The first large-scale exhibition of famed Queensland artist Gordon Bennett since 2007, Unfinished Business includes familiar works alongside several never-before-displayed pieces. It has taken over the Queensland Art Gary and Gallery of Modern Art from until March 21, 2021. Considered to be one of the most significant figures in contemporary Aboriginal art, Bennett's work spans the 1980s up until his death in 2014. His artwork explores his identity, as well as racial stereotypes and Australian society. In the exhibition, visitors will experience nearly 200 artworks spanning paintings, sculptures, drawings, video installations and ceramics. Threads of Jackson Pollock and Jean-Michel Basquiat can also be seen within Bennett's work. In turn, Bennett has influenced heaps of contemporary and emerging artists. [caption id="attachment_792504" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Gordon Bennett, 'Abstraction (Migrant)'[/caption] Top image: Gordon Bennett 'Diptych' 1987. Private Collection, Brisbane. Photographer: John Downs.
Melbourne's superstar and much-loved chef Guy Grossi has just announced plans for a brand new establishment in Kew, in partnership with hospitality group PUBLIC. Nestled in a prominent corner of Studley Park Road and High Street, Clifton Hotel will have space for over 250 patrons across five distinct indoor and outdoor spaces. The multi-space venue will offer an assortment of dining experiences, led by Italian restaurant and apertivo bar Puttanesca. Antipasti, spaghetti alla puttanesca, Mamma's lasagne and puttanesca pizza is all teased to be on the menu. "Our philosophy when creating this menu was to incorporate familiar favourites you would find at the centre of an Italian family dinner table, taking quality, wholesome ingredients and treating them with respect," Guy Grossi says. "We wanted to create a place to bring together the local community to stop by on a Sunday for a family lunch, or a quick bite to eat during the week." Marc Murphy, former Carlton Football Club star turned project manager, will oversee the development of the historic hotel. Clifton Hotel is expected to open sometime in August at 99 High Street, Kew. You can keep up-to-date with the venue via the website, or on Instagram. Images: Mark Chew, supplied.
Thelma and Louise. Chocolate and peanut butter. Romeo and Juliet — all iconic pairings. Now, rosé wine and gin creators Maison Mirabeau might have introduced a new contender to the mix in the form of its signature drop: the Mirabeau Dry Rosé Gin. As you might have guessed, it's created via the power pairing of Provençal pink wine and gin. The low down? It's a fresh drop that you will want to enjoy in an appropriately refreshing environment. So, fantastically, a great introduction to the drop is on offer at the Maison Mirabeau x Four Seasons Sydney poolside pop-up this summer. From Monday, December 5 to Monday, January 23, you'll have the chance to channel a South of France sojourn by heading to Four Seasons Sydney and sipping a selection of delicious rosé- and gin-based cocktails from the comfort of your sun lounger. Whether you like a traditional dry gin (tinted pink), or are a purist and opt for a glass of Pure Rosé, you can expect subtle, stylish drops. There's Mirabeau's Riviera Gin & Tonic served with Mediterranean tonic water, fragrant rosemary and zesty lemon peel; and a chilled Rosé Negroni served with Lillet Rosé, Campari and orange peel — a particularly decadent indulgence when coupled with a stay at one of Sydney's most fabulous five-star hotels. Alternately, if you can't quite find the time to stop and smell the rosé, then Maison Mirabeau is making it easy to create a piece of Provence at home with bottles of Mirabeau Dry Rosé Gin now stocked at Dan Murphy's. For more on the Maison Mirabeau x Four Seasons Poolside Summer pop-up, head to the website.
It may be hot outside, but it's not quite 'our city in summer' until the Sydney Festival starts up on January 9, bringing with it a tidal wave of performance, music, art and other festivities. Tonight the Sydney Festival has launched its 2014 program, a massive conglomeration of 104 events, featuring 722 artists from 80 companies across 17 countries. Look out for a much bigger festival garden (so big, in fact, it's now the Festival Village) in Hyde Park, the return of music venue Paradiso at Town Hall and everyone's favourite duck, and a version of Stonehenge that you can bounce on. Yes, bounce on. But let's get the bad news out of the way first: crowd favourite Festival First Night has been shrunk down even further than last year's 'Day One', to the point where it's completely disappeared. This has been blamed on NSW state funding cuts, as the escalating event requires a large amount of dedicated resources. While the loss of Festival First Night is a little hard to swallow — especially when Parramatta gets one (the POP Parra Opening Party features public concerts and 'Boxwars', a street parade/brawl in cardboard costumes on January 10) — but you can understand the festival's insistence on there needing to be proper funding for such an undertaking. We say it's a unrivalled street party that for one day makes Sydney feel like a great, open, international city, and we hope it returns in the future. In the meantime, there are many free, public events to occupy ourselves with. Now, on with the show. Performance Sydney Festival is, above all, a means to get the most appealing, innovative and agenda-setting international performing arts works to visit our town. This year there's nothing topping the already-announced spectacle of Dido & Aeneas. This 'underwater opera' starts with a dance in a 7500L water tank and moves on to sumptuous feats of dance, costume, singing, music and stagecraft. But the one-woman La Voix Humaine promises to floor with conversely little. This Dutch production based on the monologue by poet and film director Jean Cocteau features actor Halina Reijn as a woman pleading with her lover down the phone line after a break-up. There are plenty of other acclaimed international theatre works with experimental, thrilling or just plain WTF twists. Bullet Catch (from the UK's The Arches and Rob Drummond), for instance, is about the notoriously dangerous magician's trick that took the life of William Wonder. We hear if you stay till the end, you may have a very direct part to play in the climax. Less unnerving is Othello: The Remix, a charming "ad-rap-tation" by Chicago hip hop outfit the Q Brothers that uses the words of Shakespeare and obliterates the memory of so many terrible modernisations. Also in the mix is Cadavre Exquis, a game of theatrical Exquisite Corpse played by some truly cool international artists; Tim Crouch's underdog tale I, Malvolio (we recommend going on the adults-only late show on January 18); and Pan Pan Theatre's All That Falls, a radio play you take in communally, while on rocking chairs. Of course, it's not festival time without a Spiegeltent somewhere, and this year's is grounded in some solid and frequently sexy circus. Strut & Fret are back with a follow-up to last year's Cantina, Limbo, which takes as its premise an otherworldly party between heaven and hell. There's also a second travelling tent, which belongs to Belgium's Circus Ronaldo, a genuine line of circus performers six generations long. Their La Cucina Dell'Arte is a more family-friendly brand of buffoonery set in a pizza parlour. They're sharing their tent with rowdier late-night act Scotch and Soda, which includes the stylings of the Crusty Suitcase Band. In the non-funny vein of circus arts, look out for Ockham's Razor, a unique blending of philosophy and acrobatics over three acts taking place at Carriageworks. There are also a few really exciting local productions that shouldn't be eclipsed: Black Diggers is a major new work by Tom Wright built on extensive research into the largely untold history of Aboriginal Diggers in WWI. Directed by Wesley Enoch, it's making its world premiere at the festival. Belvoir and post's Oedipus Schmoedipus will be an epic lark, Am I sees choreographer Shaun Parker and composer Nick Wales venture into a new civilisation, My Darling Patricia's The Piper is one to capture the imagination (and abduct some children), and Forklift required several dancers to get heavy machinery licences. Music This year’s Sydney Festival music lineup doesn’t quite have the ‘wow’ factor of former years, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find a tonne of events that underline why the festival makes Sydney such an exciting place to be in January. The headline event is undoubtedly Amanda Palmer, who will be playing 10 solo shows in the intimate surrounds of The Spiegeltent. Palmer has become an object of much debate after her incredible success at crowdfunding her latest album, but whatever you think of that whole deal you cannot deny she is a fascinating performer. Dating right back to The Dresden Dolls, her shows have always been fascinating amalgamations of pop, cabaret, punk, performance and songwriting, and even the Festival organisers can’t tell you exactly what to expect when Palmer plays solo. Big Star’s Third is an absolute cult classic, with bands as diverse as Belle & Sebastian, The Replacements, The Flaming Lips and R.E.M. citing it as an inspiration. Despite (or perhaps because of) the deteriorating mental health of frontman Alex Chilton, and the fact that the band had totally fallen apart between its recording and its release, it is regarded as one of the great records of all time. And you can hear the whole thing in all its broken, twisted beauty when an all-star band including original drummer and sole surviving member of the band, drummer Jody Stephens, Mike Mills (R.E.M.) and Ken Stringfellow (The Posies) take to The Enmore stage for one night only. Kurt Vile has quietly become a cult guitar hero in recent years, bringing together influences from psych to folk to garage to create beautiful, enchanting music. It might not seem like it sometimes – Vile is so laidback he’s almost horizontal – but the man is a virtuoso guitarist and a compelling performer. And he’s playing in two formats at this year’s festival: a solo “special midnight performance” in the Circus Ronaldo Tent, and again with his band, The Violators, at Paradiso and Town Hall. Not to be missed. And that’s not even mentioning Amadou & Mariam’s Eclipse (a “live, multi-sensory experience in pitch darkness telling the amazing story of the blind couple from Mali that includes scents inspired by Mali and their second home Paris pumped into the building”), performances from ex-Battles frontmant Tyondai Braxton, a collaborative performance with Lee Ranaldo (Sonic Youth) and Mike Patton (Faith No More, Mr. Bungle, etc), or dozens of other exciting acts. Even the classical music program is phenomenal. It might not seem like it at first glance, but Sydney Festival is once again putting on the best party of the year. Art Art-wise, the Sydney Festival offerings are incredibly choice. The focus is on large-scale, multimedia and installation-type pieces that pack an impressive visual punch. Christian Boltanski’s mega installation, Chance, on show at Carriageworks (10 January – 23 March), will prove to be a highlight of the program. It will be the first major work ever presented in Australia by the French artist, who is one of the more important figures of the international artworld. The piece will make full use of the architecture and size of Carriageworks and will chart births and deaths across the globe. The award for coolest festival event goes to 100 Million Nights, the collaboration between artist Daniel Boyd and electronic duet Canyons. The musicians have created an original score based on their interpretation of Boyd’s pieces. On 21 January, in the concert hall of the Sydney Opera House, the performance will be staged in front of three large projections of Boyd’s artwork. The show will also include a sight and sound work by former Battles frontman Tyondai Braxton. Hive will blend modular synthesisers, sound design and percussion with custom built “architecturally designed” illuminated platforms. Billed as an “inter-faith minibus tour (with a sonic and visual dreamscape)”, The Calling will take you on a tour of religious architecture and sacred music in Western Sydney. Beginning at the crack of dawn with the Adhan (the Islamic call to prayer), you will explore selected mosques, temples and churches throughout Auburn, Granville and Parramatta. Also thrown into the mix is a delish traditional Lebanese breakfast. Slovakian artist Roman Ondák is teaming up with Kaldor Public Art Projects (the group that brought us 13 Rooms) to present a trio of performative works. The artworld superstar will present Project 28 at Parramatta Town Hall. Swap, explores process of exchange and barter with humour and audience participation. The second work, Measuring the Universe, at first glance looks like hundreds of thousands of black strokes on a white wall. Look closer and you’ll see it’s tiny records of various visitors’ heights and the dates the measurements were taken. The final work, Terrace, will be a brand new work created specially for the Parramatta event. And that bouncy Stonehenge? That's Sacrilege by Jeremy Deller, direct from the 2012 London Olympics cultural program. Frighten off the tiny children and get jumping. Multipacks are available from October 24 at 9am. General tickets are available on October 28 at 9am. For full details see the Sydney Festival website. This year, the festival is offering an interactive, walk-through version of their program before tickets go on sale. A careers-counsellor-like service will help you find the events you most want to see. Take a gander from October 24-27 at Lower Town Hall. By Rima Sabina Aouf, Hugh Robertson and Rebecca Speer.
Surfing and gig-going have always been two of Australia's best-loved pastimes, and last year we scored a festival celebrating the best of both worlds. And, now, it's back for its second round of autumnal beachside festivals. Returning this March and April, The Drop festival will cruise around the country as it follows the Aussie leg of the World Surf League (WSL) Championship Tour and it's bringing a banging little lineup of musical gold along for the ride. Surfing the festival wave for 2019 are brother-sister folk band Angus and Julia Stone, the perennially pastel indie pop duo Client Liaison and NSW surf rock band Hockey Dad, along with other local legends The Jungle Giants and Alex the Astronaut. Held on the first weekend of each area's surfing event, The Drop is set to grace some of the Australia's most iconic surf spots, each outing featuring a locally focused offering of food, drink and culture, to match the tunes. As well as heading to the official WSL events in Torquay, Margaret River and Coolangatta, this year, the festival will also kick off Surfest Newcastle and Vissla Sydney Surf Pro in Manly — both WSL Qualifying Series events. THE DROP FESTIVAL 2019 LINEUP Angus and Julia Stone Client Liaison Hockey Dad The Jungle Giants* Alex the Astronaut * Ball Park Music will replace The Jungle Giants in Newcastle THE DROP FESTIVAL 2019 DATES Newcastle, NSW — King Edward Park, Saturday, March 16 Manly, NSW — Keirle Park, Saturday, March 23 Coolangatta, Qld — Queen Elizabeth Park, Saturday, April 6 Torquay, Vic — Torquay Common, Saturday, April 20 Margaret River, WA — Barnard Park, Busselton, Saturday, June 1 The Drop tickets are currently on sale for $95. For more info, visit thedropfestival.com.au. Images: Miranda Stokkel.
Melbourne has no shortage of design markets (or good designers, to that end) so we were about due for another one to take place. Held three times a year, the Little Sparrow Market is back for its second and third 2016 instalments after a kicking things off back in June. The market will fill The Atrium at Federation Square with all manner of aesthetically pleasing things, from candles to couture sleepwear to cute homewares. Altogether there'll be over 65 stalls, including some of the gourmet food kind — because no market-goer should have to go hungry. The first market will be held on Sunday, September 25, with the following one happening a month later on Sunday, October 23.
Francophiles rejoice: a new community hotspot is set to launch in the coming days, as the Alliance Française de Melbourne opens the French Hub on Bourke Street. Conceived as an inviting cultural and educational space, this new venue is just the latest chapter in the organisation's storied past, which traces back to 1890, when art teacher Berthe Mouchette opened the country's first Australian Alliance Française in Melbourne. Bringing together French language, culture and creativity under one roof, this purpose-designed space spans two expansive levels. Featuring a sunlit 300-square-metre terrace, fully equipped event spaces, classrooms, a library and a digital museum, connecting with and feeling immersed in Victoria's Francophile community comes naturally thanks to this focal point situated in the heart of the city. "We're thrilled to welcome Melburnians to our new home — a warm, inclusive space to learn, connect and celebrate all things French," says Myriam Boisbouvier-Wylie, President of the Alliance Française de Melbourne board. "The French Hub represents not just a new address, but a renewed vision for our community." Centred around the terrace, the hub's design offers subtle nods to classical French architecture through parquet flooring and elegant ceiling trims. Meanwhile, the main corridor serves as a reference to the Seine — Paris' most famous waterway — connecting visitors to the centre's varied zones while providing a comfortable networking space. Launching on Saturday, June 21, Alliance Française de Melbourne will kick things off at the French Hub with a free, family-friendly open day themed around 'A Warm French Escape'. Running from 12–5pm, visitors can expect live music, French cuisine and interactive cultural experiences. Sip and snack on tasty market-style treats like mulled wine, raclette and crepes, then head over to the croissant bar to enjoy a freshly baked pastry from Noisette, with sweet conserves provided by Bonne Maman. On the terrace, French and New Caledonian artists will serve up tuneful performances. Then, inside the hub, visitors are welcome to take part in free 30-minute beginner French lessons — perfect for those interested in enrolling in a course or just curious to learn langue de Molière basics. "We want people of all ages and backgrounds to feel welcome here," says Boisbouvier-Wylie. "Whether you're a fluent speaker or a first-time visitor, there's something for everyone at the French Hub." Alliance Française de Melbourne's French Hub opens Saturday, June 21, at 140 Bourke Street, Melbourne. Head to the website for more information. Images: Geena Glass
Spending time with your loved ones is what Christmas is all about, but the annual occasion also encompasses many other elements. Enjoying a few festive drinks, exchanging gifts and eating your way through a feast are all on the list, as are marvelling at festive ornaments and peering up at a tree. And when it comes to both food and decorations, plenty of folks take both areas very seriously. Every time that December 25 rolls around, are you obsessed with having (and devouring) the perfect dessert? Are you the type of person who goes much further than simply decking the halls with boughs of holly (and tinsel, lights and other trimmings)? If so, then you might want to add Black Star Pastry's new cherry Christmas tree cake to your must-have list. From the folks that gave the world that famed, super-Instagrammable strawberry watermelon cake, it's a 35-centimetre dessert that resembles a snow-dusted Christmas tree, is obviously edible, and will also look rather striking sitting in the middle of your table as part of your festive spread. Available in both Sydney and Melbourne — at Black Star Pastry's Newtown, Rosebery, Moore Park and St Kilda stores — the cake is covered in white chocolate and vanilla mousse, and adorned with edible decorations. So, it definitely looks the part. Inside, you'll find many a treat, starting with a base of puffed rice, candied orange and milk chocolate crunch base. From there, it's layered with lemon and yoghurt sponge, citrus marmalade, praline crunch, cherry compote made with cherry wine, tea jelly and cherry mousse. The cake serves 10–15 people — or fewer if you're keen on giving yourself one or more hefty slices. It'll set you back $150, and there are only a limited number available, so getting in quick is recommended. To get your hands on one, you'll need to place your order online, then pick it up in the two days immediately before Christmas. [caption id="attachment_793973" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Chloe Dann[/caption] Black Star Pastry's cherry Christmas tree cake is available to order online until 4pm on Tuesday, December 22, to pick up on either Wednesday, December 23 or Thursday, December 24. Images: Chloe Dann.
Bendigo Art Gallery will honour one of the most influential fashion icons of all time when the Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion exhibition opens on August 17. A pioneering 20th century designer hailing from Spain, Cristóbal Balenciaga was considered one of the leaders of haute couture — and hundreds of his designs are making their way to Australia this winter. For this exclusive exhibition, Bendigo Art Gallery has collaborated with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Expect over 100 garments and hats designed not only by Balenciaga, but also by his 30 contemporaries and apprentices at the design house — who include the likes of Oscar de la Renta and Hubert de Givenchy. Along with the designer pieces — including pieces worn by actress Ava Gardner, mononymous 50s model Dovima and 60s fashion icon Gloria Guinness — visitors will gain access to Balenciaga's house through archival sketches, fabric samples, photographs and fashion show footage. [caption id="attachment_719353" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Dovima and Sacha (1955), cloche and suit by Balenciaga. Image courtesy of The Richard Avedon Foundation.[/caption] This is the gallery's latest fashion-focused installation, with past exhibitions including Melbourne's own Toni Maticevski in 2016, golden era Hollywood designer Edith Head in 2017 and, most recently, an exhibition on Finnish textile icon Marimekko in June 2018. The art gallery is located about two hours' drive northwest of Melbourne. Instead of flying into Melbourne, out-of-towners can opt to take a newly operating Qantas direct flight from Sydney to Bendigo — and August would certainly be the time to do it. Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion will run from August 17 through November 10 at Bendigo Art Gallery, 42 View Street, Bendigo. Top image: Silk taffeta evening dress by Cristóbel Balenciago (1955), courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum, London.
In the long list of things we need to do to help the environment, cutting down on the amount of plastic that end up in landfill is right up there. Many countries including France, Italy, Ethiopia and South Africa have already banned single-use plastic bags, but France has just passed legislation that goes one step further. The European country will place a ban on plastic plates, cups and cutlery from 2020. Yep, all those Parisians picnicking at the Tuileries will see themselves dining differently in the park over the next four years — under the new rules, all disposable dinnerware will have to be made of biologically-sourced materials and have the ability to be composted. This includes plastic plates, plastic cutlery, plastic glasses, plastic dishes for takeaway meals, and even plastic cups in coffee machines. They're the first country in the world to introduce such a ban. Naturally, packaging and plastic manufacturers are none to happy with the French government's decision to implement the ban, claiming that it violates European Union's rules on free movement of goods, according to The Associated Press. They're also arguing that there's "no proof" bio-sourced disposable cutlery is any better for the environment. Either way, France — who also hosted last year's Paris Climate Change Conference — is doing its bit in making legislative changes to help the environment. By contrast, in Australia only Tasmania, South Australia, ACT and the NT have bans on single-use plastic bags in place at the moment — the bigger states are yet to commit to one. Via The Associated Press.
These days, it's hard to be wowed, or even mildly surprised by a shopping centre. But Melbourne's newest suburban retail precinct is a whole different story. Set to officially open its doors on Friday, December 6, Burwood Brickworks doesn't just have a strong sustainability focus — it's on track to being the most sustainable shopping centre on the planet. Sitting on Middleborough Road in Burwood East, it's been built with the aim of scoring certification under the Living Building Challenge, an international program for sustainable buildings. It requires the building to have a net zero carbon footprint, produce more electricity than it consumes and use non-toxic and recycled materials in its construction, among other things. If successful, Burwood Brickworks will be one of only 25 structures worldwide to stake this claim, and the first-ever retail building to do so. Clocking a total of 13,000 square metres, the precinct boasts a Reading Cinema complex, a new-concept Woolworths store, a large Dan Murphy's and a curation of smaller independent retailers, all within an airy, light-filled space. The crowning glory, however, is the sprawling rooftop space, sporting its own paddock-to-plate restaurant and 2000-square-metre urban farm designed and run by consulting firm Tully Heard. They're the same crew who operate Sydney's farm-to-table Acre Eatery, here joining forces with local eco-warrior Joost Bakker (Greenhouse by Joost, Brothl) in the role of the centre's Creative Consultant. Along with a rooftop greenhouse, the huge variety of fruit, herb and veggie patches will be used in the restaurant, with excess sold to the public. There's even a coop of quails laying eggs for the kitchen. Visitors will be able to wander through the gardens and attend workshops, talks and more hands-on green-thumb experiences to come. The rooftop farm's not big enough to handle all of the kitchen's food supply, though, so Head Chef Brad Simpson (Lamaros, The Smith) has been busy sourcing any remaining ingredients from a crop of top Victorian suppliers. Think Mt Zero for olive oil and grains, and Flinders & Co, Sher Wagyu and Western Plains Pork for meat. In total, 20 percent of the Burwood Brickworks site will be used for growing food, with fruiting trees even planted between each aisle of the centre's car park. But while these urban farm practices might be the obvious, big-ticket sustainability drivers – along with the rooftop solar panel system generating a hefty one megawatt of power – it's the finer details that really set this centre apart. PVC has been scrapped from the build entirely in favour of less toxic alternatives, a swag of reclaimed hardwood has been incorporated throughout the precinct, and the products used by each retailer have had to meet super strict standards. Natural light and air quality are also huge factors here, so expect an abundance of greenery, windows aplenty and in the central space, a soaring, ventilated sawtooth roof decked out with huge skylights. A far cry from most of those other shopping centres we've frequented in our time. Burwood Brickworks is set to open on Friday, December 6, at 78 Middleborough Road, Burwood East.
It's an ordinary day. You're sitting on the couch with your other half. The TV is on, and you're ready to escape into whatever your streaming queue holds. Then, you notice something odd yet familiar: a show about someone who looks exactly like you, but is played by Salma Hayek Pinault (Magic Mike's Last Dance). Welcome to one of Black Mirror's new nightmares, with upcoming sixth-season episode Joan Is Awful focusing on a woman (Annie Murphy, Kevin Can F**k Himself) whose life is adapted into a prestige drama without her knowing. Call them hallucinations. Call them rabbit holes. Call them mind fucks. Whichever fits — and Black Mirror calls itself all three in season six's just-dropped full trailer — there's more technology-fuelled chaos in store when this new whirlwind of existential dread makes a comeback. It properly teasing its audience about new episodes via Black Mirror's Twitter account in April, then dropped an initial trailer the same month, then unveiled its episode descriptions in May. Now, there's bigger sneak peek has arrived, plus confirmation that the show will return on Thursday, June 15. Charlie Brooker's dystopian series will indeed be satirising streaming — just because it's a streaming smash, that doesn't mean that's off the agenda — with Joan Is Awful also starring Michael Cera (Life & Beth), Himesh Patel (Station Eleven), Rob Delaney (The Power) and Ben Barnes (Guillermo del Toro's Cabinet of Curiosities). Also on its way in a five-episode new run: Netflix seeing the darker side of nature documentaries, which, like biographical dramas, it's mighty fond of making itself. In upcoming Black Mirror instalment Loch Henry, a sleepy Scottish town welcomes in a young couple, who are keen to follow in David Attenborough's footsteps. Then they learn of a shocking local story, in an episode with Samuel Blenkin (The Witcher: Blood Origin), Myha'la Herrold (Bodies Bodies Bodies), Daniel Portman (Game of Thrones), John Hannah (The Last of Us) and Monica Dolan (Empire of Light) in its cast. Viewers looking forward to Aaron Paul's (Westworld) return to Black Mirror after first being involved in 2017 will been keen on Beyond the Sea, where it's an alternative 1969, two men are on a high-tech mission and dealing with a tragedy's big consequences, and Josh Hartnett (Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre), Kate Mara (Call Jane), Auden Thornton (This Is Us) and Rory Culkin (Swarm) co-star. In Mazey Day, the paparazzi hounds a troubled starlet who is coping with the aftermath of a hit-and-run, with Zazie Beetz (Atlanta), Clara Rugaard (I Am Mother) and Danny Ramirez (Stars at Noon) featuring. And in Demon 79, it's 1979 and a sales assistant in Northern England is informed that she has to commit terrible acts or a disaster will occur — with Anjana Vasan (Killing Eve), Paapa Essiedu (Men), Katherine Rose Morley (The Syndicate) and David Shields (Benediction) starring. This chapter is co-penned with Bisha K Ali (Ms Marvel), and has been badged Red Mirror in the new trailer. Season six is being teased as "the most unpredictable, unclassifiable and unexpected season yet", which is saying something given everything that Black Mirror has thrown at the screen in past seasons (and in choose-your-own-adventure-style movie Black Mirror: Bandersnatch). And yes, Brooker does have quite the challenge this time around: making something that manages to be even more dispiriting than reality over the past few years. That's increasingly been one of the show's dilemmas — and noting that something IRL feels just like Black Mirror has become one of the cliches of our times — but this'll be the mind-bending effort's first round of episodes following the pandemic. Check out the full trailer for Black Mirror's sixth season below: Black Mirror season six will stream via Netflix some from Thursday, June 15. Images: Netflix.
Over the past year or so, we've heard a lot about self-driving cars being tested overseas — Uber's doing it in the US, as is ride-sharing service Lyft, there's driverless bus in Washington D.C. and a driverless delivery service in Japan. But save for a very adorable bus launched in Perth back in September, Australia is yet to foray into the sort of terrifying world of self-driving vehicles. Until now, that is, because the Victorian Government has just announced it will start to trial driverless cars on Melbourne roads from next year. The Andrews Labor Government yesterday announced they will partner with toll road management company Transurban to test driverless cars currently on the market to see how they interact with Melbourne's road infrastructure — that is lane signals, electronic speed signs, line markings and that pesky Montague Street Bridge. They'll be letting the cars loose on CityLink, including the Monash and Tullamarine Freeways, albeit with a real-life human driver in the car to take back control if needed. The news that the Victorian Government is committing to a trial of self-driving cars makes their insertion into our daily lives much more plausible for the near future. Indeed, it could mean great things for people who may not otherwise be able to drive, and has the potential to reduce the amount of accidents that occur from human error. "We want to work with the automotive and technology industries so Victoria can be at the forefront of automated vehicle technology and create jobs here in Victoria," said Minister for Roads and Road Safety Luke Donnellan in a statement. "Keeping people safe on our roads is our number one priority and that's why we're running these innovative trials in the safest possible way for all road users. By removing human error from the equation, autonomous vehicles will play a critical role in reducing deaths and serious injuries on Victorian roads." The trial is set to start early next year, so if you're in Melbourne, keep an eye out for any of this.
Melbourne comes alive in summer. Outdoor bars and restaurants fill up with people taking advantage of longer days, parks and gardens are gloriously green and the city's arts and culture venues host a huge range of events. Yes, you can certainly run away to beaches for spectacular nature-filled getaways. But summer is as good a time as any for a city break — and we've curated the ultimate way to do it in Melbourne, whether you're a first-time visitor or you know the Hoddle Grid like the back of your hand. [caption id="attachment_658995" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Stano Murrin[/caption] FRIDAY Begin your Melbourne city break with a sundowner at Bar Triana. Located within the AC Hotel Melbourne Southbank, this sophisticated bar offers up views over the city alongside a truly impressive selection of gin. Melbourne is known for its world-class arts and culture institutions, but we recommend you dive a little deeper into the city's lesser-known haunts like The Butterfly Club. This cosy theatre, bar and welcoming space is hidden down a CBD laneway. Once you find the entrance, head inside for a smorgasbord of weird and wonderful theatre. Get tickets to whatever is on and go along for the ride — you won't regret it. For something a bit more orthodox (but just as intimate), head to Bird's Basement for an evening of live jazz. Like The Butterfly Club, you shouldn't worry yourself with what specific artist is performing — just book a table and let the music sweep over you with a cocktail in hand. SATURDAY If you're one of those mysterious morning people we've heard so much about, we suggest taking a stroll to The Shrine of Remembrance for spectacular sunrise views. Take your time wandering around this incredible space and look out over the city, watching it wake up and come alive. From here, head to the shops and grab your picnic essentials before nabbing what is arguably one of the best barbecue spots in all of Melbourne. On the edge of the Royal Botanic Gardens and right on the Yarra River, you'll find a host of free-to-use barbecues overlooking Melbourne's skyline, and is an ideal spot to soak up some sun. If you're looking escape the sun, you won't need to go far. This spot is conveniently located right by Melbourne's celebrated arts precinct where you'll find all kinds of brilliant things to do. See an exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria or catch a matinee at the Arts Centre, Melbourne Theatre Company or Melbourne Recital Centre. For a pre-dinner drink, make a beeline to The Westin Melbourne's Lobby Lounge. Settle in to a plush club chair in this grand Collins Street space as you indulge in an aperitivo — and maybe a dozen oysters — before dinner. On the menu? Clever and creative Modern Australian at Lollo, a welcoming culinary space with a menu overseen by celebrated chef Adam D'Sylva. Lollo draws inspiration from Melbourne's multicultural heritage to serve up globally inspired dishes that showcase local and seasonal produce. [caption id="attachment_711646" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Josie Withers for Visit Victoria[/caption] SUNDAY Start your Sunday off by catching the tram to the South Melbourne Market. Grab a coffee from Pieno di Grazia and a freshly baked croissant from Agathé Pâtisserie before browsing the aisles featuring wares from local makers and producers who have made this bustling market a unique destination that highlights the city's diversity. Once you've eaten and shopped your way around the market, hire a bike from the AC Hotel to have one last Melbourne jaunt. Take to The Capital City Trail for a cycling journey that winds past Melbourne's most iconic landmarks. You can attempt the full 30 kilometres or just do a portion of the trail — whether that's Southbank to Burnley Gardens, Moonee Ponds Creek to the Melbourne Exhibition Centre or Abbotsford to Parkville. Whichever you choose, it's the perfect way to end your Melbourne city break. Looking to make the most of your next city break? Find your home away from home with Marriott Bonvoy. Book your stay not at the website. Top image: Dmitry Osipenko (Unsplash)
Each year Splendour in the Grass ups the ante. Combining the best in international and local acts, the music festival caters for all music tastes making it as inclusive as it is entertaining. Set at the picturesque Woodfordia site in Queensland, carloads of people from across the east coast plough up the highway, arriving at their destination to camp for the better part of the week in isolated companionship. But if you missed out on tickets never fear, Splendour sideshows have promised the best of the festival making its way to capital cities around Australia. Sporting some of the most illustrious names in today's music, the announcement of Sydney sideshows includes heroes of 90s Britpop Pulp, LA electo-pop lords Foster The People, post-dubstep poster boy James Blake, London indie kids The Vaccines, Swedish maestros The Hives and Bloc Party's Kele. Keep an eye out for more annoucements but in the meantime tickets for these excellent show go on sale this Friday, May 27. https://youtube.com/watch?v=MVgEaDemxjc
Arts House and Mobile States present Piece for Person and Ghetto Blaster, the latest work from subversive performance artist Nicola Gunn. Developed alongside choreographer Jo Lloyd and composer and sound artist Kelly Ryall, the show is built around the themes of conflict and resolution, the ethics of intervention, and how art, social convention and personal liberation don't always go hand in hand. Or, to put it another way, it's the story of 'a man, a woman and a duck'. Piece from Person and Ghetto Blaster will debut at Arts House in North Melbourne on Wednesday, November 11, having premiered in Sydney at the Liveworks Festival earlier this month. With a bit of luck, we'll all leave the auditorium having learnt to get along. Or at least we won't feel as inclined to throw stones at birds.
Mona Foma, MONA's wild and weird summer music and arts festival, is back for 2018. And it's set to eclipse all previous incarnations, with the festival adding a series of Launceston events to the usual Hobart lineup. The supercharged twin-city program will feature 11 days of thought-provoking performances, celebrating creativity in forms that defy categorisation. The expansion to Launceston offers a little taste of the festival's future — in 2019, Mofo will relocate to Launnie entirely. If you've never visited Launceston, Mofo is the perfect excuse to make a weekend trip to this gem of a town. While the festival will obviously keep your schedule pretty packed, you should definitely make some time to explore Mofo's future home. To guide you in the right direction, we've teamed up with Mazda3 to round-up the best places to eat, drink and lay your weary head. Go on, take a detour from the humdrum of daily existence and inject a little adventure into your life. [caption id="attachment_642025" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Harvest Market.[/caption] EAT AND DRINK Launceston is steadily gaining a reputation as a food destination. Visit some of the city's cafes and restaurants and you'll soon understand why. No visit to Launnie would be complete without a Saturday morning trip to the Harvest Market. This outdoor market, which blossoms in the summer months, features stall upon stall of fresh produce, baked goods and coffee. Get there early to nab a pastry from Sandy's Sourdough before they sell out and keep an eye out for the retro caravan, Wanderlust, which dishes up innovative vego meals. In need of a caffeine hit? Make your way to nearby Sweetbrew, a quaint cafe serving up some of the city's best coffee. If you're looking for a more substantial morning meal (you'll need the energy for all the Mofo craziness), Cuccina has you covered. And you'll fall hard for its legendary sweet chilli eggs. Cafe Mondello, with its all-day brekkie menu, is another great choice. In the evenings, the food trucks lined up along High Street are the perfect place for no-fuss dining — and you can take full advantage of the warm summer nights. Track down Turkish Tukka, for incredible kofte and gozleme, and The Crepe Caravan for its moreish Nutella pancakes. If you're after casual eats but prefer sitting at a table, make a beeline for Burger Got Soul. This insanely popular burger joint is famous for its veggie and chicken burgers — for very good reason. If you have a bigger budget, book in for a meal at Stillwater, one of Tassie's most lauded restaurants. Set in a historic mill, this Launceston stalwart dishes up impeccable fare year in, year out. Meat fanatic? Try Stillwater's sister restaurant, Black Cow Bistro, a local favourite known for its great steaks. DO Running from January 12 to 14, Mofo's first Launceston program features cutting-edge performances that are bound to set your mind on fire. Watch as Gotye join forces with the Ondioline Orchestra to pay homage to renowned French electronic composer, Jean-Jacques Perrey. This vibrant performance will be presented in a double bill with Skin Migration by Tannery, the Tasmanian Taiko and Leather Orchestra that makes mind-blowing sounds out of Japanese drums and leather instruments. Also hitting town is Monumental, a riotous dance performance by Canadian dance company, The Holy Body Tattoo, accompanied by music from post-rockers, Godspeed You! Black Emperor. Expect a raucous score, light sculptures and eclectic film projections. Rounding out the Launceston events is a massive free Block Party on January 14 (you'll just need to register on the website). There'll be music, art, drinks and wood-fired meats by MONA's Heavy Metal Kitchen. [caption id="attachment_642027" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Peppers Seaport Hotel.[/caption] STAY If you're in Launnie for Mofo, you'll probably want your accommodation to be right in the thick of things — to maximise the festive and adventurous atmosphere. For a comfortable stay that won't break the bank, the centrally-located Batman Fawkner Inn is a winner. The historic building was converted into a 40-room hotel with all the trimmings — air conditioning, free Wi-Fi and ensuite bathrooms. Prefer something fancier? Try the Areca Boutique Hotel. It has spacious rooms, comfy beds, stunning views over the city and Tamar Valley and it's still fairly affordable. If you're looking to splurge, book into the heritage Auldington Hotel. A convent in its previous life, this charming hotel boasts spacious rooms with contemporary furnishings and local art on the walls. Peppers Seaport Hotel, located on the waterfront, is another good choice. The rooms here have sweeping river views and are decorated — fittingly — with a nautical theme. Mona Foma 2018 will take place at venues across Launceston from January 12 to 14, at MONA from January 19 to 21 and across Hobart from January 15 to 22. Personalise your next adventure via The Playmaker, driven by Mazda3.
French photographer Patrice Letarnec has created an eye-catching photo series that turns the world on its head. Taking the streets of Paris for a backdrop, the collection of photographs feature gymnastically gifted individuals walking on their hands, creating a delightfully surreal and strangely entertaining result. Letarnec told the Huffington Post, "The main idea was to illustrate the French expression 'marcher sur la tête' — to act foolishly, to go against common sense, which is more or less what we experience in today's world." Patrice Letarnec is a France based photographer and art director. You can check out more of his work on his Tumblr.
New Zealand chocolatier Whittaker's has released a special Easter treat for folks looking for something other than eggs and bunnies to indulge in in 2024. While it might seem a little early to be planning your Easter egg hunt and lining up Australia's best hot cross bun, it's never not the right time to indulge in Whittaker's chocolate. Whittaker's Choc Cross Bun Block fuses two of the best parts of Easter — hot cross buns and chocolate, of course — into one creamy block. Whittaker's classic milk chocolate is flavoured with raisins, spices and orange oil to capture the sweet citrus flavours of a traditional hot cross bun. Crafted in Porirua, like all Whittaker's chocolate, this limited-edition chocolate block is a great alternative for adults who may not be interested in the admin involved in an Easter egg hunt. It also ties into one of the best Easter trends each and every year: seeing how chocolatiers, restaurants and bars can whip up new and inventive treats for the occasion. You'll only find this one at Coles supermarkets. The Whittaker's Choc Cross Bun Block will be available in Coles stores across Australia while stocks last.
UK-born Michael Lambie (ex-Stokehouse, Circa, The Prince and Taxi Kitchen) has been a big player in Melbourne's restaurant scene ever since he landed here back in the late 90s. He's worked at some of the city's top restaurants and even co-founded Lucy Liu — before selling it in 2020 and running off to Queensland for a short break. But now he is back and ready to take on the CBD with a new venture: Juni. Slated to open in late November, Juni will be championing Southeast Asian cuisine, of course, with Lambie's own style of contemporary twists. The menu is built around the concept of 'Fire and Spice', so we can expect all kinds of heat. Most dishes are also made for sharing, like the Chinese roast duck, pot-roasted beef short rib, tuna tataki, crispy fried eggplant and vegan red curry. The full menu will be available across the main dining room, front bar and mezzanine-level events space — although the team expects the bar to have more of a sip-and-snack feel (for after-work or pre-theatre sessions). Carlton-based studio Techne has designed the 140-person venue, which features a bright colour palette that blends bold reds and pinks with soft green and maroon hues. Lambie shared, "I love the clean flavours of Thailand, Vietnam and Japan, and I am loving creating a menu that encompasses all of these factors that appeal to my customer base. The service will be fast-paced with a focus on wine, well-made cocktails and drinks. Again, I'm committed to building a fantastic professional team and an amazing restaurant. I'm very excited!" Juni is set to open in late November, and will be found at 136 Exhibition Street, Melbourne. For more details, you can check out the venue's website. Images: Dylan Kindermann.
Gracing 134 hectares at the Peninsula's southern tip, this multifaceted family-owned property boasts a 110-seat restaurant, an enormous cellar door and a sprawling sculpture park — the most significant of its kind in the country. With panoramic Western Port Bay views as the backdrop, the sculpture park has debuted with over 50 large-scale works from both Australian and international artists and is set to evolve and grow over the years. Meanwhile, the semi-circular cellar door and restaurant is the work of acclaimed Melbourne architects Jolson, taking pride of place at the property's highest point and featuring sweeping views across the vineyard, the sculpture park and the Bay. The eatery's menus, created by Culinary Director Phil Wood (ex-Rockpool and Eleven Bridge) centres around seasonal, regional produce, kicking off with dishes like a beetroot pancake with salmon roe and lemon curd, and a wallaby pie. Meanwhile, a central woodfired oven works magic with quality local proteins like duck and beef. The restaurant's pitched as a comfy, casual venue, with a second more intimate dining space slated to open towards the end of 2017. Images: Anson Smart.
Something delightful has been happening in cinemas in some parts of the country. After numerous periods spent empty during the pandemic, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, picture palaces in many Australian regions are back in business — including both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made, including new releases, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. HALLOWEEN ENDS Whenever a kitchen knife gleams, a warped mask slips over a killer's face or a piano score tinkles in a horror movie — whenever a jack-o'-lantern burns bright, a babysitter is alone in someone else's home with only kids for company or October 31 hits, too — one film comes to mind. It has for four-plus decades now and always will, because Halloween's influence over an entire genre, slasher flicks within it and final girls filling such frames is that immense. That seminal first altercation between then 17-year-old Laurie Strode and psychiatric institution escapee Michael Myers, as brought to the screen so unnervingly by now-legendary director John Carpenter, also valued a concept that couldn't be more pivotal, however. Halloween was never just a movie about an unhinged murderer in stolen mechanic's overalls stalking Haddonfield, Illinois when most of the town was trick-or-treating. In Laurie's determination to survive Michael's relentless stabbing, it was a film about trauma and fighting back. As played by Jamie Lee Curtis (Everything Everywhere All At Once) for 44 years — her big-screen debut made her an OG scream queen, and she's returned six times since, including now in Halloween Ends — Laurie has never been anyone's mere victim. In the choose-your-own-adventure antics that've filled the franchise's ever-branching narrative over 13 entries, her tale has twisted and turned. The saga's has in general, including chapters sans Laurie and Michael, films that've killed one or both off, and remakes. But mustering up the strength to persist, refusing to let Michael win and attacking back has remained a constant of Laurie's story. That's all kept pushing to the fore in the current trilogy within the series, which started with 2018's Halloween, continued with 2021's Halloween Kills and now wraps up with an instalment that flashes its finality in its moniker. Laurie keeps fighting, no matter the odds, because that's coping with trauma. This time, though, is a weary Haddonfield ready to battle with her? First, a just-as-pressing question: is this David Gordon Green-directed and co-written, Jason Blum-produced movie ready to fight back itself? Green (Stronger, The Righteous Gemstones) has been the mastermind behind the franchise's revival with co-scribe Danny McBride (The Legacy of a Whitetail Deer Hunter) — and while their first dance with the boogeyman (James Jude Courtney and Nick Castle), and the woman pursued by him, gave the Halloween series its best sequel yet, their second lurked in lacklustre been-there, done-that territory. Despite a title that's bound to be proven wrong down the line because that's just the way Hollywood goes, Halloween Ends leaps forward after its average-at-best most-recent predecessor, thankfully. It does so weightily, eerily and gorily, in fact, albeit sometimes clumsily as well, in a mostly fitting swan song for Curtis that understands what it means to spend half a lifetime shrouded in tragedy. Halloween circa 2018 and Halloween Kills sliced into the same night, 40 years after Michael initially attacked Laurie, but Halloween Ends covers two other October 31s. In the first, a year later, a babysitter, a child and Haddonfield's understandably on-edge vibe are all present — as is Carpenter's 1982's masterpiece The Thing, playing on a TV — and a bloody end results. Jumping forward three more years, Laurie is penning a memoir about moving on from her ordeals, and has begun to re-embrace life while living with her granddaughter Allyson (Andi Matichak, Foxhole). Still, around them, their home town is uncertain in Michael's absence. Accustomed to having a big bad responsible for their woes, fears and misery, its residents now point fingers at twentysomething Corey Cunningham (Rohan Campbell, The Hardy Boys), who's already escaped a murder accusation but is forever branded in the community's eyes. Read our full review. ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT War makes meat, disposable labour and easy sacrifices of us all. In battles for power, as they always are, bodies are used to take territory, threaten enemies and shed blood to legitimise a cause. On the ground, whether in muddy trenches or streaming across mine-strewn fields, war sees the masses rather than the individuals, too — but All Quiet on the Western Front has always been a heartbreaking retort to and clear-eyed reality check for that horrific truth. Penned in 1928 by German World War I veteran Erich Maria Remarque, initially adapted for the screen by Hollywood in 1930 and then turned into a US TV movie in 1979, the staunchly anti-war story now gets its first adaptation in its native tongue. Combat's agonies echo no matter the language giving them voice, but Edward Berger's new film is a stunning, gripping and moving piece of cinema. Helming and scripting — the latter with feature first-timers Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell — All My Loving director Berger starts All Quiet on the Western Front with a remarkable sequence. The film will come to settle on 17-year-old Paul Bäumer (astonishing debutant Felix Kammerer) and his ordeal after naively enlisting in 1917, thinking with his mates that they'd be marching on Paris within weeks, but it begins with a different young soldier, Heinrich Gerber (Jakob Schmidt, Babylon Berlin), in the eponymous region. He's thrust into the action in no man's land and the inevitable happens. Then, stained with blood and pierced by bullets, his uniform is stripped from his body, sent to a military laundry, mended and passed on. The recipient: the eager Paul, who notices the past wearer's name on the label and buys the excuse that it just didn't fit him. No one dares waste a scrap of clothing — only the flesh that dons it, and the existences its owners don't want to lose. Paul's parents are against him signing up with the Imperial German Army, but his pals Albert Kropp (Aaron Hilmer, The Island), Franz Müller (Moritz Klaus, Die Chefin) and Ludwig Behm (Adrian Grünewald, also The Island) are doing it, so he's soon forging a signature and receiving his pre-used uniform. You could say that the high schooler and his friends get the shock of their lives once they make it to the front, because they do; however, as the Germans and the French keep tussling over a ridiculously small stretch, making zero impact upon the greater war in the process, Paul and company's lives — shocks and all — couldn't be more expendable. In the unit's first big push, the teenagers' numbers already diminish. Building upon the movie's potent opening, Berger ensures that nothing about war remains romanticised in their gaze. Call it hell, call it a nightmare, call it a senseless throwing away of innocent life and a needless robbing of the future: they all fit. Eighteen months later in November 1918, All Quiet on the Western Front moves to Paul and his compatriots behind the trenches. Trying to survive is still their only aim, and any sense of excitement, passion, enthusiasm and patriotism for their service has long dissipated. Sometimes, with the older and brotherly Stanislaus "Kat" Katczinsky (Albrecht Schuch, Berlin Alexanderplatz), making it through the day involves attempting to steal food from French farms. Sometimes, it means looking for new recruits who haven't shown up. When orders come as they unavoidably do, though, the front is inescapable. Alongside 1917, All Quiet on the Western Front proves a masterclass in conveying armed conflict's relentlessness, terror and futility — from a first-person perspective, and also via lengthy, unbroken, like-you're-there shots steeped in gut- and heart-wrenching wartime brutality. Read our full review. THE NIGHT OF THE 12TH On the night of the 12th, the incident that makes that date worthy of a movie's moniker happens quickly, heartbreakingly and horrifyingly so. It's October 2016, in the French Alps-region city of Grenoble, and Clara Royer (Lula Cotton-Frapier, Mixte) is walking home alone after an evening at her best friend Nanie's (Pauline Serieys, Grown Ups). It's 3am, the streets are quiet, and she's giddy with affection, sending a video message telling her pal how much she loves her. All it takes is a hooded figure emerging from the dark, whispering her name, dousing her with liquid and sparking a lighter, and Clara will never arrive home. Before this occurs in The Night of the 12th's opening scenes, director and co-writer Dominik Moll (Only the Animals) shares details just has distressing and dismaying: the French police are tasked with solving 800 murders a year, 20 percent of them never can be and, sadly, the case in this feature is among the latter. It might seem a strange decision, giving away the film's ending before it even begins; however, while The Night of the 12th is about the search for Clara's killer, it's never about the murderer. Instead, as it adapts 30 pages from Pauline Guéna's non-fiction book 18.3 — A Year With the Crime Squad, takes a Zodiac-style procedural approach and opts for a Mindhunter-esque survey of interrogations as well, it makes clear how easy and common it is for situations like this come about, especially in a world where women are slain at men's whims with frequency (then typically blamed if any of their own actions can be wrongly perceived to have put themselves in danger). Alongside David Fincher's serial killer fare, Bong Joon-ho's Memories of Murder casts a shadow, too, as detective Yohan Vivès (Bastien Bouillon, Jumbo) and his partner Marceau (Bouli Lanners, Nobody Has to Know) scour the area for suspects and answers. "The problem is that any one of them could have done it," Yohan observes after potential culprit after potential culprit fields their queries and flouts their engrained misogyny. Was it the bartender boyfriend (Baptiste Perais, The Companions), who saw Clara as nothing more than a fling on the side? The gym buddy (Jules Porier, Simone Veil, a Woman of the Century) that's guffawing seconds after the cops bring up the killing, all while bragging about a friends-wth-benefits setup? A rapper (Nathanaël Beausivoir, Runaway) knew the police would come calling because he wrote a song about setting Clara alight, while an awkward local squatter (Benjamin Blanchy, Spiral) welcomes the attention. By the time that her dalliance with an older man (Pierre Lottin, Les Harkis) with a violent past and convictions for domestic abuse comes up, one of Yohan and Marceau's colleagues is joking about Clara's taste in men. Judgemental views about women don't just fester among the interviewees; how many cases have been hindered by such prejudiced perspectives, The Night of the 12th silently gives viewers cause to wonder. Played as meticulous and passionate by Bouillon, the newly promoted Yohan isn't one of those chauvinist officers. More prone to splashing his feelings around in Lanners' hands, neither is Marceau. The film's central duo is dutiful and dedicated, and their efforts turn The Night of the 12th into a chronicle of devoted and hard-working people doing what they're supposed to — and well, and with care — even if viewers instantly know they won't achieve their desired outcome. In the script by Moll and his regular co-scribe Gilles Marchand (Eastern Boys), both men find the case impacting them in different ways, though, including the fact that their obsessive endeavours don't and won't wrap up the case. Amid chasing leads, making enquiries and sitting down with the men in Clara's life, Yohan lives a spartan existence in his spick-and-span apartment and in his relationships. Marceau is navigating a marriage breakdown, and his emotions run high personally and professionally. Read our full review. MURU Defiant, powerful and passionate at every turn, Muru depicts a relentless police raid on New Zealand's Rūātoki community. Equally alive with anger, the Aotearoan action-thriller and drama shows law enforcement storming into the district to apprehend what's incorrectly deemed a terrorist cell, but is actually activist and artist Tāme Iti — playing himself — and his fellow Tūhoe people. If October 2007 springs to mind while watching, it's meant to. Written and directed by Poi E: The Story of Our Song and Mt Zion filmmaker Tearepa Kahi, this isn't a mere dramatisation of well-known events, however. There's a reason that Muru begins by stamping its purpose on the screen, and its whole rationale for existing: "this film is not a recreation… it is a response". That the feature's name is also taken from a Māori process of redressing transgressions is both telling and fitting as well. Kahi's film is indeed a reaction, a reply, a counter — and a way of processing past wrongs. In a fashion, it's Sir Isaac Newton's third law of motion turned into cinema, because a spate of instances across New Zealand over a century-plus has sparked this on-screen answer. Muru's script draws from 15 years back; also from the police shooting of Steven Wallace in Waitara in 2000 before that; and from the arrest of Rua Kēnana in Maungapōhatu even further ago, in 1916. While the movie finds inspiration in the screenplay Toa by Jason Nathan beyond those real-life events, it's always in dialogue with things that truly happened, and not just once, and not only recently. If every action causes an opposite reaction, Muru is Kahi's way of sifting through, rallying against and fighting back after too many occasions where the long arm of the NZ law, and of colonialism, has overreached. Played by Cliff Curtis (Reminiscence) with the brand of command that he's long been known for — and with the unshakeable presence that's served him through everything from The Piano, Once Were Warriors and Whale Rider through to The Dark Horse, Fear the Walking Dead and Doctor Sleep — Police Sergeant 'Taffy' Tawhara sits at the heart of Rūātoki's us-and-them divide. A local cop, he has the nation's laws to uphold, but he's also beholden to the community he hails from. His homecoming is recent, with his father (Tipene Ohlson) ailing and undergoing dialysis. So far, it has also been quiet. On the day that Muru begins, Taffy drives the school bus, takes the Aunties for medical checkups at the local mobile clinic and does what everyone in the valley does in their own manners: watches out for and tries to support 16-year-old Rusty (Poroaki Merritt-McDonald, Savage), the nephew of fellow officer Blake (Ria Te Uira Paki, The Dead Lands), who has the role of Rūātoki's resident wayward teen down pat. When Rusty smashes up shop windows that night, Taffy takes the call, then makes Iti's Camp Rama his second stop. A gathering of locals that champions survival skills and Tūhoe culture, it's designed to foster and reinforce the area's identity, which Taffy thinks Rusty can benefit from — even if that evening marks the sergeant's first attendance himself. But Camp Rama has also been under surveillance by the NZ police's special tactics group, with haughty leader Gallagher (Jay Ryan, The Furnace) and his quick-tempered second-in-command Kimiora (Manu Bennett, The Hobbit) deciding that Iti and his friends are a threat to national security. The highly armed tactical unit descends upon the community the next day, aided behind the scenes by colleagues Maria (Simone Kessell, Obi-Wan Kenobi) and Jarrod (Byron Coll, Nude Tuesday), overseen by an MP (Colin Moy, Guns Akimbo) determined to make a statement, and ignoring Taffy's pleas that their mission is mistaken. Read our full review. MONA LISA AND THE BLOOD MOON When Ana Lily Amirpour made her spectacular feature filmmaking debut in 2014, and made one of the best movies of that year in the process, she did so with a flick with a killer title: A Girl Walks Home Alone at Night. That moniker also summed up the picture's plot perfectly, even if the Persian-language horror western vampire film couldn't be easily categorised. Take note of that seven-word name, and that genre-bending approach. When Amirpour next made wrote and directed The Bad Batch, the 2016 dystopian cannibal romance started with a woman meandering solo, albeit in the Texan desert in daylight, and also heartily embraced a throw-it-all-in philosophy. Now arrives her third stint behind the lens, the hyper-saturated, gleefully sleazy, New Orleans-set blend of superheroes, scams and strippers that is Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon — which, yes, features a female protagonist (Jeon Jong-seo, Burning) strolling unescorted again, back under the cover of darkness this time. Mona initially walks out of a home instead of towards one, however. And Amirpour isn't really repeating herself; rather, she has a penchant for stories about the exploited fighting back. Here, Mona has been stuck in an institution for "mentally insane adolescents" for at least a decade — longer than its receptionist (Rosha Washington, Interview with the Vampire) can remember — and breaks out during the titular lunar event after gruesomely tussling with an uncaring nurse (Lauren Bowles, How to Get Away with Murder). The Big Easy's nocturnal chaos then awaits, and Bourbon Street's specifically, as does instantly intrigued drug dealer Fuzz (Ed Skrein, Maleficent: Mistress of Evil) and a determined but decent cop (Craig Robinson, Killing It). With opportunistic pole-dancer Bonnie Belle (Kate Hudson, Music), Mona thinks she finds an ally. With her new pal's kind-hearted latchkey kid Charlie (Evan Whitten, Words on Bathroom Walls), she finds a genuine friend as well. Amirpour's movies sport a kinetic feel that's as natural to them as breathing is to watching audiences. Her love of movement shines through as brightly as moonlight, too — and Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon is another glowing example. Directed with style and boldness to spare, this is a garish, on-the-go, howling-at-the-sky kind of southern Gothic horror flick, purposefully and strikingly so. Slinking along with it is inescapable, whether Mona is unleashing her supernatural skills, navigating the French Quarter's hustle-and-bustle nighttime vibe, or wholesomely dreaming of a safer future. First, though, Mona has to break out of the bayou-adjacent facility she's been forced to call home, which happens in a grim, revenge-seeking, attention-grabbing fashion. The aforementioned nurse usually spits insults the straightjacketed, catatonic Korean detainee's way, including while clipping her toenails. Then the inmate snaps back into focus — maybe the moon that's stirred her? — and uses her gifts to wreak havoc. Without touching the nurse, or anyone else she imposes her will upon throughout the movie, Mona can take control of their bodies. There's no flesh-swapping (another spin on Freaky Friday, this isn't); here, via voodoo-esque physical manipulation, Mona Lisa and the Blood Moon's main figure waves her hands or nods her head, then whoever's in her gaze does as she directs. That's a skill that comes in handy once she's out on her lonesome, meandering the city barefoot with threats lurking. It's also a talent that Bonnie observes during a fast-food store car park catfight, with Mona saving her bacon. Deciding that those telekinetic capabilities can be put to cunning, canny and profitable use — look out, strip-club patrons — Bonnie is swiftly offering up her companionship, and her home, although the metal-loving Charlie warns their new houseguest to be wary. Read our full review. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in Australian cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on July 7, July 14, July 21 and July 28; August 4, August 11, August 18 and August 25; September 1, September 8, September 15, September 22 and September 29; and October 6. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as Thor: Love and Thunder, Compartment No. 6, Sundown, The Gray Man, The Phantom of the Open, The Black Phone, Where the Crawdads Sing, Official Competition, The Forgiven, Full Time, Murder Party, Bullet Train, Nope, The Princess, 6 Festivals, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Crimes of the Future, Bosch & Rockit, Fire of Love, Beast, Blaze, Hit the Road, Three Thousand Years of Longing, Orphan: First Kill, The Quiet Girl, Flux Gourmet, Bodies Bodies Bodies, Moonage Daydream, Ticket to Paradise, Clean, You Won't Be Alone, See How They Run, Smile, On the Count of Three, The Humans, Don't Worry Darling, Amsterdam and The Stranger.
The Good Food & Wine Show is set to return to Melbourne at the end of May this year, promising a stacked schedule of shows with notable chefs and the chance to discover artisanal goods from over 300 producers and brands. The celeb chefs that will take the stage include Ready Steady Cook's Miguel Maestre and pastry queen Kirsten Tibballs, along with MasterChef Australia alumni Emelia Jackson, Sarah Todd and Dani Venn, TV personality Alastair McLeod, and Aussie Barbecue Heroes host Jess Pryles. Between demos and talks on the Cooking Main Stage, attendees can expand their gastronomic horizons at various other events. Explore the world of tea with tea-infused bites and cocktails at The Art of Luxury Tea with Dilmah 85 Reserve, sample elegant wines at the RIEDEL Drinks Lab and Wine Selectors Tasting Room, or visit the Singapore Airlines VIP Lounge for your choice of three meals and five wines or beers. The Good Food & Wine Show will take place from Friday, May 31–Sunday, June 2 at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre. General admission tickets start from $39 and are available to purchase at the website.
A resident who lives near Melbourne's iconic Cherry Bar has recently been labelled "fuckwit of the year" for complaining about the venue's noise levels. Opening themselves up to unrelenting criticism from music lovers citywide, this neighbour wrote a small letter to the live music venue which has now been mocked and shared everywhere over the weekend. In the age of social media, it's almost always a bad idea, but in principle — do neighbours likes this really have a right to complain? In Melbourne in particular, this has been a huge problem. Earlier this year, many of the city's major venues were in dire financial straits as a result of noise complaints made by surrounding residents. Just one complaint could have seen the council stepping in and enforcing major renovations to soundproof the venue. For many smaller sites, this would put them at risk of bankruptcy. There were even concerns about this affecting the music scene at large — if this kept happening, surely the best venues would just move away? As a loud and proud bastion of hard rock in Melbourne's CBD, Cherry Bar is very familiar with this kind of trouble. As plans were going ahead to erect a 12-storey apartment building next door, the small venue was under pressure from the council to comply with noise regulations. Turning to crowdfunding from their loyal clientele, they raised over $50,000 in under 24 hours to go towards soundproofing the venue. This has now changed. And, as most venues aren't as blessed as Cherry, it's a very good thing. After years of arduous legal battles, Victorian parliament passed new Agent of Change laws last month which put the onus of soundproofing on the developers of residential complexes rather than inner-city venues. It was a momentous win for live music that guaranteed the future of many bandrooms on the brink. The City of Yarra then jumped on the back of this and offered $25,000 worth of funding to these venues in the name of good will. Go Melbourne! With all this in mind, it's a wonder this person bothered to get in touch. Shit's already getting done, right? "The noise made by your bar is affecting my sleep and work, especially since it lasts beyond midnight," the complaint read. "May i suggest u guys to reduce the noise made by at least a half ? [sic] There are many working adults and students living in this apartment, so the noise produced by your bar made it very difficult for us to rest at home after a long day of work." Then they get serious. "I have read about the noise restrictions in the CBD, and will consider reporting to the City of Melbourne or the Victoria Police if this matter is not solved within the next week." And that's where it all began: Fuckwit moves next door to Cherry Bar and complains about noise: http://t.co/2bYQZ3TBCq — Wil Anderson (@Wil_Anderson) October 18, 2014 Cherry Bar owners have since got back to the neighbour expressing their side of the story. "Cherry has been successfully operating for 14 years as a late night live music venue. We have never had a noise complaint," their letter read. "The good news for you is that we are proactively investing in $100,000 worth of soundproofing presently. We are approximately 3 weeks into the 4 week process." The moral of this story: you probably shouldn't move onto a street named after AC/DC if you don't like loud music. But in general, even if you live and breathe live music, it's easy to see the points these kind of neighbours are making. How many drunk trespassers and sleepless nights would it make to turn you into a fuckwit too? Via Tone Deaf and Music Feeds. Photo credit: Scootie via photopin cc.
Brightonites couldn't be more excited about 'Back To School' — and that's not just the yummy mummies talking. Brighton Schoolhouse has masterfully overseen the conversion of the heritage-listed schoolhouse accompanying St. Andrew's Church into a glorious institute of top coffee and wittily named brunch options. If the local consensus is anything to go by, it's gold stars all round. The menu places a strong emphasis on the origins of produce, with local and ethically sourced elements of utmost importance. The Schoolhouse features one of the best chai lattes in Melbourne; hand made and blended locally in Bentleigh, it's a combination of six spices with fresh cut ginger cubes and Australian bush land honey. When it comes to coffee, St Ali has devised a seasonal espresso unique to Schoolhouse, while premium fresh milk is sourced from St David Dairy and hand bottled in Fitzroy. The cafe is divided into two parts. The outside courtyard is positioned within a comfortable pocket of lawn, not too close to the schoolhouse as to obstruct the heritage street presence, and not too near to the street to be interrupted by Church Street's ongoing parade of four-wheel-drives. Inside, the original brickwork and exceptionally high ceilings are integrated with hip light fixtures and intimate tables for two to create a calm setting, perfect for catching up with the morning papers. It's a place where James Packer and Miranda Kerr publicly have breakfast together (as in, the Miranda Kerr Waffles with salted pistachio crumble ($18.50) and the James Packer Pancakes ($18) with maple glazed big boy bacon). Not straying too far from its schoolhouse origins, there's also a kids menu as well as colouring books and crayons on offer, making sure kids big and small are all well catered for. In an area where the choice of school is always a hot topic, Brighton Schoolhouse is easily a top pick.
It might just be Australia's brightest festival, and it's returning to light up Alice Springs once again. That'd be Parrtjima - A Festival In Light, which will deliver its sixth annual program between Friday, April 9–Sunday, April 18 — returning to the autumn time slot it established in 2019. After a chaotic 2020, which saw the event postponed to September due to COVID-19 lockdowns and restrictions — and offer a virtual tour, too — the fest has big plans for 2021. Once more, it'll continue its free ten-day public celebration of Indigenous arts, culture, music and storytelling, and its focus on dazzling light installations. This time around, the event is corralling its program around the theme 'future kultcha'. That means there'll be a particular focus on "intergenerational wisdom told through light, interactive workshops, art, music, films, performance and the spoken word". [caption id="attachment_799417" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Artist's impression of 'Landing Kutcha'[/caption] When it returns to the Alice Springs CBD's Alice Springs Todd Mall, as well as tourism and conservation facility Alice Springs Desert Park Precinct just out of town, Parrtjima will unveil a new set of signature installations — and yes, they're set to dazzle. While the festival's full program hasn't yet been released, the event has revealed a few key details about its luminous displays for this year. The striking 'Landing Kultcha' will use light tubes of different lengths, span 20 metres in length and provide quite the entranceway. 'Revolving Kutcha' will feature shields, coolamons and skateboards, including one large central piece that'll range between six to eight metres high, plus eight other two-metre-tall sculptures. And, 'Grounded Kultcha' will project an animated sequence of curated artworks onto the sands of Alice Springs Desert Park. There's also 'Merging Kultcha', which features a train of five illuminated camels; 'Tailoring Kultcha', with light and textiles used to transform Todd Mall; and 'Harvesting Kultcha', an interactive game for all ages that's inspired by the constant movement in a honey-ant nest. And, as it always does, the festival's main attraction will glow far and wide. Once again, a huge artwork will transform a 2.5-kilometre stretch of the majestic, 300-million-year-old MacDonnell Ranges, showering it with light each night of the festival. The installation is being called 'Spirit Kultcha' this year, and it'll include a soundscape by Electric Fields. [caption id="attachment_799418" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Artist's impression of 'Merging Kutcha'[/caption] The full Parrtjima program is set to be announced in March, with more than 55 artists involved. You'll be able to dine under the stars at the Alice Springs Desert Park Precinct — thanks to a dinner that's a first for the fest — and also see a music lineup led by Casey Donovan. Of course, Parrtjima is just one of Northern Territory's two glowing attractions in 2021, with Australia's Red Centre lighting up in multiple ways. The festival is a nice supplement to Bruce Munro's Field of Light installation, which — after multiple extensions — is now on display indefinitely. If you're keen to start making Parrtjima plans, remember to check out the Northern Territory's COVID-19 border restrictions first. Parrtjima – A Festival in Light runs from April 9–18, 2021 around Alice Springs in the Northern Territory. For more information, visit the festival website. Top images: James Horan.
Pandemic times can be a bit of a struggle, with all those necessary lifestyle changes we've had to embrace. But, if you're as mindful as ever of our planet, there are still plenty of ways you can stick to your former eco-friendly habits, even while reality and routine have been chucked out the window. One of them is subscription-style grocery delivery service My Milkman, which is independent, sustainability focused and uses zero plastic packaging. This crew is currently doing plastic-free home drop-offs right across the inner north, delivering locally produced staples to your doorstep without the usual side of eco-guilt. Milk from Barambah Organics arrives in old-school reusable glass bottles, Marrook Farm's yoghurt comes by the jar and your Padre coffee is contained in a nifty refillable tin. Other suppliers currently include the likes of Josh's Rainbow Eggs, Dench Bakers, St David's Dairy and Jam Lady Jam, with more goodies added to the roster by the month. Once you've polished off your products, simply wash the reusable containers and leave them out in your designated drop-off zone for My Milkman's drivers to collect when they swing past with your next delivery. Drop-offs currently run Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Fridays (you can arrange for one, two or three weekly deliveries), with groceries conveniently deposited at your door before 7.30am to avoid any dreaded breakfast delays. Depending on your appetite, you can choose from the Basics Box ($35 a week) or the Deluxe Box ($60 a week), with a suite of add-ons available, priced by item. Delivery clocks in at a $4.99 flat-rate fee. My Milkman currently services a range of inner north suburbs, running three days a week. For more info and to subscribe, head to the website.
Hitting the indoor mini-golf course for a few holes of pop culture-themed fun and a few rounds of delightfully named beverages isn't just something Brisbanites should enjoy, or Sydney residents either. After launching in Queensland in late 2016, and announcing their first New South Wales venture, Holey Moley Golf Club has officially landed in Melbourne. 590 Little Bourke Street is now home to 27 holes of club-swinging antics across two levels. It's Holey Moley's biggest venue yet, which means that there's plenty of room for the three nine-hole courses. The Brisbane bar is known for its creativity when it comes to creating courses, and this venue is no exception. Melburnians can tap, tap, tap their way through rooms dedicated to The Simpsons and Game of Thrones and throwbacks to Pacman and Barbie dolls. Plus, everyone will be able to break out into song at the same time, with karaoke part of the antics. If you choose to work your way through the Happy Gilmore soundtrack, no one will stop you (at least not any of the staff). Drinks-wise, expect cocktails. The Caddyshack Bar boasts a pun-laden drinks list that includes the The Sugar Caddy, the Teeyonce Knowles and a Long Island Iced Tee (just what it sounds like, but with an appropriate name). Beer, cider and wine will also be available, but when you're aiming for a hole-in-one, it seems appropriate to be drinking from one (made from Pampero white rum, cinnamon whisky, half a banana, sugar syrup and a doughnut — yep, a doughnut) at the same time. Images: Lucas Dawson.
Disney has its own. Apple has one too. And so does Drive director Nicolas Winding Refn. If you're fond of documentaries, you have not one but two local choices. The same applies if you're eager to get viewing for free, especially if you can handle retro flicks and titles that you've never heard of before. And if you're eager to support Australian content, there's one for that as well. We're talking about streaming platforms, of course. Throw in Netflix, Stan, Amazon Prime Video, SBS On Demand and ABC iView, and Aussies can't say there isn't anything to watch. That's not an exhaustive list either, because this space just keeps growing — with a new service dedicated to British television shows about to join the fold this year. Already operational in the USA, Canada and, of course, the United Kingdom, Britbox is a joint collaboration between two English TV networks: the BBC and ITV. They both have a hefty stable of programs up their sleeves — and while exactly what'll be available on the Aussie version of the service hasn't been announced, you can expect retro and recent series such as Absolutely Fabulous, The Office, Blackadder, Harlots and A Confession, based on the titles showcased on the current local website. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G2DCExerOsA Britbox will focus on box sets of UK shows, which means full seasons all there at once ready for audiences to stream. You'll be able to do so via mobile devices, tablets, connected TVs and Chromecast — and via the online site. Just when Britbox will start streaming in Australia is yet to be revealed, other than than sometime in 2020. Nor has a price as yet, if you're eager to add another platform to your subscriptions. Britbox is set to launch in Australia sometime in 2020. Visit the streaming service's website to sign up for further updates.
Strength in numbers works a treat for fundraisers and benefactors alike. St Kilda's Theatre Works are putting on a fundraising party for four of Melbourne’s leading independent theatre companies and their latest productions. They aim to raise $20,000 for Elbow Room’s The Motion of Light in the Water, Uninvited Guests’ I Heart John McEnroe, Dirty Pretty Theatre’s Thérèse Raquin and Little Ones Theatre’s The House of Yes. Set to be a night filled with quirky and playful performances, this collaboration marks the second annual Abundance Fundraising Party. Hosted by Present Tense's Bryce Ives, expect comedy, cabaret and musical performance from a lineup of very special guests, including acclaimed US actress Jane Badler and Grammy award-winner Jeff Bova alongside Virginia Gay, Roderick Cairns, Beau Heartbreaker, Nicholas Renfree-Marks, Angela Hogan, Joseph Chetty and Luisa Hastings Edge. Along with some spectacular performances, guests will be treated to a glass of bubbles and canapes on arrival. Then you'll have the opportunity to bid on some pretty top notch prizes in the silent auction. You’re still welcome to make a donation if you cannot attend the event, but why miss out on all this frivolity? Get along to enjoy fantastic performances, nab prizes and — most importantly — support independent Australian theatre.
Wine lovers visiting New Zealand's biggest city are truly spoilt for choice. A cluster of award-winning and family-owned vineyards sit less than an hour's drive from the CBD, making it the perfect destination for your next short break. Dotted among the hillsides and bays of northern Auckland, Matakana has a warm climate that produces elegant reds — there are 28 varieties planted in the region, which makes it one of the most diverse wine growing areas in New Zealand. Here you'll find the only vineyard in the country to specialise solely in Italian grapes, French-inspired drops and an elaborate 'if you build it, they will come' sculpture park. Flights to Auckland from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane are super short — around three-and-a-half hours on average — and Air New Zealand flies direct from all three cities and offers great everyday fares. SCULPTUREUM A Nike-wearing alligator, inspirational quotes from Steve Jobs, an exotic bird aviary and an 80-seat restaurant — Sculptureum isn't your average vineyard. After 12 years of design and development, Auckland-based lawyers Anthony and Sandra Grant opened the doors to their elaborate 'if you build it, they will come' space. The 25-acre site is located less than five minutes' drive from the Matakana village en route to Omaha (north of Auckland). After strolling through art-filled gardens, seeing a massive chandelier created by American glass artist Dale Chihuly and spotting large rabbits in a grassy arena named Rabbiton, it'll finally be time to sit down for a wine. On a sun-soaked hill beyond the gardens is the vineyard that produces Sculptureum's award-winning wines. Current varietals available include chardonnay, Bordeaux blend, syrah and rosé. They're best enjoyed by the glass with a meal at on-site restaurant Rothko — though you can always grab a bottle for later, too. BRICK BAY WINERY Brick Bay is another spot that incorporates boutique wines, a sculpture trail and a top-notch restaurant. Nestled amidst a patchwork of native bush and farmland, the winery is a magical setting for a short break out of the city. For a little over 32 years, the brand has made a name for itself crafting sustainable wines, notably the classic pinot gris and berry-driven rosé. If you want to see what all the fuss is about, tastings are held any time at on-site restaurant The Glasshouse for $8. Designed by respected architect Noel Lane, the building is exactly as the name suggests — a light-filled glass box, which sits over a lily-filled pond. For an additional fee, you'll also be given the opportunity to stroll around the sculpture trail and see work by some of New Zealand's top contemporary sculptors, including Paul Dibble, Terry Stringer and Judy Darraugh. The full trail takes around an hour to complete. HERON'S FLIGHT Heron's Flight is the only vineyard in New Zealand to specialise solely in Italian grapes. The winery was established 31 years ago by David Hoskins, whose work as a chemist, philosopher and winemaker makes him quite the renaissance man. Heron's Flight has been consistently committed to sustainable winemaking and can be found in the wine lists of top restaurants up and down New Zealand. Heron's Flight works with two grape varieties: sangiovese, which translates to 'the blood of Jupiter', and dolcetto, a variety which is often both dry and full-bodied. Tastings are available seven days a week, excluding public holidays. MATAKANA ESTATE Matakana Estate has been around since the boutique wine region first sprung to light more than 30 years ago. Under the care of Australian winemaker Richard Robson, the estate produces stylish, full-bodied chardonnay, syrah and pinot gris. With expansive views over the vineyard — the largest in the region — the tasting room is one of the most popular to visit for an afternoon of sniffing and swirling. That said, it's recommended to call ahead if you're looking to try a specific varietal. If you haven't sorted transportation for your return journey, the estate boasts a luxury lodge, which stands proudly on a ridge overlooking the Matakana valley and hills. It has room for up to eight merry guests. RUNNER DUCK ESTATE Runner Duck Estate is a boutique vineyard nestled in the Matakana valley, specialising in small quantities of French-inspired syrah, Bordeaux blends, pinot gris, sangiovese and rosé. After leaving behind a successful business in Mumbai and purchasing the estate, it was the objective of owners Clyde and Farida to produce a small amount of iconic red wine that would impress the world's most discerning wine drinkers. Staying true to their word, the pair will not produce wine under the label unless the year been outstanding. The estate's cellar door can be found at celebrated vineyard restaurant, Plume, which offers tastings of any five wines for $7 per person. Alternatively, tastings are free with any bottled purchased. Book your flights to Auckland with Air New Zealand and start planning your next long weekend away. Plus, Vinomofo has released a case of wine featuring six delicious wines representing the diverse and unique sub-regions of Waiheke, Kumeu and Matakana. Every case has a one in 50 chance of winning return flights to Auckland (from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane). T&Cs apply.
In a delightfully clever combination of old and new, Rich Neeley has been taking actual vintage books and giving them new lives as iPhone chargers. The book chargers feature a subtle adapter for iPhones/iPods through the front cover, and then connect to a power source through a wire which runs behind the book's binding. Neeley travels around Southern California with his wife on book hunting excursions, where they dig up old treasures or Rich to feature in his work. These have included books from as far back as 1914, as well as a copy of the classic Alice in Wonderland. Priced at around $50 from Rich's Etsy store, these will make a great gift and add a little convenient charm to any home. [via CoolHunting]
Pizza fiends will find a lot to love about this debut restaurant venture from Paul Kasten (Host Dining), Kate Paterson (Good Beer Week), Kyle Campbell (Beermash) and Rasmus Gundel, but they're certainly not the only ones. Located just off Brunswick Street, Deep End Pizza is proving it's got more than a few tricks up its sleeve — pizza might be the headliner, but it's supported by a primo menu of snacks and share plates, and one heck of a craft beer lineup. Three different styles of pizza feature a slew of classic and creative toppings between them. There's a New York-inspired thin-crust number — perhaps crowned with artichoke, roast capsicum and gorgonzola ($28), or whole clams and bacon ($40) — and a Detroit-style square pizza akin to a puffy focaccia with crispy cheese rim (from $26). Meanwhile, the huge Chicago-style stuffed deep dish creation treads the line between pizza, pie and lasagne (from $42). There's a 30-minute bake time on one of these bad boys and you'll need a crew of mates to help you conquer it. Kasten's fine dining background is even more apparent in the offering of clever small plates — think, saucy limoncello chicken wings ($16), whipped taleggio with charred spring onion ($18) and roasted marrow served in the bone ($15). There's a caesar salad reimagined with miso dressing ($15) and a chicken liver parfait brulée ($18). Local craft beer rules the drinks list, featuring the likes of Deeds' hazy pale ($10) and a farmhouse sour from Molly Rose ($13). Or, you can team your pizza with an interesting vino or signature cocktail like the Lion's Tail, made on bourbon and an allspice dram ($20). Deep End also boasts a lunch-only pizza window, slinging those Detroit-style pies by the slice.
Melbourne's Emporium food precinct continues to pack in those gastronomical delights, with the multifaceted Tetsujin rounding out level four's oriental offerings. The bright, white space that greets you at the top of the escalators is home to the sushi train, where $3.30 plates circle until 9.30pm each night. It's heaven for shoppers; after all, what could provide better relief after a retail sesh than to order some sushi from the iPad on your table and let the food come straight to your belly? Settle in here for a quick, cheery feed, or head beyond the kitchen, through to where the smoky aromas, neon signage and lively chorus of waitstaff welcome you to the barbecue part of the operation. This is the yin to the front room's yang — or the in to its yo, if you want to stick with the Japanese theme. Back here, the grills are sizzling, and a moody, industrial-cool fitout borrows something from late-night Tokyo, promising an altogether meatier experience. Groups of students or couples sip colourful cocktails and share beer towers of house lager as their food cooks between them. In addition to an a la carte menu, there's a range of BBQ sets to suit any protein craving, each served with rice, fresh vegetables and a flavour-packed kimchi tofu hot pot. You might go for the pork belly set — featuring eight different marinades ($62 to feed two) — or the more inclusive combo set, with its LA galbi (short ribs), pork belly and chicken bulgogi ($60 for two). Those with more particular appetites can personalise their own set, ordering by the item to pack in as much ox tongue, pork neck or pipis as they like. At $138 for two, the grand set, is well worth the splurge; the parade of sashimi, wagyu, seafood and dessert guaranteeing to leave you full. Soft shell crab salad and fresh salmon are followed by platters of neatly-cut protein, looking every bit as gorgeous as they do in the menu's flat lay photos. Alternate between sampling the four different cuts of wagyu, grilling up the king prawns, scallops, mussels and abalone, and diving into the kimchi hot pot, which is packed with baby octopus and more mussels. A generously priced drinks list includes a range of whisky flights and serious selections of both sake and shochu, marking this as a great dinner-and-drinks pitstop before a night out on the town. The cocktail selection is all kinds of fun and packed with Asian flavours; those looking for a slant on their usual post-work G&T should try the Nihon Gin ($18), infused with green tea and rimmed with nori salt. Snappy sushi drive-by or Tokyo-esque grill night — whatever your game plan, Tetsujin has the goods.
"Eventually, I've come to realise that there are bad guys," says Julia Louis-Dreyfus (You Hurt My Feelings) as Valentina Allegra de Fontaine in the just-dropped teaser trailer for Thunderbolts*. "And there are worse guys," she continues, "and nothing else". So goes the setup for one of the Marvel Cinematic Universe's next big-screen releases — and it plays with a familiar template. Banding together a disparate group of characters is MCU 101. Teaming up antiheroes to take on worse folks as mandated by the government is also how Suicide Squad and The Suicide Squad from DC have played out. The Thunderbolts* version hits cinemas in May 2025 Down Under, also starring Florence Pugh (Dune: Part Two), David Harbour (Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story), Sebastian Stan (Dumb Money), Wyatt Russell (Night Swim), Olga Kurylenko (Paradox Effect) and Hannah John-Kamen (Breaking Point) in their Marvel returns. Pugh is back as Yelena Belova after Black Widow and Hawkeye, while Harbour again plays Red Guardian, Stan returns as Bucky Barnes and his The Falcon and the Winter Soldier co-star Russell is back as John Walker. Kurylenko played Taskmaster in Black Widow, too, while John-Kamen's Ghost was part of Ant-Man and the Wasp. This is a flick with a bit of homework, then, if you're keen to know the ins and outs of every character before they get thrust together in Thunderbolts*'s storyline, becoming a band of misfits and going on missions. The film marks the 36th in the MCU, and will follow fellow 2025 release Captain America: Brave New World into picture palaces. Behind the lens on Thunderbolts*: director Jake Schreier, who has helmed episodes of Beef, Minx, the Russell-starring Lodge 49 and more, plus films Paper Towns and Robot & Frank. Marvel has had a light year on the silver screen in 2024, with just Deadpool & Wolverine releasing. That definitely won't be the case in 2025, however, with not only Captain America: Brave New World and Thunderbolts* slated to drop, but also The Fantastic Four: First Steps. Check out the first teaser trailer for Thunderbolts* below: Thunderbolts* releases in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, May 1, 2025. Images: courtesy of Marvel Studios. © 2024 MARVEL.
Crack that whip: you've got a date with new-wave icons Devo. Back in August, the 'Girl U Want' band was announced among the headliners for Good Things 2023, touring to celebrate 50 years since first forming in 1973 — and also to say goodbye on a farewell tour that'll mark their last-ever Australian shows. Now, they're among a heap of acts that've added their own gigs as sideshows to the main fest. Devo's famous energy dome hats will be on display at their own concerts at the ICC Super Theatre in Sydney, QPAC in Brisbane and Palais Theatre in Melbourne. Also set to do their solo shows: Limp Bizkit, Pennywise, Corey Taylor, Enter Shikari, Sepultura, Hanabie. and Taking Back Sunday — and the list still goes on from there. So, these sideshows will keep rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin' with Limp Bizkit; will see Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor hit the stage; and are guaranteed to burst with punk energy thanks to Pennywise. And, they'll also serve up I Prevail, PVRIS, Slaughter to Prevail, While She Sleeps and Royal & The Serpent as well. Different acts are going to different cities — and, while Good Things itself isn't on in New Zealand, Limp Bizkit, Behemoth and While She Sleeps are all playing Auckland. If you're wondering about Fall Out Boy, the group behind 'Sugar, We're Goin Down' and 'Uma Thurman' hasn't locked in any Australian and NZ dates other than Good Things — so that's your only chance to see Pete Wentz, Patrick Stump, Andy Hurley and Joe Trohman so far. GOOD THINGS 2023 SIDESHOWS: LIMP BIZKIT Sunday, November 26 — Spark Arena, Auckland Wednesday, November 29 — Hordern Pavilion, Sydney Wednesday, December 6 — Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane Friday, December 8 — John Cain Arena, Melbourne DEVO Sunday, November 26 — ICC Super Theatre, Sydney Wednesday, November 29 — QPAC, Brisbane Wednesday, December 6 — Palais Theatre, Melbourne I PREVAIL Tuesday, November 28 — Eatons Hill Hotel, Brisbane COREY TAYLOR Tuesday, November 28 — Metro Theatre, Sydney Wednesday, November 29 — Northcote Theatre, Melbourne PENNYWISE Tuesday, December 5 — The Tivoli, Brisbane Wednesday, December 6 — Coolangatta Hotel, Gold Coast Friday, December 8 — Drifters Wharf, Central Coast Saturday, December 9 — Torquay Hotel, Torquay ENTER SHIKARI Monday, December 4 — The Triffid, Brisbane Wednesday, December 6 — Liberty Music Hall, Sydney BEHEMOTH Friday, November 24 — Powerstation, Auckland Monday, November 27 — The Triffid, Brisbane Wednesday, November 29 — The Gov, Adelaide Tuesday, December 5 — Max Watts, Melbourne SEPULTURA Sunday, November 26 — Metropolis, Fremantle Tuesday, November 28 — The Gov, Adelaide Wednesday, November 29 — Max Watts, Melbourne Monday, December 4 — Princess Theatre, Brisbane TAKING BACK SUNDAY Wednesday, November 29 — 170 Russell, Melbourne Tuesday, December 5 — Princess Theatre, Brisbane Wednesday, December 6 — Factory Theatre, Sydney PVRIS Tuesday, November 28 — Factory Theatre, Sydney Wednesday, November 29 — Croxton Bandroom, Melbourne Tuesday, December 5 — The Triffid, Brisbane SLAUGHTER TO PREVAIL Tuesday, November 28 — 170 Russell, Melbourne Tuesday, December 5 — Manning Bar, Sydney Wednesday, December 6 — The Gov, Adelaide WHILE SHE SLEEPS Tuesday, November 28 — Hollywood, Auckland Thursday, November 30 — Stay Gold, Melbourne Tuesday, December 5 — The Brightside, Brisbane HANABIE. Tuesday, November 28 — Stay Gold, Melbourne Monday, December 4 — The Brightside, Brisbane ROYAL & THE SERPENT Wednesday, November 29 — Crowbar, Sydney Monday, December 4 — Stay Gold, Melbourne Good Things will hit the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in December 2023 — head to the festival website for more information and tickets. The festival's sideshows run throughout November and December — head to the festival website for more details and tickets, with early bird tickets available from 9am local time on Wednesday, October 18 and general sales from 9am local time on Friday, October 20. Top image: swimfinfan via Wikimedia Commons.
Named after an award-winning collection of short stories by Eleanor Farjeon, The Little Bookroom is a dedicated children's bookstore that first opened in the CBD in 1960. Since then, the famed shop has enjoyed many iterations and addresses, but remains a much-loved fixture of Melbourne's literary scene — easily ranking as one of the best bookshops in Melbourne. These days, it sits happily in Fitzroy North Village, helmed by Leesa Lambert and her parents. A cosy oasis for budding young bookworms, the store boasts an expansive curation of kids books, graphic novels and young adult fiction, guaranteed to delight small readers with big imaginations. There's also a handy selection of informative titles aimed at their adult counterparts, covering everything from parenting to hot-ticket new fiction. Plus, you'll find a jam-packed event calendar featuring things like book chats, author talks and interactive storytime sessions. [caption id="attachment_815355" align="alignnone" width="1920"] By Meghan Lawson, Piccolo Angelo Photography[/caption] Top image: By Meghan Lawson, Piccolo Angelo Photography
When Boxing Day rolls around each year, it brings sales, heat, a huge food hangover from Christmas lunch and a reminder to take down your festive decorations. Increasingly, it also sparks the beginning of the annual hot cross bun debate. Should those baked morsels of bread pop up on supermarket shelves the moment that the Christmas merriment is over? Does selling hot cross buns before the new year epitomise commercialism at its worst? Or should the tasty treats simply be available all-year-round, voiding the whole argument? Now, there's a new question to be bandied about: should you opt for traditional hot cross buns in a variety of flavours, or should you enjoy your them in ice cream form? Yes, the latter exists thanks to Woolworths, with the supermarket chain giving the whole notion of slinging hot cross buns at this time of year a summery twist. Currently available in stores, the limited-edition dessert features raisins, Australian cream and a ripple of flavour that tastes like hot cross buns. That's good news for everyone who loves their Easter treats in classic mode with fruit baked in, and bad news for anyone who prefers chocolate, salted caramel or basically anything other than raisins in their rolls. The tubs of hot cross bun ice cream aren't quite as decadent as New Zealand's version — a hot cross bun impaled on a waffle cone then filled with ice cream, which became available in 2018 at Auckland's Giapo. Still, if you love a good hot cross bun regardless of the time of year, then it just might be the new dessert to get you from summer until Easter. Image: Dallas Kilponen/PPR.
Melbourne's ongoing and ever-growing love affair with wine bars has now gone bayside, with the arrival of Middle Park European. Located in the charming Armstrong Street village, this sleek bistro comes courtesy of the quickly expanding Valarc Group — whose stable also includes Tartine Bistro, Sistine and The Meatball & Wine Bar — and is bringing an Italian- and French-inspired all-day offer to a spacious, sun-washed setting. Middle Park European channels the spirit of wine bars one might find dotted along the back streets of Paris or Rome, with a design that nods to both old-world Europe and the venue's heritage surrounds. The refined yet laidback tone is set via hand-shaped walnut detailing crafted by a local boatbuilder, soft lighting, rustic tiling and natural stone finishes. The venue is open for lunch and dinner, so you can settle in for as long as you like. [caption id="attachment_1007757" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Chege Mbuthi[/caption] The same sense of refinement is evident in the menu by Head Chef Aaron Wrafter, whose resume includes stints in Michelin-starred kitchens in the UK. Here, he has worked under the mentorship of legendary chef Ian Curley to create a considered menu that's rooted in classics, with small plates like caviar, crème fraîche, chives and pickled shallot served with house blini, and raw Spanish mackerel lifted with zucchini, olive, cucumber and tomato. Larger dishes include steak frites with tarragon butter and pan-roasted chicken finished with green olive and white wine sauce. Dry-aged steaks also feature, as do handmade pasta. The drinks list is similarly thoughtful. Alongside an approachable list of Australian, French and Italian wines, you'll find a selection of premium champagnes and a range of signature cocktails inspired by the group's other venues. Despite its location between South Melbourne and St Kilda, Middle Park has long been one of Melbourne's most slept-on suburbs. With this elegant new arrival, we don't expect that'll be the case for too much longer. [caption id="attachment_1007760" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Chege Mbuthi[/caption] Top images: Chege Mbuthi.
Prahran's Grattan Gardens and nearby performance space Chapel Off Chapel are set to score an 11-day serve of cabaret, comedy, circus and music, as arts festival So Soiree kicks off its next edition. Running from December 2–12, it'll see the park reborn as pop-up performance space The Parlour, complete with neon lights, beer gardens and a spiegeltent. That's set to play host to a diverse program of goodness — from side-splitting theatre-comedy courtesy of emerging talent Josh Glanc, to a raunchy fusion of cabaret and burlesque acrobatics descending on the stage for Blunderland. The Wine Bluffs bring more laughs with their take on an interactive wine masterclass, and you'll catch an unnerving amount of neon spandex when Werk It - Tight Fit delivers its high-energy blend of acrobatics, comedy and circus skills. Throw in some good old-fashioned stand-up from names like Zöe Coombs Marr, Dave Thornton and Claire Hooper, and you've got yourself a very colourful start to the summer arts season. [caption id="attachment_833382" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Werk It - Tight Fit[/caption] Top Image: The Parlour
Little has changed since the 2016 leak of the Nauru Files, which detail 2116 incident reports of assault, sexual and child abuse, self-harm and horrible living conditions suffered by asylum seekers on Nauru, one of Australia's offshore refugee detention centres. With the centre continuing to operate regardless, 32 award-winning artists have teamed up to create All We Can't See: Illustrating the Nauru Files, which will show at Fortyfivedownstairs Gallery from Tuesday, July 31 through Saturday, August 10. The exhibition illustrates the suffering of detainees through creative expression, with each artist having chosen a specific Nauru file to interpret. The exhibition's renowned Australian artists include painter Ben Quilty, 2017 Bvlgari Art Award recipient Tomislav Nikolic, Tim Maguire, Sulman Prize winner Aida Tomescu, and multi-discipline artist Belinda Fox. Since the show first debuted in Sydney earlier this year, many more leading artists — including Julian Meagher, Khaled Sabsabi, and Stanislava Pinchuk — have joined. Members of the public, including school children, have also illustrated files, which can be viewed on the All We Can't See website. Three free events will also run alongside the event, including free panel discussion on Thursday, August 2. The first will be moderated by Daniel Webb from Human Rights Law Centre and include discussions with Gillian Triggs, the former President of the Australian Human Rights Commission. On Friday, August 3, there will also be free screening of Watan, a documentary that explores the human cost of the Syrian refugee crisis. Finally, on Tuesday, August 7, there'll be a conversation between artist Hoda Afshar, who visited to Manus Island earlier this year, and poet Behrouz Boochani, a current detainee who will join via Skype. With a complete lack of media access to the island, the artists hopes to raise greater awareness through their art in this sure to be powerful exhibition. Artworks at the exhibition will also be for sale, with all proceeds going to the Human Rights Law Centre. Image: Work by Pia Johnson and Janet Laurence
Breakfast, brunch and microroasteries are to Melburnians what brown sauce is to the Brits. But it's a ritual that often requires heading toward, rather than away from, the city. Paul Vernuccio is trying to turn that notion around with his new all-day eatery in Pascoe Vale, George Jones. The name, George Jones, belonged to the first business owner to open a general store in the area in 1841. And with Pascoe Vale being sparse in venues of this kind and calibre, the name is a fitting tribute. George Jones the eatery, then, has been 174 years in the making. The northern suburbs cafe is a familiar concept, yet not one seen in these parts before. Polished concrete, painted grey steel and soft blonde timbers are all incredibly warm when paired with the mid-tone lighting and gradient of tri-colour tiles. Eon Design, the team responsible for the interior, have produced a gem capable of standing alongside the best of the leafy inner east — and the menu doesn't skimp out either. A well-rounded day menu features a variety of the light, sweet and substantial with no shortage of gluten-free or vegetarian options. Green eggs and 'ham' ($19.90) are more than a fictional favourite: poached eggs are plated with a pea puree, crispy chunks of pork and a potato hash before being dusted in dry and crispy kale. On the flip side, the buttermilk hotcake stack ($18.90) offers a sweet-toothed alternative. Dinner here is the domain of burgers ($17.90), pasta (from $17.90) and a parmigiana ($23), along with a host of other crowd-pleasing favourites. Another neat addition is the on-site coffee roaster. Here, George Jones produce their house blend as well as a rotating list of single origins. It's specialty coffee without the fluff or feather puffing, served as you like from one of their four grinders. They also have a small but growing retail trade. George Jones is slick, and you can tell this isn't Vernuccio's first rodeo. He's opened up a polished venue in an area where nothing like this has really ever existed, and it's already proving popular with an intergenerational cross-section of locals. George Jones shows that with great risk does come reward. And that there may be more reward for locals around the corner with an adjacent gelato shop in the works. Stay tuned on that one. Images: Thanh Do.
There'll be a fresh tune flowing through the Melbourne CBD, as Murmur on Warburton Lane gets set to relaunch as the city's first dedicated piano bar. Set to start tickling the ivories on the final day of November, Murmur Piano Bar takes its cues from venues in Chicago, New Orleans and New York, and will play host to a rotating roster of local musicians beginning with acclaimed entertainer Matt Ganim. "Melbourne's bar scene has rapidly evolved and a regular bar just doesn't cut it anymore," said venue manager Charlie Haggarty in a statement. "People need a bigger reason to venture out, get off the couch and step away from the Netflix series they're binging on." "Murmur Piano Bar gives people a reason to leave the house again" On the beverage front, Murmur Piano Bar will offer a mix cocktails with a focus on whiskey and gin. The list will feature predominately Australian drops, with a few Spanish numbers thrown in. The Spanish influence can also be seen in the food offerings, with tapas available courtesy of Portello Rosso downstairs. Think fresh charcuterie, ham hock croquettes and sweet, sweet churros. Find Murmur Piano Bar upstairs at 17 Warburton Lane, Melbourne from November 30. For more information visit www.murmur.com.au.
Styling itself as a south side alternative to the longstanding Asian restaurant mecca of Richmond's Victoria Street district, Hanoi Hannah promises classic Vietnamese hawker-style dishes such as rice paper rolls ($7), vermicelli noodle salads ($10) and the classic bowl of pho ($9). But whilst comparisons can be made from a menu standpoint, the similarity between Hanoi Hannah and its long-standing predecessors end right there, and you'll be wasting your time if you're expecting a brightly-lit, tiled dive where you can get your cheap pho fix and skull cheap BYO wine. Hanoi Hannah places a lot of emphasis on style, and its trendy appearance and cheap menu attracts suitably intense crowds to the modestly-sized outpost near the corner of Chapel and High Streets. Eating at Hanoi Hannah is certainly a process – be prepared to wait between 30-50 minutes for a table on any night of the week, due to the now-popular (and sometimes frustrating) Melbourne restaurant inclination to avoid taking reservations. There's no room to have a drink while you wait at the bar as every nook is filled with keen diners, but with its great location, at least there's plenty of bars to relocate to around the corner whilst you wait. Once you've secured your table, the service and food are quick in succession, and whilst the staff are pleasant you do get the feeling that after attending to table after table in such quick turnover, there isn't the time for them to take the time to concentrate on recommending the more interesting offerings on the menu, which is a shame due to a fantastic array of tapas style offerings from the rice paper rolls ($7 for two) to excellent sliders in both pork belly or tofu form ($8 for two). The rushed attitude of the place is only a slight criticism, as it detracts little from the wonderful food and excellent atmosphere of the tiny restaurant. Low lit and with a distinct Vietnamese vibe (but without the tacky themed restaurant appearance), it's perfect for a light dinner and drinks with friends or a bowl of pho that won't break the bank. Whilst it claims to be the Asian-dining salvation for the Prahran and Windsor area, it's less Victoria Street authenticity and more like the stylized offerings of Colonel Tan's nearby: great food, great atmosphere, and very hip. Like Mamasita is to Mexican, Hanoi Hannah is to Vietnamese; its settings and popular cuisine choice have made it a dining stalwart in a mere 6 months since opening. And you only need to look at that daily line to see the proof.
Luke Mangan is well known for serving up classic French cuisine in Sydney — with restaurants in the Hilton Hotel Sydney, Kimpton Margot Hotel Sydney and the Pylon Lookout inside the Sydney Harbour Bridge. His latest venture Bistrot Bisou follows the same tried-and-tested formula. Mangan has set up a contemporary French restaurant in another city hotel — this time, Melbourne's Hotel Indigo. Here, you won't find food that challenges or feels particularly playful. Instead, Mangan and his Head Chef Rory Kennedy (Vex Dining and Bar Romantica) have stuck to nailing the classics — think: steak tartare, cheese soufflé, confit duck legs, lobster thermidor, tarte tatin and crème brûlée. There might not be any surprises, but the dishes are executed with great finesse and also showcase top local produce. The flamed-cooked steaks are a standout. These are cooked in the open kitchen over a roaring fire, which fills the room with a slight smokiness that makes the space feel incredibly cosy and welcoming. Those ready to brave the heat can even sit up at the bar and eat while watching the chefs do their thing. "We want this to feel like a second home for guests, whether they're Melbourne locals or visitors wanting a relaxed place to dine after a long day of sightseeing," says Mangan. "The French bistros of Paris have an ambience about them no matter what time of day or night it is, which is what we are creating here." [caption id="attachment_959622" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Glen Percival[/caption] And Mangan has lucked out with the 96-seat dining room, which was only fitted out a few years ago for Beso, the former Spanish restaurant that once called this space home. The kitchen is mostly the same as it was before, as is the front bar. The space is full of cream and light brown tones, accented with leather banquette seats and brass finishes. There's also a seperate nook for semi-private dining. At the front bar, which boasts floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking Spencer Street, folks can also sit up on a stool while they sip and snack. Tim Davey (French Saloon) has created the impressive cocktail list for Bistrot Bisou, which includes eight martinis, plenty of signature creations, and a hefty list of French aperitifs for those wanting a little pre-dinner sip. As expected, the wine list features a great selection of French and Victorian vinos, while Taittinger Champagne is also available by the glass. If you're a fan of classic French fare in elegant yet laidback surrounds, you're in for a real treat at Bistrot Bisou. Images: Jana Langhorst.
Melbourne, it's time to get on the spritzes. The Yarra Kitchen & Bar, Southbank's garden pop-up set on the banks of the Yarra, is the ideal setting to soak up the sun with a drink in hand, with incredible city views to boot. The dog-friendly spot has got you sorted every weekend until they close on Sunday, April 25. Head over on a Saturday from 12–2pm for the bottomless brunch. For $45, you'll be sipping unlimited spritzes, beer or prosecco on tap, paired with a meal of your choice. There are four spritzes to choose from, including an elderflower version, blood orange one and the classic Aperol. Food-wise, expect dishes like kingfish flatbread with smoked chilli and passionfruit dressing and lemon myrtle mayo, or a ramen-fried chicken sando with bacon, blue cheese mayo, pickles and a zesty slaw. On Sundays, it's all about the spritz. From 3–5pm, enjoy two hours of all-you can-drink spritz, with a choice of three snack items, for $45. You'll also have some pretty impressive city views from right on the Yarra, perfect for soaking up the last of the sun before the venue closes at the end of April. Booking for both sessions are essential. To reserve your spot, head here for the bottomless brunch and here for the Sunday spritz session.
Not that you need one, but you've now got a fresh excuse to bring your pup along on that next holiday or staycation. Already pet-friendly hotel group Ovolo is upping the ante this September, with a slew of extra goodies in store for its four-legged guests. In honour of International Dog Day (August 26), Ovolo is beefing up its usual V.I.Pooch packages for stays between Thursday, September 1–Friday, September 30, at all of its Aussie hotels. It's teamed up with pet treat subscription service Waggly Club to offer furry travellers additional goody packs, filled with edible treats and toys to really get that tail wagging. Waggly's signature boxes are usually packed with a range of all-natural, Australian-made dog snacks, plus a chew treat, and a new toy or two for the collection. The popular V.I.Pooch package already includes a comfy dog bed for premium holiday snoozing, a special food and drink mat to help keep in-room mess to a minimum, and access to Ovolo's expert team of doggy support staff. The offer has been a hit since the hotel group introduced it back in 2020, helping to kick off a new wave of dog-friendly luxury hotel experiences here in Australia. The elevated V.I.Pooch package is available this September at Ovolo hotels nationwide — you'll find them in Melbourne (Laneways and Ovolo South Yarra), Sydney (The Woolstore 1888 and Woolloomooloo), Brisbane (The Valley and The Inchcolm) and Canberra (Nishi). [caption id="attachment_867004" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ovolo South Yarra[/caption] The V.I.Pooch x Waggly Club package is available at all Aussie Ovolo hotels throughout September, clocking in at $80 per pet. Has your pooch got the travel bug? Check out these other great dog-friendly stays.
January 2014 will see Sarah Blasko embark on a short but surely sweet Heavenly Sounds tour, with the singer-songwriter choosing a restrained program of just four shows in four churches across Sydney, Brisbane, Melbourne and Adelaide. The tour will be the final round of performances celebrating her ARIA-nominated fourth studio album, I Awake. Loyal fans might have already witnessed the ideal pairing of the singer's ethereal tones and cathedral acoustics back in 2011, when her collaborative side project Seeker Lover Keeper (with Sally Seltmann and Holly Throsby) launched Heavenly Sounds. Now’s your chance to settle back amongst the stained glass and enjoy a night of pure Blasko. "These will be my last shows for I Awake, and really, what better place is there to sing (apart from the shower of course) than a beautiful church?" says Blasko. "I'll be playing songs from all four albums and it's likely to be the most intimate show of mine you'll see for some time." Tour dates: SYDNEY: Wednesday 15 January, St Stephen’s Uniting Church, 197 Macquarie Street BRISBANE: Thursday 16 January, St John’s Cathedral, 373 Ann Street MELBOURNE: Wednesday 22 January, St Michael’s Uniting Church, 120 Collins Street ADELAIDE: Friday 24 January, Flinders St Baptist Church, 65 Flinders Street Tickets are $62.50 plus transaction fees and go on sale at www.ticketek.com.au at noon on Monday, 25 November. Or you can sign up for the Wednesday, 20 November, pre-sale by joining the mailing list at www.heavenlysounds.com
Digital art is taking over the Australian Centre for the Moving Image in a huge way in 2024. The Melbourne venue might be known for its cinemas, as well as past exhibitions about Martin Scorsese, David Bowie, Disney animation and women in Hollywood, but it doesn't just celebrate movies and television. If it can grace screens, it can feature here — including at the Marshmallow Laser Feast: Works of Nature showcase that displayed until April, and then at fellow world-premiere Beings from Wednesday, May 22–Sunday, September 29. Interactive pieces using innovative technology firmly fit ACMI's remit, which is exactly what its big winter exhibition is about. The playful event explores the work of art and design collective Universal Everything, featuring 13 pieces from its 20-year career. And the experience that you have while walking through Beings won't be the same as anyone else's. This new reason to head to ACMI wants attendees to not merely look at, but also move and dance in front of its large-scale screens and projected artworks. Beings' pieces respond differently to each visitor, using evolving algorithms and generative technology. That makes you part of the art as well. [caption id="attachment_944198" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 'Into the Sun' by Universal Everything, installation view, Lifeforms exhibition, 180 Studios, photo by Jack Hems.[/caption] Founded in 2004, Universal Everything began in a garden studio in Sheffield, England, which is where Creative Director Matt Pyke initially set up shop. Now, the collective — which includes animators, architects, cinematographers, designers, developers, engineers and musicians — works globally. Its creations display around the world, too, with stints in London, Seoul, Paris, Istanbul and New York before its upcoming Melbourne exhibition. Beings' pieces — four of which will be brand-new world-premiere artworks themselves — frequently use the kind of tech that Hollywood studios and video-game makers deploy. Expect to peer at and play with an assortment of characters, and to feel like you've stepped into a movie or a game as well. The exhibition unravels Universal Everything's creative process, including via hand-drawn sketches that'll be seen by the public for the first time. Top image: Future You' by Universal Everything, installation view, Digital Impact, Barcelona, Spain, photo by Eva Caraso.
