As any published author will tell you, settling on a cover design is tricky. But California-based designer Maria Mordvintseva-Keeler has come up with a novel approach. She's repackaged classics in cans — with labels that reveal their 'ingredients' without giving away their storylines. Titled Food for Thought, the design series features three classic books, each of which contains a foodie reference in its title — Truman Capote's Breakfast at Tiffany's, William Burroughs' Naked Lunch and Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant. The label lets the reader know if the book suits his/her mood and literary diet. Breakfast at Tiffany’s, for example, reads: "[It] has the characters, serving size, with the number of pages, and emotions in the daily value sections," Mordvintseva-Keeler told Mashable. "I sometimes wish they featured something like that on the cover, since the right book at the right moment is better than any sort of therapy. Reading is certainly better than stress eating." Originally from Moscow and now based in San Diego, Mordvintseva-Keeler's previous projects include Packaged Pets, which promotes the adoption of animals from shelters; EcoBag, a biodegradable plastic-bag replacement containing seeds (and similar to these coffee cups); and Bold as a Rooster, a typographical study exploring the "potential of roosters’ combs, feathers and legs to become legible letters". Take a leaf out of this artist's book. Via Mashable. Images: Maria Mordvintseva-Keeler.
If you go down to the NGV this October, you'll get to take a flower home with you. But on two conditions, says Taiwanese-American artist Lee Mingwei: "First, to make a detour from their intended route when leaving the museum for their next destination; second, along this detour, to give the flower to a stranger who they feel would benefit from this unexpected act of generosity." It's part of the artist's new work, The Moving Garden, opening at the National Gallery of Victoria on October 15. Mingwei and NGV have teamed up with Melbourne florist Flowers Vasette, who'll provide 1000 fresh flowers for each day of the exhibition — that's 106 days, totalling 106,000 flowers. One of the world's leading artists in audience participation, Mingwei made headlines this year at the Biennale of Sydney by recreating Picasso's masterpiece Guernica in sand before letting audiences walk all over it. "Lee's artwork inspires contemplation of social themes like trust and self-awareness, by encouraging one-on-one interactions between strangers," says NGV director Tony Ellwood. "The Moving Garden will also challenge the traditional relationship between art and audience, with each flower picked adding the story of the participant to that of the artwork." The Moving Garden is part of Melbourne's major new Asian arts festival, Asia TOPA: Asia-Pacific Triennial of Performing Arts, announced just this week. Mingwei will be conducting a free artist talk on Saturday, October 15, with bookings not required. Lee Mingwei: The Moving Garden will be on display at NGV International from 15 October 2016 – 29 January 2017. Open daily, 10am-5pm. Entry is free.
Turns out Neil Armstrong was lacking foresight when he first stepped on the moon. What he actually should have announced was, "One small step for man, one giant leap for beer." Last year, Oregon-based brewing company Ninkasi ran their very own space programme (classic forward-thinking Oregon). Yep, they got hold of a couple of rockets and sent a bunch of brewer's yeast into outer space and back. It's since been turned into beer and as of April 13, will be available for sampling. Wonderfully-named Ground Control, the brew blends well-travelled ingredients with local ones. Ninkasi have described it as a "rich, complex imperial stout", made with Oregon hazelnuts, star anise and cocoa nibs. Take. Our. Money. Getting the yeast into outer space and back successfully took two missions. The first, which left on July 2014, carried sixteen vials. But, on returning to Earth, it wound up somewhere in the Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, which meant that the Ninkasi team didn’t find it for 27 days — way too late for brewing purposes. The second mission, carrying six vials, left on October 23 from New Mexico's Spaceport America. After journeying to 408,035 feet, and reaching a maximum speed of Mach 5, it came back to Earth safely — ready for fermenting. Ground Control will be sold in limited edition 22-ounce bottles at selected retailers across the United States. Keep your eyes on the eBay stars. Via io9.
Chow down on extravagant chocolate creations or customise your own, at Australia's first ever KitKat Chocolatory when it opens in Melbourne next week. Setting up shop at Melbourne Central, the dedicated store comes on the back of a number of wonderfully over-the-top pop-ups, and will offer a rather more extensive lineup of KitKats than you'll find on the supermarket shelf. Think pop-rocks, potato chips, marshmallows and toasted coconut, and you should be right on the right track. Opening on October 21 in Melbourne Central, the KitKat Chocolatory intends to offer a "premium chocolate experience" according to the sugar fiends at Nestle. "Customers will be able to purchase handcrafted chocolates and one-off flavour combinations. Using premium 100% sustainable UTZ certified chocolate and an ever changing range of delicious ingredients, they can put a personal stamp on their favourite chocolate and create custom-made KitKat bars." Among the Chocolatory's distinctive lineup, customers will find a number of limited edition Melbourne-themed creations by Shangri-La Sydney Executive Pastry Chef Anna Polyviou.. These include the Hosier Lane (featuring milk chocolate, wafer, caramel fudge, nougat, popcorn and potato chips), the St Kilda (featuring dark chocolate, wafer, pretzels, marshmallow and raspberry jelly drops), the Little Bourke (featuring white chocolate, wafer, toasted coconut, cornflakes and cornflakes), and the tooth-rotting Luna Park (featuring white chocolate, wafer, 100s & 1000s, pop-rocks and rice crispies). Find the KitKat Chocolatory on Level 1 of Melbourne Central from Friday October 21. For more information visit www.kitkat.com.au.
It's inevitable that once crowdsourcing platforms like Uber, Airbnb and Foodora began to take off, everyone would try to get on the source. Introducing the latest likeminded business, WelcomeOver, a platform for crowdsourcing dinner parties. This may sound a little strange, but think of it as a friend-food-fun-finding website that turns your dining room into a super exclusive restaurant. Co-founder Johan Schberg got the idea for WelcomeOver while travelling in Indonesia. "I saw a similar platform while travelling in Indonesia and thought that it would resonate perfectly with an Australian audience with our love of food and openness to new experiences. Trust is a core ingredient to the success of the product and if you look at how Australians have embraced platforms like Uber and AirbnB, where trust is also fundamental to success, we thought this would be a perfect market." At present WelcomeOver is focusing on Sydney, with ambitions to expand to Melbourne and Canberra before long. It's a pretty simple premise: the host (generally amateur chefs or hardcore foodies) will put together a menu, then set a time and a price per head and other users can opt into the event. Like most crowdsourcing ideas, the user rates their experience after the fact. The system runs on the joint pillars of trust and reputation, however, still faces the same questions about user safety that plague platforms like Uber and Airbnb — everything from online financial protection to physically putting yourself in the hands of someone you don't know. Home events have been a pretty top socialising choice for Sydneysiders since the introduction of the controversial lockout laws that have been hampering the city's nightlife. Schberg says the project isn't a direct response to the lockouts, but they don't agree with the laws either. "We believe a desperate measure like the lockout laws should only be the very last resort after all other options to provide adequate safety have been tried and proven unsuccessful," he says. "Besides, just a few months prior to the lockout laws, the very same government announced Sydney to be the safest city in the world, so how dangerous was it, really? Looking on the bright side, we are happy that you are still allowed to throw a dinner party at your home in Sydney, and through the WelcomeOver platform there is always a dinner party nearby where you and your friends are invited." There's no doubt though that the restrictive laws have forced party-goers to seek out other ways to have fun and allowed platforms like WelcomeOver to find their niche. And if that means more dinner parties options every weekend, we're so down. Check out WelcomeOver's website for more info. Top image: Krzysztof Puszczyński.
They send coffee beans into space, shoot fireworks you can taste into the sky and make cocktails tailored to your individual DNA in Dubai. With their fantastical fusion of art and food, UK-based 'jellymongers' Bompas & Parr are basically our patron saints around the Concrete Playground office. Who wouldn't want to attend one of their playful and painstakingly constructed events? For the happy campers at Dark Mofo, that's what's set to happen in a big way. As part of the Unconscious Collective's art sleepover Wild at Heart, the duo will create a feast that nods to Pagan traditions through hunting, gathering, sacrifice, ritual and some intensely primal dishes. With our eyes wide and mouths properly drooling, we got Sam Bompas on the line for a lowdown on what to expect at his Feed the Beast feast. And even more than that, we wanted to know what a person so used to thinking laterally about the potential of food has to say about current dining trends and the Australian culinary scene. His answers may surprise you. You and Harry [Parr, the other half of Bompas & Parr] started working together as jellymongers, but I see increasingly more stories about non-jelly-related experiences you've created these days. How did that evolution happen? I think quite naturally. When we started out we just wanted to do something fun on the weekend, and jelly held the key. We set up the jelly company but within a month we were moving on to full catering, doing a 12-course Victorian breakfast in Warwick castle, coordinating a thousand calories arriving on people's plates from three separate kitchens. So we moved quite quickly from jelly into doing everything. And I think really the reasoning behind that was wanting to give people really engaging, emotionally compelling experiences and in order to do that we were looking at controlling everything, from venue and set design to uniform design to choreography, rituals, scripting, staff, right through the plates and everything else. So I guess it was pretty ambitious. Obviously it takes a much bigger team of creatives to make all of this happen. Is your workplace basically Wonka's Chocolate Factory? Like that, but perhaps a little more adult. A lot of the projects we work on, some of them are very, very child-friendly — so we just did something that Willy Wonka would be proud of, a flavour-changing chewing gum factory — but some of the projects are a lot more adult, so things like the installation we've got up at the Museum of Sex in New York at the moment, which is looking at fairgrounds and eroticism, the pleasures and perils of the erotic fairground. You've been to Australia a few times now with your work. What did you find out about Australian food while you were here? I've got to say, when the Australian chefs I know come over to London, I'm always very, very interested because I think that in certain sectors Australia leads the world by about six months or so, in things like juicing culture, coffee culture, a lot of their F&D, and I'm obviously interested in some of the more unusual ingredients as well which are just totally native to Australia ... I was amazed last time I came across, I went to Africola, the restaurant in Adelaide, and I was served up a whole cow's head with brains still in, and of course, coming from England that's about the most taboo food you could ever imagine, in the aftermath of BSE [mad cow disease], so that was a pretty feral dining experience for me and absolutely blew me away. That's great for us Aussies to hear, because we have this cultural cringe, where we presume everything we do is a bit backwards. Did your visit give you any ideas you wanted to pursue? Seeing the cow's head sparked us to push even further what was totally acceptable for us to put on the table. Everyone here is obsessed with what is called the 'unholy union' of Cadbury chocolate and Vegemite. Have you heard about this? Oh wow. Not at all. Who claims to have discovered this? Cadbury's produced it. It's on the shelves. Really? They're very innovative. I guess so. We're just discovering how deep their imagination can stretch. So would you eat Vegemite chocolate? I'm never shy to try something once. Most people's reaction is 'yuck'. So is that yuck impulse something you like to trust, or interrogate? Well I think it's always culturally constructed. I've read a lot of research that says you can grow to like anything after you become acclimatised, and actually grow to love it. So once you know that, then you're kind of up for eating anything. Quite often when I travel my host will try to put the most harrowing things on the table just to test me, but I always quite like that challenge. So whether it's live, squirming tentacles that if you don't chew them stick to the back of your throat in South Korea or strange and rare fruits in Hawaii, I love pushing what I feel are my own limits. Insects are starting to become a thing here. You've probably eaten a few insects in your time? Yeah. There's a lot of chat about it. We did a whole insect banquet as part of something around Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom, god, four or five years ago now. I'm not convinced insects are the future for our diets but I do think that they might help with animal feed and animal protein. I'm much more interested in the creative potential of genetic manipulation. I did imagine that you would be more excited than worried about GM. Well of course there are ethical concerns but as long as you navigate them in a sensible and conscientious manner I think there's some good work to be done. Back to the present. There's also this rise at the moment in food that's a challenge. You know, it's either impossible to make, or it's some kind of monstrous hybrid, or it looks like it could give you a heart attack. What is that about do you think? And do you see that kind of instinct in people as fuelling interest in your own work? I think for me, it's feeding into how across the board people are using food to define their personal sense of identity and to perform identity in front of others as well. So whether that's you're eating your glucose-free, lactose-free light salads and you're telling the story to people of you as a yoga babe, or savage dude food — all of it, of course, going up on Instagram to tell people what an interesting, amazing life you have. And I think it's exciting too. What it has meant is, given that people are using food in this way, as a signifier of status and signifier of identity, there's been an increasing amount of resources put into food and concern about food and what people are eating, and generally an overall lift up in food knowledge, which I think can only be a good thing. Absolutely. Australia certainly has a big foodie culture. Probably safe to say it eclipses our interest in stuff like art and art appreciation. Your work obviously combines both food and art. So what is the connection you see between the two areas? Basically no one eats our food because they're in need of more calories — in actual fact, they're often avoiding calories. They tend to eat our food for entertainment, and personally I consider both arts and food offshoots of the entertainment industry. So if you come to one of our events rather than going to the opera, going for a nice swim, making love, sitting at the pub talking about mermaids or whatever you like to talk about, it has to be really rather compelling. I guess one of the good things about food is it's a wonderful arena to give people an interesting and emotive experience and I think that's what the best art seeks to do. Foodie culture obviously has a lot of benefits — the increased knowledge, as you were saying. But do you think there are any downsides from being too narrowly focused on food? I think you've got to look at the word 'foodie' itself, is a pejorative term. It was invented in the 1970s by Paul Levy as a descriptive of someone who's too concerned about food to the point of missing other things in life. I think it is important to have balance, but if you look at a lot of our installations, while the food is important, we address a lot of the attention to other elements as well, just to give people a total experience, one that's very legible and understandable. I find sometimes very cheffy food becomes difficult to read; it becomes something that only the food elite can possibly understand. But what I'm interested in is a much more inclusive approach to food. Your banquet in Tasmania, Wild at Heart, is based around pagan themes. It seems pretty perfect for Dark Mofo, which also includes a nude solstice swim. Is that where the inspiration came from? With the banquet we've been collaborating with the Unconscious Collective, and they set the theme, but it's a theme we've been very delighted to explore, expand on and run with. It's so hairy and muscular you can really gorge on it, as we hope that participants will be gorging on the feast as well. There are two components. On the first night, it's more of a gentle, campfire-type scenario, spiced up with flamethrowers, bombfires and roadkill jerky and drinking from actual skull cups hollowed out of a whole variety of animal skulls. And that will actually be up and remain up way beyond the original launch to ensure that everyone can pop down. Then we move on to the Feed the Beast banquet, which is exploring all the many different facets of the beast and the animals we all contain within ourselves. Sounds primal. It should be pretty savage. And it's something that I'm quite excited to explore, because when you start feeding people, you become quite aware of just how thin that line of civility is that divides us from the animal kingdom ... So what we want to do with this event and meal is give people the opportunity, the excuse and legitimacy to explore the beast within them, with things [from] blood and beating hearts to epic steaming hunks of spit roast wild deer that's actually just been hunted by [Tasmanian chef] Ross O'Meara to the more amorous side, so exploring tales of aphrodisiacs. There'll definitely be a lot of nudity. And not all of it probably our performers. One of the things we're looking at is creating an actual beating pig's heart that materialises as part of the starter, and it's literally there pumping fluids around, so it feels very visceral, very alive. We then take this live heart, slice it up and sautee it so it comes back served up for the first course. I don't know that anyone's done that before, so there should be a few world firsts. Can you tell us anything else you've got planned for the 'rituals' in the event? We've got lots of rituals around blood. Almost like a whole meditative cleanse around hand washing as well. I'm also very inspired by a chap called Grimod de La Reynière, who was kind of the first proper restaurant critic and if you ask me a far better gourmet and food writer than his contemporary Brillat-Savarin, who everyone normally refers to. And he hosted a very decadent banquet in which all the guests arrived, they had their hands washed, and then they dried their hands on the hair of all the waitstaff, which I think is really, particularly creepy. So we'll try to channel some of those energies as well. Delightful. I want to ask you about some of your past works that we've covered on the site. You recently held an anatomical whiskey tasting. So I want to know, were people more excited to drink from a 20-year-old or a 50-year-old? Well we went from 25 to 39, and I think the thing that was wonderful was as the age went up, so the whiskey got more and more elaborate. We actually had a 63-year-old volunteer to be the vessel for one of them, although the only 63-year-old whiskey we could find was going to cost us a hundred and twenty thousand pounds, which got pretty full on ... The thing that I liked was how people interacted with one another. You started off with what was originally a sort of awkward situation, twenty strangers in a room on Valentine's Day, all licking whiskey from the naked, supine body of someone who they've never met and who's just told them the story of their life in fifteen minutes, and even with that, very rapidly, galvanized by some of the world's finest whiskies, they very quickly formed bonds. What about the lava barbecue? People had to get 500 friends together to make that happen. So did anyone get 500 friends together? We're still working on that. We're speaking to a couple of people at the moment. That would be my ultimate, ultimate project. That was far and away the best week I've ever had, and far and away the quickest cook as well, given that it is blazing at one thousand three hundred and fifty degrees Celsius. So you just need to find someone who can gather 500 people? Five hundred people and quite a hefty budget. 500 people and much money. We'll work on it. And with regards to jelly, have you come across a building you couldn't make into jelly, or are there buildings that work better than others? Modern architecture doesn't work; anything with a steel core doesn't work particularly well. Towers don't work very well at all. They obviously look phallic as buildings, but even more so when rendered in jelly. We made the Empire State Building and it had to get pulled from American morning television because it was just way too threatening ... But actually the buildings that tend to work best are historic stone architecture. And the reason for that is that as it gets higher then it goes in at the top, and that gives jelly just the right amount of stability. So some of the really good jellies we've made are actually Flinders Street Station and the Melbourne War Memorial, which was a really good one. But the Sydney Opera House might be harder? It sort of tapers in at the top; it works quite well. That's a firm favourite and regularly made as jelly. You already sell 'space beans' [coffee beans that have travelled to space] on the site. Are there any plans to expand the products people can buy? We often have plans we're not totally good at realising. To do products you have to have a firm focus and keep on rolling on it for a good long while. The inception and the creative frenzy of the first bit is soon replaced by actually having to go out and sell the product. The bit we like doing is all the creative bits, which is why I guess we stick with events and things. That's reasonable. But we'll keep our fingers crossed for some kind of amazing chocolate bar. It would be fun to do. I guess we've just got way too short attention spans so far. Wild at Heart is part of the festival Dark Mofo, which is on from June 12 – 22 in Hobart. The event is sold out, so if you don't have a ticket, you'll just have to watch your friends go savage from afar.
Looking for a pet-friendly apartment? A new Melbourne high-rise will do you one better. Opening at 5 Elgar Court in Doncaster next year, GardenHill Apartments will become the first residential apartment block in the country with its own private off-leash dog park. Construction on the 11-storey building is set to begin in September, but if you and your four-legged friend are interested, you might want to get in quick. 80 percent of the 136 one- and two- bedroom apartments have already been snapped up, at a cost of between $380,000 and $745,000. The dog park will be located on the ground floor, enclosed by secure fencing, and will include seating, a drink station and a clean-up station. Development director Adelene Teh told Domain, "By offering our Gardenhill residents a designated place they can take their dogs for exercise, socialisation or even mental stimulation, we're encouraging responsible pet ownership and, hopefully, paving the way for other developers to follow suit." Teh also confirmed that the dog park had been a drawcard with purchasers. A number of apartment blocks in the United States already boast on-site dog parks — and it's easy to see why the concept would be popular with tenants. Dogs and small apartments aren't exactly natural bedfellows, which can be a real bummer for animal lovers. Sure, you could get a goldfish, but they just don't offer the same level of affection. And don't get me started on cats. Via Domain.
After one heck of a year in 2015 with Conor Oberst, Stephen Malkmus & the Jicks, and the motherflippin' Village People, Melbourne Zoo Twilights are bringing the after-hours concerts back for another summer. This summer's lineup is another slam dunk for the zoo, with beloved local and international artists every weekend from January 29 to March 12. Set amongst the bilbies and kangaroos of Melbourne Zoo, Twilights will see the likes of international dreamboat José González, supported by Tiny Ruins, alongside a solid crew Australian favourites like Tex Perkins and The Tennessee Four's Johnny Cash tribute Far from Folsom, the ever legendary Jebediah, C.W. Stoneking with Marlon Williams, Birds of Tokyo with Fractures, Josh Pyke with Winterbourne, San Cisco with Last Dinosaurs, John Butler Trio with Tinpan Orange, The Waifs and 'Heaven Is a Place on Earth' pop diva Belinda Carlisle with '80s new wave heroes Pseudo Echo. Tickets are $65, and that price not only includes the concert but full admission to the zoo itself. All profits also go towards the fight to save the near-extinct Eastern Barred Bandicoot. Of course, you're welcome to bring along your own picnic basket with loads of food, but you'll have to leave that bottle of wine at home. The event is fully licensed, but there's no BYO — an important measure to keep rubbish and glass away from those poor little animals. MELBOURNE ZOO TWILIGHTS 2016 LINEUP: January 29 — Far From Folsom Featuring Tex Perkins and The Tennessee Four with Rachael Tidd, supported by Vic Simms January 30 — The Waifs, supported by Ruby Boots February 5 — José González, supported by Tiny Ruins February 6 — John Butler Trio, supported by Tinpan Orange February 12 — Josh Pyke, supported by Winterbourne February 13 — Birds Of Tokyo, supported by Fractures February 19 — Jebediah, supported by Glenn Richards February 20 — Mark Seymour & The Undertow, supported by Ben Salter February 26 — San Cisco, supported by Last Dinosaurs February 27 — Kasey Chambers, supported by Karise Eden March 4 — Colin Hay March 5 — C.W. Stoneking, supported by Marlon Williams March 11 — Björn Again March 12 — Belinda Carlisle, supported by Pseudo Echo Melbourne Zoo Twilights runs January 29 to March 12, 2016. Tickets on sale 8am Thursday, October 22 from Melbourne Zoo, and zoo members receive a 10 percent discount. By Shannon Connellan and Meg Watson. Image: Ian Laidlaw.
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.
God knows we all spend way too much time looking at our phones. Whether you're texting, tweeting or chasing imaginary Japanese monsters, it seems like people constantly have their eyes glued to tiny screens. At best, it can be a wee bit anti-social. At worst, it can actually be really dangerous. Case in point: this teenager who got hit by a car while playing Pokémon Go. Fortunately for the technology-addicted, artist and designer Ekene Ijeoma has created a new mobile app designed to get people to tear their faces away from their phones. Look Up New York City causes your phone to vibrate whenever you're approaching an intersection, while also drawing data from the New York Department of Transportation to give each intersection an "energy score." The higher the score, the more frequent the number of accidents that take place there, and the more users should maybe think about paying attention to where it is they're walking. The purpose of the app is twofold, with its creators hoping to reduce the number of accidents while also encouraging social interaction. "Whether it's strangers making eye contact and saying hello or friends hugging, Look Up hopes to tear down the digital walls we build up, opening us to seeing, acknowledging and valuing the people and city around us," reads a statement on the Look Up website. Look Up is currently available on Android devices, with an iOS app coming soon. No word on whether they're planning on branching out beyond NYC, although we can easily imagine it taking off across the world. In the mean time, if you're reading this on your phone, please keep an eye on where you're going. https://vimeo.com/171683941 Via PSFK.
David Capra really loves his dachshund. Earlier this year, the Sydney-based artist was commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia to create an art project for the Jackson Bella Room – an interactive art space for students with special learning requirements. The result was Teena's Bathtime, a video installation piece in which members of the public were invited to give Capra's pet pooch Teena a wash. Now Capra, Teena and the team at Gallery 9 in Darlinghurst are launching a spinoff that may well turn up a few people's noses. Developed by Capra along with Jonathon Midgley at Damask Perfumery, Eau de Wet Dogge is a fragrance which combines the aromas of "moist fur, soap suds and soil" for a "uniquely musky charm," while "sour top notes of slobber and dog breath add alluring nuance." Riiiiiiight. The perfume can be sampled at Gallery 9 starting November 11. If for some inexplicable reason you like what you smell, you can pick up a 100mL bottle for $89.99, or an embossed cardboard car refresher for $15. Searching for that perfect Christmas gift? Because you should probably keep on looking. This year isn't the first time that Capra has incorporated Teena into his artwork. In 2013 he hosted a public dance inspired by the Wizard of Oz in which his sausage dog featured heavily. Man's best friend indeed. Image by Anna Kucera.
Spirits fans, this one's for you. One of Melbourne's best bars, Beneath Driver Lane, is joining forces with award-winning WA distillery, Republic of Fremantle for an exclusive pop-up. Republic of Fremantle is taking over the bar as a special guest, until 25 June, with new bottles, a limited-release cocktail menu, live blues music and the first sips of their multi-award-winning product on the east coast. Until now, if you wanted to taste this stuff, you had to either fly to Perth or buy online. This pop-up is the official launch of the brand in Melbourne, and it sounds extremely delicious. Republic of Fremantle is Western Australia's leading producer of spirits, and one of only a handful of distilleries in the country to produce their own base spirit from wine (in this case, Verdelho grapes harvested from 100-year-old vines in the Swan Valley). This gives Republic's spirits a unique flavour, and it's seen them scoop plenty of awards, including a gold medal at the coveted ADI International Spirits Competition. [caption id="attachment_902981" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: Head Brewer Tom Hutchings from Republic of Fremantle[/caption] "We're excited to be working with Republic of Fremantle on this exclusive preview of their range of spirits. The Republic Gins have a distinctive flavour profile, while their Signature Vodka has a really good texture and backbone," Beneath Driver Lane's Venue Manager Kealan Brady says. The pop-up will be running every day until 25 June, and cocktails will be shaken to the sound of live blues on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights. Entry is free, booze costs extra. Images: Supplied
Kicking off with a light-hearted caper, ending with happy tears — that's what we look for in an Italian jaunt. And even if you're not heading over to Europe anytime soon, sitting in a cinema this September might be the next best thing, in the form of the 2017 Italian Film Festival. Marking its 18th year, Australia's annual celebration of Italy's filmmaking finest will kick off with screwball effort Let Yourself Go!, which won the 2017 Italian Golden Globe for best comedy, stars The Great Beauty's Toni Servillo, and follows a tightly wound psychoanalyst's dalliance with an upbeat personal trainer. Bookending the festival is a 20th anniversary screening of Roberto Benigni's bittersweet Life Is Beautiful, an Academy Award winner for best foreign language film. One of the more popular film events in Australia, IFF's 28-film, six-week national tour features brand new highlights, excursions off the beaten track, jaunts all over the country and an ode to coffee. Yes, there really is a film called Coffee in the program, which intertwines three tales about everyone's favourite caffeinated brew, and was inspired by Alejandro Gonzalez Inarritu's 2006 Oscar-winner Babel. As for the rest of the fest, highlights include the tender portrait of conjoined twin sisters that is Indivisible (the festival's centrepiece), to Sea Girls Dreaming, a documentary about carefree grandmothers living in the tiny Italian mountain village of Daone. Plus, Italian movie buffs can also enjoy romantic comedy Emma, which comes to Australia straight from the Venice Film Festival, and the based-on-a-true-tale Sicilian Ghost Story, about the disappeared teenage son of a Mafia informant. There's more where they came from, including Roman ex-cons attempting to start a new life, broad Christmas comedies and topical accounts of ex-terrorists fleeing extradition — and a special guest and a new initiative. This year's festival will welcome Australian-Italian actor Greta Scacchi, who'll attend screenings of her latest effort Tenderness, and sit on IFF's first jury. The Looking for Alibrandi star will help pick the festival's best from a six-film competition, with help from The Space Between's Ruth Borgobello, actor Daniela Farinacci, actor Damian Walshe-Howling and Radio National's Jason di Rosso. The 2017 Italian Film Festival tours Australia between September 12 and October 25, screening at Sydney's Palace Norton Street, Palace Verona and Chauvel Cinemas from September 12 to October 8; Melbourne's Palace Cinema Como, Palace Westgarth, Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, Kino Cinemas and The Astor Theatre from September 14 to October 8; and Brisbane's Palace Barracks and Palace Centro from September 20 to October 8. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the festival website.
Fitzroy is getting a new multipurpose exhibition space and cafe. Opening next week at 51 Victoria Street, the Grey Gardens Projects will function as a gallery and performance venue complete with its own coffee bar and larder. It’ll also provide a permanent home for Speakeasy Cinema, the once-wandering boutique film club committed to the most esoteric movies around. Speakeasy will launch their new season in Grey Gardens' 100-seat screening room on Sunday, July 5, with a daytime session of animated shorts from lauded Czech filmmakers Lubomír Beneš and Vladimír Jiránek. Other films in the initial program include the Australian premiere of the low-fi science fiction film For the Plasma, the Marina Abramovic documentary The Artist is Present, and a special screening of the existential Thai drama Uncle Boonmee Who Can Recall His Past Lives with a live improvised score by hip hop jazz group 30/70. The gallery’s first exhibition will be devoted to the works of local audio-video artist Xanthe Dobbie, whose influences range from art and film history to third wave feminism as well as queer and pop culture. Deadpan comedian Magic Stevens will perform his show No Notes No Glory on the evening of Wednesday, July 22, which has been described as something akin to longform beat poetry or a one-sided conversation. Grey Gardens are currently seeking further expressions of interests for the latter half of the year, across the mediums of performance, fashion, design, photography, music, video and beyond. Worked up an appetite with all that culture? The Grey Gardens Coffee Bar and Larder will be open for breakfast and lunch from Tuesday to Sunday, with a short menu focused on healthy, organic produce. Menu highlights include buckwheat granola, homemade broth and a selection of open sandwiches and smorgasbords, as well as pressed juices from the Greene Street Juice Co. They’ll also have dinner options during Speakeasy Cinema sessions and other evening events, plus a selection of snacks for in-cinema nibbling. The Grey Gardens Projects are located at 51 Victoria Street, Fitzroy. For more details, including information on how to apply to exhibit work in the space, visit www.greygardensprojects.com. Image: For The Plasma.
When you're on holiday, we think it's a rule that you can't leave the city without exploring the local pub scene. But often, there are so many pub options that the whole choosing-where-to-go thing can be a little overwhelming. What you need is a go-to guide that saves you a lot of research and tells you exactly where to go depending what mood you're in or what vibe you're after. Whether you're keen for a party, a chilled beverage in a beer garden, a good quality pub feed or a drink by the water, we've got you covered. We've partnered with Hahn Brewers and come up with a few failsafe options for you to visit. Never be lost for pub options in Perth again. FOR LIVE MUSIC: THE ROSEMOUNT, NORTH PERTH The affectionately-named 'Rosie' hosts national and international bands like Spoon, The Panics and Tiny Little Houses regularly in its live music room. It's the regular venue for album launches, karaoke nights and open-mic nights where undiscovered Perth talent can often make an appearance. If you're in Perth and looking to go to a gig, this is definitely the place to be. Sometimes there are food stalls and vintage markets out in the 'backyard', which consists of the 'deck' and the 'lawn'. Both spectacular spots to grab a beer to drink outside while checking out what's happening on the day. FOR THE VIEW: OCEAN BEACH HOTEL, COTTLESLOE The Ocean Beach Hotel, opposite Cottlesloe Beach, has everything — it serves coffee and breakfast from 7am, there's a sports bar, pool tables, a dining room, accommodation and most importantly, a huge, sunny rooftop with stunning views of the beach. Famous for its Sunday sessions and rooftop beer garden, it's the perfect spot to stop for a feed and a cold beer after a swim, or the perfect place to watch the sun go down over the ocean. [caption id="attachment_605929" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Image: The Local[/caption] FOR A FEED: THE LOCAL HOTEL, SOUTH FREMANTLE The Local Hotel in South Fremantle is one of Perth's stylish and recently renovated pubs. It's the perfect place to grab a slightly fancy pub feed, with a menu that accommodates almost every meal and appetite. There are simple cheese boards and starters, more substantial mains such as the sirloin steak, beef and veggie burgers and the grilled lamb loin. At the Local there's a public bar, a casual dining area and a whisky bar. There's also the Local Garage — a drive-through bottle shop that's been converted into a pop-up garden bar, open for breakfast on weekends and hosting food trucks in the afternoon. Should you need to stay the night, The Local also has beautiful boutique accomodation options. Each of the eight rooms are styled by local designers and offer their own light and airy features. FOR THE BEER GARDEN: THE NORFOLK, FREMANTLE Much loved by locals in Fremantle, The Norfolk is a failsafe option for a beverage in Perth. On the menu are all the pub classics like pizza, pasta, parmas and steaks, but the real highlight of the place is the two outdoor beer gardens. Leafy, half-sunny and half-shaded just like a good beer garden should be, the Norfolk is famous for its huge limestone walls. They make for a great, cosy atmosphere where you can sit back and watch some live music. [caption id="attachment_605945" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Image: Raffles Hotel[/caption] FOR THE WATER: RAFFLES HOTEL, APPLECROSS The Raffles Hotel is located in the riverside suburb of Applecross. It's worth the trip from Perth to the other side of the river, because Raffles has beautiful views and a relaxed atmosphere where you can grab a drink and chill out by the water. Gourmet pizzas are on the menu alongside upscale pub classics like burgers, parmas and big plates of fresh seafood and pork belly to share. Raffles has multiple levels of outdoor seating, which means it hosts quite a few summer parties. Fashion launches, dinners, New Year's parties and Australia Day gatherings by the water. That kind of thing. FOR A BIT OF HISTORY: THE WINDSOR, SOUTH PERTH The Windsor Hotel in South Perth is an institution in the area. It's that classic, huge, old pub that everyone knows and occasionally visits. There's a sports bar, a beer garden out the back, and DJs that play on the weekends as well as all the classic events like Melbourne Cup, Australia Day and New Year's. The old building is surrounded by a historic verandah — a great place to settle down with an afternoon beer and read about one of the city's oldest pubs. FOR THE GAME: THE VIC, SUBIACO If you're in Perth and there's a game on (whether it's football, NRL, AFL, tennis, golf or anything else really), the place to watch it is at The Vic in Subiaco, one of Perth's popular inner-west suburbs. This place is as classic as an old-school sports pub gets, with parmas, burgers and cheap pints of beer served up in the beer garden and multiple dining rooms alongside local live music and trivia nights. The Vic packs out especially on big AFL days. The projector screens are rolled out and the building is filled with sports fans and footy scarfs. FOR A PARTY: BOTANICA BAR AND BISTRO, INNALOO Botanica boasts 'the best Sunday Session in Perth'. It's a big call, but if you're a regular you'll know that this Innaloo pub throws a few parties, and they tend to go off. During the day (or when there's no special event on, like the Silent Disco pictured), the outdoor beer garden is packed with people enjoying the sunshine, a brew and a pub feed. At night (and on Sundays) the DJs come out to play. There's also a sports bar attached to the Botanica — the crowd can get rowdy (in a good way) when there's a big game on the screens. Sign up to Hahn Brewers and settle down with a drink this weekend.
While the rest of the world goes crazy for all things green, Allen's Lollies is cutting two of their famous green jellies from production: the classic green frog and the spearmint leaf. This isn't as bad as the barbaric downsizing of the Killer Python, but still. Sad. Margaret Stuart, a Nestle spokesperson, passed the blame directly to YOU for letting your childhood fear of vegetables prevent you from ever buying green lollies. "The situation is that our lollies are actually going gangbusters, but we have deleted a couple — we have deleted Spearmint Leaves and also the Green Frogs basically because they weren't selling so well." We kind of understand the "deletion" (honestly, weird word choice) of the spearmint leaves. As much as we remember them fondly, they do kind of taste like toothpaste but are terrible for your teeth. The spearmint leaf is definitely the Jerry Gergich of the lolly bag. But green frogs? Green frogs are OK, they’re an almost savoury partner frog to the classic Allen's red frog. But what of the humble Sherbie? The still-not-renamed Redskin? To put your quiet freak-out to rest, here's what's safe, according to Allen's: "The Red Frogs are going gangbusters ... they outsell the green by ten to one," Stuart says. Cuts like this are going to homogenise grab bags into only the popular flavours like 'red' and orange but that’s the brutal world of candy business. The only upside we can imagine is the hopefully inevitable TV series about a couple of desperate dudes cooking up counterfeit spearmint leaves and green frogs in a camper van in Arizona. It'll happen. Via ABC.
Anyone old enough to remember the mid-'90s will likely recall that something happened on the world’s tallest mountain back in May 1996. Something bad. But how bad? Well, the specifics are probably a bit hazy. That’s why there’s always the great temptation with movies based on real events to look up what happened before you see them. Sometimes it’s to make sure you’re across the facts or so that you don’t get confused, but usually, if we’re honest, it’s so that we don’t spend the whole film wondering who lives and who dies. Everest is one such film, and whatever you do, avoid turning to the internet until the credits have rolled. Genuine, compelling tension is such a rarity in modern cinema that to rob yourself of the experience when it finally presents itself would be madness. And boy does it present in Everest. To behold the ordeal at the centre of this tale is to almost endure it on a miniature scale. The film is relentless and punishing, leaving you exhausted, shaking and breathless. "Human beings,” explains the expedition’s leader Rob Hall (played by Jason Clarke), “simply are not built to function at the cruising altitude of a 747. Our bodies will be literally dying.” Thanks to the extraordinary team behind Everest, you believe it. Heck, you feel it. This is an ensemble movie done the right way, where nobody engages in scene stealing despite some big names scattered throughout. Sam Worthington, Jake Gyllenhaal, Keira Knightley, Josh Brolin, Robin Wright, John Hawkes and Emily Watson all join Clarke with committed but reserved performances that ensure the focus remains on the film’s true star: the mountain. Granted that sounds incredibly trite, but the scale of this film and its sumptuous cinematography all serve to reinforce both the grandeur and the peril of such an extraordinary place; “another beast altogether”, as Hall described it. To date, more than 250 people have died climbing the mountain, and the means of their demise are more varied than you might expect. The difference between this film and so many other recent offerings, however, it that instead of sensationalising nature, Everest simply shows humility towards it. In light of its wretched and treacherous conditions, one well might question why anybody would ever even consider summiting Everest, but the film has an answer for that, too. Several, in fact. Some try for the thrill, others for the challenge, and one extraordinary mailman attempted it purely for the symbol and inspiration it might provide others back home. More importantly, though, for those who actually make it — those few exceptional climbers who literally reach out and touch earth’s upper limit — the moment of exhilaration and accomplishment is so powerful and affecting that you’re moved to tears. It is, in short, an exceptional and experiential film with a story steeped in both tragedy and indomitability. Worthy of its name, Everest is a staggering and spectacular piece of cinema that deserves to be seen.
This winter, Falls Creek welcomes a slick, well-panelled new(ish) resident, as the just-renovated Astra Lodge opens its doors to the public. Having taken out the title of Australia's Best Boutique Ski Lodge at the 2016 World Ski Awards in Austria, the ski-in ski-out lodge is now ready to impress the locals with a new fitout, kicking off the season on June 10. Sporting downright dapper interiors by Grant Amon Architects, the Astra Lodge's aesthetic resembles a 1970s European alpine hideaway. Owned by locals Rosy and Seumas Seaton and run by general managers Tom and Sally Simpson, the lodge contains every last wintry comfort — starting with its own integrated day spa, where guests can unwind with a whisky and a moustache grooming session after a long day on the slopes. There's a heated magnesium mineral pool for soothing those muscles, a state-of-the-art ski drying room, a panoramic library, a Chesterfield-filled lounge bar, a generous wine cellar and a seasonally-focused Italian fine diner, headed up by hatted chef, Emma Handley (Villa Gusto). After dinner, roasting of marshmallows in the common fireplace is highly encouraged. Perhaps the biggest drawcard for serious ski bunnies is that Astra Lodge will host Skimetrics founder Adalbert Leibetseder, who'll be offering his tailored ski program and boot fittings, helping to ensure you've got all the right gear for a top-notch ski trip experience. Rooms come in five styles, from deluxe to two-bedroom apartment. Suffice to say, rates aren't cheap, with the lowest off-peak nightly rate at the deluxe room at $346 per night (sleeps two, minimum two-night stay) — the highest being the apartment at $1630 per night (sleeps four, minimum two-night stay). Astra Lodge is currently taking bookings for the 2017 ski season and is set to open on June 10. Find it at 5 Sitzmark Street, Falls Creek.
It's a fact of film-loving, cinema-going, Netflix-watching life: try as you might, you can't always catch them all. Maybe you saw all of this year's top films. Maybe you missed some great ones when they were first released. Maybe you've got a hefty list of flicks to seek out over summer. However you fared with 2016's crop of cinematic gems, they're about to have some friends, with a whole new year of films descending upon movie theatres in 2017. As always, both the big and the small end of town is covered. Keen for more fast and furious vehicle action? Eager to see a great Aussie novel make it to the screen? They're all coming. In fact, there's so much hurtling towards a darkened room near you that whittling our picks down to just ten was by no means easy. With that in mind, here's the films you absolutely shouldn't miss over the next 12 months. Happy viewing. JACKIE Natalie Portman doesn't need a second Oscar to validate her astonishing her portrayal of Jackie Kennedy in Pablo Larraín's Jackie, but she's probably going to get one anyway. The whirlwind of horror, grief and trauma surrounding the First Lady's life following the assassination of President John F. Kennedy oozes from the actress in every scene — and she's just one of highlights of the film. After directing No, The Club and Neruda, Larraín remains in top form, the supporting cast of Peter Sarsgaard, Greta Gerwig and Billy Crudup are all stellar, and the overall effect couldn't be more haunting, revealing and devastating. T2: TRANSPOTTING Choose life. Choose catching up with the long-awaited sequel to the Danny Boyle-directed, Ewan McGregor-starring '90s hit that well and truly put both on the map. A small amount of apprehension about delving back into the Edinburgh drug life after more than two decades might've been understandable when the long-awaited film finally became a reality, but then the ace trailer quelled all those fears. On-screen and off, the gang's back — older, but not necessarily wiser, of course. JOHN WICK: CHAPTER 2 If you'd told us a few years ago that a sequel to a Keanu Reeves-starring action flick would be so eagerly anticipated, we actually would've believed you, honestly — just watch the original Point Break, and then watch it again, and you'll understand. Thanks to the first John Wick film in 2014, everyone's a Keanu fan these days, and so they should be. The follow-up to that surprise hit promises more ultra-stylish shoot-em-up carnage and more Keanu at his cool, calm and collected best, plus a reunion with The Matrix's Laurence Fishburne. BLADE RUNNER 2049 Sequels, sequels, sequels seems to be the theme of every year at the movies (plus remakes, reboots and re-imaginings), however it's difficult not to be excited about a second Blade Runner. Even if you didn't love Ridley Scott's first film or just haven't seen it, a futuristic sci-fi starring Harrison Ford and Ryan Gosling, directed by Sicario and Arrival's Denis Villeneuve, and cloaked in a neon glow looks like more than just a replica. With Scott himself also helming 2017 release Alien: Covenant, the sequel to Prometheus, who knew it was going to be such a big year for follow-ups to his movies from more than three decades ago? THOR: RAGNAROK Like superhero films? Prefer the goofier, quirkier, weirder instalments to the grim and serious flicks? Us too. Given that it's about a hammer-wielding god, the Thor movies have always proven a little livelier than most of their Marvel brethren, with Hunt for the Wilderpeople's Taika Waititi certain to continue that trend on Thor: Ragnarok. Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston and Idris Elba all return, Cate Blanchett and Jeff Goldblum join the cast, and the Gold Coast and Brisbane get starring roles. Following this year's Doctor Strange and April's Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2, it's a busy time for fun comic book adaptations. THIS WINTER After directing the best Australian film of 2016, Goldstone (pictured), Ivan Sen jumped straight back behind the camera. Details are scarce about his next effort, This Winter, however it was made in Sen's hometown of Tamworth, tells the tale of an Indigenous family torn apart by suicide and incarceration, and was written, directed, produced, shot and edited by the multitalented filmmaker. Expect to see it on the festival circuit — and expect another powerful contemplation of issues of race in Australia. THE BEGUILED Sofia Coppola's latest film is called The Beguiled — and, call us suitably intrigued, entranced and all-round keen. Her first feature since 2013's The Bling Ring is a remake of a 1971 western melodrama of the same name, as set in a girl's boarding school during the civil war. The Virgin Suicides' Kirsten Dunst and Somewhere's (pictured) Elle Fanning feature among the cast, alongside Coppola newcomers Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell and Angourie Rice. HAPPY END Come 2017, it will have been five years since Austrian director Michael Haneke broke hearts with his harrowing elderly-focused effort Amour, and won his second successive Palme d'Or at Cannes in the process. After planning and then seemingly moving on from a film called Flashmob in the time since, he's back. In Happy End, he reunites with Isabelle Huppert after The Piano Teacher (pictured) and dives into refugee-centric family drama. If you've seen either version of Funny Games, or Cache or The White Ribbon, you'll know that that description could mean anything, really. LADY BIRD If you can't get enough of Greta Gerwig, and love the two films she has co-written with Noah Baumbach (Frances Ha and Mistress America, pictured), then Lady Bird should rocket right to the top of your must-see list. Gerwig doesn't feature on screen, but she does write and make her solo directorial debut (after co-helming 2008's Nights and Weekends with Joe Swanberg). The movie is set in Sacramento, where the actress-turned-filmmaker grew up, and stars Brooklyn's Saoirse Ronan. While the plot is yet to be revealed, it's a comedy, so you can already guess the kind of affable antics that are set to ensue. VALERIAN AND THE CITY OF A THOUSAND PLANETS Before there was Star Wars and its many episodes and side-stories, and before there was The Fifth Element, too, there was Valérian and Laureline. The French sci-fi comic series reportedly inspired George Lucas — and it definitely made an impact on Luc Besson, who is finally adapting it for the big screen. With Lucy bringing the director back to his best, here's hoping there's more where that came from. There'll certainly be time and space travelling, a cast that includes Dane DeHaan, Cara Delevingne, Rihanna and Ethan Hawke, and futuristic visuals aplenty.
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
In the early 90s, British artist Cornelia Parker decided to blow up a garden shed. She approached the British Army (who were more than happy to oblige), and together they detonated an explosion that saw 2000 household items fly across several fields in the countryside. Fragments of wood, broken bicycle wheels and a shattered violin — along with thousands of other objects — were collected by the officers, and Parker reconfigured the shed, suspending objects from the ceiling around one central lightbulb. That artwork, Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991), is now considered Parker's most famous work, and it's currently casting haunting shadows across the gallery walls at the MCA this summer. The major exhibition, which spans three decades of the artist's career, has four large-scale artworks that transform the gallery's rooms. War Room (2015) is like walking into the Twin Peaks red room, except the blood-red walls are crafted from discarded strips of paper sourced from a Remembrance Poppy factory in London. Parker has created a tent-like structure with 'absent poppies' that's as much about honouring those who've died in conflict, as it is about the duality of war and peace. Showing both sides of the story is something Parker plays with a lot in her work. Another large-scale piece, Magna Carta (An Embroidery) (2015), is a 12-metre-long hand-stitched version of the Magna Carta Wikipedia page. Parker created the work to commemorate the 800th anniversary of Britain's earliest democratic document, and she invited 200 people from both sides of the law to embroider a panel — including notable whistleblowers Julian Assange and Edward Snowden, Pulp's Jarvis Cocker (why not?) and current prison inmates. When you look closely you'll see coffee stains from those who worked from prison — and underneath you'll see a mirrored reflection of the back of the work. There's also a satisfying violence to Cornelia Parker's practice. She's shot dice through a dictionary, precipitated a handgun and chopped a toy Oliver Twist in half using the guillotine that beheaded Marie Antoinette. She also steamrolled a collection of silver (sourced from car boot sales) to create another full-room installation, Thirty Pieces of Silver (1988–89). The 30 suspended circles of silverware represent a Bible story of betrayal — and there's a palpable sense of dread when the pools of brass and silver glisten and move with passing air. Though the larger works in this exhibition, part of the tenth Sydney International Art Series, are the ones you'll Instagram, there's a lot of joy — and foreboding — to be found in Cornelia Parker's smaller artworks. One of our favourites is News at Five (Terror-ble Joke), News at Seven (Chilling), and News at Ten (Bathtub Terror) (all 2017) — three blackboards covered with chalk writing from a five-year-old, a seven-year-old and a ten-year-old. Each child has captured the essence of televised news reports and you can make out words like 'monster', 'nukes' and 'Trump in a grump'. All terrifying and amusing at the same time. Cornelia Parker is the first major presentation of the her works in Australia, and the exhibition runs until February 16. But don't leave it until 2020 before you visit, as you'll want to return to delve deeper into the playful violence behind one of Britain's most important female artists working today. Images: Installation views of Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991); War Room (2015); Subconscious of a Monument (2001-05); Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View (1991); and Thirty Pieces of Silver (1988–89). All images courtesy of the artist, the MCA and Frith Street Gallery, London. Photos by Anna Kucera.
Smith Street is collecting good things at the moment. Jimmy Grants, Gelato Messina, Smith Street Alimentari — the list goes on. But there have been some keepers there for a while, quietly luring food lovers to the grungy Collingwood street. One of these keepers is Panama Dining Room. High above the street — some serious stairs are involved, short dresses and heels make for an awkward entrance — you'll find this loft-style dining room and bar. With huge windows there are views worth the hike alone. The bar section can get rather rowdy but the dining room remains separate allowing seclusion for optimal enjoyment of both the drinkables and eatables. The dining room menu is laid out for a three course affair. Starters like anchoiade dip with crudites ($13) and salmon rillettes with herb salad and toast ($10) stand in to whet the appetite. When it comes to the entree you can start big with the divine and gooey Australian burrata — a soft-centred mozzarella — served with salsa rossa, grilled focaccia, olive oil and rocket ($15). Seriously, do it. Or if you're feeling a little more reserved you can go for a delicate warm prawn and smoked octopus salad with kipfler potatoes, green olives and espelette pepper ($16). Mains come in the form of pillow-soft citrus infused potato gnocchi served with fresh peas, tomatoes, leek and almond puree and parmesan crisps ($26.50), or hearty chargrilled grain-fed porterhouse steak (medium rare) with a porcini, truffle and confit garlic butter, duck fat chips and watercress salad ($33). Now, to the sweeter side of things. A flourless chocolate cake served with cherry compote and milk chocolate ganache ($14.50) is a decadent choice, while a bite-sized option comes in the form of a salted caramel praline macaron ($4.50 each). You can also go for a cheese platter of two, three or four cheeses. The Beeler Hoch Ybrig from Switzerland is strong with a sweetness to it, while the Woodside Figaro from SA is a crumbly soft goats cheese with a rich texture and flavour. The wine list is lengthy. Starting with a selection of Italian Prosecco and finishing on 25 year old Pedro Ximenez, you'll find something to match perfectly with your meal. Go for the food, stay for the view.
Touring outside of France for just the third time since it was designed in Paris circa 1500, medieval masterpiece The Lady and the Unicorn tapestry cycle comes to the Art Gallery of New South Wales this month and everyone's pretty excited. On special loan from impressively named Musèe de Cluny – Musèe National du Moyen Âge, the six exquisitely beautiful, mind-blowingly intricate wool and silk woven tapestries span over 20 metres in length and are considered to be some of the greatest surviving textiles from the European Middle Ages — the French national treasure has been dubbed the 'Mona Lisa of the Middle Ages', after all. (Can you imagine being in charge of packing these things up and getting them to — literally — the other side of the world? No pressure.) Embodying meditations on earthly pleasure and courtly love, they depict a bejewelled lady in richly adorned costume alongside a majestic unicorn set against a luscious millefleur ('thousand flowers') background. Five tapestries explore the senses of touch, taste, smell, hearing and sight, with the sixth said to represent an internal sense — usually interpreted as the heart, desire or understanding. There's a whole host of talks, activities and workshops designed to complement the exhibition (textile fans may want to take Natalie Miller's tapestry masterclass) so you can make an entire morning or an afternoon of it. Take note: this is going to be busy. It's not every day that you get to see a 15th-century national treasure up close, not to mention one that has directly inspired everyone from George Sand to Rilke to Jean Cocteau. You'll want to book ahead. Image: Sight c1500 (detail), from 'The lady and the unicorn' series, Musée de Cluny – Musée national du Moyen Âge, Paris Photo © RMN-GP / M Urtado.
Finding yourself smooshed between a shove-happy tween and a dirty ponytail-touting brick wall at the front of the mosh could be a thing of the past — virtual reality concerts are here, from Coldplay's Ghost Stories concert to Paul McCartney's VR concert app and a brand new Opera House VR experience, released today. If you didn't nab tickets to Future Classic's 10th anniversary concert at the Sydney Opera House this past May, you can now experience part of the sold-out Vivid concert through a cheeky new virtual reality experience. Samsung, principal partner of the Opera House, put their tech to work on the day, recording sets for virtual reality, specifically made for YouTube’s new 360° video service. The recently unveiled YouTube app allows you to watch VR videos, including Future Classic and Samsung's brand new recorded Opera House performance of Flight Facilities’ ‘Heart Attack’ performed with Melbourne’s Owl Eyes and Julian Hamilton of The Presets. Samsung created the video from more than 20 remote-controlled cameras, shot from three vantage points to capture this 360° x 180° immersive view — in Ultra High Definition, of course. The team-up was an experiment by the Opera House to let more than ticketholders experience Future Classic's sold-out show long after the date. This isn't the first time an Australian organisation has used virtual reality to create a new audience experience, the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra put 3D goggles on audience members this July and let them watch an entire concert from the perspective of the musicians. The technology has also been used by the Sydney Opera House before, also at this year's Vivid, by UK drum and bass artist Squarepusher. Dubbed the Stor Eiglass Virtual Reality Experience, Squarepusher worked with artists, artistic studio Marshallow Laser Feast, BAFTA-winning animators Blue Zoo and illustrator Rob Pybus to create a a fully immersive 2D and 3D virtual reality experience in the Main Box Office Foyer. But this new Flight Facilities video, shot from three different vantage points, is the first time we've seen a virtual reality concert experience like this. Watch the video here (if you've got a VR viewer like Google Cardboard, it's even better): Then watch the behind the scenes making of here: Image: Daniel Boud.
Sure, we love winter's hot mugs of mulled things, snuggly wardrobe options and tendency to coincide with national film festivals, but the season calls for a well-earned weekend away every now and again. Perhaps you'd like to completely ditch the city's chilly winds for a stylish Californian-style beach motel with an ex-Noma chef. Or maybe you're one to embrace winter like a woolly jumper-loving fiend. How about a private mountain villa with your own in-room, temperature-controlled swimming pool? We've teamed up with Mr & Mrs Smith to give you five ideas for winter weekend getaways from their collection of pretty, pretty accommodation options. Pick a date, pack your bags and get outta town. DRIFT HOUSE, PORT FAIRY Breakfast hampers, salvaged timber, Japanese tiles — Drift House is all about the details. It's a pretty little beach boutique in Port Fairy, the Great Ocean Road's charming fishing village. Rooms are designed for dining in, because Drift House knows what's up. You'll have little reason to venture out into the chill with your own 'maxibar' at home, stocked with baked beans, pasta, parmesan, pasta sauces, organic crisps, popcorn and other nibbles, alongside a stash of locally sourced Basalt Vineyard red and white wine. ARKABA Escape the wind tunnels of the city and set yourself up in an elegant 1850s homestead in the Flinders Ranges. A heritage-style property, Arkaba channels a good ol' Australian vibe from its wool sack-wrapped bedside tables to sheepskin hot-water bottles. It's also a private wildlife sanctuary, so expect a few kangaroos and emus to stop by. Your dining is all-inclusive (and features some of the world's best wines), and if you're keen to get a little more adventurous, Arkaba does a swag-camp glamping trek. HALCYON HOUSE No better way to beat the cold than escaping to a faded Californian-style surf motel. Fusing elements of Long Island nauticalia and Mediterranean pool chic, it's the kind of place that looks made for surfwear magazine fashion shoots. Located right on Cabarita Beach near Tweed Heads, Halcyon is a beach holiday haven with all the trimmings — and an ex-Noma chef. Ben Devlin, 2014's Queensland Chef of the Year, runs the delightfully artful Paper Daisy restaurant, where you'll be inhaling fresh crumpets, locally-grown coffee and honey roasted fruit. That's before you while the afternoon away on the poolside deck, sipping wines picked by sommelier Peter Marchant. CAPELLA LODGE Feel like a Bond villain in a high-flying tropical paradise retreat at Capella Lodge, a stunning nine-suite hideaway on Lord Howe Island. Surrounded by turquoise lagoons, coral reefs and rare tropical birds, the lodge is a glorious natural oasis from a wintry city — but with every last modern creature comfort. Infinity pools, outdoor stone baths, sprawling seaside verandahs. The place even has its own spa. Hire a lagoon kayak and snorkelling gear and explore the area — you'll forget its cold anywhere else. O&O WOLGAN VALLEY If you're one to relish in wintry weather as a means to get amongst misty mountains, head for O&O Wolgan Valley. This Blue Mountains gem sees 40 villas, including two- and three-bedroom retreats, over 7000 acres of rolling hills and pristine wilderness. It's Australia's first conservation-based luxury resort and is accredited by international group CarboNZero. There's a world-class spa, a big wine cellar, mountain bikes for you to use, and a killer restaurant, bar and eatery showcasing seasonal, local, organic produce. Best bit? Each Federation-style bungalow comes with an in-room, temperature-controlled, private swimming pool. Keen to get going? Concrete Playground readers special treatment from Mr & Mrs Smith, with exclusive discount offers at hotels from Bali to Brisbane. You can save 25 percent or more if you book any of these retreats by 30 July (and you can stay any time until 30 September, 2016). Details here.
One of Australia's most redeeming qualities is its ability to give good afternoon sun. There's something about its familiar glow that almost demands casual drinks – whether it's cracking open a cold beer after a day out, heading to the pub after a long day of work, or deciding on a whim that your backyard is perfect for having friends over. We love summer afternoons, so we've spoken to a few of our favourite chefs, musicians and artists, to get their insights on creating the perfect balmy afternoon. And what's better than a barbecue? For advice, we asked the boys from Three Blue Ducks. Mark LaBrooy specifically — he's one of the co-founders of the restaurant-cafe hybrid that was born in Bronte but ended up being so popular it expanded to Byron Bay and, most recently, Rosebery. He and the team at Three Blue Ducks have made working with barbecue flames and smoke a priority at their venues. At their Rosebery location, there's a barbecue, a wood-fired oven and an outdoor charcoal pit. They're experts in barbecue. And more than that, they're experts in taking the standard barbecue fare you usually whip up to the next level, and LaBrooy has shared some tips so you can do the same. He's also given us some recipes, for a burrata salad, a seafood prawns main, and a charred pineapple dessert. "They're all about spring and summer flavours," he says. "Inspired by warm weather and catching up with friends." The burrata salad is a green (but hearty) vegetarian option for your barbecue friends who don't eat meat, while the prawn dish is "light, and great for entertaining because it's not rocket science to prepare". The pineapple recipe is LaBrooy wanting you to try something a little different by charring your fruit. "People should experiment more with fruit on the barbecue, vegetables too," he says. He says the first thing to think about when you're cooking is that produce is key to a good barbecue. He suggests going elsewhere than the supermarket to grab your ingredients. "Go to a real butcher, not a supermarket. Go to the fish markets to get your prawns, and a local organic growers market for your fruits and vegetables." Let the ingredients lead you — if the produce is good, just put it on the barbie and see what happens. "Like a whole bunch of Dutch carrots or something, just give them a wash, put on some good quality olive oil, salt and pepper and char it up. Don't be shy — the hotter the better." "Barbecuing is the cooking technique that fits in best with us," he says. "It's connected to the environment and there's something really intimate about using the fire — it's inconsistent, there's a real element of maintenance and care in the cooking process." When finished, all three dishes will look incredible, but don't get too caught up with perfection when you're hosting a barbecue. Part of the fun is that barbecue-ing isn't always pretty. "It's a bit ugly and charred," he says. "You can get those really aggressive, black tones in the appearance and colouration of your cooking." Follow these three recipes and transform your afternoon barbecue into one that's worthy of being on the menu at Three Blue Ducks. BURRATA WITH CHARRED ZUCCHINI AND SPRING ONIONS Ingredients: 4 pieces of burrata (about 100 grams each) ¼ bunch parsley ¼ bunch basil 1 clove garlic 100ml virgin olive oil 1 tsp Dijon mustard 1 lemon zest and juice salt and pepper 1 bunch spring onion 3 zucchini cut in ¼ 100g toasted hazelnuts roughly chopped Method: Make a nice coal fire on the grill side of your barbecue. Char off the zucchini and the spring onions after giving them a good season and a splash of olive oil. When the zucchini and spring onions get some good colour, take them off the heat and start plating up. Take a food processor and place the herbs, olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, zest and Dijon inside. Give it a good whizz until a bright green paste forms. Season well and set aside. Take a plate or bowl and arrange the zucchini and spring onions around the outside, making a well for your burrata to sit in. Flick in a few teaspoons of the herb puree, place the burrata in the centre and sprinkle over some hazelnuts. Season the burrata and drizzle a bit of olive oil if you feel you need it. Squeeze a bit of extra lemon juice over everything to finish off. CONFIT GARLIC AND CHILLI BBQ PRAWNS WITH BUTTERMILK AVOCADO AND RADICCHIO Ingredients: 1 bulb garlic peeled 3 long red chillies deseeded 1 cup olive oil 16 large king prawns cleaned and butterflied 3 avocados 1 lemon juice and zest 2 tablespoons olive oil 100ml buttermilk 1 large radicchio with the outer leaves pulled off and cut in ¼ Salt and pepper Method: Take the chillies and garlic and place in a small saucepan. Add the cup of olive oil and cover with foil. Bake at 160-degrees for 1-30 mins, then place in a food processor and give it a whizz. Using a pastry brush baste the prawns just before grilling on the barbecue. Take your food processor and add the avocado, olive oil, lemon juice and zest and the buttermilk, give it a whizz and set aside for when your plating up. Grill your prawns and radicchio on super high heat, season well and brush with olive oil. This should only take a few minutes. Give a good whack of buttermilk avo purée. CHARRED PINEAPPLE WITH CASHEWS, THAI BASIL AND LEMONGRASS GRANITA Ingredients: 1 pineapple skinned and cut into quarters 1 tablespoon brown sugar For the granita: 350ml water 180g sugar 3 stalks lemongrass, roughly chopped 2 chillies roughly chopped 80g ginger roughly chopped 100ml lemon juice 100g yogurt 1 vanilla bean scraped and deseeded ¼ bunch Thai basil 80g toasted and salted cashews Method: The granita needs to be made the day before and set in the freezer over night. To serve all you have to do is scrape it with a fork or give it a quick whizz in a food processor. Make sure you put the bowl in the freezer first so you don't melt the granita too much. Take a medium sized pot and add the sugar, lemongrass, chilli, and water. Bring to the boil and then set aside and let it cool down on the bench, then strain and add the lemon juice, and put in the freezer to set overnight. Sprinkle the pineapple with brown sugar and place on the grill on high heat. You're looking to get some good colour and charring on the pineapple, cooking it at the same time. Cut into chunks and set aside. Take a small bowl and add the yogurt and the vanilla give it a good mix. To plate up, arrange the pineapple on the base of the plate and a few dollops of the vanilla yogurt. Take a large spoon of granita and place in the centre, then sprinkle with cashews and Thai basil. Images: Kimberley Low.
Melbourne-based artist Adnate was just a kid when his obsession with graffiti took over. "I had my first tag when I was eight years old," he says. "So, it's something I've always been into." Since then, his obsession has grown into a full-time occupation. He spends his days on the road, painting mural after mural around Australia and overseas, and has become famous for his enormous, realistic portraits, which are influenced by the great Renaissance artists, like Caravaggio. Just outside Sydney's Chinese Gardens, on Harbour and Goulburn Streets, you'll find his epic impression of Jenny Munro, who founded Redfern's Aboriginal Tent Embassy. In partnership with Sonos, we visited Adnate's colourful North Melbourne studio to find out a little more about his work. Explore the multi-room space where he finds inspiration and gets in the zone by playing his music loud and clear. GRAFFITI, STREET ART, WHAT'S THE DIFFERENCE? "Once I was a teenager and started visiting friend's houses, I saw the huge amount of amazing work being done on Melbourne's train lines, especially the Hurstbridge line. I discovered people like WCA [Wild Child Artists]," he said. Ten years of feverish graffiti art followed, until Adnate reached a point where "he wasn't feeling stimulated anymore". So, he thought he'd try his hand at portraiture. As it turned out, it wasn't as far removed from graffiti as you might think. "With lettering, you try and put a lot of expression, style and subconscious emotions into what you do. It wasn't too hard to transition to portraiture because, in some ways, it's easier to put expression into a face than into letters." In 2012, he painted his first Indigenous portrait in Fitzroy. And the public reaction was a "big turning point". "I wasn't sure about it, but as soon as I painted it, it created a massive dialogue," Adnate says. "I started seeing it on the Internet, people were coming down and taking photos, and it was creating excitement and pride in Indigenous communities in Victoria. It was then I realised I'd done something really powerful." ON PAINTING INDIGENOUS CULTURE RESPECTFULLY Today, you'll find Adnate's portraits as far afield as the Frog Hollow in the East Kimberley, Singapore and New York City. Among his subjects have been Adam Goodes and the 14th Dalai Lama. "Every year, I have more incredible experiences, make stronger connections and travel to more amazing places. Half the fun of my work is getting to meet the people I paint … It has been a really powerful journey and I feel very much inspired by it." Along the way, Adnate is learning more and more about Indigenous history and culture. "You don't learn much at school, so when I started out, I didn't have much knowledge … I met a cultural advisor in Melbourne, Kimba Thompson, and she quickly and strongly told me what was right and wrong … It's important to be culturally sensitive, follow protocols and be respectful to local communities. Many people think that Indigenous culture is very similar – from Melbourne to the Top End – but it's massively different. We're talking about a distance that's as far as from Spain to Germany." THE MUSIC THAT INSPIRES HIM Right now, Adnate is in Dubbo, working on a 15-metre by 8-metre high mural. Even though he works both outdoors and indoors, he has long favoured painting in the streets, with the sun on his back and music blaring in his ears. "I can't paint without music," he says. "It puts me in the zone — in a meditative state — and helps me block out everything else. My music tastes are very eclectic. I grew up listening to all forms of electronic music and hip hop." At the moment, he's listening to Kiasmos, a minimal, experimental techno duo based in Iceland. When he's at home in his studio, music is even more important. His Sonos speakers tune themselves to the environment of his spacious studio, so whether he's painting in his garage or sitting at his desk doing admin, the sound is loud and clear. He plays his music loudly for inspiration — it's integral to his artistic work. WHEN HE'S OUTSIDE THE STUDIO Adnate's next stop is Townsville and then Tahiti. Even though he occasionally misses having "his own space", having spent just three weeks in Melbourne since June, he is living the dream. He said, "It's always been a great dream of mine, to travel and paint." And for anyone who aspires to the same, here's his advice. "Don't stop. Keep painting. Everything's worth doing – whether you're painting a chicken for a chicken shop or graffiti letters for yourself. Everything teaches you something different. Nothing's not going to benefit you, as long as you have a pencil or paint brush in your hand … Eventually, it all starts making sense, though, at the same time, it doesn't always make sense to me. I'm still learning." Get studio-level sound in your home with multi-room speakers by Sonos. You can walk from one room to another and hear the same song in perfect quality. Powered by wifi, easy to tune, controlled by the Sonos app — in two steps you're ready to go. Images: Olga Rozenbajgier.
When Australian audiences embrace our own films, we tend to do it in a very big way. Last year, Lion had viewers everywhere in tears. In the years prior, we were turning out in droves for The Dressmaker and Mad Max: Fury Road. And, even when local efforts aren't setting the box office alight, our homegrown flicks are still tearing up cinema screens with a showcase of Aussie talent. The Babadook, Snowtown, Mystery Road, Goldstone, Tracks, These Final Hours, 52 Tuesdays, Holding the Man, Sherpa, Hounds of Love, Jasper Jones, Ali's Wedding — they're just some of the ace Australian films that've reached theatres in recent years. In 2018, they'll be joined by these ten movies you need to put on your viewing list. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYKBG1znk4A SWEET COUNTRY An Australian western set during the late 1920s in the Northern Territory, Sweet Country boasts plenty of well-known talent, including Bryan Brown, Sam Neill, Matt Day and Ewen Leslie. It's the director behind the movie that should grab your attention, however, with his long-awaited second fictional feature absolutely essential viewing. In an impassioned race-relations drama that finds the struggles of the past painfully still relevant to Australia in the present, Samson & Delilah's Warwick Thornton crafts a searing piece of cinema about an Aboriginal stockman, a cruel station owner and the fallout when they cross paths. Make no mistake, it'll be gathering a heap of shiny trophies when Aussie awards season rolls around at the end of 2018. In cinemas January 25. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMrhANU1-X4 CARGO He's already played Tim from The Office, Bilbo Baggins and John Watson — and now, Martin Freeman takes on the guise of a father trying to save his baby during the apocalypse. Based on Ben Howling and Yolanda Ramke's Tropfest short of the same name, the South Australian-made film plunges into dystopian sci-fi territory amidst Australia's sparse landscape, and takes locals such as Susie Porter, Anthony Hayes and David Gulpilil along for the ride. Oh, and for added thrills in what proves an involving, gorgeously shot, environmentally and Indigenously-minded addition to a well-worn genre, there's zombies as well. A hit at last year's Adelaide Film Festival, it's destined for Aussie cinemas and Netflix. Release date TBC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qNndmppBgwM HAVE YOU SEEN THE LISTERS? There's only one way to respond to the question posed by the title of Aussie documentary Have You Seen the Listers? The answer, of course, is yes. If you've walked along a city street in Brisbane, Sydney or Melbourne, you've seen Anthony Lister's work at least once, even if you didn't realise it. Directed by All This Mayhem's Eddie Martin — with the same flair for an engaging story told with insight and authenticity — the film charts his graffiti and art career, and the about-face he faced in Brissie when the council that once paid him to paint decided to take him to court for vandalism. Compelling and moving in equal measure, and candidly personal too, it's a portrait of chasing a dream, finding success and then coming down the other side. In cinemas April 5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hY8KFlOm7qo BREATH Returning to Australia's film industry after nearly two decades, Simon Baker doesn't just feature in Breath, the adaptation of Tim Winton's best-seller of the same name. He also ventures behind the camera, making his directorial debut. In both guises, he impresses — particularly, as the feature's guiding force, in coaxing illuminating performances out of standout young stars Samson Coulter and Ben Spence. In a visually, emotionally and tonally assured effort, the pair play surf-obsessed teens who come to idolise Baker's ageing ex-professional wave-rider, and grow close to his retired skier wife (Elizabeth Debicki). In cinemas May 3. [caption id="attachment_653802" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Jennifer Kent's The Babadook[/caption] THE NIGHTINGALE Don't worry, Jennifer Kent's second feature won't have you peering under beds, being scared to look in cupboards and thinking twice about pop-up books. Instead, The Babadook director is trading one kind of thrills for another, this time telling the tale of a young woman in Tasmania in the early 19th century. A quest for revenge drives the narrative, with Game of Thrones actress Aisling Franciosi, Their Finest's Sam Claflin, and Aussies Ewen Leslie and Damon Herriman helping to bring it to life. When Franciosi's 21-year-old convict witnesses the death of her family by soldiers, her vengeance begins, as does her journey through the wilderness with an Aboriginal tracker. Release date TBC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_u4P4Isv6Zk 1% If Sons of Anarchy was made in Perth, it might look like 1%. Diving into the depths of warring motorcycle gangs, and exploring both internal and external turf wars, it has all of the familiar elements: gritty aesthetics, violent altercations, power struggles, a clash of generations and the club's second-in-charge facing off against his veteran leader all included. And yet, with Ryan Corr and Matt Nable both putting in memorable performances, and Abbey Lee and Aaron Pedersen also among the cast, the debut feature from Stephen McCallum rides its own trail through the brutal bikie genre. Nable also wrote the script, while the film itself started doing the rounds of international festivals late last year. In cinemas August 30. HOTEL MUMBAI In 2008, Mumbai's Taj Mahal Palace Hotel was attacked by terrorists. At least 167 people killed. Making his first feature, Australian writer/director Anthony Maras recreates the horrific incident, which understandably proved harrowing for locals and tourists alike. And, he's doing so with a familiar face to Aussie cinemagoers, with Dev Patel helping lead a noteworthy international cast after doing such a stellar job in 2017 hit Lion. Also on screen: Red Dog: True Blue's Jason Isaacs, 52 Tuesdays' Tilda Cobham-Hervey and Call Me By Your Name's Armie Hammer. In cinemas November 22. [caption id="attachment_585206" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] Filmmaker Abe Forsythe[/caption] LITTLE MONSTERS After attacking the Cronulla riots with a sense of humour that made clear the stupidity of racist thinking and hateful actions, Abe Forsythe has a zombie comedy in his sights for his next film. Yes, Aussie filmmakers really are loving the undead this year. Called Little Monsters, it follows a musician who agrees to chaperone his nephew's school excursion, the kindergarten teacher he falls for in the process, a kid's TV entertainer who forms the third part of their love triangle, and the shuffling, brain-eating masses trying to munch on the children. Down Under's Alexander England stars opposite 12 Years a Slave Oscar winner Lupita Nyong'o and Beauty and the Beast's Josh Gad. Release date TBC. [caption id="attachment_653812" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Undertow[/caption] UNDERTOW Slated to debut at this year's Melbourne International Film Festival as part of the fest's Premiere Fund, Undertow tussles with grief and obsession as a mourning woman begins to stress about her husband's connection with a pregnant teenager. Namechecking Black Swan and Wish You Were Here as influences on its crowdfunding page, the film is clearly stepping into the psychological thriller realm. Actress-turned-debut feature filmmaker Miranda Nation both writes and directs, and Laura Gordon (Joe Cinque's Consolation), Josh Helman (Wayward Pines) and Olivia de Jonge (Better Watch Out) star. Release date TBC. [caption id="attachment_653809" align="aligncenter" width="1280"] Slam[/caption] SLAM An Australian-made and -set effort by Indian-born filmmaker Partho Sen-Gupta (Sunrise), Slam wades into complex — and all-too-topical — territory. When Ameena (Danielle Horvat), a young hijab-wearing Aussie of Palestinian origin, disappears after attending a slam poetry night, the media is quick to paint her as something more than a missing person. For her brother Ricky (Adam Bakri) and mother Rana (Darina Al Joundi), it's an expectedly tense time filled with easy labels and suspicions. Complicating matters is the personal struggle of the police inspector assigned to the case (Rachel Blake), who has just returned to work after losing her soldier son. Release date TBC.
If you thought seafood was best suited to sultry summer days, Port Melbourne's favourite seafood restaurant might change your mind. The Aussie-born chain Kickin' Inn already has 12 NSW restaurants under its belt, with this first in Melbourne opening back in 2021. Kickin' Inn took over the former Rose Hotel site and has cured those lingering winter blues with a signature offering of seafood tossed through punchy house-made 'Kajun' sauces. For the uninitiated, Port Melbourne's Kickin' Inn offers an all-in, bibs-and-gloves experience, where diners do away with cutlery and get their hands messy with bags full of prawns, mud crab, pipis and shellfish — using only the tools that your god gave you. The Cajun-inspired house sauces — here, dubbed 'Kajun' — are more than mere support acts, with the venue boasting five flavour-charged secret recipes. If feasting is on the agenda, you'll find an abundance of snacks to kick things off. These include baby octopus, mozzarella cheese sticks, freshly-shucked Sydney rock oysters and wings galore. After that, you've got some big decisions to make. Choose your main event from a slew of ocean-fresh goodies including Alaskan king crab, pounds of peeled prawns, a pile of baby octopus, blue swimmer pieces, or a mess of mussels and pipis. Pick a matching sauce, whack in some additions like corn or chorizo, and dial up the heat level as high as you dare — keeping in mind the 'inferno' option is only halfway up the scale. Meanwhile, a separate lunch menu features more solo-friendly feeds from a prawn spaghetti to a mini mixed bag of seafood served with rice. It's one of the tastiest and most fun seafood restaurants in Melbourne.
Staying ahead of the curve in Sydney's constantly evolving food scene is difficult. New restaurants, bars and cafes pop up every week, and in Sydney, a city already saturated with food and drink options, it's incredibly easy for hospitality businesses to fall behind. In partnership with William Blue at Torrens University, we're asking the hospitality graduates who run our favourite Sydney restaurants to talk about how they got started in the industry. In 2015, Adelene Stahnke helped to open Bang Street Food in Surry Hills with her partner Tapos Singha and designer Nicholas Gurney. In 2016, the same team opened Bang Street Food spin-off Trunk Road in Darlinghurst. Stahnke is only 23 years old, so helping to start up two successful Sydney restaurants is no small feat. We asked her how it all happened, and if she has any tips to share. FIND A GAP IN THE MARKET (AND STICK TO IT) "Tapos kept talking about wanting to open a Bangladeshi restaurant in Sydney. I thought it was a great idea, and really inspiring because nobody had brought great, traditional Bangladeshi food to the city yet. I encouraged him to stick to his dream because I could see that there was a gap in the market, and I had a really strong feeling that a space would open up in Sydney. Tapos pitched the idea to his business partner, and once a space appeared in Surry Hills everything took off from there." LEARN EVERYTHING YOU CAN ABOUT THE CUISINE YOU'RE COOKING "Tapos went back home to Bangladesh for a few months to get some ideas flowing for the menu, and I went to Melbourne to cook at Tonka [an Indian-fusion restaurant] with Adam D'Sylva. I wanted to get some experience in sub-continent food because I didn't know much about it beforehand, and I think it's important to learn everything you can about a style of food before you start a business with it. I worked at Tonka with the goal to learn as much as I could and it was a really great experience. When Tapos and I both arrived back to Sydney, he showed me the menu and I understood the dishes in a way that I wouldn't have, had I not worked at Tonka. The menu was great, but it needed some refining, which is where I came in. I made sure that the menu would appeal to Surry Hills, while making sure that the Bangladeshi soul was still there." KNOW WHEN YOU'RE ON TO A GOOD THING — AND RUN WITH IT "At Bang we have a dish that people really love called 'Bang Boti Kebab', which is a roti kebab with steak filling. That dish really blew up so we thought we would take the opportunity and run with it. We said, 'let's do a restaurant based on that dish but in a smaller space, something cheap where we can do take-away as well'. That's how Trunk Road, our second restaurant, came about. We waited until we found the perfect space — a little terrace house in Darlinghurst — and the boys built the whole restaurant while my dad tiled it. I moved over to run the kitchen at Trunk once it was up and running. It's just a one-person, solo kind of thing in a really small kitchen, very different from Bang. We only serve four types of the 'roadie' kebab, a curry and some snacks." SURROUND YOURSELF WITH PEOPLE THAT SHARE YOUR ASPIRATIONS "In order to establish a really good business you need to have a concept and stick with that concept. It's also very important to have people around you that can compliment you and share your aspirations. Stay focused, and as long as it's still your hobby, you can make money from it because you love it. Having your own business is a lot of work, there are long hours right from the start. It's very different when it's your own project as opposed to working for someone else. Work everywhere you can and get experience in everything. I've studied hospitality and worked in hotels as well as fine dining, breakfast spots in Darlinghurst and Indian restaurants. You never know what will come in handy." William Blue at Torrens University offers courses in Culinary Management, Event Management, Tourism and Hospitality. Find out more about the diverse career options in hospitality, and kick-start your career via the website. Images: Kimberley Low.
It won't be the liquor that's making your head spin at Mexico's Biré Bitori. Designed by architectural firm Tall Arquitectos on behalf of chef Maria Andrea Payne, the proposed two-story bar and restaurant would stick out over the edge of a cliff near the Basaseachic Falls, the second highest waterfall in the country. And if that weren't enough to kick your vertigo into gear, the bar and dining area will feature a transparent glass floor, offering breathtaking/terrifying views of the canyon below. The bar and restaurant (and nausea-inducing glass floor) would be located on the first level, while upstairs patrons would find a panoramic observation platform and pool. No word on what the menu might look like, although given the incredible surroundings we can't imagine it would be all that cheap. The falls themselves are located in the Basaseachic Waterfalls National Park, around three and half hours drive west of Chihuahua in the country's north. Via Traveller.
In European rural communities, wine-making has been an inclusive experience for centuries. What better way to forge village connections than by the mass squashing of grapes and shared sampling of the results? Here in Australia, however, exorbitant distances mean that our quaffing usually happens a long way from the bottle’s source. Even if you are curious about setting up your own winery, it all looks rather pricey and tricky from the outside. Three guys in Melbourne want to change all that. They’re set on opening the city’s first interactive ‘urban winery’. And, through their Pozible campaign, they’re hoping to enlist your help. At Noisy Ritual, you’ll be able to take a hands- and feet-on role in the creation of people-powered, group-owned, premium quality wine, using old-school strategies — from the messy luxury of the mid-March stomp, to the squidgy fun of early-April pressing, to the spring magic of bottling — without leaving the Melbourne met area. The project came about when winemaker Alexander Byrne (of Lethbridge Wines) discovered a fermentation tank beneath the Thornbury house of schoolmate, Cam Nicol. “We decided then and there that we’d have to make use of it, because it was the only logical thing to do,” Cam says. “So, in autumn this year, Alex brought two half-tonne batches of shiraz grapes up from Geelong, from where he works. A few friends put in money to buy them, and we formed a basic winemaking syndicate. When it came to labour time, we’d have mini-parties, doing our stomping or pressing downstairs then coming upstairs, to eat and socialise.” Before that, Cam, a "music industry multi-tasker", was new to winemaking. “The process was a massively educational one for me,” he says. “I’d never known much about wine, so being involved in the making of it was a doorway into wine culture. It was something I’d always felt intimidated about and found it hard to converse about, because there’s a lot of assumed knowledge when you’re talking to people who actually know about wine.” Nervous whenever you sidle up to a wine-tasting counter? Not sure about deciphering the difference between a leather tone and a blackberry one? Noisy Ritual intends to have you demystified in a matter of months. Figuring that other people might benefit from the same learning curve, Cam suggested to Alex and another winemaking school buddy, Sam Vogel (Provenance Wines), that they take their neighbourhood operations citywide. Once funding is secured for Noisy Ritual, they’re planning on moving from Cam’s place to a bigger space, somewhere near Brunswick. In 2015, members (join up by pledging) will be able to take an active part in winemaking, in a party atmosphere fuelled by live music, DJs, wine tastings and food. To stem your loneliness in the lapses between the action, there’ll be special events and ample opportunities to drop in, to "taste the wine straight from the barrel, take some measurements, bend a winemaker’s ear or just give a barrel a hug". Images by Tajette O'Halloran.
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.
Deck the halls and unpack the plastic tree — the festive season is well and truly upon us. And while that whole Christmas tradition stuff is nice, we're not going to deny what we're most excited about: a whole stocking-load of new films. Along with the cricket and stampeding through shopping centres, going to the movies is one of our favourite Boxing Day traditions. After all, what better place to recover from your post-Christmas food coma than in a nice, dark, air-conditioned cinema? Of course, not all of the end-of-year titles measure up. That's why we're reporting in with our annual Boxing Day Battle Royale, to ensure that you get maximum bang for your Kris Kringle gift voucher buck. From critically claimed indie flicks to an epic blockbuster about a man who can talk to fish, you're guaranteed to find something to enjoy. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvPkDdFeTk8 COLD WAR We give it: 5 stars With Cold War, writer-director Pawel Pawlikowski achieves a plethora of astonishing feats. Constrained within 4:3 frames, his sumptuous black-and-white imagery immerses audiences in an intimate and complicated tale, with the filmmaker painting every possible emotion across the screen. The talent behind Oscar-winner Ida also turns his parents' own story into a heart-wrenching romance, and crafts a snapshot of Polish life as the Second World War gave way to the Cold War. Last by no means least, he gifts audiences with astoundingly intricate performances from actors Tomasz Kot and Joanna Kulig. The duo plays a couple who are desperate to be together, but live in a world that cares little about their desires — or about them at all. – Sarah Ward https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SYb-wkehT1g THE FAVOURITE We give it: 4.5 stars One queen, two women vying for her attention, and nearly two hours of acerbic and perceptive black comedy. That's The Favourite, a historical drama that looks like a lavish period picture, but boasts a savage wit — and savage insights into human behaviour — that's far from standard for the genre. The key is The Lobster filmmaker Yorgos Lanthimos. Not only does he again showcase his winning ways with stilted conversations and his fondness for skewering social expectations; he also exhibits a knack for political comedy and even slapstick. Lanthimos is aided by his fantastic cast, including top awards contender Olivia Colman as Queen Anne, Rachel Weisz and Emma Stone as her bickering offsiders, and Nicholas Hoult as the wannabe leader with his own conniving plans. – SW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eaiR3zdv5cU THE WILD PEAR TREE We give it: 4 stars After Once Upon a Time in Anatolia and Winter Sleep, Nuri Bilge Ceylan crafts another slow-burning affair that combines probing insights into human behaviour with sublime imagery. A tale of dreams and disappointments both mundane and life changing, The Wild Pear Tree sprawls and spreads in its everyday drama and perceptive dialogue. The movie's protagonist is Sunan (Dogu Demirkol), a new graduate returning home with qualifications but no job, and with a manuscript but no means to publish it. Across the movie's 188 minutes, the aspiring writer walks the town's dusty farmland and quiet streets seeking financial help, while his father's (Murat Cemcir) gambling debts continue to mount. The result is a picture that fits firmly into the acclaimed Turkish filmmaker's exceptional oeuvre. – SW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WDkg3h8PCVU AQUAMAN We give it: 3 stars The latest film in the DC Cinematic Universe is far from perfect. Its plot is a mess and its leading man, a roguish surfer-dude turned superhero (Jason Mamoa), is criminally underused. Despite these issues, it's also, for the most part, wildly entertaining. With dazzling visuals that, at their best, feel like Blade Runner (and, at their worst, The Phantom Menace), Aussie director James Wan never lets things slow down for too long, aided by a thumping electro soundtrack reminiscent of Daft Punk's work on Tron: Legacy. Amber Heard, Willem Dafoe, Patrick Wilson and Nicole Kidman help round out a stellar cast, albeit one that commands far too much time away from the true star, Mamoa. Nevertheless, it's safe to say that DC is slowly, painfully but ever so positively clawing its way back to credibility with each new film not directed by Zack Snyder. In the wake of the enormously successful Wonder Woman, Aquaman represents another small foot forward for the franchise. – Tom Glasson https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aSGFt6w0wok VICE We give it: 3 stars Sporting a hunch and a paunch, speaking in gravelly grunts and side-eyeing everyone around him, Christian Bale turns in another committed, transformative performance in Vice. His vision of former US Vice President Dick Cheney is a sight to behold, and with Amy Adams suitably steely as Lynne Cheney, Sam Rockwell in laidback mode as President George W. Bush and Steve Carell obnoxiously slippery as Donald Rumsfeld, he's in good company. But, as written and directed by Adam McKay in the same slick, jam-packed fashion as his previous film The Big Short, Vice never completely lives up to its performances. It's impassioned, amusing, designed to get audiences angry and stuffed with stylistic tricks to an almost overwhelming extent. However it also merely states the obvious rather than offers any new or deep insights. – SW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8mdIB1WxHI KUSAMA: INFINITY We give it: 3 stars How do you capture the enigma that is Yayoi Kusama in a single 85-minute film? The short answer: it's impossible, but Kusama: Infinity gives the task an affectionate try. Unsurprisingly filled with dots and pumpkins, this documentary celebrates the Japanese artist and showcases her work, however it doesn't break the mould the way that Kusama always has across her seven-decade career. What the movie does do well is explore the battles that the nearly 90-year-old artist has faced again and again, both as a woman in Japan and as a foreigner abroad. For those new to Kusama's story — people who've marvelled at her infinity rooms but haven't delved any further — writer-director Heather Lenz also provides a Kusama 101 lesson. – SW https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_BcYBFC6zfY WRECK-IT RALPH 2: RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET We give it: 2 stars A shadow looms over this Disney sequel — and, despite his hefty size, it doesn't stem from Wreck-It Ralph (voiced by John C. Reilly) himself. Rather, in taking the loveable video game character and his racer best friend Vanellope (Sarah Silverman) out of the arcade and into the online world, the film brings one of 2017's worst movies to mind. Wreck-It Ralph 2: Ralph Breaks the Internet fares better than The Emoji Movie, but its efforts to both literalise and satirise cyberspace just keep falling flat. Worse: its straightforward vision of the internet instantly feels dated. With product placement and a pixel-thin emotional journey the flick's other main components, this pop culture-heavy affair proves visually lively but lacklustre overall. – SW
Jameson, the legendary distillers of one of Ireland's most famous whiskeys, are calling on eager filmmakers from around the world to pick up a pen and finally write out that short film script they've been thinking about. Now in its sixth year, Jameson First Shot is fostering the creative endeavours of young filmmakers — giving those who may find it difficult to break into the film industry a shot at the big time. It's a stepping stone for filmmakers who don't quite have their foot in the door yet — for those who want to break into the industry, but haven't had the chance to. It's a platform that gives talented individuals an opportunity to realise their ambition and potential, and a way for them to tell their stories. If you're an aspiring filmmaker, head to the First Shot website and submit a seven-page short film script. If your script is chosen as the winner, your film will be produced by a team of professionals that includes Dana Brunetti — he's the man responsible for Captain Phillips and The Social Network, and the brains behind getting House of Cards onto Netflix, something the world should be endlessly grateful for. Dominic West (best known for his role as Detective McNulty in The Wire) will also be the star of your film, taking the lead acting role. Winning First Shot gives filmmakers an opportunity to work with some of the biggest names in show business. Last year's winner, Jason Perini, had the opportunity to direct and work with Maggie Gyllenhaal. "The most exciting part of the filmmaking process was just watching Maggie act — her face was a special effect," he says. "What had the biggest impact on me was the result of really creative and collaborative people working together. All the crew and cast were so dedicated to making the film I had envisioned in my head. I don't think I will ever experience such ease and dedication again." Since filming wrapped, Perini has gone on to direct his debut feature film, Chasing Comets. "I never anticipated that within less than a year of winning, I'd be directing my own feature film," he says. [caption id="attachment_568922" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Image: Trigger productions.[/caption] To enter the competition, write an original piece of work, with the final draft being no more than seven pages in length. Base your script around the great, unexpected things that can happen when you get rid of your fear and invite life in. For a complete set of guidelines and a script template, head here. It isn't everyday you get the chance to have your passion project turned into a reality, so sit yourself down with a delicious whiskey and get writing. Entries close at 5pm on Monday, June 1.
First came Messina. Then came kittens. Now, finally, Uber has rolled the dice on the ultimate delivery treat, and will be bringing babies right to your office. That's right — we're talking UberBUBS. Like some sort of stork in an Audi with a 4.8 star rating, Uber drivers have teamed up with trusting mums and dads all around the country to unlock the clucky in all of us, but be warned: the waiting list is expected to be huge. "If there's one thing you hear time and time again from successful, white collar types in the CBD," explains Uber Australia CEO Pieter Rank, "it's the regret of having put career ahead of family. Today at least, even if only for 15 minutes, we're giving them the chance to have both — no strings attached." Naturally, parents will be present at all times, and if the younglings find themselves overwhelmed, the visit will be cut short and a 50 percent refund offered in return. So how can you grab your chance to experience all the adorableness of kittens with the added benefits of dribble and mumbling? 1. Download the Uber app. 2. Request the 'BUBS' option in the app TODAY between 12pm and 4pm within the Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane CBD and surrounding suburbs. 3. If available, you'll get to enjoy 15 minutes of wide-eyed (or possibly stinky, wailing) cuteness delivered to your office, your home or even your reluctant partner to show them what they're missing. All funds raised will go to local not-for-profit nappiesandinsomnia.org.au to help raise funds for future Uber marketing activations.
Move over, Sydney Harbour. Lake Macquarie, just 90 minutes drive north, is two times bigger than you. In fact, it's the largest full-time saltwater lake this side of the equator. There are 167 kilometres of shoreline for strolling, swimming and paddling, and 90 villages for coffee-ing and feasting, just a short cruise up the Legendary Pacific Coast. Meanwhile, a short scurry overland to the coast leads to a string of pretty, pretty beaches, including Caves Beach (where there are real, actual caves on the beach), to quaint Catherine Hill Bay, dotted with 1890s miners' cottages. And, just to the west, lie the mountains, waterfalls and rainforest gullies of the Watagans National Park. Here's your guide to a dreamy lake weekender. [caption id="attachment_575383" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Lake Mac Kayak.[/caption] DO To get your bearings — and stretch your legs after the drive — start with a walk. You can take your pick, in terms of length, difficulty level and scenery. One of the easiest and most popular is the 8.9 kilometre, water-hugging Warners Bay Foreshore. It's a shared path, so you can saunter or cycle, and there's a handy, 24-7 bike hire station onsite. A mightier adventure is the 25-kilometre Yuelarbah Track, which forms part of the Great Northern Walk and takes in coastal rainforest, plus two waterfalls, before finishing at Glenrock Beach. For epic views, pop inland to conquer Mount Sugarloaf. When you're done with those, you'll find stacks more walk ideas over here. After seeing Lake Macquarie from the dry safety of land, the next step is to launch yourself onto the water. Pick up a kayak or paddleboard from Lake Mac Kayak and get shaping up those biceps. If you're the intrepid type, choose your own adventure. Otherwise, book a guided tour with School of Yak, whose itineraries include uninhabited Pulbah Island and secretive Dora Creek. Both two-hour and half-day trips are available. [caption id="attachment_554861" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Robert Montgomery.[/caption] More interested in lazy beach days? Make tracks to the coast to visit Caves Beach at low tide and you'll be playing The Goonies in a network of sea caves. For safe, patrolled swimming, head to Blacksmiths, which is at the southern end of a 14-kilometre strip of sand, ending in the rocky formations of Redhead Beach. And, at Catherine Hill Bay, you'll feel like you've stumbled into the 19th century. Once a mining village, it's heritage listed, so developers have kept away for the past 100 years. While you're there, drop by the Catho Pub for a beer in a refreshingly un-renovated, un-themed, old-school, Aussie watering hole. If you're looking for a beach inside the lake, swing by Murrays. [caption id="attachment_575386" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Sephardim.[/caption] EAT AND DRINK After completing the Warners Bay Foreshore track, tuck into a Mediterranean feast at Sephardim, where the motto is, "Eat, drink and be merry, for tomorrow we may die." Amen. When we say Mediterranean, we really mean it. The menu is a kind of circumnavigation of the Sea, with tapas-style dishes covering Spanish, Turkish and Persian influences. Be sure to try something from the Ottoman grill, which is fired up every single day, powered by Aussie charcoal. Seasoned with herbs, standouts include the swordfish, the gypsy steak and the Zhoug chicken. Vegetarians, don't panic, there are loads of dips, salads and fancy veggies. To dine surrounded by trees with water views, grab a table at The Lakehouse Cafe, at Murrays Beach. Their hearty breakfasts, like the monster bacon and egg roll or the mega signature breakfast, will sort you out for a day of action, and lunch and high tea are on the menu, too. Special events, like tapas nights, are held every now and again — keep an eye on the website for details. [caption id="attachment_574793" align="alignnone" width="1280"] The Olde Bakehouse.[/caption] Get your Italian fix on the western shore at The Olde Bakehouse, Morisset. But you can forget your usual country town spag bol or chicken parmi. Head chef Dan Way is a master of his craft and unafraid to experiment, working with the best produce that the seasons bring to his door. That's why the restaurant made the finals of the 2015 NSW Regional Restaurant Awards. So, gear up for house-made pastas, exotic inventions like wasabi-infused flying fish roe, and perfect panna cotta. Of course, the Hunter Valley's not too far away, so expect plenty of wines from the region on most wine lists in the area. If you have the time, then work your way through a degustation. On cold evenings, you won't want to rush, anyway — the fire's always a-crackling away. Another waterfront option is the Swill 'n' Grill Bistro at the Gunyah Hotel, at Belmont. Unfortunately, it was closed by a basement fire in early April, but the owners are promising to reopen soon. When that day comes, claim a spot on the verandah if you can (locals love this place). Freshly-shucked local oysters are dished up natural, Kilpatrick or mornay, while the generous Atlantic salmon steak is glazed with maple. There's also a bunch of premium quality meatiness, like the surf 'n' turf, which comes in the form of a 400 gram King Island rump with chilli garlic prawns. [caption id="attachment_575381" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Airbnb.[/caption] STAY For an old-fashioned stay on the lake's eastern edge, check into Selby Cottage at Mark's Point. You'll be cosying up among antiques and black-and-white photos, soaking in a claw-foot tub, pottering around in a private garden and catching sunsets from a waterfront verandah. Or, to be encircled by Wallarah National Park, opt for Bluebell Retreat at Murrays Beach. Designed by Queensland architect Gabriel Poole, this cottage won a UDIA for Sustainability and a HIA Greensmart Design Award. It features two large, sunny bedrooms and loads of luxe touches, from Sheridan linen to a Bose entertainment centre to decks overlooking landscaped lawns. There's also a selection of beauties on Airbnb. At The Boathouse, Wangi Wangi, on the lake's western shore, you and up to six friends can kick back in a spacious, open plan living-kitchen-dining room on waterfront reserve. Doing the romantic thing? Book peaceful Cedar Cottage, with its bamboo floors and fancy-pants bathroom and kitchen. Top image: Bill Collison.
Australia's love affair with the meat pie has reached extravagantly unfathomable new heights, with today's unveiling of a pie worth a whopping $12,000. Billed as the world's most expensive pie, the gold-encrusted pastry is the result of a partnership between the Lord Dudley Hotel in Paddington and Groupon Australia; celebrating the sale of the website's two-millionth food and drink voucher. Baked by Lord Dudley's executive chef Paul Medcalf, the so-called posh pie is made with David Blackmore's Wagyu beef eye fillet, rock lobster from Western Australia, Italian porcini mushrooms, 500g of black truffles and a selection of organically-grown vegetables, as well as two bottles of Penfolds Grange Reserve. The top of the pie consists of puff pastry covered in shaved truffles and — wait for it — 23 carat gold leaf from Germany. Yes, it sounds delicious and opulent and outrageous. But $12,000? To put that price into perspective, this pie costs roughly the same amount as 2500 Four 'N' Twenty Pies from 7-Eleven, or fifty-two thousand frozen party pies from Coles. But their gravy ain't made of the Grange. Groupon have released a video of the baking process, complete with inspiring MasterChef-style music, viewable below. Drooling is permitted. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnjpc_9auDA Anyone with a casual 12K lying around can make a purchase offer here. The rest of us plebs can also win a free taste, through a competition on the Groupon website.
If Cards Against Humanity's dark sense of humour appealed to the evil troll that lies dormant inside us all, you're going to flip your wicked lid over their new venture. OK Cookie Co. might sounds wholesome and sweet but the concept is devilish — send your friends (or your enemies) fortune cookies with brutal truths hidden inside. If there's anything more devastating than hopefully cracking a fortune cookie open only to have it tell you it's too late to stop climate change, we've never heard of it. OK Cookie taps into that market of assholes who love cruel jokes (which is frankly all of us). For US$10 plus shipping (or free shipping for two of more boxes), you can send a pack of 15 assorted misfortune cookies to anyone. Fortunes include gems such as "You will probably die of a heart attack or something" and "Your wildest dreams will come true, assuming those dreams are about the extinction of honeybees". It reminds us of the whole 'Send Your Enemies Glitter' win and the send your enemies a bag of gummy dicks thing of 2015 — people are apparently really on board with sending mean, anonymous gifts in the mail and we're delighted by it. May this be the first wave in a long, long line of novelty mail gifts.
Chin Chin's Executive Chef Ben Cooper is hosting a series of intimate cooking classes throughout August and September. Dubbed Cooking with Cooper, this new run of vibrant, Thai-inspired cooking classes is designed to give aspiring chefs the tips, tricks and recipes needed to recreate a taste of Chin Chin at home. Learn the secrets of the classic Sunday roast as Cooper demonstrates how to bone, stuff, roll and truss an entire chicken across August classes. Roll up your sleeves across this interactive workshop which will take you through the process of making accompaniments including a fennel and roast garlic sweet fish sauce glaze. Each class across Sunday, August 13 or Monday, August 14 will run over a three-hour session and is followed by a sit-down, Feed Me lunch featuring Chin Chin's menu classics. Alternatively, a three-hour BBQ session will run across Sunday, September 24 or Monday, September 25. Prep and perfect the ultimate beef brisket, supercharged with Thai-inspired twists including smashed cucumber pickles, before sitting down to a post-class feast featuring red curry mussels, slow-cooked brisket and more. Tickets come in at $145 per person which includes the three-hour cooking class followed by lunch. Images: supplied.
No longer do ravenous souls roam the mean streets of Melbourne on a wild-eyed search for their favourite food truck. Thanks to Welcome to Thornbury, Melbourne's first permanent food truck trailer park, some of the tastiest names in mobile food vending are parked in the same place Wednesday through Sunday each week. Dreamed up by the legends at Mr Burger, Welcome to Thornbury is located at 520 High Street, just a hop, skip and a jump from Croxton Train Station and the 86 tram line. Once a used car yard, the renovated, 4000-square-metre venue features both indoor and outdoor seating, and hosts as many as six different food vendors and 700 hungry patrons a night. The Welcome to Thornbury calendar, that you can find on its website, promises a rotating list of trucks and a number of themed food events each week. It's also got its own in-built 200-seater bar where you can grab cocktails, wine and beer by the bottle or on tap. And because of it's overwhelming popularity over the years, the crew also opened up Welcome to Brunswick back in 2021 — replicating the winning formula for Brunswick locals.
With beloved cult series Broad City now entering its fourth season, co-creator Abbi Jacobson is taking on a new podcast project that could push My Dad Wrote a Porno off our daily hitlist. A Piece of Work delves into the enigma that is modern art and answers questions you may have been too afraid to ask — like what significance a bicycle wheel atop a stool could possibly have, or why Andy Warhol was so obsessed with soup cans. A collaboration with WNYC Studios and MoMA, the ten-episode series will premiere on July 10 and air twice weekly on Mondays and Wednesdays. Each episode focuses on a different theme, from everyday objects and pop art to abstraction, performance and text-based art. Jacobson will specifically discuss individual works by big name (and at times, especially confusing) artists including the above mentioned Warhol, along with Jackson Pollock, Yves Klein and Marcel Duchamp, whose noted Bicycle Wheel will be topic of discussion in the first episode. Jacobson also welcomes a legendary roster of guests each episode, including musician Questlove, comedian Hannibal Buress, actress Tavi Gevinson and television personality RuPaul — who features in the not-to-be-missed episode six, in which they'll discuss Yoko Ono's provoking 1964 Cut Piece performance. If you're wondering how Jacobson became an authority on modern art, she actually holds a degree from Maryland Institute College of Art and has also published a colouring book series, Color This Book, and a book of illustrations, Carry This Book — in which Jacobson imagines items found in the pockets and bags of celebrities like Oprah, historical figures like Amelia Earhart and artists like Frida Kahlo and Banksy. A Piece of Work will be available on Apple Podcasts and WNYC, with a teaser and full list of themes, guests and artworks available on Entertainment Weekly. Via Entertainment Weekly. Image: MoMA.
For many, the idea of camping — packing the car with a tent, sleeping bag or swag and going bush for a healthy dose of nature – is fun. For others, the idea of getting out into the great outdoors sends a shiver of displeasure up the spine. But no matter which camp you fall into, we're happy to report that there's a middle ground. And that middle ground is glamping. A portmanteau of glamour and camping, glamping has gained popularity among those of us who are happy to camp as long as we have small luxuries such as wifi, coffee and comfortable bedding. Take a coffee break and scroll through ten of the world's most incredible, luxurious glamping experiences — from Queensland to Tanzania, via Chile. NIGHTFALL, LAMINGTON NATIONAL PARK, QUEENSLAND Breathe in the pure, fresh mountain air at Nightfall, and you'll feel like you've finally arrived at the life you should have been living all of these years. This super-exclusive camp is limited to six guests at a time, so you'll be guaranteed privacy. Take a dip in a natural spa pool in nearby rapids, or just laze in your private luxury tent accommodation. Located in a 'Lost World' paradise, this luxury camping accommodation would be absolutely perfect for a special anniversary, a birthday holiday, or just because you want to. MERZOUGA LUXURY DESERT CAMP, MOROCCO Imagine enjoying a sumptuous Moroccan feast under the stars in the heart of the desert, before retiring to your tent for a sound sleep in a squishy-soft bed. And when you open the traditional camel-skin door on your tent the next morning, a sea of red sand dunes rise up to greet you. Well imagine no more, because this is exactly what you're going to get when you head to the Merzouga Luxury Desert Camp in Morocco. Located in the quiet and idyllic sand dunes of Erg Chebbi, this tastefully appointed and endlessly glamorous camp is perfect for those seeking a luxury stay in one of the most incredible deserts in the world. WILD RETREAT, TOFINO, BRITISH COLUMBIA Few wilderness camps even come close to the experience you're going to have at Wild Retreat. ScarJo and Ryan Reynolds honeymooned here (that's enough reason in itself to visit), and since it's only accessible by seaplane or boat, you're at greater risk of being accosted by a bunch of raccoons than being overrun by tourists. Enjoy the charming vintage-style tents, and then get out there and explore the incredible wilderness of British Columbia. PAWS UP, MONTANA, USA If you have something special to celebrate and you happen to find yourself in Montana, then we suggest that you get yourself to the Paws Up luxury camping park and indulge in the Cliffside Camp experience. Each safari-like tent comes complete with a private bathroom, fans, heaters, fine bed linen and a chef and butler at your beck and call. There's a dining area with a view you'll never find in Australia, and you won't have to sacrifice a good coffee and breakfast in the morning. LEWA SAFARI CAMP, KENYA If seeing the "big five" (lions, elephants, buffalo, leopard and rhino) is on your list of things to do, then you might just want to fling yourself in the direction of the Lewa Safari Camp. Spread out in your comfortable private tent under your thatched roof, and enjoy the sight of animals sunning themselves on the stunning Lewa plains through your opaque tent. Perhaps you might feel like taking a picnic out onto the plains. That's totally acceptable, and indeed encouraged. SPICERS CANOPY, SCENIC RIM, QUEENSLAND There are only ten tents at the Spicers Canopy accommodation in Queensland's Scenic Rim, so you're not going to be grappling with the crowds when it's brekky time. Meals are prepared from local produce by Spicers' experienced chefs, so you're about as far from the 'traditional' camping fare of beer-cooked barbecue as you can get here. Rejoice. Pull up a log at the open fire by night, and then snuggle up in your luxury tent (complete with hot water bottle turn down service) to sleep the night under the stars. SANCTUARY RETREATS PRIVATE CAMPING, TANZANIA Go on a safari trip in the game-filled wilderness of Kenya by day, and then enjoy a perfectly heavenly naval bucket bubble bath under the stars at this glamorous safari camp in Tanzania. Afterwards, slink back to your tent and sink into your bed, which has been tastefully draped with fabrics and covered in the softest of mosquito nets. You'll enjoy finding nods to Balinese and Italian styling throughout your luxury accommodation. Sanctuary Retreats encourage you to spend two weeks glamping with them in the wilderness — that's how luxe this place is. PATAGONIA CAMP, CHILE Enjoy the luxury of kipping in a yurt in the heart of the Chilean wilderness. Feel ever so spoiled as you laze in your cosy king-sized bed, tastefully decorated with local handcrafted textiles at the luxury Patagonia Camp in Chile. Thanks to a large central dome, you can look up at the clouds by day, and then enjoy the sight of a million and one stars overhead at night. PAMPERED WILDERNESS, WASHINGTON, USA Switch on your flat screen TV, snuggle up on the king-sized platform bed and then toast some marshmallows for s'mores on your outdoor fire pit when you stay in the Safari Suite cabin at Pampered Wilderness in Washington. Nestled in the heart of the historic 842-acre Millersylvania State Park, you can enjoy relaxed rambles though old growth cedar and fir forests, or take a dip in the freshwater Deep Lake. After tiring yourself out on a walk, head back to your cabin to enjoy a drink from your minibar as you watch the sunset from your deck. PRIORY BAY HOTEL, ISLE OF WIGHT, UK While most of the guests who stay at the Priory Bay Hotel live it up in the hotel, you're going to buck the trend and get what is arguably a far better experience when you stay in one of the designer crafted yurts. Enter your yurt home through stable doors with French windows before stepping down onto your secluded terrace. Maybe laze on a beanbag if the ordeal of standing on your own feet all becomes too much. Spend your days gazing out on sandy Priory Bay beach, taking bracing countryside walks, or rambling along woodland paths, nibbling on blackberries, and spotting squirrels. Top Image: Wild Retreat, Tofino, British Columbia.
They're the round, iced, oozing snacks we can't get enough of — and they're possibly Brisbane's biggest export over the last year. Now, they're setting up shop in Degraves Street, making one of Melbourne's best foodie laneways even better. Yes, we're talking about Doughnut Time. Yes, they're continuing to plot their east coast domination. They've already popped up at Topshop in Melbourne's CBD and Highpoint Shopping Centre; however their latest site really does sound like a match made in heaven. Not sure why you should be excited? Well, let us enlighten you. If the pop culture-themed deliciousness such as the Home Alone (with milk chocolate glaze, wafers, a Kit Kat and dark chocolate glaze drizzle) doesn't sound like your kind of thing, then the humble ol' PB&J probably will. And then there's the vegan offering, because these sweet treats really should be enjoyed by all, regardless of dietary choices. We're pretty sure everyone's already well and truly onboard the Doughnut Time train though, given that their new delivery service sold out instantly when it was first unveiled. The Degraves haunt will make 14 stores, including on the Gold Coast and in Sydney, for the chain that only started serving their doughy morsels of dessert heaven twelve months ago. It really has been quite the year for Damien Griffiths' venture, with spots in Fitzroy and Hawthorn also reportedly in the pipeline for Victorians keen on all the beastly doughnuts they could ever hope for. Doughnut Time will open at 5 Degraves Street, Melbourne on Tuesday, February 24. They'll be giving away free doughnuts from 4-6pm. For more information, check out their website and Facebook page. Updated: Tuesday, February 23
Calling all late-night Tour watchers, cycling enthusiasts and anyone who wants to know what a 'peloton' is. The NSW Government has today announced the first ever Tour de France event to be held in Australia, locked in for 2016. Dubbed L’Etape Australia and locked in for the next three years, the upcoming race is an official offshoot of the Tour de France — the oldest and most prestigious road cycling event to rival all road cycling events. It's not the first Tour side quest, the United Kingdom, Brazil, Chile and Argentina have all seen their own stages. Destination NSW and the NSW Government have recruited SBS to broadcast the race, who've been your late night Tour broadcaster pal for 25 years. So where's the race going to be held? (Read: where can we place a huge CP logo on someone's rural property for sick helicopter coverage?) Designed to replicate the infamous Tour mountain stages, L’Etape Australia will weave through Jindabyne, Perisher and Thredbo. Rather than Alps and Pyrenees, riders will pump those legs through the beautifully formidable Snowy Mountains, where the Ultimate Snowy Challenge breaks people. These pretty, pretty NSW locations will inevitably boost the tourist dollar for the state; Minister for Sport Stuart Ayres said he anticipated the race to deliver in excess of $4 million in visitor expenditure across the three years. So you're a bit of a mad cyclist? Get up every morning at sparrow's fart just to beat the tradies to the tar? Want to see how you'd fare in the Tour? An expected 10,000 riders of varying levels are up to compete for the legendary Tour de France yellow, green, polka dot and white jerseys, and the waitlist is now open at the official L’Etape Australia website. Riders can register for updates, pick their level of difficulty (The Race is the big one, The Ride is slightly shorter for seasoned riders, and The Ramble is the fun, easier course) and reserve their place on the start line. L’Etape Australia by Tour de France is happening in December 2016. To register or for more info, visit the website. Images: Dollar Photo Club and NSW National Parks.
Australian farmers put out some seriously delicious cheese, but, if you live in the city, the best stuff isn't necessarily easy to find. Most are made on country farms, several hours' drive away, and don't often make it to major supermarkets. The good news is that a cheese lover by the name of Anna Perejma wants to change all that. She's the founder of The Cheese Riot, a brand new service that will soon bring boutique Aussie cheeses to your doorstep. "I love Australian cheeses," says Perejma. "Our products are just as good as anything you'll find internationally, but don't get enough recognition." Before you start wondering about Perejma's credentials, her resume includes events officer at the Australian Specialist Cheesemakers' Association — yes, the ASCA really exists — where she recently organised the & Cheese event series that included a Young Henrys beer and cheese pairing and a Four Pillars gin cocktails and cheese pairing at Moya's Juniper Lounge. We're pretty confident you can trust her palate. If that isn't enough, right now Perejma is travelling the length and breadth of the country, sampling all the cheese she can get her hands on. Once she has made her picks, she'll be popping them into boxes and sending them to subscribers all over Australia. Each delivery will also include a bunch of Aussie-made accompaniments, such as chutney, pastes, honey and matching teas. "It's like the Dollar Shave Club, but for cheese," says Perejma. "Every month, you'll get a selection of cheeses delivered to your house, most made by small producers who live in the middle of nowhere. The idea is to unlock products people want but can't get." On top of that, Perejma wants to "take the wank out of cheese" and encourage a sense of community around sharing it. "You can enjoy cheese any way you like, be that on your own with Netflix and a glass of wine or with a bunch of friends at a picnic in the park." The Cheese Riot hasn't launched quite yet, but, to keep an eye on developments and go into a draw to win a free cheese box, head over here.
Flume is teaming up with LA-based, Australian-born visual artist Jonathan Zawada for a blink and you'll miss it multimedia pop-up in Surry Hills this December. Named after the ARIA chart-topping musician's sophomore album Skin, for which Zawada created the cover art, live graphics, related videos and merchandise, the free exhibition will be open at Special Group Studios on Devonshire Street from Wednesday, December 7 through to Sunday, December 11, and will feature a series of new video works created exclusively for the show. "I've always been a huge fan of Jonathan's work so it's been a privilege to have him involved in the visual aesthetic around Skin, from the album art to the live show and merch," said Flume. "Visually I'm interested in the contrast of organic and synthetic, Jonathan's work so cleverly depicts this so it's been a natural fit for the music. I love the way he embraces technology to twist and contort things from the real world in alien ways." The pop-up will feature eight never-before-seen videos that combine fantastical animation by Zawada with ethereal sound design by Flume. Alongside these will be a series of large scale silk prints that further highlight the pair's unique creative partnership. You can check out Skin from December 7 to 11 at Special Group Studios, 270 Devonshire Street, Surry Hills. Keep your eyes on social media for more information closer to the opening date.
Bunnings Warehouse is supercharging its usual sausage sizzle, to support a few Aussie communities that are doing it pretty tough. Next Friday, November 22, all of the hardware giant's stores will host a special pre-weekend edition of their legendary snag sessions, raising coin for those impacted by drought and the current bushfires. All of the day's sausage profits will go to to Givit, a national non-profit that works with charities and community groups to connect disadvantaged people with the things that they need. The organisation also works with local councils and state governments to assist communities during disasters and emergencies — of which there are several happening at the moment. Some areas of the country have been struggling with a years-long drought and, this week, bushfires have destroyed hundreds of homes, and displaced thousands of people, across NSW and Queensland. Dangerous fire conditions continue today and into the weekend, too, with out-of-control fires still burning in both states. Luckily, Victoria has come away fairly unscathed from this recent bout of bushfires, but it's only the start of what's expected to be a hot and dry summer. For updates and advice on Victorian bushfires, head to the CFA website. So, on Friday, grab a snag in bread and show those in need some love. The sausage sizzles will run from 9am–4pm across all Bunnings Warehouses in Victoria.
