Got some spare cash burning a hole in your bank account? Then you could own one of Brisbane's top spots. Ten years after it revamped an otherwise unloved patch of Fortitude Valley and started a trend, Limes Hotel is for sale. Over the past decade, most of Brisbane has made an excuse to drop by the boutique establishment, not that one was needed. Maybe you've had a drink at its rooftop bar. Perhaps you've plunged in the rooftop pool (one of our favourite outdoor swimming pools in Brisbane) while watching a movie under the stars. You might've even treated yourself to a night in one of its pretty rooms. Either way, change is a-coming to the pioneering place on Constance Street behind the train station, which previously hosted some of the worst real estate in Brisbane. Just what the future holds is yet to be determined; however logic dictates that whoever the new proprietor turns out to be ought to be thrilled with the booming business they're buying. Current owner, Damian Griffiths, has plenty of other things to keep him busy. Les Bubbles is due to open on September 10, a spate of kiosks are set to take over South Bank in October, and then there's the already operational Alfred & Constance, Doughnut Time and Kwan Bros, aka some of the city's most beloved hangouts and suppliers of tasty treats and Asian meals. Via The Courier-Mail.
From award-winning Australian novel to sold-out mainstage production, Jasper Jones is now getting the long-awaited big screen treatment it deserves. Madman Entertainment has today released the trailer for the anticipated film version of Craig Silvey's lauded novel, a revisualisation directed by Rachel Perkins (Bran Nue Dae, Radiance, One Night the Moon) and produced by Vincent Sheehan (Animal Kingdom, The Hunter) and David Jowsey (Mystery Road, Goldstone). Jasper Jones follows the classic story of 14-year-old Charlie Bucktin, a wide-eyed, book-loving kid living in small-town Western Australia in the summer of 1969. When local mixed-race outcast Jasper Jones wakes him up in the middle of the night, one heck of a mystery starts for the pair (and the town). Who's in the cast? Oh, just Australian royalty Toni Collette and Hugo Weaving, alongside Levi Miller (Pan, upcoming Red Dog: True Blue), Angourie Rice (These Final Hours, The Nice Guys), Dan Wyllie (Offspring, Muriel's Wedding), Matt Nable (Riddick, Son of a Gun) and Aaron McGrath (GLITCH). Get your eyes all over the trailer, it comes with a new song from Sydney lad Dustin Tebbutt, 'Atlas in Your Eyes'. Jasper Jones will be released in cinemas on March 2, 2017.
When your nine-to-five plays out like a well-oiled machine, it can sometimes feel like each week is a little same-same. But Brisbane is brimming with a fine bounty of things to experience and explore each and every day. So aside from casual laziness and a little lack of inspiration, there's really nothing stopping you from squeezing a little adventure and spontaneity into your schedule. We've teamed up with Mazda3 to celebrate the landmark 40th anniversary of their iconic small cars, and in turn, help you celebrate the Brisbane landmarks and institutions we all love. This week, discover and rediscover the things that make Brisbane so great, with seven different detours through our city's classic spots. From Monday to Sunday, channel that Brissie spirit, and enrich your everyday with one completely achievable, time-honoured activity that helps bypass any mundane roadblocks in your routine. This week, rediscover the classics of Brisbane we know and love, from the tasting menu at e'cco bistro, to stargazing at the Sir Thomas Brisbane Planetarium, to cruisy bowls along the river. Plus, we've got your future detours sorted for the new few weeks here. All require no more effort than a tiny break from the norm — what's your excuse for not trying them all?
Kicking off with a light-hearted caper, ending with happy tears — that's what we look for in an Italian jaunt. And even if you're not heading over to Europe anytime soon, sitting in a cinema this September might be the next best thing, in the form of the 2017 Italian Film Festival. Marking its 18th year, Australia's annual celebration of Italy's filmmaking finest will kick off with screwball effort Let Yourself Go!, which won the 2017 Italian Golden Globe for best comedy, stars The Great Beauty's Toni Servillo, and follows a tightly wound psychoanalyst's dalliance with an upbeat personal trainer. Bookending the festival is a 20th anniversary screening of Roberto Benigni's bittersweet Life Is Beautiful, an Academy Award winner for best foreign language film. One of the more popular film events in Australia, IFF's 28-film, six-week national tour features brand new highlights, excursions off the beaten track, jaunts all over the country and an ode to coffee. Yes, there really is a film called Coffee in the program, which intertwines three tales about everyone's favourite caffeinated brew, and was inspired by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 2006 Oscar-winner Babel. As for the rest of the fest, highlights include the tender portrait of conjoined twin sisters that is Indivisible (the festival's centrepiece), to Sea Girls Dreaming, a documentary about carefree grandmothers living in the tiny Italian mountain village of Daone. Plus, Italian movie buffs can also enjoy romantic comedy Emma, which comes to Australia straight from the Venice Film Festival, and the based-on-a-true-tale Sicilian Ghost Story, about the disappeared teenage son of a Mafia informant. There's more where they came from, including Roman ex-cons attempting to start a new life, broad Christmas comedies and topical accounts of ex-terrorists fleeing extradition — and a special guest and a new initiative. This year's festival will welcome Australian-Italian actor Greta Scacchi, who'll attend screenings of her latest effort Tenderness, and sit on IFF's first jury. The Looking for Alibrandi star will help pick the festival's best from a six-film competition, with help from The Space Between's Ruth Borgobello, actor Daniela Farinacci, actor Damian Walshe-Howling and Radio National's Jason di Rosso. The 2017 Italian Film Festival tours Australia between September 12 and October 25, screening at Sydney's Palace Norton Street, Palace Verona and Chauvel Cinemas from September 12 to October 8; Melbourne's Palace Cinema Como, Palace Westgarth, Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, Kino Cinemas and The Astor Theatre from September 14 to October 8; and Brisbane's Palace Barracks and Palace Centro from September 20 to October 8. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the festival website.
Remember when Big Poppa's head chef Liam O' Driscoll cooked us up a feast of epic proportions? We sure do. To celebrate the launch of the KitchenAid Mini in Australia, we created a Mini Dinners video series and asked two of our favourite chefs to throw a dinner party and cook up three courses of their favourite food. Obviously, O'Driscoll stayed true to his Big Poppa's menu and cooked three courses of simple, rustic Italian food. He's given us his recipes so you can recreate the dishes at home. The Big Poppa's food philosophy is all about using fresh, local produce and letting it speak for itself. You're not allowed to do anything fancy, because if the produce is great to begin with you won't need to. Make sure everything you cook with is of the highest quality. If you've sat down and dined at Big Poppa's upstairs restaurant you'll know this is a big deal. Treat these recipes with respect. HAND CUT TAGLIATELLE WITH GLOBE ARTICHOKE, PARMIGIANO-REGGIANO, PANGRATTATO AND SALMORIGLIO INGREDIENTS PASTA 500g '00' flour or plain flour plus a little extra for rolling 3 whole eggs 4 egg yolks 20ml olive oil pinch of salt ARTICHOKES 8 artichokes 2 lemons 2 cloves garlic sprig thyme PANGRATTATO 2 cup of home made bread crumbs (made from day old white ciabatta or sourdough) 2 cloves garlic finely chopped 1/2 bunch of parsley chopped 2 lemons zested SALMORIGLIO 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil 3 sprigs rosemary chopped 1/2 bunch oregano chopped 1/2 bunch flat leaf parsley chopped 1 teaspoon salt zest of 1 lemon 2 garlic cloves, minced dash of freshly ground black pepper METHOD PASTA Place all ingredients into the bowl of the KitchenAid Mini with the dough hook attachment and mix on speed setting 4 for around 4 minutes, or until dough starts to form a ball Remove dough to a lightly floured bench and knead until dough comes together and has a uniform consistency (the dough should spring back a little if pressed with thumb) Wrap tight in cling film and place in fridge for 30 min Remove from fridge and rest dough for 20 min Unwrap dough a cut into 4 pieces On a lightly floured bench roll each piece out with rolling pin Take 1 piece of rolled out dough and feed through the KitchenAid Mini pasta rolling attachment on setting 10, continue to feed dough through roller decreasing the setting 1 mark at a time, until you reach the 0 setting, Lightly dust finished pasta sheet at set aside Repeat process till all sheets are rolled out. Stack sheets on top of each other and slice with a sharp knife into 2cm strips Set cut pasta aside covered with tea towel until ready to cook ARTICHOKES Snap back tough outer leaves until you begin to expose the pale yellow ones. Trim top off and pare down the leaves which cover the base of the heart and trim stem down till the pale yellow is showing Cut Artichokes in half lengthways and with a spoon scoop out the choke and place artichokes in water mixed with a small amount of vinegar or lemon juice to stop oxidisation In a large pot of cold water place the lemons that have been cut in half, garlic, thyme and artichokes, simmer until the base of the artichokes can easily be pieced with knife Strain and set aside, when cooled slice each half in two PANGRATTATO Bring 1/2 cup oil to medium heat in heavy based frypan, add bread crumbs and toast a light golden colour. At this stage add garlic, lemon zest and parsley, and continue to toast until golden brown Remove pangrattato from pan using a slotted spoon on to a baking try lined with paper towel, and let drain of excess oil and cool SALMORIGLIO Place all ingredients in the KitchenAid Mini food processor attachment and blitz BRINGING IT ALL TOGETHER Bring large pot of salted water to the boil and add pasta, cook for 2 min, add artichokes to water with pasta and cook for a further minute, strain and place in large mixing bowl with the salmoriglio, season with salt and pepper and mix Divide between 4-6 bowls and grate parmigiano-reggiano over each portion Top with pangrattato FLAT IRON STEAK TAGLIATA WITH CONFIT GARLIC BUTTER, TREVISO AND POTATO AL FORNO INGREDIENTS 1 kg flat iron steak, if unavailable flank or thick skirt can be substituted 1.5 kg waxy potatoes 2 heads of treviso or radicchio 3 sprigs rosemary 2 lemons 250g unsalted butter 1 head garlic 1 cup veg oil 1/4 cup chopped parsley salt pepper good quality Australian extra virgin olive oil METHOD BUTTER Place peeled garlic cloves in small pot with vegetable oil and heat at a low temperature until garlic is soft and starting to caramelise. Strain garlic and let cool In the KitchenAid Mini beat butter with paddle attachment and some salt until soft and pale in colour, add garlic and and parsley and mix until combined Take a sheet of foil and place a sheet of baking paper over this, spoon butter onto paper and then roll into a log twisting both ends until tight and butter feels firm Place butter log in fridge or freezer until firm Remove from fridge, unwrap and cut into 2cm wheels THE REST With are sharp knife thinly slice the potatoes into rounds and place slices overlapping each other into an oiled, deep, heavy based ceramic or glass baking dish. Drizzle with oil and season with salt and pepper and add water but do not cover potatoes with liquid Bake in oven at 200 celsius for 30 min Add rosemary leaves and continue to bake for a further 15min or until potatoes are cooked and golden brown Slice treviso lengthways into quarters and place on baking tray, drizzle with oil and season wit salt and pepper, roast for 10-15 min Season steak and bring a non-stick frypan up to smoking with a little oil, cook steak for approx 3-4 minutes on each side till a nice crust forms Remove steak and rest for 3min before slicing across the grain and serving on plate or board with butter crumbled on top and lemons cheeks, and treviso on side TORRONE SEMIFREDDO WITH DOLCE LATTE INGREDIENTS 2 cups heavy cream 1/4 cup good quality honey 225g hard hazelnut or almond torrone, finely chopped (Torrone is an Italian nougat made with honey, egg whites, sugar and nuts) 1 can of sweetened condensed milk METHOD In a deep pot place the can of condensed milk, cover the can with water and bring to a steady simmer for 3-4 hours. (Be sure to keep an eye on water level and top up pot to avoid water level dropping below the top of the can. The cans may explode if not fully submerged). After 3-4 hours remove can with tongs and set aside In a large bowl, whip the cream with the honey until firm. Fold in the chopped torrone. Transfer the mixture to a large, deep plastic container and press a piece of plastic wrap directly on the surface. Freeze until firm. Spoon semifreddo into bowls and open the can of condensed milk. Thanks to science it will have magically transformed into delicious caramel. Spoon caramel over semifreddo and enjoy Images: Samantha Hawker and Bodhi Liggett.
The solar battery industry is still very much in its infancy, but already there's an Aussie upstart taking the challenge to a major brand. The Brisbane-based, Indigenous-owned AllGrid Energy is currently offering its ten kilowatt-hour home battery at a rate significantly cheaper than Tesla's much-touted Powerwall, which is due to enter the local market next year. Like the Powerwall, the AllGrid GridWatt system stores power collected by solar panels, and according to the company can reduce your reliance on the national power grid by up to 75 percent. The system costs $12,000, which they say comes in at about 30 per cent less than the Tesla option – although due to its reliance on old lead acid gel batteries, the system must be installed outside. AllGrid currently services Queensland and South Australia, and sees remote indigenous communities as a potential area for growth. "Obviously as an Indigenous company working with Indigenous communities, it’s a really big area of traction for us," AllGrid marketing manager Deborah Oberon told The Guardian. The company plans to train Indigenous electricians to help install the units, with the hope that they could be used to replace costly diesel generators. "Once Tesla's system is available in February, that will be the moment that the game really starts to change...with the coverage and publicity that a company like Tesla get, we’re really confident the market will heat up," said Oberon, further predicting that 2016 would be "the year that storage really starts to kick off in Australia." For more information about AllGrid, visit their website. Via The Guardian. Image via Dollar Photo Club.
A supermarket in Denmark has committed to fighting food wastage by only selling produce past its use-by date. Located in Copenhagen, the recently opened Wefood has been set up by not-for-profit organisation Folkekirkens Nødhjælp, selling expired food at a discounted rate with the hope of reducing the 700,000 tonnes of food that goes to waste in Denmark each year. "Wefood is the first supermarket of its kind in Denmark and perhaps the world as it is not just aimed at low-income shoppers but anyone who is concerned about the amount of food waste produced in this country," spokesperson Per Bjerre told The Independent. The supermarket came into being on the back of a successful crowdfunding campaign, which raised one million Danish kroner, or just over $200,000. The supermarket is staffed by volunteers, with profits being used to help fund Folkekirkens Nødhjælp's work in some of the poorest countries in the world. The supermarket also has the support of local government officials. "It's ridiculous that food is just thrown out or goes to waste," said Eva Kjer Hansen, Danish Minister for Food and the Environment. "A supermarket like Wefood makes so much sense and is an important step in the battle to combat food waste." According to the United Nations, human beings throw away around 1.3 billion tonnes of food each year. Given that one in nine people around the world don't have enough to eat, that's a fairly depressing statistic. In Australia alone we waste more than four million tonnes a year, although organisations like Second Bite and OzHarvest are doing their best to reduce that number. Perhaps we could use a Wefood of our own? Via The Independent.
Been sailing the internet seas and plundering its illegal film bounties, movie pirates? Yarrr, well you just might find yourself at the centre of a new round of legal action. Australian film company Village Roadshow has revealed that their attempts to stamp out copyright theft will soon extend to suing individual infringers. If you've downloaded one of their flicks, yes, that could mean you. No, this isn't another Dallas Buyers Club situation exactly, however if you're the swashbuckling type, you might receive a letter in the mail. Village Roadshow's new tactics involve going after repeat culprits and asking for a fee of around $300. "Not for a king's ransom but akin to the penalty for parking a car in a loading zone. If the price of an act of thievery is set at say $300, we believe most people will think twice," said Village Roadshow co-chief executive Graham Burke. Deterrence, rather than punishment, is the aim here — and continuing to try to convince everyone that they should bite the bullet and pay to watch Game of Thrones. "Any revenue derived from this proposed legal program will be devoted to positive education on piracy," Burke continued. "I should also point out that it is our intent with this strategy that, should anyone be caught in the net who has dire health or difficult circumstances, we would waive the action providing they undertake not to infringe again." Just when the lawsuits will start wasn't announced, though Village Roadshow have a history of being active in the area, with the company initiating court action against movie streaming website SolarMovie earlier this year. Burke also holds the role of Creative Content Australia chair — aka the head of the film industry's anti-piracy arm — and advised that, once the precedent for blocking websites has been clearly established under Australia's current site-blocking legislation, "We will be ready to immediately bring another court action requesting the blocking of an additional 100 criminal sites." The plan was revealed as part of a speech entitled 'The Piracy Plague', which was delivered at the Australian International Movie Convention on the Gold Coast this week. And no, the link between the Goldie and that other form of piracy wasn't lost on anyone. In fact, it was even mentioned. You can thank Johnny Depp, his dogs and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales for that, obviously.
Sure, we love winter's hot mugs of mulled things, snuggly wardrobe options and tendency to coincide with national film festivals, but the season calls for a well-earned weekend away every now and again. Perhaps you'd like to completely ditch the city's chilly winds for a stylish Californian-style beach motel with an ex-Noma chef. Or maybe you're one to embrace winter like a woolly jumper-loving fiend. How about a private mountain villa with your own in-room, temperature-controlled swimming pool? We've teamed up with Mr & Mrs Smith to give you five ideas for winter weekend getaways from their collection of pretty, pretty accommodation options. Pick a date, pack your bags and get outta town. DRIFT HOUSE, PORT FAIRY Breakfast hampers, salvaged timber, Japanese tiles — Drift House is all about the details. It's a pretty little beach boutique in Port Fairy, the Great Ocean Road's charming fishing village. Rooms are designed for dining in, because Drift House knows what's up. You'll have little reason to venture out into the chill with your own 'maxibar' at home, stocked with baked beans, pasta, parmesan, pasta sauces, organic crisps, popcorn and other nibbles, alongside a stash of locally sourced Basalt Vineyard red and white wine. ARKABA Escape the wind tunnels of the city and set yourself up in an elegant 1850s homestead in the Flinders Ranges. A heritage-style property, Arkaba channels a good ol' Australian vibe from its wool sack-wrapped bedside tables to sheepskin hot-water bottles. It's also a private wildlife sanctuary, so expect a few kangaroos and emus to stop by. Your dining is all-inclusive (and features some of the world's best wines), and if you're keen to get a little more adventurous, Arkaba does a swag-camp glamping trek. HALCYON HOUSE No better way to beat the cold than escaping to a faded Californian-style surf motel. Fusing elements of Long Island nauticalia and Mediterranean pool chic, it's the kind of place that looks made for surfwear magazine fashion shoots. Located right on Cabarita Beach near Tweed Heads, Halcyon is a beach holiday haven with all the trimmings — and an ex-Noma chef. Ben Devlin, 2014's Queensland Chef of the Year, runs the delightfully artful Paper Daisy restaurant, where you'll be inhaling fresh crumpets, locally-grown coffee and honey roasted fruit. That's before you while the afternoon away on the poolside deck, sipping wines picked by sommelier Peter Marchant. CAPELLA LODGE Feel like a Bond villain in a high-flying tropical paradise retreat at Capella Lodge, a stunning nine-suite hideaway on Lord Howe Island. Surrounded by turquoise lagoons, coral reefs and rare tropical birds, the lodge is a glorious natural oasis from a wintry city — but with every last modern creature comfort. Infinity pools, outdoor stone baths, sprawling seaside verandahs. The place even has its own spa. Hire a lagoon kayak and snorkelling gear and explore the area — you'll forget its cold anywhere else. O&O WOLGAN VALLEY If you're one to relish in wintry weather as a means to get amongst misty mountains, head for O&O Wolgan Valley. This Blue Mountains gem sees 40 villas, including two- and three-bedroom retreats, over 7000 acres of rolling hills and pristine wilderness. It's Australia's first conservation-based luxury resort and is accredited by international group CarboNZero. There's a world-class spa, a big wine cellar, mountain bikes for you to use, and a killer restaurant, bar and eatery showcasing seasonal, local, organic produce. Best bit? Each Federation-style bungalow comes with an in-room, temperature-controlled, private swimming pool. Keen to get going? Concrete Playground readers special treatment from Mr & Mrs Smith, with exclusive discount offers at hotels from Bali to Brisbane. You can save 25 percent or more if you book any of these retreats by 30 July (and you can stay any time until 30 September, 2016). Details here.
In a rare instance of critics and audiences agreeing with each other, Mad Max: Fury Road and The Dressmaker were the two big winners at the 2016 Australian Film Critics Association Awards. Held last night at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image (ACMI) in Melbourne, the ceremony reflected on the past 12 months of Australian cinema, with the year's two biggest box office takers proving popular with critics as well. Critically acclaimed action blockbuster Mad Max: Fury Road took home the award for Best Film, as well as Best Director for George Miller and Best Cinematography for John Seale. The Dressmaker, meanwhile, swept through the acting categories, with Best Actress for Kate Winslet, Best Supporting Actress for Judy Davis and Best Supporting Actor for Hugo Weaving. The film's director and co-writer Jocelyn Moorhouse was present to accept the awards of behalf of her cast, while also taking home the Best Screenplay Award for herself and husband P. J. Hogan. Ryan Corr won Best Actor for his work in Holding the Man. In the international film categories, last year's Oscar winner Birdman took home Best English Language Film, while German drama Phoenix won for Best Foreign Language Film. Amy Winehouse doco Amy won Best Documentary. The association also gave out its annual writing awards, bestowed by a panel of journalists and film industry practitioners. This year's winners were critics Rebecca Harkins-Cross, Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Luke Goodsell. You can check out the winners here. To get a head start on the next crop of likely AFCA Award winners, check out our list of the ten Australian films to watch out for in 2016.
Listen to some of Australia's best emerging and early-career writers in a new podcast series produced by SBS. A tie in with the station's new crime-drama The Principal, which is set to premiere in the first week of October, True Stories consists of seven short stories written and performed by up-and-coming writers from all walks of life. Each story presents a different take on the Australian high school experience – and the six they've dropped so far have been really, really good. The young writers worked in collaboration with Sweatshop, a literary initiative by the University of Western Sydney founded by doctoral candidate and writer Michael Mohammed Ahmad. Ahmad also wrote one episode of the podcast, as did his fellow recipients of the SMH's Best Young Novelist award Luke Carman, Maxine Beneba Clarke, Omar Musa and Ellen Van Neervan. "I think the particular writers that SBS has engaged with are probably the best suited in the country to conform and adapt to the oral storytelling that these podcasts require," says Ahmad. "We're talking about the best up-and-coming writers in the country, and it just so happens that a vast majority of those writers represent traditions who come from rich oral storytelling practice. Omar Musa from a Malaysian background, Maxine Beneba Clarke an Afro-Caribbean background, Ellen van Neerven an Aboriginal background and myself an Arab background...if you look at our novels there is a strong oral technique that is being used most of the time, which is drawing from traditions that come from all over the world." You can certainly feel the influence of these different cultural backgrounds in the content of True Stories. Ahmad's episode, for example, was inspired by his time as a student at Punchbowl Boys High School during the late nineties and early two thousands, a time when the "Arab Australian Muslim community was one of the most stigmatised groups in the country." Loaded with profane language and instances of violence, his story reflects a troubled period in the school's history, yet refuses to indulge stereotypes about the students or their community. "I think if you listen to my story, there is undoubtedly an exploration of violence, sexism, misogyny, homophobia and classic cases of aggression and hostility that exist within certain underclass communities," Ahmad says. "But they're resilient spaces. They're not spaces that are miserable. The people in those spaces are intelligent, critical. They're aware of their circumstances, and most of the time they're responding, or even performing their underclass-ness, because that can be empowering." "It's very hard, I think, for the white imagination to see those places as joyful, resilient, critically conscious places," he continues. "I think there is an assumption that under every poor young man of colour is a middle class white boy yearning to break free." You can currently find the first six episodes of True Stories on the SBS website and on iTunes. The Principal premieres on Wednesday October 7 at 8:30pm.
Looking for a pet-friendly apartment? A new Melbourne high-rise will do you one better. Opening at 5 Elgar Court in Doncaster next year, GardenHill Apartments will become the first residential apartment block in the country with its own private off-leash dog park. Construction on the 11-storey building is set to begin in September, but if you and your four-legged friend are interested, you might want to get in quick. 80 percent of the 136 one- and two- bedroom apartments have already been snapped up, at a cost of between $380,000 and $745,000. The dog park will be located on the ground floor, enclosed by secure fencing, and will include seating, a drink station and a clean-up station. Development director Adelene Teh told Domain, "By offering our Gardenhill residents a designated place they can take their dogs for exercise, socialisation or even mental stimulation, we're encouraging responsible pet ownership and, hopefully, paving the way for other developers to follow suit." Teh also confirmed that the dog park had been a drawcard with purchasers. A number of apartment blocks in the United States already boast on-site dog parks — and it's easy to see why the concept would be popular with tenants. Dogs and small apartments aren't exactly natural bedfellows, which can be a real bummer for animal lovers. Sure, you could get a goldfish, but they just don't offer the same level of affection. And don't get me started on cats. Via Domain.
Until the Internet becomes a universal, ever-present thing that radiates down from the sky and lets us check Instagram anywhere in the world, we're apparently destined to be stuck with offline maps and or paying through the nose for international roaming when travelling (read: getting lost) overseas. Until that blessed day comes, Google is trying to make life easier for travelling smartphone-wielding folk with their new travel planner app, Google Trips. Earlier this week Google unveiled the new app (which is available on iOS and Android), which is designed to help you plan your trip and help you explore your destination when you get there. It's both a planning tool and a place to store all your important travel docs in one place — and it lets you access that information when you're out and about and without access to 4G or Wi-Fi. So what can you use it for? First off, it will pull all your important travel info like flights, bookings and reservation numbers from your Gmail inbox and organises them into a chronological 'trip'. You can save these to access offline; it's meant to help you avoid that momentary panic where you get off the plane, go to look up the information for your Airbnb and then realise you can't access your emails. The more fun aspect of Trips though are the planning features. The Things to Do feature will give you a list of, well, things to do in the city you're in. These are pulled from what both you and other Google users have searched for in that city, and can be filtered by area of interest. The Day Plans feature gets a little more specific. The app will suggest a whole heap of things to do based on where you're staying and how much time you have — so if you only have an afternoon in a city, it will bring up the best things to do based on what's around you and what's open. You can then create a point-to-point itinerary that will show you where everything is and how to get there. You can save this offline too. Google have called this app "magic", and while we certainly wouldn't go that far (can tech companies stop calling themselves wizards?), it is a very useful tool if you're travelling without access to internet and is a handy way to use Google Maps offline. The planning tool looks like a smoother version of Stay.com, an app we've found useful for pinning places on a map when travelling. You can download the Google Trips app here.
Wiz Khalifa is heading to Sydney's Luna Park in September, as part of Optus RockCorps 2015. The American hip hop star has added the NSW performance to his Australian tour schedule, alongside previously announced shows in Brisbane, Melbourne and Perth. And the best part? Tickets won't cost you a cent. Instead, fans will be able to earn free entry into the Sydney show by donating their time to charity. Four hours of volunteering will get you into the concert, which will be held in Luna Park's Big Top on Wednesday September 30. Khalifa will headline the event, which will also feature Australian electronic duo Peking Duk. Additional acts will be announced in the coming weeks. Volunteers from outside Sydney can also get involved, and will be rewarded with a $70 Ticketmaster voucher. "I'm excited to be part of the Optus RockCorps Project," said Khalifa. "Giving back to the community is something I’m passionate about and support wherever I can. I can’t wait to play in Sydney and see all the Aussie fans." Now in its third year, Optus RockCorps aims to treat young Australians to unique performances in return for their contribution to their local communities. More than 9500 people have donated over 36,000 volunteer hours over the past two years, and have been rewarded with tickets to shows featuring acts such as American Authors, Guy Sebastian, Rudimental and Empire of the Sun. Anyone keen on volunteering for a RockCorps 2015 project will be able to register their interest starting August 10 via the Optus RockCorps website or by calling 1800 ROCK 800.
Love comic books, but don't conform to the stereotypical image of their fans? You're not alone, particularly as superheroes and graphic novel-based stories invade the big and small screens at an ever-increasing rate. The conventional idea of all things geeky has become a thing of the past — and Brisbane now has a brand new store to match. Secret Identity Comics is the city's latest seller of all things fun and fictional, with their focus on more than just what's lining their shelves. Owners Tash Green and Christine Chien want to create a welcoming and safe space for enthusiasts of all identities to share their love of comic books. They've even made monthly get-togethers called ID — or inclusivity and diversity — meetups part of their regular roster of events. Challenging perceptions about comic book stores and offering a different browsing and buying experience is also part of the ladies' aims. Housed in a heritage-listed building on Charlotte Street, their shop is bright, open and welcoming — aka the perfect place to search for your favourite reading material while chatting with an eclectic range of respectful and accepting people. Of course, when it comes to swapping your hard earned cash for pop culture wares, you'll find all the usual things: comics by DC, Marvel, Image, Dark Horse and more, plus art books, action figures, key chains, toys and other merchandise. Picking up the latest release, or celebrating special events such as Batman Day, has never sounded so inviting. Find Secret Identity Comics at 7/139-145 Charlotte St, Brisbane, or check out their website and Facebook page. Image via Joe Hartigan.
Melbourne duo Kllo (formerly Klo) are Australia's band of the moment and are touring the east coast to promote their upcoming album, Well Worn. The tour's one of the most anticipated we've seen in 2016 so far, so expect each show to be pretty damn packed. Since releasing their 2014 debut EP Cusp, cousins Simon Lam and Chloe Kaul have played sold-out shows and festivals throughout Australia and internationally, from Dark Mofo to Melbourne Music Week and Barcelona's Primavera Sound Festival. The pair have been clocking up streaming numbers in the millions, popping up on artists-to-watch lists, and they've also recently been announced as part of the huge Splendour in the Grass lineup. 'Bolide', the album's first single, is a dance track inspired by Caribou's Our Love album and is a song about unconditional love (nawwww). The EP takes inspiration from underground dance music and is said to enhance Kllo's high-gloss hooks. The tour will feature special guests and gives fans a sneak peek of the album, which will be released internationally on August 5 across Kllo's now three labels: Good Manners Records, Ghostly International and Different Recordings // PIAS . Image: Charlie Brophy.
God knows we all spend way too much time looking at our phones. Whether you're texting, tweeting or chasing imaginary Japanese monsters, it seems like people constantly have their eyes glued to tiny screens. At best, it can be a wee bit anti-social. At worst, it can actually be really dangerous. Case in point: this teenager who got hit by a car while playing Pokémon Go. Fortunately for the technology-addicted, artist and designer Ekene Ijeoma has created a new mobile app designed to get people to tear their faces away from their phones. Look Up New York City causes your phone to vibrate whenever you're approaching an intersection, while also drawing data from the New York Department of Transportation to give each intersection an "energy score." The higher the score, the more frequent the number of accidents that take place there, and the more users should maybe think about paying attention to where it is they're walking. The purpose of the app is twofold, with its creators hoping to reduce the number of accidents while also encouraging social interaction. "Whether it's strangers making eye contact and saying hello or friends hugging, Look Up hopes to tear down the digital walls we build up, opening us to seeing, acknowledging and valuing the people and city around us," reads a statement on the Look Up website. Look Up is currently available on Android devices, with an iOS app coming soon. No word on whether they're planning on branching out beyond NYC, although we can easily imagine it taking off across the world. In the mean time, if you're reading this on your phone, please keep an eye on where you're going. https://vimeo.com/171683941 Via PSFK.
How does chicken salt work? What's the deal with cereal puffing guns? What is the future of meat? If you're into your food and drink in a nerdier way than most, you'd better book yourself a ticket to New York this Halloween. The Museum of Food and Drink (MOFAD) is about to open in Brooklyn on October 28 — with exhibits you can eat. Food's had its fair share of pop-up museums and major exhibitions worldwide. There's even museums dedicated to individual foods like cheese, chocolate and Spam (yep, The Museum of Spam is opening in 2016). But after furiously fundraising for years, New York's first museum focused on food will find a permanent bricks and mortar space in Brooklyn this year. "Our mission is to change the way people think about food and inspire day-to-day curiosity about what we eat and why," says the MOFAD website. With a series of rotating exhibitions, visitors will be able to see, touch, smell and taste food, while learning about the culture, history, science, production, and commerce of food and drink. Think tastings, live demos, hands-on activities, talks, debates, heated roundtables. It's a whole multisensory, interactive museum experience to get to the bottom of noshing. How did the search for spices drive the age of exploration? What is the socioeconomic role of street food in cities? Where does soil come from, and why does it matter? How is breakfast cereal made? What is the impact of coffee on world trade? The idea is to enable people to make better, more informed food choices for themselves, their communities, and the environment, through kickass museum interactivity, like this cereal puff installation MOFAD did last year. "Why isn't there a museum devoted to food at the same level of something that's like the Natural History Museum or the Smithsonian?" MOFAD president and founder Dave Arnold asked CNN. "If I want to learn about you, I'm going to go to your house and we'll break bread. We'll have dinner. Then I feel like I'll know who you are. And it's that idea that we can experience cultures through what we eat and how we eat and the history of how we eat. That (idea) needs a museum because you can't eat on TV. You can't read about food and have tasted it." MOFAD's first exhibition, according to NPR, will focus on the flavour industry and the modern quest to manufacture smell and taste. You can probably assume it'll touch on ol' wafty Subway. The Museum of Food and Drink will open its permanent site on October 28 in Brooklyn, site yet to be revealed. For more info, check out the website. Via NPR. Images: MOFAD, Dollar Photo Club.
It’s been 22 years since the first Jurassic Park movie aired, which — incidentally — is also how long it’s been since the last good Jurassic Park movie aired. Now, though, we’ve reason to be cautiously optimistic. Earlier today the second full trailer for Jurassic World landed in our news feeds and, after several repeat viewings, we see plenty to be hopeful about. CHRIS PRATT IS THE VELOCIWHISPERER When the first trailer dropped back in November of last year, the internet went into Dennis Nedry-like digital chaos over what looked like Chris Pratt’s character taming some velociraptors. It seemed like a pretty hokey idea, but Trailer #2 seems to have settled that concern somewhat, with his character, Owen Grady, explaining: “It’s not about control, it’s a relationship based on respect,” while he stands eye-to-eye with three of them. That, or he’s doing some extreme tai-chi. Either way, ‘respect’ is the key word here, because it means the raptors haven’t been reduced to domesticated turkeys; they could still kill him at any moment. THE NEW DINO IS A BLOCKBUSTERSAURUS We already knew the ‘villain' in Jurassic World was to be a genetically engineered dino of such scale it would make the T-Rex look like a pug, and now it has a face. Sporting the name ‘Indominus Rex’, it’s got the head of a dragon and the jaw span of a Steven Tyler. Our relief here stems from the fact that it looks entirely plausible. It’s a hybrid dinosaur in the sense that it’s got spliced DNA with other animals, not spliced DNA with lasers or a BMW for some tier 1 brand placement. INDOMINUS HAS A VERY PARTICULAR SET OF SKILLS Let’s start with the smarts. Indominus is crafty. Really crafty. If Jurassic Park’s gamekeeper Robert Muldoon saw Indominus, he'd say, well, nothing, because raptors tore his stomach open and ate him alive back in 1993. But he’d want us to say “clever girl”, because this manmade man-eater tore out his own subcutaneous electronic tracker so that the humans wouldn’t know where it was (aside from being able to spot a giant lizard in the middle of a theme park). The reason we like this is because it takes the franchise to a new place rather than sticking with ‘dinosaur big, dinosaur scary’. Bourne Legacy did the same thing three years ago, realising the only way to stay fresh was to find someone better than Bourne, not just different. NATURAL BORN KILLERS First there’s the smarts, then there’s the disposition, because it seems Indominus isn’t like other dinosaurs. As Grady explains in the trailer, other dinosaurs are thinking: “I’ve got to eat. I’ve got to hunt,” but Indominus, “she's killing for sport”. First the franchise ups the stakes, then it changes the game. What makes both Jaws and The Ghost and the Darkness such compelling tales isn't the ‘killer beast’ plot; it’s the fact that they’re creatures baring the uncomfortable human quality of killing for reasons other than survival. Killing for sport isn’t just unnatural, it’s evil. We can only presume Ricky Gervais is tracking down Indominus’s Twitter handle as we speak. LEMME HEAR YOU SAY GRRRRNNNNNRRRROOOOARRRRR Indominus, aka ‘the D-Rex’ can talk to the animals. Not in a 'Dr Doolittle meets Aaron Sorkin witty repartee' kind of way, but enough to get Pteranodons to help it out in killing tourists. We like this because it adds an alliance feel to the plot, almost as though sides are forming in a prehistoric battle. With the introduction of each new dinosaur, you’ll find yourself wondering: “And whose side are you on?" Jurassic World hits Australian cinemas on June 11, so get ready to hold onto your butts.
In the most mathematical news since boffins discovered a pattern in prime numbers, the cast and crew behind of Adventure Time, the show that straddles generational gaps like it ain't no thing, are coming to town next March. It's going to be live, it's going to be loud and it's gonna be so flippin' awesome. Making quick trips to Sydney, Brisbane and Melbourne, Adventure Time Live will be an interactive, audio-visual festival that includes Q&As with cast and crew, cosplay competitions, live reads of classic episodes and much more to be announced. It's not a show, it's an experience, man. The event hits Australia between March 10 and March 12 next year, which will probably coincide with the largest gathering of adults pretending to be children pretending to be adults that this country has ever seen. Tickets go on sale on December 12, with more deets available here.
Your workday is about to get a whole lot more bearable, courtesy of the marketing department at Uber. Starting from midday today, the ridesharing service is teaming up with Purina's Pets at Work mission to deliver puppies to offices around Australia. We'll give you a minute to process that information. UberPUPPIES will be available in the Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Canberra, Sunshine Coast and Gold Coast CBDs. All you need to do is log into the Uber app at noon, hit the 'puppies' button (squee!), and a four-legged friend will be whisked to your place of work for 15 minutes of quality cuddle time. It'll run you up a bill of $40, so you might want to go in with a few of your co-workers. Either that, or try and convince your boss it'll be good for employee morale. Which, to be fair, it most definitely will be. Money raised will be used to support local animal shelters. Each puppy will also be accompanied by a shelter representative, who'll be all too happy to accept any additional cash donations. And in case you form an extra special connection, all UberPUPPIES are available for permanent adoption. UberPUPPIES is the latest in a string of awesome Uber promotions, with the company having previously delivered everything from kittens to ice cream to backyard cricket umpires. Fair warning though: these things tend to generate a lot of demand, so make sure you're hovering over the Uber app come 11.59am. The puppies will be cruising around town until 4pm.
What’s that in the sky? Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, you dunces, this is actually a 26-metre-high aerial playground that’s opening in Adelaide next month. The aptly named Mega Adventure Park (for, you know, mega adventures) is currently being finished on the West Beach foreshore, and while it looks like an alien spacecraft come earthward to take all our women for breeding, it’s actually an extreme jungle gym for adults. So what's on the maxtreme menu for kidults? Scramble nets, rope bridges, beams, swings, log steps, mega bungee trampoline, aerial surfboards and Adelaide wine barrel steps. Boom. There’ll be 54 activity stations for those who want to push themselves to the extremes, viewing platforms for the resters, and a Mega Adventure Kiosk for those who want to kick back with a vino and watch the madness unfold. It’s basically American Ninja Warrior but for people who lack upper arm strength and need to be securely fastened at all times. And if you're way too chill to be jumpin' off of crazy stuff, you can instead head straight to the top and take in some pretty breathtaking views of Adelaide. Find Mega Adventure Park at 4 Hamra Avenue, Adelaide Shores, West Beach. For more info, give 1300 634 269 a buzz. Images: Mega Adventure Park/Facebook.
Fancy yourself a citizen of the world? An ambitious new startup could help you make it so. Roam is a co-living service that gives you access to communal living spaces in countries around the globe. With spaces currently available in Bali and Miami, and with further locations in Madrid, Buenos Aires and London set to open soon, Roam isn't designed for holidaymakers, but rather "location-independent people" looking for a way to combine work and travel, and to find a community in a city that's not their own. You can book for a week (US $500) or a month (US $1800), although residents are encouraged to stay longer in order to promote "better friendships and a stronger community". Once you've signed up, you're free to come and go as you please, and can book into different locations through their online system. "With new opportunities for location-independent work, we can now mix careers and travel in ways that haven't been seen before," reads a statement on the Roam website. "Over time, we want to have our spaces mix and integrate newcomers with the surrounding community and its longstanding local institutions and culture." The properties are large, with 38 rooms available in Miami and 24 in Bali, respectively. Each room is fully furnished, with its own private bathroom along with a queen or king size bed, while residents share communal spaces like living areas and kitchens. [caption id="attachment_571002" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Roam Ubud, Bali[/caption] The whole premise is built around giving people the freedom to live a nomadic lifestyle but still maintain their careers at the same time. Each property has high-speed internet and a co-working space for optimal productivity. Certainly sounds better than working from a hostel bunk bed, battling shitty Wi-Fi just to send an email. For more information about Roam, visit roam.co. Via Co.Exist.
Tired of stale old superhero stories with their predictable Hollywood plotlines? Wouldn't you rather watch a movie about a half-man, half-fish instead? If your answer to either one of those questions is yes, then it's time to dive into the program at KOFFIA, aka the Korean Film Festival in Australia. Merman comedies aside, the lineup at this year's festival is packed full of highlights. Genre fans can scream through exorcism flick The Priests, and be pushed to the edge of their seats by supernatural thriller The Wailing. We're also extremely keen for zombie apocalypse tale Train to Busan, although unfortunately for cinephiles in Brisbane and Melbourne the film is only screening in Sydney. Viewers after something a little less on the gruesome side won't be disappointed either. This year's program boasts a number of Korean rom-coms, headlined by Cho Sung-kyu's disarming relationship farce Two Rooms, Two Nights. Check out our list of the five must-see films of KOFFIA 2016 below. COLLECTIVE INVENTION Is he a man? Is he a fish? Whatever he is, he causes quite a stir in this very strange offering from first-time filmmaker Kwon Oh-kwang. Combining playful social satire with a healthy touch of the absurd, the film tracks a wannabe journalist who discovers a man online who, after a series of misguided medical experiments, has been transformed into a gigantic mutant fish. With tongue planted firmly in cheek, Collective Invention skewers big pharma, tabloid media and the public's unhealthy obsession with the grotesque. Calling it now: this will be better than DC's upcoming Aquaman movie. A CRYBABY BOXING CLUB Students at a Korean high school in Tokyo make plans for life after graduation, even as members of a right wing extremist group yell xenophobic slogans just outside. A documentary that doubles as a non-fiction coming-of-age tale, A Crybaby Boxing Club follows a group of boys on the school's boxing team as they prepare not just for an upcoming tournament but for the realities of adult life. Screening in Australia for the very first time, the film shapes up as an inspiring tale about hope in the face of adversity. ALICE IN EARNESTLAND A black comedy/revenge tale soaked in grisly violence, Alice in Earnestland is the startling feature debut of director Ahn Gook-jin. K-pop sensation Lee Jung-hyun stars as the increasingly unstable Soo-nam, who finds herself struggling with spiralling debt after a suicide attempt lands her husband in a very expensive coma. Things take a turn for the nasty after a local politician gets involved, although the truly vicious places the movie ends up going really need to be seen to be believed. Alice split critics on the international circuit, and we fully expect a similar reaction from audiences in Australia. TWO ROOMS, TWO NIGHTS A philandering filmmaker tries to keep his deceptions in check after a chance encounter between his current girlfriend and the ex he wants desperately to win back. Directed by Cho Sung-kyu, Two Rooms, Two Nights has all the makings of a classic romantic farce, but the real selling point is the comparison that several critics have made to the gentle, heartwarming masterworks of Cho's compatriot Hong Sang-soo. Incidentally, Hong's latest film Right Now, Wrong Then screens in Sydney (but not Melbourne or Brisbane) as part of the KOFFIA program, and is definitely worth checking out too. THE WAILING If anything, we might have saved the best for last. The Wailing is the new film from acclaimed director Na Hong-jin, whose previous picture The Yellow Sea is one of the most visceral, compelling crime thrillers of the past ten years. His follow-up focuses on a string of deaths in a small town and a police officer who begins to fear that the cause may be somehow supernatural. The reviews for the film have been absolutely stellar (think 100 percent on Rotten Tomatoes), with critics praising its blend of suspense and stomach-churning violence. Not for the faint of heart. Otherwise, don't miss it. KOFFIA takes place in Sydney from August 10-18, in Brisbane from August 23-29, and in Melbourne from September 1-8 . For more information visit koffia.com.au.
A woman and her young daughter, alone in their apartment, begin to worry that something is amiss. Personal items start disappearing, there's a feeling of tension in the air, and a shadowy figure seems to lurk just out of sight. On its face, Under the Shadow sounds like a fairly standard haunted house movie, but Iranian-born, London-based filmmaker Babak Anvari has delivered anything but. Setting his film in Tehran during the late 1980s, a time when the city was being bombed by neighbouring Iraq, Anvari uses horror movie trappings to explore the various social issues that have affected his native country for so long — from the rights of women under a religiously conservative regime, to the traumas of war creeping into everyday civilian life. After a rapturous premiere at Sundance back in January, Under the Shadow screened at the Sydney and Melbourne International Film Festivals, ahead of a planned theatrical release on October 7 (you can read our review of the film here). It was in Melbourne that Concrete Playground managed to catch up with the talented young writer-director, for a chat on everything from growing up during wartime to the challenges of funding a Farsi-language horror film in the West. A CLASSIC HORROR STORY IN AN UNFAMILIAR SETTING When talking about Under the Shadow, the most obvious comparison for critics is A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night – if only because it's the only other Farsi-language horror movie people have heard of. But where that film draws on vampire tales, Westerns and ultra-cool American indie flicks, Anvari's movie feels closer to classic psychological thrillers. Think The Haunting, Rosemary's Baby or even the recent Australian spooker The Babadook. "I love smart horror films," stresses Anvari. "I'm not one of those genre fanatics who watches every B-movie and grindhouse film. But I do love smart horror. With Under the Shadow, it just made sense to me, because I'm setting it in such a dark period... I just found it was a great setting for horror." In addition to his various filmic inspirations, he also drew on his own experiences growing up in Tehran. "Obviously it's not autobiographical, but a lot of it comes from a very personal place, tapping in to my memories from childhood," says Anvari. "I was born right in the middle of the Iran-Iraq war. [I took] stories I heard from relatives and family friends, combined them and added the genre beats, and [the film] became what you have now." CAN'T WE JUST MAKE IT IN ENGLISH? Of course it's one thing to write a horror movie in Farsi, and something very different to actually get it funded. "I met producers who were like, 'Great script, but is there any way we can shoot it in English?'" recalls Anvari. "I just thought it would look so fake and unbelievable if it was set in period Iran and people were walking around speaking English with a weird accent. Even for an international audience I think it would have been strange." While the language hurdle was eventually overcome thanks to the support of production company Wigwam Films, shooting the film in Tehran was never really an option. "I don't think there's anything offensive in the film, but [there are] limitations one has when making film in Iran," says Anvari, who ended up shooting in nearby Jordan instead. "Even very minor things like, in Iran, if you're shooting a female character, they have to cover their hair. But a majority of this film is a woman in her own personal space, and even the most religious person wouldn't go to bed wearing a head scarf." "There are fantastic filmmakers in Iran who are still working there, and they always find a way to go around these limitations and censorships," he adds. "But having worked in England, and having been so spoiled, I just wanted to tell my story the way I wanted." OPENING A WINDOW While the comparison to A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night can be a little misleading, one thing that both films definitely have in common is that they've sparked renewed interest in films about the Middle East that depict the region in ways that Western audiences may not be used to. "That was one of the reasons I was so interested in this story," says Anvari. "Not many people know about the Iran-Iraq war. So I just thought it would be great to use genre tropes as a hook to keep people interested, and open a window to that period and that region." Whatever the draw, Anvari just wants people to go and see the film — and preferably in a cinema. Recounting a story from Sundance where audience members were so frightened that they had to leave the cinema, the filmmaker stresses the importance of the atmosphere you get with a crowd. "It's great to watch such films in a cinema," he says. "The fear is contagious." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G_ATX4C8Pmw Under the Shadow is currently screening at Cinema Nova in Melbourne.
David Capra really loves his dachshund. Earlier this year, the Sydney-based artist was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia to create an art project for the Jackson Bella Room – an interactive art space for students with special learning requirements. The result was Teena's Bathtime, a video installation piece in which members of the public were invited to give Capra's pet pooch Teena a wash. Now Capra, Teena and the team at Gallery 9 in Darlinghurst are launching a spinoff that may well turn up a few people's noses. Developed by Capra along with Jonathon Midgley at Damask Perfumery, Eau de Wet Dogge is a fragrance which combines the aromas of "moist fur, soap suds and soil" for a "uniquely musky charm," while "sour top notes of slobber and dog breath add alluring nuance." Riiiiiiight. The perfume can be sampled at Gallery 9 starting November 11. If for some inexplicable reason you like what you smell, you can pick up a 100mL bottle for $89.99, or an embossed cardboard car refresher for $15. Searching for that perfect Christmas gift? Because you should probably keep on looking. This year isn't the first time that Capra has incorporated Teena into his artwork. In 2013 he hosted a public dance inspired by the Wizard of Oz in which his sausage dog featured heavily. Man's best friend indeed. Image by Anna Kucera.
Mere days after Keep Sydney Open launched their commemorative plaques for live music venues campaign, Sydney's loudest anti-lockout lobby group have an even bigger surprise for Sydney, with fresh news that Flume has called in from the old US of A to release a brand new jam especially for KSO's new video today. Have a peep, below. Plaques organiser and KSO activist Jonno Seidler says: "This is such incredible news to receive at the 11th hour. Harley is currently on tour in North America, playing sold out theatres across the country. But he is proud of where he's from and really backs the Sydney scene, and this just shows how dedicated he really is to the future of local music." The track, called 'Heater' will presumably form part of Flume's next release, which is anyone's guess but could be an EP, coming off the international success of Skin, which dropped earlier this year. "The plaque for Harley was the easiest one to make, because I was there!" says Seidler. "It was a double header with him and Chet Faker [now Nick Murphy] at Goodgod Small Club, my favourite venue for years. Ask anyone who was in the audience, you could tell something was cooking even way back then. I've seen Flume play to tiny rooms in New York city and huge stages at Byron, and he's been world class the whole way." The video, prepared by Keep Sydney Open, features interviews with Gang of Youths Dave Leaupepe in Kings Cross and Jim Finn and Dan McNamee of Art Vs Science, who showed up at Oxford Street to play a trio of songs dedicated to NSW premier Mike Baird, including 'I Love The Nightlife', 'All Night Long' and 'Blame It On The Boogie.' "I met Jim and Dan seven years ago, and it was pretty much a mutual love fest from then on in," says Seidler. "I think they're largely seen as a festival band, but they have amazing musical chops. I've been lucky enough to jam with them a few times and they are the real deal. You have no idea how fast they learned all of those songs." The response to the plaques has been immediate, picked up by media across the country. Seidler says he that while he, Tyson Koh and the rest of Keep Sydney Open are beyond thrilled, they're not surprised at how quickly it took off. "The reason we went with this method is that everyone relates to music. We have so much incredible talent that started right here in small to medium venues that are now literally world-class talent, from Anna Lunoe and Alison Wonderland to The Preatures. When you see those names and you put the two things together, the lockouts starts to become a much bigger problem than just where you can have a drink late at night." More on Keep Sydney Open's plaque campaign over here.
There's no shortage of bright lights in Tokyo, but one particular patch of grass is currently shining more vividly than most. Indeed, located next to an inner-city mall until November 5, a pop-up plastic greenhouse is positively glowing — all in the name of combining agriculture, technology and design in a fun and immersive fashion, and with a swelling soundtrack to match. The interactive installation might be called Digital Vegetables, but no one in its vicinity will feel like they're being forced to consume something they don't want. Rather, trying to avoid The Garden Square outside Tokyo Midtown in Roppongi is futile — the lure of technicolour illumination paired with symphonic music is something you can't ignore. A project by creative firm PARTY, Digital Vegetables combines its greenery-filled structure with plenty of incandescent bulbs, and asks visitors to not only watch, but touch, play, wander, listen and drop their jaws in awe. As attendees walk through the free-to-enter space, they're encouraged to gently roam their hands over the cherry tomatoes, eggplants, pumpkins, sweet potatoes, radishes, carrots and cabbages blossoming in the soil inside. With patrons getting hands-on with the growing plants with each touch — and taking in not only their texture, but their scent — the LEDs and sounds respond. [caption id="attachment_644147" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sarah Ward[/caption] While the bright lights part of the piece may seem straightforward, the display includes animated projections of fresh produce twinkling up and down the greenhouse's ceiling. On the music side of things, sound designer Ray Kunimoto actually recorded real plants (that is, the sounds that emanate from rubbing their seeds, touching their leaves and eating their fruit). He then mixed them with orchestra instruments such as the violin, trumpet, oboe, flute, piano, harp and clarinet, and created a melody. Basically, if you've ever wanted to control your own multi-sensory, multi-coloured light show — and you happen to be in Japan at present — this is your chance. If you've ever wanted to use a veggie garden as a musical instrument, here's your opportunity as well. Unsurprisingly, the results are overwhelmingly gorgeous. Seeing folks audibly exclaiming in wonder (when they're not staring up and taking a constant stream of snaps, that is) is all part and parcel of the experience. https://vimeo.com/238703497 If you're in Tokyo, Digital Vegetables is now open outside Tokyo Midtown until November 5. For more info visit digivege.jp. Images: Sarah Ward and Kenta Hasegawa.
FOMO — Australia's clash-free, one-day summer festival — is back for a third year. After a Brisbane debut in 2016, this time, the event is hitting Melbourne for the first time too, with a new evening edition called FOMO by Night, as well as making a return to Sydney and Adelaide. Leading the program is California's RL Grime, who's been headlining festivals all over the world with his experimental, high energy mash-ups of sound, colour and texture. Hot on his heels is Montreal's Kaytranada, who was here last year and bass lines have had him topping hip hop and dance charts (that is, when he's not collaborating with Alicia Keys or Chance the Rapper). Meanwhile, New Jersey-based neo-soul singer SZA is making her Australian debut on the back of debut album CTRL, and Texan rapper-singer Post Malone is coming back, after winning a lot of love during his Australian tour earlier this year. Also on the schedule is Grammy nominee ZHU with a brand new show and a live band, performing tunes from his dark and mesmerising EP Stardustexhalemarrakechdreams, along with London-based Grammy winner Tourist, and LA's Drezo, whose underground house has won admiration from Diplo, Destructo and Porter Robinson, among others. As always, FOMO is lining up homegrown talent up next to international stars. Representing Australia are The Kite String Triangle, Nina Las Vegas and Sweat It Out signee Dena Amy. Plus, there's an Australia-wide competition on the boil, which will see four emerging local artists join the bill. FOMO will kick off on Brisbane's Riverstage on Saturday, January 6, before moving to Parramatta Park in Sydney, on Saturday, January 13. Melbourne will get a slightly smaller lineup at their FOMO by Night, which will take place at Festival Hall on Thursday, January 11. Pre-sales start at 10am on Tuesday, September 5 and general sales on Wednesday, September 6. $1 from every sale is going to music charity Heaps Decent and, if you can't afford your ticket in one fell swoop, you can opt for a payment plan, which lets you pay it off via monthly instalments. Here's the full lineup. FOMO 2018 LINEUP RL Grime Kaytranada ZHU Post Malone SZA Tourist The Kite String Tangle Drezo Stööki Sound Nina Las Vegas Dena Amy FOMO BY NIGHT 2018 LINEUP Kaytranada Post Malone SZA The Kite String Tangle Dena Amy Mimi FOMO 2018 DATES Saturday, January 6 — Riverstage, Brisbane Sunday, January 7 — Elder Park, Adelaide Thursday, January 11 — Festival Hall, Melbourne Saturday, January 13 — Parramatta Park, Sydney FOMO will take place in January 2018. Tickets go on sale this week. For more info, visit fomofestival.com.au. Image: Mitch Lowe.
Like mole people and the residents of Coober Pedy before them, New Yorkers are heading underground. Although New York City is traditionally famous for raised Chelsea-dwelling walkway The High Line, a space-hungry and innovative team headed by James Ramsay of Raad Studio have put together a Kickstarter campaign to fund a brand new underground park. Far more ambitious than anything imagined by Parks and Rec legend Leslie Knope (albeit with less miniature horses), the goal is set at $200,000. The money, earmarked to develop and test the solar, landscape and social components of such an ambitious scheme, is just halfway there. With the team's July 8 campaign deadline looming, there's never been a better time to throw some dosh at genuinely inspired urban development. While the team are still working towards New York City council approval, the project has been in development for five years, aiming to convert the unused Williamsburg Bridge Trolley Terminal into a fully functional, naturally-lit park. Natural light will be channeled into the subterranean space using some sort of bizarre, above-ground flower system (we clearly don’t understand the science but the Kickstarter video will explain it better). The park itself looks like a combination of the Temple of the Chachapoyan Warriors in Raiders of the Lost Ark and the citadel from Mass Effect; in essence it looks amazing and we want to stroll through it immediately. In the modern context of urban density and population crises erupting across the globe, alongside the generally fast-paced craziness of street-level New York, it’s no surprise that the city is leading the way in environmentally and socially friendly solutions to complex space problems. You go, NYC. Watch Lena Dunham in the Lowline promo video here, because of course Lena Dunham's in it: You can contribute to The Lowline Kickstarter here. Via dezeen. Images: The Lowline.
What would you do if you were a little less freaked out by consequences? Would you talk to more new people, fear a bit less, dance a little more like FKA Twigs, quit your desk job and start that no-guarantees creative career you've always had in the back of your mind? Some sparkling young Australians are already flinging their inhibitions into a ziplock bag and seizing this little ol' life with both hands. Concrete Playground has teamed up with the Jameson crew to give you a sneak peek into the lives of bold characters who took a big chance on themselves. They've gone out on a limb and rewritten their path, encapsulating 'Sine Metu', the Jameson family motto which translates to 'without fear' — getting outside your comfort zone and trying something new. After all, we only get one shot at this. Take notes. Who doesn't want to watch movies all day, and get paid for the privilege? That's not all Kate Jinx does as the director of programming at Sydney's Golden Age Cinema and Bar; however finding challenging features you wouldn't see elsewhere and championing under-appreciated classics really is how she has made a living since the boutique theatrette opened in September 2013. You can read the interview over here. Want to experience a little bit of 'Sine Metu' yourself? Kate's being a total legend and helping us give away a late night private screening party for you and up to 50 of your friends, so you can see for yourself what happens when bold humans take big creative chances with big payoffs. Pick a film from the current program, on a Friday of your choosing, invite your friends, complimentary popcorn and a Jameson for all! Enter here to win. And enjoy Jameson responsibly, folks.
Australian farmers put out some seriously delicious cheese, but, if you live in the city, the best stuff isn't necessarily easy to find. Most are made on country farms, several hours' drive away, and don't often make it to major supermarkets. The good news is that a cheese lover by the name of Anna Perejma wants to change all that. She's the founder of The Cheese Riot, a brand new service that will soon bring boutique Aussie cheeses to your doorstep. "I love Australian cheeses," says Perejma. "Our products are just as good as anything you'll find internationally, but don't get enough recognition." Before you start wondering about Perejma's credentials, her resume includes events officer at the Australian Specialist Cheesemakers' Association — yes, the ASCA really exists — where she recently organised the & Cheese event series that included a Young Henrys beer and cheese pairing and a Four Pillars gin cocktails and cheese pairing at Moya's Juniper Lounge. We're pretty confident you can trust her palate. If that isn't enough, right now Perejma is travelling the length and breadth of the country, sampling all the cheese she can get her hands on. Once she has made her picks, she'll be popping them into boxes and sending them to subscribers all over Australia. Each delivery will also include a bunch of Aussie-made accompaniments, such as chutney, pastes, honey and matching teas. "It's like the Dollar Shave Club, but for cheese," says Perejma. "Every month, you'll get a selection of cheeses delivered to your house, most made by small producers who live in the middle of nowhere. The idea is to unlock products people want but can't get." On top of that, Perejma wants to "take the wank out of cheese" and encourage a sense of community around sharing it. "You can enjoy cheese any way you like, be that on your own with Netflix and a glass of wine or with a bunch of friends at a picnic in the park." The Cheese Riot hasn't launched quite yet, but, to keep an eye on developments and go into a draw to win a free cheese box, head over here.
Fans of stunning audio design and generally beautiful things, listen up. There's a father/son duo in Seattle who want to take your money and turn it into a stunning, stunning wood turntable. You've never played 'Norwegian Wood' like this. Silvan Audio Workshop is one of Kickstarter's latest gems, unearthed by Stoney Roads and seemingly worth every last cent in your piggy bank. Created from individual slices of wood, and audio components from English turntable specialists Rega — including a glass platter for your record, one beautiful tonearm and a low vibration, low noise belt drive — these Silvan turntables are all constructed by hand by the Walters. The Silvan comes in three different models: the Archer, the Champion and the Sampo (increasing in quality of parts as you spend more, obviously) and they'll even align the cartridge and set the counterweight so you can plug in and play. The turntables range from $750 up to $2250, so they're pretty exxy. But hey, handcrafted walnut decks were never going to come cheap. "Our vision is to make one-of-a-kind objects of art that will be the centrepiece of any home entertainment system," says the Kickstarter schpiel. "We believe that if your music is unique, if it has soul and life and beauty, the things you use to play it should have all the same character. Mass-produced just isn’t good enough." Silvan are looking for $14,000 to fund their workshop, so they can crank out more turntables in an more efficient space with less sawdust in every crevice — and get a little publicity while they're at it. Plus, they don't live in the same town, so schleppin' back and forth to your dad's house gets pricey. At the time of writing, they've raised $6,152 so far, from just 44 backers. Perks range from stickers and posters for teeny donations, and whole turntables in the $2250 realms. UPDATE 25/2: It's been brought to our attention that a company called Audiowood has been doing an undeniably similar design since 2009. Maker Joel Scilley told us, "The copy's concept is the same down to the same parts used, glass platter, spike feet, etc. My original design is the 'Audiowood Barky Turntable'. Silvan Audio knew the design already existed and are presenting it as their design... I've asked them to stop stealing my intellectual property, and to remove their Kickstarter, and so far they have refused. " Silvan Audio issued this statement yesterday on Facebook: "It's been a very big day, with coverage from a bunch of places (Hello, Boing Boing, Alternative Press, and Engadget! Thanks for the coverage!) and a good conversation with a great guy named Joel Scilley. Joel has a company called Audiowood, and he makes incredible things. One of them is a turntable very much like what we're making, so he's a bit put out that we'd be making what we're making. "It might cost us some support (this whole thing could rub some of you the wrong way, and we completely respect that), but regardless of the impact, we owe you the respect of being completely open and transparent. We added an FAQ to the page today with this info, but we want to be even more proactively honest with you: we're doing something very similar to what Audiowood has been doing for a while. We were pointed to Joel's work during the build of our first turntable, and we still think it's absolutely awesome. Our initial idea was "original" in that we weren't copying anything we knew of when we set out, but of course it's no more of an Original Idea to us than it was to Audiowood or anyone else who's brainstormed or made something similar at some point. (Google the back cover of Jethro Tull's "Songs from the Wood" at some point.) "Ultimately, what we're jumping into is the market of using factory parts in custom plinths. (Rega parts, specifically, because they're radically easy to work with, the quality is great, and the construction is very straightforward.) Audiowood is in that market, and others — hobbyists as well as resellers — are as well, making cool things from all kinds of materials. Our hope is that the world is big enough that all of us can continue to do a thing that we've really enjoyed so far without getting in each other's way. "We don't have a corner on or a legal claim to Rega's parts, and we certainly don't have a claim to trees either, so our intent is honest and completely friendly competition in an area we arrived at sincerely and really believe we're completely free to work in. "Some of you might be disappointed, or you'd rather support the guy who actually got into the shop and mass produced this idea first, and that's completely fine. The last thing we want is to damage Joel Scilley's business — he seems like a really good guy doing good, honest work. For those who want to enable us to go after an idea we also came by honestly, we appreciate the support." Check out the Silvan Audio Workshop Kickstarter page here. Check out Audiowood over here. Via Stoney Roads.
Do you like Italian food? Then let us introduce you to the happiest place on earth. Due to open in Bologna, Italy in the middle of next year, Eataly World will be the world's first Italian food theme park, featuring nearly 20 acres of restaurants, kitchens, grocery stores, classrooms, farms, laboratories and more. The park is the latest venture from Oscar Farinetti, the founder of Italian food and grocery chain Eataly. It was first announced a few years back, with an opening set for last November. Fingers crossed they stick to their revised schedule, because we're already looking into flights to Europe. Speaking to Eater, Eataly vice-president and Eataly World CEO Tiziana Primori said the park would mix entertainment with education. "We call it from the farm to the fork because you can see all the steps of the chain, from the animals to the raw materials and workshops and restaurants." The hope is that the park will attract as many as 10 million visitors each year, providing a boost to Bologna tourism in the process. The city already boasts a number of gastronomic attractions, including a medieval marketplace and the world's only gelato university. Via Eater. Header image via Dollar Photo Club
When Lewis Carroll first sent Alice down the rabbit hole back in 1865, he couldn't have guessed just where she'd end up. While the English mathematician-turned-writer obviously knew she'd be wandering around Wonderland, that was just the beginning of her white rabbit-chasing journey. Countless film, TV, comic book, game, stage, music, music videos and ballet adaptations have taken the famous character far and wide — and, come 2018, she'll be stopping by Melbourne. From April 5 to October 7, the Australian Centre for the Moving Image will pay tribute to all things Alice in Wonderland, the centre's major exhibition for the year as part of the Victorian Government's Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series. A world-premiere event crafted and curated by ACMI, the entirely original showcase will take fans through the screen history of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Through the Looking Glass, and What Alice Found There — aka the two Carroll-penned books that introduced not only the titular heroine, but the Mad Hatter, the Cheshire Cat, the hookah-smoking Caterpillar, and food and drink with "eat me" and "drink me" labels. Proving a date you won't want to be late for, fans can follow Alice on her voyage through more than 40 cinema and 30 television versions, as well as through popular culture in general. Spanning her first big screen appearance in 1903 to 2016's Alice Through the Looking Glass, the exhibition will step through her different guises, and the technologies that have brought her story to life, all in an interactive, experiential way. That includes animation, puppetry, live-action cinema, video games, CGI, 3D and more, as well as playful environments, digital activities and behind-the-scenes glimpses. "With Wonderland, ACMI has created an interactive exhibition where audiences will explore the magic of film craft and its integral role embedding this much loved story in our imaginations for generations," explains ACMI CEO and director Katrina Sedgwick. Given ACMI's two on-site cinemas, it's safe to assume that an enchanting lineup of Alice in Wonderland films will also feature. Wonderland will run 5 April to 7 October 2018 at Melbourne's Australian Centre for the Moving image. For more information, or to buy tickets from November 30, visit acmi.net.au/wonderland.
UPDATE 3/8, 12pm: Just when we thought things were rock solid, Huffington Post has reported the site previously hosting Citizenfour imported the film illegally. Dang. You can catch the movie in limited release at Sydney's Chauvel, Brisbane's Dendy, Melbourne's Cinema Nova, Auckland's Academy and Rialto Cinemas, and Wellington's Light House. EARLIER: Here's a little Tuesday pressie to sweeten the start of your week. Oscar-winning documentary Citizenfour, which delves into Edward Snowden's bold decision to leak NSA secrets in 2013, is now available to stream online for free. Directed by Laura Poitras and shot in cinéma vérité style, the film is now available to watch for free via Thought Maybe. Before taking out the Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature at this year's Oscars, this film premiered in the US in October 2014 at the New York Film Festival to high fives and critical acclaim all round. Citizenfour journeys through a series of Hong Kong-based meetings between former Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald and NSA whistleblower Snowden, conversations which would reveal history-changing information about widespread government surveillance and make us all a little freaked out about online privacy. There's only a few screenings left of Citizenfour — Sydney's Chauvel, Brisbane's Dendy, Melbourne's Cinema Nova, Auckland's Academy and Rialto Cinemas, and Wellington's Light House are apparently still screening it – but this is a grand option if you find yourself with a few home hours up your sleeve. Check out the trailer below. Via Huffington Post.
Hey Dad! Steve! Over here! Two of your favourites are playing Bluesfest this year! Let's go! Bluesfest Byron Bay's 2017 lineup came from somewhere back in our long ago, with two big mum and dad-friendly superstars being the latest additions to the lineup: The Doobie Brothers and Santana. One of Australia's best festivals, the five-day Easter long weekend event has played to its core audience with their latest lineup additions. First up, the legend himself, groundbreaking, Grammy-nabbing, Afro-Latin-blues-rock fusion king, nay, sultan Santana is coming to melt faces and throw down elongated solos like the melodic monarch he is. Expect 'Black Magic Woman'. Then, takin' it to the streets of Tyagarah Tea Tree Farm, California's harmonising head honchos The Doobie Brothers will make their triumphant return to Bluesfest. The Doobies have some serious fans at Bluesfest — do not try and push in front of them. They join legend Patti Smith and superstar Mary J. Blige on the heaving heaving lineup. BLUESFEST 2017 LINEUP Santana The Doobie Brothers Zac Brown Band Patti Smith and her band perform Horses Mary J. Blige The Lumineers Buddy Guy (exclusive) Bonnie Raitt Mavis Staples (exclusive) Billy Bragg Jethro Tull Trombone Shorty and Orleans Avenue Rickie Lee Jones Gregory Porter Snarky Puppy St. Paul and the Broken Bones Corinne Bailey Rae Michael Kiwanuka Nahko and Medicene for the People Gallant Beth Hart (exclusive) Laura Mvula Andrew Bird Booker T. presents The Stax Records Review Roy Ayers Joan Osborne Turin Brakes The Strumbellas Jake Shimabukuro Dumpstaphunk The Suffers Nikki Hill Irish Mythen Image: Andy Fraser.
Every so often I find myself staring at my rug and thinking of Lebowski. Rugs really do tie a room together, and their absence can very easily render something like a living room nothing more than a collection of 'things' with no real connective tissue. In The Big Lebowski, of course, Jeff Bridges was that rug: a slovenly yet cohesive force of White Russian-fuelled lethargy who kept an otherwise sprawling and surreal piece of cinema from descending into incoherent nonsense. Central characters are always important, yes, but in specifically psychedelic cinema where style is often in equal or greater measures than substance, a well-defined, well-performed protagonist can be the single determinative factor between success and failure. Inherent Vice — the seventh film by Paul Thomas Anderson — is one such example. Based on the Thomas Pynchon novel, it is confusing and bewildering cinema at its absolute best, guided through the haze courtesy of Anderson's deft hand and another exceptional performance by Joaquin Phoenix. Phoenix plays Larry 'Doc' Sportello, a perennially stoned private investigator in 1970 California who's hired by his ex-girlfriend Shasta (Katherine Waterston) to track down her missing lover (Eric Roberts). In principle it seems largely straightforward, but the set-up alone contains so many twists, double crosses and tawdry affairs that within five minutes of the opening titles there's a sense of being overwhelmed in a manner that doesn't improve over the remaining 147 minutes. Though Doc shares your confusion, he never shows it. Instead, he cruises unflappably through every conversation and encounter, pausing only occasionally to jot down irrelevant one word notes in his flipbook. Imagine the Dude, only without the hobby or mantra to guide him: an underestimated sleuth combining the substance abuse of The Rum Diary's Paul Kemp with the quirky intuition of Columbo. Surrounding him, the list of cameos is both enormous and divergent, contributing in no small way to the film's labyrinthine plot. There's the strait-laced assistant DA with a secret, Penny Kimble (Reese Witherspoon); the tell-all nurse's secretary, Penny Leeway (Maya Rudolph); the drug-addicted dentist Dr Rudy Blatnoyd (an entirely lecherous Martin Short); Doc's mysterious lawyer, Sauncho Smilax (Benicio Del Toro); and Owen Wilson's Coy Harligen — a musician/heroin addict/missing person/cult spokesperson/political renegade. Even he doesn't quite know who he is. Finally, there's Josh Brolin as Lt. Detective Christian F. 'Bigfoot' Bjornsen — a hard-nosed, hippie-hating cop sporting a Dragnet crew cut and a penchant for sucking down chocolate-covered bananas on a stick. He and Phoenix put in the film's best performances, and it's their shared scenes that boast the most engaging screen time. "A hidden defect (or the very nature of a good or property) which of itself is the cause of (or contributes to) its deterioration, damage or wastage". That's the legal definition of 'Inherent Vice', and for Pynchon it represented the uncomfortable truth about America's decline. In the wake of the Charles Manson killings, the failings of the American Dream were to be found within the dream itself: corrupt, flawed and prey to the darker nature of man. That's what's at the core of this film (however difficult it might be locating it), and while it won't be to everyone's taste, Inherent Vice is an impressive piece of filmmaking that warrants your time and attention.
With beloved cult series Broad City now entering its fourth season, co-creator Abbi Jacobson is taking on a new podcast project that could push My Dad Wrote a Porno off our daily hitlist. A Piece of Work delves into the enigma that is modern art and answers questions you may have been too afraid to ask — like what significance a bicycle wheel atop a stool could possibly have, or why Andy Warhol was so obsessed with soup cans. A collaboration with WNYC Studios and MoMA, the ten-episode series will premiere on July 10 and air twice weekly on Mondays and Wednesdays. Each episode focuses on a different theme, from everyday objects and pop art to abstraction, performance and text-based art. Jacobson will specifically discuss individual works by big name (and at times, especially confusing) artists including the above mentioned Warhol, along with Jackson Pollock, Yves Klein and Marcel Duchamp, whose noted Bicycle Wheel will be topic of discussion in the first episode. Jacobson also welcomes a legendary roster of guests each episode, including musician Questlove, comedian Hannibal Buress, actress Tavi Gevinson and television personality RuPaul — who features in the not-to-be-missed episode six, in which they'll discuss Yoko Ono's provoking 1964 Cut Piece performance. If you're wondering how Jacobson became an authority on modern art, she actually holds a degree from Maryland Institute College of Art and has also published a colouring book series, Color This Book, and a book of illustrations, Carry This Book — in which Jacobson imagines items found in the pockets and bags of celebrities like Oprah, historical figures like Amelia Earhart and artists like Frida Kahlo and Banksy. A Piece of Work will be available on Apple Podcasts and WNYC, with a teaser and full list of themes, guests and artworks available on Entertainment Weekly. Via Entertainment Weekly. Image: MoMA.
Back in July, we told you about the opening of a booze-free bar in Auckland, whose owners hoped to tackle New Zealand's serious drinking obsession and simultaneously capitalise on council alcohol regulations that saw all city watering holes closed by 4am. It seemed like a nice idea in theory, but punters clearly didn't agree, and now just five weeks after opening, Tap Bar has shut its doors. Co-owner Grady Elliot admitted defeat to the New Zealand Herald, telling the paper, "We gave it a shot and Auckland drinking culture just didn’t tie in with the dry bar." Or, to put it another way, "No one showed up." Guys, this might be a reaaaaaal good time to start thinking about our relationship with alcohol. New Zealand's first and presumably last dry bar, Tap (briefly) served a mix of alcohol-free beer, wine and mocktails starting from around NZ$5. The absence of alcohol meant they could stay open all night, but according to Elliot, what few patrons they did get mostly stuck with the free water. The NZ$15 entry fee probably didn't help matters either. Perhaps the most depressing thing about this story is that Elliot was clearly well prepared for failure, and has already applied for a liquor licence for the location, which will reopen as a more traditional nightclub as soon as possible. Talk about sticking to your guns. On the plus side, now he'll be able to drink to forget about that pesky oversight. Meanwhile, the operators behind London's recently opened alcohol free bar Redemption are presumably rolling beer kegs in through the back door. Just in case. Via The New Zealand Herald. Image: Dollar Photo Club.
Stop everything and find a Frenchie to flip. Instagram has finally created its own collage-creating software — yep, finally. The social media giant launched their brand new standalone app today, dubbed (rather uncatchily) Layout from Instagram. The new app lets you easily combine multiple photos into one masterpiece of a 'gram. Though it seems Instagram were a little slow off the mark with this, the Instateam have taken their time to create one genuinely great editing app. According to Instagram, one in five monthly active users are sharing images that combine multiple photos — using external apps like Framatic, Photo Collage Maker and InstaCollage and importing the photos into Instagram later. So the team decided to make their own little editor and keep things in-house. So how does it work? Super easy to use, Layout accesses your photo gallery and does most of the work for you. The Faces option shows you all the photos in your camera roll that feature people — so you can cut the crap and go straight to making hella sick selfies. Speaking of selifes, you can take countdown photobooth shots in the app, but only using the frontal camera — because YOU. Apparently 90 percent of photos in collage images shared to Instagram are of people, and 50 percent of non-collage photos on Instagram are of people. It's all about your big beautiful self-promoting faces. Once you've picked your image, you can drag and drop photos to arrange them all nice and pretty like, pinch to zoom or pull the sides of each image to tweak its size, even flip and rotate to mirror your face on your face. Like George here: Layout masterpieces can be shared directly to your Instagram or Facebook, or saved to your camera roll to access and glorious sharing later. Things are going to get freaky in your feed. Layout from Instagram is available from today for iOS devices in Apple’s App Store. It’s currently only available for iOS. Layout from Instagram will be available for Android in the coming months.
Bingo. Rave. Two ends of the spectrum of fine holiday fun finally came together in Australia this winter. Bongo's Bingo is a games night like you've never seen before. Part club, part rave, and, of course, part bingo night, this unlikely fusion event has been wildly popular in the UK since 2015. They took the show on the road, launching in Australia this June. In partnership with Wats On Events, Bongo's Bingo Down Under threw massive bingo raves at The Tivoli in Brisbane's Fortitude Valley, Sydney's Paddington Town Hall and Melbourne's Collingwood Town Hall — and it went so well, they're doing it all again. Patrons can expect all of the debauchery of the original British version of Bongo's Bingo, including rave intervals, dancing on tables and a loose kind of bingo that you definitely never played with your nan (well, maybe you have). The victorious players can win everything from big cash prizes to a Hills Hoist, with a range of some absolutely ridiculous surprises on offer. Australia is the second international location for Bongo's Bingo, which recently launched in Dubai as well and, based on popularity, we imagine the event will continue to expand around the globe. BONGO'S BINGO DATES: Brisbane — Thursday, August 24 at The Tivoli Sydney — Friday, August 25 and Saturday, August 26 at yet-to-be-announced secret location within five kilometres of the CBD Melbourne — Thursday, August 31 and Friday, September 1 at Collingwood Town Hall Doors from 6pm and shows kick off 7.30pm. Tickets are $55 per person from bongosbingodownunder.com.au — on sale from Friday, July 4 at 4pm AEST.
About damn time, Pinterest. The global social media giant and lover all things wedding-related has joined the world of e-commerce; revealing a 'Buy It' button to allow users to shop their favourite pinned products. Revealed on Tuesday at a big ol' shindig at the San Francisco Pinterest HQ, the new 'buyable pins' have been a long time coming for the globally-celebrated website worth a cheeky $10 billion and singlehandedly dedicated to sharing pretty, pretty thingies users immediately want to hand over their dosh for. According to TIME, 50 billion pins have been added since the company's launch and 93 percent of active Pinners were keen to use the site to plan purchases — that's a genuinely gargantuan customer base eager to throw their money at someone, anyone. Plus, 80 percent of users access the site through their phones (prime online shopping grounds), so the whole thing's a no-brainer (albeit a late-to-the-party one) for Pinterest. So how does it work? After clicking on select pinned products, users will be able to scope out the price, size and colour options of their chosen Pretty Thing and select the quantity to order. You'll be able to use credit card or Apple Pay to nab your chosen item and you'll pay no additional fees. Crazy. So far, even Pinterest merchants won't have to pay commission to sell their wares — all of which makes it a little ambiguous how Pinterest will make any money out of this. We're guessing, with the recent introduction of promoted pins for big advertisers, merchant fees will be introduced down the track after everyone signs up. Pinterest will roll out the buyable pins in the US on iPhone and iPads in late June. Already signed-up merchants include Neiman Marcus, Macy's, Nordstrom, Kate Spade and Cole Hahn. We're still waiting to hear when Australia will get its mitts on the buttons. Instagram just revealed a 'buy it' button for advertisers and Facebook's apparently also working on one too. Social media e-commerce, come at us. Via TIME. Images: Pinterest, Dollar Photo Club.
Usually a retrospective signifies the tail-end of an artist's career. Generally, it's commissioned by a prominent gallery, and carefully curated to highlight their successes and triumphs and most iconic works. But not if you're DI$COUNT UNIVER$E. If you're DI$COUNT UNIVER$E, you know you don't have to play by the rules and conventions of art and fashion — and if you want to hold your own retrospective, you bloody well do it. That's the idea behind their new show, anyway. The Melbourne-based cult pop punk fashion brand (whos pieces have been worn by everyone from Beyoncé to Kylie Jenner to Madonna) have just announced their It's-too-soon-for-a-retrospective Retrospective Exhibition, which, like their self-described 'anti-fashion', basically subverts the very idea of the retrospective. For one, designers Nadia Napreychikov and Cami James only established the brand six years ago. They're also organising the exhibition themselves, rather than being invited to do so. "In general, as a brand, we purposely go against the grain of what is done in the arena we work in," says Napreychikov. We do this to challenge the system. To prove there are other ways of working. To show our supporters and other young people in our field that it is possible to pave your own path without having all of the resources. To create your own resources." They also won't be presenting a heavily curated selection of their works — they'll be displaying everything. And when we say everything, we mean everything. The exhibition — which will take place in their Collingwood studio gallery space — will include an excess of over 65 mannequins and 500 garments from the pair's personal archives and private collections, their showrooms, as well as garments borrowed back from the famous people who've worn them. This includes the epic Birthday Suit as worn by Katy Perry, the Pray t-shirt Miley Cyrus wore in her Terry Richardson photoshoot (before she ripped them off), and their signature studded biker jackets as worn by both Madonna and Beyoncé. [caption id="attachment_566976" align="alignnone" width="1200"] YouTube[/caption] The retrospective is reflective of how DI$COUNT UNIVER$E have used the Internet to gain rapid international success, despite having leapfrogged certain channels traditionally traversed by up-and-coming Aussie designers, such as presenting at Australian Fashion Week and being picked up by one of the big two department stores. The exhibition will run from November 29 until December 9 at their studio space in Collingwood. Open Monday to Saturday from noon until 6pm, entry will be ten bucks, and DI$COUNT will have some limited edition pieces on sale, including badges, patches, t-shirts, wallets, magnets, socks, sequin dresses and caps ranging from a couple of dollars to $400. The DI$COUNT UNIVER$E It's-too-soon-for-a-retrospective Retrospective Exhibition will run from November 29 - December 9 at 32-34 Wellington Street, Collingwood. Image: Daniel Good John.
Australia has a love affair with bartenders. Photographing these women and men about town, known for their prowess behind the bar and sought after for their mad mixology skills, has become quite the artform of late. Our obsession with bar teams and their unique concoctions has been realised in a nationwide competition run by Auchentoshan, dubbed Distilled Different. Twelve of Australia's best bar teams have created a cocktail incorporating Auchentoshan American Oak — the only triple distilled Scottish single malt whisky in the world. They're going head-to-head to win bragging rights, an epic photo shoot and a huge team trip to Glasgow. Before the winner is crowned, all 12 bar teams will appear in the national Dare to be Distilled Different photography exhibition. Their talented faces and creative cocktails will be captured by three up-and-coming photographers, all chosen by Art Pharmacy. We asked them how they plan to bring the multi-sensory world of the cocktail — and the unique story behind each bar team — to life. [caption id="attachment_584663" align="alignnone" width="1279"] Oli Samsom[/caption] OLI SAMSOM (MELBOURNE) Why are you excited about shooting bartenders for the Auchentoshan competition? I'm excited to bring my love and fascination of the dim, grim and classical to help represent a glorious bunch of artists in a craft pretty far removed from mine. Collaboration is king and I'm pretty stoked to make something that the teams and folks within them are all proud of. Has social media, particularly Instagram, changed the way you photograph cocktails? I try not to let mediums change how I shoot. I'm aware of little tricks and approaches that work best for the platform, but I think the devil is in trying to get a maximum arbitrary return each and every time. There's a lot to be said for doing stuff the way you feel is right, even if it means admitting the 'engagement' suffers. It's that old quality vs quantity chestnut. And really, if I wanted the most amount of engagement the quickest, I'd just be posting landscape shots and swimsuit images in alteration. If anything though, Instagram in particular has encouraged me to do what I love, which is write in my own voice. It hits sleeper followers in ways that you only find out about later. How do you think photography has played a role in making people more interested in getting to know their city's bartenders? They're more revered than ever now. It's no secret and should be no surprise to anyone that the current movement across hospitality, or anything remotely craft-related, centres on celebrating the folks behind the product. We're seeing that in mass media with cooking shows shifting spin to the makers being held up as 'rock stars'. This also goes along with the whole 'care economy' happening everywhere: a competition for who gives a shit the most — which has been a great thing for culture, tourism, the lot. We're competing on who does things best, not so much price, speed, or geographic factors. With the general standard being lifted, folks are wanting to experience more of the story of those behind the curtain, they're wanting to see that care first-hand, and enjoy that romance of skill and attention to detail. Photography plays a huge role in that. Much like photography has been the underrated force in driving the feel and magic/mystique of our favourite musicians over the years, a strong image that sets the scene for a maker, in this case a bartender, can really help cement them as a maker and give an intelligent and artistic glimpse into their world and what's involved. Take us through the process of shooting in low light — bar's aren't the brightest or easiest to shoot of places. Bars are an interesting old beast, not only are they dim, but there are a lot of competing light sources, reflections, and surfaces that are sometimes ideal as a punter in the space, but more of a challenge to represent photographically. So it becomes a mix of celebrating the light and mood as it exists through longer exposures, while bringing out the subjects with artificial light in a tasteful way. I'm a fan of subtle composites so that will form part of the approach too. What's your creative concept for capturing the bar teams you'll be shooting? With these shoots all being on location, ultimately they'll be pretty informed by the space they're set in. So I'll be keeping the focus simple, on what's driven most of my existing work: mood, stillness, and a dash of old-world. [caption id="attachment_584659" align="alignnone" width="1279"] Savannah Van Der Niet[/caption] SAVANNAH VAN DER NIET (BRISBANE) Why are you excited about shooting bartenders for the Auchentoshan competition? I enjoy the challenge of capturing people — meeting a stylistic brief but also trying to show a bit of the character in the subjects as well. How do you think photography has played a role in making people more interested in getting to know their city's bartenders? I think it's about connection. People want a human element in the imagery they see to make them feel comfortable and enticed. Photographers can use their skill to shed light on a bartender's personality. Take us through the process of shooting in low light — bars aren't the brightest or easiest to shoot of places. I generally shoot with natural light and focus more on people and food than bars. So usually I'll shoot during the day. Or I will bring my lights along. What's your creative concept for capturing the bar teams you'll be shooting? My creative concept is to focus on the personalities of the bar staff and the cocktail they will be making. I can't wait! [caption id="attachment_584661" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Brendan Fitzpatrick[/caption] BRENDAN FITZPATRICK (SYDNEY) Why are you excited about shooting bartenders for the Auchentoshan competition? Photography allows me to draw back the curtain on subjects and learn something from the time spent in their world. The science of bartending and cocktail making has a long history and a nuanced culture. The best bartenders are artists in their field. I learn a lot listening to them talk about an art crafted from a very different palette of materials from my own. Has social media, particularly Instagram, changed the way you photograph cocktails? Nothing will ever change the way I shoot cocktails. I am entirely platform-agnostic when it comes to my cocktail shoots. How do you think photography has played a role in making people more interested in getting to know their city's bartenders? They're more revered than ever now. Digital platforms have allowed businesses to communicate directly with their customers. Each bartenders and team has their own personality — I intend to capture this through this competition and share it with the world. Take us through the process of shooting in low light — bars aren't the brightest or easiest to shoot of places. The main thing to have to hand in a dark space is a light. The light banishes the dark. No matter if you're a photographer in a bar or just a civilian at home minding your own business, there's nothing like a light to get you over the line. What's your creative concept for capturing the bar teams you'll be shooting? The bars have worked hard to differentiate themselves through their design and branding. I hope some of the techniques and ideas I use will be inspired by what they've created. In broad terms I see the bar as a stage and the bar teams themselves as actors on that stage. Right now I'm researching, meeting everyone and listening to their stories. The more I understand them and why they do things in the manner specific to them, the better I can convey their unique personality in a single image.
Somebody's closer. Netflix announced its Australian pricing today, officially giving the finger to main schoolyard rivals Presto and Stan. The US streaming service has officially set its pricing tiers, with entry level membership sitting at $8.99 a month — cheapest of 'em all in Australia — then $11.99 (high definition, can stream on two screens at once), and $14.99 for the big kahuna (fastest, high def 4K streaming, can stream on up to four screens at once). Pricing leaked online yesterday thanks to the snooping legends at Reddit, but was announced formally today. This pricing is cheaper than Fairfax/Nine's unfortunately-named Stan service, priced at $10 a month. But according to Fairfax, it's all about definition (because of course they'd bring that up). Netflix's lowest tier will apparently only stream in standard definition, whereas Stan's will be all up in high def. Foxtel/Seven's Presto service is sitting at $9.99 (also a big ol' one-cent-less ner to Stan), but is in the same situation as Netflix — streaming in standard def. If you're thinking of sneakily buying Netflix's US version and streaming via proxy (Who said that? Was it you? Nothing to see here.) the US prices are pretty similar: $US7.99 for the lowest, standard definition tier. Netflix launches in Australia on March 24. What's in store for users? Reddit posted this image of what you can expect from the Australian Netflix library, whether it's real or not. Hold on to your butts. Via SMH.
Peter Bibby might be based in Melbourne, but this spinner of VB-soaked yarns calls Perth home. Having recently returned from the USA (seems like Americans have a thing for earnest, self-deprecating Aussie guitarists at the moment — see Courtney Barnett), the hugely hyped crooner is about to kick off his first national tour. You can expect a damn fine show from the 'Hates My Boozin' singer — not for nothing has he played Sydney Festival, Laneway and SXSW already. Releasing his debut album Butcher/Hairstylist/Beautician in November last year, Bibby named his first release for a hidden Perth gem that brings all three businesses under one roof. So we thought we'd put his local knowledge to the test, asking Bibby to unearth five hidden treasures only Perth locals would be able to recommend. From pubs filled with kangaroo regulars to go-to guitar shops and super glam petrol station cafes, let's take a bonafide Bibby tour through Perth. MOJOS BAR "The best bar in Australia in my opinion, besides maybe Dan's Pub in Tasmania. Pool, beverages and live music on offer every night of the week." 237 Queen Victoria St, North Fremantle STRUMMERS GUITARS "To my knowledge, the best second-hand guitar dealer/repair shop anywhere near Perth. Huge range of rare guitars and equipment at very reasonable prices and run by two very lovely fellows." 811 Beaufort Street, Mount Lawley MIDLAND GATE SHOPPING CENTRE "Everything you could ever hope for in a shopping centre. Likely to see some of Midlands finest scumbags on every visit." 274 Great Eastern Highway, Midland JOHN FORREST TAVERN "This little tavern is a great place to get a bit merry before you walk around a pretty beautiful part of the world. They have a resident kangaroo and there is usually native birds just hanging out inside the pub. It’s pretty legit." Park Rd, Glen Forrest VIBE CAFE "Situated on Charles Street in North Perth, the Vibe Cafe offers a range of fine delicacies at affordable prices. You can also buy petrol there." 427 Charles Street, North Perth Peter Bibby is currently touring in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane this week and next. By Jessica Surman and Shannon Connellan. Top image: Matt Sav. Images: Mojos, Strummers, Caputi Enterprises, Publocation, Vibe.
Turns out Neil Armstrong was lacking foresight when he first stepped on the moon. What he actually should have announced was, "One small step for man, one giant leap for beer." Last year, Oregon-based brewing company Ninkasi ran their very own space programme (classic forward-thinking Oregon). Yep, they got hold of a couple of rockets and sent a bunch of brewer's yeast into outer space and back. It's since been turned into beer and as of April 13, will be available for sampling. Wonderfully-named Ground Control, the brew blends well-travelled ingredients with local ones. Ninkasi have described it as a "rich, complex imperial stout", made with Oregon hazelnuts, star anise and cocoa nibs. Take. Our. Money. Getting the yeast into outer space and back successfully took two missions. The first, which left on July 2014, carried sixteen vials. But, on returning to Earth, it wound up somewhere in the Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, which meant that the Ninkasi team didn’t find it for 27 days — way too late for brewing purposes. The second mission, carrying six vials, left on October 23 from New Mexico's Spaceport America. After journeying to 408,035 feet, and reaching a maximum speed of Mach 5, it came back to Earth safely — ready for fermenting. Ground Control will be sold in limited edition 22-ounce bottles at selected retailers across the United States. Keep your eyes on the eBay stars. Via io9.
Less than a month after being cancelled due to alleged financial mismanagement, the iconic Tropfest short film festival has been thrown a much needed lifeline. On the very day that the festival was originally meant to take place, Tropfest founder John Polson has announced the event will instead be held on Valentine's Day next year, after securing a last minute sponsorship deal with CGU Insurance. "It’s incredibly encouraging to see that the Australian public and corporate community really want to see Tropfest return," said Polson, who was forced to cancel the festival after discovering what he, at the time, called "a terrible and irresponsible mismanagement of Tropfest funds." No word yet on whether the CGU deal extends beyond this year, or whether it will help Polson cover the festival's six figure debt. Details on how the money was actually lost likewise remain unclear, although it's worth mentioning that Polson is currently engaged in legal action against Tropfest managing director Michael Laverty. He told the Sydney Morning Herald that "in my opinion, we've done nothing wrong but respond as best we can to a terrible situation brought about by bad management." Polson also took a swipe at the lack of assistance from the NSW government, saying "many people have asked what has the NSW government done since this crisis…the truth is not a lot at this point." "Tropfest is a great festival, providing unique platforms for talented filmmakers through its events and initiatives, and we are excited to be able to help them get back on their feet," said Ben Bessel, Commercial Insurance Chief Executive for IAG, which owns CGU Insurance. "Supporting this fantastic cultural event is about creating a renewed opportunity for Tropfest and all those small businesses associated with the event to continue to thrive and get some business done." In recent years Tropfest has attracted a national live audience of up to 150,000 people along with hundreds of thousands more via live TV broadcast. Polson confirmed that all 16 of this year's finalists will make their premiere as planned – albeit a few months late – live in Sydney's Centennial Parklands on February 14. Trop Jr., the festival's competition for filmmakers aged 15 years and under, will also go ahead.
Forget festivals focused on art, music and film, there's a new event in town. Warning: you must love dogs. And another warning: you also need to be up for a visit to Manly's fortnightly markets. At the first September shopping bonanza by the waterfront at Manly Harbour Village for 2015, all things canine are taking over. There's even a fitting name for this frenzy of four-legged friends — Woofstock. Yes, the event is exactly what it sounds like, seeing as though it sounds like a festival focused on pet pooches. Expect competitions designed to anoint the critter with the waggiest tail, as well as those wearing the best fashions on the field. A test of athletic ability is also on offer, plus sessions with an animal communicator. Want more? Why not check out Doggy's Got Talent and Next K9 Top Model, where a few reality TV staples get a dogcentric spin. Shopping-wise, 80 stalls will try to tempt you to treat your furry BFF to food, toys, clothes, furniture and anything else they might need. Or, lets be honest, anything you might want to buy them — because although the day is supposed to be all about hounds and mutts, it's really all about the humans that are fond of them. Find Woofstock at the Jan Powers Farmers Markets at Manly Village, Royal Esplanade, Manly on Saturday September 5 from 6am (yes, 6am), or check out the markets or festival websites for more information. Image: Dollar Photo Club.
