Celebrated American concept artist Joseph Kosuth heads to our shores this year as one of the featured artists for Melbourne Festival 2017. After emerging during the 1960s, Kosuth has been examining the nature of art with large-scale installations and text-based neon artworks for more than 50 years. Interested in the ideas behind art itself, Kosuth's work is held in virtually every major gallery in the world and has created site-specific installations for Musée du Louvre, The Hague and presented work at four editions of the Venice Biennale. Taking place at Anna Schwartz Gallery, A Short History of My Thought continues Kosuth's lifelong investigation of art's ability to provide insights into questions of existence, and how we art can better help understand how meaning is constructed and interpreted in our lives. Joseph Kosuth: A Short History of My Thought is on display now as part of Melbourne Festival 2017, showing until Saturday, November 25. Image: Neon, Joseph Kosuth (1965), white neon mounted directly on the wall, 12x40cm.
Back in the day, you could walk into any old saloon, tap the bar with two fingers and the bartender would pour you a top-shelf whisky — neat, of course. Sadly, such a suave scenario isn't possible at the moment, but just because bars across the country have been forced to temporarily close doesn't mean you must go without your Laphroaig. Keeping you suitably soused while you're stuck at home is Whisky Loot. And while it mightn't be new, there's never been a better time to get small-batch and hard-to-find whiskies delivered straight to your door. The monthly subscription service delivers a box of three 60-millilitre bottles, with a different theme every time, so you'll never drink the same tipple twice. The aim is to expand your palate and educate you along the way. So, if you're just entering the world of whisky or looking to sample something other than your go-to firewater, this is for you. This month, you'll get to sample three fine Australian whiskies: an award-winning one from Launceston Distillery; a rye by Melbourne-based distillery The Gospel; and the Whisky Loot Private Barrel made by Whipper Snapper Distillery, which is not available for retail sale. While we could go into the tasting notes of each, we reckon you should take the gamble and just drink 'em. Plus, you'll be supporting local businesses, the importance of which cannot be underestimated right now. As well as three tasty ambers, you'll receive expert tasting notes and a tasting journal (with your first box), both of which will help take you from whisky novice to aficionado. And although it's a subscription service, you can do it month-to-month, with no lock-ins. It makes for a great gift, too. Best of all, Whisky Loot is offering $10 off your first order if you opt for the subscription, making it just $49 for your first round, which includes free standard shipping across Australia. And for New Zealand, contact support@whiskyloot.com for shipping information. To get in on this sweet deal, just enter SUPPORT5 at checkout. Plus, it'll be donating $5 from each box to Hospo Voice in support of the hospitality industry, which is doing it pretty tough right now. So, you can cheers to a good cause. For more information about Whisky Look and to sign up, head here. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
Adapting Mark Haddon's Whitbread-winning novel, The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time has finished chewing up Broadway and the West End, and is now on its way to Melbourne Theatre Company. When Christopher Boone discovers the corpse of his neighbour's dog, he immediately becomes a suspect and sets out to clear his name. But while he sees himself as a modern-day Sherlock Holmes, everyone else sees an autistic teenager asking awkward questions. Regardless, the question remains: who stabbed Mrs. Shears' poodle with a pitchfork? Haddon describes the book as "peculiarly internal", in that its protagonist struggles more than most to escape the bounds of his own head. Playwright Simon Stephens and the UK's National Theatre have made the most of this by having the audience see the world as Christopher does. A set consisting of a black grid and myriad projections evokes physical locations, as well as the ordered and fiercely logical flow of Christopher's cognitive process. A Holmesian whodunnit as investigated by an Adrian Mole-esque outsider, The Curious Incident is both a celebration of difference and a decent argument against offing yappy pooches with gardening implements.
With Australia's COVID-19 curve flattening, exactly how and when restrictions will be relaxed has dominated conversation of late. Last week, Prime Minister Scott Morrison revealed that some social distancing and public gathering rules could be loosened in mid-May. Today, Thursday, April 23, Australia's Chief Medical Officer Brendan Murphy shed some light on when international travel could restart. But don't go packing your suitcase just yet. At a senate inquiry meeting into Australia's response to COVID-19, Murphy said that opening borders would be one of the last stages of easing restrictions. "At the moment, any relaxation of border measures would be very risky," Murphy said. "I wouldn't be envisaging any material changes [to border measures] in that three to four months." One exception to that, Murphy hinted to, could be allowing travel between Australia and New Zealand. The Prime Minister echoed this sentiment in a press conference in the middle of the senate inquiry meeting (yes, a busy day), saying that he'd already been in discussions with New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern about potentially reopening borders. "If there is any country in the world with whom we can reconnect with first," Morrison said. "Undoubtedly that's New Zealand." [caption id="attachment_596427" align="alignnone" width="1280"] A PurePod in New Zealand[/caption] Some of the restrictions that could be eased before then, and possibly as soon as in three weeks, are those in small groups. In NSW, Victoria and Queensland at present, public gatherings are restricted to a maximum of two people or the members of your household. While Murphy said they "would not be contemplating large-scale gatherings" just yet, "some relaxation of the size of small groups is possible". Other restrictions Murphy says the government is currently looking into loosening include "things like community sport and some retail measures". But, as has been the message repeated in the past week, "we have to weigh up the public health risk versus the benefit to society and the economy". If you're wondering why we're hearing a lot from Murphy during COVID-19, and why his opinions hold weight, Murphy is not only the principal medical adviser to the Federal Health Minister, but also he's the chair of the Australian Health Protection Principal Committee (AHPPC), which makes big decisions in health emergencies — such as global pandemics. There's no exact date on when we'll be able to travel just yet — locally or internationally — but if you want to start dreaming, here are some of our favourite spots to visit in New Zealand. Top image: Mueller Hut Track in New Zealand by Corey Parsons.
Sounds like a branding exercise, but there really is a brand new vegetable on the block; a teeny tiny new development dubbed lollipop kale, currently under development in Australia, the UK and US right now. And it's possibly the most adorable thing we've seen in many a day — even if it's almost a Brussels sprout. Lollipop kale is indeed a thing — one gaining predictable popularity in the US, UK and now, South Australia and Victoria. Developed as a hybrid by British company Tozer Seeds, lollipop kale is now known as kale sprout (boring) in Australia and kalette (better) in the US. A form of cross-breeding between kale and Brussels sprouts (so you'll actually eat 'em), lollipop kale is currently being developed by a cluey South Australian grower. Adelaide Hills grower Scott Samwell, of Eastbook Farms in Mount Barker, has been upping the ante on his lollipop kale plantings over the last two years. Samwell told the ABC the lollipop kale grows sort of like a Brussels sprout — tiny bunches growing from a central stem, growing to around a metre tall. Apparently the new veggie has been getting good reviews in South Australian and Victorian markets, where the mini-kale has been available. "Everyone we've spoken to who has tried it, especially in the local area, are very keen on it." he told ABC. "It's a different tasting product, compared to green Brussels sprouts, because it's a bit sweeter." According to Grub Street, lollipop kale was the centre of mere whisperings in the food community — and wholly doubted and denied by chefs. GS's Hugh Merwin described it as the Bigfoot of the vegetable world — appearing in fruit exchanges around America and then suddenly becoming unattainable. But now it's here, ready for 'hipster' brandings and total hater ridicule. Being so teeny tiny, lollipop kale is primed for the home roasting — more bite-sized and considerably more adorable than your regular freaky kale chips. Right now, however, growing lollipop kale at home is pretty expensive — GS noted that online vegetable message boards (an actual Thing) criticised the high cost of the seeds; $11 for 40 seeds. So expect to see higher prices on Australian menus for the bite-sized little blighters. Lollipop kale will supposedly be available on the Australian market this year. Via ABC and Grub Street. Image: Hugh Merwin, Grub Street.
It's no secret Melbourne's hospitality industry has been hit hard by COVID-19, between the impacts of social distancing regulations and now two long stretches of lockdown restrictions. Venues have had the tough gig of farewelling dine-in customers and pivoting to takeaway-only models, while others have had little choice but to close their doors completely for weeks at a time. As Victoria rides its second wave of Stage 3 lockdowns, the realities of a post-COVID hospitality scene are starting to sink in. According to numbers from a recent survey by the City of Melbourne, 15 percent of local hospitality businesses have either confirmed they won't reopen, or aren't sure they'll be able to keep running. During the first lockdown earlier this year, the council spoke with 725 hospitality business owners through its dedicated COVID-19 Business Concierge Hotline, which was set up to gauge the impact of the pandemic and highlight areas in need of support. And the data showed some pretty bleak results, revealing that over half those businesses surveyed had been at least temporarily shuttered by the lockdowns. "Only 45 per cent of our food businesses said they've been able to keep operating through the pandemic," Lord Mayor Sally Capp told Concrete Playground. "They've shown real innovation in being able to offer takeaway or implement physical distancing requirements." [caption id="attachment_738322" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Julia Sansone[/caption] According to the numbers, 40 percent of hospitality businesses are currently closed, but plan on reopening when restrictions allow. On a less positive note, just over seven percent of those surveyed revealed they'll remain shut for good and another eight percent are unsure whether or not they'll be able to make a comeback — figures Mayor Capp has called "concerning". Some big-name venues have already announced their permanent closure. One of the first was Chinatown's 30-year-old Shark Fin House, which saw an 80 percent drop in customers back in February; and Ezard, with the Flinders Lane restaurant departing after 20 years. Little Bourke Street stalwart Longrain also announced it was shutting up shop for good back in May, but then Chef Scott Pickett swooped in and is set to revive the restaurant later this year. For hospitality businesses that are struggling, the City of Melbourne has range of economic support measures, including grants and rent relief, on offer. City of Melbourne data for 2018 showed the hospitality sector is worth a cool $2.5 billion to Melbourne's economy each year, employing over 38,000 people. Images: Julia Sansone
Have you ever thought to yourself, mid-croissant and café au lait, that perhaps you were destined to call the City of Light home? That the sleek fashion, buttery entrées and full-bodied Merlots of France are your true native roots? Well, you can save yourself the plane ticket, because from November 18 to 20, Paris to Provence Melbourne will bring all the best bits of France to you. Put on your best Parisian pout and sashay down to the Como House and Garden to sample traditional French delicacies, sip the many a wine and immerse yourself in that je ne sais quoi of French culture. This year the Francophile festival will hold an inaugural fashion show and some bal musette (a traditional style of village dance), as well as speed dating for any hopeless romantics looking to live out a real life scene from Amelie. They'll also have a Bordeaux wine bar set up, along with croissants from Gontran Cherrier and a $100 hot dog from the Maille Mustard van. Plus, there will be the traditional course de garçons (waiter races). If none of that tickles your fancy (did we mention there will be croissants?), the Paris to Provence marketplace also includes a veritable feast of 75 artisans, covering off all the food and wine, fashion, homewares, gifts, language, books and travel tips you could ask for.
With vegan options galore, locally made gluten free bases available and a solid lineup of Victorian beers and wines, Brunswick's latest pizzeria is sure to please the whole family (and friendship group too). Located on Victoria Street, across the road from Small Axe Kitchen, Green Acre was scheduled to open right when the COVID-19 lockdown hit. Instead of hitting pause, though, co-owners Rob McKenzie (Hard Pressed Coffee) and Phil Gijsbers (Burnley Brewing, East End Wine Bar, Small Print Pizza in Windsor) ran a Small Print Pizza pop-up in the space until restrictions eased on June 1. Now, the duo has unveiled the OG idea for the space: Green Acre. Designed by Sash Design and built using mostly salvaged and upcycled materials, the space has cosy leather booths, a fairy light-lit courtyard, polished timber tables and rustic golden light fittings. Wherever you choose to sit, you'll be digging into stone-fired sourdough pizzas. Vegans will find joy in The Grass is Greener (roast zucchini, spinach, chilli and smashed peas) and the Shroom (flat and enoki mushrooms, truffle oil and rocket), as well as the various pizzas topped with dairy-free cheeses and vegan salami. Meat-eaters also have plenty to choose from, including the controversial ham and pineapple, a chilli chicken number and one topped with prosciutto and pear. If you prefer your pizza topped with neither vegetables nor meat but, in fact, sweets, we suggest you go straight for the dessert pizza, which comes with Nutella, smashed Oreos and strawberries. Plus, pizzas are just $15 on Tuesdays. As well as being built relatively sustainably, the pizzeria has a commitment to low waste and locally sourced produce. Wines are almost exclusively soured from Victoria — with a few numbers from across SA and WA — while beers feature Burnley (understandably) and other Brunswick locals, such as CoConsiprators and Foreigner. While the duo encourages dining in where possible (to help minimise packaging waste), if you do takeaway, you can do so knowing your pizza box is made from recycled cardboard and can itself be recycled thanks to a piece of 'sacrificial' paper that catches the grease.
As the home of Stranger Things, Netflix has been serving up big doses of 80s-themed nostalgia for the past five years. The platform has just found another way to get viewers thinking fondly about the past, however, all thanks to its new acquisition of the Roald Dahl Story Company (RDSC) — which includes all of the British author's beloved books. If this sounds familiar, that's because the big friendly giant of the streaming world first found itself a similar golden ticket back in 2018, when it announced that it was bringing 16 of the writer's classic novels to the service in animated form. That's still happening — including via two new series from Taika Waititi based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory — but this new purchase will significantly expand the amount of Dahl-inspired content hitting the streamer's catalogue. As part of the earlier deal with the RDSC, Charlie and the Great Glass Elevator, Matilda and The Twits are all slated to get adapted into animated television shows, so get ready for Oompa Loompas, everlasting gobstoppers and everyone's favourite book-loving schoolgirl with telekinetic abilities. They're already set to be joined by basically every Dahl novel you read and adored as a kid — including The BFG, Esio Trot, George's Marvellous Medicine, The Enormous Crocodile, The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me, Henry Sugar, Billy and the Minpins, The Magic Finger, Dirty Beasts and Rhyme Stew. The author's autobiographical efforts Boy – Tales of Childhood and Going Solo had also already been earmarked to hit the platform, with one detailing Dahl's youth and the other delving into his journeys to Africa as well as his service in World War II. For many of these works, including the tales about the author himself, it'll be the first time that they've been adapted for the screen. 🚨 Some very exciting breaking news🚨 https://t.co/uovvO3SYye — Netflix ANZ (@NetflixANZ) September 22, 2021 In its new announcement, Netflix advised that an adaptation of Matilda the Musical is also headed its way, but remained vague about exactly what viewers can expect otherwise. "As we bring these timeless tales to more audiences in new formats, we're committed to maintaining their unique spirit and their universal themes of surprise and kindness, while also sprinkling some fresh magic into the mix," the service advised in a statement. In other words, expect the tales you know and love, as well as tales that expand upon those tales. And, expect to have plenty of them to watch in years to come. Netflix also hasn't said when all this Dahl-based content will hit the platform, so you can't mark any dates in your calendar as yet. But if you just can't wait, Wes Anderson's delightful stop-motion animation version of Dahl's Fantastic Mr Fox is currently streaming on the service, as are a number of other flicks adapted from the writers' works — including both the original and recent versions of The Witches, plus 1996's Matilda. For more information about Netflix's acquisition of the Roald Dahl Story Company, head to the Netflix website.
Mirek Aldridge is one of a new breed of indie brewers: a ragtag bunch of beer nerds, home brew and craft enthusiasts whose love for beer has driven them toward turning pro. But brewing independently needn't mean recklessly. A vintage arcade machine sits in the corner. "I bought it from America, 10 years ago," says Aldridge, which was roughly around the same time he began home brewing. He'd bought the machine to one day go in his bar. "It actually came with a stack of quarters and a bible stashed inside of it, which was pretty weird." In the corner opposite, hidden behind a row of shiny chrome fermenters, is Aldridge's old 70L all-grain home brewing kit. All of the recipes being brewed at The Mill Brewery, Aldridge's first venture into commercial brewing, were captured initially on this 70L system. It's no match for the 600L system he's brewing on now and which dominates the rear third of the bar and brewery, but it's the perfect size to test out a new batch or to brew a limited one-off keg. "Because we're so small it makes it hard to lock in contracts," says Aldridge. "We're not asking for 100 kg of hops at a time, we're asking for maybe 5 kg. But in saying that, it opens up opportunities for us to go and talk to hop growers directly and actually go out to the hop farms and pick our own hops." The Mill will be running up to eight taps in total but upon opening with brews and food trucks over the weekend of March 25 and 26, Aldrige intends to keep things simple. Three taps pouring an American-styled pale ale, a black Indian pale ale and a vanilla porter will round out the offering in addition to another guest beer tap and a cider tap. Just as much attention has been poured over the wine list which features a bold selection of Victorian varietals, a pinot noir from New Zealand's North Canterbury, a Barossa GSM and Canberrian cool climate shiraz. The Mill, from the homemade red gum tables to the self-confessed obsession with hops and aromatics, has been a lifelong labour for Aldridge. The Mill is pet-friendly and will be serviced by a roster of food trucks on launching. Find The Mill Brewery at 40 Sackville St, Collingwood. For more information, head to their Facebook page.
Once upon a time, on suburban neighbourhood street corners across the nation, the most important decision of the day was made at the local milk bar — bubble o’ bill, hot jam donut or a packet of fads? In today’s increasingly “organically grown, locally sourced” food culture, quinoa salad and a tub of biodynamic yoghurt may be more the order of the day than a pie and a handful of sherbet bombs for your average lunch order, but we’ll always have those lazy sun drenched afternoons spent unwittingly spending our pocket money on dental fillings, right? As more and more of these nostalgic, decaying relics are edged out of business by slurpie day at the local 7-11, local artist, archivist and historian Eamon Donnelly has stepped in to memorialise the milk bar. His photographic exhibition, Shop Here for Value and Friendly Service, celebrates an Australian icon that might otherwise be doomed to join its friends the yo-yo, tamagotchi and Baby-G in the realm of forgotten childhood joys. Image by Eamon Donnelly.
Its biggest claim to fame is as the home of Australia's best pizza, but, as the name suggests, 48h Pizza e Gnocchi Bar has a few more tricks up its sleeve. With two southside outposts, the restaurant's offering is inspired by the authentic Italian flavours owners Fabio Biscaldi and Michele Circhirillo grew up with. That translates to a generous range of classic gnocchi dishes, most crafted on gluten-free flour for a lighter, softer finish. Though, with around 15 varieties on offer (most of them gluten-free), you're faced with pretty some tough decisions. Try the activated charcoal-infused pecorino gnocchi — tossed in a cheese wheel with cherry tomato sauce, pecorino and tomatoes — or perhaps the seasonal al tartufo, teaming porcini, asiago, house-made sausage and truffle paste. And, if you're hooked after that, sign up to one of the restaurant's popular monthly gnocchi masterclasses.
When Black Widow reaches both cinemas and streaming this July, it'll mark only the second film in the Marvel Cinematic Universe that solely focuses on a female protagonist. Yes, really. Come September, when the franchise's next flick hits, it too will make history — because Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings is the MCU's first movie with an Asian lead. Hitting that milestone is obviously long overdue; Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings will be the 25th MCU flick, after all. Simu Liu is doing the honours, playing the titular martial artist and trained assassin, who has spent ten years living a normal life but is suddenly drawn back into the shady Ten Rings organisation. As the just-dropped first trailer for the new superhero feature shows, Kim's Convenience star Liu will have plenty of chances to show off his character's skills. He'll have impressive company, too. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings's cast includes Awkwafina, following on from her voice work in fellow Disney release Raya and the Last Dragon; the great Michelle Yeoh, who was last seen on the big screen in Last Christmas and Boss Level; and the just-as-iconic Tony Leung Chiu-Wai, a mainstay of Wong Kar-Wai's films such as In the Mood for Love, 2046 and The Grandmaster. Fala Chen (The Undoing), Florian Munteanu (Creed II), Ronny Chieng (Godzilla vs Kong) and debutant Meng'er Zhang also feature, while Short Term 12 and Just Mercy's Destin Daniel Cretton is on directing duties. And, while watching the initial teaser, you can be forgiven for looking out for familiar sights amid the heavy martial arts action, with the movie shot in Sydney. Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings will be the second of three new Marvel flicks to reach cinemas this year, sandwiched between the aforementioned Black Widow and the Angelina Jolie-starring Eternals. The MCU is making up for lost time, after 2020 passed by without a new cinema release due to the pandemic — although the franchise has been busy on the small screen in 2021's first half, thanks to WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and the upcoming Loki. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzQbZjeBzHQ&feature=youtu.be Shang-Chi and The Legend of The Ten Rings releases in cinemas Down Under on September 2, 2021.
Getting paid to do what you love is the ultimate employment dream. Finding a job doing something that everyone loves? That's a next-level kind of gig. When Gelatissimo turned taste-testing new gelato flavours into an actual position, it fell into that category. When Domino's wanted someone to eat garlic bread for cold hard cash, it did too. And over at hospitality group Australian Venue Co, there's a similar kind of job on offer. Fancy adding 'secret sipper' to your resume? That's the gig that AVC is currently advertising again, with 100 positions available around the country. You'll get assigned to cover some of the company's bars and pubs in your city, and you'll get paid for dining, drinking and then submitting a review once a month. If you've ever worked in retail and heard about mystery shoppers, then you know the drill. That's how these roles work, but in hospitality. So, you'll be posing as a customer and interacting with the venue's staff to scope out their service — and you'll be so discreet that they'll be unaware that you're on AVC's payroll, like they are. Members of the company's Secret Sipper Club, as the lucky wining-and-dining folks are called, will receive a $30 meal allowance for their monthly visit, plus $200 for each review. For that cash — which will make this a side hustle rather than your only gig — you do need to do more than offer a few words, completing a detailed written report after each meal. You don't need to have any experience in the field. Obviously, we're all veterans at eating and drinking, but you don't need to have done this type of job before. There are some pre-requisites, though, such as being over 18; having your own transport and access to a mobile device; being passionate about the industry; attentiveness and impartiality; and having time to do 12 visits each year. And if you're wondering which venues you might be visiting, it could be any in AVC's stable. In Sydney, that includes everywhere from The Winery, Cargo and Kingsleys through to BrewDog South Eveleigh, The Rook and Little Pearl. For Melburnians, you might be hitting up The Espy, The Duke and Sarah Sands Hotel, or BrewDog Pentridge, State of Grace and Trinket. Brisbane's venues include The Wickham, The Regatta, Crown Hotel and Riverland, plus the likes of Burleigh Town Hotel, The Local Tavern and Wallaby Hotel on the Gold Coast. In Adelaide, The Hope Inn, The Unley and The West End Tavern are on the list, while Perth residents could find themselves at Raffles Hotel, Sweetwater Rooftop Bar, The Globe and Wolf Lane. Find out more about AVC's Secret Sipper Club — and apply — by heading to the company's website.
Poet Robert Frost once said "if we couldn't laugh we would all go insane." This idea is explored through the latest exhibition at MUMA, which features newly-commissioned and recent works by a selection of six leading local and international artists. Presented in association with Melbourne Festival 2017, The humours offers a range of works that use comedy and absurdity to explore deeper issues around race, work, gender and politics. More than just an exhibition of funny art, The humours is interested in the underlying strategies of comedy – how stand-up comedians and late-night TV hosts deal with serious issues using physical movement, dialogue, exaggerations of scale and absurdity.
It's been a tough year for the Melbourne hospitality scene, but some good news is in play. As restrictions ease this week (and are set to ease further from November 22) and venues begin to reopen, a few exciting surprises are in store. One of those is a brand-new rooftop bar, which just opened atop Harlow in Richmond. After being closed for months, the much-loved pub has swung open its doors with a major $1.3-million addition in tow. The expansive, wraparound space offers sweeping city views, cocktails, late-night bites and bottomless weekend brunches to boot. For starters, the rooftop is pouring and shaking five signature cocktails that you can't get downstairs. Those include the Rockstar (watermelon-infused tequila, Cointreau and chilli salt), the What's Poppin (St Germain, Aperol and grapefruit) and the Dang! (mezcal, blood orange, agave and rosemary). There are also ten beers taps to choose from, plus a selection of tinnies and a good number of wines on offer. For food, expect pub classics like parmas, fish and chips, steaks and burgers — including a Beyond Meat variety with cheddar, pickles and special sauce. Plus late night bites like salt and pepper calamari, cheeseburger spring rolls, buffalo chicken burgers and haloumi with strawberry and balsamic. On weekends, stop by for bottomless brunch, with the two-hour package costing $49 per person. Choose from wines, house beer and cocktail in bags — think the Space Kitten (white rum, banana, coconut cream and pineapple) and the Salmon Dance (cinnamon-infused raspberry vodka, peach schnapps and cranberry juice). Alongside the drinks, you can dig into options like the caviar-topped lobster and prawn mornay roll or a chicken and smoked ham parma. The U-shaped bar offers a mix of high and low tables, alongside picnic bench-style seating. Expect neutral tones contrasted by colourful finishes, including the emerald green tiles behind the bar and the green stone bar top, as well as fruit trees and greenery aplenty. There's also a doggo mural that features the three lucky winners of Harlow's Puppy Pals competition. The rooftop has capacity for 200 people all up, though that won't come into play until COVID-19 restrictions have eased considerably. In the meantime, we suggest booking your table in advance. Harlow's rooftop bar isn't the only new venue to be unveiled, either. Calia and Layla in the CBD, The Commons in St Kilda and Atiyah in Federation Square have all opened recently, too. Here's hoping the good news keeps rolling in as summer approaches. The Harlow Bar rooftop is now open at 447 Church Street, Richmond. It's open from 4–10pm Monday–Thursday, 12pm–midnight Friday–Saturday and 12–10pm Sunday.
From The Muppet Christmas Carol to The Santa Clause to The Nutcracker and the Four Realms, Disney has long been fond of Christmas films. And now that the huge entertainment company is about to launch its own streaming platform, we can foresee plenty more festive Mouse House flicks in movie-lovers' futures — starting this November with Noelle. Vying to become your next seasonal favourite, Noelle stars Anna Kendrick as the titular character, who also happens to be the daughter of Kris Kringle. When her dad retires, her brother Nick (Bill Hader) is supposed to take over the reins (and reindeer). But, after he gets even colder feet than usual at the North Pole and heads south to become a yoga instructor, it's up to the perennially perky Noelle to save the day. Festive film fans can look forward to Kendrick being oh-so-bubbly, Hader in the slacker mode he plays so well and Billy Eichner as the Kringle siblings' sarcastic IT worker cousin Gabriel. Based on the trailer, this streaming flick is firmly aiming for feel-good territory — not just because it tasks one of Hollywood's most likeable actors with salvaging Christmas, but because it's directed by rom-com veteran Marc Lawrence (the filmmaker behind Two Weeks Notice and Music and Lyrics, and the writer of Miss Congeniality and its sequel). Get festive watching the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DBDnQkQUTGU Noelle will be available to stream on Disney+ when it launches Down Under on November 19.
What do you do when a global pandemic cancels Melbourne's annual film festival? If you're the folks at MIFF, you move the show online. Like Sydney Film Festival, this year's Melbourne International Film Festival is going virtual. So if you usually spend most of August watching new movies from around the world, you can still look forward to doing just that. Running at the same time the physical festival would've — so, between Thursday, August 6–Sunday, August 23 — this socially distant fest has been dubbed MIFF 68 1/2. 2020 should mark the event's 69th year, but it's keeping that label for next year's in-person fest. Still, cinephiles across Australia will still be able to get a MIFF experience, complete with a ticketed program. On the bill: new flicks, fresh discoveries from emerging filmmakers, and a range of Australian, international, documentary and animation shorts. MIFF's regular Shorts Awards will also be given out. The lineup won't be announced until July 14 (again, MIFF is sticking to its usual timetable), so you'll have to wait to see what you'll be feasting your eyes on — although, given film fests have been cancelled around the world since mid-March, you can probably expect to see a healthy selection of titles from earlier festivals that did still take place, such as Sundance and Berlinale. MIFF 68 1/2 is being made possible thanks to the most significant philanthropic gift the festival has ever received from a private donor, all to ensure the fest still goes on this year — and it'll use streaming platform Shift 72 to screen its program. [caption id="attachment_769569" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Zan Wimberley.[/caption] The full program launch and ticket sales for MIFF 68 1/2 begin on July 14. Top image: Tony Zara / Dean Walliss.
If you're citybound and missing out on New Year's Eve festivals like Falls and Beyond The Valley this year, don't fret. Let Them Eat Cake is your inner city solution to satisfy those festival urges. Held on New Year's Day at Werribee Park, LTEC is not only great for the music, but also plays host to installation art, open-air exhibitions and some killer food offerings. But back to the music. This year's lineup includes the likes of Tourist, Kllo, Âme, Sam Weston and many others. Have your cake and eat it too, guys — you've earned it this year.
It's Australia's annual slice of Italian cinema, and it's back for 2018 in its usual jam-packed fashion. That'd be the Italian Film Festival, which not only returns for its 19th year, but does so with a hefty touring lineup of 37 features and two short films, including 33 Australian premieres. Bookending the festival are two movies that couldn't be more timely, one delving into a media tycoon who becomes a world leader (no, not that one), and the other a stone cold horror classic that has just been remade by one of today's best Italian filmmakers. Exploring the scandals surrounding former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, Loro kicks off this year's fest with an epic, nearly two-and-a-half hour drama from The Great Beauty and The Young Pope's Paolo Sorrentino. Then, at the other end of the event comes Dario Argento's original 1977 giallo masterpiece Suspiria — just weeks before the new Tilda Swinton and Dakota Johnson-starring version from Call Me By Your Name's Luca Guadagnino hits cinemas. Elsewhere, IFF also boasts three of the biggest Italian flicks doing the rounds of this year's international festival circuit, courtesy of Dogman, Happy as Lazzaro and Daughter of Mine. A diverse trio from a diverse range of Italian talents, the first sees Gomorrah's Matteo Garrone spin a story about a criminal who loves dogs (winning this year's Palm Dog Award at Cannes for its canine cast), the second unravels a time-bending fable from The Wonders' Alice Rohrwacher, and the third offers a devastating look at two mothers and the daughter they share courtesy of Sworn Virgin's Laura Bispuri. Other highlights range across the entire spectrum of Italian offerings — think comedies based on off-Broadway plays, such as My Big Gay Italian Wedding; underworld dramas like Boys Cry; and an amusing mystery about an inspector investigating the death of a local prosecco wine maker, as aptly called The Last Prosecco. Or, there's also detective thriller The Girl in the Fog, based on the best-selling novel and starring Italian veteran (and Loro actor) Toni Servillo; plus Italian box-office hit Couples Therapy for Cheaters, which focuses on exactly the narrative you think it does. And, looking back at cinema history as film festivals crucially do, this year's IFF retrospective will showcase the work of Italian-Turkish filmmaker Ferzan Özpetek. If his name sounds familiar, that's because he had a hand in movies such as Naples in Veils, Facing Windows and Ignorant Fairies — and if his name doesn't ring any bells, here's your chance to discover his celebrated filmography. The 2018 Italian Film Festival tours Australia between September 11 and October 24, screening at Sydney's Palace Norton Street, Palace Verona, Palace Central and Chauvel Cinemas from September 11 to October 7; Melbourne's Palace Cinema Como, Palace Westgarth, Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay, Kino Cinemas and The Astor Theatre from September 13 to October 7; and Brisbane's Palace Barracks and Palace Centro from September 19 to October 14. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the festival website.
If the meaning of life exists in the sweaty, jam-packed confines of a music festival, then Terrence Malick wants to find it. Partially filmed at Austin's SXSW, Song to Song features the filmmaker's trademark swirling imagery as he searches for substance among the crowds, takes us backstage with the likes of Iggy Pop and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and serves up glimpses of several live performances. The writer-director's ninth feature roves through the city's music scene more generally, but its use of the fest couldn't sum up Malick's central question better. Amidst chaotic circumstances, how does one find beauty and love? Through whispered words (another typical Malick flourish), various characters speak of ebbs and flows, of dream-like experiences, and of emotions that don't always feel quite right. In one of the voiceover's most overt moments, Rooney Mara's Faye discusses her relationship with Ryan Gosling's BV, explaining, "we thought we could just roll and tumble, live from song to song, kiss to kiss." Yes, she's saddled with clumsily making use of the movie's title, but she's also describing its quest to understand the ups and downs of human existence. So it is that Faye falls for musician BV, with all the joy that romance can bring. Complicating matters, however, she also falls for her arrogant but well-connected producer boss Cook (Michael Fassbender), who starts working with BV. Cook also has an affair with a waitress, Rhonda (Natalie Portman), while BV becomes involved with Amanda (Cate Blanchett). As snippets of their lives fill the film, a number of other characters filter in and out – including Zoey (Bérénice Marlohe), with whom Faye has a dalliance; BV's flirtatious mother Judy (Linda Emond); and Rhonda's mum Miranda (Holly Hunter), among others. Accordingly, we watch as a bunch of rather attractive people live, love, fight, sing, play, dance and more. They go on holidays, attend parties, see gigs and roam around mansions — sometimes acting as though they belong, sometimes contemplating how lavish their surroundings and exploits are. Depicting their intermingling relationships is as much of a narrative as Malick is interested in providing. Instead, as he did with the thematically and visually similar To the Wonder and Knight of Cups (and The Tree of Life before that), he prefers to immerse audiences in his familiar style, encouraging them to get caught up in individual moments while pondering the bigger picture. The end product is intoxicating and heartfelt, with Malick's desire to convey the complexity of being alive evident in every frame. That said, it also proves his most indulgent film, as he lets his directorial tics and traits run rampant. The movie couldn't look more gorgeous thanks to cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki's floating, sun-dappled lensing, but it also couldn't lean more heavily on Malick's fondness for hushed voices and random shots of nature — motifs that will entrance some viewers and enrage others. His insistence on improvisation also results in inconsistent performances, with each actor shining at times while coming off stilted at others. Perhaps it's best to think of Song to Song in the same way you would an actual song; a track on Malick's broader cinematic album. Within the tune itself, some parts engage and others lag, but there's always a clear melody making its presence known. Some viewers may prefer his older stuff, and that's fine. If you're on the film's wavelength though, plenty of its beats and rhythms will strike a chord. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7cTenw8uVSw
UPDATE, August 14, 2023: Tickets are getting snapped up fast for Flight Facilities' tour, with new shows announced. This article has been updated to include the additional dates. Flight Facilities know how to get a party started. The Australian producer duo, aka Hugo and Jimmy, have spent more than a decade inspiring folks to make shapes to the pair's own tunes. Given that they began mixing other artists, it's hardly surprising that they're also playlist and mixtape maestros. See: their Decades Mix series, which has spoiled listeners with six hour-long, decade-spanning surveys. If it's a dancefloor filler from 1962 to 2022, the odds are that it has featured in one of Flight Facilities' odes, with separate mixes for 1962–72, 1972–82, 1982–92, 1992–2002, 2002–12 and 2012–22. And, if it's a track from the 1970s to now that's made the cut, it's also likely that it'll get a spin on Flight Facilities' just-announced latest DJ tour, which is all about its Decades mixes. Fuelled by crate digging, this trip around Australia will jump through hundreds of tracks across extended club sets throughout October. First up: Brisbane's Fortitude Music Hall, before Flight Facilities head southward from Byron Bay's Beach Hotel to Melbourne Pavilion. Also on the itinerary: going west over to Rechabite Hall in Perth and Freo.Social in Fremantle, a stint at Adelaide's Harvest Rock, and both Town Hall and Liberty Hall carpark in Sydney. Start guessing which tunes will get a whirl now. The 72–82 mix spans everything from Stevie Wonder's 'Superstition' to Queen and David Bowie's 'Under Pressure', while the 82–92 list includes New Order's 'Blue Monday', Madonna's 'Lucky Star', Prince's 'Cream' and Technotronic's 'Pump Up the Jam'. Among the 92–02 roster: Arrested Development's 'Mr Wendal', Beastie Boys' 'Body Movin'', 2Pac's 'How Do U Want It?' and The Avalanches' 'Frontier Psychiatrist'. And, from 02–12, the mix starts with Chemical Brothers' 'Star Guitar' and ends with Flight Facilities' own 'Clair De Lune'. The duo only dropped the 12–22 mix in July, so heading along to these gigs means hearing Flight Facilities' absolute latest blast from the past. FLIGHT FACILITIES — THE DECADES TOUR: Friday, October 6 — Fortitude Music Hall, Brisbane Saturday, October 7 — Beach Hotel, Byron Bay Thursday, October 12 — Sydney Town Hall, Sydney — NEW DATE Friday, October 19 — Melbourne Pavilion, Melbourne — NEW DATE Friday, October 20 — Melbourne Pavilion, Melbourne — SOLD OUT Saturday, October 21 — Rechabite Hall, Perth — SOLD OUT Sunday, October 22 — Freo.Social, Fremantle — NEW DATE Saturday, October 28 — Harvest Rock, Adelaide Sunday, October 29 — Liberty Hall Carpark, Sydney — SOLD OUT Flight Facilities will take The Decades Tour around Australia in October 2023. Head to the Secret Sounds website for further details, and tickets from 10am AEST on Friday, August 11.
"Writing, at its best, is a lonely life," mused Ernest Hemingway. A Nobel Prize winner who hobnobbed with Picasso, Gertrude Stein, James Joyce and Ezra Pound, the prodigal author and journalist had obviously never heard of the Emerging Writers' Festival. If Hemingway were around today, perhaps he would step away from his tattered manuscripts long enough to stop being so downright ungrateful and partake in 10 days of exciting workshops, conferences, performances, panels and collaborative events, designed to remind writers that they're all in this together…alone. The bookworm's answer to Woodstock turns 10 this year and to celebrate is hosting a real fiesta from May 23 to June 10, starting with the word party to end them all. From then it's a programme full of unexpected twists, outlandish characters and choose-your-own-adventure chapters — a real page-turner. Festival director Sam Twyford-Moore has enlisted the aid of five festival ambassadors — poet Khairani 'Okka' Barokka, literary critic Melinda Harvey, travel writer Walter Mason, fiction writer Jennifer Mills and screenwriter John Safran — to host a series of panels and Q&A's in which they will bestow their pearls of bookish wisdom on the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed next generation of upstarts. Reasons to step away from the comfortable glow of the laptop screen include the travelling independent pop-up market Page Parlour, Thousand Pound Bend's Festival Hub (go for black coffee, best accessorised with tattered paperback in hand), a book club with intimidatingly qualified members and workshops on everything from how learning to twerk might cure your writer's block to the relevance of poetry beyond Shakespeare's sonnets. See it all with the festival's equivalent to Charlie's golden ticket, see a lot at the weekend-long Writers' Conference or see a little by choosing your own individually ticketed (and free) standalone events. To quote another of the 21st century's great poets, no man is an island, not even a modern-day Hemingway.
For the next three months, the Sydney Opera House will not be home to any operas, Vivid Live performances, thought-provoking talks or podcast recordings, with all public performances suspended until at least June 17. But you will be able to relive many of the highlights from its 47-year history on the Sydney icon's new digital program, 'From our House to yours'. The program will see full-length performances, talks, long-form articles, podcasts and behind-the-scenes content brought to your screens. As well as a heap of footage that's never been seen by the public before. You'll also be able to access a bunch of free content on demand, plus new videos, recordings and articles will be released daily every Wednesday through Sunday, with each week's schedule announced on Tuesday. Kicking things off was award-winning Aussie musician Missy Higgins, followed by a conversation from this year's All About Women with writer Chanel Miller about her new memoir Know My Name on Thursday; footage of last year's Dance Rites; Sydney Symphony Orchestra performing Beethoven's Symphony No. 9; and a recording of The Writers Room with Celia Pacqoula (Rosehaven), Josh Thomas (Please Like Me), Luke McGregor (Rosehaven) and Dan Harmon (Rick and Morty, Community). Other highlights include the premiere screening of All About Women's panel discussion with fierce journalist Clementine Ford and DJ Flex Mami; world-renowned philosopher and author Alain De Botton discussing love; culinary legend Nigella Lawson talking about the joys of home cooking;Bangarra Dance Theatre's Bennelong; and Yotam Ottolenghi discussing simple cooking with Adam Liaw. For its fifth weekly season, the Opera House is streaming a recording of WikiLeaks whistleblower and trans activist Chelsea Manning at 8pm AEST on Thursday, April 30. Part of ANTIDOTE 2018, the recording features Manning in conversation with award-winning journalist Peter Greste via satellite, direct from LA. [caption id="attachment_768842" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Prudence Upton[/caption] Then, you can catch a recording of Bach's Golberg Variations on Friday, May 1 at 8pm AEST; a never-before-seen edit featuring musicians Glen Hansard, José González, Poliç, Conor Oberst and Nai Palm at 8pm AEST on Saturday, May 2; and celebrated author Fran Lebowitz on cultural nostalgia and leading a panel on women in the age of Trump, and Tarana Burke, the US-based founder of the #MeToo movement at 3pm AEST on Sunday, May 3. Its on demand content includes an interview with British comedian, actor and musician Noel Fielding, a video on first-wave feminism, a podcast featuring intimate interviews with First Nations artists and leaders, and an article on the Opera House staff's most memorable moments. From our House to yours will run from Wednesday, April 1 till at least mid-June, 2020. Each week's schedule will be announced on Tuesday.
After introducing its cookie pies to the world earlier this year, followed by serving up an OTT red velvet one, Gelato Messina is bringing the decadent dessert back again. This time, though, it's filled with a peanut butter and jelly. Yes, it's peanut butter jelly time. Hang on, a cookie pie? Yes, it's a pie, but a pie made of cookie dough. And it serves two-to-six people — or just you. You bake it yourself, too, so you get to enjoy that oh-so-amazing smell of freshly baked cookies wafting through your kitchen. On its own, the indulgent PB&J pie will cost $20. But to sweeten the deal, the cult ice creamery has created a few bundle options, should you want some of its famed gelato atop it. You can add on a 500-millilitre tub for $28, a one-litre tub for $36 or a 1.5-litre tub for $39. If you're in NSW or Queensland, these pies are available to preorder from today, Monday, July 13 — so if you missed out last time, here's your chance to get yourself a piece of the pie — with pick up between Friday, July 17 and Sunday, July 19 from your chosen Messina store. Victorians can get their pie from Messina's Fitzroy store (no preordering necessary) or via Deliveroo right now (while stocks last). The same bundle packs are also available. Once you've got the pie safely home, you just need to whack it in the oven for 20 minutes at 170 degrees and voila. Messina's peanut butter and jelly cookie pies are available to pick up from now from the Fitzroy store (or via Deliveroo). NSW and Queensland can preorder now with pick up available from July 17–19.
In Her's almost certainly near future, Joaquin Phoenix plays Theodore Twombly — a gentle, retiring man who works at BeautifulHandwrittenLetters.com penning heartfelt correspondence between people he's never met. In his personal life, his wife (Rooney Mara) has left him and now communicates exclusively via their lawyers. In short, nobody really talks anymore. Then one day he buys and installs a new operating system called 'OS1' — an artificially intelligent construct that names herself, or rather itself, 'Samantha' (voiced to perfection by Scarlett Johansson). At first Samantha simply streamlines Theodore's life, triaging his emails and encouraging him to get out more, but gradually, as she evolves and learns more from their interactions, they begin to fall in love. It seems ridiculous, yes, but thanks to Spike Jonze's masterful script and direction, it never really feels it, and that's what makes HER the first must-see film of 2014. it is a beautiful, imaginative and provocative offering by Jonze that asks some fascinating questions about the direction love is taking in the technological age. Her is in cinemas on January 16, and thanks to Sony Pictures, we have ten double in-season passes to give away. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter (if you haven't already), then email us with your name and address. Read our full review here. Sydney: win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au Melbourne: win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au Brisbane: win.brisbane@concreteplayground.com.au https://youtube.com/watch?v=1awGTPsEmiU
In the 18 years that Gelato Messina has been in business, over 4000 special flavours have made their way through its 20 gelato cabinets around the country. To celebrate some of these oldies but goodies, Messina is dedicating an entire week to its top 40 greatest hits. From June 5–11, lucky Sydneysiders, Melburnians and Brisbanites will be able to treat themselves to an entire freezer-full of limited-edition gelato flavours. While last year's greatest hits were a buy-in-shop-only deal, this year it's all preordered tubs — so you don't have to worry about long queues and empty cabinets. You can preorder 500-millilitre tubs of the 40 flavours (we'll get to those in a minute) from 1pm on Thursday, May 21 and pick up from Sydney's Rosebery, Tramsheds, Bondi and Darlinghurst stores, Melbourne's Fitzroy store and Brisbane's South Brisbane store between the aforementioned dates. Individual tubs can be filled with just one flavour and will set you back $16, or you can get three for $45, six for $85, nine for $125 or — if you have the freezer space — 20 for $260. Now, we'll get to what you're all waiting for: the flavours. Jon Snow (white chocolate gelato with dark chocolate mud cake and almond praline), Fairy Bread (toast and butter gelato with 100s & 1000s), Mango Pancake (mango gelato with vanilla cream and pancake crunch), Old Gregg (Baileys and butterscotch sauce) and the Robert Brownie Jnr (milk chocolate gelato, chocolate brownie and chocolate fudge sauce) are all on the lineup. https://www.instagram.com/p/CAMtFiqA7Mp/ You've got two days to make a list of your favourites before preorders open, so we suggest you start making some hard decisions ASAP. Here's the full lineup: MESSINA'S 40 GREATEST HITS Fairy Bread Montgomery's Goldmine Triple Whammy Super Duper Dulce de Leche Hodor Twixed Gorgeous Dave True Romance Derelicte Cremino Old Gregg The Voicemail Have a Gay Old Time Lady of Winterfell Jon Snow The Hat Trick Drop It Like White Choc Mr Potato Head The Maltster Pavlova Super Flan Number Two Sticken To Me Date NYC Plus Milomiso Robert Brownie Jr Iron Born Just Like a Milkshake Musk Finger Bun Peach Bellini Baklava Oreogasm Duke of Earl The Boss's Wife Mango Pancake Messina's Momofukup Red Velvet Molto Bueno Alfajores Gelato Messina's Greatest Hits are available to preorder from 1pm on Thursday, May 21 with pick up between Friday, June 5 and Thursday, June 11 from Sydney's Rosebery, Tramsheds, Bondi and Darlinghurst stores; Melbourne's Fitzroy store; and Brisbane's South Brisbane store.
Ageing Woody Grant (Bruce Dern) is convinced that he's won a fortune. A piece of junk mail tells him he must travel to Nebraska to collect his million dollars, and he refuses to believe that it might be less than the truth. When his family finally accepts that he's going to go no matter what, they grudgingly agree to accompany him, with his son David (Will Forte) taking him on the trip. Along the way, they encounter family members and old acquaintances, all of whom feel Woody owes them something. Woody's imagined fortune becomes the talk of the town, as old grievances and closeted skeletons make themselves known. Director Alexander Payne, who achieved critical attention with his films Citizen Ruth and Election, hits his stride with a mixtape of his biggest hits. Like About Schmidt, there is a self-centred patriarch on a journey; like The Descendants, the countryside is innately tied to familial secrets; like Sideways, there is a sudden heist to reclaim lost property. Nobody does family secrets like Payne, and Nebraska sees him at the peak of his powers. Dern, who has been a reliable supporting actor for decades, finally gets his shot at a starring role, and it's impossible to overstate how astonishingly good he is as Woody. There's no self-consciousness as he plays a vague, alcoholic man in search of a fortune he decides he's owed. Forte, best known for his turns on Saturday Night Live and 30 Rock, nails the knowing pathos of Woody's suffering son, and the casting of Breaking Bad's Bob Odenkirk as his older brother is inspired. June Squibb, who is probably best remembered as Jack Nicholson's ill-fated wife in About Schmidt, shines as Woody's wife: gossipy and accepting, dismissive and loyal. The more you examine these characters, the more it becomes clear that they are riddled with contradictions in the way that human beings often are but movie characters are not. This is the film's biggest triumph, and a testament to the combined efforts of Payne, the cast, and writer Bob Nelson's confident script. Also notable is the brilliant score by Mark Orton, which echoes the film's pared-back simplicity with a low-key soundtrack that manages to stick in your brain in the best way possible. Filmed in black and white, and dwelling on the uglier, blander side of middle America, Nebraska should be a depressing experience draped in award-grabbing worthiness. But it's not. In fact, it's laugh-out-loud funny throughout, and unexpectedly uplifting. There's a joyful tension that infuses every moment and makes this one of the most compelling, memorable, essential films of the year. https://youtube.com/watch?v=YvW_DmfKfSk
This February, leafy Lilydale will come alive for a huge food truck festival yet, all thanks to the minds behind The Food Truck Park. Set to once again eclipse the collective's regular events in Preston and at Village Cinemas Coburg Drive-In, the Food Truck Festival will see the city's best four-wheeled food vendors descend on Melba Park across five huge days. Running from Wednesday, February 20 to Sunday, February 24, the culinary lineup will represent the most popular food trucks from each corner of Melbourne, with the full lineup set to be revealed closer to the event. And you can expect to be totally spoilt for choice, with a huge array of vendors slinging everything from burgers and Asian-inspired eats, to vegan fare and craft beers. Here's hoping for the return of Sweet Lane, too — a festival precinct dedicated entirely to desserts. Rounding out the edible goodness will be a program of art, family-friendly entertainment and other fun, with entry free across the entire festival. It will be open from 5–10pm on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and 11am–10pm on Saturday and Sunday.
Nothing gets you out of a winter funk like a weekend away, and the crisp mountain air of Leura is particularly up to the task. This picturesque town, just two hours west of Sydney on the train, puts you at the doorstep of all the outdoor adventures of the Blue Mountains while nailing the kind of cosy indoor culture that wraps you in a big warm hug at the end of the day. Set up home base at the very scenic Fairmont Resort and Spa Blue Mountains, and spend your days trekking along ancient trails and your nights indulging in hearty meals, local wines and fireside chat. Here's our guide to a winter short stay in the area. EAT AND DRINK After the journey in, your first stop in Leura should be for a little sustenance. Fortunately, the cafe culture here is another part of what makes this town a winter dream. Among the best cafes in the region, the hidden Lily's Pad Cafe has just-baked breads and cakes — including gluten-free options aplenty — along with homemade toppings like chutneys, jams and curds. The courtyard is covered, heated and, best of all, dog-friendly. On Leura's main street, the leafy Red Door Cafe is a standout for healthy eating, with organic coffees and freshly squeezed juices. For eats, we're all about the zucchini and feta fritters, served with cumin yoghurt and mesclun salad, as well as the smoked rainbow trout with rocket and lentil salad, all topped with a poached egg. View-seekers should head to Solitary, set in a 100-year-old cottage overlooking the valley. Its fireplace makes this an ideal sanctuary after a winter's hike through the nearby Leura Cascades. For fireside dining in the evening, look no further than the appropriately named Embers restaurant at the Fairmont Resort and Spa. Enjoy views over the Jamison Valley along with the soundtrack of crackling flames and the flavours of a classic beef brisket given a contemporary twist. Back in town, unassuming North Indian restaurant Tamarin offers some serious eats in the most unlikely of places, just across from the station. The samosas trump most in Australia, as does its samosa chaat — a smashed and dressed version. For a dinner to remember, book yourself a table at the award-winning Leura Garage. Set in a repurposed mechanic's workshop (hence the name), the environmentally conscious restaurant focuses on locally sourced and seasonal ingredients. We suggest going with the surprisingly affordable tasting menu, which includes plenty of winter warmers, like 12-hour braised lamb shoulder and truffle mashed potatoes. Accompanying drops come from NSW wine regions like Orange and Mudgee. Your wine journey doesn't have to stop at dinner. Meander down the street to bar and bistro Bon Ton for after-dinner drinks. For winter, sip a martini in the protected comfort of the enclosed terrace. For a nightcap, stop in at the Sublime Lounge, another fire-warmed space within the Fairmont Resort and Spa. Their signature cocktail is the Berry Sublime, designed to evoke the nearby orchards with its mix of strawberry, tequila, lime, mint and an unexpected dash of white balsamic. DO If this isn't your first rodeo in the Blue Mountains, chances are you've already frequented the landmarks of Three Sisters and Wentworth Falls. And that's fine, because the region has much more to offer, with a seemingly endless number of bushwalks, lookouts, caves and valleys to explore. For a different mountain view, check out Evans Lookout, 20 minutes' drive away in Blackheath, then continue on the steep clifftop walk to Govetts Leap. If you'd rather a more leisurely stroll (and one walking distance from town), Leura Cascades is a serene canopy walk through tall eucalyptus trees. Take a short trek along the rapids on Leura Falls Creek down to Bridal Veil Falls and Leura Falls. Several walks can be accessed from here, including the Fern Bower Circuit, Echo Point and Leura Forest. Feeling like a serious adventure? Then book yourself into an abseiling and canyoning day trip. A few businesses in nearby Katoomba run tours, including the Australian School of Mountaineering and the Blue Mountains Adventure Company. They'll have you abseiling waterfalls and trekking through ancient crevices and canyons. For a more leisurely level of activity, stroll the boutiques along Leura Mall and do a spot of shopping at the likes of Quidditas General Store. If you visit during the first Sunday of the month, you can also hit Leura's flea market for everything from jewellery, clothes and homewares to local eats. For a full dose of the quirky and quaint history Leura is known for, drop by the Leuralla Toy & Railway Museum, Bygone Beautys' Teapot Museum or the National Trust property Everglades Gardens. In what might be the high tea capital of Australia, the latter two are good spots to partake. Once night falls, take a short drive over to Blackheath to catch an indie film at Mount Vic Flicks. The renovated 1930s movie theatre makes for a relaxing night out and offers house-baked treats. STAY While Leura offers an array of accommodation options, the Fairmont Resort and Spa Blue Mountains is an enduring classic. The hotel's boutique rooms and suites are individually decorated for that personalised touch, while its public spaces offer sweeping views across the Jamison Valley. It's close to the Leura Cascades, Inspiration and Sublime Points, and Empress, Gordon and Wentworth Falls, so you're well situated for many of the region's best hikes and treks. Taking time to relax within the vast gardens and grounds should also be on the itinerary. The resort houses a golf club, four luxury restaurants and a lounge. The new Ubika Day Spa opens on August 13, so now's your chance to be one of the first to lie across their massage tables and be pampered with local organic iKOU products. Don't miss the resort's signature high tea, where your miniature cakes and sandos come with a pretty spectacular view. A perfect preformed weekender comes in the shape of the MGallery Memorable Moment package, which includes one night accommodation, a full buffet breakfast and a wilderness experience for two. At the heart of the getaway is a four-hour bushwalk led by a tour guide dedicated to reconnecting you with nature — an experience exclusive to the Fairmont Resort and Spa. Go to the AccorHotels website to book your stay in Leura, and to discover more of regional NSW, check out Visit NSW.
In 2019, Melbourne Design Week is celebrating the city's closest thing it has to an iconic feature with a program of tours, talks and exhibitions centred around our relationship with the Birrarung — that is, the Yarra River. Take a bike ride along the river banks, explore the Wonthaggi desalination plant, or take a boat tour of the river's most beloved swimming spots. Yes, people actually used to swim in the Yarra. Other events on the Waterfronts program include Undercurrent, a solo exhibition by Bangerang artist Peta Clancy featuring a series of sobering photographic works created in collaboration with the Dja Dja Wurrung community that highlight hidden massacre sights along the Yarra's banks, as well as Commuter Afloat, a talk on the benefits of water-based transit held right on the water. For the full Waterfronts program, go here. Events are booking out fast, so make sure you get in quick. Image: Giulia Morlando.
Get a rare glimpse into artist Mirka Mora's private universe at Mirka Mora: Pas de Deux – Drawings and Dolls. Showing at the Heide Museum of Modern Art until March 4, this show brings you never-before-exhibited works from Mora's home and studio. Among them are many of her bright soft sculpture dolls. You'll find them draped across tables, displayed upright and suspended from the ceiling. On close examination, they reveal an imaginary world, peopled by sea creatures, fantastical animals and fairy tale characters. Mora has said that her dolls are "drawings in three-dimensions". Also on show is a publication that carries you into the extraordinary life of French-born Mora and her German-born husband, Georges. After meeting in 1946, the two moved to Melbourne in 1915, where their apartment at 9 Collins Street became a magnet for artists, writers, musicians, actors and Bohemians. Together, they founded the Tolarno Galleries, as well as three popular cafes: the Mirka at 183 Exhibition Street, Cafe Balzac in East Melbourne and Tolarno in St Kilda.
In the film festival space, it's one of 2020 big trends: forgoing a physical event this year and hosting online screenings instead. It's also a move that comes with an added benefit, opening up local events to a broader national audience. Sydney Film Festival has already done all of the above, and the Melbourne International Film Festival will do so come August —and, in the middle, it's Revelation Perth International Film Festival's turn. Without investing in a plane ticket and taking a trip across the country, east coast dwellers don't normally get to enjoy the west coast festival's distinctive lineup and vibe; however, thanks to its new Couched Online Film Festival, that's changing this year. Running virtually until Sunday, July 19, Couched is jam-packed with the types of titles that always make Revelation, in its in-person guise, stand out — aka the types of movies that don't often pop up elsewhere. Featuring more than 25 features, documentaries and shorts collections, the online fest's program is streaming on demand, on a pay-per-view basis, so you can pick and choose what you'd like to catch. You can also nab a pass and watch your way through everything. On the bill: Willem Dafoe grappling with existence at a the snowy bar in the out-there (and divisive at Berlinale) Siberia, the VHS-shot 80s-set throwback comedy VHYes, and magical-realist adventure Precarious. If you like films about films, look out for documentaries about Russian director Andrei Tarkovsky, Czech filmmaker Milos Forman and the camp status held by 1985 horror sequel Nightmare on Elm Street 2: Freddy's Revenge. Or you can watch a housewife step into making her own erotic movies in Aussie doco Morgana, explore the wild true tale of Cold Case Hammarskjöld, revel in the sounds of The Rise of the Synths, check out a few new local features and work your way through a four-film 'Black Voices that Matter' retrospective. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rCYAjkwZcd0 And, if you like what Couched serves up and you're eager for a WA holiday (and the border situation around the country changes in the next few months), Revelation is actually still planning to run as normal later in the year, from December 2–13. Couched Online Film Festival runs until Sunday, July 19, with films available to view online.
When HBO managed to get the cast of Friends back on the same couch and chatting to camera about their time on the hit sitcom, the US cable network clearly found itself a new niche. That'd be big reunion specials that reteam the stars of beloved pop culture favourites to talk about their experiences — so it's going down the same route with the Harry Potter franchise. If you've been chanting "accio more Harry Potter" to yourself for the past decade since the eight-film series wrapped up, it seems that your wishes have finally come true. Like the Friends special, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts won't feature anyone in-character — but, if you're a fan, spending more time with the movies' stars still promises to be magical. There'd be no point going ahead if Daniel Radcliffe, Rupert Grint and Emma Watson weren't all involved, so they're definitely on the lineup. So is filmmaker Chris Columbus, who directed the franchise's first two movies. Joining them is a huge list of other actors from across the movie series' history, including Helena Bonham Carter, Robbie Coltrane, Ralph Fiennes, Jason Isaacs, Gary Oldman and Tom Felton, plus James Phelps, Oliver Phelps, Mark Williams, Bonnie Wright, Alfred Enoch, Matthew Lewis, Evanna Lynch and Ian Hart. You'll spot some missing names — Maggie Smith and Robert Pattinson, for instance, to name just two — but clearly there'll be a whole lot of HP cast members reminiscing about their time in the wizarding world. As the special's name makes plain, Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts is popping up to celebrate 20 years since Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone first reached cinemas back in 2001. That said, whether you're a muggle, a wannabe wizard and witch, or someone who spent far too much of their childhood reading the books and watching the flicks, you'll actually be checking out the new special in 2022. In the US, it'll stream on January 1 on HBO Max. Viewing options Down Under haven't yet been revealed, so there's something to start trying to summon sooner rather than later. Check out the teaser trailer for the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special below: HBO's Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts special will be available to stream in the US on January 1, 2022 — we'll update you with viewing details Down Under when they're announced.
When A Quiet Place hit cinemas in 2018, did stellar things with its mostly dialogue-free premise and gave alien invasion films a creative spin, it quickly proved a big box office hit. That's hardly surprising; Emily Blunt (Wild Mountain Thyme) added another formidable role to her resume, John Krasinski (Detroit) did great work both in front of and behind the camera, both Millicent Simmonds (Wonderstruck) and Noah Jupe (The Undoing) turned in excellent performances, and the entire movie made the absolute most of its silence-heavy approach and its niche in the horror genre. So, a sequel was always likely. That follow up was delayed by more than a year due to the pandemic, but A Quiet Place Part II is now finally screening in cinemas. Don't think that the story will end there, though, because a third flick is now coming. At the moment, the next film in the series doesn't have a title — but it does have a release date. Come March 30, 2023, you'll be spending more time in the franchise's eerie dystopian world, and also learning more about the folks who've been learning to survive by keeping their lips zipped as tightly as possible. And, make no mistake, this is definitely a franchise now. The next movie is a spinoff rather than a direct sequel, although exactly what its story will tell is yet to be announced. Still, our time with the Abbott family could very well be up, and the flick could find another corner of its post-apocalyptic realm to explore. One big change is definitely locked in: instead of Krasinski sitting in the director's chair, fellow filmmaker Jeff Nichols will be doing the honours. That's a great fit, at least based on much of his work to date. With 2011's Take Shelter, he followed a father struggling with apocalyptic visions and uncertain of what to do to protect his family. In 2012's Mud, he told a coming-of-age tale about two young boys and a fugitive, while 2016's Midnight Special spent time with a dad and his son as they tried to evade a cult and the government. All three are excellent, and it's easy to see how Nichols can jump from that trio — via 2016 drama Loving — to the next A Quiet Place movie. Casting details haven't yet been revealed; however, Nichols has reportedly just handed in the script for the new film. And yes, everything seems to be a franchise these days, with The Conjuring movies up to their eighth flick, Marvel still doing its thing, and everything from Bond and Fast and Furious to Star Wars and Harry Potter still unfurling new chapters — but given how well both A Quiet Place features have done at the box office so far, more films in the series were always likely to follow. Until further details about the upcoming third A Quiet Place movie are announced, check out the trailer for A Quiet Place Part II below: The currently untitled third A Quiet Place film is set to release in movie theatres Down Under on March 30, 2023. A Quiet Place Part II is screening in cinemas now — read our full review. Via Variety.
Rolls Royces, Mercedes-Benzs and Jaguars aren't your typical canvases, but David Bromley isn't your everyday artist. A free openair exhibition at PROVOCARÉ, Whatever You Dream sees Bromley take luxury cars destined for the junkyard and transform them into masterful works of art. The co-founder of leading Chapel Street design studio and shop Bromley&Co, David Bromley is one of Australia's most in-demand contemporary artists working today. Best known for three long-term series Boys Own adventure, the Female Nude series, and Butterflies, for his newest exhibition — running July 5–15 — Bromley adds his unique styling to the opulent cars, employing a host of pop culture references, found images and bold colours to explore themes of nostalgia and the lost and found.
Collingwood's The Craft & Co. is kicking it old-school with Australia's first beer made in a clay amphora. Inspired by techniques that date back to the Bronze Age, the experimental brew has been fermenting for quite some time now, and will be unveiled as part of a five-course feast on Monday, May 15 as part of Good Beer Week. The team from The Craft & Co will be on hand to explain the brewing process, and to show off a number of other bespoke beers made just for the occasion.
Pick your favourite movie, change the concept slightly and Hollywood's next big hit could be born. It worked for The Fast and the Furious, which took Point Break's storyline, swapped surfboards for cars and spawned a hugely successful franchise, and it somewhat works in Little as well. Sequels and spinoffs aren't as likely to follow in the current case, but this age-swap comedy serves up a bit of fun with its reversed take on 80s classic Big. To be accurate, it serves up a highly predictable tale, themes to match, a few laughs, energetic performances and a star-making turn from 14-year-old Marsai Martin. Best known for TV sitcom Black-ish, Martin is a comic force to be reckoned with as Jordan Sanders, a character she shares with Regina Hall. The younger actress plays the 13-year-old version of the hotshot technology entrepreneur — both when she was originally a bullied, anxious, science-loving teenager suffering the ultimate humiliation at her school talent show, and when the tyrannical thirty-something is turned back into her adolescent self by a kid waving a magic wand. As an adult, Jordan has been coping with her youthful torment by becoming a rich, unpleasant control freak, unleashing much of her intimidation upon her long-suffering assistant April (Issa Rae). Then she picks on a child, wakes up to discover that she's now a child again herself, and is forced to enlist April to act as her legal guardian. Obviously, there's no question that writer-director Tina Gordon (who also helped pen What Men Want) and her co-scribe Tracy Oliver (Girls Trip) have seen Tom Hanks dance around on a walking keyboard in Big. The link is right there in Little's name. Martin has too, and that's where the film actually sprang from. The teen actress watched the movie, came up with a twist and pitched the idea to the right person. Now she's starring in the end product. She's also an executive producer on the picture — the youngest ever in Hollywood. Thanks to this origin story, there's a shameless feeling of familiarity to the flick — yet it's by design, rather than through arrogance, ignorance or laziness. The film's pace is breezy and its tone is bouncy, creating a feel-good, upbeat, self-empowering vibe, which should surprise no one. The expected jokes and messages also arrive on cue. Indeed, Little is well-aware that everyone knows where it sprang from, that it's never going to be original, and that plenty of other body-swap comedies have also done something similar. As a result, it rarely contemplates breaking the mould. More than that, it doesn't think it needs to. The film does pair its concept with the African-American experience, and calls out the fact that these kinds of antics usually only involve white characters, but it's otherwise content to stick to the formula. And while playing it safe is rarely the path to big-screen success, there's a reason for Little's approach. Instead of stepping into new territory, the movie adheres to the template, relying on its cast to add much-needed personality. In exaggerated mode, Hall has a ball. Finding the sweet spot between affable and awkward, Rae does as well. In the precocious Martin's case, she shines brighter than her character's oversized sunglasses and glitzy outfits. Without her, all of the film's cliches and tropes would take centre stage, from Jordan's initial shock at her sudden transformation, to the inevitable makeover montages, to the just-as-expected learning of life lessons. But while they're still all blatantly apparent, Martin's spark goes a long way. Crucially, she inhabits her character like an adult placed in a kid's body, rather than a child playing dress-up imitating someone older. With the younger Jordan strutting around in designer clothes, confidently ordering whisky at a bar and even flirting with her teacher when she's sent back to school, it's a vital difference, and it shows. Little still belongs to one of today's most pervasive and worrying trends — where everything can, should and must be rehashed over and over and over again — but it finds a way to stand out. In the crowded age- and body-swap genre that counts everything from 13 Going on 30 and 17 Again to Freaky Friday and The Change-Up, that too makes a difference. A big one, fittingly. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mWzxkqHn6D4
In the shadows of Luna Park, Veg Out is a volunteer-run community garden set on a former bowling green. The space is home to over 140 plots allowing members, friends and community groups to roll up their sleeves and get their hands in the soil. The community gardens also host regular farmers markets, open days and working bees, all of which showcase the sense of community and conservation that runs through this outdoor space. Want to get involved? Become a Friend of Veg Out for $15, which is the first step towards getting a plot of your own to tinker around in. Image: Elaine Casap
Watch a Mark Wahlberg-starring movie, tuck into a burg from Wahlberg's burger chain Wahlburgers, get the words 'burger' and 'Wahlberg' stuck in your head for days: that's now on the menu in Australia. After first announcing plans to open Down Under back in 2021, Wahlburgers has just launched its first Aussie store — so, Sydneysiders, it's time to pair a burger with some Sunkist. Because there's a reality TV show for everything, you've probably heard of the chain thanks to the 2014–9 series Wahlburgers, which turned its lens on the burger joints owned by the actor formerly known as Marky Mark and his brothers. Now — in Sydney from Thursday, February 17, at least — you can also eat the Wahlburgers' fast-food fare, rather than just watch a show about it. As also announced last year, Wahlburgers has now made its home at Sydney's Circular Quay, with its first Aussie outpost joining more than 50 stores in the US, Canada and Germany. Folks in Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane can all look forward to munching on the brand's bites to eat, too — and in New Zealand as well — with the chain expected to launch 20 stores across Australia and NZ. On the menu: burgers, obviously, including a meat-free Impossible burg that's been dubbed 'Mark's choice', plus a barbecue bacon burger that bears his fellow actor brother (and ex-New Kids on the Block member) Donnie's tick of approval. There are 13 burg options to choose from in total, with two types of chicken schnitzel burger, a crispy fish option, and a truffle burger — which pairs a beef patty with truffle aioli — also available. Or, you can opt for salads, sides that span everything from French fries and sweet potato fries to onion rings and bacon mac 'n' cheese, and loaded versions of your favourite fries and potato gems. There's also a breakfast menu, complete with avocado on toast, granola, pancake stacks, breakfast burgers and French toast sticks. And, for dessert, you can pick from fried dough — yes, that's what the menu says — and three types of lamington from Tokyo Lamington. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Wahlburgers Australia (@wahlburgersau) To answer the most important question, at least if you happen to remember that Mark Wahlberg was in the music business before he started acting and, as part of his hip hop group Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch, he released the 1991 single 'Good Vibrations': yes, Wahlburgers serves Sunkist, as referenced in that track's lyrics. Drinks-wise, there's also other soft drinks, coffees, shakes and spiders in both boozy and booze-free varieties, 17 types of cocktails, a small wine list, and beers that include Wahlbrewskis, the chain's signature beer. If the Wahlberg name has you thinking about movies — with Mark starring in everything from Boogie Nights to Joe Bell, and co-owner Donnie also featuring in The Sixth Sense and the Saw franchise — then that won't change with Wahlburgers' Aussie jaunt. In fact, the chain's entire venture Down Under is a collaboration with United Cinemas, and some of the former's sites will be located within the latter's picture palaces. United Cinemas now operates the cinema at Opera Quays that used to be a Dendy, for instance. The picture palace brand also currently runs venues at Narellan, Collaroy, Warriewood and Avalon in Sydney, Katoomba in the Blue Mountains, Craigieburn in Melbourne, Indooroopilly in Brisbane and Rockingham in Perth, so that's where you might be getting your Walhburger fix in the future, too — but Walhburgers will be opening stand-alone stores as well. Just when the chain will launch more locations around Australia and NZ hasn't yet been revealed. Wahlburgers is also co-owned by chef Paul Wahlberg — another Wahlberg sibling — and, given its name, the chain decks out its sites with photos and memorabilia from the brothers' lives. Wahlburgers is is now open at Opera Quays, 18a/7 Macquarie Street, Sydney, operating from 7am–10pm Sunday–Wednesday and 7am–11pm Thursday–Saturday. Further stores in Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Brisbane and New Zealand are also set to open in the future — we'll update you with exact locations and dates when they're announced, and you can keep an eye on the chain's website and Facebook page in the interim. Top image: Michael Rivera via Wikimedia Commons.
Something wicked this way comes: the first trailer for the 29-years-later sequel to Hocus Pocus. Yes, The Sanderson sisters are back in this follow-up to beloved 1993 favourite, with the trio wreaking havoc in modern-day Salem. For viewers, they'll be getting witchy on Disney+ in the lead up to Halloween. The Mouse House's streaming platform sure does love dropping seasonal-themed movies at the appropriate times. Here's hoping this one turns out better than last year's Christmas-focused Home Sweet Home Alone, though, when it hits the platform on Friday, September 30. Three things that Hocus Pocus 2 instantly has in its favour: original stars Bette Midler (The Addams Family 2), Sarah Jessica Parker (And Just Like That...) and Kathy Najimy (Music), all returning as Winnie, Sarah and Mary Sanderson. In the new film's first sneak peek, the magical trio make a reappearance thanks to a different threesome — a trio of teenage pals who, early in the teaser trailer, are told that "it's on the 16th birthday that a witch gets her powers". Cue a black cat, a book of spells, chanting in a graveyard and big The Craft vibes. Soon, cue Winnie, Sarah and Mary as well. Story-wise, Hocus Pocus 2 obviously follows what happens next, as the Sandersons try to unleash their child-eating ways — and the high schoolers who conjured them up attempt to stop them before dawn on All Hallow's Eve. It's been 29 years since someone last lit the black flame candle which resurrects the 17th-century sisters in the movie's world, just as it has in our own, and the witches aren't happy about it. "Lock up your children," Winnie cackles, of course. Yes, Midler makes the line count. Hocus Pocus 2 also features Sam Richardson (The Afterparty), Doug Jones (The Shape of Water), Hannah Waddingham (Ted Lasso), Whitney Peak (Gossip Girl), Belissa Escobedo (American Horror Stories), Lilia Buckingham (Dirt), Froyan Gutierrez (Teen Wolf) and Tony Hale (Veep). While the original film was directed by Kenny Ortega — before the filmmaker gave the world the High School Musical movies — this one has Dumplin', Hot Pursuit and The Proposal's Anne Fletcher behind the lens. Check out the trailer for Hocus Pocus 2 below: Hocus Pocus 2 will be available to stream via Disney+ on Friday, September 30. Images: courtesy of Disney Enterprises, Inc. © 2022 Disney Enterprises, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Since 2017, the Melbourne-based National Gallery of Victoria has hosted the NGV Triennial art showcase every three years, with this summer's iteration from Sunday, December 3, 2023–Sunday, April 7, 2024 the third. Designed to provide a portrait of the world each time it is staged — art trends and breakthroughs; the artists making them; and the themes, ideas and events they're responding to — each NGV Triennial delivers a hefty program. This time, there's 75 works from 100-plus artists, complete with more than 25 world-premiere projects, all tying into the themes of magic, matter and memory. A big highlight: Boston Dynamics robot dogs, which are showing off their very good painting skills. This clearly isn't Black Mirror, with Polish-born Agnieszka Pilat training the robot dogs to make art, as NGV Triennial attendees can watch happen. They're creating a monolithic durational work, with Pilat exploring technology's power in modern life in the process. While attending NGV Triennial is free, you don't have to go inside the NGV International on St Kilda Road to see Yoko Ono's contribution. Drawing upon six decades making art, including her famed Instruction Pieces and major public art commissions, she has provided a large-scale text-based piece that displays on the building's façade. One of the joys of an exhibition like this is the sheer variety of works — although Paris haute couture house Maison Schiaparelli's involvement would be a standout anyway. Artistic Director Daniel Roseberry has picked items from recent collections to display, plus a range of gilded surrealist accessories and body adornment. And, as well as showing his penchant for pushing boundaries and pairing art and fashion, there's a celestial theme. Also immersive: Tokyo-based artist Azuma Makoto's room-sized homage to nature, specifically plants and their magic, beauty and life force. The artist has frozen Australian flowers and botanicals into acrylic blocks, then combined them with a multi-screen film about the life and death of blooms. Yes, you'll be thinking about nature while you take it in. Tracey Emin has contributed a series of works, including five-metre-high text-based neon light installation based on the British artist's own handwriting. From Paris-based and American-born sculptor Sheila Hicks, Nowhere to Go stacks her blue-hued bulbous sculptures against a wall. Or, there's David Shrigley's Really Good — a seven-metre-high thumbs-up. Elsewhere, the massive one-hundred-metre-long woven fish fence Mun-dirra was made over two years by ten artists and their apprentices from the Burarra language group Maningrida, Arnhem Land — while large-scale commission Megacities tasked ten street photographers to snap Cairo, Dhaka, Jakarta, Delhi, Sao Paulo, Shanghai, Seoul, Lagos, Tokyo and Mexico City in all their urban glory. Don't miss Hugh Hayden's The end installation, which recreates a primary-school classroom but gets apocalyptic with branches and dodo skeletons. The full list of featured artists also spans Petrit Halilaj, Betty Muffler, Hoda Afshar and Fernando Laposse, plus Flora Yukhnovich, Yee I-Lann, Joyce Ho, Shakuntala Kulkarni and SMACK — and more, obviously. Images: installation views of Azuma Makoto's work, designs by Maison Schiaparelli, Agnieszka Pilat's work Heterobota and Yoko Ono's work I Love You Earth, on display as part of NGV Triennial at NGV International, Melbourne. Photos: Sean Fennessy.
When it comes to summer, Australia hits it out of the park. Proof? Just look at how many high-quality festivals are held in the sunny months. From camping festivals with a secret lineup in a dairy farm, to a one-day inner city dance parties, there's pretty much something for every inclination (and intensity) this summer. And with all the frivolity and letting loose that happens on festival grounds, it's forgivable to forget who'll be gracing the stages. The 2018–19 season shows off an incredible crowd of Aussie musicians, with names almost eclipsing the international talent they'll be playing alongside. Courtney Barnett, Gang of Youths and Flight Facilities are a representation of the hundreds of Aussies doing the rounds, joined by international artists such as Cardi B, Anderson .Paak and Nicki Minaj headlining. But it's not just about the music. There'll be no shortage of visual art and the food offerings, like every year, are more and more gourmet and accommodating to dietaries (even at some of the more remote locations).
These days, you pretty much know what you're getting going into a Michael Moore film: snappy (if also convenient) editing, some cringeworthy stunts, and a broad comparison of America's woes compared to all those other countries doing it better. You watch Sicko and you leave feeling a little bit glum, a little bit entertained, and convinced universal healthcare would be better for the United States, but that it's probably never going to happen because of big business and dirty politics. Then you watch Where To Invade Next and you leave feeling a little bit glum, a little bit entertained, and convinced that US drug and prison policy would be worth overhauling, but that it's probably never going to happen because of big business and dirty politics. Fahrenheit 11/9 kicks off in exactly the same fashion, but oh man does it shift gears and deliver something unexpected by the end. You leave feeling a little bit entertained, a whole lot glum, and entirely convinced that nothing short of democracy itself (to the extent it exists at all within the United States) is at risk of collapse because of, yes, big business and dirty politics. And no, that's not even close to hyperbole. This is a fine return to form for Moore, pulling a remarkable bait and switch such that his ultimate point comes at you just as you're beginning to question if he even has one. He achieves this by constantly changing Fahrenheit 11/9's subject matter and tone, beginning with an amusing recap on the smug and almost jovial certainty with which everyone from the Democratic National Committee to the Republican Party to the media (including Fox) and even the Trump camp itself assumed Hilary Clinton had the 2016 election in the bag. Like Showtime's excellent The Circus, this section of the film carries with it an uncomfortable blend of dramatic irony, on account of us knowing how it all ended up, coupled with an ongoing dismay that, well, that's actually how it all ended up. But then it changes tact and jumps to Flint, Michigan, where the contamination of the city's water supply led to an ongoing lead poisoning crisis. And then it jumps again, this time to school shootings. Then it's Ivanka Trump. Then Bernie Sanders and Hitler, and you find yourself wondering what the hell is this guy doing? What he's doing is establishing a pattern, using small-scale examples examined with deep journalistic scrutiny, and then stepping back and applying that insight to national, global and even historical events. The litany of unfathomable scandals in Flint are used not only to shock us, but to reveal how Governor Rick Snyder's corporate influences first emboldened, then enabled, his wholesale suspension of democracy in the state (effectively a coup d'état in Moore's opinion). That it's unfathomable is the point: these successions of outrages, whilst shocking, do not in isolation feel like a crisis point to anyone other than those hapless few affected. Combined, though, they serve to steadily erode matters of far-reaching significance like voter confidence and trust in the three branches of government. The takeaway is, if it can happen in a town like Flint with the world watching on and still nobody does anything, then it can happen in your town, too. And then your state. And then your country. But back to the whole Hitler thing. Ordinarily, thanks to Godwin's Law, you'd assume it's at that precise moment when Moore's point, however salient, loses all credibility. Instead, courtesy of some unsettlingly frank interviews with experts like Yale History Professor Timothy Snyder, we realise Moore isn't saying Trump is Hitler 2.0. Rather, he's showing that the current apathy and perhaps even amusement with which everyone from the experts to the press to the voting public dismisses or downplays each of Trump's outrageous comments and racist, bigoted, sexist or protectionist policies, is precisely what happened in Weimar Germany. It's just puffery until it's not. Just a weather balloon until it's not. Just a joke, until there's nothing funny about it at all. And that's the same for Fahrenheit 11/9. It starts out quite amusing, but by its conclusion there are no more cheeky edits from Moore, nor any sniggers from the audience. It's a straight-up slap in the face, softened only by buying into Moore's unbridled enthusiasm for the activist youth movement in America (led by the likes of the survivors of the Parkland school shooting) and the surge of independent candidates and representatives poised to shake the foundations of the DNC. There are still some unnecessary stunts from Moore, along with some broader-than-usual bows drawn, but they're fleeting enough to have no impact on his broader message. The Flint section alone makes Fahrenheit 11/9 a film worthy of your time, but it's the whole that makes it so affecting. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZeLvaflLLc
Renowned food writer and chef Michele Curtis is reinventing the concept of corner store with her newly opened St Kilda West operation, Frankie's Top Shop. Making its home in a former kiosk site on leafy Cowderoy Street, it's a charming neighbourhood gem, complete with a verdant colour palette, shelves filled with Curtis' favourite pantry staples, and a cabinet heaving with the day's gourmet take-home creations. A rotation of lively salads, ready-to-heat dishes and sweet treats is set to be a life-saver for those trekking past after a long slog at the office. By day and at the weekends, Frankie's is just as well-loved for its cafe offering, with the open kitchen serving up a vibrant menu that swings from apple cinnamon porridge and fig-topped buttermilk pancakes, to a signature eggs Benedict and daily-changing lunch tart. A host of creative specials ensures there's always something new to get stuck into, and an extensive kids' menu speaks to Frankie's all-welcoming, family-friendly nature. Backing it up the fare, you'll find organic coffee by Dukes, an on-trend array of turmeric, matcha, and chai lattes and nostalgia-inducing milkshakes.
Since late 2020, Victorians have had plenty of excuses to holiday throughout the state's regional areas, with the State Government handing out 110,000 travel vouchers worth $200 each so far as part of its $465 million Victorian Tourism Recovery Package. Another round of vouchers for regional travel are still to come, and will release this month — but if you'd rather enjoy a staycation in Melbourne, an extra batch of vouchers will now cover stays and experiences in the state's capital. The Melbourne vouchers were first announced in February, when the Victorian Government revealed a new $143-million support package to help businesses impacted by the state's recent five-day circuit breaker lockdown. Now, just what they'll cover, when you can use them and when you can get your hands on them have also been revealed. After spending so much of the past 12 months staring at your own four walls, you probably don't need much motivation to head out of the house, but the Melbourne Travel Voucher Scheme will give you some anyway. Available from 10am on Friday, March 12, it'll provide vouchers for use on accommodation, attractions and experiences across the metropolitan area, which'll be valid between the eight weeks from Friday, March 19–Sunday, May 16. You can use them within 26 local government areas across Greater Melbourne: in Melbourne, Port Phillip, Stonnington, Yarra, Banyule, Bayside, Boroondara, Darebin, Glen Eira, Hobsons Bay, Kingston, Manningham, Maribyrnong, Monash, Moonee Valley, Moreland, Whitehorse, Brimbank, Casey, Greater Dandenong, Hume, Knox, Maroondah, Melton, Whittlesea and Wyndham. They can't be used in places that were part of the regional scheme, though. So, this time around, you won't be heading to the Yarra Valley, Dandenong Ranges, Frankston or the Mornington Peninsula, for instance. If you're familiar with the regional vouchers, you'll know that they've proved mighty popular. Indeed, when the first round of 40,000 vouchers was made available, the Victorian Government had to release another 30,000 to meet demand (and make up for the fact that the Business Victoria voucher registration page had to go offline for extended periods because so many folks were trying to access it). So, getting in quickly for the Melbourne vouchers is highly recommended — as the regional ones have been routinely snapped up in minutes whenever they've been released. The same rules for using the vouchers apply to Melbourne, too. They can be spent on accommodation, tourism attractions and tours in the city, but there's a hefty list of things you can't use them on — including gaming, alcohol, fuel, food and drinks (unless it's part of a winery tour, for example), groceries, personal items (such as clothing) and transport (such as rental cars and public transport). So, you can't just use the voucher to road trip to a pub, but you can use it to book accommodation at the pub, then spend your own money on food and drinks — which will still make your staycation significantly cheaper. There are some additional caveats, too: the vouchers are limited to one per household (not per person) across the entire scheme; you must first provide evidence of spending $400 on accommodation, attractions or tours before getting your $200; and you must pay for a minimum of two nights accommodation in Greater Melbourne. Which means, at most, half of your expenses will be covered — but, that's $200 that you won't have to fork out yourself. Yes, it's a little complicated — but the Victorian Government has broken it down in more detail online. It has also given some more examples of what you can use the vouchers on, including holiday parks, cottages, private holiday rentals, adventure tours and entry fees to city attractions, such as museums, water parks and adventure parks. As with the Regional Travel Voucher Scheme, there are two obvious aims overall: enticing Victorian residents to make the most of Melbourne, and helping support the city's pubs, hotels, wineries and small businesses. If you're still eager to head further afield, the final round of regional vouchers will be handed out on Tuesday, March 30, for travel between April 6–May 31. There'll also be 50,000 of them, up from the 40,000 first announced for the regional scheme's third round. You can apply for the of 40,000 $200 Melbourne travel vouchers from 10am on Friday, March 12 at the Melbourne Travel Voucher Scheme website.
Melbourne winters mightn't be known for their ice and snow (just yet, anyway), but that doesn't mean you can't slide across a frozen surface in the centre of the city. From June 21 to July 14, the corner of Acland and Barkly streets will become a winter wonderland thanks to the return of the Skating At St Kilda Festival. With the event back for another year, all of the frosty fabulousness Melburnians know and love is back, too: ice skating, obviously, but also music, food and more. It's the next best thing to heading to Europe when Melbourne's at its iciest. Entry to the area is free, but you'll have to pay for all of the fun stuff, with the fest open from 10am–9pm Monday to Sunday. The lineup of events includes not only regular ice skating, but a romance-themed 'date and skate' night each Tuesday, plus a 90s and 00s-themed 'Ice Ice Baby' disco evening every Thursday.
People have orgasms every day, but for decades spent closing her eyes and thinking of England in a sexually perfunctory marriage, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande's lead character wasn't among them. Forget la petite mort, the French term for climaxing; Nancy Stokes' (Emma Thompson, Cruella) big wrestling match with mortality, the one we all undertake, has long been devoid of erotic pleasure. Moments that feel like a little death? Unheard of. That's where this wonderfully candid, intimate, generous and joyous sex comedy starts, although not literally. Flashbacks to Nancy enduring getting it over with beneath her now-deceased spouse, missionary style, aren't Australian filmmaker Sophie Hyde (Animals) or British comedian-turned-screenwriter Katy Brand's (Glued) concern. Instead, their film begins with the religious education teacher waiting in a hotel room, about to take the biggest gamble of her life: meeting the eponymous sex worker (Daryl McCormack, Peaky Blinders). For anyone well-versed in Thompson's prolific on-screen history, and of Brand's work before the camera as well, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande inspires an easy wish: if only Nancy had a different job. Back in 2010, the pair co-starred in Nanny McPhee and the Big Bang, a title that'd also fit their latest collaboration if its protagonist cared for kids rather than taught them. Jokes aside, the instantly charming Leo is used to hearing that sentiment about his own professional choices. Indeed, Nancy expresses it during their pre- and post-coital discussions, enquiring about the events that might've led him to his career. "Maybe you're an orphan!" she says. "Perhaps you grew up in care, and you've got very low self-esteem," she offers. "You could have been trafficked against your will — you can't tell just by looking at somebody!" she continues. There are plenty of "if only" thoughts and feelings pulsating through Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, a film where its namesake's tongue couldn't be more important — yes, in that way, and also because talk is as crucial as sex here. If only Nancy hadn't spent half of her existence in a pleasure-free marriage. If only a lifetime of being middle class and socially conservative, and of internalising Britain's stereotypical 'keep calm and carry on' mentality, hadn't left her adrift from her desires. If only being a woman in her mid-50s wasn't seen as a libidinous void by society at large, a mindset that's as much a part of Nancy as the wrinkles and ageing body parts she can barely look at in the mirror. If only prioritising her sensual needs wasn't virtually taboo, too, especially in her mind — even after, two years since being widowed, she's booked an expensive rendezvous with Leo. Good Luck to You, Leo Grande unpacks those if onlys — not the Nanny McPhee one, obviously, but the idea that Nancy's life is immovably stuck in the same rut it has always been. As played by Thompson at the height of her acting powers, at her absolute splintery, finicky yet vulnerable best even with Last Christmas, Years and Years, Late Night and The Children Act on her recent resume, she's nervous, anxious, uncertain and always on the cusp of cancelling, including once Leo strolls into the room, beams his easy magnetism her way and starts talking about what she wants like it's the most natural thing in the world. Slipping into the sheets and knowing what excites you is the most natural thing in the world, of course, but not to Nancy. As her four appointments with Leo progress, she comes up with a lineup of carnal acts she'd like to experience — and she may as well be reading from her grocery list. But getting her to shed her inhibitions is as much his focus as shedding her clothes, and the twentysomething won't let Nancy keep getting in the way of herself. How simple Good Luck to You, Leo Grande is, and also how complex. That's fitting; sex is the same. Brand has penned a slinky two-hander about an unfulfilled woman tentatively taking charge of her own wants, and the helping hand she needs to do so, and also a movie that layers every stigma about female lust, older women, sex work, boundaries and respect into one frank, empathetic, penetrating and delightful package. That's there in the minute details, such as Nancy's job teaching religion to schoolgirls, to whom she's shown the same stern judgement she directs her own way. It's in the way that Leo asks before making every move, dismantles Nancy's concerns about his vocation and their age gap, and dedicates their time together to putting her at ease in every way he can as well. And, it also lingers in his response to her lack of care about his own work-life divide. The straightforwardness, the complications, the texture, the intense emotional landscape — they all evolve and deepen as Good Luck to You, Leo Grande goes on, as do the weighty subjects that the movie ponders, and the two characters swirling through the frame. Twirl, twist, sway, spin, thrust, tumble: Nancy and Leo do all of the above, physically and verbally, and what a double act they make. You could call Good Luck to You, Leo Grande a chamber piece courtesy of its small cast, chatter-heavy setup and the fact it's largely set in one room; however, the always-phenomenal Thompson and the immediately mesmerising McCormack make every second of the film feel expansive. Movies about women of a certain age attempting to get their groove back aren't uncommon, but movies about accepting that there's even a groove to reclaim, why that's essential, and how not only sex but sex work have a pivotal place in our daily lives are almost as scarce as Nancy's orgasms — until now. Helming her third feature after progressing from the also revelatory 52 Tuesdays through to Animals and now this, Hyde could've just ensured that her regular cinematographer Bryan Mason was peering Thompson and McCormack's way, then let their acting magic happen — and, at times, that's how it appears. But Good Luck to You, Leo Grande does what Nancy never has with herself, and what Leo endeavours to control with his clients: it truly sees its central pair, who they are and who they want to be, and what makes them moan, groan and tick. Hyde is clearly drawn to intricate two-person dynamics and the dances they inspire, whether following a teenager and her transgender parent, two thick-as-thieves best pals or a couple of strangers getting explicit. She blatantly loves telling coming-of-age tales, too, with the emphasis on both the coming and the age in this case. And, she ensures that soaking in the quiet moments, including when her characters are together but alone, says as much as any words bantered back and forth. Sex comedies have rarely felt so lived in, so comfortable, so earnest or so nuanced, or like such a release.
Break out the bibs and put away those fine dining manners, because things are about to get messy in the tastiest way possible for Good Food Month. The Church of Bang Bang Boogaloo will be the setting for an all-out Low Country Boil, just like the ones you'll find in backyards across South Carolina and Georgia. Expect tables piled high with mountains of prawns, crayfish, potatoes, crab, sausage, and corn, just waiting for you to dig in and bliss out. There'll be lots of refreshing brews to help wash it all down, and socialising options aplenty.
A spoonful of sugar may be needed to make this medicine go down: the Mary Poppins musical will soon be leaving Melbourne. Umbrellas at the ready because this supercalifragilisticexpialidocious singing nanny is only taking over Her Majesty's Theatre until Sunday, June 18. Mary Poppins has come to Melbourne after previously flying into both Sydney and Brisbane, and hails from Disney and theatre producer Cameron Mackintosh. This current version of the show tells the same enchanting tale that everyone knows from the hugely popular, five-time Oscar-winning 1964 film — which, as well as inspiring this stage adaptation, also gave rise to the big-screen sequel Mary Poppins Returns in 2018. Everything to do with the English governess harks back to P.L. Travers' books about the character, of course, and pop culture has been thankful for and downright delighted with her stories for almost six decades now. Escape the chilly Melbourne evenings as winter draws near and grab your friends for a magical night out on the town — there are fantastic seats available for midweek performances, so take advantage of early bird meals and happy hours with your mates before seeing Mary Poppins take flight. Local theatre fans can enjoy this updated version of the show that last graced Australia's stages — and won eight Helpmann Awards — back in 2011. Since Mackintosh first teamed up with writer Julian Fellowes (Downton Abbey) to bring Mary Poppins to the theatre in 2004, the production has won four Olivier Awards and a Tony, too. "Mary Poppins has really incredible staging, and the performances from the leads are world-class," says Suz Tucker our editorial director. "Jack Chambers [Bert] is a treat and astonishingly light-footed. But Stefanie Jones [Mary Poppins] is particularly excellent. She's got just the right amount of enigmatic Mona Lisa quality, graceful comic timing and firmness." Find out for yourself before the play's run ends on June 18. Get in fast to secure your tickets to this must-see performance, it's the ultimate winter activity for theatre lovers and Disney fans alike. If you are looking for things to do in Melbourne this winter, Mary Poppins is showing at Her Majesty's Theatre until Sunday, June 18. Tickets to Mary Poppins start from $49.90 and are available to purchase from TicketTek. Images: Daniel Boud. Updated May 24.
