If you're on the hunt for something a bit different this gift-giving season, the MCA Store is an excellent place to start. Here, you'll not only find an impressive selection of items from Australian artists, designers and makers but also everything from coffee-table books to homewares and games — perfect for gifting all your favourite budding creatives, art enthusiasts, design buffs, fashion mavens and hard-to-buy-for friends. And, every purchase from the MCA Store supports Australian artists and the work of the world-class art institution. So in a way, it's a gift that'll keep on giving. We've gone through the extensive catalogue to hand select our favourite gift ideas for this festive season. [caption id="attachment_880360" align="alignnone" width="1920"] MCA Store, 2022, Katje Ford[/caption] IKUNTJI TEXTILES, $69 Ikuntji Artists, the first arts centre established by and for women in the Western Desert art movement, invites design lovers to take a closer look at the stories behind the works with this self-published, full-colour book. The volume is centred around 14 artists who paint wearable textiles, delving into their design process, personal stories and collaborations via artist interviews in Luritja and English and writings from expert voices in the field of textile design. The lovingly assembled tome makes a perfect coffee-table book — the ideal read to either leisurely flip through or take in some of the remarkable stories from First Nations women. BACKGAMMON SET, $195 The MoMA team has given this classic game a vibrant makeover. The colourful design, inside and out, makes this beechwood backgammon board a style-heavy travel accessory, ideal for groups or just two. The game is fun, practical and easy to learn — even if you've got no idea how to play. Gift this to your modern boardgame-loving pal who could do with something a little simpler and nostalgic. Then next time you're over at theirs, you can suggest a chill game of backgammon instead of Settlers of Catan. Looking for a stocking stuffer for your games-obsessed mate? This Ken Done edition of Uno ($19.95) is just the ticket. [caption id="attachment_834248" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jacquie Manning, MCA Members. Featured: Noa Eshkol, installation view, 20th Biennale of Sydney, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, 2016, Image courtesy and © the Noa Eshkol Foundation for Movement Notation, Holon.[/caption] 12-MONTH MCA MEMBERSHIP, $75 If you're buying for someone who really appreciates the arts, an MCA Membership is a sure-fire win. It will give them access to exclusive behind-the-scenes programs, discounts on a range of art experiences, unlimited free entry to ticketed exhibitions — like Do Ho Suh, which is part of the 2022/ 2023 Sydney International Art Series — and plenty more. Any and every art lover will be thanking their lucky stars (or just you) with a gift as good as this. FLENSTED MOBILE, $125 Mobiles aren't just for kids, they're also a fun and funky way to add some colour and movement to your home. And at the MCA Store, you can find no less than ten artistic mobiles by Danish design house Flensted. Our pick: the minimalist Life and Thread, which is made up of colourful wings dancing around a small green sphere. You can find more literal pieces too — hot air balloons, birds, planes, elephants and more, all made to hang and swing from the ceiling. They're simple yet striking pieces of art. [caption id="attachment_880357" align="alignnone" width="1920"] MCA Store, 2021, Anna Kucera[/caption] FINK WATER JUG, From $395 If you're buying for someone who loves to entertain or is always on the hunt for unique homewares, these FINK water jugs might just be perfect. Designed in 1993 by celebrated Australian silversmith Robert Foster, these elegant vessels come in eight striking colours and can be found in contemporary collections at institutions (including MoMA), as well as in design-forward homes and restaurants around the globe. It's a great gift for those who like to make a statement, even when they're simply pouring a glass of water. [caption id="attachment_880353" align="alignnone" width="1920"] MCA Store, 2022, Katje Ford[/caption] 3D-PRINTED SUPERVASE, From $50 These brightly coloured vases by The Daily Rabbit are reminiscent of the Hub series and Staircase-III (2010) by Do Ho Suh. Like the South Korean artist's large-scale installation pieces, as you move around these vases, they appear to change in shape. The SuperVase, which comes in two sizes, is 3D-printed using eco-friendly, degradable PLA bioplastic derived from cornstarch, making it ideal for sustainably-minded friends and family members. It's watertight, so you can gift it with fresh flowers if you'd like, too. [caption id="attachment_881162" align="alignnone" width="1920"] MCA Store, 2022, Katje Ford[/caption] DO HO SUH MCA CATALOGUE, $45 Here's yet another great addition to a curated coffee table. This softcover MCA catalogue (exclusively sold at the MCA Store) surveys Do Ho Suh's creative practice, focusing on his large-scale sculptures and architectural installations with commissioned texts by curators Rachel Kent and Megan Robson and architectural historian AnnMarie Brennan. Take a deeper dive into the artist's process and the meaning behind his colourful, thought-provoking installations that have a strong connection to our shared understanding of 'home'. MID-CENTURY MODERN COASTERS, $38 This pack of four cork coasters features works from Tony Albert's Mid-Century Modern series, depicting used ashtrays with First Nations people and designs on them. For Albert, "there was something quite metaphoric about the ashtray and the Australian condition attached to Aboriginal people. What does it actually mean to butt out a cigarette on someone's face and someone's culture?" And, we ask, what does it mean to rest your drink on a coaster of that artwork? Who knew a humble coaster could be such a conversation starter? Got an art lover in your life? Gifting someone with an eye for design? Make sure you're their fave this year with a gift from MCA Store. Head to the website for the full range. Top image: MCA Store, 2022, Katje Ford
Maybe you're desperate to hit up a Super Nintendo theme park. Perhaps you've always wanted to walk across Shibuya's famous scramble crossing. Or, you might just want to sing karaoke in a ferris wheel. Whichever applies — and if you'd prefer to scope out the Studio Ghibli museum, wander through a kaleidoscopic maze of digital art, or hit up all the izakaya or ramen joints possible, too — travellers from Australia and New Zealand now can on a trip to Japan. Before the pandemic, Japan had cemented itself as a favourite holiday destination for tourists from Down Under, but making the journey has been impossible for the past few years due to both local and Japanese border restrictions. Then, back in May, the Japanese government started trialling letting strictly controlled package tours — including with Aussies — into the country. Now, from Friday, June 10, it has broadened its entry rules and reopened to visitors from a heap of nations, albeit still with strict requirements in place. So, if a Tokyo trip has been at the top of your post-restrictions bucket list, that's now a possibility. The huge caveat: you can only head to Japan as part of controlled package tours. That means that travellers from Australia and NZ will need to be visiting with organised tours in conjunction with travel agencies, and must be chaperoned during their whole stay. Visitors also need to test negative to COVID-19 before leaving for Japan, wear masks everywhere — including outdoors — and have private medical insurance to cover your trip. And, physical distancing, sanitising and washing your hands frequently, and minimising time in shared dining areas is also required. The changed rules place Australia and New Zealand into the 'blue' band of countries under Japan's new border entry system, alongside 50-plus other nations. That's the highest tier, above yellow (which has vaccination and testing requirements) and red (which has even tighter vaccination and testing rules). In total, folks from 98 countries can now head to Japan — but there's also an entry cap of 20,000 people per day. Japan has reopened for package tours from 98 countries from Friday, June 10. For further details about visiting Japan and its border restrictions, head to the Government of Japan website.
On the long list of streaming services on offer to Australian viewers, DocPlay has carved out a pivotal niche: showcasing the best factual filmmaking both locally and globally. It's where you can watch 2025 Oscar-winner No Other Land — and 2024 and 2023's equivalents, 20 Days in Mariupol and Navalny — then catch the remastered version of Talking Heads' Stop Making Sense, plus not one but two recent films about Blur. It's also where you can enjoy a range of docos about Indigenous and Torres Strait Islander culture without paying a cent during NAIDOC Week 2025. Between Sunday, July 6–Sunday, July 13, DocPlay is making 11 films available to stream to everyone, no subscription required, to mark Australia's annual week to celebrate First Nations history, culture and achievements. Some of the documentaries in the platform's free collection step into the world of sport. Others contemplate art, battles to protect Country and the education system. Canberra's Aboriginal Tent Embassy and efforts to gather support for the Australian Indigenous Voice referendum are also covered. The Adam Goodes-focused The Australian Dream is one title that audiences will be able to watch for free — and, as it examines the hurtful treatment directed the former AFL player's way at the height of the champion's career, it makes for powerful and essential viewing. Still in the realm of Aussie Rules, Like My Brother charts the efforts of young women from the Tiwi Islands as they attempt to chase their dreams in the AFLW. In You Can Go Now, Richard Bell is in the spotlight, exploring both his art and his activism. With their jumps back to 1972, Ningla-A'na and Still We Rise each also follow the latter thread. Voice heads to Cairns in the lead up to 2023's referendum, while Incarceration Nation examines the impact of the judicial and prison system upon Indigenous Australians. With The Dark Emu Story, Bruce Pascoe's book of the same name is in the spotlight. Via In My Blood It Runs, so is First Nations childhood in Australia via a ten-year-old boy's experiences. And in Connection to Country, the fight to protect sacred sites in the Burrup Peninsula is front and centre. Rounding out the collection is Winhanganha, which was commissioned by the National Film and Sound Archive of Australia, and sees Wiradjuri artist Jazz Money examine archives through a First Nations lens. Check out the trailers for the films in DocPlay's 2025 NAIDOC Week collection above and below: DocPlay's NAIDOC Week 2025 collection streams for free — no subscription required — from Sunday, July 6–Sunday, July 13. Head to the streaming service's website to watch.
As a tourist, it's easy to get swept away by Sydney's inner-city galleries, restaurants, and bars. But just 25 kilometres south of the capital lies the Sutherland Shire — a destination known for its lush nature — including stretches of beaches (and Sydney's only beach directly accessible by train, Cronulla), as well as the Royal National Park. To learn more about the Sutherland Shire, we spoke with local restaurateur and owner of Hazel Kitchen and Bar, James Lancaster. Located within the Hazelhurst Arts Centre in Gymea (a historic cottage that transformed into an arts haven), Hazel Kitchen and Bar is a cafe-restaurant and events space showcasing the best in local produce and Sutherland Shire dining. We asked James for the best-kept secrets in the local area for you to save next time you find yourself south of the city. CP: What do you love the most about the Sutherland Shire? James: Natural beauty, beaches, forests, waterfalls, and an abundance of incredibly talented people in our community: artists, chefs, musicians, and actors. The Shire really has something for everyone to enjoy. [caption id="attachment_1078693" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Peter Harrison[/caption] CP: Why should someone make a trip to the area? James: The coast has some incredible beaches, whether you enjoy calm water swimming at Gunnamatta Bay, Boat Harbour aquatic reserve, Wattamolla Beach, or Jibbon Beach. There are so many waterfalls, wonderful swimming holes, and bushwalks for all fitness levels, making it [somewhere] everyone should explore. There's a great food scene, from casual cafes to wonderful restaurants. The nightlife is vibrant with cool bars, a funky live music scene, and an incredible depth of talent across music, theatre, and visual arts. CP: If you only had one day in the Sutherland Shire, where would you go? James: I'd start with a swim at North Cronulla, followed by breakfast up the road at Rushi. Then I'd head up to Hazelhurst Gallery to check out an exhibition, before a delicious lunch at Hazel Kitchen and Bar. Next, I'd head to the Royal National Park for an afternoon walk and a freshwater swim at Olympic Pool, just past Karloo Pools. I'd pop into Audley Dance Hall Cafe on the way to grab a great coffee and takeaway for afternoon snacks. After sunset (and listening to birds in the forest), I'd head out to Brass Monkey to listen to some live music and have a few cocktails. CP: What do you think is the Shire's best-kept secret? James: The Royal National Park. Though large and commonly known, there are many secret waterholes, trails and endless adventure. For food, my favorite secret spot is tucked down the side of the Coptic Church in Kirrawee and is almost impossible to find. In Paradise is a gem for real Napoletana style wood-fired pizza. Super thin, great ingredients, charred crust, and, if you like chilli, ask Alfonso for his harrissa sauce… it's delicious. CP: Hazel Kitchen and Bar sits within the Hazelhurst Arts Centre. What's it like having a cafe and restaurant in a location with such rich Australian art history? James: The art and artists have really taught us to be more free and flexible in what we do. The inspiration from watching the art change around us all the time is liberating. The community that participates in the Arts Centre, the studios, the exhibitions, and the wonderful gardens brings us joy. We are very blessed to a view of art on one side, a beautiful garden on the other and a kitchen making delicious food in the centre — perfect combinations really. CP: Talk to us about Hazel Kitchen and Bar: what's your top menu recommendation? James: For breaky, I love the breakfast roll with its streaky bacon. For lunch, I often eat the green goddess salad, or if I'm in more of a dining mood, I'll have a grass-fed Scotch fillet and spice-roasted cauliflower with one of our sommeliers' wines from around the world. That lunch can morph into dinner and a few cheeky cocktails. CP: What's Hazel's philosophy? James: Being a public space, we really wanted a comfortable restaurant, a place you can relax and ponder the art you've just experienced over a coffee, scones and jam, or with a martini if you've really been thought-provoked and need to deep dive. We've curated a space for breakfast, lunch, dinner, and those moments in between. The peaceful gardens and the running creek provide the perfect backdrop to the ever-changing art inside the gallery and on your palette. CP: What does the Sutherland Shire do differently from Sydney City? James: So much diversity is accessible in a relatively small area. All your senses can be ignited in a few hours, and there's always more to explore and experience. It's adventures for all your senses. Images: Supplied.
All it takes is the sight of a figure standing by a riverbank for Embrace of the Serpent to lure viewers in. The man, Karamakate (Nilbio Torres), isn't the only point of focus in the film's opening frames – in fact, the entirety of his dense, foliage-filled surroundings attract just as much attention, as does the stunning black-and-white photography that surveys every leaf and branch. It's his patient stance amidst such a thriving natural environment, however, that dares viewers to unearth more about him, the place he calls home, and the manner in which their stories intertwine. As a young shaman in the Amazon in 1909, Karamakate greets a canoe paddled by two men with caution. The local guide Manduca (Miguel Dionisio Ramos) doesn't worry him, but Theo (Jan Bijvoet), the German explorer with him, gives him pause. The outsider is ill, and only Karamakate knows how to locate the rare flower that could heal him, though it's a task that'll take the trio into the dangerous depths of the jungle. Later, as an older man in the 1940s, Karamakate (now played by Antonio Bolivar Salvado Yangiama) assists an American named Evans (Brionne Davis) on a similar voyage. Images of a slithering snake demonstrate the literal meaning of the movie's title, though writer-director Ciro Guerra and his co-scribe Jacques Toulemonde Vidal have the powerful squeeze of another predator on their minds. As the duo fashion a poetic road movie (or river movie, to be more precise) inspired by the diaries of real-life explorers Theodor Koch-Grünberg and Richard Evans Schultes, they ponder the impact of colonialism upon the traditional culture. Though their tone is peaceful and their images pristine, their condemnation of Western interference is clear. It's fitting that Embrace of the Serpent flits between past and present, since it also finds contrasts in a plethora of other pairs. As audiences watch Karamakate assist his two different companions, they don't just witness a film that compares the old and the new. They also traverse a blend of history and myth, broach the gap between the physical and the philosophical, dissect the clash between nature and technology, and discover what happens when the dreamlike and the devastating collide. It takes not just skill but artistry to craft a feature that's so loaded with potency and beauty. Every frame here leaves an impression, while still allowing viewers to soak everything in at an unhurried pace. Thanks to the visually wondrous efforts of cinematographer David Gallego, watching Embrace of the Serpent proves an experience that values just that. And while Guerra's underlying statement is never hidden, it's never shouted, either. Indeed, this is a film of waiting and uncovering something special. Sharing Karamakate's initial patience is recommended — and will be rewarded by one of the most distinctive movies in recent years.
You mightn't remember turning five, or what kind of celebrations followed. You probably can't recall what you ate to mark the occasion, either. Hopefully it involved ice cream. All birthdays are better with ice cream. Here's one shindig that will: Happy Pops commemorating five years since starting to sling frosty desserts. First launching in Noosa, then expanding to Brisbane, this chain is getting into the fifth-birthday spirit by doing $5 ice creams. Just head on in from Tuesday, May 9–Saturday, May 13 — and to any store, including South Bank in Brissie, the OG Noosa Heads digs, and also Eumundi and Mooloolaba. For those new to the Happy Pops experience, it's all about artisanal gelato on a stick, using all-natural, preservative-free Australian ingredients. Think Maleny milk, real vanilla, Belgian chocolate and actual fruit pieces. It also serves up vegan options, using soy, rice and coconut milk, which is good news for folks who don't consume animal products but still love a frosty treat. And, you can create your own flavours — which is also included in the $5 birthday special.
It has been twenty years since James Cameron, Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet recreated one of the deadliest ship disasters in modern history — you know the one. Titanic also launched a lifetime of folks standing at the bow of boats and exclaiming "I'm the king of the world", and made the world endure a Celine Dion song that, as the lyrics promised, would go on. As well as snag a huge bag of Oscars and big, big bucks at the box office, the film did something else: reignite public fascination with the 1912 sinking. If you've ever watched and wondered what it'd be like to see the real thing, then wonder no more. You'd just better have a cool $137,000 sitting in your bank account. Commencing in 2018, travel company Blue Marble Private will be taking nine fascinated seafarers down to the famous ship on an eight-day journey. Departing from the coast of Newfoundland in Canada, they'll dive four kilometres down into the North Atlantic Ocean in a titanium and carbon fibre submersible — accompanied by experts, of course — to cruise around the passenger liner's deck, glide over its grand staircase and wander through the vessel that went down on its maiden voyage, taking more than 1500 people with it. The hefty price tag is supposed to reflect the cost of a first class ticket on the RMS Titanic 105 years ago, although it's hardly surprising that plunging deep into both the ocean's depths and a historical wreck costs a massive stack of cash and then some. This isn't the first time tours have been offered — indeed, presumably using some of the loot his romantic drama pulled in, James Cameron has made the journey three times — but it's still estimated that only 140 people have seen the site in person since it was first discovered in 1984. Via: The Australian. Image: OceanGate.
There's not a whole lot that can't be fixed with a big serve of carbs, especially when that involves diving headfirst into a generous bowl of pasta. A slurp of spaghetti or forkful of fettuccine and life suddenly looks very sweet indeed. So we've teamed up with American Express to pick out some of Brisbane's finest pasta-slinging spots — especially the ones where you can easily tap that Amex of yours — to ensure no gnocchi craving ever goes unanswered again. Whether you're recovering from a big night or down in the dumps after a subpar day at work, here are the best places to go when a big bowl of pasta is the only thing that will bring you back to life. Got yourself in another dining situation and need some guidance? Whatever it is, we know a place. Visit The Shortlist and we'll sort you out.
Thanks to Taronga Zoo, you can already spend your days staring at capybaras, seals, meerkats, otters, sumatran tigers, lions and elephants, all without leaving your home. With Sydney back in lockdown, the famed venue has relaunched its online TV channel, where it livestreams its adorable critters all day and all night. All those animals are all well and good. They're great, and they're very easy to spend too much time staring at, actually. But if you'd like to scope out some penguins as well, now you can. Yes, penguin cam is now part of Taronga's live-stream lineup, with its 45 little penguins and four Fiordland penguins being caught on camera 24/7. Melbourne's zoos have been live-streaming their penguins during the pandemic also, so this isn't the first time you've been able to gawk at black-and-white creatures while they go about their business — but when it comes to watching animals, the more the merrier, obviously. There's your background viewing sorted. Popping the stream on in the background while you work from home suits these kinds of feeds, in fact, because sometimes the critters in the spotlight aren't in view. The online television station was established by Taronga Zoo Sydney and Taronga Western Plains Zoo Dubbo in 2020, and it is back now for obvious reasons. Taronga is also releasing regular videos across its Facebook, Instagram and YouTube channels, and making keeper talks and other clips available online as well. Or, you could always take a peak at its new Southern hairy-nosed wombat joey via our own website. It's just as adorable as you'd expect, naturally. To check out Taronga TV, head to the channel's website — or keep an eye on its videos on its Facebook, Instagram and YouTube pages. Top image: Rick Stevens
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.
In modern marketing, you often hear the sentiment that everyone is a content creator now. And few spaces reflect that idea more than tourism and hospitality when it comes to generating social buzz. But if we're being honest, some creators know their way around content better than others. If you'd like to level up your skills to a professional level, the new ALL Accor Creator Academy is opening the door to the next generation of travel storytellers. Now launched in Australia, the program gives budding travel creators incredible access to one of the world's leading hospitality groups. A series of eight modules instils the skills needed to produce content that meets both audience expectations and brand standards, covering substantial ground while offering graduates direct access to Accor's global network of hotels, brands and experiences. Delivered over three to five weeks, these bite-sized, mobile-first modules help you get up to speed quickly on what it takes to build a successful career. After completing the entire course, you'll have learned all about storytelling, filming techniques, brand collaboration and the fundamentals of travel content creation. And with professional creators leading the modules, the information shared is real, practical and full of insight. "Creators are playing an increasingly important role in how people discover and experience travel. As brands automate more content, the value of authentic human storytelling is only increasing, and we're thrilled to be the first hotel group to invest in a trained creator pipeline with our industry-first initiative," says Jessica Baider, Influencer and Content Manager for Accor MEA APAC. View this post on Instagram Of course, when many people think of creators, followers are what come to mind first. However, the ALL Accor Creator Academy is doing things differently. Teaching participants how to develop their creative voice, respond to briefs and produce professional content, graduates join an invite-only network of recognised content creators within Accor. That means accessing a global network of future stays, campaigns and creative opportunities with Accor and its brand partners. Best of all, the ALL Accor Creator Academy is free to join and open to emerging creators, plus those who wouldn't typically see themselves as part of the influencer space. Featuring lessons from leading guest mentors and expert travel content creators, including James and Alex from Twosome Travellers, Lola Hubner and Lee Besser, you'll soon understand exactly what it takes to capture content and share travel experiences to the highest standards. The ALL Accor Creator Academy is now accepting applications for its first student intake until Sunday, May 17. Head to the website for more information. Like what you see? Subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter to get stories just like these straight to your inbox. Images: Supplied.
UK singer-songwriter Olivia Dean will make her ARIA Awards debut in Sydney this November, performing live just one day before a special headline show. ARIA confirmed the news today, announcing that Dean will take the stage at the Hordern Pavilion on Wednesday, November 19. The London-born artist will stick around for a one-off Sydney gig the following evening, before returning in 2026 for a full arena tour. "I love Australia and I'm so excited to perform at the 2025 ARIA Awards," Dean said in a statement. "This will be my first time at the awards ceremony, it's going to be lots of fun!" The announcement follows the release of Dean's sophomore album The Art of Loving, which dropped last week and is already climbing the ARIA charts. Its third single, 'Man I Need,' is sitting at #2 on the Singles chart and is tipped to go Platinum within a fortnight. This year's ARIA Awards are shaping up to be a big one, with Ninajirachi, Dom Dolla and RÜFÜS DU SOL among the top nominees. The ceremony will stream live on Paramount+ and air on Channel 10. Check out the full list of ARIA Award nominees. Images: Getty
When Ron Swanson discovered digital music, the tech-phobic Parks and Recreation favourite was uncharacteristically full of praise. Played by Nick Offerman (The Last of Us) at his most giddily exuberant, he badged the iPod filled with his favourite records an "excellent rectangle". In Black Mirror, the same shape is everywhere. The Netflix series' moniker even stems from the screens and gadgets that we all now filter life through daily and unthinkingly. In Charlie Brooker's (Cunk on Earth) eyes since 2011, however, those ever-present boxes and the technology behind them are far from ace. Instead, befitting a dystopian anthology show that has dripped with existential dread from episode one, and continues to do so in its long-awaited sixth season — which arrived on Thursday, July 15 — those rectangles keep reflecting humanity at its bleakest. Black Mirror as a title has always been devastatingly astute: when we stare at a TV, smartphone, computer or tablet, we access the world yet also reveal ourselves. It might've taken four years to return after 2019's season five, but Brooker's hit still smartly and sharply focuses on the same concern. Indeed, this new must-binge batch of nightmares begins with exactly the satirical hellscape that today's times were bound to inspire. Joan Is Awful, with its AI- and deepfake-fuelled mining of everyday existence for content, almost feels too prescient — a charge a show that's dived into digital resurrections, social scoring systems, killer VR and constant surveillance knows well. Brooker isn't afraid to think bigger and probe deeper in season six, though; to eschew obvious targets like ChatGPT and the pandemic; and to see clearly and unflinchingly that our worst impulses aren't tied to the latest widgets. Taking ripped-from-reality tales to an uncanny extreme, tearing into the obsession to adapt everything into content, exploring the catharsis found and carnage wrought by slipping into avatars: that's all in Black Mirror season six's five instalments. So is the ravenous nature of celebrity culture, plus the apocalyptic path that insular attitudes give rise to. Throw in explosive diarrhoea, Salma Hayek Pinault (Magic Mike's Last Dance) playing herself, the true-crime boom, the savagery of fame, alternate pasts, astronauts and devilish bargains as well, and Brooker has given himself and viewers much to play with. Each chapter, whether focusing on a woman's existence being broadcast to the world or swapping sci-fi for horror in the first-ever Red Mirror instalment, pinballs between chilling and thrilling. Each chapter also knows that no matter whether streaming queues, VHS tapes, human replicas, 00s-era cameras or runic talismen feature, humanity's biggest enemy is itself. Starring Annie Murphy (Kevin Can F**k Himself) as its namesake, Joan Is Awful is the only futuristic story in season six, examining where our current times might lead as Black Mirror long has. After firing a friend, complaining to her therapist about her boyfriend (Avi Nash, Silo) and meeting up with her ex (Rob Delaney, The Power), tech-company CEO Joan gets comfortable on the couch to watch Streamberry's latest wares, only to find that she's the platform's fresh subject (and that Hayek Pinault has stepped into her shoes). The series-within-the-series dramatises her past 24 hours, in fact, and doesn't paint Joan in a positive light. Swiftly, everyone she knows is watching, all taking the on-screen version as gospel. Savvily, the episode interrogates the platforms that Black Mirror and almost every other TV show exist on right now, television's relationship with reality, the incessant quest to thrust ordinary lives into the spotlight and the undervaluing of everyone in the creative industries — which bites hard given the present writers' strike — and it's a cutting and amusing delight. Next comes Loch Henry, which also has the medium of streaming in its sights. Black Mirror has been part of Netflix's stable since 2016, moving to the service after commencing on the UK's Channel 4, but Brooker doesn't let that stop him from digging the show's claws into its funder and home. Initially, the episode's film students Davis (Samuel Blenkin, The Witcher: Blood Origin) and Pia (Myha'la Herrold, Bodies Bodies Bodies) visit the former's sleepy Scottish hometown to make a nature documentary. Then Pia learns about the serial killer who terrorised the scenic locale decades back. Loch Henry doesn't just riff on the prominence of both David Attenborough-style series and headline-driven crime shows, or the fact that the latter can put sensationalist entertainment ahead of the very real victims; it also contemplates how easy it is to conceal one's true self from the world and how empty getting exactly what you've dreamed of can be. In Beyond the Sea, Aaron Paul returns to Black Mirror after first being involved in 2017. Here, it's an alternative 1969, and Cliff (Paul, Westworld) and David (Josh Hartnett, Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre) are on a deep-space mission, retaining ties with their families on earth — including Cliff's wife Lana (Kate Mara, Call Jane) — via mechanical doppelgängers that they can port their consciousness into from the heavens above. Brooklyn's John Crowley directs this episode, which proves apt when its retrofuturistic concept plunges into yearning after pivoting on a tragedy and following in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood's footsteps. Black Mirror is rarely light; however, this thoughtfully paced, supremely well-acted chapter takes a particularly grim view of humanity's proclivity for jealousy and spite, and our penchant to use technology to indulge both. With Mazey Day, which shares its title with a starlet (Clara Rugaard, I Am Mother), the series also jumps backwards. This time, it's the mid-00s, Suri Cruise's birth is big news, and Bo (Zazie Beetz, Atlanta) is a paparazzo barely getting by, then quitting after her snaps lead to an actor's demise, then tempted back for a $30,000 payday. Her task: nabbing photos of Mazey, who has disappeared after a hit-and-run incident. Again, this season of Black Mirror carves into the commodification of people as content. Again, it shows that 2023-era devices and anything they evolve into aren't behind this trend. And again, it's both perceptive and surprising — and, although it tells viewers what they already know, that's also Black Mirror's usual remit. While horror bubbles through most Black Mirror episodes, including season six's, Red Mirror debut Demon 79 gives the genre its heartiest embrace yet. It's also the series' 2023 standout, and not just because Anjana Vasan (Killing Eve) and Paapa Essiedu (Men) are each a treat as a shopgirl forced to get murderous and a Boney M-inspired demon, respectively. The year is 1979, Needa (Vasan) sells footwear in a Northern England department store and racism stalks her every move, as does the fomenting political fearmongering sweeping the community. Soon, a Knock at the Cabin-esque scenario arises, with Gaap (Essiedu) giving Needa three days to kill three people or the world will come to a fiery end. As penned by Brooker with Bisha K Ali (Ms Marvel), Demon 79 looks like a video nasty from decades back, and hones on spreading ideas rather than the technology that enables them. But as someone's status quo forever changes in no small part thanks humanity's most atrocious traits, it's still Black Mirror 101. Check out the full trailer for Black Mirror's sixth season below: Black Mirror season six streams via Netflix from Thursday, June 15. Images: Netflix.
When Kate Mercer (Charlotte Rampling) starts to interrogate the lifetime she has spent with her husband Geoff (Tom Courtenay), she's not just dissecting her own relationship. She's also pondering one of humanity's great concerns. The pair argue about times gone by as they plan the party for their 45th wedding anniversary, and while the details prove specific to their situation, the broader questions they raise are universal. 45 Years echoes the thought everyone has had at least once: how well can we ever really know those closest to us? The Mercers' predicament arises, as these worries often do, after a blast from the past interrupts their present. When Geoff receives word that the body of his former girlfriend has been found, frozen in ice for half a century, his devastated reaction causes Kate to re-assess their romance. The duo should be commemorating their lengthy union, but instead they're drifting apart. In their countryside home, he's sorting through old photos and wallowing in memories, and she's looking at everything they've ever shared with fresh eyes. 45 Years tells of roads not taken, of buried doubts unearthed, and of the consequences of choices. But more than that, it tells of two people trying to understand their connection with each other. It might seem like a simple topic, as well as an oft-seen one; however Andrew Haigh's effort, adapted from the short story In Another Country by David Constantine, never comes across as just another relationship drama. Indeed, while bickering wives and husbands are hardly uncommon in film, marital issues take on a different tone and texture when they stem from such an extensive bond. With that in mind, 45 Years understands the closeness and complexity that can only come with time, as well as the heightened devastation unexpected revelations can cause. It's another insightful, empathetic offering from writer/director Haigh — and given that he previously delved into the first flourishes of love in Weekend, the poise and perceptiveness he demonstrates at the opposite end of the temporal scale can't be underestimated. Ever the intimate filmmaker, he once again strands his protagonists largely in a single setting, often letting scenes play out with minimal edits. He knows that his audience can see what will happen next; his films find their power and poignancy not in surprises, but in waiting for the expected emotions to unfurl. As a performers' showcase, 45 Years excels, with its central portrayals perfecting the requisite balance of affection and uncertainty. While Rampling proves the more animated of the pair, both convey the film's underlying contemplation of the true nature of personal connections. Together, they're the image of the couple everyone does and doesn't want to be. A long-term on-screen duo has rarely felt as real as this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qXAnjA9tAnQ
If you prefer your overnight getaways with a healthy dose of wildlife thrown into the mix, Sydney's newest eco-retreat will be right up your alley — because it's located smack-bang in the middle of Taronga Zoo. Officially opening today — Thursday, October 10 — the Wildlife Retreat at Taronga is offering the ultimate sleepover with Sydney's biggest animals. Currently you can glamp overnight at the zoo as part of the Roar and Snore experience, but this is the zoo's first permanent accommodation offering. The impressive new structure is the work of acclaimed Australian studio Cox Architecture, and sees five lodges built into the zoo's bushland. There are 62 designer suites all up, with choices of harbour, bush, animal or treetop views. Best of all, the sounds and sights of Mother Nature will be literally out your front door — the retreat is located in a sanctuary where koalas, wallabies, red kangaroos, echidnas and platypus live. So you can wander out to spot some at your own leisure, or else join a tour of a still-quiet zoo at sunrise. The retreat is, importantly, located on Cammeraigal country, and we're told that Taronga worked with Cammeraigal Traditional Custodian Professor Dennis Foley and Gurindji Woolwonga woman Susan Moylan-Coombs to ensure that guests have access to information on local Indigenous history and culture. [caption id="attachment_745450" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The view from the restaurant, Me-Gal.[/caption] Food is set to be another big drawcard here, as the retreat also boasts a new restaurant, Me-Gal (the Cammeraigal word for 'tears'). It's dishing up an Aussie-accented offering centred around local produce and native ingredients — think Fraser Island spanner crab with fried saltbush, and NSW beef with king oyster mushrooms. As you have probably gathered, rooms at the Wildlife Retreat at Taronga don't come cheap. Rates start from $790 per night for two adults, which includes the two-course dinner, breakfast, general admission to Taronga Zoo, and a some very cute encounters Australian animals. But, as well as a pretty unique experience, your cash will go towards a good cause. As the retreat is owned and operated by non-profit Taronga Conservation Society Australia, each stay at the retreat will contribute to helping the zoo caring for its animals, as well as contributing to conservation and education programs across Australia. The retreat will no doubt be a drawcard for international tourists, but would make for a great night away for a special occasion where you really want to splash out. The Wildlife Retreat at Taronga is now open at Taronga Zoo Bradleys Head Road, Mosman. You can book now here.
UPDATE: APRIL 7, 2020 — Some good news for your social feed: Sea Life Melbourne is now home to two adorable king penguin chicks. And you can meet them via livestream at 10am AEST on Wednesday, April 8. One fluffy baby bird is called 'Sparkie', but the aquarium is looking for suggestions for other the littl'un. Details on how to submit a name will be revealed during the livestream. Melbourne's Sea Life Aquarium is live streaming playtime and feeding time with some of its cutest and scariest sea critters in the lead up to Easter. At 9am AEDT on Saturday, April 4, you can get up close and personal with swarms of jellyfish, learn the ins and outs of their luminous lives and watch them being fed by Sea Life's ocean expert and 'Jelly Queen' Diane. If you haven't had a chance to check out the aquarium's million-dollar Ocean Invaders exhibition, this'll be a good chance for you to have a little virtual tour. On Wednesday, April 8 at 10am AEST, you can watch the gentoo and king penguins at playtime, sliding around their icy home and gobbling many fish. Then, kicking off the long weekend, will be another live-streaming session at 11am AEST on Friday, April 10, which will see keeper Brianna chatting about a bunch of cute (and maybe slightly scary) animals that lay eggs. To tune in, head head to Sea Life Melbourne's Facebook page. Thankfully, these aren't the only live-streams and digital content the aquarium is planning. Keep an eye on future events, including possible shark feedings, penguin hangs and tropical fish tours, here.
Did Hollywood have a disagreement with its past, get a fortune cookie predicting the future, feel an earthquake shudder, then wake up back in the 80s and 00s? Based on two new flicks heading to cinemas, yes, it must've. Because everything old is always new again in Tinseltown — a trend that's bringing Cruel Intentions, Twilight and Harry Potter back, too — both Freaky Friday and Beetlejuice are scoring sequels. Unlike those big-screen sagas and their upcoming TV versions, this pair of films is getting movie follow-ups — and they're set to feature members of their original casts as well. For Freaky Friday 2: Freak Harder (which won't be its actual name), that means reuniting Everything Everywhere All At Once Oscar-winner Jamie Lee Curtis with Lindsay Lohan (Falling for Christmas) two decades later. With Beetlejuice 2: Electric Boogaloo (again, not its actual name), Michael Keaton (Morbius) and Winona Ryder (Stranger Things) are back with the poltergeists. The Hollywood Reporter confirmed the Freaky Friday news, noting that Elyse Hollander will pen the script. Story details haven't been revealed, but body-swapping is bound to feature given that's what Freaky Friday has always been about. Drinking, dancing, getting angry that your mum won't let you go to your band's big audition, eating those enchanted cookies — perhaps that'll all get worked in as well. For this franchise, it all started with 1972 book by Mary Rodgers, then the 1976 Jodie Foster (The Mauritanian)-starring first movie adaptation, and also a 1995 remake with Gaby Hoffman (C'mon C'mon). After 2003's beloved Curtis- and Lohan-led take, horror flick Freaky gave the idea a spin in 2020. Freaky Friday 2 doesn't have a release date yet, but Beetlejuice 2 does: September 6, 2024 in the US. It'll continue the story started in Tim Burton's 1988 hit Beetlejuice, with Wednesday favourite Jenna Ortega playing the daughter of Ryder's Lydia Deetz. As Variety reports, Justin Theroux (White House Plumbers) is also among the cast. You don't need a Handbook for the Recently Deceased in your ghostly hands to get excited, but you might spend time with folks with one, which is what happened with the original flick's Barbara and Adam Maitland (GLOW's Geena Davis and Dr Death's Alec Baldwin). In the first film, viewers also saw what happened when that pair started to suspect that they're no longer alive, a new family moved into their house (including Schitt's Creek's Catherine O'Hara) and they decided they needed a 'bio-exorcist'. The Freaky Friday sequel doesn't yet have a release date, while Beetlejuice 2 will release in September 2024 — we'll keep you updated as more details are announced. Via The Hollywood Reporter / Variety.
When it made the leap to the big screen in the movie that's currently in cinemas, Downton Abbey brought in a couple of very special guests. But the King and Queen aren't the only new folks staying at TV's favourite stately manor. Come November, you could be walking through the site's lavish halls, wandering through its 300-plus rooms and even bunking down for the night. In a move that's clearly timed to promote the film, Airbnb is giving two people the chance to spend the evening of Tuesday, November 26 at Highclere Castle — the 19th-century country house in Hampshire, England, where Downton Abbey filmed each of its six seasons, as well as the movie. It's a place with a considerable past, and not just because of the famous show. The act that led to the founding of Canada was drafted there; however, before the current abode was build there in the 19th century, remodelling an existing structure, it was also the site of a medieval palace. Of course, it's Downton Abbey's history that the two chosen guests will be most interested in. They'll explore the spaces made famous by the show, such as the drawing room and the library, via a private tour. Then, they'll sip cocktails in the saloon, and eat dinner in the state dining room with the Earl and Countess of Carnarvon — with the site sitting in their family since the 17th century. The visitors will also sleep in a gallery bedroom with views over 1000 acres of parkland, and be waited on by the castle's butler. [caption id="attachment_742688" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Airbnb[/caption] If you're eager to stay and pretend you're a member of Downton's Crawley family, you'll need to have a verified Airbnb profile filled with positive reviews, and be passionate about the series. You'll also need to hop online to make your request to stay at 9pm on Tuesday, October 1, Australian Eastern Standard Time (12pm British Summer Time the same day). Just how the lucky guests will be selected hasn't been revealed, but you will still need to pay just like any other Airbnb booking. The one-night stay will set the winner back £150, or around AU$270. For further information, visit Highclere Castle's Airbnb listing. The service will start accepting requests to stay at the venue from 9pm on Tuesday, October 1, Australian Eastern Standard Time (12pm British Summer Time the same day). Top image: Downton Abbey, Focus Features LLC.
Half the fun in camping is the fact that you're forced to get grubby, as you and your fellow campmates collectively get back to nature and forgo the modern luxury of a shower. This is all well and good for a few days, until everyone gets a little sweaty, a little dirt-caked and probably a little grumpy. You see, the problem with showers is that they're usually set pretty firmly in one place. They need a water source, drainage, electricity — basically, they're the first thing you forgo when you leave the safety of a modern building. But the geniuses at Tokyo-based startup Hotaru are set to change that, with a portable water-recycling shower that can be set up almost anywhere. So how does it work? The shower holds about 19 litres of water, which is then purified and reused for the next person who hops in. Hotaru claims that a family of three could each take a five-minute shower each day for up to two weeks. That's over 40 showers on less than 20 litres of water. While the possibilities for where the shower can go are pretty endless, it does need to be hooked up to a power source — although, according to Hotaru, a car will do the trick. This new sustainable shower was spotted by TechCrunch at SXSW this week, and is expected to go to market sometime next year. It's not only great news for campers, but the technology could really change how we recycle and make the most of our water. Via TechCrunch.
Can your canine companion cut a rug, instead of just lazing about on one? Is your four-legged bestie as good at boogying as it is at barking and being cute? If you don't know the answer, now might be the time to find out, because Prohibition is hosting a Dogs & Beats silent disco. First, take a second to marvel at the concept. We're guessing that headphones will be reserved for humans, not puppers — but hitting the dance floor with your doggo isn't something that you get to do everyday. If you'd like to take a few seconds to wonder just how it's all going to turn out, that's fine, too. Again, making shapes while surrounded by mutts isn't on the regular agenda for most folks. There are a few caveats, of course, with the event restricted to small and medium pooches up to 25 kilograms in weight. Your dog will also need to stay on a leash the whole time. If you're as keen as Fido at dinner time, the silent disco will take place in the Fortitude Valley's garden bar from 12–6pm on Sunday, November 10. Tickets cost $20, with $10 from each going to the RSPCA.
At last year's Melbourne International Film Festival, Perth-set apocalypse film These Final Hours beat out high-profile competition, including The Turning and Mystery Road, to snag The Age Critics Award for Best Australian Feature. Now, almost 12 months later, the film has finally arrived in theatres. Trust us when we tell you that this movie, blending heart-pounding thrills with character-driven drama, is well worth the wait. By the time the story gets going, the end has already begun, courtesy of a devastating meteor strike somewhere in the North Atlantic. Europe is reduced to a cinder in an instant, while a rolling wall of fire promises to annihilate everywhere else. We're never deluded into thinking that survival is even remotely an option. The only question that remains is what to do with the time that's left. Nathan Phillips, most easily recognisable as one of Mick Taylor's ill-fated victims in the original Wolf Creek, plays James, a self-absorbed screw-up with no intention of going out sober. But life, even in its last few moments, has a way of messing with your plans. So it is that on the way to an end-of-the world blow-out, James becomes the reluctant protector of a 12-year-old girl named Rose (newcomer Angourie Rice). After James rescues her from a pair of would-be rapist, she asks him to help her find her family. Perhaps sensing a chance to atone for his squandered life, our dubious hero agrees. In his first feature outing, writer-director Zak Hilditch seems remarkably assured. His native Perth provides a unique and unsettling backdrop for the film, the haunting images of forsaken Australian suburbia striking eerily close to home. Visuals like that contribute to a suffocating sense of bleakness that hangs over the film like a scorching summer heat. But These Final Hours is not entirely devoid of hope. Fundamentally, in fact, it's a film about redemption — about a single act of kindness in the face of common fear. Phillips' performance is one of resounding emotional honesty, while Rice displays a maturity that far exceeds her years. An unlikely pairing, both James and Rose bring out the strength and humanity in the other. In the face of imminent extinction, it's a surprisingly comforting thought. https://youtube.com/watch?v=QaoF6byFQFU
Four decades ago, the nephew of a famous film director took his first big-screen acting gig playing a character so minor, he didn't even get a name. Six years later, the star in question nabbed a Golden Globe nomination. Before the century was out, he won an Oscar. These days, he also has eight Razzie nominations, too. But if ever an actor has straddled the vast chasm between the ridiculous and sublime, it's the one and only, always-inimitable, ceaselessly fascinating Nicolas Cage. Cage has crooned Elvis songs for David Lynch, married Elvis's daughter in real life and acted opposite himself in Adaptation. He took to the skies with criminals in Con Air, named one of his sons after Superman, and starred into two of the worst Marvel-affiliated movies ever thanks to Ghost Rider and its sequel. The list goes on — and in his 40 years in the business, Nicolas Cage has amassed 100-plus screen credits. Sometimes, he's hunting down the person who stole his pet pig, and also turning in one of his best-ever performances. At other times, he's wordlessly fighting demonic animatronics. In his latest flick, he simply plays himself. We could continue, but everyone knows that talking about Nicolas Cage isn't anywhere near as great as watching Nicolas Cage, although both are mighty fun. Also, for some reason, it just feels better to use his entire name. Don't just take our word for it about any of the above, however — take Palace Cinemas', which is celebrating all things Cage across a 13-week retro season. Starting on Thursday, April 14, then running at 6.30pm every Friday from April 22–July 8, the chain's Palace Barracks venue is going all in on Nicolas Cage mania. As part of the Palace Encore program, this Cagefest has been dubbed the Calendar of Cage, and has amassed quite the showcase of Nicolas Cage's work. But, let's be honest — they really could've picked any of his flicks and it'd be amazing. Still, this is one peach of a lineup, all ready for fans to eat up for days. Attendees will get into the mood with the long-locked glory of newbie The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent, then watch Cage think he's a bloodsucker in Vampire's Kiss, swoon over Cher in Moonstruck, get his Coen brothers on in madcap comedy Raising Arizona and go on the run with Laura Dern in Wild at Heart. Also included: jailbreak drama The Rock, unhinged thriller Mandy, and the sublime Martin Scorsese-helmed Bringing Out the Dead, plus the aforementioned Adaptation, Pig and Willy's Wonderland as well. Tickets cost $15 per film (and $10 for members) for all sessions except on Thursday, April 14 — which is when The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent screens as a sneak peek with a beer on arrival, and costs $24/$18 for members. Obviously, the memories you'll have seared into your brain forever will be priceless. And a word of warning: spending this long staring at Nicolas Cage's various crazy grins won't be easy to shake.
Get ready to meet Mr Grumbles, a rufus betton; Rocky, a tree kangaroo; Yolo, Zaney, Harvey and Swarf, all Tasmanian devils; bare-nosed wombats Bell and Bruce; and Clementine, Patricia, Kandy and Keisha the koalas. They're all residents at Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary, one of Brisbane's long-standing tourist attractions — and they're making the venue's new nocturnal precinct their home. Joining them are potoroos, pademelons, bandicoots, bettongs, southern hairy-nosed wombats and echidnas, giving visitors to the Fig Tree Pocket animal haven an array of cute critters to peer at by night. Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary's latest addition was announced in October and opened to start November, so both Brissie locals and tourists alike have a new reason to drop by. Plenty of folks have explored the venue over the years, but not like this until now. Based around a one-kilometre stroll called The Wild Walk, which meanders through a eucalypt planation, the new nocturnal precinct heroes Australia's nocturnal wildlife and offer night-time experiences. It features seven exhibit spaces filled with ten species — half of which are new to the site especially for its latest expansion. "There's a whole world of activity that happens after dark that we aren't privileged to, but Nocturnal gives people that experience, with a tour guide, in a non-invasive way to celebrate Australis's animal superstars and educate people about the importance of sustaining their ecosystems," explains Frank Mikula, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary Curator. "It's an Australian native animal treasure hunt, with the prize being able to see these amazing creatures up close and personal." Nestled into a leafy pocket of the River City's western suburbs, Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary already boasts the honour of being the world's first and largest koala sanctuary. It's a great place to cuddle a koala — including on Christmas Day if you're looking to for something other than the usual festive celebrations. See animals after dark is its latest attraction, with patrons able to get peering using portable thermal imaging cameras. The experience is designed around not disrupting the critters — so, no glaring beams are shone their way. Instead, you'll walk across the new elevated boardwalk, which has been custom-designed for the site. You'll also look through cameras that pick up heat signatures, and are around the size of a mobile phone. And, when an animal has been found, a non-intrusive red torch light will help you get a better glimpse. If you're keen, you can sign up for a tour that runs for 90 minutes three times a week, on Wednesdays, Fridays and Saturdays. Each group will welcome 20 visitors, and spans feeding opportunities and looking at burrow cams as well. Part of a $3.2-million project, the new additions further expand a venue where getting up close and personal with wildlife — not just by cuddling a koala, but also by holding an owl, touching snakes, and watching everything from kangaroos, wombats and echidnas to birds of prey, turtles and even Tasmanian devils — has been on offer for 97 years. Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary's nocturnal precinct is now open at 708 Jesmond Road, Fig Tree Pocket, Brisbane. Head to the venue's website for more information and bookings.
In past years it feels as if there's been a surge in the sub-genre of romantic comedies that revolve around the 20-something commitment-phobes. Generally they feature a host of characters more attractive than you, resisting relationships for the sake of engaging in meaningless sex. Or, the kind of films Natalie Portman and Mila Kunis did to flush the Oscar winning demons of Black Swan out of their psyches in 2011. Are We Officially Dating (released in the US as That Awkward Moment) can be lumped into this category, while also having a stab at bro comedy. The film follows Jason (Zac Efron), Daniel (Miles Teller), and Mikey (Michael B. Jordan), who after the failure of Mikey's marriage, make a pact to stay single as a gesture of solidarity. Unsurprisingly, all three violate the agreement. Whilst first-time filmmaker Tom Gormican has an admirable goal — to depict the clunky transition from dating to relationship from a male perspective — this film's insipid plot and unfunny jokes make it, dare I say, 94 minutes worth of 'awkward moments', It's essentially a male version of Sex in the City; they're snappy dressers and waltz around Manhattan, fuelling their crude humour with chai lattes. This brand of sex-positivism doesn't have the quite same punch when paired with stereotypical 'dudes' and such a flimsy premise. Venturing out of the PG13 paddle pool and into cinematic adolescence, Efron plays Jason, an apparently sharp-minded graphic designer working at a chic New York publishing house. In a feat of Don Draper-esque brilliance, he impresses a client by drawing an impromptu stiletto for a book cover. (Ah, of course. The essence of woman boils down to footwear. It's psychology 101, folks.) It's difficult to shirk the film's reductive and vacuous depiction of women. Aside from the trio 'rostering' girls to bone at appropriate intervals so they don't get attached, the female characters are poorly drawn. They merely function as narrative goalposts, as if to assure us that there is in fact, a point. Imogen Poots plays Ellie, Jason's humble, bookish and bohemian love interest. Whilst instinctively likeable, a scene in which she reveals her deepest desire — a ridiculously big house in the middle of Manhattan — feels like a contradiction of character. There's also a touch too many penis jokes. In fact, it feels as if scenes are set up specifically for the purpose of penis jokes. For example, when Jason misinterprets a dress-up party and arrives with a sex toy hanging from his fly, leading to much 'cock'tail punning. All in all, if you're planning on a Valentine's Day movie with your significant other, you may want to think about spending your money elsewhere. To impart the film's single slice of wisdom, "Relationships are about being there for the other person." https://youtube.com/watch?v=UrdI3zAnzno
If you're planning to snap up one of IKEA's joyfully sculptural Gustaf Westman tablewares next month, there's another collaboration that should be on your radar. This time, the furniture juggernaut has tapped in Tekla Evelina Severin, a Swedish interior architect who goes by Teklan. Celebrated for her playful geometric sensibilities and expert eye for colour composition, Teklan has imagined up a seven-piece collection of whimsical speakers. The standouts are a pair of KULGLASS lamps that double up as Bluetooth speakers. Their swirly shades are a delightful nod to soft-serve ice cream, rendered in reddish-brown and mint green tones drawn from Teklan's childhood memories – she even matched the mint green to a soap bar from her grandparents' home. Originally a minimalist white speaker crafted by IKEA product designer Ola Wihlborg, the SOLSKYDD speaker has been transformed by Teklan into a trio of colourful collectibles. The round speakers come in three sizes: a portable model that pops in every room; a medium version sporting green, brown and beige stripes; and a large textured orange one that can be mounted on the wall. All speakers in the SOLSKYDD family can sync up with each other and other IKEA Bluetooth speakers, so you can play your tunes throughout the house. The lineup also features the iconic FADO lamp, a mood light reimagined with a gentle brown pattern across to its surface. This isn't the first time IKEA has worked with Teklan and her distinct aesthetic — earlier this year, she released 14 climbing rope-inspired charging cables. The full Teklan range is scheduled be launched globally in December 2o25.
When it takes three years for one of the world's favourite shows to make a comeback — on one of the planet's most-popular streaming platforms, too — everyone can be forgiven for getting a little excited. Netflix itself has about the return of Stranger Things for season four, setting up a huge Upside Down rift on Bondi Beach, albeit only for a few hours. But, if a burger is on your menu in the near future, that's not the only way to show your love. Grill'd is getting into the Stranger Things spirit in two ways — one that you'll need to be in Sydney to enjoy IRL, and one that's available all around the country. First, for Sydneysiders, making the trip to Grill'd at The Galeries means eating your burg in an otherworldly dimension. The CBD burger joint has been decked out like somewhere that'd creep out Eleven, Mike, Will, Dustin, Lucas and Max. Think: a cavernous rift-style entryway, because they're popping up everywhere (see above), floating spores, creeping vines and other touches from the show. It all looks suitably on-theme, and it's likely the most dramatic place you'll ever eat a burg. That interactive experience is only taking over Grill'd at The Galeries for a limited time, so getting in quickly is recommended — as it is when it comes to binging Stranger Things' new season. Also only available temporarily, until June 16 at all Grill'd locations except Melbourne Airport: a demogorgon burger. No, it isn't made using eggos. Yes, it's monster-sized (well, huge enough). It comes filled with a grass-fed Australian beef patty, roasted peppers, cos lettuce and dill pickles (because of course a demogorgon would like pickles). You'll also find burger sauce and sour cream inside, and you can dip it in buffalo dipping sauce as well — if you want make it look like something a giant creature has just thrown at you, or just like the taste, whatever fits. Costing $15.90 a pop, that burg can be munched on in-store, or ordered for delivery via Grill'd Delivery and Uber Eats. Find Grill'd's Upside Down-themed eatery at Grill'd Galeries, 500 George Street, Sydney — or grab a demogorgon burg from Grill'd stores nationwide (except Melbourne Airport) until June 16.
What do two nuns in the throes of sexual ecstasy gasp? "My god" and "sweet Jesus", of course. No other filmmaker could've made those divine orgasmic exclamations work quite like Paul Verhoeven does in Benedetta, with the Dutch filmmaker adding another lusty, steamy, go-for-broke picture to his resume three decades after Basic Instinct and more than a quarter-century since Showgirls. His latest erotic romp has something that his 90s dives into plentiful on-screen sex didn't, however: a true tale, courtesy of the life of the movie's 17th-century namesake, whose story the writer/director and his co-scribe David Birke (Slender Man) adapt from Judith Brown's 1986 non-fiction book Immodest Acts: The Life of a Lesbian Nun in Renaissance Italy. For anyone that's ever wondered how a religious biopic and nunsploitation might combine, this is the answer you've been praying for. Frequently a playful filmmaker — the theories that Showgirls is in on its own joke keep bubbling for a reason — Verhoeven starts his first film since 2016's Elle with that feature's more serious tone. The screen is back, the words "inspired by real events" appear and the score is gloomy. When Benedetta's titular figure appears as a girl (played by Elena Plonka, Don't Worry About the Kids), she's the picture of youth and innocence, and she's also so devoted to her faith that she's overjoyed about joining a convent in the Tuscan village of Pescia. But then villains interrupt her trip, and this pious child demonstrates her favour with the almighty by seemingly getting a bird to shit in a man's eye. It isn't quite as marvellous as turning water into wine, but it's its own kind of miracle. As an adult (Virginie Efira, Bye Bye Morons), she'll talk to strapping hallucinations of Jesus (Jonathan Couzinié, Heroes Don't Die), too, and use her beloved childhood statuette of the Virgin Mary as a dildo. There is no line between the sacred and the profane in Benedetta: things can be both here, and frequently are. Case in point: on her first night at the convent, after a bartering session between her father (David Clavel, French Dolls) and the abbess (Charlotte Rampling, Dune) over the girl's dowry for becoming a bride of christ, a statue of the Virgin Mary collapses upon Benedetta, and she shows her sanctity by licking the sculpture's exposed breast. So, 18 years later, when she's both seeing Jesus and attracted to abused newcomer Sister Bartolomea (Daphné Patakia, Versailles), they're the most natural things that could happen. To Benedetta, they're gifts from god, too. She does try to deny her chemistry with the convent's fresh novice at first, but the lord wants what he wants for her. Unsurprisingly, not everyone in the convent — the abbess' daughter Sister Christina (Louise Chevillotte, Synonyms) chief among them — agrees, approves or in believes in her visions. Verhoeven puts his own faith in crafting a witty, sexy, no-holds-barred satire. That said, he doesn't ever play Benedetta as a one-note, over-the-top joke that's outrageous for the sake of it. His protagonist believes, he just-as-devoutly believes in her — whether she's a prophet, a heretic or both, he doesn't especially care — and he also trusts her faith in her primal desires. His allegiance is always with Benedetta, but that doesn't mean that he can't find ample humour in the film or firm targets to skewer. The hypocrisy of religion — "a convent is not a place of charity, child; you must pay to come here," the abbess advises — gets his full comic attention. Having the always-great Rampling on-hand to personify the Catholic Church at its most judgemental and least benevolent (at its money-hungry worst, too) helps considerably. Indeed, what the veteran English actor can do with a withering glare and snarky delivery is a movie miracle. The filmmaker behind RoboCop, Total Recall and Starship Troopers' futuristic visions has also long trusted in sex and violence. Here, he trusts that thrusting them together in a story about a lesbian nun who shows signs of the stigmata and scandalises her convent several times over will create his favourite kind of on-screen chaos. He's right, but there's always a smart and scathing point to Benedetta's nudity, fornication and physical altercations, and to how viciously the church responds. Humanity is messy. People are flesh and pulsating urges, no matter who they deify. Those who grasp power by instilling fear and demanding unquestioning allegiance will never put the masses ahead of their own dominance. Amid the boobs, blood and potential vaginal splinters — and communal defecation, farts lit on fire and gynaecological torture tools — these truths are steadfast. While Rampling is clearly having a ball as the abbess — and still gives the figure vulnerability — it's the committed and spirited Efira who goes deep. She visibly relishes her role as well, and brings depth, nuance and poignancy to every swoop and swirl in its tonal rollercoaster ride. The skill required to slide from religiously rapturous to sexually euphoric can't be underestimated, but Efira ensures it looks seamless and never silly, even when the film swings between soapy Jesus makeout sessions, matriarchal power struggles, porn-style sapphic tumbles in the convent sheets and comets in the sky. As Verhoeven already does, his French lead makes Benedetta's audience believe in her, too. She's fervent, bold, intelligent, rebellious and passionate, all traits her character shares, and exposes as much of Benedetta's emotional landscape as she does skin. As she navigates a torrid affair, beatific faith, the worst of Catholicism's scorn and even the looming threat of the plague (everything's a pandemic movie now), Efira is a beaming vision herself. That's part of the self-aware altar that Verhoeven worships at, knowing the glamour his star brings to a film that's always going to be known as "that lesbian nun flick" — and actively embracing the 'hot lesbian' on-screen trope while using his lead character and entire movie to subvert everything they come into contact with. He's also visually meticulous to a painterly degree; Benedetta is ravishing in multiple ways, including in the contrasting colour palette its bodies, habits and 17th-century convent life in general affords. That the feature ultimately avoids hitting just the obvious spots, embraces mayhem, gleefully provokes and doesn't completely penetrate as far as it could feels like an appropriate climax, and it's also the result that only Verhoeven could've bestowed.
Take a number of similar events, link them together, then get everyone turning hitting them all up into an event itself. To paraphrase the late, great Carl Weathers in Arrested Development: baby, you've then got a crawl or tour going. Pub and bar crawls do it, as do wine walks. Now, so is Australia's first Art Grand Tour, which is popping up to celebrate a heap of exhibitions and art events taking place in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide across the first half of 2024. This is the first time that the Biennale of Sydney, Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art and PHOTO 2024 International Festival of Photography in Melbourne, all three of which are free to attend, have teamed up in such a way. The idea is encourage not only folks in each event's own city to attend, but to spark multi-stop getaways based on seeing the trio. [caption id="attachment_927824" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Felicity Jenkins[/caption] A range of fellow exhibitions and events have also joined in, so the full tour includes Melbourne Art Fair, NGV Triennial and MPavilion 10 by Tadao Ando in Melbourne; Adelaide Festival in South Australia; and the Louise Bourgeois exhibition at Art Gallery New South Wales, plus projections on the Sydney Opera House. Think of it as your go-to itinerary for exploring the best art that's on show across Australia's southeast, whether you want to check out famous towering spider sculptures, architectural installations or a room-sized ode to plants. The three key events are reason enough to head to Sydney, Melbourne or Adelaide anyway — or to play tourist in your own town if you live there. The Biennale of Sydney is celebrating its 50th-anniversary year, embracing the theme "ten thousand suns" and featuring pieces by 88 artists and collectives from 47 countries. And, it's opening White Bay Power Station to the public for the first time in over a century as part of the event, which runs from Saturday, March 9–Monday, June 10. In SA, the 18th Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art is focusing on the human condition, complete with 24 artists and poets featured. You can head along from Friday, March 1–Sunday, June 2. PHOTO 2024 marks its third edition from Friday, March 1–Sunday, March 24, with "the future is shaped by those who can see it" the theme tying together 100 free installations and exhibitions, including work by 150-plus artists. [caption id="attachment_940260" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Installation view: Troy-Anthony Baylis: Nomenclatures by Troy-Anthony Baylis, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide; photo: Saul Steed.[/caption] Announcing the Grand Art Tour, Biennale of Sydney Chief Executive Officer Barbara Moore dubbed it "an exciting celebration of the power of art to connect, share and bring joy". Art Gallery of South Australia's Director Rhana Devenport described it as "an extraordinary art adventure" and "a rare opportunity to experience these exemplary gatherings of art that push boundaries, and alter your perceptions, and create new memories". [caption id="attachment_940262" align="alignnone" width="1920"] J Forsyth[/caption] For PHOTO Australia Founder/Artistic Director Elias Redstone, it's set to "inspire audiences with immersive art experiences that celebrate human connection as society faces uncertain futures". While the Art Grand Tour has tour right there in its name, there's nothing formal about it — so there's no ticketing packages and the like. Instead, it's a self-guided affair, so make your own schedule and travel plans accordingly. [caption id="attachment_938006" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Marie-Luise Skibbe[/caption] Art Grand Tour 2024 Events: Sydney Until Sunday, April 28 — Louise Bourgeois: Has the Day Invaded the Night or Has the Night Invaded the Day?, Art Gallery of New South Wales Saturday, March 9–Monday, June 10 — Biennale of Sydney, various venues Ongoing — Badu Gili: Celestial, Sydney Opera House Bennelong Sails Adelaide Friday, March 1–Sunday, June 2 — Adelaide Biennale of Australian Art, Art Gallery of South Australia Friday, March 1–Sunday, March 17 — Adelaide Festival, various venues Melbourne Until Tuesday, April 7 — NGV Triennial, NGV International Until Monday, March 29 — MPavilion 10 by Tadao Ando, Queen Victoria Gardens Thursday, February 22–Sunday, February 25 — Melbourne Art Fair, Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre Friday, March 1–Sunday, March 24 — PHOTO 2024 International Festival of Photography, various venues [caption id="attachment_936840" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Lillie Thompson[/caption] Australia's first Art Grand Tour encompasses events in Sydney and Adelaide until June, Melbourne until March. Head to the tour's website for more information. Top image: PHOTO 2022, Will Hamilton-Coates.
Bright lights, performances around the city and interesting chats aren't the only things on Vivid Sydney's lineup when it pops up in the middle of each year. Since 2023, Vivid Food has also been its own festival within the broader festival, putting all things culinary in the spotlight. It's heaven for your tastebuds, and it's coming back for the second time in 2024 — and, based on the just-dropped program, you'll have plenty of must-attend events to choose from. At the top of the list: visits from acclaimed international chefs, all showing the Harbour City their gastronomical prowess. Manoella Buffara of Brazil's Manu Restaurant will get cooking in Sydney from Friday, May 24–Sunday, June 2 for Vivid's annual residency, with Ploós on the Vivid Sydney Light Walk set to showcase her focus on local produce and sustainability. This'll be the first time that 2022's Best Female Chef in Latin America hops into the kitchen Down Under, working with the Ploós team to put on two fine-dining menus: a nine-course tasting dinner which'll cost $420 and a seven-course lunch option that'll set you back $320. "I'm incredibly excited to be part of Vivid Food in Sydney, an event that highlights the importance of cuisine in our culture. As the culinary capital of Australia, Sydney becomes a hub for vibrant flavour exchanges, bringing together top chefs and local producers to create memorable food experiences," said Buffara about her impending visit. "In the heart of this bustling city, I will launch a pop-up that showcases my love for high-quality ingredients and authentic flavours. Sharing my cooking and stories with Sydney is a true honour, and I look forward to being part of this amazing food event that Vivid Food offers." Michelin-starred chefs Sally Abé, Ivan Brehm and Max Coen are on their way to Sydney as well, thanks to the Vivid Chef Series. Abé from The Pem in London is teaming up with Billy Hannigan at The Charles Brasserie & Bar, serving up three lunches and dinners that mix British cuisine with European influences. From Nour in Singapore, Ivan Brehm has a date with AALIA for two dinners that'll pair Middle Eastern cuisine with global flavours, working alongside the Sydney spot's Paul Farag. And Coen from London's Dorian is joining forces with Ben Greeno from Fred's to hero wood-fired grilling, farm-to-table ingredients and being hyper-seasonal. When the bulk of the 2024 Vivid lineup dropped in March, unveiling its theme of "humanity" and outlining most of what's occurring in Harbour City for 23 nights between Friday, May 24–Saturday, June 15, the fest detailed a few Vivid Food elements. So, the fact that Vivid Fire Kitchen will go big on barbecue in its new location at The Goods Line isn't new news; however, it is exciting, and the event has also dropped its own roster of talent. Fire sculptures and flame shooters will help set the mood, as will fire drums — and Firedoor's Lennox Hastie will be among the folks putting on demonstrations. He'll be joined by chef and author Christine Manfield, the World Food Championships' Seafood Champion John McFadden, Karkalla owner Mindy Woods, the Texas-based Jess Pryles, Niklas Ekstedt from Sweden's Ekstedt at The Yard and Shalamar Lane from My Father's Barbeque in Los Angeles, for starters. Also a Vivid Food standout: the nostalgic Messina Milk Bar, where the beloved gelato chain will be giving classic desserts and chocolates its own twist. A warm Milo fudge sundae is just one of the dishes to look forward to. As announced previously, Vivid's 2024 program also spans Kyiv Social's Plates with Purpose: A Taste of Ukraine, a ten-course degustation that will make you feel like you're sat at a Ukrainian family's table; the VividPlace Food Trail, which'll turn Sydney Place and Bulletin Place's laneways into a night food market each night of Vivid; and Our Shared Humanity at Refettorio OzHarvest, with Manfield, Darren Robertson, Mitch Orr and more whipping up three-course vegetarian menus using rescued produce And, there's also Aurorae at Bennelong Bar, Bennelong's pop-up snack and cocktail bar — and A Culinary Canvas by Danielle Alvarez celebrates women in the Australian food and wine scenes in Sydney Opera House's Yallamundi Rooms. [caption id="attachment_898138" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Destination NSW[/caption] [caption id="attachment_898139" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Destination NSW[/caption] Vivid Sydney runs from Friday, May 24–Saturday, June 15 at various locations around Sydney. Head to the festival website for further details and tickets. Top image: Destination NSW.
To take a page out of Charles Baudelaire’s book, I’d like to think of myself as a modern day flâneur. That is, “a person who walks the city in order to experience it,” in the Baudelairian sense, anyway. There’s something really satisfying about wandering off the beaten track and into the depths of your town, whether it’s in search of a shady place to read a book, a cosy winter night spot or even just a new place to grab a coffee before work. And I’m sure I’m not alone in thinking there‘s something truly satisfying about stumbling upon one of these urban treats by chance. That’s exactly what happened when I found Five Sisters Art House Café hidden down a laneway in South Brisbane. Tucked away between Melbourne Street and Fish Lane, Five Sisters is a café with a traditional breakfast and lunch menu infused with a touch of Greece. If you’re partial to moussaka or souvlaki every once in a while then you’re probably already aware that the south bank of the river is home to some of the best Greek cuisine to be found in Brisbane. From the Greek Club to the various blue-and-white tableclothed restaurants on Boundary Street and, of course, the annual Paniyiri Festival, the area is a known hotspot to sample the delights of the Mediterranean. According to the five sisters who run this neat little café, nothing beats a home cooked meal "just like Mama used to make" and thus generations of recipes were passed down to grant the success of the ever-inviting Five Sisters Art House Café. Whether you fancy a hot bevvy, a sweet treat or a generous meal, take a wander down the laneway and check out what my new favourite ‘quiet place’ has to offer!
Of all the new TV shows that are heading to streaming in 2023, only one has a groove and a meaning. Well, only one is based on a movie with a theme song that claims that, at least. And yes, you now have that tune stuck in your head — because 'Grease', the track, is that much of a catchy and persistent earworm. The entire Grease soundtrack is, and perhaps the tunes that come with Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies will be as well. This new prequel series steps back into the 70s-made, 50s-set musical rom-com's world, giving its titular girl gang an origin story. Based on both the initial teaser and the just-dropped full trailer, Rise of the Pink Ladies is hopelessly devoted to taking that task seriously. Here, in a ten-episode series set to stream via Paramount+ in Australia from Friday, April 7 — with New Zealand airing details yet to be revealed — it's the 1954–55 school year. It's also when the eponymous young women are given words of warning about appropriate behaviour. "Ladies, you must be careful with whom you associate," Assistant Principal McGee (Jackie Hoffman, Only Murders in the Building) tells them in the first trailer. "A girl's reputation is all that she has." Welcome back to Rydell High, clearly, but before Danny (John Travolta) and Sandy (Olivia Newton-John) walked its halls. If the OG Grease and its tale about an Australian transfer student falling in love with an American high schooler in California is the one that you want — always — then you'll know that this franchise hasn't ever just been about the hit 1978 movie anyway. Before it became a silver-screen classic, it was a popular stage musical. After the first film's success, it spawned a 1982 Michelle Pfeiffer-starring sequel, too. Pink jackets, T-Birds, dance scenes (including while wearing mechanics' overalls), a new take on a familiar track advising that Grease is indeed the word: they're all included in show's two sneak peeks so far. Cast-wise, Marisa Davila (Love and Baseball), first-timer Cheyenne Isabel Wells, Ari Notartomaso (Paranormal Activity: Next of Kin) and Tricia Fukuhara (Loot) play the four teens who start the Pink Ladies, and are joined on-screen by Shanel Bailey (The Good Fight), Madison Thompson (Emergency), Johnathan Nieves (Penny Dreadful: City of Angels), Jason Schmidt (FBI: Most Wanted) and Maxwell Whittington-Cooper (The Photograph). This isn't the last time that all things Grease will pop up again, either — not including the stage musical and OG movie's enduring popularity, of course — with a Danny and Sandy-focused prequel flick Summer Lovin' also in the works. Check out the full trailer for Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies below: Grease: Rise of the Pink Ladies starts streaming via Paramount+ in Australia on Friday, April 7. New Zealand release details haven't yet been revealed — we'll update you when further information comes to hand.
UPDATE, October 17, 2022: Ticket pre-sales for Beauty and the Beast: The Musical's Australian-premiere season at Sydney's Capitol Theatre will start at 9am AEDT on Monday, October 31, for folks who sign up to the production's waitlist by 12pm AEDT on Thursday, October 27. General ticket sales will start at 9am AEDT on Thursday, November 3. When June 2023 arrives at Sydney's Capitol Theatre, expect three words to echo with enthusiasm: "be our guest". The Harbour City venue will be home to quite the coup, courtesy of the Australian premiere season of Disney's Beauty and the Beast musical, which is heading Down Under as a newly reimagined and redesigned production. Exact dates haven't yet been announced, but the huge show will bring a tale as old as time to Australia to liven up winter — and marks the latest in a growing line of Disney hits to come our way. Frozen the Musical has done the rounds over the past few years, while the musical version of Mary Poppins has also started floating around the nation. This new Beauty and the Beast first made its way to the stage in the UK in 2021, and reworks the original show that premiered in the US in the 90s — adapting Disney's hit 1991 animated movie musical, of course. Fans can expect the same Oscar-winning and Tony-nominated score courtesy of composer Alan Menken and lyricist Tim Rice, including all the beloved tunes such as 'Be Our Guest' and 'Beauty and the Beast'. It also comes with new dance arrangements by David Chase, and with original choreographer Matt West revisiting his work. When the British return was announced, Menken said that "Beauty and the Beast is a testament to the genius of my late friend and collaborator Howard Ashman, but the show's richness comes from the combination of Howard's style and that of the brilliant Tim Rice, with whom I expanded the score to give voice to the Beast." "It's clear that audiences the world over want to return to the world of Beauty, which continues to amaze and humble those of us who created it." Who'll star in the local version and whether it'll tour to other Aussie cities hasn't yet been revealed either — but if you're now planning a trip to Sydney's Capitol Theatre next June, whether or not you live in the city, that's understandable. So is crossing your fingers for Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth and Adelaide seasons afterwards. Another completely relatable reaction: rewatching the OG animated movie, including via a new sing-along version that'll drop via Disney+ on Friday, August 19, and/or revisiting the 2017 live-action movie, which is also getting the at-home karaoke treatment. Disney's Beauty and the Beast musical will enjoy its Australian premiere at Sydney's Capitol Theatre in June 2023. We'll update you with exact dates when they're announced. For more information, or to sign up for the ticket waitlist — with pre-sales from 9am AEDT on Monday, October 31 and general sales from 9am AEDT on Thursday, November 3 — head to the musical's website. Images: Johan Persson.
For the second year in a row, Darling Harbour's Tumbalong Park is getting in on the Vivid Sydney action with the introduction of Tumbalong Nights. From Thursday to Saturday throughout the festival — plus Sunday, June 11 — you can enjoy performances from the very heart of the Light Walk. The 12 nights of free live music span exciting up-and-coming artists through to established Australian faves of all kinds of sounds and genres. The program will kick off with a night of hazy pop for fans of the sounds of Lana Del Ray and Lorde with the dynamic duo of shoegaze hitmaker Hatchie and local indie-pop group Egoism on Friday, May 26. [caption id="attachment_899339" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Hatchie by Lissyelle[/caption] Other highlights include legendary Yolngu supergroup Yothu Yindi with Ziggy Ramo on Saturday, May 27; an R&B match made in heaven of Kaiit and Chanel Loren; a night of hook-heavy ballads with Dan Sultan and Cala Wehbe on Saturday, June 10; and Japanese cult-producer Cornelius with support from psych-rock band Nice Biscuit. On Friday, June 2, triple j is celebrating 15 years of Unearthed High with a one-off showcase of some of the best artists to come out of the annual program featuring Teen Jesus and the Jean Teasers, Lastlings, JACOTÉNE and Arno Faraji. Plus, each Saturday during the festival, there'll be free kids music from 5pm as a curtain-raiser for the main acts, with Zindzi & the Zillionaires, Junkyard Beats, Peter Combe and the Bellyflop in a Pizza Band, and Tiptoe Giants all popping up. Explore the program at Vivid's website. Top image: Destination NSW
Peer around Azteca and shades of green await, hanging from the ceiling, painted across walls and spotted from its prime riverside position. The latest addition to Brisbane's Queen's Wharf, and also the newest opening from Potentia Solutions Leisure, the team behind Lina Rooftop, Soko Rooftop, Carmen Tequileria, and Claw BBQ in both Bowen Hills and Carindale, takes inspiration from Latin America. It goes luxe with its fitout, too, befitting its location in the River City's latest waterfront precinct. Plants are suspended from above, fill planters placed around the restaurant's indoor seating and can be found dotted acrpss its outdoor terrace. The lines of bottles backdropping Azteca's bar sit against a striking emerald wall. And gazing over at South Bank means spying a canopy of foliage, as diners have been able to enjoy since mid-October 2024. Celebrating greenery inside and out is an apt touch for an eatery that sprawls between the two spaces itself. Another choice in the same manner: the fact that water features are built into Azteca's walls, complementing its views of the Brisbane River. Also key to the design and decor in the 126-seat venue: mosaic tiles, Aztec artwork and custom-made brass tables, as well as a secret private dining room featuring custom ceramics that's located behind a handcrafted wooden door. Latin America might influence Azteca's name and aesthetic, but its menu under Head Chef Zac Sykes (ex-Merivale and Rockpool groups) also takes cues from Asian cuisine. The listing of dishes dubs the restaurant's fare "a culinary bridge between two continents" — and this is the type of place where raw scallop tostadas with shiso powder, yellowfin tuna tacos with kimchi, chicken liver parfait and truffle churros, and kangaroo tartare with hot sauce are just some of the options. Other standout bites include Elgin Valley free-range chicken covered in dark chocolate mole sauce; pork chops paired with grilled pineapple and fermented jalapeño; wagyu short ribs featuring sake, mirin, soy and asian leaves; and pot-roasted South Australian lobster with chipotle. The dessert range starts with alfajores with dulce de leche, coconut, macadamia and tonka bean ice cream, then serves up popcorn cheesecake with salted caramel ice cream, liquid nitrogen tres leche with white chocolate mousse, and cinnamon tostones with pineapple jam and star anise plant cream. Banquets are also a feature, giving customers a choice between an $89 seven-dish spread, a nine-dish option for $129 and a ten-dish feast for $149 — each with wine pairings available for an extra cost. To sip in general, the 16-page beverage menu spotlights the São Paulo-born Brazilian cocktail caipirinha, which is made with sugarcane hard liquor cachaça — and gives patrons a choice between types of cachaça, and also flavour blends (think: pineapple sage, watermelon jalapeño, pomegranate hibiscus, lychee dragonfruit and vanilla passionfruit). Or, try an old fashioned crafted with banana rum and chocolate bitters from the 12-strong signature cocktail list; opt for a house-made zero-proof limonata for something booze-free; or peruse the beer, wine and spirits — including agave — picks. Find Azteca at Queen's Wharf, Level 4/33 William Street, Brisbane City — open from 12pm–late daily. Head to the restaurant's website for further details.
From Houseparty birthday bashes to Zoom weddings, celebrations have been looking a little different lately. But one thing is clear: not even a pandemic can stand between us and a good ol' party. And that includes marking World Whisky Day on May 16. We may not be able to head to a cosy bar and celebrate the legendary amber liquor in style, so Glenmorangie has partnered with Boozebud to bring the festivities to your living room via a virtual whisky masterclass. At 6pm on Boozebud's Facebook page, Glenmorangie's Director of Distilling, Whisky Creation and Whisky Stocks Dr Bill Lumsden will be guiding you through a tasting from the Scottish distillery's core range of single malts. You'll start with the classic Glenmorangie Original Aged 10 Years, then move through the Lasanta Sherry Cask Aged 12 Years, Quinta Ruban Port Cask Aged 12 Years and Nectar d'Or Sauternes Cask Aged 12 Years. The masterclass is free to stream but, to make the most of it, you'll want to snag one of the taster packs from Boozebud beforehand, which has the four smooth spirits in 100-millilitre measures — enough for you and a housemate to have a nip each. The pack costs $64.99 and first-time Boozebud customers will score 10-percent off and free shipping by using the code BESTBUD (terms and conditions apply). Purchase your Glenmorangie Scotch Whisky Taster Pack here, then head to Boozebud's Facebook page at 6pm on May 16 to take part in the virtual masterclass.
Brisbane's cafe scene has moved past usual smashed avo and flat whites. The city has long been in the shadow of bigger cafe destinations like Melbourne, but operators are proving you don't need to leave town to get a taste of something different. Trust us Brissies, there are some brag-worthy spots in your own backyard — you just need to know where to look. Enter the new era of brunch: a boozy Bangladeshi-inspired brunch, a farmhouse-inspired cafe with a Thai alter ego, an unabashedly geeky board game den, and more. Here's your guide on where to go for something unexpected in the morning. Recommended reads: The Best Brisbane Beer Gardens and Boozy Courtyards Where to Find the Best Ice Cream and Gelato in Brisbane Brisbane's Best Inner-City Bars for After-Work Drinks with Your Coworkers Brisbane Bars and Restaurants That Are Undeniably, Unabashedly Romantic [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image supplied[/caption] PADDINGTON SOCIAL, PADDINGTON Just a few steps from Lang Park, Paddington Social is a new community hub in a crooked old Queenslander home, steeped in years of easy Brisbane living. Whether you're sitting at one of the communal tables or basking on the verandah, the triple threat of culinary offerings from each of the three chef-owners is sure to impress. Tyler Sargent heads up the breakfast and lunch menu with reimagined comfort dishes like a spicy chorizo scotch egg and smoky mushroom mac and cheese served over a thick wedge of sourdough. Sweets and coffee come via English-trained pastry chef Gibb 'Gibbi' Mookachonpan, with pandan croissants so fragrant that you'll want to bring one home as a candle. On Tuesday to Saturday evenings, Alex Senee runs Lek's Thai Popup Kitchen, a tribute to Thai noodles, curries and fried starters. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image supplied[/caption] NODO, SOUTHBANK First finding life in Brisbane's markets, Nodo's doughnuts rapidly rose to become the landmark sweets of the River City. Their doughnuts are all gluten-free (no dough, get it?), a detail that occasionally surprises someone who already enjoyed one despite the name spelling it out clearly. Plus, everything is oven-baked, not fried — a surprisingly restrained move for a shop touting lamington doughnuts rolled in shaved coconut and topped with pink cream and freeze-dried berry dust. "Make people happy" is the shop's mission statement, and it's bleedingly obvious once you've peeped the menu at the South Bank cafe. Burgers and toasties are an easy pick, but don't sleep on their Bang Bang Bene. With Sichuan pork hock on house-made brioche, the dish is such an original take on eggs benny that it should be listed as a notable example on the Wikipedia page. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image supplied[/caption] IDLE, NEW FARM Named for the slow and steady pace they want to create, Idle serves pastry favourites and pantry staples from the now-closed Agnes Bakery in New Farm. The breezy 36-seater dining area usually bursts with a patient crowd, minds occupied by the difficult choice between a pie, a sausage roll or any other buttery creations on the large rectangular counter. Behind the counter, rugged loaves of sourdough and shatteringly crisp baguettes stand proud like trophies, seedy bagels and buns dotted between them. Put simply, if it goes into the oven as dough and comes out delicious, they bake it here. More good news: Idle has moved beyond viennoiseries and pastries with a fresh dine-in menu. Bold and hearty, the Baghdad Eggs with labne, cumin-infused burnt butter and a flaky flatbread for dipping stand out. Lighter options include house granola, green poached chicken salad and oxheart tomato toast. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image supplied[/caption] SEMI-SEMI, WEST END Most lunchtimes, Semi-Semi is hard to miss thanks to the line of West End workers ordering gourmet sandwiches and tea. Those with more time on their hands can be spotted seated with a smile and a spoon, digging into a bright stack bingsu, served here in a wide range of flavours. There's a matcha-based bingsu with pearls and red beans served on the side. Coconut, cocoa and earl grey also feature in their own creations, with add-ons including rainbow jelly, lychee popping balls and even granola. The never-boring sandwich menu starts at $14 with options for every appetite, from lighter meat-free stacks to heartier toasties with fillings like spicy pulled beef and cheesy truffle mushroom. Practice caution with the monthly specials — don't get too attached to limited-time items like a chicken katsu curry, only to find it gone the next month. That's a pain only two bowls of bingsu can cure. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image supplied[/caption] CAFE DISCO, WEST END Cafe Disco is a tempting beacon of late mornings done right. The cheery yellow exterior of the 40-seater mingles with bottle-green finishings, striking red houndstooth booths and a vinyl soundtrack. The brunch menu is imbued with the flavours of owner Tasfeen Hassan's Bangladeshi heritage, inspired by Hassan's memories of his grandma's cooking. The diner is vegetarian-friendly — the gloriously messy veggie brekkie roll comes with fiery kecap manis (Indonesian soy sauce) and a refreshing raita, while the chilli scramble is topped with a gremolata of Thai green chillies. Omnivores can indulge in dishes like a lamb meatball congee and fresh kofta in house-baked pita. Plus, sweets like pandan and coconut cream puffs are an ideal sidecar for Northgate's Passport Coffee brews. While Cafe Disco only opens until 2pm, the short and sweet list of Aussie wines — plus four cocktails — makes the diner a top-shelf stop on an afternoon bar crawl in the West End. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image supplied[/caption] MEEPLE AND MUG, WEST END Although Meeple and Mug feels like a library with its mismatched lounging and modern white-and-dark-green walls, it would be hard to get any work done in such a temptingly fun atmosphere. Nothing says 'hang here all day' quite like a near-encyclopedic collection of nearly 300 board games, featuring classic game night picks, new releases, and staff picks from independent Australian makers. The games start at the doors of this unabashedly geeky cafe, where customers can roll a dice to determine their price. Roll a two for $2 board games all day – just beware the dreaded 12. Enjoy a snack-fuelled marathon with a cuppa, comfort bites (think chicken nuggets, loaded fries, saucy meatballs and even a veggie curry) and sweet treats such as doughnuts and ice cream. If you're sharp enough to keep your head in the game, get boozy with a list of playful board-game-themed cocktails and a solid beer and spirit selection. Plus, regular LGBTQIA+ events and how-to-play evenings creates a space where anyone can feel right at home.
Fresh from going all in on National Pizza Day, the Regatta in Toowong is throwing some love towards another culinary occasion: International Margarita Day. This celebration works as a two-in-one situation, however, because the riverside pub is pairing the cocktail in the spotlight with margherita slices. You know the drill: if you love a certain food or drink, you don't need a specific day to show it, but these drink- and dish-focused dates are a good excuse to tuck into the item in the spotlight anyway. So, although no one requires any encouraging at all to sip 'ritas you like over pizza, consider the period around Wednesday, February 22 your time to shine. One day isn't enough for this combo, though. To make the most of margs and margs, the Regatta is spreading the love from Monday, February 20–Sunday, February 26. From 12–8pm each day across the week, you can grab one margarita and a margherita pizza for $30, or two drinks and one pizza for $45. Top image: Creative Commons.
After a fire destroyed its premises in early July, New Farm Deli has understandably had to temporarily shut up shop; however, while the local institution is in rebuild mode, it's moving into the Merthyr Village Shopping Centre carpark. The relocation is a one-day event, ahead of a pop-up cart in the near future — and, it also doubles as a picnic. Running from 11am–5pm on Wednesday, August 14, the New Farm Deli Pop-Up Picnic will satisfy your hankering for Italian food and drinks this Ekka public holiday. Grab a bite at the pop-up kitchen, sip on spritzes from the bar, get caffeinated at the coffee cart and tap your toes to live music. If the weather is right, you'll also be able to enjoy all of the above while soaking up the midweek sun. Heading along will count as a good deed, too, with New Farm Deli donating all of the profits from the picnic to the Children's Hospital Foundation. It's the store's way of giving something back after receiving such immense support from the community over the last month — and you can help.
When Pixar is at its best and brightest, the animation house's gorgeous and heartfelt films flow across the silver screen. They glow with colour, creativity, sincerity and emotion. In movies such as WALL-E, Inside Out, Soul, Toy Story 4, Up and Ratatouille, the Disney-owned company's work floats beyond the ordinary as it flickers — and yet, it's also grounded in genuine feelings and insights, even while embracing the now Pixar-standard "what if robots, playthings, rats and the like had feelings?" setup over and over. Accordingly, it makes sense that the studio's Elemental draws upon the sensations that its features usually inspire. It seems like something that was always destined to happen, in fact. And, it's hardly surprising that its latest picture anthropomorphises fire, water, air and earth, and ponders these aspects of nature having emotions. What's less expected is how routine this just-likeable and sweet-enough film is, with the Pixar template lukewarm instead of an inferno and hovering rather than soaring. Elemental also treads water, despite vivid animation, plus the noblest of aims to survey the immigrant experience, opposites attracting, breaking down cultural stereotypes and borders, and complicated parent-child relationships. The Captain Planet-meets-Romeo and Juliet vibe that glinted through the movie's trailers proves accurate, and also something that the feature is happy sticking with exactly as that formula sounds. Although filmmaker Pete Sohn (The Good Dinosaur) draws upon his own upbringing as the son of Korean expats growing up in New York City and its distinctive neighbourhoods — that his family ran a grocery store is worked in as well — and his own marriage, his second stint as a director is too by-the-numbers, easy and timid. Elemental looks like a Pixar film, albeit taking a few visual cues from Studio Ghibli in some character-design details (its bulbous grassy creatures noticeably resemble Totoro), but it largely comes across like a copy or a wannabe. Ember Lumen (Leah Lewis, Nancy Drew), the feisty fire sprite at the picture's centre, has footsteps to follow in herself: not just William Shakespeare's most famous couple without the tragedy given that this is an all-ages-friendly Pixar release, but also her father Bernie's (Ronnie del Carmen, Soul). With her mother Cinder (Shila Ommi, Tehran), he left their homeland behind for better opportunities, worked hard to overcome prejudice and discrimination, and started The Fireplace, which sparked Element City's whole Firetown district — and, since she first started simmering, he has always told his daughter that it was all for her. But Ember's temper is heated. It's prone to boiling over with frustrating customers, which doesn't bode well for a convenience-store proprietor. So, while she's spent her whole life preparing to take over the terracotta- and iron-filled shop when her dad retires, he's never been convinced that she's ready. Bernie adores Ember, has put his entire flame into the family business and is as passionate about only one other thing, apart from Cinder. Due to the xenophobia and unkindness that greeted him when he first arrived in Element City, he's scorchingly certain that fire and other elements don't and shouldn't mix. Sohn and screenwriters John Hoberg (American Housewife), Kat Likkel (also American Housewife) and Brenda Hsueh (Disjointed) set out to extinguish that belief, which is where Wade Ripple (Mamoudou Athie, Archive 81) comes in. When H2O streams into The Fireplace via a busted pipe, it brings in the water element, who is also a municipal inspector. To save the store, the explosive Ember teams up with the go-with-the-flow, freely emotional Wade to work out what's caused the leak — and, although she's initially reluctant about him and leaving Firetown, romance gushes, as does an appreciation of burning beyond her comfort zone. As it lays its scene, Elemental also brings Pixar's 2022 highlight Turning Red to mind, which doesn't do the studio's new film many favours. That exuberant straight-to-streaming effort focused on a boyband-worshiping teen rather than a dutiful young woman who's a whiz at blowing glass (an advantage of being constantly and literally fiery). It honed in on its protagonist's relationship with her mother, rather than father-daughter bonds. But both movies are about struggling with balancing cultural traditions passed down through generations, and the strict expectations that can come with them, as kids try to become their own people and remain true to their own, heroes, dreams, desires and personalities. Sohn's film just combines those notions with an element-crossed lovers rom-com — Pixar's take on Moonstruck, My Big Fat Greek Wedding, The Big Sick and other multicultural romances. With everything that Elemental endeavours to ape — which is clearly a lengthy list — this 27th Pixar feature trickles from a lesser stream. That the flick's four different types of elements are thinly sketched out and lean on simplistic cliches dampens its impact, too, all uncharacteristic moves for the usually deeply thoughtful Mouse House outfit, and never more glaring than with the Lumens. With the director also receiving a story credit, there's again no faulting Sohn and his scribes' intentions in exploring societal inequality, decrying racism, and conveying a statement about inclusion and diversity at viewers young and old. Still, the film is at its most shimmering emotionally and narratively when it gets specific rather than broad. The more kindling that it adds to Ember, the stronger it beams. The more that it relies upon its familiar tropes and plot components, the more it recedes. Two parts of Elemental are perennially buoyant, however: the imagery and voice cast. Fire isn't easy to animate, let alone fire beings, but Ember is especially dazzling. She's always blazing, but those flames can grow and fade based on mood, be doused completely by water, get radiant in the dark and change hues depending on her surroundings — and, as a result, she's an expressive marvel. Also stunning: the world of Element City that's conjured up around her, as tinted with a dreamy palette and watercolour look, which its leads walk and talk through like they're in one of the Before movies. As they chat and swoon, and in general, Lewis matches her character's fire. Athie makes a suitably cruisy Wade, while Catherine O'Hara (Schitt's Creek) is an unsurprising delight as his mum Brook. And yet, Elemental also feels like Pixar is taking its titular term to heart in the worst way, making for rudimentary rather than particularly ravishing or resonant viewing.
Upstate is building towards its first interstate opening, expanding beyond Melbourne's reaches to arrive at a sunny stretch along Palm Beach. Spreading the gospel about its high-energy fitness studios, this exciting location is set to launch on Saturday, July 26. The team is boldly marking the occasion, offering free reformer pilates classes all weekend long across Saturday, July 26–Sunday, July 27. This studio is the brand's biggest to date, with 29 beds primed for group workouts bubbling with vivacious fitness and fun. Upstate Palm Beach is keeping up the good times around its debut Brisbane launch, with a series of introductory offers. Snag a 30-day unlimited pass for $29 or a launch membership featuring unlimited reformer for $59 per week. For those unfamiliar with Upstate, the brand's bright and high-vibe approach is the ideal fit for the Sunshine State. Situated just steps away from the shoreline, plenty of top-notch cafes are within walking distance for pre- and post-workout gatherings. Alongside the massive reformer studio, the Palm Beach location will also feature 50 classes per week, ensuring there's a stellar workout for your fitness level and goals. Just choose from three reformer class styles — Power, Burn or Strength — and sweat it up for 45 minutes. With Upstate Palm Beach's opening quickly approaching, just know that class bookings open two weeks before its doors. "We can't wait to share our high-energy workouts and create a buzzing community here. This studio is a huge milestone for us, and we couldn't think of a better place to make our first Queensland debut," says Upstate Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Gail Asbell. Upstate Palm Beach is opening Saturday, July 26, at 4/1172 Gold Coast Highway, Palm Beach. Head to the website for more information.
In case you don't already have enough reasons to attend SXSW Sydney in 2025, here's more: the event's Music Festival keeps adding to its lineup, with over 50 new performers joining the bill, plus a heap of presenters as well. The latest round of names follows past announcements across all things SXSW Sydney for this year, spanning speakers, an initial batch of local and international acts, high-profile guests, more bands and folks getting chatting, Paul Feig and a 14-hour Freaks and Geeks marathon, and Tumbalong Park's free programming. Even beyond all of the above so far, there's also still lineup drops to come. Ninajirachi, 2charm, Drifting Clouds, Whitney, Picture This, Le Boom, Sonic Reducer, xiao xiao, Angela Ken, Maki, Modern Cinema Master, Lex Amor, Amy Gadiaga: they're now on the Music Festival bill, taking to the stage across Monday, October 13–Sunday, October 19. As for where you'll be catching them, SXSW Sydney's already-hefty range of venues is expanding, too, with The Eveleigh Hotel, Embassy Conference Centre, and outdoor stages at the Seymour Centre and on Kensington Street among the new places to hit up. Laneway Festival Co-Founder Danny Rogers, ARIA CEO Annabelle Herd, Support Act Wellbeing Content & Programs Lead Ash King, Skillbox Founder and CEO Anmol Kukreja, Backlash Productions's Tour and Production Manager Jamal Chalabi, UNIFIED's CEO Jaddan Comerford are just some of the speakers adding a little more conversation to the bill — and so are Tickets for Good Founder and CEO Steve Rimmer, Strawberry Fields Director Tara Medina and others. SXSW Sydney has also confirmed that a lengthy list of organisations will be putting on events, including American Apparel, APRA AMCOS, British Music Embassy, College of Hip Hop Knowledge, GYROstream, Impressed Recordings, Laneway Festival x Outside Lands, Moshtix, NPCC presents Taiwan Now, Rolling Stone, Virgin Music and more. The last dedicated Music Festival reveal came in June, and featured the likes of Rashmeet Kaur, Vandelux, The Thing and August Wahh, plus Tenxi & Jemsii, Holly Hebe, Munan and Yasmina Sadiki. In total, this year's fest is due to feature more than 300 music performances. Before that, the festival had already announced Jasmine 4.t, Freak Slug and Ristband + Pivots from the UK; Slowwves from Thailand; Japan's Suichu Spica 水中スピカ; New Zealand's Serebii and Tusekah; and Cardinals from Ireland; and Autralia's Jamaica Moana, JJ4K, RICEWINE, Sacred Hearts, Swapmeet and BADASSMUTHA. SXSW Sydney 2025 runs from Monday, October 13–Sunday, October 19 at various Sydney venues. Head to the SXSW Sydney website for further details. Select SXSW Sydney images: Brendon Thorne/Getty Images for SXSW Sydney // Jess Gleeson.
It's impossible to think about Mythic Quest without the fellow television show that helped it come to fruition also springing to mind. If there was no It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, this Apple TV+ series about a video-game studio wouldn't exist. 2025 marks two decades since the world first met the Paddy's Pub gang in Rob McElhenney's initial small-screen hit. Midyear, TV's longest-running live-action sitcom will drop its 17th season. With his It's Always Sunny co-star Charlie Day and Megan Ganz, one of the show's writers, he also created Mythic Quest in 2020 — and five years later, it's been streaming its fourth season since late in January, will be accompanied by a companion anthology series Side Quest in March and has cemented itself as another beloved workplace-set favourite. One of the reasons that Mythic Quest has returned not once, not twice, but three times now since its debut run: its stellar cast. McElhenney (Deadpool & Wolverine) plays Ian Grimm, the man behind both the studio that shares the show's name and the hugely successful game that it makes; however, this is an ensemble effort. As crucial at MQ as its original architect is Australian Poppy Li, the lead engineer who has joined Ian as co-creative director over the years. On the business side of the company, high-strung executive producer David Brittlesbee endeavours to keep everything running smoothly. Charlotte Nicdao (The Strange Chores) and David Hornsby (Merry Little Batman) are among the show's standouts — but when the roster of talent also includes Community alum Danny Pudi as a ruthless money man, Ashly Burch (Chibiverse) and Imani Hakim (Will Trent) starting out as testers, and Jessie Ennis (Better Call Saul) as a determined personal assistant, there's no weak links. With Mythic Quest, Nicdao continues a mini trend across her career: tales with media ties. For Australian comedy queens Kate McLennan and Kate McCartney (Deadloch), she was part of breakfast TV-skewering delight Get Krack!n. Then came the also-excellent Content, the short-form web series that enlisted Nicdao as a wannabe influencer willing to do pretty much anything for fame. Building on a resume that also spans A gURLs wURLd, The Slap, Please Like Me, Top of the Lake and Bluey, her path to Poppy hasn't always stuck to the topic, but she's happily at home portraying a successful woman in the gaming world — a well-rounded character with ups and downs, as Concrete Playground describes the role to her; "really flawed and kind of an arsehole" is Nicdao's take, she tells us. And, she's also eagerly expanding the world's view of Australians on-screen. Nicdao's Filipino Australian dad Alfred Nicdao was one of the first Asian actors on Aussie television. Although she initially auditioned for Mythic Quest with an American accent, getting to bring her Asian Australian heritage — keeping her natural voice in the process — to international TV is a rare feat, as she's well aware. "Honestly, it's an honour for me. I don't think that that's overstating it," she advises. When he joined Mythic Quest at the outset, Hornsby came onboard not just as a star but also as an executive producer. Thanks to It's Always Sunny, it's a balancing act that he knows well — and it was "working with friends" that got him excited about being part of the MQ cast alongside playing Sunny's Rickety Cricket, plus his off-camera roles on both, he notes. On the two shows, the Pearl Harbour, Minority Report, Six Feet Under, Flags of Our Fathers, Jake in Progress, How to Be a Gentleman, Idiotsitter and Good Girls actor is also among the writers. Mythic Quest's second-ever episode was penned by him, in fact. Plenty has indeed changed for both Poppy and David over the course of the show so far — and evolves again in the fourth season, too, through romances, pregnancies, friendships and the like. They're both far more sure of who they are and what they want, and willing to fight for it. They're both much more comfortable beyond MQ. This is a workplace comedy, but it's also a series about dreams and fulfilment, and the mental and emotional toll of chasing both. Increasingly, it's as interested in not forgetting to put yourself first, even when you might be working on your dream. Indeed, one of the key themes of its latest batch of episodes is knowing when to make space for something beyond your job or an obsession — and that working on, creating, overseeing or loving something doesn't need to be anyone's defining trait. As a series, Mythic Quest keeps levelling up and broadening its focus, including among MQ team members, their loved ones and players within the narrative. That all-embracing approach equally applies off-screen. Hornsby and Nicdao have both made their directorial debuts with the show — the former in season three, the latter this season on an episode that Hornsby wrote. Burch, Pudi and Hakim have stepped behind the lens as well. Hornsby sees Mythic Quest as facilitating its key players reaching new stages together. "It moves the marker forward and makes you feel like you're growing in your life, and in your in your profession," he advises. Our chat with him and Nicdao also covered the initial appeal of being in a workplace sitcom set in a video-game studio, stepping into the shoes of layered characters as David and Poppy, potential Aussie It's Always Sunny episodes and more. On What Interested Nicdao and Hornsby About Starring in a Workplace Sitcom Set in a Video-Game Studio When Mythic Quest First Came Their Ways David: "It was a job." David to Charlotte: "Is that what your answer's going to be?" Charlotte: "Well, definitely — I mean, at the time, I was very much an unemployed actor. So yeah, it was a job. But also, I say this all the time, I feel like I manifested this show into existence. Because I feel like if you had've asked me to write down my absolute dream gig before I was cast in Mythic Quest, it would have been a heartwarming workplace comedy that was really funny, where I got to stretch my dramatic chops sometimes. And one of my favourite shows ever was Community, and I think Always Sunny is one of the greatest shows on TV. So the fact that now I get to be on this show that I feel like I dreamed up with these people who have already created some of the greatest shows of our time, I'm like 'how did I land this?'." David: "I think a workplace comedy is really great, just because it's really relatable. You can set the tone from the beginning — and I'm really, really happy with the tone that we've forged over these four seasons, of being able to be ridiculous and absurd sometimes, but always hopefully tethered to reality. And then being able to break away and explore some different episodes that really pay tribute to the complexities of stories related to video games. It felt like it was surprising, I think, when it came across my desk of sorts, that there was not already a show that truly lived in the video-game world that was an office-based comedy." On the Number of Projects, From Get Krack!n and Content in Australia to Mythic Quest, with a Media Angle on Nicdao's Resume Charlotte: "That's so funny. I hadn't thought about that before, but you're right, there is kind of a media bent to a lot of my work. I don't know what that is, and sometimes I wonder if it's — I mean, all of those things are fairly contemporary or modern themes to get into, and so sometimes I wonder that's something that I'm particularly comfortable in, for whatever reason. Those projects that you mentioned — Kate McCartney and Kate McLennan, who created Get Krak!n, are the some of the funniest people working in Australian television, and everything that they do is brilliant. So the fact that they wrote that role in for me was really exciting. And then with Content, Daley Pearson brought me that project. I'd worked with Ludo Studios before on an animated show, and when he brought me Content I was like 'I've never seen anything like this before and I have no idea how we're even going to shoot it, but I definitely want to be part of that'. So I'm glad that it lives on." On What Excited Hornsby About Taking His Collaboration with the It's Always Sunny Team Into a New Series David: "Working with friends, initially — it usually starts with Rob and Charlie calling me up and asking 'hey, we've got a part for you. We were thinking of a new show. We were thinking of you. Would you want to act on it and write on it?'. What more can you want except to do the thing that you love with your friends, who make you laugh and raise your bar? That in itself is a door I'm willing to walk through and then see what adventure it leads to." On What Nicdao Draws Upon to Play a Smart, Successful Woman in the Gaming World — But Also a Very Well-Round Character with Flaws and Struggles Charlotte: "I love that you're calling it well-rounded, when really what we all mean is that she's really flawed and kind of an arsehole. Yeah, that's a great question. Coming into the role without that gaming background — and I certainly didn't know anything about programming, that's definitely not how my brain works — I did speak to some game developers about what drew them to their particular jobs. And I loved hearing about this idea of programming being very much about solving puzzles, like being able to take something apart and put it back together in new ways that you wouldn't expect. So I feel like that was my way into understanding a little bit about how Poppy's mind works. It's like she doesn't really have control over most of her life, but this is a space that she fully understands and she can do anything in this world of programming. And that's kind of what makes her so good at her job, is that confidence that she has in this area and maybe no other area. I feel like I relate to that a little bit in terms of — I don't think, I would never think, that I am as good at acting as Poppy is at coding, but I definitely know that feeling of when you lock into something that you love doing and the rest of the world fades away, and you finish shooting a scene and you're like 'whoa, where am I?'. I don't really do that, but that's the feeling." On Hornsby's Task Playing the Most Sensitive and Vulnerable Character in the Series — and One Who Is Steering the Ship, But Is Also Often the Butt of the Office's Jokes David: "It involves me taking my ring off and walking in front of a camera, and then when I'm done, I put my ring on and I go home. No, it's really fun. I enjoy pushing the stories forward and serving the crazier egos in the show, but also having, when I was able to be the wolf back in a previous season, something like that. The specificity of this character and being able to then have earned that storyline is, is super fun. The wins taste sweeter, the victories taste sweeter, for this character when he gets them. So whether he's being a pawn in Brad's game or being overlooked by Poppy or Ian, it's always fun for me, for this character, to get a little victory here and there, and just to see what he does with it." On Knowing When to Make Space Beyond Work or an Obsession Being a Key Theme in Season Four — But Not a Sign That the Show Is Winding Down Charlotte: "I also hope that it's not leading to the end of the show. I don't think that's the intention. I actually think it opens up a whole lot of new story actually. And specifically with Poppy, this season is very much about her trying to discover who she could be outside of work. We see that right in the very first episode, with her having a boyfriend, which is something you never — I never, certainly — expected for the character. But I also think that it's something that we continue to explore and realise, that her whole life, since she was a child, has been about work. And in episode six we get introduced to her sister, who's played by another Asian Australian actress, Natasha Liu Bordizzo [Ahsoka], who I'm sure you know is fantastic — and a close friend. And we had so much fun on set. And this character comes in and reveals a little bit to the audience about who Poppy has always been — and I think that makes it all the more poignant that Poppy is now trying to break outside of that way of being. And I would be really interested to see, with the progress that Poppy makes this season, what that would mean for her in seasons to come in terms of her relationship with Ian and with the game." On the Parallels Between Mythic Quest Broadening Its Focus Among Its Characters and the Show's Cast, Such as Nicdao and Hornsby, Expanding Their Involvement by Writing and Directing David: "When a show's cast well, I think sometimes it's a fine line between who we are and who the characters are — certainly with my character in some ways — but we've all grown into our characters more. We've grown into ourselves more over time. A lot has happened since we started the show. We went through COVID and the pandemic. We made a show during it. That brings us together. That shows us what we're capable of. We've got to do our own makeup. We've got to shoot our own thing. We grow to appreciate the other person's job, especially when you have to do your own makeup. So at the end of the day, at five years later, I think we all have grown and feel, having gone through all this together — from professional firsts, like directing when I did it or when she did it, to doing a new episode or going to a new place with your character — it does make you, it moves the marker forward and makes you feel like you're growing in your life, and in your in your profession." On What It Means for Nicdao to Help Expand the World's View of Australians — and Initially Auditioning for Mythic Quest with an American Accent Charlotte: "Yeah, it's honestly, it's an honour for me. I don't think that that's overstating it. I feel like the world has a very particular idea of what an Australian looks like, and the fact that I get to show a different kind of Australian on an international level is, yeah, I'm really proud of that. And I'm so grateful that during that audition process, I think it was Rob, that was like 'wait, wait, stop'." Charlotte to David: "Well, maybe it was even you. I definitely remember you being in some of my early auditions and this conversation starting around 'well, but what if you just did your natural accent?'. I was so used to auditioning in my American accent at that time." David: "I wanted us to all become Australian." Charlotte: "He wanted everyone to do an Australian accent." David: "But then it just came like 'no, what if she just does it?'." Charlotte: "Yeah, it was like 'maybe just the Australian should do it'. But yeah, I was particularly proud of the episode 'Sarian' in season three that portrays Poppy with her young Filipino Australian family. Filipinos are the fifth-largest migrant group in Australia, there's a big community of us there. And since that episode has come out, I've spoken to people who have stopped me on the street in Australia, in Melbourne, who were like 'I loved that episode because that's what my family looked like growing up — like we spoke Tagalog at home and we had Australian accents at school'. I'm so grateful to the show for helping to tell that story." Concrete Playground: "Everyone becoming Australian sounds like it's going to be a future episode of It's Always Sunny." Charlotte: "Yes! 'The Gang Goes Australian'." David: "Yeah — yeah, that's fun." Mythic Quest streams via Apple TV+. Read our reviews of season one, season two and season three.
If you live your life a quarter-mile at a time, then you'll want to travel a few of them for Dendy Coorparoo's latest movie festival. In the kind of film frenzy we could all use right now, the eastside picture palace will be screening seven flicks from the Fast & Furious franchise over four days. From Thursday, August 20–Sunday, August 23, prepare to rev up your excitement — with the movie that started it all, plus the high-octane cinema spectacle's fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth instalments, and its recent spinoff as well. If you've mixed up the franchise's many titles featuring the words 'fast' and/or 'furious', here's what you're in for: 2001's The Fast and the Furious (aka Point Break with vehicles), 2009's Fast & Furious (now with more heists and spying), 2011's Fast Five (the one where The Rock joins the fun), 2013's Fast & Furious 6 (featuring a back-from-the-dead favourite), 2015's Furious 7 (otherwise known as "hey, let's throw Jason Statham into the mix as well"), 2017's The Fate of the Furious (with added Charlize Theron) and 2019's Fast & Furious: Hobbs & Shaw (aka the movie that was always going to eventuate). Bringing your family, whether they're related by blood or they're the friends you consider as close as kin, seems like a fitting thing to do. You'll have to buy your tickets separately per film, though — so it's up to you whether you strap in for just a movie or two, or ride out the whole thing. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeKBMdYaM3U Dendy Coorparoo's Fast & Furious Fest runs from Thursday, August 20–Sunday, August 23.
First finding life in Brisbane's markets, Nodo's doughnuts rapidly rose to become the landmark sweets of the River City. Expanding from a market stall to two cafes and then four kiosks, Nodo's latest is another cafe in South Bank. The 22-seater offers coffee, sweets and brunch plates to diners soaking in the sun or fuelling quiet contemplation during a lunchtime stroll. Nodo's doughnuts are all gluten-free (no dough, get it?), a detail that occasionally surprises someone who already enjoyed one despite the name spelling it out clearly. Plus, all doughnuts are oven-baked, not fried — a surprisingly restrained move for a shop touting lamington doughnuts rolled in shaved coconut and topped with pink cream and freeze-dried berry dust. "Make people happy" is the shop's mission statement, and it's bleedingly obvious once you've peeped the menu. Beyond doughnuts, drinks include a signature 'Wake Up Beautiful' coffee blend, ceremonial-grade matcha, seasonal iced teas and fruity smoothies. Burgers and toasties are an easy pick, but don't sleep on their Bang Bang Bene. With Sichuan pork hock on house-made brioche, the dish is such an original take on eggs benny that it should be listed as a notable example on the Wikipedia page. Images supplied
If you're a fan of LGBTQIA+ flicks, don't say that you don't have anything to watch between Friday, February 28–Monday, March 10, 2025. You're not just stuck with usual couch-viewing options, either. The return of Queer Screen's Mardi Gras Film Festival in Sydney also means the return of the event's online component, which is great news no matter where you live in Australia. As always, the roster of movies that Sydneysiders can catch at MGFF's in-person sessions is far larger than its online program — but joining in from home is still filled with highlights. Movie buffs eager to check out the online picks from their couch can look forward to the Alan Cumming (Schmigadoon!)-starring Drive Back Home; Aussie effort Heart of a Man, about a closeted Indigenous boxer; a doco about activist Sally Gearhart; Unusually Normal's factual portrait of a family that includes two lesbian grandmothers, four lesbian mothers and one lesbian granddaughter; and a blend of fiction and reality with 2024 Sundance Special Jury Award-winner Desire Lines, among other titles. A number of shorts programs will be available to stream, too, with packages devoted to Asia Pacific, transgender and gender diverse, queer horror, queer documentaries, sapphic and more. Black Doves' Ben Whishaw pops up in one of the gay shorts, while Hacks' Megan Stalter appears in one of the films in the comedy lineup.
Remember the Pokémon Go phase? What a time in millennial history. And while you may not see hordes of people playing it in your local park these days, fans need not despair. Because Pokémon is coming back to you in real life. Three years after the game temporarily took over the world, a pop-up bar decked out in everything Pokemon is hitting Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane this year. We don't have specific details, like the when and where of it, but can tell you to expect everything to do with the franchise: Pokéball-shaped burgers, as well as games, themed cocktails and prizes. The bars will supposedly be divided into seven regions and each session will includes two hours of 'hunting, battling and catching time' — we're interested to see how that will be interpreted. You can complete all regions to be the ultimate winner, where we suppose you might win one of the aforementioned Pokémon prizes. There will also be prizes for the best dressed and a DJ spinning tracks. The nitty gritty of it all, though, is yet to be revealed. Will you be playing on the app, or will you have to find Pokémons in a scavenger hunt? Does anyone still actually play Pokémon Go? The mystery is yet to be solved, but you may want to start rounding up your old catching team. We don't know dates for this one, but you can be the first to know when tickets are available by signing to the mailing list. The event comes from the same group that have previously announced a Simpsons-themed Flaming Moe's tavern and a Harry Potter-themed Cauldron Bar. While neither of these events have actually happened — even though the Cauldron Bar initially scheduled for last month — organisers have told Concrete Playground that they are trying to find the perfect venues for the bars, and both of them are still "in the pipeline". The Pokébar should hit Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane later this year. Tickets will be $35 for a two-hour session. They're not yet on sale, but you can register here.
Affectionately known as "The Paddo", the Paddington Tavern has long been a fixture of Brisbane's inner-west pub scene. While the surrounding suburb has transformed over the years, the tavern has held firmly onto its unpretentious, come-as-you-are character. Part of the McGuires Pubs group, the venue is currently undergoing a major refurbishment that will see the historic site refreshed and expanded, with works expected to be completed in late 2027. Even as it evolves, the spirit of the pub remains the same. The Paddo is home to the long-running Sit Down Comedy Club, Brisbane's best-known comedy venue since 1992, drawing crowds each week for live stand-up. Elsewhere, big screens and surround sound make the Main Bar a reliable spot for watching sport, while pool tables and casual drinking spaces keep the atmosphere lively. Whether you're dropping in for a pint, catching a game or settling in for a night of comedy, the Paddington Tavern continues to deliver the kind of easygoing pub experience that's increasingly rare in the inner city.
