On Friday, November 25 we were lucky enough to head along to a waterside mansion in Sydney's stunning Elizabeth Bay, to celebrate summer and drink Grey Goose cocktails among sweeping, magnificent views of the stunning harbour. Global ambassador Joe McCanta was there, mixing up classic Grey Goose cocktails like the Le Grand Fizz and the espresso martini. There was also a frozen version of the Le Grand Fizz — it was next-level refreshing in the breezy heat. At the party there was a French bakery-inspired entrance, international DJs, people rolling around in clear, blow-up balls, and many many blue umbrellas with people lounging around and enjoying the sun. Food was served, martini masterclasses were held and extraordinary, French Riviera-inspired experiences were had. And just as the world's artists have flocked to the Riviera for their dose of sun and inspiration, guests at Boulangerie Bleue — some of Australia's finest artists, designers, models, athletes, musicians and stylists — were all there to inspire, and be inspired. Take a look through our photos and experience the glamour for yourself. Dive into the luxury that your city has to offer — check out our Luxe Guide to Sydney and Melbourne. Food, spas, glamorous hotels and extraordinary experiences are waiting. Images: Steven Woodburn.
If you're a fan of author, comedian and NPR humorist David Sedaris, then you'll know that he's a frequent visitor Down Under. Missed him on his last trip in 2023? 2025 is your next chance to experience his snappy wit, as well as his discerning and astute ability to observe life's moments — both trivial and extraordinary — in both an observational and unique way. This will be Sedaris' seventh trip Down Under, spanning stops in both Australia and New Zealand — in Auckland, Canberra, Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane — across January and February. If you haven't seen Sedaris live before, his shows are part of the reason that he's built up such a following. Onstage, he regularly weaves in new and unpublished material, too — and the satirist will throw it over to the crowd for a Q&A as well, and also sign copies of his books. Sedaris has more than a few tomes to his name, so you have options for him to scribble on, including Happy-Go-Lucky, Calypso, Theft by Finding, Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls, Squirrel Seeks Chipmunk, When You Are Engulfed in Flames, Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim, Me Talk Pretty One Day, Holidays on Ice, Naked and Barrel Fever. [caption id="attachment_862850" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Anne Fishbein[/caption] Sedaris is equally celebrated for his constant This American Life appearances and must-read pieces in The New Yorker, and boasts everything from the Terry Southern Prize for Humor and Jonathan Swift International Literature Prize for Satire and Humor to the Time Humorist of the Year Award among his accolades. If you've been searching for a supportive environment to use the phrase "how very droll", this is it. [caption id="attachment_862851" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Prudence Upton[/caption] An Evening with David Sedaris 2025 Australia and New Zealand Tour Dates: Friday, January 31 — Auckland Town Hall, Auckland Saturday, February 1 — Canberra Theatre Centre, Canberra Sunday, February 2 — Regal Theatre, Perth Tuesday, February 4 — Norwood Concert Hall, Adelaide Thursday,February 6–Friday, February 7 — Arts Centre Melbourne, Melbourne Saturday, February 8 — Newcastle City Hall, Newcastle Tuesday, February 11 — Sydney Opera House, Sydney Thursday, February 13 — Brisbane Powerhouse, Brisbane David Sedaris is touring Australia and New Zealand in January and February 2025. For more information, or for general ticket sales from 9am on Thursday, June 27, 2024, head to the tour website. Top image: Anne Fishbein.
As 2017 continues to fly by, Melbourne's galleries have got your much-needed creative fix covered with a fantastic selection of contemporary art exhibitions featuring some international greats and local legends. This month, head to the Art Gallery of Ballarat to catch the photographs of fashion icon David LaChapelle, tickle your senses as sound and visuals clash in unexpected ways at the Ian Potter Museum of Art and find the best small-scale works across loads of different creative mediums for the Small Works 2017 annual event. With heaps more to choose from, August is bound to keep your creative needs topped-up and ready for the rest of the year.
Unicorns invaded the runway last night. For the Australian Fashion Week's final Resort 2018 showing, Sydney's Romance Was Born, known for its outlandish, yet highly desirable collections, worked with two-time Archibald winner Del Kathryn Barton to send out sparkling unicorns, polka dotted femme fatales and grand dames draped with rich prints in Barton's iconic style. This is Electro Orchid. The name references Barton's eponymous show from 2014, where she presented a series of smudgy word paintings in pink gouache, which was reflected by models who strutted down the catwalk wearing nothing but handwritten evocative messages, nude undies, a pair of killer shoes, oh and a good dose of sparkle. As expected RWB's Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales brought the spectacle to MBFWA, ending the week on a runway acid trip and giving life to all of our wildest dreams — which we'll now also be able to wear in the coming months. With such an extravagant showing, it was only fitting to keep those glittery good vibes a-glimmer. So, the fashion set said goodbye to Carriageworks for the year, and made its way to QT Sydney to celebrate with a grand finale of pink tinsel and neon lights, cocktails, oysters and a soundtrack of ABBA and Whitney Houston. (The party also opened a small RWB archival exhibit at QT's Parlour Lane, on free public display until the end of the month.) Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia has come and gone, bringing with it an epic collaboration between two Australia design icons in their own right (yes, one of those is the Opera House), street style by the sea, hectic mullets and a slew of trends to now mull over and decide which will influence what we're wearing next from our fine Aussie designers. Until next time MBFWA, you've been quite the ride. Images: Tim Da Rin / Flaunter.
Being fit and healthy doesn't have to be the expensive venture that you may believe. Say fare-thee-well to lengthy gym contracts that nibble away at your hard-earned savings week by week. Instead, squeeze into your favourite Kmart lycra pants and huff and puff at a fitness class that won't cost you any more than seven buck (and in some cases, sweet nothing). With these impressive Scrooge prices, why not try out something new like hula-hooping, Latin dancing, Zumba and weights? Getting sweaty has never been so thrifty. [caption id="attachment_563362" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Healthy Lifestyle Lounge[/caption] FITNESS CLASSES — FREE Led by the fit folk at Healthy Lifestyle Lounge, these outdoor exercise classes cater for the suits and pencil-thin skirts of the fast-paced city workhorse. Enjoy the fresh crisp air of morning, or exchange the evening commute for a sweat sesh with simple circuit based exercise. These fitness classes focus on body weight exercise, cardio training and core strength movement. When and where: Classes run at Tuesdays at 6pm and Wednesdays and Fridays at 7am at Federation Square. [caption id="attachment_563366" align="alignnone" width="1280"] City of Stonnington[/caption] TAI CHI — FREE You may have tried chai but how about tai chi? If you want to give it a go, the City of Stonnington is offering free classes in the ancient exercise in Malvern Gardens. Like the soothing and calming powers of a cup of chai, this tai chi for beginners focuses on relaxation, breathing, gentle poses and flowing movements. Classes can strengthen muscle, improve coordination and balance. Not bad for a freebie, hey? When and where: Beginners class run on Tuesdays at 10am at Malvern Gardens. Classes run in accordance with the school term. Term one will finish on March 24, so check back here for the Term two timetable. [caption id="attachment_563371" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Dollar Photo Club[/caption] AEROBICS — $4.40 This rare and wonderful gem of a gym in Melbourne's outer north happily offers the community the opportunity to get fit for less than five bucks at an aerobics class. At 5 Star Gym all the gym classics and favourites are offered such as Step, Pump and T.H.T (Tummy, Hips and Thighs, FYI) during the week for less than a McDonald's Happy Meal. If you're not into group fitness, casual gym visits will cost you a golden price of $2. View the timetable here. When and where: Classes run at various times throughout the week at 11/391 Settlement Road, Thomastown. [caption id="attachment_563352" align="alignnone" width="1280"] The Salsa Foundation[/caption] BEGINNERS SALSA — FREE The Salsa Foundation know you're curious about sexy Latina dancing. They know that you want to dominate the dance floor, possibly with a rose in your mouth, and a dark and handsome partner by your side. Offering free salsa classes for the two left-footed beginner and providing a run-down of the basic steps, there's no justifiable reason not to at least give this dance class a go. What have you got to lose? When and where: Beginners classes run on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 6pm at 600 Collins Street, Melbourne. [caption id="attachment_563357" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Nike+ Run Club[/caption] NIKE+ RUN CLUB — FREE Think pavement pounders need to be lone wolves? Think again. If you're a keen jogger but your running has been a little lax of late, you may like to join the largest free training run club in the world. Every Wednesday, after doing some pre-workout stretching, Nike's Pace Leaders take groups of runners on urban tracks with different distances to cater for a range of fitness levels. This little community of joggers will get you fit in no time. When and where: Running starts at 5.30pm on Wednesdays from the Federation Square Atrium, Melbourne. [caption id="attachment_563356" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Viva Physiotherapy[/caption] PILATES — BY DONATION Viva Physiotherapy's feel-good workout 'Class for a Cause' is returning for 2016, with all donations going towards a local charity. Is there anything better than strengthening your posture, abs and core knowing that your money isn't going towards some smelly money-grabbing gym? This year's donation class has yet to be scheduled, but you can sign up on the website to receive the latest news and to save your place on the mat. When and where: Class times are TBC, but will take place at Level 9, 289 Flinders Lane, Melbourne. NO LIGHTS NO LYCRA — $5-7 Take dancing in your lounge room to the next level and join the global dance movement that offers a dark space to let go of your inhibitions. Reunite with the joy of dancing for fun and exercise to a mix of dance tracks with no instruction. And, by all means, embrace your inner daggy Dad dancing — no one can see you anyway. When and where: Multiple classes are held across Melbourne each week. To find a class, visit their website. [caption id="attachment_563359" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Fit Club Melbourne[/caption] ZUMBA — FREE If you enjoy the workout quality of clubbing, you'll love the highly addictive and heart-pumping dance style of Zumba — and no high heels are necessary. The best part about this class from Fit Club Melbourne though is that it's free, and is open to all movers and shakers. Music is fast-paced and energetic and combines choreographed moves to create bodacious curves and the fitness of a marathon runner. Plus, you can use the money you save on a $5 post-workout smoothie after class. When and where: Classes run on Thursdays from 5.30pm at Carlton Scout Hall, 12 Shakespeare Street, Carlton North. Top image: Dollar Photo Club.
Well, this is rather excellent branding. Britpop kings and experts in cheesemaking Blur are selling its own ice cream for their latest album tour. Coinciding with Blur's newest album The Magic Whip, the new edible merch is an attempt to recreate the neon sign on the cover; taking something like Gelato Messina's Jack White flavour next level. Damon Albarn and the lads teamed up with UK based ice cream company The Licktators, whose previous music-themed flavours include 'John Lemon' and 'Jiggy Pop'. But the company really made its headline-worthy reputation after releasing 'Baby Gaga' for the royal baby — an ice cream flavour made with human breast milk. Yep. Really. Blur's own escapade into iced confection will, of course, be called 'Magic Whip' after the new album. Attempting to mimic the cover art, the ice cream will be vanilla custard flavour with raspberry sauce. Unfortunately, 'Magic Whip' will be available exclusive at the legendary foursome's concerts and at a few London co-ops this year. We're not sure whether the ice cream will make it to Australia for their highly anticipated Splendour appearance and stadium tour, but until we're sure we'll be cooking up our own Blur dessert using the recipe hidden within the video for lead album single 'Go Out'. Via AV Club.
Melbourne’s rockstars will go head to head with the bigwigs of community radio, at the twenty-first annual Reclink Community Cup. In a dance as old as time — otherwise known as the mid '90s — muso team the Rockdogs will take on the combined forces of PBS, Triple R, SYN FM, 3RPP and 3MBS, aka the Megahertz, in a highly entertaining and heckleworthy game of amateur charity football with a year’s worth of bragging rights on the line. Played once again at Elsternwick Park, proceeds from this Sunday's match will be donated to Reclink Australia and used to improve the lives of people suffering from disability, homelessness, substance abuse and economic hardship through participation in sport and the arts. Coming off a thrilling nine point win last year, the Rockdogs will be captained by My Dynamite keyboardist Nick Cooper, while the Megahertz will look to co-captains Cat of PBS’ The Breakfast Spread and Chris Gill of Triple R’s Get Down to serve up a piping red hot plate of revenge. The match will be bookended by a series of live performances by the likes of Adalita, Pearls, Graveyard Train and Public Opinion Afro Orchestra, all of whose musical credentials are a lot more impressive than their footballing ones. Hey, if you want professional athletes, go to the MCG.
Eggplant chips, duck quesadilla and brekkie chicken lasagna. They're all on the menu at new Melbourne café, Eden’s Backyard. Having opened on the stretch of Nicholson Street between Johnston Street and Alexandra Parade just a fortnight ago, this new eatery is already attracting the inner north's ravenous hordes. Calling itself a 'modern brunch cafe', Eden’s specialises in just that — the lazy, hazy space between breakfast and lunch. But you won’t find any old run-of-the-mill Western meals here. Nearly every dish is spiced up with a touch of Asian fusion and a dash of creativity. The duck quesadilla ($21) is a tortilla filled with a roast duck fillet, caramelised onion, roasted peppers and mozzarella, while the brekkie chicken lasagne ($18) is made up of chicken ragu, light béchamel sauce, sautéed spinach, ricotta, mozzarella and, to ensure its ‘brekkie-ness’, fried eggs. Meanwhile, sweet tooths can get stuck into Kev’s secret French toast ($19), a decadent mountain of Nutella, vanilla poached pear, blueberries, strawberries, caramel sauce and brioche; or the pancake stack ($15), which comes with mixed berry compote, honey mascarpone, green tea ice cream, maple syrup, Oreo and peanut crumbs. You’ll find the rest of the menu on the Eden’s Backyard Facebook page. As the name suggests, the cafe aims to provide a bit of an oasis on an otherwise barren, busy street. On the outside, visitors are greeted with a mossy vertical garden and winding vines, while inside, there’s an emphasis on natural colours and textures. Find Eden’s Backyard at 161-163 Nicholson Street, Carlton. It's open Tuesday to Friday, 7.30am-4pm; Saturday-Sunday, 8.30am-4pm; and is closed on Monday.
Talking seesaws, live hypnosis and a water ballet about the menstrual cycle. Yup, Melbourne Fringe is well and truly upon us, and there's a hell of a lot to take in. Running from September 14 through to October 1 at venues all around Melbourne, this year's festival program is packed to the brim with a mix of cabaret, comedy, circus, dance, installation, music and more. Cassandra-Elli Yiannacou's play The Last Journalist on Earth explores the madness of the modern day news industry, while punters after something a little more outrageous need look no further than Betty Grumble's latest burlesque show, titled Sex Clown Saves the World. Further highlights include Completely Improvised Potter, an improv show set in the wizarding world of J.K. Rowling, and The Children's Party, a participatory art project featuring aspiring pollies between the ages of eight and 12. There'll also be a number of works from emerging Indigenous artists courtesy of the Deadly Fringe Artist Development program. For the full Melbourne Fringe program visit melbournefringe.com.au.
With a luxurious yet welcoming blue and white interior and boundless natural light flooding in from two walls of uninterrupted windows, Middletown Prahran is a brunch venue designed to relax, inspire and rejuvenate. The space invites you to sit back and chill out as the world roars on outside — as the team of baristas turns out delicious brews by Code Black Coffee. The all-day breakfast menu features light and easy options such as oat granola with maple toasted oats, mixed nuts, vanilla yoghurt and dried and fresh fruits and corn fritters with jalapeños and a harissa-honey pumpkin puree, blistered cherry tomatoes, a poached egg and lemon coconut yoghurt. If you're after something more substantial, its big breakfast is bound to keep you busy for an hour or so. It features chilli scrambled eggs, pork sausages, streaky bacon, hash browns, roasted tomatoes and tomato relish on sourdough toast. If you're vegetarian, there are plenty of options for you, too. But our fave choice is the avocado on toast topped with cherry tomatoes, lemon vinaigrette, hazelnut and almond dukkah. Meanwhile, suppose you're swinging by for a work meeting or catch up over a meal. In that case, the lunch menu offers classics such as a beef burger with American cheese, burger sauce, pickles and tomatoes, while the fish and chips consist of a beer-battered John Dory with smashed peas, fries and tartare. For something leaving you a little lighter, opt for the Japanese pumpkin salad with cauliflower and brown rice or the chicken avo sandwich, which is loaded up with tasty cheese and seeded mustard. Drinks-wise, there's a decent range of teas, smoothies and fresh juices. And as the morning catch-up drags into the afternoon, treat yourself to a cheeky mimosa or espresso martini or a glass of wine from Victoria or South Australia. Appears in: Where to Find the Best Breakfast in Melbourne for 2023
Mrs Kim's Grill has been serving up authentic Korean fare in Richmond since 2013, with a special focus on traditional methods of marinating meat — with a hint of nostalgia and homesickness. The food here is delightful and the service friendly and charming, making this one of the best Korean barbecue joints in Melbourne. The damn good marinades are whats sets Mrs Kim's apart from the other Korean options around town — they're also a strictly guarded secret. From the grill, enjoy everything from butter garlic prawns to chilli marinated pork belly of soy marinated chicken. The highlight however is the 200g wagyu which is clearly of the highest quality. The marble on these badd boys is next level. You can make a feast of the dining experience at Mrs Kim's Grill, starting with entrees like the kimchi pork soup, beef brisket and soy bean soup, and sweet chilli Korean fried chicken and adding a few salads. We suggest the smoked salmon and onion salad which is delightfully light and fresh. Add chopped chilli and garlic as you please. Vegetarians also have a few good options. These include the butter garlic corn, the mushrooms with garlic butter or the veg mix with a mountain of cheese on top. The set menus are for two and include the beef heavy 'Moo Set' with marinated galbi beef ribs, skirt teak and a choice of salads, while the 'Chilli Cluck Cluck Set' is a chicken option with a 400g chilli chicken as well as salads and rice. There is no veggie set menu though, so best to order off the a la carte. There are also all-you-can-eat menus for the especially hungry — only costing $45 per person for the bulgogi option, $59 for the seafood and steak feast and $69 for the premium wagyu barbecue buffet. Go ham on all cuts of protein, salads and sides for 90 minutes, testing the limit of your waistband. Pair it all with a few bottles of wine from home — Mrs Kim's Grill has a BYO license for wine only — and you're set for a fab and affordable night out with mates.
Beloved short film festival Tropfest made the devastating announcement yesterday that due to mismanaged funds by the third party agency in charge of, you know, correctly managing funds, the festival has been cancelled this year. Founder and director John Polson made an (appropriately) salty statement on Facebook. “I have been made aware that the company contracted to raise the funding and administer the Tropfest event is unable to move forward for financial reasons. It is too early to tell what has actually happened here, although it is hard to avoid concluding there has been a terrible and irresponsible mismanagement of Tropfest funds.” And fair enough, as he estimates the funds mismanaged run into six figures. "It goes without saying that this announcement is the most difficult one I've made in Tropfest’s 23 year history," said Polson. "My heart goes out to this year’s 16 filmmaking finalists, to our incredible list of sponsors and partners, and of course to our loyal and beloved audience." Tropfest has been a staple in the Australia film vernacular since 1993, when it screened for an audience of 200. It's broadcast each year live to approximately 150,000 people around Australia and, despite everything, apparently received ample support this year, making the announcement even more upsetting. It’s a tangible blow to the Australian arts and filmmaking community as Tropfest was (and still is, we sincerely hope) one of the few festivals to offer sizeable prize money and valuable industry experience to the winning entrants (including a trip to Los Angeles to take meetings with film industry execs among other prizes). Can someone make a Kickstarter already so we don’t have to live in a world without Tropfest?
Whether you watch television programs on your laptop, phone or TV set (or a combination of the above, depending on your mood and situation), the small screens in your house got quite the workout in 2020. That's a definite side effect of this strange year, with everyone spending more time on the couch than normal. You don't need us to tell us that, of course — but, thankfully, there was no shortage of things to watch. Checking out the latest seasons of your favourite shows probably helped while away some of the hours. More than a few, we're guessing. Restreaming classics likely did the same as well, because everyone likes some comfort viewing in tough times. But if you were looking for something new and exciting to fill your time in 2020, the various networks and streaming platforms all did their part. Stunning new dramas, savage historical comedies, engaging miniseries — they all made their debut over the past 12 months, and we've picked the ten best of the year that you should check out if you haven't already. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DTjlurdbNnw I MAY DESTROY YOU Newly returned from a working trip to Italy, struggling to write her second novel after her first struck a sizeable chord and pushing up against a draft deadline just hours away, Arabella (Michaela Coel) takes some time out from an all-nighter to procrastinate with friends over a few drinks in a couple of London bars. The next morning, the Twitter-famous scribe is shaky, hazy and feels far from her normal self — and across the next 11 episodes of this instantly blistering 12-part series, I May Destroy You delves into the aftermath, as Arabella realises that she was raped that evening. Not only created and written by the unflinching and captivating Coel, but inspired by her own real-life experience with sexual assault, the result is as bold, raw and frank as it is sensitive and affecting. It also feels personal at every single moment. An immensely powerful series that intimately interrogates power on multiple levels and features an unsurprisingly potent performance by Coel, I May Destroy You is easily this year's number-one must-see show — and its absolute best. I May Destroy You is available to stream via Binge. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ODYjA9H4qcw NORMAL PEOPLE When Sally Rooney's Normal People first hit bookshelves in 2018, it thrust readers into a disarmingly relatable love story, following the amorous ups and downs of an on-again, off-again couple from Sligo, Ireland. Teenagers Marianne and Connell have known each other for years, as tends to happen in small towns. And although she's aloof, intense and considered an acerbic loner, while he's outgoing and popular, a torrid and tumultuous secret romance blooms. That's just the beginning of the Irish author's novel, and of the both tender and perceptive TV series that brings the book to the screen. As it dives deep into a complex chronicle of first love, it not only charts Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones, Cold Feet) and Connell's (newcomer Paul Mescal) feelings for each other, but details the recognisable and realistic minutiae of being a high schooler and then a uni student. This is first and foremost a romance, and a passionate and intimate one at that; however, the series can't tell this complicated couple's story without touching upon everything else that pops up along the way. Normal People is available to stream via Stan. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZI0q-jFWx-s LOVECRAFT COUNTRY Viewing US race relations and the nation's treatment of its black residents through a horror lens has long been Jordan Peele's jam, dating back to his Key & Peele days. Anyone who has seen Get Out and Us, the two films he has directed thus far, also knows this — and it is evident in Hunters, the TV series he executive produced earlier this year, as well. So Lovecraft Country, HBO's new horror drama based on the 2016 of the same name, was always going to be in Peele's wheelhouse. He's an executive producer again, and he's firmly in his element. Set in the 50s in America's south, this extremely well-executed series follows returned soldier Tic Freeman (Da 5 Bloods' Jonathan Majors), his uncle George (Project Power's Courtney B Vance) and his friend Leti Lewis (Birds of Prey's Jurnee Smollett) as they set off on a road trip to both find Tic's missing dad and locate African American-friendly places for George's Green Book-style guide. Their journey takes them to a part of the country where famed real-life sci-fi and horror writer HP Lovecraft found inspiration for his tales, too — and the results are smart and unnerving on multiple levels. Lovecraft Country is available to stream via Binge. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1htuNZp82Ck&feature=youtu.be TALES FROM THE LOOP If Black Mirror set all of its bleak futuristic tales in one small town, followed interconnected characters and sported a low-fi, retro sheen, the result would be Tales From the Loop. This patient, beautiful, poignant and incredibly moving sci-fi series is actually based on a series of paintings by Swedish artist Simon Stålenhag — and even if you didn't already know that fact while you were watching, you'd notice the show's distinctive aesthetic. The title refers to a mysterious underground machine, called The Loop, that's designed to explore and unravel the mysteries of the universe. For the folks living above it, their lives soon take strange turns. Anchoring jumps and pauses in time, body swaps, giant robots and more in everyday situations and emotions (such as being envious of a friend, falling in love, betraying your nearest and dearest, and trying to connect with your parents), Tales From the Loop is as perceptive as it is immersive and engaging. And, its eight episodes are helmed by an exceptional array of fantastic filmmakers, including Never Let Me Go's Mark Romanek, WALL-E's Andrew Stanton, The House of the Devil's Ti West and actor-turned-director Jodie Foster. Tales From the Loop is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8klax373ds DEVS Radiating unease from its very first moments, yet sporting both a mood and a futuristic look that prove simultaneously unsettlingly and alluring, Devs is unmistakably the work of author-turned-filmmaker Alex Garland. His first jump to the small screen, it instantly slots in nicely beside Ex Machina and Annihilation on his resume — and it's just as intriguing and involving as each of those excellent movies. The setting: Amaya, a US technology company that's massive in size yet secretive in its focus. When Sergei (Karl Glusman) is promoted to its coveted, extra clandestine Devs division, his girlfriend and fellow Amaya employee Lily (Sonoya Mizuno) is thrilled for him. But when Sergei doesn't come home from his first day, Lily starts looking for answers — including from the company's guru-like leader Forest (a long-haired, very un-Ron Swanson-like Nick Offerman). Devs is the kind of series with twists and turns that are best discovered by watching; however, as each second passes by, the stranger and more sinister it all appears. Expect conspiracies, tech thrills and big questions, in a series that does what all the very best sci-fi stories do: tackle big existential queries and intimate everyday emotions in tandem, all while asking 'what if?'. Devs is available to stream via Binge. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8BVoYKwTc4E AUNTY DONNA'S BIG OL' HOUSE OF FUN 2019's I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson was the best sketch comedy of that year. In 2020, the equivalent title goes to Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun. If you're familiar with Australian comedy troupe Aunty Donna, then you'll know what to expect. Writers and performers Mark Samual Bonanno, Broden Kelly and Zachary Ruane, director and writer Sam Lingham, filmmaker Max Miller and composer Tom Armstrong have been treating audiences to absurdist gags, satire, wordplay and songs since forming in 2011 — but now the group has channelled all of its silliness and surreal gags, and its astute ability to make fun of daily life in a smart yet ridiculous way, into a six-part Netflix series. Bonanno, Kelly and Ruane star as themselves, and housemates. Each episode revolves around a theme, starting with the search for a fourth member of their household when they decide to turf their annoying talking dishwasher (voiced by Flight of the Conchords' Kristen Schaal). There's nothing too over-the-top for Aunty Donna, or too trivial, including treasure hunts, an out-there recreation of Ellen DeGeneres' talk show, a pitch-perfect takedown of trendy barber shops to a parody of male posturing when the guys turn their house into a bar. And there's little on offer in the extremely binge-able show that doesn't deliver just the dose of side-splitting absurdity that this hectic year needs. Aunty Donna's Big Ol' House of Fun is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5vLgpdXz0g THE GREAT It takes its title from its central figure, Russian empress Catherine the Great. It's filled with lavish period-appropriate costumes, wigs, sets and decor. And, it explores an immensely famous time during the 18th century that had a significant impact upon the world. Normally, that'd all smack of a certain kind of drama; however The Great is firmly a comedy as well. As starring Elle Fanning as the eponymous ruler, Nicholas Hoult as her husband Peter III and Bohemian Rhapsody's Gwilym Lee as a fellow member of the royal court, that means witty, laugh-out-loud lines, an irreverent and often cheeky mood, and having ample fun with real-life details — much in the way that Oscar-winner The Favourite did with British royalty on the big screen. Of course, the comparison couldn't be more fitting, with that film's BAFTA-winning screenwriter, Australian Tony McNamara, using his savagely hilarious satirical skills to pen The Great as well. The Great is available to stream via Stan. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qaMIcuVH83M&feature=emb_logo THE BEACH Whenever Warwick Thornton makes a new project, it demands attention — and the Indigenous Australian filmmaker has never made anything quite like The Beach. The director of Samson & Delilah and Sweet Country turns the camera on himself, chronicling his quest to escape his busy life for an extended soul-searching getaway. With only chickens and wildlife for company, Thornton bunkers down in an electricity-free tin shed in Jilirr, on the Dampier Peninsula on the northwest coast of Western Australia. He fishes, cooks, chats to the chooks, wanders along the shoreline and reflects upon everything that's led him to this point, with this six-part documentary series capturing the ups, downs, sublime sights and epiphany-inspiring moments. Unfurling quietly and patiently in the slow-TV tradition, Thornton's internal journey of discovery makes for both moving and absorbing viewing. Indeed, combined with stunning cinematography (as shot by Thornton's son and Robbie Hood director Dylan River), it just might be the best piece of Australian television you see this year. The Beach is available to stream via SBS On Demand. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zVhRId0BTw UNORTHODOX Deborah Feldman's best-selling 2012 autobiography Unorthodox: The Scandalous Rejection of My Hasidic Roots makes the leap to Netflix as a four-part mini-series. And, as the book's title makes plain, both explore her decision to leave her ultra-Orthodox Jewish community in Williamsburg, New York, flee her arranged marriage and everyone she's ever known, and escape to Berlin to start a brand new life. Names and details have been changed, as tends to be the case with dramas based on real-life stories; however Unorthodox still follows the same overall path. In a tense but instantly commanding opening to the show's first episode, 19-year-old Esther 'Esty' Shapiro (Shira Haas) slips out of the apartment she shares with her husband Yanky (Amit Rahav), picks up a passport from her piano teacher and nervously heads to the airport. The end result proves a unique and intriguing coming-of-age tale, a thoughtful thriller, and an eye-opening but always careful and respectful look at a culture that's rarely depicted on-screen in such depth. Israeli actress Haas (The Zookeeper's Wife, Foxtrot, Mary Magdalene) turns in a nuanced, weighty and gripping performance as Esty, too — which is absolutely pivotal in making Unorthodox so compelling to watch. Unorthodox is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vv-Mb4vTxj0 WE ARE WHO WE ARE Two on-screen tales about American teenagers in Italy. Two floppy-haired male leads oozing with uncertainty and yearning. One filmmaker. After Call Me By Your Name, Luca Guadagnino returns to familiar territory with HBO miniseries We Are Who We Are — and if its star Jack Dylan Grazer reminds you of the now ultra-famous Timothée Chalamet, that's completely unsurprising; in 2018's Beautiful Boy (not directed by Guadagnino), the former even played a younger version of the latter's character. But don't go mistaking Guadagnino's eight-part TV show for a mere or lazy rehash of the director's past work. Following two neighbouring 14-year-olds who live on a US army base with their enlisted parents, including Grazer's newly arrived loner, We Are Who We Are once again taps into universal themes about finding one's own identity and place in the world, and navigating affairs of the heart as well, but it definitely has its own story to tell. Also starring first-timer Jordan Kristine Seamón, plus Chloë Sevigny (Queen & Slim), Alice Braga (The New Mutants), Scott Mescudi (aka Bill & Ted Face the Music's Kid Cudi), Francesca Scorsese (daughter of iconic filmmaker Martin Scorsese) and Tom Mercier (Synonyms), this patient yet involving series once again boasts Guadagnino's eye for gorgeous and revealing imagery, though, with every intoxicating shot (and every camera angle and placement used for each shot) luring viewers in. We Are Who We Are is available to stream via SBS On Demand. Looking for more viewing highlights? Check out our list of film and TV streaming recommendations, which is updated monthly. We also picked 12 standout new 2020 series in the middle of the year, too.
Chinatown can be a little imitating - even for regular visitors. With so much choice at your fingertips, how can you guarantee you've chosen the right venue? If it's dim sum you're after, Crystal Jade is a reliable choice. Situated smack-banging in the middle of the main Chinatown action on Little Bourke Street, Crystal Jade's yum cha service is an affordable and authentic experience (even down to the somewhat rushed service). When an extensive menu threatens to overwhelm, a venue's signature dish is usually a safe bet - in this case, it's the snow crab with foie gras. Dumplings include classics such as ginger prawn along traditional staples like chicken feet, beef ripe and beef offals, while the BBQ pork rice noodles make the perfect compliment. Finish up with some crab meat fried rice and a healthy serve of pork liver congee.
Make a withdrawal from The Bank on Collins, the CBD's newest restaurant and bar. Opening this week in the heritage listed Bank of Australia building on the corner of Collins and Queen Streets, the elegant new eatery is the latest venture from hospitality group Retail Savvy, who also operate Asian Beer Cafe, Father's Office and The Shaw Davey Slum. Best start queuing now. Built in 1838 from New Zealand Omaru stone, the ornate historical building at 394 Collins Street was previously home to The Bank of Australasia, and was used by ANZ until 1974. The restaurant and bar is split across the ground and mezzanine levels, with Retail Savvy co-owners Stewart Koziora and Anna Carosa ensuring the building's grand atmosphere has been retained. Amenities include a 17 metre bronze bar, 18 copper beer taps, three gold wine taps, a private cocktail area and a private dining room that caters to 20-24 people. "The Bank on Collins will bring affordable luxury to the precinct and is in keeping with what we do best," said Carosa in a statement that accompanied the launch. "The concept will sit above our award winning Father's Office concept in terms of style, sophistication and menu offering." Open from 11am on Monday to Friday and 5pm on Saturday, The Bank of Melbourne will offer a $20 express lunch option complete with schooner, which seems like a pretty excellent option for CBD office workers on their lunch break. They'll also serve a $69 three course set menu plus a cocktail, as well as $7.50 house drinks. The Bank of Collins is now open at 394 Collins Street. For more information check them out on Facebook. Via Hospitality Magazine.
How Kevin Hart's never made it to Australia for a stand-up tour before is beyond us (apart from a one-off set at Sydney's Comedy Store), but the celebrated US comedian is about to rectify that. Off the back of an epic US arena tour, Hart will bring his What Now? tour to Australia this February. Hitting Perth, Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney from Wednesday February 3, Hart will take over some of our biggest venues for a four-date run of shows. Both a stand-up veteran and a comedy film actor you might have seen Hart in Get Hard opposite Will Farrell, Little Fockers, Death at a Funeral, Fool’s Gold, Soul Plane, the Chris Rock-directed Top Five, or getting coffee in a car with Jerry Seinfeld. He's also starring in Ride Along 2, but Australia hasn't seen that sequel just yet. But Hart's going back to his roots with this tour. The 36-year-old really got his start while sizing men and women for footwear, when he performed at an amateur night in Philadelphia, subsequently quitting his job and ending up as a regular at lauded joints like The Boston Club, Caroline’s, The Laugh Factory, and The Comedy Store in Los Angeles. His 2011 Laugh at My Pain tour hit it out of the ballpark — in February 2011 he sold out LA's hallowed Nokia Theater for two nights in a row, breaking the record previously set by the great Eddie Murphy. KEVIN HART WHAT NOW? AUSTRALIAN TOUR: Wednesday, February 3 — Perth Arena, Perth Friday, February 5 — Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Staurday, February 6 — Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane Sunday, February 7 — Allphones Arena, Sydney Tickets on sale 10am Friday, September 4. My Live Nation and ticket agent presale starts 2pm September 2 until 5pm September 3. For more info, head over here. "Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee" Kevin Hart from Peter Holmes on Vimeo.
A brand new streaming service could change the way you watch new release movies — assuming you're willing to fork over the cash. The latest online endeavour from Napster co-founder Sean Parker, Screening Room wants to bring movies into your living room on the same day they hit cinemas. The idea has already received backing from several major Hollywood filmmakers, including Peter Jackson, Martin Scorsese, J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg. But hostile theatre chains and prohibitive costs could mean the service remains a way off yet. The biggest hurdle, it would seem, is the cost of the service. Subscribers would need to purchase a US$150 set top box, after which they'd be charged $50 per film, which would remain available to them for 48-hours. Admittedly, you're paying for the convenience of not having to leave the house, and if you get enough people to chip in, it could easily work out cheaper than going to the cinema. But by the same token, if you're willing to wait a few months, you'll be able to watch the exact same movie on Netflix for a fraction of the price. The reason for the cost is in part to placate theatre owners, who might understandably be none too pleased about Parker trying to muscle in on their territory. According to Variety, as much as $20 out of each $50 rental fee would be paid to exhibitors, in return for two free tickets to see the given film in theatres, should Screening Room subscribers so choose. Film studios would also get a substantial slice of the pie, with Universal, Sony Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox all expressing interest in getting on board. There have, however, been several prominent naysayers, including filmmakers James Cameron and Christopher Nolan, who reaffirmed their commitment to theatrical presentation. It's easy to see their point: films are designed to be viewed on the big screen with the best possible picture and sound, something that cannot be replicated at home. On the other hand, it only takes one jerk on their phone in front of you to ruin the whole experience. Of course regardless of what happens with the Screening Room, we'd wager it'll still be quite a while before it makes its way to Australia. Looks like movie night is still a go, for now. Via Variety.
With classic Chinese furnishings and elegant design, Red Emperor offers rich and authentic Chinese cuisines in a traditional surrounding, which transports one with the flavours of the food. It's been delighting diners for over twenty years, and by combining traditional recipes with modern techniques, it'll deliver a truly unforgettable experience. The chefs here hail from all parts of China, which ensures that whichever dish you order, be it of Cantonese heritage or Sichuan, it'll be prepared with knowledge and authenticity. The menu begins with a range of banquets, designed for two, four, or six or more. The two-person kicks off with sang ahoy bow, crispy prawn spring rolls and steamed dim sum. It continues with a chicken and sweet corn soup before moving on to classics such as golden pork cutlets and beef and black has been. There's also a special fried rice and dessert of banana fritters, ice cream and Chinese tea. The six-person banquet adds classics such as Sichuan prawns, Mandarin chicken and Peking duck. If you decide to go a la carte they've got it all covered, with a selection of soups such as shredded duck soup and wonton soup, while the entrees include calamari and Queensland jumbo prawns. From the tank share a live lobster served with ginger and spring onions, spicy salt and pepper and your own choice of sauce, or go for a live green abalone. Their selection of provincial specialties is a fun addition, with the spicy Sichuan beancurd with minced chicken and capsicum being the standout.
Wrap your head around some of the biggest dilemmas facing the world today, at the Festival of Questions. Presented by The Wheeler Centre in partnership with Melbourne Festival and the City of Melbourne, this one-day event on Sunday, October 15 will bring together some of the smartest, funniest, most interesting minds in science, law, philosophy, anthropology, journalism, politics, activism and entertainment. Held at Melbourne Town Hall, the festival will consist of four 90-minute panels. 'Questions for the Nation' will tackle topics close to home, from marriage equality to foreign investment. 'What Is Right? What Is Left' will explore the extent to which traditional politics are being disrupted in the age of Brexit and Trump. 'Philosophical Fight Club' will see a panel ponder questions on population growth, global terrorism and ethical consumption. Finally, 'What the Hell?' will offer an in-depth discussion of Margaret Atwood's feminist novel The Handmaid's Tale and the uncomfortable timeliness of the current television adaptation. As for who'll be doing the talking, guests of the festival will include lawyer and human rights advocate Julian Burnside, Teen Vogue columnist Lauren Duca, federal MP Tim Wilson, and comedian, musician and transgender rights campaigner Jordan Raskopoulos.
Anyone looking to get a little creative with their cocktails had best pay a visit to Fitzroy's new boozy laboratory. Opening last month on Smith Street, The Bitters Lab is exactly what it sounds like: a store dedicated to bitters and tonics. It's bound to take your drink-mixing skills to the next level. The space is the new home base for online retailer Only Bitters, run by local alcohol enthusiasts Sophia and JD Dimitropoulos. The interior is set up like an old time apothecary, its shelves lined with glass beakers and bottles full of bitters, syrups, tonics, vermouths and vinegars. Not sure what you're after? The tasting table in the centre of the room will be littered with open bottles for you to sample at your leisure. Plus, Sophia and JD are usually on-hand for some help and a chat. In addition to their pre-made botanicals, The Bitters Lab sells cocktail recipe books and all the raw materials you'll need to make your very own bitters at home. They're also planning on hosting a number of special events, workshops and masterclasses — keep your eyes on their website for those. Find The Bitters Lab at Shop 9, 397 Smith Street, Fitzroy. For more info visit thebitterslab.com.au.
This winter, Melbourne's decided to descend into some hellish frosty tomfoolery. Best way to beat the cold? Snuggle into a dark cinema, your own personal cinema, with 20 of your mates and watch the perpetually captivating Greta Gerwig melt every cold heart in the room in Maggie's Plan. Writer-directer Rebecca Miller's new indie rom-com was one of our favourites at this year's Sydney Film Festival. The story of an extra-marital affair gone wrong and the attempts of the unflappable Maggie (Gerwig) to put things back together, Maggie's Plan was loved by our critics — Tom Clift said the film was "funny from start to finish, and does a great job of bringing dimension to its catalogue of flawed characters." Think Ethan Hawke as an unhappily married academic hailed as "the bad boy of fictocritical anthropology." And Julianne Moore as his domineering Danish wife. Yes. Please. So you've got the rundown, let's get you out of the cold and into a comfy cinema seat. Thanks to Cinema Nova, we're giving you to the chance to win an exclusive private preview screening of Maggie's Plan for you and 20 friends at Cinema Nova, Carlton. You'll be treated to a deluxe choc top on arrival (made in-house at Cinema Nova), and you'll take over your very own boutique cinema for the screening, a day before it releases in cinemas nationally on July 7. [competition]577630[/competition] Maggie's Plan is out nationally on July 7 by Sony Pictures. For more information about Maggie's Plan, visit the Cinema Nova website.
Hey guys, gather round! Something actually good is happening in the world! Let's hang onto it with all our strength. The Art of Banksy exhibition that has been on display in the "dodgy car park behind the good car park behind Fed Square" (according to the exhibition team) for the past few weeks has begun to auction off works of art by Melburnian street artists for charity. In conjunction with the Banksy exhibition, 14 prominent local artists were invited to display their work alongside the exhibition. The lineup includes Bailer, Be Free, Conrad Bizjak, Dvate, George Rose, Heesco, Jack Douglas, Makatron, Mike Eleven, Psalm, Putos, Ruskidd, Sirum and 23rd Key. Their dedicated works are being auctioned off and the proceeds are being donated to STREAT and Melbourne City Mission, two kickass charities who work with local people who are homeless. See? There's good in the world. Simultaneously donating to charity and buying cool art? Yes you can. Check out the auction here. Image: Olga Rozenbajgier.
Tasmania may sit forgotten and ridiculed on the outskirts of our borders, but every January it truly shines. Attracting tens of thousands of visitors from all over the country, MONA's annual Festival of Music and Art is a cultural icon. Now, in its seventh year, it's still bringing in the goods. The 2015 lineup will include legendary post-punk outfit Swans, Dan Deacon, Amanda Palmer, Paul Kelly and — because why not — author Neil Gaiman. And that's not even mentioning the art. Curated by Brian Ritchie of the Violent Femmes, the musical program is incredibly eclectic — a tasting plate of genres for those not quite so fascinated with predictable summer festivals like Laneway or Future. In their 2015 festival you can relax while Neil Gaiman reads you a story accompanied by the ambient sounds of Jherek Bischoff, go local with Paul Kelly's Soul Sessions featuring Dan Sultan and Kira Puru, or melt your brain with some Dan Deacon goodness. MOFO caters to all. The art on display will be just as strange. UK group Architects of Air will be bringing their giant inflatable sculpture — read: artsy bouncy castle — EXXOPOLIS down south from the Brisbane Festival. Melbourne artist Atticus J. Bastow is acting as maestro to an orchestra of iPhones. Johannes S. Sistermanns will be wrapping thing (and possible people) in cling wrap to create terrifying sound art. Then, Alvin Curran will combine both art and music while mobilising rafts and dinghies to make music on the Derwent River. "We are thrilled that the audience for MOFO has developed to the point where we can present this dazzling array of creativity and know the people are ready, willing and able to come along for the ride," said Ritchie. "It’s a party with brains, heart and soul." For a little look at what you're missing, check out our write-up from last year's Dark Mofo. January's festivities are bound to be about the same with 100 per cent more sunshine. What's not to love? MONA FOMA will run from January 15-18, 2015 in Hobart. Tickets are on sale now via the festival website. Full lineup: Alvin Curran Allan Halyk And Adam Wojcinski Amanda Palmer & The Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra Amir Farid Anna Von Hausswolff Architects Of Air Ava Mendoza Atticus J. Bastow Ben Frost Brendan Walls Chordwainers Dan Deacon David Francey Trio Debashish Bhattacharya Emma Dean And The Hungry Truth Faux Mo Francesca De Valence Gabriella Smart Genevieve Lacey Jim Moginie Johannes S. Sistermanns Li Binyuan Marduk Martine Corompt And Philip Brophy Melisandre Michael Kieran Harvey MOFI Eastern Sho MOMA (mona Market) Neil Gaiman Omar Souleyman Paul Kelly Presents The Merri Soul Sessions – Featuring Dan Sultan, Clairy Browne, Kira Puru & Vika And Linda Bull Phillip Johnston Rektango Robyn Hitchcock Ruth Roshan And Tango Noir Senyawa & Lucas Abela Shonen Knife Speak Percussion Swans The Clean Tim Hecker Xylouris White Young Wagilak Group & Australian Art Orchestra Zammuto
Nestled between Flinders Street Station and the Yarra, Melbourne's longest bar has been killing it as of late. First, they blew our collective minds by serving espresso martinis on tap. Then they launched their own Oktoberfest-style festival dedicated to supporting local artists. Now, Arbory Bar and Eatery is battening down the hatches on their latest awesome venture: a bona fide floating bar. Moored on the Yarra's northern bank adjacent to the main bar, Arbory Afloat will be open for business from Tuesday, October 27 until Sunday, November 8, coinciding with this year's Spring Racing festivities. The seaworthy pop-up is licensed to serve up to 120 patrons, and has been decorated in a nautical style ''with an undertone of 1970's Palm Springs flair." The menu will differ from the usual Arbory fare, with chef Nick Bennett keeping the focus on fresh seafood — think caviar, oysters and New England lobster rolls — alongside charcoal-roasted skewers, including crusted tuna, wagyu beef and miso marinated eggplant. Just make sure you leave room for the Floating Island dessert, consisting of a poached meringue floating on white chocolate anglaise finished with fresh raspberries. Just roll us overboard once we're done. Above all, a floating bar needs a floating cocktail menu. The drinks list includes a selection of beers, wines and sparklings, plus a quartet of specially-crafted cocktails, including the Shrub Ahoy! (housemade strawberry shrub mix, Pampero Blanco Rum, soda and mixed berries) and the Nautical Rose (Lillet Rose, lemonade and fresh orange over ice.) Arbory Afloat will be open daily from 11am until late. We'll be paying them a visit, if only so we can be like:
After a lengthy stint in lockdown, Melburnians could do with a bit of a laugh. Thankfully, seven of Australia's best comedians have come together for a series of side-splitting performances in Comedy SOS. Kicking off in August, the seven-week comedic program saw a different comedian stream a show every Saturday night. Now, you can binge them all in one laugh-filled session from Friday, October 2–Monday, October 5. Cough up $49.90 and you can spend the weekend cackling to Kitty Flanagan's talk about sex and algorithms in Smashing, Ross Noble's nonsensical El Hablador and Steph Tisdell's educational Identity Theft, which includes an abridged history lesson and a policy discussion delivered as a comedy rap. Also on the program: Arj Barker with We Need to Talk, The Gloves Are Off by George Carroll, Lawrence Mooney's Like Literally and Jimeoin's Ramble ON!. If you don't think you'll make it through all seven shows, you can watch individual ones for $14.90 a pop. [caption id="attachment_784962" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Steph Tisdell[/caption] Top image: Lawrence Mooney
"Black people. I love you. I love us. Our lives matter." One Facebook post and Alicia Garza made history, a call to action that would gain traction and spark the founding of #BlackLivesMatter in the wake of the violent deaths of African Americans Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown, Eric Garner and many others. It's one of the world's most important international activist movements, campaigning against violence toward black people, and Garza will bring it front and centre at this year's Festival of Dangerous Ideas. Set to return to the Sydney Opera House over September 3 and 4 for its eighth year, FODI is bringing one of its most serious, enlightening programs yet as part of Sydney Opera House Talks & Ideas. Delivering the opening address with none other than Stan Grant, Garza leads a host of colossal thinkers and strong minds not afraid to question the problematic way things are — over 50 speakers across 24 solo sessions, 12 panels and one free workshop. This year, FODI has four major themes: 'Disappearing Countries', 'Dealing in Death', 'Disruptive Behaviour' and 'Dirty Politics'. One sure to provoke is apparently repentant author of The Game Neil Strauss in his sure-to-be-debated talk 'Cheaters, Sex Addicts and Pick-Up Artists'. UK comedian and The Young Ones legend Alexei Sayle dives into his ratbag past with 'Thatcher Made Me Laugh' — a perfect pairing for anarchists locked in for Henry Rollins' already-announced 'Blood Sport' talk about US politics. In fact, politics in Australia and abroad feature prominently in FODI's response to current 'World is fukt' times. Favourites Annabel Crabb and David Marr will pull apart the recent (and by-FODI, it'll be solved) federal election in 'The Government We Deserve?' — both have written biographies on Malcolm Turnbull and Bill Shorten respectively, so this one's going to be a humdinger. Marr's also hosting an epic two-hour forum titled 'Can We Solve The Asylum Seeker Crisis?'. Perpetual WTF-generator and controversial commentator Andrew Bolt will lead a talk dubbed 'How Many Dangerous Ideas Can One Person Have?', so expect Twitter to be all over that one. Climate change and social justice feature prominently on this year's bill, with Canadian activist Sheila Watt-Cloutier's 'The Right To Be Cold' set to be a highlight — she sees the failure of the world to act on climate change a gross violation of Inuit human rights — and The Economist's Environment Correspondent Miranda Johnson wants fishing the high seas stopped. Arts and sport will both get their turn on the chopping block this year. Sport nuts should jump on tickets to see journalist Tracey Holmes, sports scientist Stephen Dank (yep, that guy), former Olympic swimmer Lisa Forrest, academic Jason Mazanov and former IOC boss Kevan Gosper will be deciding whether drugs in sport should be legalised. Visual artist, activist and Drawing Blood author Molly Crabapple (who designed this year's 'FODI-land' concept on the festival website) will take you from Syria to Guantanamo Bay and back to Occupy Wall Street. We Need To Talk About Kevin author Lionel Shriver wants you to break a rule a day, while author of The Magicians trilogy and TIME's book critic Lev Grossman will argue that 'There Are No Good Books'. But we haven't even scratched the surface on FODI 2016, from former Kevin Rudd staffer Jennifer Rayner standing up for millennials in 'Generation Less', to the incredibly important panel 'Not Worth Living' delving into the specific, tragic epidemic of suicide in Indigenous people. Plus, co-founder of The Maintainers Lee Vinsel wants people to stop worshipping innovation and start focusing on maintenance of technology — something we can't wait to argue with him on. Sydney Opera House Talks & Ideas team of Ann Mossop and Danielle Harvey have curated this seriously epic program, with Simon Longstaff from The Ethics Centre as curatorial adviser . The 2016 Festival of Dangerous Ideas is coming to the Sydney Opera House on September 3 and 4. Multipacks are on sale from July 11 at 9am, single tickets on July 14 from 9am, all from the FODI website — where you'll find the full FODI program alongside Molly Crabapple's web design.
A number of prominent Australian musicians, including Little May, Montaigne, Ngaiire and Abbe May, are uniting through social media in order to throw their support behind International Breast Cancer Awareness month. The I Touch Myself Project was inspired by the 1990 hit song by Australian rock band Divinyls, whose lead singer Chrissy Amphlett died from breast cancer in 2013. The campaign was originally launched by the Cancer Council in 2014, with the likes of Megan Washington, Sarah Blasko and Olivia Newton John collaborating on a music video to encourage women to check themselves for the disease. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeaO2BrrIf8 Now the campaign has been resurrected by a new group of female artists, who have taken to Instagram to share photos of themselves holding their breasts in their hands and encouraging other women to do the same, using the hashtag #itouchmyselfproject. "Every year, hundreds and thousands of women die from treatable breast cancer, simply because they are diagnosed too late," posted the members of Little May. "In memory of the late legend, Chrissy Amphlett, we have joined friends @ngaiire @actualmontaigne @katysteele @abbemayzing to touch ourselves as she had asked." Every year, hundreds and thousands of women die from treatable breast cancer, simply because they are diagnosed too late. In memory of the late legend, Chrissy Amphlett, we have joined friends @ngaiire @actualmontaigne @katysteele @abbemayzing to touch ourselves as she had asked. The Divinyls 'I Touch Myself' is now an anthem for the early detection of breast cancer. For International Breast Cancer Awareness month take a picture of your own hand bra, and tag 5 of your friends to do the same.. @becsandridge @catalish @ella_hooper @lexi_b__ @jessicahamiltn #myhandbra #itouchmyselfproject @itouchmyselfproject A photo posted by Little May (@littlemaymusic) on Oct 3, 2016 at 8:54pm PDT Every year, hundreds of women die from treatable breast cancer, simply because they are diagnosed too late. @actualmontaigne @abbemayzing @katysteele , @littlemaymusic and I have stepped out in our hand bras in honour of the late Chrissy Amphlett who wanted her song 'I Touch Myself' to be an anthem for spreading the awareness of touching ourselves for early detection. Spread the word this Breast Cancer Awareness Month by taking a pic of your own hand bra and tagging 5 of your friends to do the same. Will you touch yourself @beemcsee @haileycramer @julianedisisto @summerpagaspas @mamikoyo @vassi_lena ? #myhandbra #itouchmyselfproject #ngaiire A photo posted by N G A I I R E (@ngaiire) on Oct 3, 2016 at 7:07pm PDT Chrissy Amphlett did a wonderful thing before the world lost her to breast cancer, and that was to make sure she was doing the most she could to avail women of a similar fate. I am proud to be a part of the #itouchmyselfproject and to raise awareness of breast cancer alongside a plethora of other excellent women and @berleiaus. I touch myself for breast cancer awareness. Will you? Photographed by the amazing Tony Mott! A photo posted by Montaigne (@actualmontaigne) on Oct 4, 2016 at 2:08am PDT Every year, hundreds and thousands of women die from treatable breast cancer, simply because they are diagnosed too late. In memory of the late legend, Chrissy Amphlett, I am humbled to join friends @ngaiire @actualmontaigne @littlemaymusic @abbemayzing to touch ourselves as she had asked. The Divinyls 'I Touch Myself' is now an anthem for the early detection of breast cancer. For International Breast Cancer Awareness month take a picture of your own hand bra, and tag 5 of your friends to do the same.. @tanzertanzertanzer @leelulahula @sezzyfilmy @wheelsanddollbaby @jaala_bandthing Photo by #tonymott @itouchmyselfproject #itouchmyself #myhandbra A photo posted by Kａt y S t e e l e (@katysteele) on Oct 4, 2016 at 3:02am PDT Every year, hundreds of women die from treatable breast cancer, simply because they are diagnosed too late. The great @ngaiire, @actualmontaigne, @katysteele , @littlemaymusic and I have stepped out in our hand bras in honour of the late Chrissy Amphlett who wanted her song 'I Touch Myself' to be an anthem for spreading the awareness of touching ourselves for early detection. Spread the word this Breast Cancer Awareness Month by taking a pic of your own hand bra and tagging 5 of your friends to do the same. #itouchmyselfproject #myhandbra Photo taken by the radical Tony Mott. A photo posted by Abbe May (@abbemayzing) on Oct 3, 2016 at 7:10pm PDT
Drop whatever it is that you're doing: the ticket ballot for the 26th Meredith Music Festival is officially open. Running from December 9-11, the latest edition of the much-loved dickhead-free music festival will take place at its usual digs, Meredith's Supernatural Amphitheatre, which has gone and gotten itself a brand new sound system "tailor-made for the dynamic undulations of the Amphitheatre at all times of Magic O'Clock". Other changes for this year's festival include additional camping space, hundreds of new trees planted as part of Uncle Doug's Native Planting, and – perhaps most importantly – extra dunnies in the campground. Aunty, meanwhile, has been working hard on the lineup, which she promises will be announced "soonish". Standouts from last year included Father John Misty, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Ratatat, The Thurston Moore Band, Tkay Maidza, Neon Indian and Big Daddy Kane. The Meredith Ballot will be open from now until 10.26pm on Monday, August 8. Head on over to the festival website to sign up.
The neighbouring Northcote sites, once home to siblings Estelle Bistro and Estelle by Scott Pickett (ESP), had a shakeup back in 2019. They closed down and reopened as one standalone venue encompassing wining, dining and everything in between. Dubbed simply Estelle, this hospitality project from acclaimed Chef Scott Pickett (Longrain, Estelle, Matilda and Pastore) is a spot for all occasions, showcasing his signature modern Australian fare across both the bar and dining room. The High Street space has more of a relaxed energy than before, the bar boasting splashes of exposed brick and emerald green marble, and the dining space kitted out with covetable kitchen-side seating. From that kitchen comes a collaborative effort by Pickett and his chefs, the menu running easily from bar snacks through to larger plates primed for lengthy dining room sessions. The menu oft changes, but you might come across the likes of wagyu bolognese and kimchi stuffed toasties and puffed crisps of veal tendon flavoured with coffee and roasted onion, or maybe a whole flounder cooked with black bean and XO sauce. Bigger feasts might mean delicate chicken wings stuffed with shiitake and kelp, hand-rolled macaroni cacio e pepe with guanciale, or the Berkshire pork matched with mustard leaf and kohlrabi. To match, almost 200 Aussie drops star throughout Estelle's considered wine list, while a cocktail lineup sits time-honoured classics alongside signature sips. Images: Simon Shiff.
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.
Perler beads aren't just for making and ironing into cat pendants any more. Swedish artist Pappas Parlor has teamed up with duo The Very Best to create an 8-bit video for the duo's newest single 'Let Go'. With all the nostalgic joy of a platform, 8-bit game, the video was actually created using tiny perler beads (yep, those beads you used to make gerberas, cats and unicorns out of as a kid and iron them into permanence). Unsurprisingly, Parlor's video took over a month to create; painstakingly arranging the perler beads as 'pixels' and editing the whole thing as stop motion. The clip follows The Very Best bandmates Johan Hugo and Esau Mwamwaya scurrying through different platform environments in a two-player set-up, and meeting Vampire Weekend’s Chris Baio and The Vaccines’ Freddie Cowan along the way. Mwamwaya and Hugo run through their homelands, hotfooting it away from 'enemies' specific to their locations — in Mwamwaya’s southeast African home of Malawi, they run from the local street dogs, in Hugo's Swedish homeland, they run from a fox, polar bears... and the ring-wing political party. "We tried to come up with funny things that could happen in the video as well as address some of our more serious concerns," Johan told Wired. Most importantly, how do they beat the bosses in each level? Dance-offs, naturally. Try that, Mario. The Very Best’s new album Makes a King drops April 7. Check out the video for 'Let Go' here. Via Wired.
When you're trying to settling on viewing plans for an evening — any evening — there are almost as many ways to pick what to watch as there are movies and television series vying for your attention. One of the easiest options? Working your way through award-winners, whether you know you've already seen and loved plenty of them, you've been meaning to catch up with a heap or you just want to discover what all the fuss has been about. 2023's first excuse to pack your streaming queue and stack your cinema visits based on a Hollywood organisation is the Golden Globes, aka the Hollywood gongs that always kick off each year — and honour both films and TV series. Taking place on Wednesday, January 11 Australian time, the 2023 awards handed out trophies to many of 2022's absolute best on the big and small screens, giving you quite the list of things to watch and/or rewatch. Whether you're keen to hit the silver screen to catch a filmic gem, stream a stellar flick or binge your way through an excellent series or two, here are 15 of the Globes' best winners that you can check out immediately. (And if you're wondering what else won, you can read through the full list, too.) MOVIE MUST-SEES EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE Imagine living in a universe where Michelle Yeoh isn't the wuxia superstar she is. No, no one should want to dwell in that reality. Now, envisage a world where everyone has hot dogs for fingers, including the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon icon. Next, picture another where Ratatouille is real, but with raccoons. Then, conjure up a sparse realm where life only exists in sentient rocks. An alternative to this onslaught of pondering: watching Everything Everywhere All At Once, which throws all of the above at the screen and a helluva lot more. Yes, its title is marvellously appropriate. Written and directed by the Daniels, aka Swiss Army Man's Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, this multiverse-hopping wonder is a funhouse of a film that just keeps spinning through wild and wacky ideas. Instead of asking "what if Daniel Radcliffe was a farting corpse that could be used as a jet ski?" as their also-surreal debut flick did, the pair now muses on Yeoh, her place in the universe, and everyone else's along with her. Although Yeoh doesn't play herself in Everything Everywhere All At Once, she is seen as herself; keep an eye out for red-carpet footage from her Crazy Rich Asians days. Such glitz and glamour isn't the norm for middle-aged Chinese American woman Evelyn Wang, her laundromat-owning character in the movie's main timeline, but it might've been if life had turned out differently. That's such a familiar train of thought — a resigned sigh we've all emitted, even if only when alone — and the Daniels use it as their foundation. Their film starts with Evelyn, her husband Waymond (Ke Huy Quan, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom's Short Round and The Goonies' Data) and a hectic time. Evelyn's dad (James Hong, Turning Red) is visiting from China, the Wangs' daughter Joy (Stephanie Hsu, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) brings her girlfriend Becky (Tallie Medel, The Carnivores) home, and IRS inspector Deirdre Beaubeirdra (Jamie Lee Curtis, Halloween Ends) is conducting a punishing audit. Then Evelyn learns she's the only one who can save, well, everything, everywhere and everyone. GLOBES Won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy (Michelle Yeoh), Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture (Ke Huy Quan). Where to watch it: Everything Everywhere All At Once streams via Binge, Prime Video, Google Play, YouTube Movies and iTunes. Read our full review. BLACK PANTHER: WAKANDA FOREVER Black Panther: Wakanda Forever isn't the movie it was initially going to be, the sequel to 2018's electrifying and dynamic Black Panther that anyone behind it originally wanted it to be, or the chapter in the sprawling Marvel Cinematic Universe that it first aimed to be — this, the world already knows. The reason why is equally familiar, after Chadwick Boseman died from colon cancer in 2020 aged 43. At its best, this direct followup to the MCU's debut trip to its powerful African nation doesn't just know this, too, but scorches that awareness deep into its frames. King T'Challa's death starts the feature, a loss that filmmaking trickery doesn't reverse, no matter how meaningless mortality frequently proves when on-screen resurrections are usually a matter of mere plot twists. Wakanda Forever begins with heartbreak and pain, in fact, and with facing the hard truth that life ends and, in ways both big and small, that nothing is ever the same. Directed and co-written by Ryan Coogler (Creed) like its predecessor — co-scripting again with Joe Robert Cole (All Day and a Night) — Wakanda Forever's emotional tributes to T'Challa and Boseman hit swiftly, after the former's tech-wiz sister Shuri (Letitia Wright, Death on the Nile) agonises over not being able to save him. In a swirl of song, dance, colour, movement, rhythm and feeling on par with the first instalment, but also solemn, Wakanda erupts in mourning, and the film makes plain that the Black Panther audiences knew is gone forever. A year later, sorrow lingers, but global courtesy wanes — now that the world knows about the previously secret country and its metal vibranium, everyone wants a piece. Such searching incites a new threat to the planet, courtesy of Mesoamerican underwater kingdom Talokan and its leader-slash-deity Namor (Tenoch Huerta, Narcos: Mexico). The Atlantis-esque ocean realm has vibranium as well, and it's not keen on anywhere else but Wakanda doing the same. If Queen Ramonda (Angela Bassett, Gunpowder Milkshake), Shuri and their compatriots don't join Namor to fight back, Namor will wage war against them instead. GLOBES Won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture (Angela Bassett). Where to watch it: Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is currently screening in Australian cinemas. Read our full review. RRR The letters in RRR's title are short for Rise Roar Revolt. They could also stand for riveting, rollicking and relentless. They link in with the Indian action movie's three main forces, too — writer/director SS Rajamouli (Baahubali: The Beginning), plus stars NT Rama Rao Jr (Aravinda Sametha Veera Raghava) and Ram Charan (Vinaya Vidheya Rama) — and could describe the sound of some of its standout moments. What noise echoes when a motorcycle is used in a bridge-jumping rescue plot, as aided by a horse and the Indian flag, amid a crashing train? Or when a truck full of wild animals is driven into a decadent British colonialist shindig and its caged menagerie unleashed? What racket resounds when a motorbike figures again, this time tossed around by hand (yes, really) to knock out those imperialists, and then an arrow is kicked through a tree into someone's head? Or, when the movie's two leads fight, shoot, leap over walls and get acrobatic, all while one is sat on the other's shoulders? RRR isn't subtle. Instead, it's big, bright, boisterous, boldly energetic, and brazenly unapologetic about how OTT and hyperactive it is. The 187-minute Tollywood action epic — complete with huge musical numbers, of course — is also a vastly captivating pleasure to watch. Narrative-wise, it follows the impact of the British Raj (aka England's rule over the subcontinent between 1858–1947), especially upon two men. In the 1920s, Bheem (Jr NTR, as Rao is known) is determined to rescue young fellow villager Malli (first-timer Twinkle Sharma), after she's forcibly taken by Governor Scott Buxton (Ray Stevenson, Vikings) and his wife Catherine (Alison Doody, Beaver Falls) for no reason but they're powerful and they can. Officer Raju (Charan) is tasked by the crown with making sure Bheem doesn't succeed in rescuing the girl, and also keeping India's population in their place because their oppressors couldn't be more prejudiced. GLOBES Won: Best Original Song (for 'Naatu Naatu' by Kala Bhairava, M.M. Keeravani, Kala Bhairava, Rahul Sipligunj). Where to watch it: RRR streams via Netflix. Read our full review. THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN In The Banshees of Inisherin, the rolling hills and clifftop fields look like they could stretch on forever, even on a fictional small island perched off the Irish mainland. For years, conversation between Padraic Súilleabháin (Colin Farrell, After Yang) and Colm Doherty (Brendan Gleeson, The Tragedy of Macbeth) has been similarly sprawling — and leisurely, too — especially during the pair's daily sojourn to the village pub for chats over pints. But when the latter calls time on their camaraderie suddenly, his demeanour turns brusque and his explanation, only given after much pestering, is curt. Uttered beneath a stern, no-nonsense stare by Gleeson to his In Bruges co-star Farrell, both reuniting with that darkly comic gem's writer/director Martin McDonagh for another black, contemplative and cracking comedy, Colm is as blunt as can be: "I just don't like you no more." In the elder character's defence, he wanted to ghost his pal without hurtful words. Making an Irish exit from a lifelong friendship is a wee bit difficult on a tiny isle, though, as Colm quickly realises. It's even trickier when the mate he's trying to put behind him is understandably upset and confused, there's been no signs of feud or fray beforehand, and anything beyond the norm echoes through the town faster than a folk ballad. So springs McDonagh's smallest-scale and tightest feature since initially leaping from the stage to the screen, and a wonderful companion piece to that first effort. Following the hitman-focused In Bruges, he's gone broader with Seven Psychopaths, then guided Frances McDormand and Sam Rockwell to Oscars with Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri, but he's at his best when his lens is trained at Farrell and Gleeson as they bicker in close confines. GLOBES Won: Best Motion Picture — Comedy, Best Screenplay — Motion Picture (Martin McDonagh), Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy (Colin Farrell). Where to watch it: The Banshees of Inisherin is currently screening in Australian cinemas. Read our full review. GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S PINOCCHIO Guillermo del Toro hasn't yet directed a version of Frankenstein, except that he now has in a way. Officially, he's chosen another much-adapted, widely beloved story — one usually considered less dark — but there's no missing the similarities between the Nightmare Alley and The Shape of Water filmmaker's stop-motion Pinocchio and Mary Shelley's ever-influential horror masterpiece. Both carve out tales about creations made by grief-stricken men consumed by loss. Both see those tinkerers help give life to things that don't usually have it, gifting existence to the inanimate because they can't cope with mortality's reality. Both notch up the fallout when those central humans struggles with the results of their handiwork, even though all that the beings that spring from their efforts want is pure and simple love and acceptance. Del Toro's take on Pinocchio still has a talking cricket, a blue-hued source of magic and songs, too, but it clearly and definitely isn't a Disney movie. Instead, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio is an enchanting iteration of a story that everyone knows, and that's graced screens so many times that this is the third flick in 2022 alone. Yes, the director's name is officially in the film's title. Yes, it's likely there to stop the movie getting confused with that array of other page-to-screen adaptations, all springing from Carlo Collodi's 19th-century Italian children's novel The Adventures of Pinocchio. That said, even if the list of features about the timber puppet wasn't longer than said critter's nose when he's lying, del Toro would earn the possessory credit anyway. No matter which narrative he's unfurling — including this one about a boy fashioned out of pine (voiced by Gregory Mann, Victoria) by master woodcarver Geppetto (David Bradley, Catherine Called Birdy) after the death of his son — the Mexican Oscar-winner's distinctive fingerprints are always as welcomely apparent as his gothic-loving sensibilities. GLOBES Won: Best Motion Picture — Animated. Where to watch it: Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio streams via Netflix. Read our full review. ELVIS Making a biopic about the king of rock 'n' roll, trust Baz Luhrmann to take his subject's words to heart: a little less conversation, a little more action. The Australian filmmaker's Elvis, his first feature since 2013's The Great Gatsby, isn't short on chatter. It's even narrated by Tom Hanks (Finch) as Colonel Tom Parker, the carnival barker who thrust Presley to fame (and, as Luhrmann likes to say, the man who was never a Colonel, never a Tom and never a Parker). But this chronology of an icon's life is at its best when it's showing rather than telling. That's when it sparkles brighter than a rhinestone on all-white attire, and gleams with more shine than all the lights in Las Vegas. That's when Elvis is electrifying, due to its treasure trove of recreated concert scenes — where Austin Butler (Once Upon a Time in Hollywood) slides into Presley's blue suede shoes and lifetime's supply of jumpsuits like he's the man himself. Butler is that hypnotic as Presley. Elvis is his biggest role to-date after starting out on Hannah Montana, sliding through other TV shows including Sex and the City prequel The Carrie Diaries, and also featuring in Yoga Hosers and The Dead Don't Die — and he's exceptional. Thanks to his blistering on-stage performance, shaken hips and all, the movie's gig sequences feel like Elvis hasn't ever left the building. Close your eyes and you'll think you were listening to the real thing. (In some cases, you are: the film's songs span Butler's vocals, Presley's and sometimes a mix of both). And yet it's how the concert footage looks, feels, lives, breathes, and places viewers in those excited and seduced crowds that's Elvis' true gem. It's meant to make movie-goers understand what it was like to be there, and why Presley became such a sensation. Aided by dazzling cinematography, editing and just all-round visual choreography, these parts of the picture — of which there's many, understandably — leave audiences as all shook up as a 1950s teenager or 1970s Vegas visitor. GLOBES Won: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama (Austin Butler). Where to watch it: Elvis streams via Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Read our full review. THE FABELMANS "Movies are dreams that you never forget," says Mitzi Fabelman (Michelle Williams, Venom: Let There Be Carnage) early in Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans. Have truer words ever been spoken in any of the director's flicks? Uttered to her eight-year-old son Sammy (feature debutant Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord), Mitzi's statement lingers, providing the film's beating heart even when the coming-of-age tale it spins isn't always idyllic. Individual pictures can come and go, of course. Only some — only some on the Jaws, Indiana Jones, Jurassic Park and West Side Story filmmaker's own resume, in fact — truly stand the test of time. But as former concert pianist Mitzi understands, and imparts to her wide-eyed on-screen Spielberg boyhood surrogate, movies as an art form are a dream that keeps shining in our heads. We return to theatres again and again for more. We glue our eyes to films at home, too. We lap up the worlds they visit, stories they relay and fantasies they inspire, and we also add our own. To everyone that's ever stared at the silver screen in awe, The Fabelmans pays tribute far more than it basks in the glow of its director. Because everyone is crafting cinematic memoirs of late, Spielberg adds this tender yet clear-eyed look at his childhood to a growing list of self-reflective flicks; however, he's as fascinated with cinema as a dream-sparking and -making force as is he with fictionalising his own tale. Slot The Fabelmans in alongside James Gray's Armageddon Time, Kenneth Branagh's Belfast, Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza and Alejandro González Iñárritu's Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths from the past year or so, then, but don't merely consider it Spielberg jumping on a trend. Focusing on Sammy's film fixation, including as a teen (played by Gabriel LaBelle, The Predator) and as his fragile family hops around the US following his computer-engineer dad Burt's (Paul Dano, The Batman) work, this is a heartfelt, perceptive and potent movie about how movies act as a mirror — a vividly shot and engagingly performed one, too, complete with a pitch-perfect late cameo — whether we're watching or creating them. GLOBES Won: Best Motion Picture — Drama, Best Director — Motion Picture (Steven Spielberg). Where to watch it: The Fabelmans is currently screening in Australian cinemas. Read our full review. SMALL-SCREEN STANDOUTS ABBOTT ELEMENTARY The Office did it, in both the UK and US versions. Parks and Recreation did so, too. What We Do in the Shadows still does it — and, yes, there's more where they all came from. By now, the mockumentary format is a well-established part of the sitcom realm. Indeed, it's so common that additional shows deciding to give it a whirl aren't noteworthy for that alone. But in Emmy-winner Abbott Elementary, which is currently streaming its second season, the faux doco gimmick is also deployed as an outlet for the series' characters. They're all public school elementary teachers in Philadelphia, and the chats to-camera help convey the stresses and tolls of doing what they're devoted to. In a wonderfully warm and also clear-eyed gem created by, co-written by and starring triple-threat Quinta Brunson (Miracle Workers), that'd be teaching young hearts and minds no matter the everyday obstacles, the utter lack of resources and funding, or the absence of interest from the bureaucracy above them. Brunson plays perennially perky 25-year-old teacher Janine Teagues, who loves her gig and her second-grade class. She also adores her colleague Barbara Howard (Sheryl Lee Ralph, Ray Donovan), the kindergarten teacher that she sees as a mentor and work mum. Actually, Janine isn't just fond of all of the above — she's so devoted to her job that she'll let nothing stand in her way. But that isn't easy or straightforward in a system that's short on cash and care from the powers-that-be to make school better for its predominantly Black student populace. Also featuring Everybody Hates Chris' Tyler James Williams (also The United States vs Billie Holiday) as an apathetic substitute teacher, Lisa Ann Walter (The Right Mom) and Chris Perfetti (Sound of Metal) as Abbott faculty mainstays, and Janelle James (Black Monday) as the incompetent principal who only scored her position via blackmail, everything about Abbott Elementary is smart, kindhearted, funny and also honest. That remains the case in season two, where Janine is newly single and grappling with being on her own, sparks are flying with Williams' Gregory and James' Ava can't keep bluffing her way through her days. GLOBES Won: Best Television Series — Musical or Comedy, Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy (Quinta Brunson), Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Musical or Comedy or Drama Television Series (Tyler James Williams). Where to watch it: Abbott Elementary streams via Disney+. THE BEAR First, an important piece of advice: eating either before or while watching The Bear is highly recommended, and near close to essential. Now, two more crucial slices of wisdom: prepare to feel stressed throughout every second of this riveting, always-tense, and exceptionally written and acted culinary series, and also to want to tuck into The Original Beef of Chicagoland's famous sandwiches immediately. The eatery is purely fictional, but its signature dish looks phenomenal. Most of what's cooked up in Carmen 'Carmy' Berzatto's (Jeremy Allen White, Shameless) kitchen does. But he has taken over the family business following his brother's suicide, arriving back home after wowing the world in fine dining's top restaurants, and nothing is easy. Well, coveting The Bear's edible wares is across the show's eight-episode first season — but making them, keeping the shop afloat, coping with grief and ensuring that the diner's staff work harmoniously is a pressure cooker of chaos. That anxious mood is inescapable from the outset; the best way to start any meal is just to bite right in, and The Bear's creator Christopher Storer (who also directs five episodes, and has Ramy, Dickinson and Bo Burnham: Make Happy on his resume) takes the same approach. He also throws all of his ingredients together with precision — the balance of drama and comedy, the relentlessness that marks every second in The Original Beef's kitchen, and the non-stop mouthing off by Richie, aka Cousin, aka Carmy's brother's best friend (Ebon Moss-Bachrach, The Dropout), all included. Carmy has bills to pay, debts to settle, eerie dreams and sleepwalking episodes to navigate, new sous chef Sydney (Ayo Edebiri, Dickinson) mixing up the place and long-standing employees (such as Hap and Leonard's Lionel Boyce, In Treatment's Liza Colón-Zayas and Fargo's Edwin Lee Gibson) to keep happy. Every glimpse at the resulting hustle and bustle is as gripping as it is appetising — and yes, binging is inevitable. GLOBES Won: Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Musical or Comedy (Jeremy Allen White). Where to watch it: The Bear streams via Disney+. Read our full review. EUPHORIA From the very first frames of its debut episode back in June 2019, when just-out-of-rehab 17-year-old Rue Bennett (Zendaya, Spider-Man: No Way Home) gave viewers the lowdown on her life, mindset, baggage, friends, family and everyday chaos, Euphoria has courted attention — or, mirroring the tumultuous teens at the centre of its dramas, the Emmy-winning HBO series just knew that eyeballs would come its way no matter what it did. The brainchild of filmmaker Sam Levinson (Malcolm & Marie), adapted from an Israeli series by the same name, and featuring phenomenal work by its entire cast, it's flashy, gritty, tense, raw, stark and wild, and manages to be both hyper-stylised to visually striking degree and deeply empathetic. In other words, if teen dramas reflect the times they're made — and from Degrassi, Press Gang and Beverly Hills 90210 through to The OC, Friday Night Lights and Skins, they repeatedly have — Euphoria has always been a glittery eyeshadow-strewn sign of today's times. That hasn't changed in the show's second season. Almost two and a half years might've elapsed between Euphoria's first and second batch of episodes — a pair of out-of-season instalments in late 2020 and early 2021 aside — but it's still as potent, intense and addictive as ever. And, as dark, as Rue's life and those of her pals (with the cast including Hunter Schafer, The King of Staten Island's Maude Apatow, The Kissing Booth franchise's Jacob Elordi, The White Lotus' Sydney Sweeney, The Afterparty's Barbie Ferreira, North Hollywood's Angus Cloud and Waves' Alexa Demie) bobs and weaves through everything from suicidal despair, Russian Roulette, bloody genitals, unforgettable school plays, raucous parties and just garden-variety 2022-era teen angst. The list always goes on; in fact, as once again relayed in Levinson's non-stop, hyper-pop style, the relentlessness that is being a teenager today, trying to work out who you are and navigating all that the world throws at you is Euphoria's point. GLOBES Won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Drama (Zendaya). Where to watch it: Euphoria streams via Binge. OZARK In 2022, Julia Garner schemed her away into New York's upper echelons in the instantly addictive Inventing Anna, playing IRL faux socialite Anna Delvey — and won the unofficial award for wildest accent on TV, too. She didn't end up nabbing a Golden Globe for her part, despite being nominated; however, the acclaimed actress hasn't been going home empty-handed at awards ceremonies. The reason? Fellow Netflix series Ozark. The Assistant keeps picking up Supporting Actress gongs for the crime drama, for her blistering performance as Ruth Langmore. When the show started back in 2017, Garner wasn't in its top-two biggest names, thanks to Jason Bateman (The Outsider) and Laura Linney (Tales of the City), but she's turned her part into an absolute powerhouse. Ozark's focus: a financial advisor, Marty Byrde (Bateman), who moves from Chicago to a quiet Missouri town — yes, in the titular Ozarks region — after a money-laundering scheme goes wrong in a big way. That's a significant shift for his wife Wendy (Linney) and kids Charlotte (Sofia Hublitz, What Breaks the Ice) and Jonah (Skylar Gaertner, Daredevil), but it doesn't see Marty change his ways. Instead, more laundering is in his future, as well as crossing paths with Ruth, who hails from a criminal family. Across its four-season run, Ozark has always been lifted by its performances, which is unsurprising given that Bateman, Linney and Garner are all at the top of their games. It's a masterclass in tension, too, and in conveying a relentless feeling of dread. GLOBES Won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Musical or Comedy or Drama Television Series (Julia Garner). Where to watch it: Ozark streams via Netflix. BLACK BIRD 2022 marks a decade since Taron Egerton's first on-screen credit as a then-23 year old. Thanks to the Kingsman movies, Eddie the Eagle, Robin Hood and Rocketman, he's rarely been out of the cinematic spotlight since — but miniseries Black Bird feels like his most mature performance yet. The latest based-on-a-true-crime tale to get the twisty TV treatment, it adapts autobiographical novel In with the Devil: a Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption. It also has Dennis Lehane, author of Gone Baby Gone, Mystic River and Shutter Island, bringing it to streaming. The focus: Jimmy Keene, a former star high-school footballer turned drug dealer, who finds his narcotics-financed life crumbling when he's arrested in a sting, offered a plea bargain with the promise of a five-year sentence (four with parole), but ends up getting ten. Seven months afterwards, he's given the chance to go free, but only if he agrees to transfer to a different prison to befriend suspected serial killer Larry Hall (Paul Walter Hauser, Cruella), and get him to reveal where he's buried his victims' bodies. Even with new shows based on various IRL crimes hitting queues every week, or thereabouts — 2022 has seen plenty, including Inventing Anna, The Dropout, The Girl From Plainville and The Staircase, to name a mere few — Black Bird boasts an immediately compelling premise. The first instalment in its six-episode run is instantly gripping, too, charting Keene's downfall, the out-of-ordinary situation posed by Agent Lauren McCauley (Sepideh Moafi, The Killing of Two Lovers), and the police investigation by Brian Miller (Greg Kinnear, Crisis) to net Hall. It keeps up the intrigue and tension from there; in fact, the wild and riveting details just keep on coming. Fantastic performances all round prove pivotal as well. Again, Egerton is excellent, while Hauser's menace-dripping efforts rank among the great on-screen serial killer portrayals. And, although bittersweet to watch after his sudden passing in May, Ray Liotta (The Many Saints of Newark) makes a firm imprint as Keene's father. GLOBES Won: Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Paul Walter Hauser). Where to watch it: Black Bird streams via Apple TV+. Read our full review. THE WHITE LOTUS Lives of extravagant luxury. Globe-hopping getaways. Whiling away cocktail-soaked days in gorgeous beachy locales. Throw in the level of wealth and comfort needed to make those three things an easy, breezy everyday reality, and the world's sweetest dreams are supposedly made of this. On TV since 2021, HBO's hit dramedy The White Lotus has been, too. Indeed, in its Emmy-winning first season, the series was a phenomenon of a biting satire, scorching the one percent, colonialism and class divides in a twisty, astute, savage and hilarious fashion. It struck such a chord, in fact, that what was meant to be a one-and-done limited season was renewed for a second go-around, sparking an anthology. That Sicily-set second effort once again examines sex, status, staring head-on at mortality and accepting the unshakeable fact that life is short for everyone but truly sweet for oh-so-few regardless of bank balance — and with writer/director/creator Mike White (Brad's Status) still overseeing proceedings, the several suitcase loads of smart, scathing, sunnily shot chaos that The White Lotus brings to screens this time around are well worth unpacking again. Here, another group of well-off holidaymakers slip into another splashy, flashy White Lotus property and work through their jumbled existences. Another death lingers over their trip, with The White Lotus again starting with an unnamed body — bodies, actually — then jumping back seven days to tell its tale from the beginning. Running the Taormina outpost of the high-end resort chain, Valentina (Sabrina Impacciatore, Across the River and Into the Trees) is barely surprised by the corpse that kicks off season two. She's barely surprised about much beforehand, either. That includes her dealings with the returning Tanya McQuoid-Hunt (Jennifer Coolidge, The Watcher), her husband Greg (Jon Gries, Dream Corp LLC) and assistant Portia (Haley Lu Richardson, After Yang); three generations of Di Grasso men, aka Bert (F Murray Abraham, Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities), Hollywood hotshot Dominic (Michael Imperioli, The Many Saints of Newark) and the Stanford-educated Albie (Adam DiMarco, The Order); and tech whiz Ethan (Will Sharpe, Defending the Guilty) and his wife Harper (Aubrey Plaza, Best Sellers), plus his finance-bro college roommate Cameron (Theo James, The Time Traveller's Wife) and his stay-at-home wife Daphne (Meghann Fahy, The Bold Type). GLOBES Won: Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television, Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television (Jennifer Coolidge). Where to watch it: The White Lotus streams via Binge. Read our full review of season two. THE DROPOUT Dramatising the Theranos scandal, eight-part miniseries The Dropout is one of several high-profile releases this year to relive a wild true-crime tale — including the Anna Delvey-focused Inventing Anna, about the fake German heiress who conned her way through New York City's elite, and also documentary The Tinder Swindler, which steps through defrauding via dating app at the hands of Israeli imposter Simon Leviev. It also dives into the horror-inducing Dr Death-esque realm, because when a grift doesn't just mess with money and hearts, but with health and lives, it's pure nightmare fuel. And, it's the most gripping of the bunch, even though we're clearly living in peak scandal-to-screen times. Scam culture might be here to stay as Inventing Anna told us in a telling line of dialogue, but it isn't enough to just gawk its way — and The Dropout and its powerful take truly understands this. To tell the story of Theranos, The Dropout has to tell the story of Elizabeth Holmes, the Silicon Valley biotech outfit's founder and CEO from the age of 19. Played by a captivating, career-best Amanda Seyfried — on par with her Oscar-nominated work in Mank, but clearly in a vastly dissimilar role — the Steve Jobs-worshipping Holmes is seen explaining her company's name early in its first episode. It's derived from the words "therapy" and "diagnosis", she stresses, although history already dictates that it offered little of either. Spawned from Holmes' idea to make taking blood simpler and easier, using just one drop from a small finger prick, it failed to deliver, lied about it copiously and still launched to everyday consumers, putting important medical test results in jeopardy. GLOBES: Won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television. Where to watch it: The Dropout streams Disney+. Read our full review. HOUSE OF THE DRAGON In its very first moments, House of the Dragon's opening episode delivers exactly what its name promises: here be dragons indeed. Within ten minutes, the Iron Throne, that sprawling metal seat that all of Westeros loves fighting about, also makes its initial appearance. By the time the 20-minute mark arrives, bloody violence of the appendage-, limb- and head-lopping kind fills the show's frames as well. And, before the debut instalment of this Game of Thrones prequel about House Targaryen's history even hits its halfway mark, a brothel scene with nudity and sex is sighted, too. Between all of the above, the usual GoT family dramas, squabbles over successors and power struggles pop up. Of course they do. House of the Dragon was always going to check all of the above boxes. None of this can constitute spoilers, either, because none of it can come as a surprise. Game of Thrones' fame and influence have become that pervasive, as have its hallmarks and trademarks. Everyone knows what GoT is known for, even if you've somehow never seen this page-to-screen franchise yet or read the George RR Martin-penned books that it's based on. After green-lighting a different prequel to pilot stage, scrapping it, then picking this one to run with instead — and also making plans to bring novella series Tales of Dunk and Egg to TV, working on an animated GoT show, exploring other potential prequels and forging ahead a Jon Snow-focused sequel series — House of the Dragon is the first Game of Thrones successor to arrive in streaming queues, and it doesn't mess with a formula that HBO doesn't consider broken. Its focus: the Targaryen crew 172 years before the birth of Daenerys and her whole dragon-flying, nephew-dating, power-seeking story. Cue silky silver locks aplenty, including cascading from King Viserys I's (Paddy Considine, The Third Day) head as he takes to the Iron Throne over his cousin Princess Rhaenys (Eve Best, Nurse Jackie). She had a better claim to the spiky chair, but gets passed over because she's a woman. Years later, the same scenario springs up over whether the king's dragon-riding daughter Princess Rhaenyra (Upright's Milly Alcock, then Mothering Sunday's Emma D'Arcy) becomes his heir, or the future son he's desperate to have, or his headstrong and shady younger brother Prince Daemon (Matt Smith, Morbius). GLOBES: Won: Best Television Series — Drama. Where to watch it: House of the Dragon streams via Binge. Read our full review. Top image: HBO.
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.
Music festivals and writers festivals have existed for years, but they rarely mix. Sure, you'll hear poetic lyrics at the former, and maybe attend a tunes-inspired session at the latter. A true fusion of the two, though, is an elusive beast. Well, it was, until a few smart-thinking folks decided to organise a rock and roll writers festival. In an Australian first, the weekend-long event will explore the relationship between the literary and musical worlds. It's an idea that's so great, we can't believe that no one has done it locally before. Come April 2016, some of Australia’s finest authors, songwriters, lyricists and music commentators will converge upon Brisbane for two days of discussions, interviews, panels and more. An initial lineup boasting stacks of talented speakers has just been announced, featuring performer Jackie Marshall, previous jMag editor Jenny Valentish, journalist and Australian Music Prize judge Kate Hennessy, former Time Off editor and owner Sean Sennett, Courier Mail music writer Noel Mengel, and Pig City: From The Saints To Savage Garden author Andrew Stafford, among others. They'll all natter on about everything that's great about words, songs and the combination of the two, while trying to surprise, entertain, enlighten and challenge attendees in the process. And they'll do at the Brightside, because if you're going to throw a rock and roll writers festival, you have to do it at a rock and roll venue. The Rock and Roll Writers Festival runs from April 2 – 3, 2016, at the Brightside, 27 Warner Street, Fortitude Valley. For more information, visit their website.
You know the drill. The weekend rolls around and you and your mates end up doing exactly the same thing as last week — or at the very least, something pretty darn close. Sure, you chums are guaranteed to have a blast no matter what you're doing, but maybe it's time to spice up those group hangs (just a tiny bit, okay?). We've found a few perfect ways to do exactly that, from a spot of puppy patting to floating in a salty tank. Book in a friend date and head out of your usual comfort zone for one of these unexpected activities to do with your mates. BORROW SOMEONE ELSE'S PUP FOR THE DAY Dog-sharing. Yep. Read it again: dog-sharing. Services that allow pooch owners to connect with other pooch owners to help with everyday care, pupsit for holidays, do walks and so on. It's a thing (thanks to Australian service Dogshare) and you and your dogless mates can 'borrow' a pup for a walkie or sleepover from time-poor dog owners in your local area. To become a borrower, you just have to create a profile on Dogshare's website, list your previous experience with dogs and flag any services you're keen to volunteer for — like walks, park playdates, overnight stays or going to the vet. Can you think of a more joyous way to spend a sunny day with your squad? Just remember — you've gotta give them back at the end. Look after dem pooches, people. Do it at: where you live via Dogshare. LEARN HOW TO HULA HOOP LIKE A PRO When it comes to hula hooping, we're going to guess that you suck (although, props if you're a secret hula hooping champ). And the best way to learn is with your mates — because there's nothing like sucking at a physical activity to bring you closer together. Hula Sparz is run every Monday at 5.30pm at The Knowledge Market, and hooper Donna Sparx will teach you how to master the hoop to some cool beats. If nothing else, you'll work up a sweat and go out for dins after. Do it at: Hula Sparx at The Knowledge Market every Monday evening, Docklands. [caption id="attachment_592149" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Gravity Float[/caption] FLOAT AROUND IN A POD OF SALTY WATER You might be a few years off being able to float around with your mates in outer space, but you can enjoy the feeling of zero gravity, right here, right now. It seems like sensory deprivation tanks (yes, just like Stranger Things) popped up on just about every shopping strip overnight, offering an out-of-this world experience designed to take your relaxation levels to the max. Each tank is light-proof, sound-proof, and filled with a mix of Epsom salts and water, which takes away the sensation of gravity and leaves you floating in a temperature-controlled bubble of absolute peace. Those cortisol and adrenaline levels dip, as any external stimuli and distractions (read: all that stuff that's currently stressing you out), disappear completely. Do a simultaneous float with a mate and go grab lunch afterwards. Do it at: Gravity Float, Armadale. CLIMB A REALLY TALL WALL Sometimes it feels like the only way to catch up with friends is over food. Brunch, lunch, dinner, dessert, second dinner, second dessert are all great options (don't get us wrong), but sometimes you feel like doing something active and building muscle rather than building up a bill. Round up the crew and get vertical with a climbing session at your local indoor wall. With most rock climbing centres boasting a wide range of routes and climbs, you can tailor a visit to suit your group's abilities, whether that involves putting Spidey to shame with your ninja skills, or simply squashing that mild fear of heights. Sessions at most indoor rock climbing centres clock in at under $20 (safety demo included) with harness and shoe hire available for a few extra bucks each. You'll need someone to spot you, so take a friend who you trust with your life in their hands. Do it at: Hardrock, CBD. [caption id="attachment_556153" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Visit St. Pete/Clearwater via Flickr[/caption] TAKE TO THE SEAS ON A STAND-UP PADDLE BOARD Make the most of that impending sunshine and those bearable water temps this summer, and gather your mates for a stand-up paddleboard group lesson. Imagine gliding across the water, catching some rays, seeing fishies — or, alternatively, laughing at your mates and belly-flopping into the water as you try to stay standing. Both sound similarly fun. A carry-over from ancient Polynesian times, stand-up paddle boarding (SUP) has enjoyed a resurgence in recent years as a brilliant way to sharpen that balance and exercise on the high seas. Plus, the sport's a whole lot easier to master than its gnarlier cousin surfing — one lesson usually enough to have you paddling like a pro. Fish and chips on the beach post-paddle is, of course, a given. Do it at: Stand-Up Paddle Board HQ, St Kilda.
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.
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.
Undisputed badass, battle hero and SBS newsreader Lee Lin Chin is gearing up to represent Australia on the global stage. Announced on SBS's The Feed last night, Chin will take on the coveted role of Australia's official Eurovision spokesperson. Now that's a Eurovision representative we can get excited about (yeah sorry, ARIAs, charts, vocal range, yadda yadda, but come on). Chin will deliver the famous and vital points from Australia's stash, announcing the final three countries that will receive Australia's eight, ten and twelve points. So while Malta, Demark, perpetual 'London Calling' jokemakers the United Kingdom and more give it their best, most awkward shot in front of the green screen, Australia's modish champion will inevitably deliver the points with poise, urgency and hopefully, in this Logies hat. Given the time difference in Austria, Lin Chin will have to get up pretty early to deliver the goods. But eating, sleeping, raving and repeating is a cakewalk for this party professional. "I’m not worried about being up early, I’ll just have to take a break from the clubs for 20 minutes." *drops mic* As the very first time in Eurovision history Australia has been invited to compete in the contest, and the very first time Chin has dominated the international airwaves, it's all convenient timing for the SBS newsreader — who recently announced her new commitment to campaigning for the 2016 Gold Logie (most popular personality on Australian television, yep she's missing a few decades worth on her shelf). "195 million people watch Eurovision every year and if even just 10 million of those buy TV Week I’ll have it in the bag," she said in a coy and perfectly crafted media statement. "As SBS’s most recognisable personality I couldn’t say no to such an opportunity. I’m the obvious choice — not only have I been to Europe but I also listen to music from time to time." How can you get in on the Eurovision action? SBS will broadcast both semi-finals and the Grand Final live from Vienna on May 20, May 22 and May 24 from 5am. Both semi-finals will be shown in full on SBS ONE on May 22 and May 23 from 7.30pm. The Grand Final featuring Guy Sebastian and Lee Lin Chin's points delivery will screen on Sunday May 24 from 7.30pm. For now, this:
Melburnians rejoice! Our time has come to put on our red shoes and dance the blues. David Bowie Is, the most talked about exhibition all year, has graced us with its almighty presence. Now you can all stop complaining that you only just missed it when it was in London, and get to ACMI ASAP. The exhibition features a whole heap of Bowie-related items, including costumes, sets, lyrics, album artwork, rare footage and obviously, music. Really, you had us at 'Bowie Exhibition'. You could charge $20 to come and view just one sequinned shoulder pad, and we’d still be running one-another down to get to the entrance. But before you rush too quickly out the door, you might want to prepare yourself for the onslaught of aggressively competitive Bowie fanatics who'll be lining up and no doubt loudly exclaiming various facts and quotes to out-Bowie each other. You know, the kind who will be all, "That’s not even David’s correct blood type..." So to help you stand your ground, we've put together this list of pointers. Consider this your David Bowie homework. WATCH (OR REWATCH) LABYRINTH First and foremost, rewatch Labyrinth. Or, at the very least, get your fix through one of the greatest, most terrifying moments from everyone’s childhood that is the clip above. Bask in the glory of Bowie as he dances around with a large swarm of tiny alcoholic goblin puppets. It truly is something to behold. Extra fun fact: Toby Frouder, the actor who, as a baby, quite convincingly played the baby in Labyrinth, is now a puppeteer himself. A goblin puppeteer, in fact. It's true and it's amazing. HAVE SOME BOWIE MERCHANDISE TO FLASH Drunkenly purchase yourself some Bowie merchandise in the wee hours of the morning. Not speaking from experience at all, but when your new Aladdin Sane queen-size bed set arrives in the mail, you'll thank your past boozed-out self. Take a snap on your phone and set it as your background so when you waltz around the exhibit, you can be like "lol, I’m sleeping with Bowie tonight lol lol." Everyone will love you for it and think you are hilarious and original. They will. BRUSH UP ON YOUR BOWIE CAMEOS Remember that time Bowie starred as Pontius Pilate alongside Willem Dafoe’s Jesus in The Last Temptation of Christ? Yeah. That happened. Well, just in case someone quizzes you on that, you can memorise the full scene from here (but don’t, because it’s not great.) In fact, Bowie has a habit of popping up in unexpected places, everywhere from Zoolander to Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me. [embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwdORJVw3-o[/embed] GET THE LIVE(ISH) EXPERIENCE There’s a million videos of Davey B killing it on stage, but our personal favourite is this performance of ‘Under Pressure’ featuring Annie Lennox at the Freddie Mercury tribute concert in 1992. Unfortunately Bowie and Mercury never performed the song together live (can you actually imagine how incredible that performance would have been?), but it’s fair to say Lennox did a pretty phenomenal job. The dress, the three-piece green suit, the long loving embrace. It’s all too much. MEMORISE AT LEAST ONE BIT OF OBSCURE BOWIE TRIVIA When he was 13, Bowie was punched by his mate George Underwood over some mix-up with a girl (cuuute), and was left with a permanently dilated pupil. This story is relatively well-known and won’t earn you any Bow-n-ie points amongst aficionados. But what you may not know is that Underwood continued being one of Bowie’s best mates. Not only that, he's responsible for two of Bowie’s album covers, in Hunky Dory and The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and The Spiders From Mars. This proves that Bowie's a forgiving gentleman and all-round top bloke, just like we always knew he was. David Bowie Is will be at ACMI until November 1. See the full program of exhibition-related events at www.acmi.net.au/bowie. Top image: Masayoshi Sukita, The David Bowie Archive.
After Kate Reid's booming croissant business outgrew its tiny, Elwood shopfront, they moved to bigger and better digs in Fitzroy, with the baker launching Lune Croissanterie 2.0 with brother, Cameron, in 2015. The queues these buttery baked goods have been pulling ever since are testament to their cult status, with Melburnians more than happy to trek across town and forego weekend sleep-ins, just to get their hands on Reid's creations. While the croissant reigns supreme here, featured in various forms of twice-baked, filled, sweet, or savoury deliciousness, the rest is well worth a look in too. Think traditional French-style Danishes and pain au chocolate, sitting alongside more adventurous treats, like the signature cruffins. Inside the sprawling Rose Street warehouse is a sleek retail space and a handful of bench seats, where the less impatient punters can tuck straight into their pastry purchases, matched with a Small Batch coffee. And just as impressive as the textbook-perfect pastries is the bakery itself is a central glass studio, set permanently at the optimal croissant-crafting temperature. This is where the magic happens, on display for all to witness. And for a unique dining experience to tempt even the most avid of croissant fans, there's the Lune Lab. This hosts intimate degustation sittings, where diners are treated to a flight of three different pastries, running from oven-fresh classic croissants to Reid's latest envelope-pushing inventions. Images: Visit Victoria/Josie Withers.
Next week marks the beginning of Art Basel Hong Kong, one of the biggest art fairs in Asia. Painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, video and installation will all be on display, in an event designed to showcase the work of thousands of artists from all around the world. But the work of one man in particular appears to be in particularly good taste (geddit?). Uwe Opocensky, the German chef at the Michelin-starred Mandarin Oriental Hong Kong, has put together a menu that blurs the line between food and art. The aptly named Art Menu at the Mandarin Grill + Bar begins with an entree inspired by the most iconic artwork of Englishman Damien Hirst. The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living features a 14-foot shark suspended in a tank of formaldehyde. Opocensky's version consists of a mackerel floating in horseradish-flavoured cucumber jelly. The main course is modelled after a box of paints, with different coloured purees including mashed sweet potato, brown truffles, black garlic paste and red peppers, as well as a slice of beef covered in edible flowers. And for dessert, an ice cream filled chocolate mountain on a bed of popping candy, inspired by the mountaineering photography of Chinese artist Xu Zhen. As with many things in the world of high art, Oponcensky's elaborate dinner doesn't come cheap: $HK1888 ($AU320) a head. Pretty pricey, especially when you won't have anything to show for it at the end of the night. "What we make has a very short life span," Opocensky said to Quartz. "It is very exciting though. I cannot draw to save my life, but I can put things on a plate, and I love that we can be associated with art as a movement" Via Quartz.
With more than 150 years of winemaking history, the Mudgee region is a well-known weekend destination for wine lovers exploring New South Wales. Sheltered in the Cudgegong River Valley and surrounded by fertile farm land, it's the third largest grape-producing area in the state. The warm, temperate climate is ideal for varieties like tempranillo and garnacha. And many of the varieties you'd find in the Hunter Valley are also on offer here. Whether you're taking a road trip from Brisbane, Melbourne or Sydney, we've partnered with Destination NSW to bring you a guide to spending 48 hours in the wine region, from which vineyards and restaurants you should visit to the boutique accommodation on offer in the region. Start planning your road trip now. Please stay up to date with the latest NSW Government health advice regarding COVID-19. [caption id="attachment_790168" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pipeclay Pumphouse via Destination NSW[/caption] EAT Thanks to powerful promotion of local produce, Mudgee specialises in high-quality eateries. Market Street Cafe is one of them. The large, sunny space feels like a French country kitchen and the food follows suit — classic dishes, cooked with premium ingredients. For dinner, there's Pipeclay Pumphouse. It's part of the Robert Stein Winery and Vineyard, one of Mudgee's best-known winemakers. Opened in October 2013, the fine diner presents a range of seven- and ten-course degustations and you can add on matching wines from the Robert Stein range, or from Mudgee vineyards more broadly. Meanwhile, good coffee can be found at cute, French-influenced, courtyard cafe Alby + Esthers. [caption id="attachment_790162" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Gilbert Family Wines via Destination NSW[/caption] DRINK Start your wine tasting experience at Lowe Wines. Headed by sixth-generation Mudgee man and intelligent farming advocate David Lowe, it's home to expansive organic, biodynamic vineyards, rescued donkeys and a recycled 'chook palace'. Take it all in on a self-guided walking tour. Next, head to one (or more) of several wineries in the area specialising in European varieties. Mudgee's warm, temperate climate is ideal for them. Vinifera is known for its excellent Spanish-inspired drops and was one of the first wineries in Australia to experiment with tempranillo. Then, at Di Lusso, you'll find a focus on Italian wines and food, and at Mansfield, you'll discover unusual Portuguese-style drops. There are another 30 or so wineries to visit, including slick, big-name operations like Robert Oatley and smaller, fifth-generation winemakers Gilbert Family Wines, so be sure to book into your favourites in advance to secure tasting sessions before you travel. [caption id="attachment_790153" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Roth's Wine Bar via Destination NSW[/caption] DO When you want to drink somewhere other than at a vineyard, head to Roth's. It's the oldest wine bar in New South Wales, having set up as an illicit operation in the 1920s. And the 80-percent local wine list gives you the chance to sample anything you might have missed on your tasting adventures. Just up the road, the Mudgee Brewing Company is where to sample locally made ales and, when up and running again, hear local live music. If shopping is more your thing, check out the diverse range of native products and foods at the cafe and shop by Indigiearth. [caption id="attachment_790157" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dunns Swamp, Destination NSW[/caption] For those looking for some outdoor adventuring, there's the western fringe of the Wollemi National Park to explore, including the incredible scenery of Dunns Swamp, which forms the head of the Cudgegong River, and has plenty of opportunities for cycling, walking and kayaking. [caption id="attachment_790159" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Sierra Escape via Cameron D'Arcy[/caption] STAY One of the most beautiful (albeit pricey) options for sleeping is Evanslea. The estate sprawls across nine acres on the Cudgegong riverfront, yet it's within walking distance to town. Accommodation takes the form of five-star luxury spa cottages, and there's a communal pool and a tennis court. Here's the clincher: private wine tours in a vintage Valiant can be organised on request. Alternatively, you can stay at luxury glamping site Sierra Escape, which is only 20 minutes' drive from the centre of Mudgee, but feels a million miles from anything as it's surrounded by rolling countryside as far as the eye can see. Two-person tents start at $440 per night. Or, for a more architectural experience, there's The Black Shed. The newly built shed is found five kilometres from Mudgee, set within a working vineyard with free-roaming chooks and farm dogs. Now that interstate border restrictions have started to ease, start planning a trip to this picturesque wine region in NSW. For more details, visit Destination NSW's website. Top image: Lowe Wines, Destination NSW
Park City, Utah is getting a hit of Australian coffee culture, with the tourist hotspot set to become home to the first international cafe by home-grown coffee roasters Campos Coffee. The Sydney-born coffee shop has announced that it will open its first US store in Park City in mid-December, ensuring locals can finally enjoy a halfway decent flat white. Sorry not sorry, Starbucks. "We've considered the US market for more than ten years, but never found the right fit for us," said Campos founder and president Will Young in announcing the brand's stateside expansion. "As soon as we visited Park City, we knew it would be a perfect extension of the Campos Coffee brand." Park City is known for its tourist economy, driven by multiple ski resorts as well as the annual Sundance Film Festival. "Walking around, you can see the whole town has an active, inclusive and diverse community that cares about the environment," said Young. "Add to this a significant dedication to the arts, such as the Sundance Film Festival, and the decision was made." Campos, which currently has seven stores across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, is following in the footsteps a number of Australian coffee brands who have set up shop in the United States. Most recently Paramount Coffee Project opened up a base in Los Angeles. Look for Campos Coffee in Park City, Utah from mid-December.
Melbournians love to get a little fancy in January. Despite the monumental heat, we don our tennis whites, pack inside scorching stadiums and fan ourselves while sipping bubbly. But, if you're feeling a little worn out from the Australian Open, we have an alternative that has all the class without the apocalyptic heat. Trade in your rackets for some croquet clubs, get some fresh air down by the Yarra, and cool off with some icy, icy Pimms. The Royal Croquet Club is coming to town. Fresh from its debut run in Adelaide earlier this year, the Royal Croquet Club is a pop-up summer haven of food, drinks, music and croquet. Set up in the city during the Adelaide Fringe Festival, the club was an absolute hit for those after a summer tipple, now it's Melbourne's turn. The venue will be set up in the grasslands of Birrarung Marr for 17 days in January 2015. Though details are pretty scarce at the moment, we know that there will be a rather impressive group of foodie favourites on board. "The Adelaide Royal Croquet Club didn’t have a serious focus on food but with Melbourne being such a food town, we felt it was crucial to get this aspect right," event organiser Grant Smillie told Broadsheet. But it's not just the food, you'll be coming for. This urban oasis will have fully-stocked bars — specialising in jugs of Pimms, of course — functioning croquet courts and musical acts on stage. Those at the Adelaide event were even treated to a show from Remi. "Everything has got to be considered across the board so we can meet Melbourne's lofty expectations and exceed them," said Smillie. "There are so many festivals now, you want a full experience. We feel this one will be pretty organic and special." Special is certainly the right word to describe it. The Royal Croquet Club seems to have everything we want in a summer hangout spot: games, sun, shade, music, and cocktails that won't stop flowing. For those feeling a little lost outside the scorching heat of Rod Laver Arena, they'll even have the tennis on big outdoor screens. Sorted.
Want your Uber ride to be even cheaper? Don’t mind sharing a ride with strangers and making awkward small talk? UberPOOL might just be your perfect service. As reported by The Guardian, it’s rolling out in London today and allows Uber users to opt into a carpooling option with a very attractive 25 percent discount on the standard Uber fare. Sharing is caring. It’s not guaranteed there’ll be another user opting into UberPOOL in the vicinity, but if you don’t get matched you still keep that tasty discount. So basically, you get rewarded for being a chill and environmentally conscious Uber user, even if you don’t even right share (it’s the thought that counts). As well as making Uber even cheaper for anyone willing to share, UberPOOL also environmental benefits — more seats on bums and more cars making full use of their capacity means less cars on the road and less pollution. The option has been rolled out in a few cities and even accounts for half of all rides taken in San Francisco (half!), so it’s not exactly a new concept but it’s certainly taking off. We’re still waiting for word of when it will hit our shores but you can guarantee it's likely to. Gizmodo's Luke Hopewell wrote an interesting account of his experience in an UberPOOL and pointed out the one major flaw in the plan: as well as being hella awkward to ride with a complete stranger, if you hop our first, that complete stranger knows where you're going or where you live. The app doesn't give you the name of your riding buddy, but that's no guarantee you won't be Ubering home with a weirdo. While we wait to see how it all plays out, let’s just scroll through #yourtaxis and giggle gleefully over terrible PR ideas. Via The Guardian.
A stretch of the iconic Route 66 in Missouri is getting a major upgrade — and an environmental one at that. As part of its 'Road to Tomorrow' initiative, Missouri's Department of Transportation is joining forces with an Idaho-based startup called Solar Roadways to repave with state-of-the-art solar panels. These specially engineered panels are made of tempered safety glass and are super strong — as they'd have to be to sustain constant use by heavy vehicles. Apart from the whole 'harnessing the power of the sun' bit, the panels also come with LED lighting, which can efficiently replace road lines and signage. Basically, they're a badass piece of technology. The installation will no doubt be pricey, but Solar Roadways is prepared for it — the group raised more than $2.2 million through a crowdfunding campaign on Indiegogo. In addition to these funds, initiative leader Tom Blair received a $100,000 prototype grant from the Federal Highway Administration and two $750,000 research grants from the US Department of Transportation. Yep, that's federal funding for solar. The other good news is that their modular design allows for easy and cheap repairs by just swapping out broken panels for new ones. These bad boys are sustainable, ethical and eco-friendly — a seriously awesome invention that we hope to see more of on our own highways. Missouri may not be the first to experiment with solar roads — we wrote about the possibility of a crowdfunding campaign to pave American parking lots with the things back in 2014 and the recent plans to create solar roads in France earlier this year — but it sounds like Route 66 will be the first of its kind to actual get to the finish line. The Solar Roadways panels are expected to be completed by the end of 2016. This achievement is, almost inconceivably, awesome and hopefully will pave the way for the rest of us. Images: Solar Roadways.
As with every long weekend in Melbourne, the list of parties thrown over the three days is positively endless. If we have to pick a winner for bonafide boogie times, it's undoubtedly Around The Way. Brought to you by party-starter extraordinaires Funf, and stylish as all heck crew YSTRDAYBONE, the pair are are creating a music and lifestyle event like none other in Melbourne. Headlining the event is Scottish techno producer Sei A in his Melbourne debut. In terms of local DJ fun, Cutting Shapes DJs (specifically Jesse Young and Jean Pierre) will get that dance floor going. Speaking of Melbourne lads, legendary Cut Copy DJs will bring an infectious blend of disco and house, and Andras Fox will be doing his thing live — certainly worth keeping an eye and an ear out for. Also joining the list is Lovebirds, Tin Man, Myles Mac, Turkish Prison, Michael Ozone and Sleep D DJs. If you want in on this party, get your tickets now — last minute-ing is a fool's errand.
Bad news for online shopping addicts: Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey has declared his intention to abolish the $1000 GST-free threshold on overseas purchases by July 1, 2017. The announcement, which came after a day of tax reform talks between state and federal treasurers, means that all items purchased from overseas retailers, including those bought through online shopping services such as Amazon, will soon be subject to the same standard 10 percent GST surcharge as items purchased in Australia. Speaking to reporters on Friday, Hockey said that the change will help deliver "competitive neutrality for Australian businesses, and ensure fair and equal treatment of goods and services. If goods and services would have the GST applied in Australia, then the same should apply for goods from overseas." He also stated that the decision had been made "with the unanimous agreement of Labor and Liberal states and territories". Hockey told the ABC that "what it effectively means is that we're going to have taxation officials travel around the world and visiting these companies and asking them to register for GST purposes." Only those companies with an annual GST turnover of more than $75,000 will be affected. This will also include companies that provide digital content services, such as Netflix and Facebook. If overseas companies prove unwilling to comply with Australian government requests, an alternative method of collecting the GST could be for Australians to pay the surcharge separately upon receipt of their purchased item. The potential issue with this method would be the cost of assessing each item as it reaches the border – something that Hockey as dismissed as "plainly ridiculous." The treasurer is apparently confident that the amount of revenue raised by this new scheme will outweigh the costs of enforcing it – despite recent findings by the Productivity Commission to the contrary. According to news.com.au, however, a spokesperson for Mr. Hockey yesterday admitted that the treasury has yet to perform any modelling on the economic impact of the proposed changes. Ultimately, the most depressing thing about this story is that regardless of whether we end up paying the GST, it may still be cheaper to purchase things online — which does rather put a damper on Hockey's 'levelling the playing field' rhetoric. As it stands now, you've got just under two years to get in all your impulse buying before you get whacked with an additional fee. Image: Dollar Photo Club
