertainment for the full spectrum of patrons. You can expect Black Hops, Revel, CBCO, Better Beer, Balter, Your Mates, Burleigh Brewing, Heads of Noosa, Green Beacon and Stone & Wood to help quench your thirst. Eating-wise, Our Kitchen, Greek Street Kantina, Chipstars, and Catch & Kiss are among the options. If you're planning a big one, that public holiday the next day is oh-so-convenient. Also, entry remains free but, as in past years, giving a gold coin donation to the MND and Me Foundation is recommended. Stones Corner Festival 2025 Lineup Busby Marou Never Ending 90s Roaring Lion Tom Busby Brad Butcher & Tori Darke John Hanley with Don't Shoot the Hurricane Seaside Updated Friday, March 21, 2025.
Go buy a 3D printer right now, and show us what you can invent. Every industry is getting cooler thanks to this democratising technology, which is in the process of bringing us 3D-printed organs, 3D-printed cities, and 3D-printed sex toys (including a vibrator modelled on Justin Bieber's head). And what can it do for broken bones? One Victoria University of Wellington graduate has cleverly used 3D printing to reinvent the clunky, sweaty arm cast we all had to wear in primary school after a violent game of handball. Called the 'Cortex', Jake Evill's invention is breathable, eco-friendly and washable. Its polyamide can also be reused. Unlike the oh-so-analogue plaster casts of yore, the Cortex's structure has the potential to be digitally tailored to the injury. Computer software can receive x-rays and measurements of the limb, and via an algorithm, the printer produces (within a slightly lengthy 3 hours) a lightweight cast which protects and supports in all the right places. And excitingly, it can be worn under a long-sleeve shirt. While some would mourn the hallowed tradition of messy cast graffiti, it's our surmise that 3D printing culture will quickly come up with an upgrade for that, too. Via Gizmodo. Image from http://jakevilldesign.dunked.com.
Three world-renowned artists. Two galleries. One big summer of art — and one city bursting with things to see. When Sydney International Art Series returns for 2023–24, it'll do so with a trio of blockbuster Australian-exclusive exhibitions showcasing some of the biggest names to ever unleash their creative talents: Wassily Kandinsky, Louise Bourgeois and Tacita Dean. The newly revamped Art Gallery of NSW will host both Kandinsky and Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night, or Has the Night Invaded the Day?, both from November 2023. The former will offer a comprehensive overview of the Moscow-born artist's career and work, as drawn from the Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation's holdings. And the latter will be the first monographic exhibition to be presented in the Art Gallery's new SANAA-designed building, complete with more than 150 works, marking the largest survey of Bourgeois' work ever displayed in Australia. [caption id="attachment_889026" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Wassily Kandinsky, Improvisation 28 (second version), 1912, oil on canvas, 112.6 × 162.5 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection, By Gift 37.239. Photo courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.[/caption] Fans of Kandinsky's abstract art can look forward to a thorough examination of the European modernist's experimental, influential style, including tracking his beginnings in Munich in the early 1900s, his time back in Moscow during World War I, his role as an instructor at Germany's famed Bauhaus school, and his late years in Paris. The exhibition comes to SIAS after running at the Guggenheim Museum New York as Vasily Kandinsky: Around the Circle in 2021–2022, and will be paired with British medium Georgiana Houghton's 19th-century spirit paintings for its Sydney stint. The Bourgeois showcase will display 13 years after the Paris-born artist passed away in New York in 2010, and after she stamped her imprint upon the art of the 20th century. Visitors to Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night, or Has the Night Invaded the Day? will see her Personage sculptures from the 1940s, textile works of the 1990s and 2000s, and plenty in-between, with the exhibition playing up the duelling themes and ideas in her work by taking over AGNSW's major exhibition gallery and 'the Tank'. This exhibition is a collaboration with The Easton Foundation in New York, too, and ranks among the most extensive exhibitions dedicated to a female artist that Australia has ever seen. [caption id="attachment_889027" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Louise Bourgeois, The destruction of the father 1974-2017, archival polyurethane, resin, wood, fabric and red light, 237.8 x 362.3 x 248.6 cm. Glenstone Museum, Potomac, Maryland. Photo: Ron Amstutz. © The Easton Foundation.[/caption] Over at the Museum of Contemporary Art, and equally impressive, exciting and a must-see, is a three-month focus on Berlin- and Los Angeles-based UK artist Tacita Dean that's the largest in-depth presentation of her work in the southern hemisphere. Spanning film, photos, installations, drawings, prints, collages and sounds, and highlighting the poetic vision lingering in her works, this showcase will go heavy on new art from the past five years — all pondering memory, history, time and chance. In the process, it'll display pieces that've never been exhibited in Australia, from recent films through to chalkboard drawings and collaborations with The Royal Ballet. SIAS' three big exhibitions are expected to bring around 28,000 people to Sydney to see them, New South Wales Minister for the Arts and Tourism Ben Franklin announced in a statement. "Securing these extraordinary, world-renowned artists for the Sydney International Art Series reaffirms Sydney as Australia's cultural capital and a global hub for the arts, where art and creativity are celebrated and nurtured." [caption id="attachment_889029" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tacita Dean, Paradise (still), 2021, 35mm colour anamorphic film, with music, Paradiso by Thomas Adès. Image courtesy the artist; Frith Street Gallery, London and Marian Goodman Gallery New York/Paris, © the artist.[/caption] 2023 is shaping up to be a huge year for art lovers Australia-wide, also including a world-first pop art exhibition on the Gold Coast featuring works by Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring; a separate Warhol exhibition in Adelaide that's all about his photography; a showcase dedicated to Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Mexican modernism, also in the South Australian capital; Brisbane's upcoming fairy tales exhibition; the currently displaying Alexander McQueen showcase in Melbourne; and the Victorian capital's world-premiere ode to women in film history. [caption id="attachment_889024" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Wassily Kandinsky, Landscape with rain, January 1913, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 78.4 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 45.962. Photo courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.[/caption] SYDNEY INTERNATIONAL ART SERIES 2023–24: Saturday, November 4, 2023– Sunday, March 10, 2024 — Kandinsky at AGNSW Saturday, November 25, 2023–Sunday, April 28, 2024 — Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night, or Has the Night Invaded the Day? at AGNSW Friday, December 8, 2023—Sunday, March 3, 2024 — Tacita Dean at MCA Sydney International Art Series runs from November 2023 — head to the AGNSW and MCA websites for further details. Top image: excerpt from Wassily Kandinsky, Landscape with rain, January 1913, oil on canvas, 70.5 x 78.4 cm. Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, Solomon R. Guggenheim Founding Collection 45.962. Photo courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation.
Wilding isn't about the butterfly effect; however, those insects do indeed flap their wings in this thoughtful documentary, and the world changes as a result. In 2009, a high-pressure weather system brought a mass migration of painted lady butterflies from north Africa to Europe, and to Britain, in their millions. One of their destinations: Knepp, the 400-year-old West Sussex estate that Isabella Tree and her husband Charlie Burrell call home, and that's been in the latter's family for generations. The 3500-acre property had a creeping thistle problem, threatening not only the land but the couple's way of managing it via rewilding, and also their reputations. Enter tens of thousands of painted ladies, which did the trick through no intervention by Tree and Burrell at all. The butterflies laid their eggs on the creeping thistle, then the hatched caterpillars ate away the leaves, with just the plant's shredded stems remaining. At the turn of the 21st century, battling a £1.5-million debt on their farm, Tree and Burrell made a bold move: to stop toiling on the land and instead let nature reclaim the Knepp grounds whoever it saw fit. Refraining from acting and leaving the earth to its wildlife — plants and animals alike — shouldn't be such a radical idea, but it is now and definitely was then. Wilding works through how the pair's "don't just do something, stand there" philosophy has paid off well beyond their wildest dreams or most-ambitious expectations. The film, Tree's book that it's based on and the rewilding project at Knepp overall are each a testament to the power of nature to rebound; to endurance and perseverance; and to finding a way, including by stepping back and allowing the earth to function as it has long before humans walked upon it. The painted lady butterflies and their role in helping to ensure that Tree and Burrell's plans for a new rewilded landscape at Knepp — an initiative that had already garnered backlash before the threat of creeping thistle — didn't crumble comprise just one of the success stories charted in this inspirational documentary. Storks breeding in Britain again for the first time in 600 years, aiding turtle dove conservation efforts, bringing beavers back to the wild in Sussex after 400 years: they're among the others. A five-time Emmy-winner for National Geographic Explorer, Living with Bugs, Nature and The Serengeti Rules, director David Allen is responsible for chronicling Knepp's transformation here. His efforts have paid off, with the film becoming the highest-grossing UK documentary of 2024. "I can't watch it, seeing my huge face pontificating on the screen. It's very much outside my comfort zone," Tree tells Concrete Playground. "But they did a lovely job, particularly of the footage, I think — the wildlife footage." Tree is Wilding's on-screen guide, as she references — but this is a documentary that devotes as many of its frames to roving through the outcome of her and Burrell's life-changing decision as possible. To venture backwards, it also weaves in recreations with actors (such as Call the Midwife's Rhiannon Neads as Tree), where nature again remains the main star. The movie was made in lockdown and, equally from that period, Tree has penned the ultimate companion piece for those who watch along and want to do the same on whatever patch of earth they have: The Book of Wilding: A Practical Guide to Rewilding, Big and Small. "We have this incredible mailbag from people who've come to Knepp, as you say, and they don't have thousands or hundreds of acres, but they're so motivated and excited to do something on their own. And so we have questions: 'can I rewild my garden, my window box, my churchyard, my orchard, the verges around my street?'. And of course you can," she tells us. [caption id="attachment_1006056" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Olivier Hess[/caption] "This book really has all that advice. It's about how you can think differently with the rewilding mindset in whatever patch of earth you have influence over. So it's going into your garden and thinking like a beaver when you're building a pond. It's thinking about a grazing pony when you're when cutting your rose bushes — thinking in terms of a free-roaming animal. And it's not less work in your garden. It's probably just as much work, but it is incredibly freeing if you think about the natural processes in the wider landscape and how can you relate them to your smaller space. 'How can you allow dead wood and piles of leaves? How can you create a garden that has perhaps got drier parts to it?'. I mean, we've dumped 400 tonnes of crushed brick and concrete onto our lawn and created these mounds and bumps, because nothing in nature is flat." "Just changing the topography of your garden can create all these little microclimates that benefit different plants. The variety, the mosaic of habitats, is what's important," Tree continues. "When you buy a bird box for your garden — lots of lovely nature-friendly gardeners will buy a bird box. Why are you buying a bird box? Shouldn't there be the habitat for them already in your garden? Because that habitat will also be providing insects and berries and the thing they want to eat, as well as protection from predators. So it's thinking about how you can use nature to provide for nature, for wildlife, in your garden. And get messy. Let's forget the leaf blower and the lawn mower, and use them as sparingly as possible." "We can have wonderful spaces for ourselves, of course, in our gardens. We want to have dinner out there. We want our children to play ball games. But just think about nature, too, and how we could share that space." Viewing Wilding, which opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, May 22, 2025, means marvelling at what Tree and Burrell have achieved, then often wanting to follow in their footsteps and take Tree's advice. It means seeing how the duo started by letting old English Longhorn cattle, Exmoor ponies and Tamworth pigs do what they're driven to — and being well-aware of what a risk they were taking by turning their backs on the estate's farming heritage — then witnessing how, yes, nature is healing. Why is Tree and Burrell's approach considered so revolutionary? How much determination, fortitude and perseverance does it take to actively do nothing? How have some naysayers changed their minds about Knepp Wildland over the years? We discussed this terrain with Tree as well, alongside the pandemic's influence on reshaping how humans feel about nature and other topics, such as which of the project's triumphs means the most to her. On Why Humanity Has Become So Resistant to the Idea of Not Doing Anything and Instead Letting Nature Take Its Course "So that's such an interesting question, and I'm battling with it at the moment. I'm writing a book about the return of our white storks. I think it goes back to Plato, actually. It goes back to the ancient Greeks, that moment when we began to divide ourselves as human beings from nature. We saw nature as something that needed to be controlled, to be won over — that our soul and our intellect, our brains, were separate from nature. We were separate from all other living things. And when you look around the world at native peoples, even today, people who — communities, civilisations that have lived for thousands and thousands of years, successfully and sustainably, they never disassociate themselves from nature. Some cultures, there's no pronoun for the self because you are so much part of the living world. And so I think it all began, the rot began then, with the ancient Greeks — and I'm a classicist, so it's taken me a very long time to say that. But I think this mania with control and tidying up also was just exacerbated with science, and how we approach science as a completely different discipline. How we separate zoology from botany, as if plants and animals just don't coexist. It's the way we think in the western mind. And then, of course, we have the industrial revolution, which gives us fantastic machines that men in particular, may I say, love to use — like chainsaws and mowers and anything with an engine that can just get rid of nature as quickly as possible. So we became fantastically obsessive about tidying up, and that has been nature's downfall, I think — is our disassociation and our mania with tidiness. As well as agriculture, but I'm just thinking about our own personal space." On the Determination, Fortitude, Ambition and Perseverance That It Takes to Actively Commit to Doing Nothing "It's very difficult because it's a shift in mindset, I think, and we've got so many cultural prejudices about what we consider to be responsible or even beautiful. We're often nostalgically tied to these very controlled landscapes because we grew up with them as we were children. We have them in picture books as that's what nature looks like. And so to let go of all that is very, very difficult. And I think that's what we found here at Knepp, is that once we embarked on this experiment and it got very messy and very untidy very quickly, it was a challenge to us. I remember seeing a tree right in our sightline outside the windows that was dying — a huge oak tree that had just succumbed to the amount of chemicals that had been flowing down into that corner of the field over all the years that we've been intensively farming, and it just gave up the ghost. And we watched this tree die, and my husband was saying 'oh god, I know we've committed to not doing anything, but that is right in our sightline. Perhaps we could make an exception?'. And we decided we wouldn't. And that tree largely changed the way we thought, because living with it and watching it die slowly, and actually seeing the life that had attracted — the sparrowhawks that started nesting in it, the whole community of short-tailed voles that were living in its exposed roots, the fox that used to sit there waiting for the rabbits to come by, the perching places for herons — there was life and death. And suddenly we saw the point. That is fantastic habitat. And we learned to love it as a thing of life and beauty. And that skeletal thing became something we thought of as beautiful. So I think it's about changing your aesthetic, and that is a very tricky thing to do. But we had, in the early days, a letter from a woman who was furious and wrote us a kind of 'yours sincerely' disgusted tirade saying 'what you've done to your farmland is an abomination. You've turned something beautiful into a riot of ragwort and thistles. It's hideous. It's depressing'. And about five years ago, she wrote us another letter saying 'I walk at Knepp every week and I have to apologise for that letter I wrote to you back in the day. I now realise that Knepp is beautiful. It's just beautiful in a different way'." On How Knepp Has Changed Perceptions — and Whether Past Naysayers Reassessing Their Thoughts Is Common "Totally, because I think we're so unused to seeing this landscape. When people walk through it, it looks more like the African bush or even the Australian outback. It's scrubby, it's messy, there's animal tracks through it, and people think 'my god, this is just like Africa'. No, it's not. It's like Britain used to be. We just haven't got it anymore. And so, you quite often take someone on safari and they go 'aaah'. Or you take them into our rewilded garden and they kind of brace themselves. And slowly, they begin to relax into it. It's something that I think you have to feel through the heart. You can't just read about it or learn about it in a school classroom — you have to be out there in it and feel that birdsong vibrating in your lungs, literally echoing in your in your guts. And the surprise of turning a corner and finding a beaver or some piglets, then you suddenly have that 'aha!' moment. So that's the power, I think, of having places like Knepp, is that people actually come here and that transformation in their heads begins from their hearts." On If This Response — the Attention, the Books That Tree Has Written About Knepp and Now the UK's Highest-Grossing Documentary of 2024 — Was Ever Expected "Absolutely no idea. We couldn't believe it. We did something because we were forced to do it financially, because the farm was essentially bankrupt. It was one-and-a-half million pounds in debt. We were getting ourselves out of a terrible financial situation. We were doing the wrong thing on our land. And turning it over to nature appealed to us because we felt we could do it — and it would be a wonderful experiment to do. Both Charlie and I love nature. We travelled the ends of the earth to find wildlife, ironically, and never wondered why we didn't have it in our own backyard. So doing something for nature felt incredibly positive. We had no idea that it would — we thought 'if we could increase biodiversity just a little, if we could get just a little wildlife back on our land that had been chemically soaked for decades and decades, wouldn't that be a wonderful thing?'. We never thought that we could have nightingales, turtle doves, purple emperor butterfly, some of the most endangered, critically endangered species in Britain, breeding here at Knepp, and increasing every year. We never expected the abundance of life. It's interesting because it's shifted the shifting baseline in the opposite direction. Ecologists come here and they now are really ambitious, more ambitious, for the kind of life they should be having in their nature reserves — if they just got a bit wilder and perhaps used free-roaming animals, and used some of the ideas of rewilding in their own space. Because you simply can't believe you could fit any more life in here, and yet it still comes. So I think we've been amazed. We've been certainly amazed by the attention, which we're not naturally sort of extrovert, table-thumping bandstanders. And so that's been a surprise. But we do feel passionate about communicating this message of hope, because the joy that it's given us. And the thrill of seeing how it galvanises and excites other people, who then go off and do their own amazing thing — we just can't stop. So we've become those kind of people, I suppose." On Whether the Urge to Connect with Nature Post-Lockdown Gives Wilding and Tree's Experiences a Greater Sense of Timeliness Since — and If People Are Having a Stronger Response as a Result "I think absolutely, definitely. I would even say it was a little bit before COVID, funnily enough. I think my book came out in the UK, Wilding, in 2018. And I always felt that if I'd written it six years earlier — I was busy with another book that was taking me far, far, far much longer than I thought, and I was longing to get to this book about Knepp, but I had to wait to finish the other one. Luckily, because I waited an extra six years, not only did that mean that we even more results and even more proof — we've always been very careful about the science, so we had the proof here that we have this amazing biodiversity uplift. But it also, I think, chimed with stuff that was happening at the time. Greta Thunberg was suddenly bursting onto the scene. We had Extinction Rebellion in the UK. David Attenborough was finally coming out and saying 'this is a massive problem'. His films were getting more radical. We had the plastics problem suddenly hitting the headlines. Suddenly it felt like the zeitgeist, that people were feeling eco-anxiety properly for the first time and not trusting governments to change, to take that worry seriously. And so I think that's why the book did well. And then I think that the film was actually filmed during lockdown, and so I think those audiences were definitely feeling that need for nature in a totally different way. We know how being in nature, now we really appreciate — the first thing we did when lockdown was released was find a patch of nature anywhere. And not just a kind of billiard-table lawn in the middle of a city, we needed something heaving with life that was going to connect us to our living selves again. And so I think definitely that appreciation has helped. Our busy daily lives take over, of course, and we forget. But I think that the reminder is: when we can, ourselves, do something. And if we can remind people that your garden, your window box, could be wilder. We can all rewild. And that is the most-powerful way not only to help the planet even in a tiny way — you can feel part of this movement — but it is also very reassuring and comforting to oneself to be able to plant a particular plant and attract a butterfly. It's magic." On Whether Tree Had Any Specific Aims for Wilding as a Documentary "I think we were really in the hands of Dave Allen, the director, who's wonderful and a friend. And so we trusted him. I have no idea how to make a film and what the arc needs to be, but he was amazing how closely he followed the book. I was really impressed and grateful for that. All we did know — we had so many film companies approach us to make a film about Knepp, and none of them, to our minds, apart from Passion Pictures, took the nature transformation seriously. They wanted it to be about us or about I don't know what, but they weren't interested really in the science. And what I so love about the film is how you see under the soil with the mycorrhizal fungi, that universe. You see the huge migration of painted lady butterflies. And bringing that to life, I think, is so wonderful because I think visuals can show a story in much shorter — it's shorthand, really, for what I was writing. And it's very, very powerful, I think. And when you can actually see on the screen the transformation of our land from farmland to this heaving exuberance of life, that's, I think, where the power is in film. So I always hoped it could do that, but I was absolutely amazed by how brilliantly Dave and Passion Pictures were able to do it." On the Highlights That Stand Out From Tree's Knepp Journey Over the Past Quarter Century "I think always that the bird that I find most moving is the turtle dove, because when I was growing up in the 1960s, we had 250,000 turtle doves in Britain — and we've lost them largely because of intensive agriculture. And also dirty water, we have polluted water everywhere now, and they need clean water. So now we have just a few thousand left in the southeast of England, and they are predicted to go extinct in the next decade or so by the Royal Society for Protection of Birds. And so the fact that we have turtle doves here and you can still hear them — they are still increasing in numbers every year. We probably have about between 20 and 30 singing males every year. And on a lovely summer's evening, like tonight when I go out for a walk, if I'm lucky I will hear that gentle 'turr turr' that Shakespeare listened to and wrote about, that Chaucer wrote about. And it's a bittersweet sound, because it's such a melancholic sound and it's so soothing at the same time, and reassuring, and I don't know if we've done enough quick enough to turn around the fortunes of the turtle dove. Knepp might be the last place where you ever hear it in Britain. But, we have extended its stay and I'm forever grateful that my children have heard a turtle dove." Wilding released in Australian cinemas on Thursday, May 22, 2025.
Iceage have made a name for themselves over the past few years thanks to their aggressive yet melodic take on in-your-face punk rock. With a sound that caught the ears of critics and fans alike, the Danish four-piece wasted no time in capitalising on early success by signing record deals with established labels and putting out two acclaimed albums. The band formed in 2008 when the members were only 17 years old. Managing to find a sound and aesthetic this early in their career is astounding and speaks volumes about the talent of Iceage’s members. The group are hitting Australia to play a quick series of shows and we are lucky enough to have them stop in Brisbane to play the edgiest venue in town, The Brightside. Iceage will be supported by some great local bands including the brooding Occults and the cantankerous psych-fuzz band Cobwebbs. Buy your tickets before they are snapped up.
UPDATE, July 26, 2020: Sing Street is available to stream via Stan, Google Play, YouTube and iTunes. Who amongst us hasn't used music to process their thoughts and feelings? The right song can convey things that words alone cannot, as writer-director John Carney understands. In his films, moving ballads and catchy melodies intertwine with life and love, providing a killer soundtrack to memorable moments and an effective method of expressing emotions. When his characters pen lyrics, strum instruments and grab the mic, they're not just creating tunes and chasing dreams — they're helping make sense of everything around them. Indeed, while he put his foot in his mouth earlier this year, when it comes to making beautiful music — in movies like Once and Begin Again — the Irish filmmaker excels. You'd be right to say that Carney has a formula, but that's by no means a criticism. Although his movies can feel as though they're repeating the same narrative, they're earnest and vibrant in their own ways all the same. Carney sets his latest toe-tapping tale in Dublin in the financially struggling '80s — a period when Duran Duran's glossy 'Rio' clip played on TV, and everyone watching just wanted to make ends meet. For 15-year-old Conor Lalor (Ferdia Walsh-Peelo), money troubles means changing schools, with his bickering parents (Maria Doyle Kennedy and Aiden Gillen) sending him to the local Christian-run academy. He's bullied by teachers and classmates, but he also crosses paths with aspiring model Raphina (Lucy Boynton), who lives across the road. Eager to get her phone number, he asks her to star in a video for his band...despite the fact that he doesn't actually have one. Conor's quest involves rounding up new friends, including the rabbit-obsessed Eamon (Mark McKenna) and enterprising wannabe manager Darren (Ben Carolan). With the assistance of his college dropout brother Brendan (Jack Reynor), it also means listening to the likes of The Cure, Spandau Ballet and Hall & Oates, and aping their sounds and style. Cue some of the film's best outfits and standout original tunes, including the futurist-leaning 'The Riddle of the Model', the heartfelt 'A Beautiful Sea', and the upbeat 'Drive It Like You Stole It'. The pop tracks do more than entertain; whether amusing or tender, each one is infectious, endearing, exuberant, and anchored in authentic sentiments and experiences. The same descriptions apply to Carney's cast, particularly newcomer Walsh-Peelo and Transformers: Age of Extinction star Reynor, who convincingly capture both the uncertainties and the yearnings of youth. Accordingly, while the film initially seems like a straightforward musical romance, its coming-of-age journey also provides a touching testament to brotherly bonds courtesy of their respective performances. That's just one of a handful of surprises in a story that appears to follow a clear path, yet still finds new ways to offer depth and charm. Carney's colourful imagery and snappy pacing, meanwhile, ensures the movie always feels like the joyous blend of music, emotion and escapism that it is — complete with an inspired riff on Back to the Future that couldn't be more fitting.
Remember when the Beast won Belle's heart with his impossibly beautiful personal library in Beauty and the Beast? How easy it is seduce a nerd. Now that animated library has a real-life rival in the spectacular Waanders in de Broeren, a converted 15th-century Dominican church in Zwolle, the Netherlands, that houses what must be one of the world's most gorgeous bookstores. Designed by architectural firm BK. Architecten, the development was carried out in exactly the right way. It was mandated that all the building's original features be preserved. This meant keeping the 547-year-old colossal pipe organ and huge stained glass windows just as they were. The firm took to the challenge with gusto: only three hues of building material were used, to reflect the pre-existing look of the church, and the three-level, 700-square metre retail space which frames its central nave is built so as to be easily removable in future, maintaining the church's essential structure beneath. The result is a distinctly light and airy bookstore, with shelves lining the walls and unobtrusive, contemporary stairways leading up to the upper reaches of the arches. If only all shopping venues could be so elegant. Sometimes opulent buildings are given over to unlikely retail tenants — for example New York's Chelsea has one of the most ridiculously fancy pharmacies ever, a CVS inside a grand old bank building on 8th Avenue. This makes buying condoms at 3am seem slightly more classy for locals. But books seem an extra worthy ware: picture yourself browsing in Waanders in de Broeren, imagination set aflame as soon as you enter the space with its lofty and ornately painted ceiling. There's also a wine bar and other shopping available, making this one of the loveliest spaces and best design ventures we've seen in ages — an attractive and respectful fusion of old and new. Via Colossal.
The patch of land at 458 Brunswick Street is no longer just an empty old Blockbuster store, or even a vacant lot where said video shop used to be — and it's giving Brisbanites plenty of reasons to drop by. First, Hotel X opened its doors and treated the city to a new staycation spot. Then, the building welcomed lavish restaurant Bisou Bisou, complete with an oyster and caviar bar. Now, bar and restaurant Iris has joined the party, setting up shop by the pool on the building's rooftop. While its downstairs sibling has opted for a French theme, Iris takes its cues from the Mediterranean coast, including everywhere from Beirut to Barcelona. Design-wise, that translates through the exposed stonework entranceway, wisteria and olive trees, and the fairy lights twinkling above. Visitors will also find themselves surrounded by plum, rose and indigo hues accented with gold finishings, plus marble touches. The 200-person venue pairs its luxe decor with quite the view — including of the adjacent water, Fortitude Valley, New Farm, the Story Bridge and the city skyline — as well as poolside bungalows, and a private dining room that can seat 14. Once evening approaches, there's also a dance floor that'll get you cutting shapes to DJs as the sun sets. Overseen by Ghanem Group Executive Chef Jake Nicolson and Head Chef Lloyd Evans (ex-Blackbird), the food menu is filled with Greek and Spanish-style share plate options. Start off with an antipasto platter, then pick your way through anchovy, prawn and fish taco tapas. Larger options include barbecue pork rib pinchos, salmon crudo with shiraz gin caviar, spicy lamb and chorizo albondigas, and spiced wagyu picanha with chimichurri rojo. And, for dessert, the list spans a fig-focused take on tiramisu, Persian pistachio and olive oil cake, and a toffee apple churro tart. On the drinks menu: red, white and rosé sangrias made with organic wines, four types of boozy sodas, seven signature cocktails, three mocktails and kombucha. There's also an extensive range of tap and bottled beers, as well as hard seltzers, sherry, wines by the glass and bottle, and spirits. Or, you can opt for bottle service. First announced last month, Iris is latest venture from the Ghanem Group. As well as Bisou Bisou, the company also already has everywhere from Boom Boom Room Izakaya, Donna Chang and Byblos Bar and Restaurant to Blackbird Bar and Grill and Lord of the Wings in its portfolio. Find Iris Rooftop atop Hotel X at 458 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley — open from 11am–late daily.
When West Village revamped its chosen patch of West End, it took over a site of significance. From 1928–1996, the Boundary Street spot was home to the Peters Ice Cream Factory, which churned out frosty dairy desserts for seven decades. That's why, to mark the precinct's past, West Village hosts an annual ice cream festival — and it's also now home to Anita Gelato. The international chain already has stores in Barcelona, New York, San Juan, Tel Aviv and Sydney, but its new West Village spot marks its first Queensland shop. Its specialty: boutique handmade gelato, with more than 150 flavours in its range. That hefty lineup includes yogurt and sorbets, too, as well as its organic, sugar-free, fat-free, soy-based and real cream-based gelato. For those new to the brand, it started almost 20 years ago in the Mediterranean, with its namesake and her youngest son Nir making frozen desserts for their friends and neighbours. Then, Nir began selling their ice creams — which use Anita's homemade jams for flavour — at local markets. Opening a store was the next step, then more followed around the world. Those jams, still made in Anita's kitchen, remain a feature — although you can choose from other toppings, such as fresh fruit, syrups and chocolate. You'll spy a heap of those add-ons on display in gold tiered trays at Anita's eye-catching West End setup, which goes big on green hues, wooden furniture and mirrors. Wondering what kinds of flavours rank among that 150-strong list? While you won't find them all on offer every day, the list includes creamy varieties such as pavlova, salted bagel, chocolate cheesecake, cappuccino with butter cookies, and chestnut with hazelnut cream.
The latest cure for festival FOMO is here: for the first time ever, two of Glastonbury's headline performances are being livestreamed around the globe for everyone to watch. Won't be in the UK during the fest? Always wanted to see big names take to the event's famed Pyramid Stage? A fan of Dua Lipa and/or Coldplay? Thanks to the BBC, you're now in luck. When Coachella rolls around each year, it's not just an exciting time for folks fortunate enough to be on the ground in California, but for audiences worldwide via the fest's arrangement with YouTube. Glastonbury and the BBC might only be streaming two sets across the planet and not the majority of the British event, but it's still a welcome development. [caption id="attachment_926976" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Anna Lee[/caption] Your destination: the BBC's Glastonbury website, where you can catch Dua Lipa's set on the morning of Saturday, June 29, then Coldplay's — before the Chris Martin-fronted group returns to Australia and New Zealand later in 2024 — on the morning of Sunday, June 30. Dua Lipa's stint in the high-profile slot also marks her first-ever time on the Pyramid Stage. As for Coldplay, they're headlining the fest for the fifth time, albeit in their first visit since 2016. [caption id="attachment_963580" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Raph_PH[/caption] "The Glastonbury Festival is an icon of British culture, and this livestream will give fans around the globe a front row seat to headline performances like never before. This is just the latest example of our focus on bringing more cultural-defining moments like Glastonbury to fans on our platforms outside the UK so users can experience the best of British culture wherever they may be," said BBC Studios' Chief Commercial Officer Tara Maitra, announcing the global livestreams. "From this exciting live music experience from two of the biggest names in music, to the BBC News channel livestream that is coming soon in Australia, our digital platforms offer immediate, unrestricted and tailored access for all audiences," added BBC Studios Australia and New Zealand General Manager Fiona Lang. Also on the Glastonbury 2024 bill across Wednesday, June 26–Sunday, June 30 UK time but not being beamed to the world, sadly: SZA, LCD Soundsystem, PJ Harvey, Cyndi Lauper, Janelle Monae, Shania Twain, Disclosure, The Streets, Camilla Cabello, Bloc Party, The National, Avril Lavigne, Jessie Ware, Sugababes, Jamie XX, Kim Gordon, James Blake, Sleafod Mods, Orbital, The Breeders, Peggy Gou, The Cat Empire, Eric Prydz and a whole heap more. Glastonbury 2024 Livestream: Saturday, June 29 — Dua Lipa, 7–8.45am AEST / 6.30–8.15am ACST / 5–6.45am AWST / 9–10.45am NZST Sunday, June 30 — Coldplay, 6.45–8.45am AEST / 6.15–8.15am ACST / 4.45–6.45am AWST / 8.45–19.45am NZST [caption id="attachment_963582" align="alignnone" width="1917"] Raph_PH[/caption] [caption id="attachment_926978" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Anna Lee[/caption] Glastonbury's 2024 livestream will broadcast Dua Lipa's set globally on the morning of Saturday, June 29 Down Under, and Coldplay's show on the morning of Sunday, June 30 — head to the BBC's Glastonbury website to watch. Dua Lipa images: Raph_PH via Flickr.
Metro Arts have managed to squeeze a whole lot of fun into one evening, so clear your schedule and pencil Friday Night: July in. The evening includes a dance piece titled The Grieving Project. Last June a piece by the same company, Fran Barbe & Guests, caused quite a stir at Metro Arts and a second performance was added as to not disappoint eager audiences. This year, the team have created a new piece performed by Brian Lucas, Julan Renlong-Wong and Kate Lee. As you would expect, The Grieving Project centres around heartbreaking experiences of grief and loss. Other performances during the evening include Cindy Foster's Red Door and Thomas Quirk's The Theory of Everything. You will also be able to feast your eyes on the fruits of two talented artist's labour. Both artists, Tammy Payne and Emily Donaldson, are USQ postgraduate visual art students. Emily will be hosting a discussion on rural life while Tammy's sculptures will be showcased. Keep an eye on Metro Arts' Facebook page as there is even more to be announced.
Parachute Youth are on the brink of something big. The Australian duo's hypnotic single, 'Can't Get Better Than This' is one of the most requested tracks on Triple J and has had electro lovers bopping their heads and drooling. The lads are currently touring their single across Australia and will be playing their only Brisbane show at The Bowler Bar on May 6. Penciling them into your diary is a must. If you haven't heard Parachute Youth, make sure you check them out. The inventive pair combine clever lyrics with funky beats and the result is down right smooth. Their video for 'Can't Get Better Than This' has had over a million views. Shot in Burkina Faso, it features footage from the locals' annual bike race and is pretty spectacular. Doors open at 10pm and The Bowler Bar house DJ's will keep the party going long into the night. You've got no excuse for missing out on what's bound to be a great night as Monday is a public holiday. What better way to spend a Sunday night than listening to sweet tracks and enjoying a May long weekend celebratory glass of champagne or two.
If you're in need of some new procrastination material, you're in luck. Google image 'Banff' and spend a few minutes (or half an hour) taking in the gorgeous pictures of snow-capped mountains, aqua water and towering pines. It's impossible to not daydream while ogling these picture perfect views and over April you have the opportunity to slip into this magical world without ever leaving Brisbane. The Powerhouse is hosting the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour which began in 1976. It's stunning cinematography attracts film buffs and adventurers alike making the festival popular across the world today. Each November hundreds of films enter the competition with the cream of the crop chosen to entertain and amaze festival go-ers. Some of the featured films are from categories including Best Film on Mountain Sport, Best Film on Mountain Environment, Best Film on Mountain Culture, Best Film on Exploration and Adventure, People’s Choice Award and more. Be sure to secure your tickets as it's sure to be a sellout.
Since Brisbane rockers, Drawn From Bees formed in 2008, they have constantly evolved their sound and pushed the limits. For an interesting change, their latest musical production, the five-track album, Web of Thieves, represents a return to the group's earlier sound. If you are curious about the new-old sound, listen to their latest track, ‘Calling You Out’, which features the clear vocals of front man, Dan James, mesmerising harmonies, stripped back guitar and driving drums. The local boys have well and truly spread their wings and played at big name festivals such as, SXSW, Canadian Music Week, Music Matters, MusExpo, V Festival, St Kilda Festival and Woodford Folk Festival. They have also played with The Middle East, Jesus Hones and Emperors to name a few. Before Drawn From Bees take to Black Bear Lodge's stage, Little Odessa and Sports Fan will be treating the audience.
Country singer song-writer, Kimberley Bowden will be filling The New Globe Theatre with some very sweet tunes this weekend. Head along to listen to tracks from her latest EP, Burnt On You. Although she is now based in Brisbane, Kimberley hails from far North Queensland and has travelled the globe to the Mecca of country music – Nashville, Tennessee, to perfect her art. Her gorgeous tunes have also earned their share of radio play and 'Do I' was nominated at the Q Song Awards and The Southern Stars: The Australian Independent Country Music Awards. Treat your ears to 'Little Jane Street' and 'All Your Call'. Keep an eye out for special guest announcements on the event page. Doors open at 3pm and entry is a door donation. So why not pencil in Kimberley Bowden this weekend for an evening of wholesome country pop goodness. Yee-haw!
Combining traditional Indigenous dance with a contemporary version of Zorba the Greek may sound a little bizarre but believe me, the end product is hilarious. You've probably already heard of The Chooky Dancers who shot to YouTube stardom with their clip that was uploaded in 2007. Today, the clip has been viewed more than 2 million times. The Chooky Dancers presented their unique dance on multiple television segments, including Australia's Got Talent and at the Melbourne Comedy Festival Gala in 2009 to a captivated and giggly audience. This group of talented performers hail from the remote Northern Territory community of Elcho Island (Galiwin'ku community). After managing to make audiences laugh across the world at their surprising fusion of tradition, comedy and contemporary music and dance, the Chooky Dancers are in Brisbane for their latest performance, Djuki Mala. Their performance features splashes of acrobatics, mixed with dance theatre and a sprinkle of comedy. Do check it out.
There's no denying that the United Kingdom has given the world a lot in the way of music. The nation is steeped in musical culture, from The Beatles to Bonobo; Oasis to One Direction; Elvis Costello to Elton John. It's given us The Spice Girls and 'Careless Whisper'. In short, its veins run thick with musical wealth — but there's more to it than just strolling through The Beatles museum in Liverpool. With the European summer just around the corner, we've been thinking about seminal musical experiences you can tick off your bucket list in the UK. And luckily, Contiki has launched a tour that covers exactly that. Dubbed Contiki Sounds, this ten-day journey includes stops in England's major cities — London, York, Manchester, Birmingham and Liverpool— and culminates in a VIP experience at long-running rock and pop extravaganza Reading Festival. This Aussie winter, pack your guitar (probably sacrificing some undies for space), head over the water to (somewhat) sunnier plains and prepare to pay homage to some legends. Tell your mum you love her and let her know you're off to find your inner John Lennon. ABBEY ROAD CROSSING, LONDON There's no getting around the Fab Four's reputation as paving the way for modern pop music and music fandom. Speaking of paving the way, the Abbey Road crossing in London's St John's Wood neighbourhood is certainly one of the enduring symbols of the band. The crosswalk is traipsed by countless fans of The Beatles daily in a bid to recreate the iconic Abbey Road album cover — undoubtedly frustrating traffic to no end. You can join the crowds and stroll your way across the road in tribute to the fallen members, John and George, and enduring larrikins Ringo and Paul. Sneak a peek at the current musical talent who might be ensconced inside the famous Abbey Road Studios across the way, where many of The Beatles' hits were recorded. [caption id="attachment_717739" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Image: David Dixon via Wikipedia Commons.[/caption] DENMARK STREET, LONDON Another London road worth a visit is Denmark Street. Traipsing this patch of pavement will have you walking in the boots of the ghosts of the London music scene founders. Somewhat of a musical mecca in the mid-20th century, the street is even referenced in a song of the same name by The Kinks. Here, many bands quintessential to the British music world either rehearsed or recorded, and David Bowie even lived on the street in a campervan. Bowie has passed but the street's resonance lives on. Today it's a hotspot for musical instrument sales and repairs, as well as being home to famous grungy livemusic venue Crobar. READING FESTIVAL, READING There's no greater musical experience than packing up a tent, dancing to live music in your gumboots with your best friends for a few days and coming back having had the time of your life. If you're seeking a definitive musical experience and are up for a good time, an all-in UK music festival is a must — and this is one of the best. Reading is the longest-running pop music festival in existence and serves up a jampacked lineup of pop, rock and alternative heavyweights each year in conjunction with its partner festival in Leeds. It also boasts a number of important moments in musical history, including Nirvana's first ever UK show and Arctic Monkey's launch into superstardom in 2005. And if you're going tick this musical mecca off your bucket list, you'll want to do it in style. If you hop on board the Contiki Sounds trip, the on-site crew will take care of all the logistics — from setting up your tent and mattress to making sure you've got brekkie every day — so you can concentrate on donning your boots and moshing in front of the main stage. [caption id="attachment_717914" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: travelmag.com via Flickr.[/caption] SALFORD LADS CLUB, MANCHESTER Made famous by the sleeve art of The Smiths 1986 album The Queen Is Dead, Salford Lads Club has been on the scene since 1903, when it was still a boys club. Over 100 years later, the club has had a whole fleet of musical legends as members (The Hollies also used to practise there). A decade or so ago saw some necessary refurbs, partly financed by Morrissey himself. These days, it's often used as a film and TV location for the likes of British series Coronation Street and hosts a variety of sports and talks geared towards young people. While that might sound like a far cry from The Smiths posing moodily outside, true fans need not fear — there's still an entire room dedicated to the band inside. The Salford Lads Club's musical pedigree is impossible not to acknowledge. [caption id="attachment_717753" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Image by Hens Zimmerman via Wiki Commons[/caption] CAVERN CLUB, LIVERPOOL A guide to the British music scene wouldn't be complete without Liverpool — the epicentre of a huge part of the UK's music roots. And yep, it's generally down to The Beatles. Every year thousands of people flock to the harbourside town, many wanting to explore The Beatles Story museum. The Cavern Club is equally as important and just as drenched in musical history. Step inside and take a deep breath — you'll be inhaling the atmosphere of years of musical history (along with beer). Still an important live music venue to the town, The Beatles made a name for themselves here, playing their first gig in 1961. Over the years, countless other British bands have followed suit, including The Wombats and The Rolling Stones. Pay your respects to this holy stage. Travel around the best spots in the UK with Contiki at Reading Festival. Unearth the UK's musical heritage, then experience an unforgettable party at one of the world's best and biggest music festivals. Contiki wants to take you there — all you have to do is choose from the 7- or 10-day trip. Plus, if you bring a mate, it'll give you both $200 off. Find out more here.
Show us a guy with a drum machine or a girl with a guitar who purports to never having wanted to be a rock star and we'll show you a liar-liar-pants-on-fire. Thankfully, you don't have to release a Pitchfork-approved debut album or sell out a stadium to live the life of a travelling troubadour. Boutique travel experts Mr & Mrs Smith, admittedly slightly more Elvis Costello and Diana Krall than Kurt and Courtney, have scoured the globe to find the greatest music-inspired and inspiring getaways. 1. Geejam Where: Lot 122 Skippers Boulevard, San San, Port Antonio, Jamaica If you've been planning to record your own Is This It or My Generation for some time now, you might want to check out the facilities at Geejam boutique hotel in Jamaica. Not simply a cluster of heavenly Caribbean villas and cabins blanketed by rainforest with ocean views, Geejam also has its own recording studio. Book Drum & Bass, a junior suite on the ground floor of the studio, and start strumming - or tinkling on the ivories at the piano overlooking the sea. If it's good enough for No Doubt and Gorillaz, it's good enough for you. 2. The Drake Where: 1150 Queen Street West, Toronto, Canada The bunk-ups are hip at Toronto budget-boutique hotel The Drake. A sock doll on your pillow may greet you on check-in, indie rock is on a loop on the flatscreen TV, and photographs of guitars and other gear hang on the walls. But it's the dining, drinking and entertainment up for grabs that will edify the party animal within. Start your evening with a cocktail at rooftop Sky Yard, follow it with steak frites in a banquette at the Dining Room, then head downstairs to the Underground, the hotel's basement club that's seen performances by everyone from the Killers to MIA. 3. Establishment Hotel Where: 5 Bridge Lane, Sydney, Australia An acquaintance of Mr & Mrs Smith once confessed to being tucked in to her huge bed at Establishment Hotel in Sydney, completely unaware that in one of the bars Jamiroquai's Jay Kay was DJing up a storm. Don't be caught napping when you check in to this multi-tasking pleasure palace. It's the premier destination for visiting rock royalty in the Harbour City. Who knows who you might be rubbing shoulders with, when Robbie Williams, Scissor Sisters and Outkast have all partied hard within its four walls. 4. Le Royal Monceau Where: 37 Avenue Hoche, Paris, France Arty, classy boutique retreat Le Royal Monceau hotel in Paris is definitely not the sort of place where hair metal bands throw televisions from windows. But the more contemplative singer-songwriter side of your soul will love the acoustic guitars in each room. Draw inspiration from the City of Love and express it in a tune. Loving your next big hit sick? The hotel has a mobile sound studio available to musos of all descriptions. 5. Hotel San Jose Where: 1316 South Congress Avenue, Austin, Texas, USA Music fans will feel right at home at retro-hip boutique digs Hotel San José in Austin. Originally built in 1939 as a ‘motor court’, it’s been given a stucco overhaul and now nestles in happening 'hood SoCo buzzing with bars, stores and cafés. The mellow rooms – pea green is a favoured hue – are hung with vintage gig posters, their floors covered with cowhide rugs. Get into some tunes by borrowing one of the iPods stocked with Americana classics then head to the courtyard. During the day, beardy guys and tattooed gals knock back espressos; after dark musicians and DJs play alfresco. 6. Karma Kandara Where: Jalan Villa Kandara, Banjar Wijaya Kusuma, Bali, Indonesia Sure, the super-sized villas with vast plunge pools and views of the azure Indian Ocean at Bali boutique hotel Karma Kandara are private and impressive enough to suit even the most outrageous behaviour. Want to bake naked in the sun? No issue whatsoever. But you might prefer to get your togs on to check out what many people consider the best beach club in south-east Asia. Nammos is accessed via a cliff-front inclinator. Book one of the shady day-beds and settle back for chilled choons, icy cocktails and intermittent seaside splashing. 7. Shoreditch Rooms Where: 1 Ebor Street, Shoreditch, London, UK The skinny-jeaned massive frequents converted warehouse-turned-members’ club Shoreditch Rooms hotel in East London. There’s a rooftop pool, a bowling alley on the fourth floor and a Cowshed spa (perfect for overcoming night-before excesses), but the compact rooms are, most importantly, within staggering distance of Shoreditch’s coolest clubs and music venues, and grungy, bar-packed Dalston. Plus, because this is an outpost of Soho House, the see-and-be-seen crowd drapes itself around the Square Bar and on the roof, so there’s always action aplenty. Both Madonna and Harry Styles have celebrated their birthdays here. 8. Ace Hotel & Swim Club Where: 701 East Palm Canyon Drive, Palm Springs, California, USA All those youngsters who like to declare that vinyl is dead, well, you’re probably not going to find them at Ace Hotel & Swim Club in Palm Springs. Thankfully. Vintage furniture, swathed fabrics on the walls, full-size bottles of spirits in the minibar and handicrafts in all the rooms scream hipster heaven. Plus, if you book a Patio room – go for one with a garden – or one of the more expensive boudoirs, your digs come with a record player and a selection of retro vinyl that could range from Dylan to Zeppelin. When the temperature rises, though, it’s all about the pools. Yoga classes, bands and impromptu dance parties take place regularly by the water’s edge and, unlike many hotels, you can hang here until 2am. 9. Atzaró Where: Ctra San Joan km 15, Ibiza, Balearic Islands, Spain Sometimes even rock stars need downtime, and family-run Atzaró finca in Ibiza, the world’s most famous party island, delivers with a soothing blend of white-washed surrounds, day-bed-circled pool (and neighbouring cold-water Jacuzzi) and luxury spa. Recovering from the night before? The breakfast room is open until an incredibly civilised 1pm, after which a 90-minute Zen Shiatsu massage should improve your outlook enough to consider the evening once again – perhaps starting with mojitos at the Music & Sushi Lounge. 10. Dar Darma Where: 11/12, Trik Sidi Bohuarba, Medina, Marrakech, Morocco There wasn’t a Sixties rock icon worth his leather pants that didn’t get on the opium in exotic Morocco. Now, we’re not going to pretend that Jim Morrison, Keith Richards, Jimi Hendrix or Neil Young sucked the hookah at Marrakech boutique hotel Dar Darma, but you can easily imagine they did. In the heart of the medina, this darkly exotic five-suite guesthouse partners 300-year-old zouak ceilings and faded antique textiles with Versace-esque velvet settles, distressed metallic stripes and leopardskin rugs. Don your best boho-chic threads, head up to the plunge pool on the roof terrace and imagine you’re Talitha and John Paul Getty.
Reminiscent of artists such as Ladyhawke and Bat For Lashes, Elizabeth Rose's dreamy electronic pop tunes are making waves this year. The Sydney based producer is only 21, but she already has a few noteworthy notches on her belt – think Parklife, Harvest, Peast Ride Festival, Playground Weekender as well as being named one of Triple J's Next Crop Artists in 2012. Elizabeth Rose's sound combines sweet vocals, catchy melodies, hypnotising samples and floaty electronica that have the ability to transport listeners to another galaxy. She released her debut single 'Ready' earlier this year and is keen to take her astral tunes and tasty beats to the people. On the EP you'll find a mix of genres from down-tempo dark tracks to dance numbers perfect for sweaty dance floors. The next stop on her national tour is student party night Lambda at Alhambra Lounge. Head down to Lambda if you're 'ready' to be amazed and catch Elizabeth Rose doing what she does best this Thursday night. Tickets are available through Oztix as well as at the door. Along with good music, Lambda also boasts cheap drinks, so why not start your weekend early?
“Let's get coffee and cake at the hardware store!” said no one ever. But those who have discovered Gallery B in Enoggera will know this suggestion is not as crazy as it seems. Past the screwdrivers, hammers and tool boxes is one of the northside's best kept secrets. Gallery B is an oasis for lovers of vintage, featuring a plethora of unique handbags, jewellery, knick-knacks and clothes. It also offers a humble range of sweet treats and drinks, all homemade on site. After checking out the cake cabinet and with much deliberation, a morning tea of scones with jam and cream and an orange and poppy seed gluten-free friand were chosen. The light scones were deliciously warm and upheld their name as a morning tea staple. The hearty friand was presented with peach slices and a drizzling of syrup and proved to be just as tasty. Both sweet treats were presented on quaint mis-matched crockery and brought out on silver trays, which perfectly matched the eclectic feel of the gallery. For drinks, try the iced coffee and iced chai latte. If the combo of great cake, iced drinks and treasures isn't tickling your fancy, you'll be sold by the view. Gallery B's dining area is located on a wooden verandah overlooking lush greenery. This is polar opposite to the view at the front of the hardware store as it is located on a main busy road. The peaceful cafe gives no hint of the hustle and bustle outside the front door. What's more, the staff at Gallery B are completely welcoming and attentive to their customers. It's obvious that they are passionate about both their store and the food they create. This little cafe and gift store is far from being a one-trick pony and hosts art classes every Wednesday and also clairvoyant readings. After stumbling across Gallery B you won't be able to wipe the smug smile from your face. On their website is the grand claim that they are “the only boutique gallery in the world where your boyfriend will be happy”. The same could be said for the girls as never before has a hardware store seemed so appealing.
I've always thought of Utah as just another landlocked American state — a puzzling enigma of deep conservatism and desert monuments. Little did I know that a recent visit to America's most underrated state would unearth a skiing and mountain community steeped in beauty, history and epicurean experiences that wouldn't feel out of place in Australia. You'll find Park City — the ski town you've probably never heard of — a short 45-minute drive from Utah's capital. After leaving Salt Lake City International Airport, it's not long before the lights of the city's historic Main Street (as well as the headlights from the army of snowcat groomers on the hill) emerge on the horizon, as if glints of silver have been etched from the bowels of a mine shaft. [caption id="attachment_893649" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Park City, Utah.[/caption] In fact, it was rare minerals like silver which first had people rushing to these mountains in the 1860s in the first place. At one point, there were more than 300 mines in the Park City area. But the industry's collapse catalysed its rebirth as a skiing and tourism destination, and thus was born the allure of some of the greatest snow on Earth. In fact, the phrase: 'The Greatest Snow on Earth' was officially registered by the state in 1975. But geography and science help lay a solid claim to back this up. Giddy up, because this is America's most remarkable ski town. [caption id="attachment_893650" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Salt Lake City, Utah.[/caption] What makes it the Greatest Snow on Earth? Utah's geography to the mountains in the west makes it an arid state compared to its northern neighbours. The typically dry conditions, cool winters, and high altitudes (Park City's altitude is over 2,000 metres) allow the snow crystals that fall in the region to be thicker and more symmetrical in their structure; therefore, they accumulate fluffier powder. [caption id="attachment_893663" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Park City, Utah.[/caption] What's it like skiing at Park City Mountain? It's brisk at the top of the Super Condor Express chair lift (a balmy minus 24 degrees celsius), and while my face is frozen, I can't help but smile. "That was awesome. Do we go again?" I ask our guide Halle from Park City Mountain Resort. "Absolutely!" she replies, and within a few seconds, we're hurtling down Upper and Lower Boa for a second time. I'm not cold anymore because my legs are burning from another three-kilometre, nine-minute journey and nearly 550 metres of vertical descent. [caption id="attachment_893648" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Deer Valley Resort, Park City, Utah.[/caption] The terrain at Park City Mountain Resort is enormous. Technically made up of two individual ski areas of, Park City Mountain and Canyons Mountain, which were merged by Vail Resorts in 2014 and subsequently were joined by a gondola in 2015. With almost 3,000 hectares of terrain, there are 43 lifts, six terrain parks, and ski-in-ski-out access to Main Street. There are 330 named trails, but chatting to Halle (once a former Ski Patroller), that number is closer to 800 if you're in the know. There is a required proximity between 'resort' and 'town' when it comes to North American ski destinations. And that distance is what defines the culture of the town itself. Park City manages the balance of both on and off mountain activities better than anyone. Whether you ski down to Mountain Village for brunch and espresso at The Bridge Cafe or, carve your way right to the bar at High West Saloon, the only ski-in-ski-out distillery in the U.S. [caption id="attachment_893639" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Deer Valley Resort, Park City, Utah.[/caption] Where you also sleep matters. The new YOTELPAD Park City in Canyons Village is as Instagram-able, a hotel as they come. The reception and common spaces are filled with neon, and as the newest mid-range option on the mountain, it comes with all the expected mod-cons: spa, sauna, games room, and heated outdoor patio for afternoon Apres-ski. But the most significant novelty is the retractable Murphy beds in each room, which are a welcome addition on a luggage-heavy ski holiday. [caption id="attachment_893647" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Salt Lake City, Utah.[/caption] What about Deer Valley, Park City's quieter cousin? Like an expensive, out-of-reach necklace dangling just over a ridge is where you'll find the exclusive Deer Valley Resort (still technically within Park City.) It's one of only three resorts in the United States that does not permit snowboarders, often considered the riff-raff of the snow sports world. Both old money and the nouveau riche choose Deer Valley over Park City Mountain, not just because the skiing is quieter (lift ticket sales are regularly capped) but because the on and off-mountain service is exceptional. Skiers at Deer Valley are referred to as "guests" and not "customers", plus there's complimentary overnight ski valet for your gear. [caption id="attachment_893640" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Deer Valley Resort, Park City, Utah.[/caption] The Resort also offers a complimentary service with 25 luxury Cadillac Escalades. Don't be fooled; this is well and truly earned in your $500 daily lift pass. As a snowboarder, I'm used to being looked down upon by skiers at most other U.S. mountains. But here, I have no choice but to don a pair of skis for the first time in 20 years and set off with Uros, my Slovenian personal guide, for the next 48 hours. We ski together for hours through untracked Aspen tree runs. We wait only minutes in lineless lifts while ogling together from above at his favourite gated community. He points out to me the house where he was invited to a dinner with Steve Jobs and Al Gore after a day on the slopes. [caption id="attachment_893662" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Park City, Utah.[/caption] On the deck at the prestigious Stein Eriksen Lodge, the final pieces of the Deer Valley puzzle are assembled once inside their temperature-controlled Alpen Globes. It's only 3 pm, but in the fading afternoon sun, Après-ski well and truly has begun, and I'm handed a wine list by the Lodge's Sommelier with a cost price of over $4,000,000. Pioneers, distillers, hunters, snowboarders, paddlers, and mountain bikers. Like their world-class ski resorts, Utahns are in a class of their own. They're genuine outdoor people who personify a bygone and future America, and I'm happy to confirm them as the rightful custodians of the Greatest Snow on Earth®. Images: Jeremy Drake, Park City Chamber/Convention & Visitors Bureau & Deer Valley Resort. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
GOMA has a new exhibition that will get your tummy rumbling. The wonderful Harvest exhibition celebrates food and art with over 150 pieces from the Gallery's Collection on display. Harvest features stunning still life paintings from the 17th century to now, delicious videos and large installations to fully immerse yourself in. As part of the exhibition, Harvest: Food on Film will focus on the presence and importance of food as a symbol in filmmaking. A discussion program, GOMA Talks will also be held each Thursday evening where you are invited to participate in a discussion with especial guests and ABC Radio National hosts as they discuss food from every angle. There are plenty more programs being held during the exhibition. Eating with your eyes at Harvest may stimulate your mind but leave your stomach wanting more, which is why GOMA have a designed a special lunchtime meal at the cafe bistro. After having your fill of art and working up an appetite, dig into the roasted Spatchcock, puffed corn and toasted grains with blueberry gel with a glass of wine ($20).
We've made it to the last day of winter (time to burn your beanies and unpack your togs) and to celebrate Falls Festival has just gifted us with one helluva lineup. Helping to ring in the art and music festival's 26th year is a pretty buzzworthy gang of musical mates headlined by American rapper Anderson .Paak. He'll be taking the stage with his band The Free Nationals, and performing hits off his Grammy Award-nominated album Malibu and maybe a tune or two off his highly anticipated third album, Oxnard Ventura. He's joined on the bill by big names like UK foursome Catfish and The Bottlemen, who'll be debuting some fresh new material at their only Aussie show; Australia's own Vance Joy; Scottish synth-pop trio Chvrches, who'll also be here for NYD celebration Field Day; Interpol, fresh off the back of their new album release, Marauder; and Toto. Toto. Yes, the American rock band behind the masterpiece that is 'Africa' is heading to Falls. While you're feeling nostalgic, you'll also be able to hit up Hilltop Hoods — call dad. True to form, the Falls 2018 local lineup is equally exciting, and every bit as broad. Homegrown acts hitting the stage include the dance-ready Flight Facilities, Melbourne's psychedelic King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard, Sydney producer Touch Sensitive, Gold Coast native Amy Shark and Heaps Gay DJs & Friends back for another year. This year, too, an impressive 48 percent of acts performing have female artists and, while it's not quite half — and there are still lots of other minority groups that are underrepresented — it's a start. As always, the tunes are backed by a colourful curation of art events, performances, pop-ups, markets, wellness sessions and gourmet eats. It's all happening over New Years at the usual spots in Tassie's Marion Bay, Lorne in Victoria, the North Byron Parklands and the Fremantle Oval Precinct, WA. But here's what you're here for — the full lineup. FALLS FESTIVAL 2018 LINEUP Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals Catfish and The Bottlemen (no sideshows) Vance Joy Chvrches Hilltop Hoods Toto Interpol 88Rising Feat. Rich Brian, Joji, Niki & August 08 (no sideshows) Flight Facilities Amy Shark DMA's Kind Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard Golden Features First Aid Kit (no sideshows) Ocean Alley Hockey Dad Cashmere Cat (no sideshows) The Vaccines Cub Sport Ruel Jack River Bishop Briggs Mallrat Briggs Touch Sensitive Tkay Maidza Dermot Kennedy Tired Lion Hobo Johnson & The Lovemakers Soccer Mommy Banks Triple One Alice Skye Heaps Gay DJs & Friends + More to be announced FALLS FESTIVAL 2018 DATES Lorne, VIC — December 28–31 Marion Bay, TAS — December 29–31 Byron Bay, NSW — December 31–January 2 Fremantle, WA — January 5–6 Falls Festival 2018 will take place over New Years. Friends of Falls members pre-sale tickets are available from midday Friday, August 31, with General Sales kicking off next Thursday, September 6 at 9am. For more info and to buy tickets, visit fallsfestival.com.
Sometimes, we all need to get a little lost. We need to leave our comfort zones — and the homes we've been spending so much time in during the pandemic — and go wandering through an otherworldly realm. We need to explore light-filled mazes, bound through inflatable spaces and check out an electronic hall of mirrors, too, and just completely forget about our day-to-day troubles while we're moseying around a multi-sensory installation. If all of that sounds like your idea of heaven at the moment, it's about to become a reality in Brisbane this September. This year's Brisbane Festival has just announced a new addition to its lineup in the form of Imaginaria — an immersive playground for kidults and children alike that's set to take over the Festival Garden hub underneath the Goodwill Bridge, next to Queensland Maritime Museum at South Bank, from Friday, September 3–Tuesday, November 30. And, if it sounds a little familiar, that's because you might've heard about Imaginaria's Melbourne season. From late in 2020, it set up shop in the Victorian capital for six months and welcomed in a lazy 100,000-plus people. So, expect its Brisbane stint to be busy (and cross your fingers that lockdown doesn't get extended and hamper the pop-up's plans, obviously). The installation is made up of different structures each filled with lights, sounds and smells. First, you take your shoes off — and then you wander through a space filled with artificial intelligence projections, sensor-triggered LED waves and giant silk parachute canopies. Also included: cosmic gardens, an anti-gravity sunset, an electronic hall of mirrors and a digital wishing well that whispers your greatest desires. There's ten rooms in total, eight of which are brand new for Brisbane — and it's a choose-your-own-adventure kind of experience, so you can spend 15 minutes skipping through or take your time. Open to all ages, it'll have capacity limits and strict hygiene measures, with tickets starting at $23.95 a pop for adults. Imaginaria will set up at the Brisbane Festival Garden hub underneath the Goodwill Bridge, next to Queensland Maritime Museum at South Bank, from Friday, September 3–Tuesday, November 30 — with Ticketmaster pre-sales running from 10am on Tuesday, August 10–11.59pm on Wednesday, August 11, and general public tickets open from 10am on Thursday, August 12. Images: William Hamilton-Coates
Google's self-driving car has already brought widespread automated-automobiling one step closer. Now, a UK town has announced plans to establish a driverless public transportation system. Milton Keynes, home to about 40,000 residents, and situated approximately 87 kilometres northwest of London, will soon host a fleet of 100 self-driving pods. Each has the capacity to carry two passengers, as well as luggage, and can travel up to 19km per hour. Electronic motors provide power and, at first, the pods will travel in their own lanes. These are likely to be dispensed with once passengers have developed the confidence to travel driver-free. A smartphone app will facilitate the reservation and payment of journeys, which will take place between the Milton Keynes train station and various locations in the town centre — about 1.6km away. Each trip is expected to cost 2 GBP ($3.44), with total revenue to amount to 1 million GBP after 12 months. The system will begin its test run in 2015. Initially, just twenty pods, featuring joysticks or steering wheels enabling human intervention, will be used, with all 100 expected to be in full swing by 2017. The trial period will last five years, at a cost of 65 million GBP. Driverless pods have been used at Terminal 5, Heathrow Airport, since 2011. During the past two years, a fleet of 21 vehicles travelling along a 3.8km track has transported more than 700,000 passengers. The difference with the pods planned for Milton Keynes is that they will not have the advantage of an installed guideway. Instead, their technology is closer to that utilised in self-driving automobiles, dependent on a combination of GPS, sensors and HD cameras. Via the Independent.
Charlie Murphy deserves some serious credit. Trying to forge a career as a professional comedian is pretty tough at the best of times, let alone when your brother is none other than Eddie Murphy. Yet Charlie has not only taken that plunge – he's come out the other side as a top-billed international comedian playing to sold-out audiences around the world. Next month he'll be bringing his act to both Australia and New Zealand, so he took some time to talk to Tom Glasson about comedy, basketball, being Eddie Murphy's brother and even Lamingtons. Charlie Murphy, hello from Sydney! Hey brother - how ya doin' man? Good mate, yourself? Yeah it's all good. I'm just sitting here in Englewood, New Jersey watching the afternoon news you know. Keeping an eye out for new material? Always brother. Got to keep it fresh for you folks in Australia. Well yeah, it's only a little over a month now until you bring your show – the 'Acid Trip Tour' – down our way. You excited? You better believe it man – I've never been to Australia before so this is my first time and I'm super-charged about coming there. First time? Well then you're probably carrying around some serious '80s clichés and stereotypes about us all! [Laughs] Ha, Crocodile Dundee! But you know, I'm looking forward to seeing all that AND the real deal. It's gonna be fun! So what can people expect from your show? Laughs, man! Whenever people ask me that I always tell them the same thing: you should expect to laugh. I mean you ain't going to a basketball game, you ain't going to a magician, you're going to see a comedian. When you see a comedian you should expect to laugh. But yeah, people ask me that a lot because they haven't seen me before – I'm new to most people – and I let them know it's for them to laugh. And you know, this is my first time coming to Australia; I've been to England, Canada, Scandinavia, all over the US and I've been making people laugh and I enjoy doing it. How would you describe your own sense of humour? What makes you laugh? Oh it's adult, man! I leave it raw and you can take it the way you want it. But it's raw and it's adult. I expect my audience to be adult, too. I don't go do lunchtime crowds at high schools, you know – I have an adult show. Who's making you laugh right now? You know man, it's funny - whoever's funny really. All of them can make me laugh, you know what I'm saying? I mean they're all funny guys. I enjoy all of them. Jumping back a few years, you grew up in Brooklyn right? Yeah. I grew up, partially in Brooklyn, 'til I was 13. Then I moved to Long Island and lived there from 13 to 17. And then I went to the military. And your father was almost a 'slashy' wasn't he, in that he was a transit cop but also a part-time actor and comedian? Well, my father was a police officer – a transit officer – and that's what he really was. He did a little stand-up when he was in high school, he did it on the side a bit, but he never really became a professional stand-up comedian. You know, he did talent shows and – my uncle did it as well – he did local stuff but never became professional where it was their way of making a living. Because that's when I think you can say you're a professional comedian; until then you're just dabbling. Where do you think this passion for comedy came from, since you'd almost have to call it a family business now? Ha, yeah. Well, I was already in the business but not as a comedian. You know I was in the business as an actor, I was in the business as a writer, a producer, but I wasn't in it as a comedian because it was obvious to me at that point that I was "Eddie's brother", you know? Eddie Murphy was the comedian, he was the younger brother and so it was always going to be hard for them to accept me as one too. But then The Chappelle Show kind of knocked that door down and I thought: "wait a minute, you can go out now and play with that." You know, that was a free pass to do it because people wanted to see me all of a sudden, and so I started going out, I started developing it and I've never stopped. I've been on the road for ten years straight! [laughs] You just mentioned Chappelle. Did you have any sense at the time that this was your sort of 'shine the light' moment? That this was when it was all going to change, or was it only retrospectively that you came to appreciate how important it all was? Nah I didn't know that this was going to happen. I had no idea and neither did anyone else. What's happened since is actually kind of unbelievable because I started doing stand-up at 42 years old. I didn't start when I was nine like Chappelle or Eddie Murphy or Chris Rock. I didn't start doing stand-up when I was a teenager, or in my twenties or thirties, I started when I was 42 years old…and my brother was Eddie Murphy! I mean he's one of, or rather the, stand-up guy; the recognised God of stand-up, okay? That's my brother, so to have that in front of you, you know what I'm saying, it's very unlikely that you would firstly take a chance to try to get into it, and then secondly - be successful at it, and I've done both those things. And so that's a blessing. I've jumped over those hurdles and I'm now making a presence for myself and beginning to be appreciated for what I do. And now you're coming out to Australia on tour. That's quite an incredible run. Exactly man! And you know, everywhere I've been it's all part of reaffirming that I'm now doing what I'm supposed to be doing; that I made a very smart choice with my life. And I'm doing something special because I can't think of anybody else that's a comedian who can say: "Okay this guy, he did it like this." I think I'm carving a brand new street. I'm curious about your take on comedy at the moment, because – and I'm thinking here about something one of Conan's writers said, a guy called Andrés du Bouchet – his advice to young comedy writers was: "write and perform comedy for 10 years in obscurity then luck out." Do you feel that's a little cynical or pretty reflective of the nature of the industry? No that's kind of true man, because there are guys out there right now who are really really really good and they're not famous. I know who they are because I'm in the world of stand-up, I'm a comedian so I know who the other comedians are. Like the guy I'm bringing with me to Australia, his name's Freeze Love. You've never heard of him, but he's very very funny in his own right and yet he doesn't have a headliner name, a household name yet, so people say: "who's this guy? We came to see Charlie Murphy!" And then this guy comes out and you forget that you came to see Charlie Murphy because he's that funny. When you come to my show I want you to laugh from the moment you get there to the moment you leave. And I'm only on stage for an hour but the show's an hour and a half, you know, so I make sure you get some variety and when you leave your face is hurting. That's my objective – to hurt your face – and I'm not a boxer! There's this idea that comedy runs parallel with the zeitgeist, so in the '60s and '70s it was all about social change, then in the '80s it was the battle of the sexes, in the '90s it was drugs and most recently it's been terrorism and war. And George W Bush! The human punch-line. Exactly! Do you feel like there's a new theme emerging now? Because a lot of the current acts seem to focus on the influence - and perhaps intrusion - of technology in our lives and how dehumanising and lonely it can all be. Totally, that's it man. But at the same time these comics, people like Louis CK, they're sort of embracing that failing aren't they? Embracing their own shortcomings and emerging as anti-heroes. Yeah man, it's all those things! You named almost everything I cover, like my show encompasses all the things you just talked about. We've had the '60s, '70s, '80s…well this is the new millennium and I'm talking about all of it. You're gonna hear about social issues, you're gonna hear about family, politics…all of that in one hour. And it's going to be fun. A few years ago you said you were a huge fan of Obama but just couldn't see him becoming President given the state of things in America. Now that it's happened a lot of people have called this the 'post race' age, but that seems like a bit of a stretch doesn't it? Exactly. That's not true. Things are just different, you know. Racism's still alive and well. Is it as rigid and defined as it was in the '60s? No, but it's still there. That other way, the old way, it wouldn't be able to exist in the climate we've got now, but it's still there. It just adapted. It's gradually leaving though, because if you look at the young people and their intelligence, there's not as much of that ignorance from the old days any more. Actually I was watching that movie the other day, the J Edgar movie with Leonardo DiCaprio - who does an excellent job by the way - but for me that movie was about this man who, before this movie was made and various documentaries were made, he was held up like a God, a man who could do no wrong, a perfect person. And then that movie exposed that not only was he human – that was the first thing – but he was also flawed like all of us. Severely! I really liked that movie. And just finally Charlie, you're a New Yorker and you recently did some promo stuff for Air Jordan with your Leroy Smith character – I'm guessing you've been caught up in the whole Jeremy Lin saga? Oh yeah man – I'm a big time Knicks fan! And my show's called "The Acid Trip" so I'm glad you brought the Knicks up because I point out things that are really really totally unexpected, like if ten years ago you'd said that in 2012 the highest paid rapper would be white, there's going to be a black President and an Asian's gonna be dominating the NBA, nobody would've believed it! An Asian guy from Harvard no less. Exactly! This is all really happening, it's real, see so that's kind of the metaphor for my show because every day of life is another opportunity for you to go: "Oh wow!" Every day something could happen that's never happened in your life before. You could smell something you've never smelled before, taste something you've never tasted before and I don't know how old you are but think about that. If somebody said to me: "How long did it take you to get here?" and – because the first person who did that said "oh it took me 15 minutes" and I replied "Oh really, because it took me 52 years." So that's how you're looking at it, you know? Well it was well worth it Charlie because we can't wait to have you out here. I can't wait to come out there man. And I want you to give me the heads up on what's the first thing I should try to eat? What's an Australian dish, because I've never had Australian food so what would you recommend I eat when I get there? What's it like? Well it's pretty much like American food except sized for humans. But I suppose the Lamington is the go-to option for something sweet, and of course the good ole meat pie. Meat pie? What kind of meat is it? Okay, it might not be 'meat'. Ha, yeah okay. But I'll do it anyway. Just ask for a regular beef pie and if they like you they'll top it off with some ketchup in the shape of Australia. [Laughs] Okay I'm gonna try that man, and I look forward to seeing you all real soon. Thanks brother. Charlie Murphy's "Acid Trip Tour" will hit Melbourne on 19 and 20 April, Auckland on April 23 and then Sydney on April 26. Check for tickets at www.abpresents.com.au and keep up with Charlie via Twitter @cmurphycomedy. https://youtube.com/watch?v=AwgvwFWK_dQ
When summer starts to scorch, we'll do anything to cool down. And while we'd like to be able to fling ourselves into the ocean at every 30-degree-plus opportunity, that's not always an option. That's when we usually turn to air conditioning. But while it might be a convenient way to keep your cool, it has its drawbacks — from its dehydrating effects and potential to spread bacteria to its massive energy consumption (which is both a drain on your wallet and the planet). And of course, some of us are living in stuffy rental properties where clicking on that air con remote isn't even an option. So, now that summer's here with a vengeance, we thought we'd bring you a few simple hacks for avoiding air con — or just surviving without it. You'll need ice, water and — if you're really keen — some trees. Go nuts. HACK YOUR FAN On scorching days, fans can be rudely ineffective, seeming to do little more than blow more hot air into your face. But a quick hack can work some magic. Find a big bowl, fill it with ice and place it between your fan and you. The propellers will work on the now-cooled air, sending it straight your way, transforming your fan into what feels like an air conditioner. Another option is to hang a bag of ice (or bottles of frozen water) directly in front of the fan. You can also place a wet, cool towel over the fan itself, which should get you an hour or so of extra crisp air. MAKE CLEVER COLD DRINKS Just carried the beer in from the car? Wrap each bottle in a soaked (but not dripping) paper towel and pop it in the freezer. The moisture will evaporate and cool speedily, and within 15 minutes, you'll be sipping on an ice-cold brew. You can swap your hot caffeine hit for an iced one by turning just-made coffee into ice cubes — for something different, make it Vietnamese-style by adding a dash of condensed milk. Or, if you're kicking all the habits this summer, add frozen berries to a glass of water, which cools down your drink while upping the taste factor. APPLY COLD THINGS TO YOUR PULSE POINTS Anyone who's ever spent term four in an Aussie primary school should already know this trick, but just in cased you missed out: the easiest way to cool down quickly is by applying a source of cold to your pulse points. Start by holding your wrists under running water for at least three minutes. Afterwards, apply an ice pack (or equivalent; heck, some frozen peas will do) to your wrists, neck, back of knees and/or ankles. These strategies cool the blood running through your veins and decrease your body temperature. MIST-IFY YOURSELF Got an empty spray bottle lying around? Give it a good, thorough clean and fill it with cold — or icy — water. Then, whenever you feel your temperature start to rise, spray yourself and everyone else in your vicinity. It's a basic trick, but an easy one. If possible, keep the bottle in the refrigerator or freezer (for short periods only – don't let the water turn into ice). Otherwise, just re-fill that baby as often as you can. PUT PLANTS IN FRONT OF YOUR WINDOWS Got pot plants? Got windows that let in lots of light? Well, there's an energy-saving match, right there. Use said plants to block said windows. The taller and leafier the better (consider that your permission to stock up on even more plant babies). In fact, if you're serious about keeping cool, it's worth investing in some dense trees or even vines, as long as you have a way to hang them from the windows. Not only will plants reduce the light and heat entering your home, they'll also provide you with cleaner air. Go for lemon trees you'll get some fruit out of it, too. FREEZE YOUR PILLOWS AND SHEETS One of the biggest challenges of an air con-free summer is getting to sleep. To produce the sleep-inducing hormone melatonin, your body needs to reduce its core temperature. But once the thermometer hits 25 degrees, this becomes a tough task. To make it easier, stick your pillows and sheets in a plastic bag and shove them in the freezer for 30 minutes, before making and hopping into your bed. As the night wears on and you start to warm up, you might find yourself waking up — if you're really committed, keep a spare set of PJs in the freezer, so you can do a quick switcheroo. CLOSE ALL THE WINDOWS Up to a third of heat inside a house comes in through open windows and doors. So, go on a closing rampage — and tell your family or housemates all about it so they can get on board. While you're there, cover windows as effectively as possible by drawing blinds and curtains, and shutting shutters. If nighttime brings any relief, open them up again. And, to increase the effect of any cooler air, hang wet sheets in front of the windows. As the evening breeze blows through, the moisture will drop the temperature even further. Just don't forget to close everything again in the morning before it heats back up. GIVE YOUR FEET A COLD BATH When you need to sit in one spot for a while — maybe you're getting some work done or watching a flick — fill a container with cold water (and ice, if you can hack it) and stick your feet in. Immerse your ankles if you can — they're pulse points, so when they're cool your whole body temperature tends to drop. Should this work for you, go one further with a bath or shower. Or, if you'd rather avoid hanging around in the bathroom all day, invest in a kiddy pool to use either indoors or outside. TURN OFF YOUR APPLIANCES You'll be surprised how much heat is generated by your appliances. The obvious one is your oven. Even a seemingly harmless spurt of baking can give the thermometer a major surge. If you've got people coming over for dinner, an outdoor barbie is the best solution. Beyond the oven, there are loads of other heat-creating suspects, including your microwave, electric jug, television, bedside lamps, dishwasher, washing machine and computers. Whenever possible, switch them all off and unplug them — it'll help you stay cool and save energy. SPICE IT UP There's a good reason why spicy food is so popular in steamy parts of the world like India and Bangladesh. When you ingest all that chilli, your body starts to sweat and, as you know, sweating cools you down. Make your meal hot enough and you'll be so deep in the sweats you won't know what season it is. What's more, spicy food comes with a heap of potential health benefits, from increasing life expectancy to preventing cancer.
There were some pretty happy snow bunnies across Victoria and NSW this weekend, as many of the states' ski fields scored record-breaking snow falls, just two weeks after the official start of this year's ski season. The powder bucketed down across the weekend, with Sunday morning seeing Victoria's Mt Buller reporting its fifth deepest snow at this point in the season for the past 40 years. Fellow Victorian ski resort Mt Hotham this morning reported an extra 16cm of snow, beefing up its base to 80cm — the biggest its seen for the second week of the ski season in decades. The mountain has had 95cm of snow altogether this season, with 90cm of that falling in the last seven days. Further north, NSW's Perisher scored another 10cm of fresh snow overnight, bringing the total from the weekend's snow storms there to 82cm. And Thredbo is also covered in a hefty blanket of white, with 20cm of fresh snow in the past 24 hours, pulling its season total to 85cm. https://twitter.com/BOM_Vic/status/1007411165943730177 According to the Bureau of Meteorology, Victoria's alpine areas have only seen the start of it, with a further 25cm to 50cm expected to drop over the next three days. Meanwhile, conditions in NSW are set to clear right up, as the storm there reaches its end before the middle of the week. Top image: Thredbo
The second season of House of the Dragon might've come to an end, but HBO has plenty more must-sees on the way to fill your viewing schedule until its third round of Targaryen feuds arrives. The Last of Us season two, The White Lotus season three, fellow Game of Thrones prequel A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms, IT prequel series Welcome to Derry: they're just some of the shows that'll have you hearing the US network's famous static-filled intro again. Can't wait for another wander through a world infected with Cordyceps? To see a seemingly idyllic holiday prove anything but again? For more time in Westeros? To be creeped out by an evil clown once more, too? Sadly, none of the above series are due to premiere imminently — they're all set for 2025 — but HBO has dropped a new trailer with footage from all of them. The American station does this periodically — back in December 2023, it also unveiled a glimpse at its 2024–25 slate — but this one includes the first new scenes from some of its keenly anticipated hits. With The Last of Us, not just Pedro Pascal (Drive-Away Dolls) and Bella Ramsey (Catherine Called Birdy) but also new cast member Catherine O'Hara (Argylle) make an appearance, for instance. And with The White Lotus — which stars Walton Goggins (Fallout), Carrie Coon (Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire), Jason Isaacs (The Crowded Room), Michelle Monaghan (MaXXXine), Leslie Bibb (Palm Royale) and Parker Posey (Mr & Mrs Smith) — in its third season — "what happens in Thailand stays in Thailand", viewers are told. A Knight of the Seven Kingdoms comes to the screen from George RR Martin's novella series Tales of Dunk and Egg, and has been talked about for a few years. The story follows knight Ser Duncan the Tall and his squire Egg as they wander Westeros a century before the events of GoT, when the Targaryens remain on the Iron Throne and everyone still remembers dragons. As for Welcome to Derry, it returns to Stephen King's go-to Maine town, stepping through the locale's scares before the terror that viewers have already seen. HBO's new trailer also spans 2024 releases The Penguin, Dune: Prophecy, The Franchise and documentary Wise Guy: David Chase and The Sopranos, alongside the third seasons of Industry and The Sex Lives of College Girls, plus the fourth of My Brilliant Friend. From its 2025 slate, look out for more And Just Like That... and The Gilded Age as well, plus newcomers The Pitt with ER veteran Noah Wylie and Duster with Lost's Josh Holloway. Watch HBO's latest 2024–25 roundup trailer below: The Last of Us season two doesn't yet have a release date, other than sometime in 2025. When it returns, it'll stream via Binge in Australia and on Neon in New Zealand. Read our review of the first season. Images: HBO.
If there's ever going to be any more Indiana Jones movies following this year's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, bringing Ke Huy Quan back as Short Round should be the number-one mission. For now, Disney — which is behind the Indy flicks — is enlisting the Everything Everywhere All At Once Oscar-winner in another of its big franchises. And, it's plunging him into more multiverse madness. When Loki finally returns for it second season this spring, Quan will join the cast as OB, who works for the Time Variance Authority. In the just-dropped full trailer for the show's long-awaited comeback, he isn't surprised when the Marvel Cinematic Universe's God of Mischief is glitching. In fact, he's on hand to help. Continuing Loki's small-screen exploits two years since the show that bears the Tom Hiddleston (The Essex Serpent)-played character's name first debuted in 2021 — when it was just the third MCU series to hit Disney+ after WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — this second season grapples with the aftermath of that initial batch of episodes. Cue a fight for the TVA, alongside Mobius M Mobius (Owen Wilson, Marry Me), Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku, Black Mirror) and more. Also set to pop up: Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain), Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Summerland) and Miss Minutes (Tara Strong, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3). As also seen in the trailer, Jonathon Majors (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) makes an appearance. Calendars out: after Secret Invasion aired in June and July, Loki will start streaming via Disney+ from. Friday, October 6, making good on the "Loki will return in season two" promise. Also joining the MCU's TV ranks this year is newcomer Echo, a Hawkeye spinoff, which will arrive on Wednesday, November 29 — and enjoy a first for the MCU on streaming. Disney+ usually drops a few episodes at once for each show, then unfurls the rest weekly afterwards; however, this series about Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) will arrive all at once on the same day. Check out the trailer for Loki season two below: Loki season two will premiere on Disney+ on Friday, October 6. Top image: © Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Do you ever gaze at a portrait in a museum and wish the person inside it could speak? Maybe you'd ask them what it was like to be painted by the artist — boring, intimidating, thrilling? — maybe you'd want to know more about their life story, particularly if they're a well-known figure. Or maybe you'd simply be curious to hear what it's like to have your image hung on a wall and stared at by streams of strangers each day. They're not questions you often hear the answers to; when it comes to portraiture, it tends to be the case that the subject is recognised but the artist gets interviewed. So, to redress this, we sought out three 'muses' behind portraits selected as finalists in this year's Archibald Prize to get a sense of how it feels to be a subject in Australia's top portraiture prize. [caption id="attachment_634779" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Loribelle Spirovski: John Bell at home, oil on canvas, 2017.[/caption] JOHN BELL BY LORIBELLE SPIROVSKI The subject of not one, but two paintings in this year's Archibald, legendary actor, director and Bell Shakespeare founder John Bell appears in paintings by Loribelle Spirovski and Jordan Richardson. Having met him earlier this year when he worked with her partner, classical pianist Simon Tedeschi, Spirovski found Bell at first a slightly daunting figure to paint. She used a minimal background and flesh colours tinged with a gleam of Australian sun to channel the viewer's attention towards Bell's piercing gaze, just as she herself "was immediately drawn to that powerful, chiselled face with its deep-set features and inscrutable personality." The resulting portrait of a seated Bell feels both relaxed and intimidatingly regal. Bell was very excited at the prospect of being painted by the artist, who he describes as "a restless creative spirit". He admires her bold experimentation, speed and confident execution: "She can deliver a portrait of photographic realism or one that ventures into the darker reaches of the psyche in a most startling manner." Although he'd seen a number of her paintings, including several of Tedeschi, the finished work nevertheless came to him as "something of a shock," Bell says, describing it as "very intense, brooding and introspective but expressed with a violent palette of colour and craggy vigour of execution. I find it unsettling to look at but very persuasive." He is yet to visit the work alongside the public, but when he does he's looking forward to eavesdropping on their comments (you've been warned). Image: Loribelle Spirovski, John Bell at home, oil on canvas, 2017 [caption id="attachment_634780" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Andrew Lloyd Greensmith: The inner stillness of Eileen Kramer, oil on linen, 2017.[/caption] EILEEN KRAMER BY ANDREW LLOYD GREENSMITH It's not every year that a prominent plastic surgeon has a painting in the Archibald. For Andrew Lloyd Greensmith, ex-chief of the Department of Craniofacial Surgery at the Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne, art was a childhood obsession that he's only recently begun to seriously pursue. His muse? Eileen Kramer — who, at 102 years old, is the world's oldest working dancer and choreographer. She toured with the avant-garde Bodenwieser Ballet for a decade, and has called New York, London, Paris and India home. To Andrew, "she embodies beauty as that intangible thing which cannot be fixed on the surface nor defeated by the wear and tear of age." When asked to sit for the portrait, Eileen thought, "I love the portraits of the great Dutch masters, especially Rembrandt. I hope I look like that!" She found Andrew "extremely sympathetic" to work with during the sitting process. Drawing on memories of being painted several times in Paris, Eileen offered up a series of poses she thought would be suitable — until stopping for a moment to rest. This was, of course, the moment Andrew began sketching. After seeing the stillness and quiet grace of the finished work, Eileen felt that Andrew understood the dancer in her. "I didn't know he'd seen that in me," she comments. "To me it looks like the portrait of a dancer. I did not expect to like it, but I do." As for the idea of thousands of people staring at her everyday? "That is an extraordinary feeling. I wish my mother would have been here to see it." [caption id="attachment_634671" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dee Smart: The Major of Bondi, oil and acrylic on canvas, 2017.[/caption] JOHN MACARTHUR BY DEE SMART Picking up her first paintbrush 15 years ago while housebound with a new baby, Dee Smart's artistic drive revolves around the desire to capture the human condition — and it was John Macarthur's humility and sense of humour that drew her to him as a potential muse. The result (and her first Archibald selection) is a joyous portrait positively singing with colour, reflecting the 'vibrating hues' of Macarthur's home and wider world. Fondly known as the 'Mayor of Bondi', Macarthur is famous for his internationally coveted, extremely colourful knitwear brand Purl Harbour. And it sounds like he has a similarly colourful life story. In fact, while living in Spain he apparently very nearly became muse to another painter — Salvador Dali, to be exact — who wanted to paint him as an angel. No big deal. His initial reaction when Smart asked him to sit? "I was absolutely gobsmacked. What on earth and how and why?" The painting's progression was, however, a relaxed one, and by the sounds of it, he made an obedient subject. "She said jump, I said how high. That's basically how it went. We laughed a hell of a lot." Observing Smart's close attention to line and angle, Macarthur savoured his behind-the-scenes vantage point, and found the big reveal of the finished painting to be "quite extraordinary". He particularly enjoys the eye-catching palette of his beloved pinks and oranges — stating that "these are definitely my colours" — his "happy and veracious" look and the "intensity in the eyes" captured by Smart. "I identify totally with what she's done." Catch the 2017 Archibald Prize at AGNSW until Sunday, October 22.
It's that time of the year again. Time to dig out your old witch hat or join the vampires and grow some fangs. Perhaps the only thing scarier than your fake blood and broomstick are these vintage Halloween get-ups. Nothing says Halloween in the '70s like a shiny plastic devil mask, after all. Halloween garb in the '60s, '70s and '80s was dominated by two costume companies, Ben Cooper Inc. and Collegeville. Ben Cooper had relationships with multiple media companies often leaving Collegeville to create their own version of Frankenstein and Batman, resulting in hilariously similar characters with pathetic names such as 'The Monster' and 'The Bat.' Despite the name of the costume, both companies survived off excitable youth desperate to avoid their mother's home-made sheet-ghost costume for the third year in a row. For better or for worse, the companies have retired their Halloween costume services and the awkward one-piece jumpsuits and thick plastic masks have graduated and become classic vintage collector's items.
With over 8 million people living in its five boroughs, New York is one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. So, some of the city's wealthier residents have come up with an inventive way to squeeze into The Big Apple: by building buildings on top of other buildings. Think dens perched on top of apartment blocks, pods stored next to air-conditioning vents and rooftop 'cubes' overlooking the Hudson. These creative structures are not only fantastic to marvel at with their contrasting designs and modern styles, but are also a great solution to housing shortages in large cities. Here are ten of the most creative examples in NYC. Rooftop A-Frame Rooftop House and Terrace Three Story Rooftop House Icosa Village Pod in Williamsburg Loftcube by Werner Aisslinger Midtown Rooftop Garden House on Top of an Apartment Central Park West Rooftop Garden Rooftop House and Garden East Village Cape Cod House Soho House Rooftop
Semi-anonymous street artist JR has won the 2011 TED Award (we highly suggest listening to him speak here), and is appealing to you, the public, to help him turn the world inside out using street art as a medium for social and political change. Appreciating that the world is sometimes an ugly, always volatile place, JR believes in the power of the public — 'the curators', who walk past his iconic images on a daily basis — as a vehicle for worldwide upheaval. For JR, "that is where we realise the power of paper and glue." JR's mission is simple, and it's based on his existing body of work — "we didn't push the limit, we just showed that it was further than anyone thought." Now, JR is asking you to explore the boundaries of limit in order to imprint your better world upon the flawed one we already have. While the artist doesn't believe that art can change the world in a tangible sense, he holds firmly to the philosophy that art can be harnessed to change perceptions. The Inside-Out project urges you to "stand up for what you care about, by participating in a global art project... Because when we act together, the whole thing is more than the sum of its parts." Inside-Out asks participants to have their photo taken in this travelling booth (rumoured to hit New York next), or upload their picture to the projects website. JR's team will then mail you a giant poster that you'll paste up within your community. Both the romanticism and the practicality of the Inside-Out project is inspiring, with a certain poignancy bred from the physical joining together of people from across the world for a common cause.
Move over, every cooking show ever made — and every hotel-based reality TV series as well. If there's ever been an ideal setting for any culinary feat or holiday highlights, it's Castello di Ugento in the southern tip of Puglia in Italy. It's not every day that you get to stay in a 1000-year-old castle that was once a Norman fortress and a lavish 17th century palace, let alone cook up a storm in one, but that's just what the site now offers. After its latest revamp, Castello di Ugento now boasts welcoming a luxe place to stay thanks to a nine-suite boutique hotel, a 1000-square-metre museum wing with restored frescoes, and an extensive culinary centre as well. It's the latter that should entice foodies from around the world, playing permanent host to an Italian cookery school in the castle's old storehouse. State-of-the-art equipment sits inside ancient, lovingly restored walls, with classes offered year-round — on an educational basis for students from the Culinary Institute of America as part of a semester abroad, and for hotel guests. House chef Odette Fada, other well-known chefs and local nonnas all impart their wisdom, spanning cutting-edge techniques and traditional, generations-old family recipes alike. Proving the type of place dreams are made of — because we all fantasise about spending warm Italian summers cooking, lazing about in luxury and roaming through scenic greenery, don't we? — the castle also features a working 17th-century kitchen garden, complete with over 100 kinds of herbs, fruit trees and vegetables, as well as event facilities. In the near future, visitors will also be able to enjoy wine tastings in a 500-year-old cisterna, or spend the night at a nearby restored farmhouse, which has its own pool, tennis court and fruit garden on site. For more information, visit the Castello di Ugento website. Images: Castello di Ugento.
In collaboration with Shane Thompson Architects, Caroline Dunphy presents Hanako — a rumination on Hanjo, a Noh play by Yukio Mishima. This is set to be an experimental work that incorporates elements of media, built structures and live performance. Yukio Mishima's play Hanjo is one of unrequited love; a lonely search for ‘the one’ in the face of every passer by and the agony of longing, disappointment and the continuing wait for a lovers return. Hanako is the featured event for Metro Arts' monthly Friday Night event. There are three performances on Friday evening at 6PM, 7PM and 8PM. Tickets are only available over the phone or at the box office on the evening of the performance. Late-comers will not be allowed entry so get in quick! This is one of many Takeover exhibitions. As the gallery puts it – “These Artists have come to Metro Arts to add the most important element to their work – you.” Don’t deprive the artists of their most crucial element, be a part of something great this Friday. For bookings, call (07) 3002 7100.
If the humble straight-up beer just isn’t cutting it for you anymore, truffle-infused beer is a thing now — and they’re coming to high-end restaurants in New York City. Chicago-based Moody Tongue’s Shaved Black Truffle Pilsner is being sold for $120 for a 22oz bottle, which is just shy of a long neck for the classy folk playing at home. So far the beer has been trialed at Per Se in New York, a top-tier, Michelin-rated restaurant. To make matters even more fancy, the brew was paired with roasted bitter chocolate and truffle black pudding with brioche cream, walnut floss and green almonds. Jared Rouben, chef and now brewmaster behind Moody Tongue in Chicago, has put in a lot of homework and meticulous hours into concocting this extravagant tipple. "I reached out to other chefs to get as much information as possible. I did as much homework as I could to get it just right." Rouben explained to Grub Street that he spent several all-nighters shaving truffles. "Imagine separating egg yolks from egg whites by the hundreds." The beer consists of hand-shaven black perigord truffles, German hops and pilsen malt. For the first batch Rouben made a fairly small yield, about 40 barrels, which would fill 80 kegs. Depending on how well this creation goes down with the high society of New York, further production could be on the cards. Interestingly, the truffles used in the beer were sourced from Australia, as Rouben paired up exclusively with Western Australian truffle aficionados, Wine & Truffle Co. Australia is the fourth largest black truffle producer in the world, just behind, France, Italy and Spain. Retail cost for truffles in Australia is around $2500 per kg — and if you add importing costs on top of that to get the truffles to the States, the hefty price tag for a bottle of beer starts to make sense. Sadly there are no plans as of yet to export this beer, but if they do, we think they should return the truffles to their native homeland. As long as someone else is shouting the round, we’ll happily have a sip. Via Grub Street and New York Post.
The sniffles have set in, you're 100% up-to-date with everything on Netflix (though that's not necessarily a terrible thing) and getting out of bed in the morning is pretty much impossible — sound like you? Well, it's time to get out of that winter funk. The chilly season isn't all bad; there are roasts in the oven, Game of Thrones is back and some of your favourite pubs now feature open fires so you can warm the cockles over a pint by the fire. To those naysayers who think that winter marks the end of fun activities in general, we're about to show you how wrong you are. We've joined up with Hahn to round up a bunch of places you can escape to in your city on the weekend or on a needed personal day. Plus, these escapes won't even involve long drives and heated arguments about the speed limit on the Hume Highway. So, grab your coat and gloves and trot off to some fun winter adventures in your own town. Escaping has never been so easy. THE BARBECUE ESCAPE There's nothing like a huge amount of hot, chargrilled meat to warm you up from the inside out. You can try to avoid any winter rain showers to get all the snags cooked at the same time on the barbecue, or even better, get someone else to do the barbecuing for you. Opting for the latter, you can sit down and relax with a frosty cold Hahn while someone else smokes, grills and barbecues some tasty meats for you. Also, like any good barbecue joint, the convivial atmosphere should warm the heart, too. Where? Dig into the good stuff at Surly's in Sydney, Fancy Hank's in Melbourne and The Smoke BBQ in Brisbane. [caption id="attachment_618412" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lucas Dawson.[/caption] THE SPORT ESCAPE Your morning run is a lot harder now that it doesn't get properly light until like midday, we know. But don't fret; there are still ways of keeping active that won't have you freezing your extremities off. The trick here is being inside. Think mini golf with a bar thrown in, so you can reward yourself with a few beers after a tough game against your Bumble date, or even rock climbing you can do safely in wet weather with mobile reception, too. You could also consider a proper competitive sport session like badminton or table tennis to get those endorphins up, and work out your frustrations over how loudly your colleague Tina chews. Where? Head to Holey Moley, a mini-golf bar located in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. You can have a game of badminton or table tennis at Sydney's Olympic Park Sports Halls, and climb away at Sydney's Nomad, Melbourne's Hardrock and Brisbane's Urban Climb. THE WATER ESCAPE Not much can beat a hot bath in winter. It's okay if you can't fit a bathtub in your apartment though, because sourcing a large, hot body of water in your city is actually pretty easy. Though a visit to some natural hot pools is the dream winter activity, don't underestimate the heated regular pools you can access during the colder months. Head to an indoor — or even some outdoor — heated pools for a cruisy, wonderfully warm dip, or maybe a few lazy laps. It's also a good time of year where treating yourself to a spa day is less of an indulgence and more necessity, so go for gold. Where? Take a dip at the outdoor, heated Fitzroy Swimming Pool in Melbourne, the Ian Thorpe Aquatic Centre in Sydney (which also has a sauna and steam room) and the super retro Spring Hill Baths in Brisbane. Spa-wise, head to the star-speckled Day Spa by Chuan at The Langham in Sydney, Japanese oasis Onsen Ma Spa in Melbourne or try a float session at Brisbane's Beyond Rest. THE HOTEL ESCAPE The classic indulgent getaway, of course, is shooting off to a hotel for a night — and the ultra-indulgent way of doing it is to chuck a sickie and go mid-week. Even if you live pretty close to the city, there's nothing wrong with a minor change in scenery for a night. A staycation is a completely valid life choice and there are plenty of luxe hotels from Brisbane to Sydney to Melbourne that'll make you feel like you're living the high life — that beer-and-room-service-in-the-bath life. Another viable option is to pack your own slab of beer and check into an Airbnb instead. There's no room service, but you'll get the whole place to yourself. Where? Book into this super lush apartment at Potts Point in Sydney, The Olsen in Melbourne for a boutique, arty feel, and Spicers Balfour Hotel in Brisbane for an art deco-inspired space with a modern twist (and rooftop bar). THE ART ESCAPE Art galleries and cinemas were built for the type of people who like being inside when it's raining (which is quite possibly all of us), so they're the perfect option for a daytime escape. Art galleries set in gardens just outside the city limits, or cinemas showing foreign films not found anywhere else, are all excellent options for a bit of cultural development. See some art or cinema you normally wouldn't on your next day off — take in a bit of modern art or an obscure German film to really make you ponder your existence as a storm wails outside. Plus, most cinemas these days are licensed too, so for an extra good time you can even take a beer along with you. Where? See modern art, architecture and gardens at the Heide Museum of Modern Art in Bulleen in Melbourne, discover abstract art space Factory 49 in Marrickville in Sydney and check out Australian and international contemporary art at TWFINEART in Fortitude Valley in Brisbane. For arthouse cinema, your best picks are Cinema Nova in Melbourne's Carlton, Golden Age in Sydney and the Regal Twin cinema in Graceville, Brisbane. Plan your winter escape, and make sure to grab a cheeky Hahn or two on the way.
Ever seen a movie so amazing you just had to share? The people behind Cult Movie Night at Room 60 have heaps to share. They have some of the greatest gems from the early (and not so early) days of film. Action packed flicks, Sci-Fi thrillers, buddy-cop movies; there are plenty of amazing, relatively unknown movies to be seen at this monthly night of entertainment. This month, Room 60 are screening Malibu Express, “a cheesy 80s action comedy where beautiful women are the tough guys and sexuality their strongest weapon”. Malibu Express is, assuredly, a thrilling and raunchy watch, something that could be a topic of conversation among friends for the rest of the month. Doesn’t take your fancy? Don’t worry; each month sees a new cult favourite hitting the Room 60 screen, so check out the Facebook page for more details!
Today, intricately painted portraits line art gallery walls. Tomorrow, it'll be selfies. In fact, a new Los Angeles museum is dedicating its entire space to the snaps we all take of ourselves. Called The Museum of Selfies, it'll open for a limited time from January. The upcoming addition to LA isn't the first place or exhibition championing the cause, with a site in the Philippines taking that honour, but it is jumping on board with gusto. As well as showcasing selfies in all of their guises, attendees can expect hands-on installations that chart their history, play with common themes and — of course — encourage plenty of snap-taking. Bucking the trend in other galleries in recent years, selfie sticks are certain to be welcome. Highlights will include an Iron Throne made out of those very items, like Westeros would have if it had the technology, plus set-ups dedicated to food selfies, bathroom selfies, rooftop selfies and more. Narcissism, the rise of deaths attributed to selfies and contemporary artists' takes on selfies will also feature, mixing the psychological, societal and creative, plus something designed to make the Guinness Book of World Records. https://www.instagram.com/p/BcDNtLYlR0T/?taken-by=themuseumofselfies Overall, the museum aims to document, probe and challenge our fascination with the self-portrait form, as well as the perception of it in these iPhone-wielding times. Are selfies art? What makes your selfie-filled Instagram feed any different to artist self-portraits on canvas? Why can't we stop taking them? They're just some of the questions that'll be under consideration. The timing comes hot on the heels of a recent study on the concept of 'selfitis', which proposes that excessive selfie-snapping might be a mental disorder. According to research out of Nottingham Trent University, anyone taking at least three selfies a day could be afflicted. Whether or not you're convinced, visitors to The Museum of Selfies are certain to hit that target the moment they walk in the gallery's doors. Via Mashable/Time Out.
If you weren't already astoundingly excited about The Rocky Horror Show's return to Sydney from March 2024, listen closely for the production's latest huge news: Dylan Alcott will take to the stage as The Narrator. The cult-favourite show will do the rounds once more after making its Australian comeback in 2023, with the tennis champion and presenter starring opposite Jason Donovan in the Harbour City. Hitting Theatre Royal Sydney from Sunday, March 31, The Rocky Horror Show's second Sydney season in two successive years also marks a repeat date for Donovan, who slips back into Frank N Furter's fishnets to do the 'Time Warp' again. During 2023's season, Spicks and Specks' Myf Warhurst played The Narrator, which she'll also do in Newcastle in January. When the production makes its return visit to Melbourne from February, Joel Creasey will do the honours. [caption id="attachment_931971" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Josh Robenstone[/caption] "Super pumped to join this incredible production of the iconic The Rocky Horror Show. Couldn't think of a better opportunity for my first theatre production, feeling very grateful. Can't wait to get to work and rock it out on stage in Sydney!" said Alcott. The Rocky Horror Show joins the disability advocate's ever-growing resume, which already includes completing both the Golden Slam and Grand Slam in tennis, being a Paralympian, getting named Australian of the Year in 2022, starting Ability Fest, hosting ABC's The Set and winning a Logie. The hit musical first made its Aussie comeback in 2023 to celebrate half a century of the Richard O'Brien-created production, and unsurprisingly wowed crowds with its trademark sci-fi/horror musical madness. On offer: the tale that theatre audiences have loved for five decades — and movie-goers as well, thanks to 1975's iconic big-screen release The Rocky Horror Picture Show. For the uninitiated, the story involves college-aged couple Brad Majors and Janet Weiss getting a flat tyre, then wandering over to an old castle to ask for help. That's where they discover an extra-terrestrial mad scientist from the galaxy of Transylvania, plus his staff and his Frankenstein-style experiments. The second Sydney season will also feature fellow returnees Ellis Dolan (School of Rock) as Eddie/Dr Scott, Darcey Eagle (Cruel Intentions: The 90s Musical) as Columbia, Deirdre Khoo (Once) as Janet and Henry Rollo (Jagged Little Pill the Musical) as Riff Raff. Since initially premiering in London in June 1973, The Rocky Horror Show has played in more than 30 countries — and over 30 million people have seen songs like 'Science Fiction/Double Feature', 'Dammit, Janet!', 'Sweet Transvestite', 'Over at the Frankenstein Place' and 'Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch-a, Touch Me'. If you haven't been before — and missed the live broadcast from Sydney back in March — this is your turn to join in. THE ROCKY HORROR SHOW 2024 AUSTRALIAN TOUR: From Friday, January 12 — Civic Theatre, Newcastle. From Friday, February 9 — Athenaeum Theatre, Melbourne From Sunday, March 31 — Theatre Royal Sydney The Rocky Horror Show's 2024 Australian tour will kick off in January 2024, with tickets on sale now via the production's website. Dylan Alcott image: Dylan Alcott at Ability Fest. Rocky Horror images: Daniel Boud.
In Australia, we remember the devastation of the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami even more than most of the world. It was right there, just over the Timor Sea, in places we've been to, or come from. Nearly 10 years later comes The Impossible, a film based on the experiences of a Spanish family who were holidaying in Khao Lak, Thailand at the time of the tsunami. They survive the impact but are separated and have to fight for their survival while trying their utmost to believe the rest of their family is alive somewhere, too. The film has earned Oscar and Golden Globes nominations for star Naomi Watts, and Ewen McGregor and newcomer Tom Holland are also said to impress. If drama doesn't sway you, go for the special effects, which use a stunning mixture of digital technology and real water surges created in a tank. The Impossible has not been without its controversy, specifically, for being a film about the South Asian tsunami that has basically no Asian people in it. And for making the Spanish family it's based on even whiter. But a bit of controversy just piques our interest at this point. See it and see it early, so you too can take a side. Concrete Playground has five in-season double passes to give away to The Impossible. To be in the running, make sure you're subscribed to our newsletter and then email hello@concreteplayground.com.au with your name and address. https://youtube.com/watch?v=HU4mXJRHIcQ
How does life go on after not just a global Cordyceps infection, but the chaos that the first season of The Last of Us brought? In 2025, viewers will find out. While the hit HBO series isn't returning until next year, the US network has given fans a glimpse in the interim via the initial two images from the new season. Yes, Joel and Ellie are back — and, in their shoes, so are Pedro Pascal (The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent) and Bella Ramsey (Catherine Called Birdy). The pair of first pictures doesn't give away much; however, Ellie has a rifle in hand and Joel is looking as serious as ever, but with longer hair. The Last of Us made the leap from video games to TV in 2023, and was swiftly renewed after proving a massive smash instantly. The series gave HBO its most-watched debut season of a show ever — and its first episode was also the network's second-largest debut of all time. Locking in a second season was also hardly surprising because the 2013 game inspired a 2014 expansion pack and 2020 sequel. For newcomers to the franchise on consoles and as a TV series, it's set 20 years after modern civilisation as we know it has been toppled by a parasitic fungal infection that turns the afflicted into shuffling hordes. Pascal plays Joel, who gets saddled with smuggling 14-year-old Ellie (his Game of Thrones co-star Ramsey) out of a strict quarantine zone to help possibly save humanity's last remnants. There wouldn't be a game, let alone a television version, if that was an easy task, of course — and if the pair didn't need to weather quite the brutal journey. [caption id="attachment_932860" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Last of Us season one[/caption] As a television series, The Last of Us hails from co-creator, executive producer, writer and director Craig Mazin, who already brought a hellscape to HBO (and to everyone's must-watch list) thanks to the haunting and horrifying Chernobyl. He teams up here with Neil Druckmann from Naughty Dog, who also penned and directed The Last of Us games. In season two, Rutina Wesley (Queen Sugar) will also return to the cast alongside Pascal and Ramsey. Kaitlyn Dever (Good Grief), Isabela Merced (Madame Web), Young Mazino (Beef), Ariela Barer (How to Blow Up a Pipeline), Tati Gabrielle (Kaleidoscope), Spencer Lord (Family Law) and Danny Ramirez (Black Mirror) are the season's newcomers, as is Catherine O'Hara (Argylle) as a guest star. There's no clips from The Last of Us season two yet, but check out the trailer for season one below: The Last of Us season two doesn't yet have a release date, other than sometime in 2025. When it returns, it'll stream via Binge in Australia and on Neon in New Zealand. Read our review of the first season. Images: HBO.
School holidays might've long stopped being relevant to plenty of our schedules, but they're still worth paying attention to for one reason. When students get a reprieve from class, plenty of places want to help fill their time — and, when something like lakeside glamping pops up for a two-week stint, it's not just for families. From September 22 to October 8, Gypset Glamping is setting up camp at Lake Lyell in New South Wales' central west, about a two-and-a-half hour drive from Sydney. Their pop-up site will let attendees soak in the natural serenity and splendour at Lake Lyell Recreation Park, and enjoy a section of the lake that hasn't been previously used by campers. Facilities-wise, visitors can expect luxe tents for two t0 four people, complete with double beds, silk cushions and solar phone charging ports; however, going glamping isn't just about lazing around in your own home away from home. The camp will also feature a shaded communal area with Bavarian beer hall tables, perfect for post-swim hangouts. Tents start at $150 per night for a two-person setup, and $210 per night for four people, with a two-night minimum stay required. And if the timing isn't right, Gypset have other camps in the works too, with the company largely focusing on the Blue Mountains and central west region — just keep an eye on their website. Gypset Glamping will pop up at Lake Lyell from September 22 to October 8. To book, visit their website. For more glamping options, check out our list for the ten best glamping spots near Sydney.
Next year, the force is coming to Disneyland Resort in California and Walt Disney World in Florida — and now the booze is as well. When Disney opens its new Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge zones at the two parks by the end of 2019, it won't just add two 14-acre sites to the respective locations, representing the biggest single-themed expansions each has ever seen. In addition to all of that, Galaxy's Edge will also feature a Star Wars-style cantina. And, at Disneyland, it'll also mark the first time that alcohol has ever been sold on the premises. Yes, we've definitely got a good feeling about Oga's Cantina, which'll serve up boozy tipples at both of its locales. It'll also offer non-alcoholic drinks for younger visitors, including blue milk, plus music to complete the hangout vibe. The cantina forms part of Black Spire Outpost, the village within the Star Wars zone, and comes with a backstory. It's "run by an intriguing alien proprietor, Oga Garra," according to the Disney Theme Parks Blog, and boasts "a history of being a smugglers' safe haven and a popular stopping point for those seeking to avoid the authorities". As for the rest of Galaxy's Edge, it's designed to "transport guests to a never-before-seen planet, a remote trading port and one of the last stops before wild space where Star Wars characters and their stories come to life." To be specific, fans will be able hop onto a star destroyer, fly the Millennium Falcon and just generally wander around like they're part of George Lucas' space-opera world. Expect more details to be unveiled as Galaxy's Edge's opening inches nearer — and for the attractions to tie into all ten Star Wars movies to date, and feature an array of beloved characters making an appearance. Eventually, visitors to Disney World will also be able to stay in an immersive Star Wars-themed hotel too, although construction hasn't started yet and an opening date hasn't been announced either. Via Disney Theme Parks Blog.
