Telling your co-workers to wash their damn plates has never looked so suave. Comic Sans, the "I'm not like a regular mom, I'm a cool mom," of the font world, has been given a streamlined, minimalist makeover and is lurking dangerously close to legitimate suavity. Taking cues from the more sophisticated typography go-tos like Helvetica Neue, Comic Neue could potentially be suited for more than passive-aggressive staff kitchen notices and school canteen specials. Constantly scorned for its combination of rounded edges and likeness to the Foundation Handwriting font taught at preschools, Comic Sans has long worn the crown for biggest lamebot in the font family. Writers at McSweeney’s tried to convince us otherwise, but until graphic designer Craig Rozynski decided to give the font a new pair of pants, it was doomed to the Angelfire blogs of yesteryear. Japan-based Australian designer Rozynski saw an overlooked elegance in the world’s most ridiculed font. “Comic Sans wasn’t designed to be the world’s most ubiquitous casual typeface,” he says on the font’s own website. “The squashed, wonky, and weird glyphs of Comic Sans have been beaten into shape while maintaining the honesty that made Comic Sans so popular.” Sporting a makeover to rival Rachel Leigh Cook’s She’s All That staircase descent, Comic Neue is sure to score all the invites to prom with its new schwanky look. Rozynski believes teaching a an old dog new tricks will impress even the biggest font snobs. “Comic Neue aspires to be the casual script choice for everyone including the typographically savvy.” You can test drive Comic Neue over here for free for a limited time. Go on, lightly warn the good people about the consequences of taking people's fridge food. It's going to look damn classy. Via Mashable.
Blending Homer Simpson and Piet Mondrian might be the most unlikely of team-ups, but two Russian designers have begged to differ. Seeing a primary colour-based no-brainer in the pair, Constantin Bolimond and Dmitry Patsukevich have created a line of wine bottle packaging called Wine, or maybe not?. Stripping Homer and Marge back to minimalist Mondrian-like lines and restricted colour areas, the Simpsons have rarely looked so MOMA Gift Shopworthy. Although there's no wine yet created to inhabit the Simpsons, we'd be happy to chuck some Duff in there, work a couch groove and tune into the rest of your life. Via Fubiz. Images by Constantin Bolimond and Dmitry Patsukevich. Keen for more minimalist pop culture wine design? Sure you are. We're on it, head over here for a drop of Westeros.
It's not as if you need an excuse to tuck into fried chicken and natural wines on a Thursday night, but, just in case you do, Belles Hot Chicken has you covered. Their new weekly party, dubbed Limited Release, will kick off this Thursday, July 6 with a weekly changing line-up of food, booze and tunes at the eatery's Windsor outpost. Acting as a head start to the weekend, these Thursday night parties will see punters celebrating their Friday eve with a little help from all that Belles goodness — we're talking about a curated list of rare natural wines to sip on; tunes spun by PBS legend DJ Manchild; and a tidy range of one-off dishes from Belles owner and chef, Morgan McGlone. He's turning out specialities like oozy pimento cheese and fried baloney sandwiches, along with a decadent white chocolate and strawberry cheesecake for dessert. If you're looking to kick start the weekend, you've come to the right place.
Winemakers of Rutherglen have been doing good things with grapes for a while now out in northeast Victoria. But, luckily for Melbourne, they've decided to come cityside again this October for one-day wine event Rutherglen in the City. The pop-up cellar door will situate itself at The Timber Yard at Port Melbourne from 11.30am–5.30pm on Saturday, October 14. Sixteen winemakers will take over the space, transforming it into an inner-city winery with over 100 different drops. For $35 pre-purchased and $40 on the day, you'll get a free glass and be able to sample the best of the region's wine varieties, including durif and muscat, plus rare and boutique drops. The winemakers themselves will also be on-hand for a chat and, if something takes your fancy, you can even order a few bottles from them direct. There'll be a range of masterclasses you can partake in, too. Full glasses of wine and other drinks can be purchased from the bar, and some nosh will be on sale. And to set the mood: live tunes.
In the catchy theme tune to one of the best, wildest and most cathartic TV shows ever made, aka Billy on the Street, comedian Billy Eichner promised to make dreams come true. How? By taking to the New York City pavement to ask ordinary folks about movies, music and TV shows, often with a celebrity in tow. Each episode also involved Eichner yelling at his unsuspecting contestants about their questionable pop culture taste or utter lack of entertainment knowledge — yep, right there on NYC's streets, with a camera pointing their way — and the end result was a hilarious dream to watch for audiences, too. Now, thanks to new rom-com Bros, Eichner is fulfilling fantasies in a different way. The Parks and Recreation and Difficult People treasure becomes the first openly gay man to co-write and star in his own major studio film, which is set to hit cinemas Down Under in October — and its just-dropped, extremely self-aware first trailer hilariously plays up exactly what making a mainstream queer rom-com means. What does that entail? "Something a straight guy might like?" Eichner's character Bobby Leiber asks. "Am I going to be in the middle of some high-speed chase, then all of a sudden fall in love with Ice Cube?" he continues. Based on the first sneak peek, no, that doesn't happen. Also the first gay romantic comedy from a major studio to feature an entirely LGBTQ principal cast, Bros sees Eichner play a podcaster who has been asked to write exactly this kind of flick — hence those questions about how it might turn out. This isn't just a queer rom-com about penning a queer rom-com, though. Along the way, Eichner's Leiber falls in love himself (with Killjoys' Luke Macfarlane), and navigates the chaos that ensues. Eichner co-wrote the script with director Nicholas Stoller (Bad Neighbours and its sequel), while Judd Apatow (The King of Staten Island, Trainwreck) produces. On-screen, the cast includes Ts Madison (Zola), Monica Raymund (Chicago Fire), Guillermo Díaz (Scandal), Guy Branum (Hacks), Bowen Yang (Saturday Night Live) and Amanda Bearse (Married with Children). Check out the trailer for Bros below: Bros opens in cinemas Down Under on October 27.
Anyone who's been to Saint Crispin will tell you the same thing: it's incredible. Us included. And if you're looking for an excuse to treat yourself to their culinary delights, the Melbourne Food & Wine Festival is presenting you with the perfect one. For one day in March, the Saint Crispin kitchen is swapping the hum of Smith Street for the saltiness of St Kilda beach, popping up at St Kilda Bowling Club for lunch, dinner and lawn bowls. Feel the sea breeze on your skin as you savour each mouthful of head chef Joe Grbac's dishes, and sip on drinks from the restaurant's upstairs bar, Thomas Olive, on the green. Just to sweeten the deal, dessert comes from Pierre Roelofs: the guy that does the dessert evenings at Cafe Rosamond. A seat at the table will set you back $160, but includes five courses with matched drinks, as well as a healthy game of lawn bowls afterwards. Go for lunch at 12pm or dinner at 6pm.
Biggie Smalls is going the way of foodie faves Belles Hot Chicken and Messina — it's crossing the river to open a second store southside. It's been just over a year since Shane Delia arrived to take Smith Street's kebab-scape by storm, slinging modern Middle Eastern eats out of a lively, hip hop-infused diner. Now, as reported by Good Food and confirmed by the Biggie Smalls team, Delia's modern kebab shop is heading to Windsor, with the Maha chef set to open a new 40-seat store opposite Windsor Station next year. You can expect the same vibes, hip hop soundtrack and cult kebab offerings of the original store, though here they'll be sided with tap beers, Middle Eastern-inspired cocktails, and a beefed-up contingent of bar snacks. With Belles, Messina, Fonda, and Chris Lucas soon to open another Kong in Collingwood, it looks like Smith Street and the Windsor-end of Chapel are only going to get more and more similar. Via Good Food.
From the Lumiere brothers to Christopher Nolan, cinema has always been more than just benign entertainment for our Saturday nights. It has reflected the ages we live in, not just in costumes and settings but in representing the pure zeitgeist. As we head off to the Sydney Film Festival and the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival, where films break barriers and open eyes, we’re thinking about those films that have changed how we see that crazy little thing called love. Mixed-race couples in love Even now it's still unusual to see mixed-race couples on film and television. Take Glee: the Asian girl has to end up with the Asian guy. It seems like a particularly persistent blindness given all the inter-species lovin' outlined below. But go back a few years and you will find a few films that did manage to break down this particular barrier. Most famous is 1967's Guess Who's Coming to Dinner where Katharine Hepburn and Spencer Tracy's daughter brings home a black fiance, the barrier-breaker himself, Sidney Poitier. This film paved the way for a series of bad dance films where white ballerinas hook up with street dancers, a la Save the Last Dance. Awesome. Monsters and humans in love Move over Twilight; if you think this was the first film that depicted the forbidden love between a human and a monster, you need to catch up on some movies. It wasn't even the brilliant Joss Whedon who was first in with Buffy. You have to go right back to the first monster movies, and King Kong. Okay, so in the 1933 version love was a little-one sided on the monkey side, but in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) shows a tender affection for the giant ape. The Mummy (1999) also depicted an everlasting love between a monster and a human, with the mummy rising only with the intention of bringing his love back to life through a human host. Unwed couples in love Cinema is polluted with unwed couples; the only thing is they're usually the ones copping all the flak. Take any disaster or horror movie you know: the first people that are going to get it are the ones that are enjoying a bit of out-of-wedlock nookie. Most movies, in Hollywood at least, focus on the couple's progression towards an inevitable marriage. Even today it's unusual for a Hollywood romance not to end in marriage. The spectacular The Princess Bride is one classic film that, ironically due to the title, doesn't end in a wedding. In fact, it ends with breaking up the marriage that was to be, so the true lovers can be together. More recently, the successful comedy Knocked Up shows us that it's possible to not only be in love but to have a baby out of wedlock and still be relatively happy. Other films catching up to the multitude of ways in which start families include the upcoming Friends with Kids, where friends have kids. Teenagers in love Early cinema often turned to literature's classics for inspiration, which means cinema's first teenage couple in love was that famous star-crossed duo Romeo and Juliet. They were the ones breaking barriers down between two warring families, but were they breaking cinematic barriers? Teenage films really came into their own in the '60s with the likes of cheesy, safe comedies like Beach Blanket Bingo (1965), where the teenage actors were well into their twenties. That trend continued into Grease (1978), surely one of the greatest teen love stories of all time, but it was John Hughes and the Brat Pack in the '80s that really examined what it meant to be a teenager in love. The '90s brought us another round of teens in love with 10 Things I Hate About You being a personal favourite (vale Heath Ledger). If a teenage boy can get over a girl's obsession with Sylvia Plath to buy her a Fender Strat, that's got to be love. Gay couples in love One of the earliest scenes in moving pictures shows two be-suited men dancing together, perhaps cinema's first gay couple. In fact, this scene is from an experimental sound picture now known as Dickson Experimental Sound Film, one of the first examples of an attempt to synch sound and picture. One early German film, Madchen in Uniform, is reputedly the first film with a pro-lesbian storyline, and in 1931, that’s quite an achievement. References to gay characters have permeated cinema throughout the years - for the best breakdown on queer cinema see the brilliant, though slightly old, doco The Celluloid Closet - but it's only been in recent years that we've seen true love, not jaded by other motivations. While we enjoyed the comedic love between the fathers in The Birdcage (1996), it was with the excellent The Kids Are All Right (2010) where we first had a gay couple, truly in love, whose 'gayness' wasn't an issue to be exaggerated; in fact, wasn't part of the main storyline at all. How could it be, when the parents could just as easily have been heterosexual? The Sydney Film Festival is on from June 6-17 and the Human Rights Arts and Film Festival is on from May 29 to June 1. The New Zealand Film Festival kicks off in Auckland on July 19 2012. Friends with Kids releases nationally on June 7. Main image from the film Attenberg.
Maybe hitting the ski fields just isn't your thing. Perhaps, after a few days spent snowboarding, you'd like to see the slopes from a different angle. You could just like climbing up to lofty peaks and peering down on everything underneath. Or, maybe walking over suspension bridges is your preferred adrenaline-fuelled activity. If some of the above apply to you, then add Whistler's newly opened Cloudraker Skybridge to your travel bucket list. A word of warning, however: spanning 130 metres from Whistler Peak across to the viewing platform at West Ridge lookout, it's also 2000 metres above the Whistler Bowl. Acrophobics, you might want to sit this one out — but for everyone that's fine with heights, it's the next reason to head to the famed Canadian region. The cantilevered walkway extends 12.5 metres out from the West Ridge, giving visitors a stunning view — and while that includes a bird's-eye vantage over those skiing below during winter, the skybridge is open all-year-round. Those eager to make the trip will need to buy a PEAK 2 PEAK 360 Experience ticket, which cost between AU$75–81. That also includes a heap of other activities, such as rides on the site's open-air chairlifts and gondolas, walking along its lengthy walking trails, and catching a video or an expert talk at the Alpine Theatre 1860 metres above sea level. Image: Mitch Winton via Whistler Blackcomb.
The producers of Serial and This American Life have teaming up on a brand new true crime podcast hitting the digital airwaves next month. Better yet, they're taking a page out of Netflix's book and dropping every single episode at the exact same time. Today. The non-fiction S-Town is set in rural Alabama and will investigate "the son of a wealthy family who's allegedly been bragging that he got away with murder. But then someone else ends up dead, sparking a nasty feud, a hunt for hidden treasure, and an unearthing of the mysteries of one man's life", according to the website. We're in. "This story takes so many unexpected turns," said This American Life presenter Ira Glass in a statement. "Every episode is a new surprise. And the story has this feeling and mood that's different from anything else we've done. I don't think people have heard a show like this." S-Town is one of three new podcasts being launched under the 'Serial Productions' banner. It will be hosted by long-time This American Life producer Brian Reed, and all seven episodes are available from the S-Town website. Image: Peabody Awards, CC.
Game, set, match, music: when the Australian Open returns in January 2024 with two jam-packed weeks of Grand Slam tennis action, it'll also be serving up a few aces for fans of live tunes. In 2023, the annual Melbourne sports event launched the AO Finals Festival, which gets a heap of talents taking to the stage. Unsurprisingly proving a hit, the fest is returning next year. Attendees will be treated to a program of live acts on three of the event's final four days, all in John Cain Arena. 2024's AO Finals Fest will start on Thursday, January 25, on AO Pride Day. Then, it's back for both the women's final on Saturday, January 27 and the men's equivalent on Sunday, January 28. A stellar lineup awaits, including Tash Sultana, Peach PRC and Yaeji on the Thursday; DMA's, Ruel and The Jungle Giants on the Saturday; and Groove Armada, Rudimental and Sunshine & Disco Faith Choir on the Sunday. Just like in 2023, the stacked bill doesn't come as too much of a surprise, given that it has again been curated with help from the respected music heads at Untitled Group — the brains behind Pitch Music & Arts, For The Love, Grapevine Gathering and more. "The Australian Open is one of the most loved events on Melbourne's calendar, so there is no better time to bring together tennis and some of the best global music to the stage, right in the heart of summer's favourite tennis tournament. Untitled Group are proud to return to the Australian Open in 2024, giving tennis and music fans alike an amazing day out, full of forefront artists across three jam-packed days of music festival entertainment," said Pia Del Mastro, Untitled Group's music programmer. "Can't wait to return to the iconic Australia Open. See you on the court!" added DMA's. Expect plenty of company, with the 2023 event selling out. Accordingly, 2024's AO Finals Festival has moved venues, shifting to John Cain Arena to take advantage of its 10,000-person capacity. Tickets can be bought individually per day, or matchgoers can upgrade their tennis tickets to head to the festival. As always, there'll be scores of food and drink pop-ups scattered throughout Melbourne Park, as well as big screens showing all the on-court action. AO FINALS FESTIVAL 2024 LINEUP: Thursday, January 25: AO Pride Day Tash Sultana Peach PRC Yaeji Anesu Djanaba DJ Luv You Saturday, January 27: Women's final DMA's Ruel The Jungle Giants Tia Gostelow Mell Hall Sunday, January 28: Men's final Groove Armada Rudimental Sunshine & Disco Faith Choir Latifa Tee Cooper Smith The 2024 AO Finals Festival hits John Cain Arena, Olympic Boulevard, Melbourne, from Thursday, January 25–Sunday, January 28. For tickets from Wednesday, December 13 and more information, head to the festival website. Images: Ash Caygill.
One of the most lauded films of last year’s festival circuit and the winner of the Jury Prize at Cannes, Mommy is a masterpiece of melodrama from 26-year-old Quebecois wunderkind Xavier Dolan. This is a movie you can’t afford to miss. An emotional roller coaster presented in 1:1 aspect ratio, the story follows a brassy single mother whose teenage son suffers from violent mood swings as well as ADHD. Anne Dorval and Antoine Olivier Pilon are both stunningly good, their performances positively glowing with uninhibited feeling. This is a funny, earnest, devastating film, one that's vitalised, rather than limited, by its intriguing technical conceit. Seriously, if this film doesn’t make you cry buckets, you flat out haven’t got a heart. Mommy is in select cinemas on April 9, and thanks to Sharmill Films, we have ten double in-season passes to give away. To be in the running, subscribe to the Concrete Playground newsletter and then email us with your name and address. Sydney: win.sydney@concreteplayground.com.au Melbourne: win.melbourne@concreteplayground.com.au Brisbane: win.brisbane@concreteplayground.com.au
Perhaps it’s the simplicity of this practical, environmentally-friendly and rather smart looking pallet garden that’s so inspiring. It looks like something every urban dweller should be doing - it’s neat, space-saving, and an ideal solution for maintaining a herb, flower or veg garden in the city. Better looking than the average window box too. The new trend is popping up on balconies, aside garages and on roof tops. It’s such an achievable way to recycle unwanted crates or pallets that can be found at local supermarkets and factories, yet it looks so good - we only wish we’d thought of it ourselves. [Via Lost At E Minor]
Good Beer Week is giving Melburnians a legit excuse to head out to Geelong on a Tuesday night when two of the city's best businesses team up at this highlight event. Blackman's Brewery is turning its bar and restaurant over to The Hot Chicken Project's Aaron Turner, who will serve up a menu of his signature Nashville-style treats alongside the launch of a seasonal produce-inspired brew. An award-winning chef, Turner has come into more specific spotlight since opening nearby high-end restaurant Igni in 2016. It focuses on small growers and regional produce, with a menu that changes by the day. This ethos pairs nicely with Blackman's brew, which uses seasonal produce to create a beer that is truly a taste of Geelong. This local-as event will give patrons a chance to meet both brewers and chefs, learn a thing or two about seasonality, and of course tuck into some fried chicken and craft beers.
A day of sun, surf and sand shouldn't break the bank, and holidaying in Vietnam is the best way to ensure that remains the case in 2018. As they did last year as well, three of the Asian country's beaches have topped Travelbird's annual Beach Price Index, which ranked 327 beaches from over 70 nations based on their affordability. Cua Dai Beach in Hoi An was dubbed the least expensive place to take a dip for the second year running, with hitting the waves costing AU$20.20 (or €13.44). City Beach in Nha Trang (AU$22,83) and Long Beach in Phu Quoc (AU$25.29) took out the next two spots, with beaches in India (Benaulim Beach, Palolem Beach, Mandrem Beach, Cavelossim Beach, Agonda Beach and Radhanagar Beach) and Egypt (El Gouna, Sunken City and Marsa Nayzak) rounding out the top 12. Germany and Mexico are the only other countries to make the top 20, courtesy of Hamburg's Falkensteiner Ufer and Oaxaca's Zipolite. Travelbird bases their rankings on the cost of five beach essentials: sunscreen (SPF30, 200ml), water (500ml), beer (an average between domestic beer prices, and the cost of Heineken, Budweiser, Becks, Guinness and Fosters at local prices), ice cream (pre-packaged and branded), lunch (for one person, including a meal, drink and dessert) and any applicable facility fees (entrance, lounger, chair, hammock, umbrella). If just more than an Aussie lobster sounds cheap for all of that, then spending more than AU$123 will sound mighty hefty, with New Caledonia's Anse Vata in Noumea nearing that mark at the other end of the scale. Don't go thinking that Australia's abundance of coastline means the country fares much better in the cheap beach stakes, however. Even the least expensive — The Basin on Rottnest Island — hits the $61.37 mark. In fact, all Aussie beaches rank in the 150 costliest spots to sunbathe and splash around, with Manly Beach in Sydney the ninth costliest at $97.86, and Perth's Cottesloe Beach taking 12th spot at $95.15. Others on the list include Blinky Beach on Lorde Howe Island, Bondi in Sydney, Cottesloe Beach in Western Australia, Mindil Beach in Darwin, and 75 Mile Beach, Whitehaven Beach and Palm Cove in Queensland. As for New Zealand spots to sunbathe and splash around, four make the poll. Over in New Zealand, Piha in Auckland is the most affordable, followed by Orewa, Karekare then Hahei in Waikato. Image: Prashant Ram
Don't work at Freddy Fazbear's Pizza. That's the message at the heart of video-game franchise Five Nights at Freddy's, and has been since 2014. The folks earning a paycheque at the fictional joint, particularly the unlucky night-time employees, tend to get some rather unpleasant company: the restaurant's animatronic animal mascots turning murderous. In the button-mashing space, the concept has unsurprisingly proven a hit. So far, nine games have brandished the Five Nights at Freddy's name in the franchise's main series, plus a range of spinoffs. Next, however, it'll be cinemas that are splashing that moniker around. Joining The Super Mario Bros Movie and Gran Turismo among 2023's big-screen game-to-film releases, a feature version of Five Nights at Freddy will hit picture palaces in October. Josh Hutcherson (The Disaster Artist), Matthew Lillard (Good Girls), demonic robots: they're all in the just-dropped full trailer for movie take on the horror favourite. Hutcherson plays a security guard clocking in for this first night on the job, then discovering what's really in store. And those animatronics Freddy Fazbear, Bonnie, Chica and Foxy? They're courtesy of Jim Henson's Creature Shop. Also appearing on-screen are Elizabeth Lail (You), Piper Rubio (Unstable), Kat Conner Sterling (We Have a Ghost) and Mary Stuart Masterson (Blindspot). Putting Scream star Matthew Lillard in any horror movie is always a nice touch, too. Emma Tammi (The Wind) directs, while prolific horror producer Jason Blum is behind the movie via his company Blumhouse, adding it to a roster that's also given us The Black Phone, Freaky, Black Christmas, the Happy Death Day flicks and the most recent Halloween trilogy in the past few years. And, yes, Blumhouse just brought M3GAN our way as well, because 2023 is clearly the year of the unhinged machines. Also, Willy's Wonderland riffed on the same concept a few years back, if you're not a gamer and you're wondering why the concept sounds familiar. That movie's highlight: starring the one and only Nicolas Cage. Check out the trailer for Five Nights at Freddy's below: Five Nights at Freddy's releases in cinemas Down Under on October 26.
If you're not fond of clowns, find yourself scurrying past sewers and simply can't stand red balloons, there's probably one big reason for your phobias. Maybe you read Stephen King's horror tome IT, which first hit bookshelves back in 1986. Perhaps you saw the 1990 miniseries, which turned Tim Curry from The Rocky Horror Picture Show's Frank N Furter into the transdimensional evil entity known as Pennywise. In 2017, you might've seen the IT movie on the big screen, too, then backed it up in 2019 with sequel IT: Chapter Two. Whichever fits, your fears are about to get another workout — via your streaming queue, and if you dare. HBO has officially greenlit a prequel series set in the world of IT, and in King's go-to town of Derry, Maine. Fittingly called Welcome to Derry, it'll step through the locale's scares before the terror that viewers have already seen and experienced. Returning to oversee the show is filmmaker Andy Muschietti, who helmed the most recent two movies and next directs DC Extended Universe flick The Flash. So far, the rest of the details are scare, including the exact storyline, all cast members, when it'll arrive and how many episodes there are to look forward to. But Muschietti will direct multiple instalments, including the first. Also, the show is still based on King's novel, and will expand Muschietti's vision from his two features. "As teenagers, we took turns reading chapters of Stephen King's IT until the thick paperback fell to pieces," said Muschietti and his sister Barbara Muschietti, who'll also work on Welcome to Derry, announcing the news. "IT is an epic story that contains multitudes, far beyond what we could explore in our IT movies. We can't wait to share the depths of Steve's novel, in all its heart, humour, humanity and horror." "I'm excited that the story of Derry, Maine's most haunted city, is continuing, and I'm glad Andy Muschietti is going to be overseeing the frightening festivities, along with a brain trust including his talented sister, Barbara. Red balloons all around!" added King. If you've somehow missed all things IT so far, it follows the exploits of maniacal clown Pennywise, as well as the folks he's rather fond of terrorising. In the recent movies, Bill Skarsgård (Barbarian) put on the demonic makeup. In the first film, his targets were all kids. In the second, those teens — the Losers Club — were all grown up and still getting spooked. It's too early for a Welcome to Derry trailer, but you can watch the IT and IT: Chapter Two trailers below: Welcome to Derry doesn't yet have a release date, including Down Under — we'll update you when one is announced.
As any destination-hopping traveller knows, actually jumping between multiple locations isn't as fun as it sounds. Sure, visiting as many places as you can in a single trip is great, but the minutiae of moving between stopovers is far less exciting. Think complicated itineraries scheduled down to the last second, too many airport waits, and continually packing and unpacking your suitcase — you're exhausted just reading about it, aren't you? Inspired by Elon Musk's proposed high-speed, compressed air-powered transport system, the Hyperloop Hotel aims to take the hassle out of multi-destination trips by turning hotel rooms into a form of travel. Designed by University of Nevada graduate architecture student Brandan Siebrecht, and winning the student category at this year's Radical Innovation Award, the concept uses Musk's Hyperloop to move modular suites between 13 US destinations. Siebrecht's proposal relies upon shipping containers turned into hotel rooms, that can then easily undock from base sites in Austin, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Nashville, New York, Portland, San Francisco, Santa Fe, Seattle and Washington, DC. Each suite would be fully customisable, featuring spaces for sleeping, bathing and living, while the permanent structures in each city would boast the usual on-site hotel amenities. With the Hyperloop currently in the testing phase — and mooted to become operational as early as 2018 — Siebrecht believes it could be as little as five years until his idea becomes feasible. Unsurprisingly, however, it won't come cheap. He has floated a cost of US$8-10 million per hotel, and suggested US$1200 per person for travel and a one-night stay. And as for just how long you'd spend in transit, the system Musk describes as a "cross between a Concorde and a railgun and an air hockey table" will reportedly cut travel time down considerably. In the US, it has been suggested that the trek from LA to San Francisco would take just 35 minutes. In Australia, apparently zipping from Sydney to Melbourne could happen in a mere 55 minutes. Via Live Science / Inhabitat. Image: Radical Innovation Award.
We've spent heaps of time curating exclusive holiday packages for Concrete Playground Trips, but we're especially proud of this one. We teamed up with some of Auckland's biggest players in the food, music and culture scenes to bring you one epic luxury holiday experience in November. Guests will get VIP tickets to Spring City Music Festival headlined by Groove Armada, a one-of-a-kind private sommelier and chef lunch at Ahi Restaurant and a spectacular helicopter ride to Waiheke Island where you'll choose to do some gin or wine tastings. You have all these unique experiences organised for you as well as three nights at the five-star The Hotel Britomart on Auckland's harbour. 'Epic' only begins to describe this trip — and that's why numbers for this package are extremely limited. Read on to see why you should make your way to Auckland on November 26. SPRING CITY VIP ZONE Spring City Music Festival hits Auckland on Saturday, November 26. If you book our exclusive package on Concrete Playground Trips, you'll get express lane access into the festival, entry into the Spring City VIP tent, prime viewing to make the most of the festival, as well as access to the VIP bar. No lines, no portaloos and no crowds to navigate. This is a festival done differently. This year, for the festival's return, legendary dance music duo Groove Armada are headlining. You'll have the best reserved standing room to hear fan favourites like "Superstylin" and "At The River" and "Easy". There'll be plenty of other artists at Spring City too, with key performers still to be announced. CHARTERED HELICOPTER WINE OR GIN TASTING After a day of dancing, you'll head off on a helicopter ride across the scenic Hauraki Gulf. Once you've taken in these stunning surrounds, you'll touch down and be taken to your choice of locations – either a winery or gin distillery (choose your own adventure). Those who choose vino will be guided through the olive grove, down to the grape vines, for a unique tasting experience of the finest cabernet blends with the winemaker at Stonyridge Vineyard. You'll then dig into a delicious two-course lunch paired with wine at the restaurant overlooking the vines. Gin lovers are in for a real treat, too. You'll head to Waiheke Distilling Company to enjoy a bespoke distillery tour where you'll have the opportunity to learn, taste and explore Waiheke's hand-crafted spirits. Sample a range of internationally award-winning gins and vodkas, from the classic to the contemporary, with fresh botanicals being paramount. Top it all off with a delectable two-course lunch paired with wine at the cellar door. Both options are fab. Just choose your booze. AHI PRIVATE SOMMELIER AND CHEF LUNCH But wait, there's more. When creating this trip, we could think of no better restaurant to send you to than the famous Ahi. If you've seen A New Zealand Food Story then you'll already know the backstory behind the new downtown eatery. The eight-part online series follows acclaimed chef Ben Bayly and his team as they set out to discover what local cuisine is all about and where our produce comes from – the end goal being to create a truly unique New Zealand restaurant. And he did just that. The team serves up creative dishes with a strong sustainability ethos each and every day. And you are lucky enough to get a table for lunch. But it ain't just any table – we've reserved the best seats in the house. Expect a kitchen counter experience, with high stools perched right over the chefs working their magic. Indulge in a premium lunch tasting menu alongside world-class matched wines — all carefully selected and created to showcase the best of New Zealand's gourmet offerings. New Zealand's incredible gastronomy will be on full display. ACCOMMODATION We are also putting you up in The Hotel Britomart for three nights. This five-star hotel is one of New Zealand's finest accommodations, with the added bonus of being incredibly sustainable (it is New Zealand's only 5-Green Star hotel). Each of the 99 rooms is designed for tranquil escapism. Think of The Hotel Britomart like an opulent city retreat, lined in natural and sustainably sourced timber. Guest rooms all come with in-built sofas, hand-made ceramics and minibars full of locally sourced treats. Attention to detail is on point. It's the perfect place to return to, following day after day of extraordinary holiday experiences. Book your tickets now, by visiting Concrete Playground Trips.
There's no wrong way to visit a winery, whether you choose to participate in a boozy fun run within the grounds, cycle between a couple of wine-slinging spots, or simply stop by for a few hours, taste some tipples and make a few purchase. Or, you can stay for the night, which isn't a new concept — but one South Australian vineyard is letting folks sleep right next to the vines in a luxury pod. Wineries from Queensland to Victoria boast glamping facilities; however The Vineyard Retreat McLaren Vale now has an Escapod. As the name suggests, it's all about escaping from the hustle and bustle, which is definitely on the agenda in what's essentially a luxury detached cabin right in the heart of the vineyard. Measuring 72 square metres, the pre-fab structure includes an open-plan dining and lounge room, a king-sized bed, an open fire and two small external decks, plus a fully functioning kitchen, a separate bathroom and a storage room. On the mod cons front, it also has the requisite appliances, under-floor heating, reverse-cycle heating and cooling, and automated blinds — although you'll want to keep them open to enjoy the vineyard views. Furthermore, the pod can be connected to the main power or can go off the grid via a solar power battery, rainwater tanks and a wastewater treatment system. Built off-site then brought to the winery, the Escapod can also be moved again in the future if needed. It'll be available for bookings from September — and it's one of two pods destined for the McLaren Vale spot, although just when the second will arrive is yet to be determined. If the pod has you planning a boozy getaway, there's some other good news — more are planned. In total, Escapod is hoping to roll out 20 pods across South Australian sites across the next year. Find the first Escapod at The Vineyard Retreat McLaren Vale, 165 Whitings Road, Blewitt Springs. Visit the retreat website for further details. Via The Lead. Images: The Vineyard Retreat / Escapod.
Even though any Apple smartphone you've ever owned has struggled to survive more than a couple of years, the iPhone itself has just clocked up a whole decade. And Apple marked the occasion in style, launching three new phones, a new Apple watch and a 4K Apple TV, at the new Steve Jobs Theatre in California overnight. First up was the Apple 8 and its 8 Plus counterpart — which are the updates to the iPhone 7. They're pretty impressive, but it's the hotly anticipated iPhone X that breaks new ground — and it's this one that people have been itching to take a squiz at. Apple's calling this little beauty "the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone", claiming it'll "set the path for technology for the next decade". Of course, it doesn't come without its share of cringe-worthy factors. For starters, it's supposedly pronounced 'iPhone ten' which seems a bit contrived. It also comes with a pretty hefty price tag, set to retail at a cool $1579 here in Australia. But it's got some features that might make the cost justified — here's what you need to know. IT'S A TOUGH LITTLE COOKIE Like the iPhone 7 and 8 before it, the iPhone X makes poolside anxiety a thing of the past — it's water and dust resistant, even to a microscopic level. It should also be pretty darn tough, given Apple's used the most durable glass you've ever seen in a smartphone, along with surgical grade stainless steel along the edge. IT'S ALL SCREEN And it's huge. We're talking about a 5.8-inch display that runs from side to side and top to bottom, right into the curves. It's also got the highest resolution of any iPhone ever, clocking in at 2436 x 1125, or 458 pixels per inch. Throw in HDR capabilities and True Tone light sensor technology and you've got yourself some next-level video-viewing. THE HOME BUTTON IS HISTORY Of course, that mega-sized, edge-to-edge screen means the home button has finally been axed. Instead, you'll get to the home screen by simply swiping up from the bottom and move between apps by swiping along the base of the screen. Chat to your old mate Siri by just speaking into your phone, or holding down the new, larger side button. IT CAN RECOGNISE YOUR FACE No joke — we've officially entered an era where facial recognition technology exists on your phone. The iPhone X has ditched the old Touch ID fingerprint system, instead using a new state-of-the-art True Depth Camera System and neural engine to scan and detect your mug, even in the dark. After you set it up to recognise your unique facial map, you'll be able to unlock the screen simply by looking at it. Apple even reckons the technology is smart enough to adapt as your face changes over time. FACE ID MEANS YOU'LL BE ABLE TO BECOME AN EMOJI Namely, access to a bunch of augmented reality experiences. Apple's already teamed up with Snapchat on a special series of filters that'll fit perfectly to your own face, using your iPhone's facial scanning technology. The company's also taken its emoji game to new heights, allowing you to customise animated emojis to your own facial expressions, then send them on to your mates as looping videos. IT NOW CHARGES WIRELESSLY First they got rid of the headphone jack (no, it hasn't made a comeback) and Apple are reducing your need for tangled cords even further. Instead of plugging your phone in to charge, you'll be able to place it on an AirPower mat, which will also be able to charge the Apple Watch and AirPods. Of course, you'll have to buy this separately (and it's not available until next year), but Apple's aim is to eventually have the mats readily available in public places like airports, hotels and cafes. The iPhone 7 will be available to order from October 27 and to buy from November 3, right here.
Were you a little underwhelmed with all the tech news this week? A new iPhone or fandangled watch from the future is great and all, but most of us aren't all that up for throwing another $1000 at Apple. If so, here's a little piece of the tech revolution that won't leave you bankrupt (except maybe morally so). The world is about to get it's very first GIF keyboard for iPhones. The upcoming app PopKey will be available for those using the new iOS 8 and will enable users to save, select and send a variety of GIFs in exactly the way they currently use the emoji keyboard. Just like emojis, the GIFs will be organised into different sections. Categories supposedly include 'LOL', 'shocked', 'facepalm' and 'swag'. Basically, your phone will no longer be a means to communicate and articulate yourself with loved ones, it will be an interactive version of Buzzfeed. We have a lot of feels about this. At first we were nerdily excited. Then we remembered how people over-do it with emojis. GIF onslaughts could be a whole new level of crazy. Finally, we realised there's no other option than deleting our younger siblings numbers from our phones completely. But aside from all that, it's a pretty excellent concept. In addition to the library of GIFs you accumulate yourself, the app will update in realtime with those which are currently trending online. This means you'll be the first to know when Jennifer Lawrence or Tina Fey do something quirky, or the internet goes crazy for whatever this creepy thing with Emma Watson was all about. iOS 8 is set to launch on Wednesday, September 17 and PopKey shouldn't be too far behind it. Soon you can test out the technology for yourself. Give up your beloved red salsa lady emoji for a bit of Queen Bey. Let Emma Stone communicate your approval from here on out. Either that or throw your iPhone off a bridge. This is the way of the world now. Via Mashable.
We don't know what you have to do to be considered a 'beach expert', but after Australia's best beaches were revealed this week, we're sure we need to become one. The 2018 list details 101 of the country's most stunning beaches, but the one that's come out on top isn't Bondi or Jervis Bay — it's Nudey Beach. So where the bloody hell is that? It's located on Fitzroy Island, just off the far north Queensland coast. Now, the 'best' beach is obviously a hard one to quantify, but Brad Farmer has done a pretty thorough research job. He's the aforementioned beach expert, and for the release of the 2018 edition of 101 Best Beaches he visited, documented and rated a whole heap of beaches alongside coastal geomorphologist Professor Andy Short, who has personally visited every single beach in Oz (there's 11,761 of them, by the way). Eventually the pair landed on the tropical Nudey as number one. It's obviously insanely beautiful, and the pair have noted it as the best beach of them all due to its surrounding lush rainforest and views of the Cairns hinterland. Plus, for somewhere so special and secluded, it's super accessible — you can get there in 45 minutes on a catamaran from Cairns. Other top beaches are ones you probably haven't heard too much about either — Horrocks Beach north of Perth in WA, Dreamtime Beach at Tweed Heads on the NSW–Queensland border and Dolly Beach on Christmas Island all make the list. Tourist spots Burleigh Heads and Tassie's Bay of Fires get a look in as well. Have a look at the top ten below. BRAD FARMER'S BEST BEACHES IN AUSTRALIA 2018 Nudey Beach, Far North Queensland Horrocks Beach, WA Dreamtime Beach, NSW Cossies Beach, Cocos Keeling Islands Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast, Queensland Seal Rocks, NSW Bay of Fires, Tasmania Quobba, Red Bluff, WA Dolly Beach, Christmas Island Second Valley, SA Neds Beach, Lord Howe Island Image: Chris McLennan/Tourism and Events Queensland.
Both Bret McKenzie and Jemaine Clement will be present when Flight of the Conchords make a long-awaited, eagerly anticipated return to television — as part of a one-off live special filmed during the duo's recent sold-out tour. Announced earlier in 2018, Flight of the Conchords: Live at the London Apollo has now been given a US airdate, with the special screening on HBO in America on Saturday, October 6. As the name really does makes plain, it was recorded in the UK, where Flight of Conchords took their show on the road in March and then returned in late June and early July, following a forced break after McKenzie broke his hand. Yes, it'll be business time, Bowie will be in space and no one will have hurt feelings. Fans can expect to hear the classic tracks that everyone has had stuck in their heads since the folk parody pair's TV series aired between 2007 and 2009, of course, as well as a few new songs. It's also a case of Conchords almost coming full circle, with nabbing a spot on HBO's One Night Stand in the mid-00s one of their big breaks. Just when and where the new special will appear on TVs outside of the US has yet to be revealed, but in the interim, check out the date announcement video featuring McKenzie and Clement: https://www.youtube.com/watch?list=PLZQfnFyelTBOQ15kmHSgEbdjzLMWzZpL7&v=xz_-9PlcouE
Ever wondered what the world would look like if it was run by hipsters? My guess is that tapered mustard chinos would be a mandatory addition to all wardrobes, while fixie bikes would become the sole method of transportation. One blog has put a creative twist on this idea by offering up hipster reworkings of corporate logos. Hipster Branding, a Tumblr that is 'holding up a mirror to the artsy community', presents viewers with a multitude of logos that would look right at home in the upmarket inner-west of Sydney. Colonel Sanders becomes a member of the cultured demographic with Buddy Holly glasses and ironic facial hair, while Mercedes-Benz gets a throwback makeover that's oh-so-retro. Like it or not, hipsters are here in force and inevitably going to take over the world. Soon enough, the logos featured on this blog will become reality as we're overrun by our cigarette-rolling, scarf-wearing, chin-stroking companions. https://youtube.com/watch?v=HR4n6OVoyYQ [Via PSFK]
In an ideal world, every single item necessary to living out of a carry bag would be slimline. So far, mobile devices have it well sorted. But between keys, water bottles and sundry accessories, it's way too easy for everything else to turn into the kind of mad jumble that'd give Detective Scott Turner a heart attack (yep, look 'im up). Instead of moaning about it, an Aussie-US collaboration has decided to take action — on at least one front. They’ve redesigned the water bottle and come up with a slimline, reusable version: the memobottle. Inspired by paper, it’s a rectangular vessel that slides into your carry bag, right next to your laptop or tablet, with such efficiency and style that you hardly notice it’s there. The memobottle team is hoping to revolutionise personal convenience while giving environmental protection a leg-up. Last year alone, more than 50 billion single-use bottles were sold across the planet. In the US, 1,500 or so of them are used and thrown out every second. One of the reasons for this insane waste, according to memobottle’s Kickstarter campaign, is that regular bottles are such a hassle to carry around. But this new invention changes all that. It's made of BPA-free Tritan, which is resilient, durable and dishwasher-friendly. Three sizes – A5, A4 and Letter – are available, allowing you to choose one to fit your bag (and hydration needs). Plus, whether it’s lying flat or standing up, the memobottle is leak-proof. So far, the innovation definitely seems to be hitting the right spot. With five days to go, the Kickstarter campaign has seen more than 5,500 supporters pledge over $232,000 — that’s fifteen times the initial target goal. Via Fast Company.
The Great Australasian Beer Spectapular — better known as just GABS — returns to the Royal Exhibition Building for its eighth year over the weekend of May 18–20. After humble beginnings right here in Melbourne, the festival has now expanded to cover three cities, two countries, and is rightfully considered by most as the best craft beer and cider festival in the Asia Pacific region. Creators Steve Jeffares and Guy Greenstone (The Local Taphouse, Stomping Ground Brewing Co.) have again wrangled up the best breweries from the region and are offering up over 500 brews in all, including 170 festival beers and ciders. These exclusive and often wacky specialty brews are created just for the event and are generally the festival's main draw, giving attendees the rare chance to try brand-spanking new beers while meeting the brewers behind them. This year's festival brews include ingredients like Great Ocean Road snails, crickets and durian, plus a laksa ale from Brothers Brewing, a whisky sour beer from Wayward and an umami beer with miso, soy and seaweed from Morrison Brewing. We've also noticed a specific increase in the use of herbs and botanicals this year. Apart from beer, the event will also play host to the first Holey Moley pop-up course, along with a cocktail bar by Starward Whisky and Four Pillars gin. The much loved 18-metre-high beer Ferris wheel will make its return, as will the usual wandering performances and local food stalls. The weekend-long event is categorised in five sessions, with the season passes to all sessions already sold out. We wish those ticket holders the best of luck.
Rapidly developing technology sees damn great inventions pop up week after week — namely Snapchat’s scary new filters and this killer whale submarine that’ll set you back a cheeky 100k. The flipside of such speedy development comes when all those fully-functional, expensive devices suddenly become clunky and incompatible with new phones and laptops. But Google's come up with a nifty way to make old technology relevant again, your old Bluetooth-less speakers in particular. Paired with this week's release of the new Google Chromecast, Google has come up with a nifty little doodad that acts as a go-between for online tune streaming and old-school audio devices with 3.5mm audio jacks or RCA/optical audio outputs — the bit where your headphones plug in, for those feeling confused. It's called Chromecast Audio, a dongle that allows you to sync your phone to the once defunct speakers via wi-fi. This dinky doodad dongle (we'll stop) looks like a spy device but only costs $35 a pop — but you'll need one for each device you wish to make relevant. Chromecast Audio is compatible with iOS, Android and most laptops and can stream tunes from Pandora, Google Play Music, Spotify, iHeartRadio and Rdio. Where’s Apple Music, you might ask? We don’t know. Perhaps they fell down the village well on the way to the project signing or perhaps, as BGR suggests, they're just pulling a classic Apple and refusing to work with competitors. No synergy points for you, Apple. Via The Verge.
I’ll never forget my original Magic Mike experience. In a packed cinema of some 750 people, I was one of just nine men, and of those, (probably) the only straight one. After a brief welcome, the film's promoters introduced two male strippers who danced, disrobed and lap-danced their way through the crowd like bejewelled beagles at Customs, singling out the most awkward and uncomfortable with astounding accuracy. Coupled with the trailer, everything seemed in place for a movie designed to entertain everyone but me, and yet — two hours later — I stood both corrected and utterly entertained. Armed with that memory, I approached Magic Mike XXL with a much more open mind, only to once again be surprised by a film whose suggestive marketing, racy trailer and heck, even its name, belied a film of far greater substance and maturity. Magic Mike XXL is not a story about male strippers entertainers, but an old-fashioned road movie about self-discovery and friendship, where it is souls and vulnerabilities — not bodies — that the men are dared to reveal. As it happens, it's also a cracking comedy. The story itself is as scant as a stripper’s costume. Mike (Channing Tatum, whose real life story provided the inspiration for both films), finds himself visited by his old dancing buddies on their way to the annual 4th of July Strippers Convention (yes, it’s a thing). Their former emcee and manager has skipped town with the young star Adam, meaning this is to be their swan song before retiring to whatever 'normal' jobs they can find. Recently single and finding his own furniture business low on the thrills, Mike joins them in the hope of purging his demons and starting life afresh. In some ways, it’s best to think of Magic Mike XXL like a musical, given the way its stars spontaneously burst into dance routines and, this time round, singing (showcasing the talents of both Donald Glover, aka Childish Gambino, and Matt Bomer, whose voice is so remarkable it’s baffling we’ve not been treated to it sooner). Unlike most musicals, however, Magic Mike XXL navigates the almost impossible transition from acting to dancing without it ever feeling forced — the best example also being the film’s standout scene, featuring Joe Manganiello (True Blood) stripping in a gas station to a Backstreet Boys staple for no other reason than to elicit a smile from its store clerk. Funny yet provocative, childish yet heartwarming, it encapsulates everything Magic Mike XXL is about: honest desire, spiritual growth and — most importantly — intimacy. Almost every dance in this film is centred on one woman. Any woman. Every woman. No matter how large the crowd, someone is always singled out and treated to a publicly private performance, "a queen being reminded of her beauty", as Mike’s former flame Rome (played magnificently by Jada Pinkett Smith) puts it. Yes, the dancing is extraordinary (Tatum’s routines in particular are jaw-dropping in their athleticism and eroticism), but just as appealing are the ladies’ reactions — a blend of shock, lust and pure exhilaration that imbue each and every fantasy piece with a genuine sense of realism. There’s more sensuality in this film than fifty Fifty Shades of Greys, yet it never once feels sleazy, instead veering closer to something uplifting and sincere. By all means come for the bodies, but stay for everything else.
Stroll the catwalks of Europe's premiere fashion houses, or get up close and personal with the dying art of men's tailoring, as part of the latest documentary line-up at the Australian Centre for the Moving Image. Presented as part of the cultural leg of Melbourne Spring Fashion Week, ACMI's Fashion on Film program covers all things haute couture. Produced by James Franco during his tenure as the male face of Gucci (because of course that happened), The Director: An Evolution in Three Acts presents a behind-the-scenes look at one of the most influential fashion labels in the world. Première: Ellery in Paris takes viewers from Sydney to Paris with celebrated Australian designer Kym Ellery. While on a more intimate note, Men of the Cloth explores the devotion of three old-school Italian tailors to their disappearing craft.
If you've tried cycling around London, you'll understand why residents are celebrating Mayor Boris Johnson's intention to spend nearly 1 billion pounds on the city's bicycle routes. Double decker buses, cramped alleyways and teetering lorries have made for a 21st-century population explosion in spaces that Dickens described as crowded 150 years ago. The plan's backbone is a 24-kilometre (or 15-mile, as the Poms would say) bicycle highway, which will enable Londoners to cycle from west to east, in a lane (mostly) separated from motorised vehicles. This "bike Crossrail" will be the longest cycle path of its kind to be found in any European city. The aim is to decrease pressure on roads and public transport, improve air quality and increase faith that two wheels can be better than four. In the words of the ever-eloquent Johnson, "I want to de-Lycrafy cycling ... [to] give people the confidence to get in the saddle." Apart from the Crossrail, the vision includes a Central London Grid, which will create links in frenetic areas like the West End and the City; a series of 'Quietways', which are extended, signposted, suburban routes that guide cyclists along tranquil side streets; and a host of semi-segregated and fully segregated lanes. The Dutch commitment to the cultivation of a healthy cycling culture will be emulated through the development of what are being dubbed 'Little Hollands' in a minimum of one, and perhaps as many as three, boroughs. If these cyclist-friendly areas are a success, expansion throughout Outer London is likely. Furthermore, the Safer Intersection Review is about to receive a 500 percent increase in funding, from 19 million to 100 million, which means that some of London's most chaotic junctions — including Elephant and Castle, Blackfriars and Vauxhall — will be treated to improvements. Eight police will be employed to deal exclusively with accidents involving cyclists and heavy goods vehicles. At an April 2012 hustings concerned with cycling and road safety, Johnson lost support from some members of the cycling community after describing "stereotypical cyclists" as those who "charge around in lycra", "jump lights" and consider themselves "morally superior". His new plan is likely to go a long way in healing the damage done. London cycling image by Felix O and Ottawa cycling image by John Talbot.
Hip hop culture, graffiti and architecture combine as one. The Hive apartment, the coolest apartment around, is graffiti inspired and located in Melbourne, the city renowned for its funky, impressive street-art. Designed by the architect Zvi Belling of ITN Architects, the Hive is the first in a series of Hip Hop buildings. Made mostly of concrete, this building symbolises the tumultuous relationship between architecture and graffiti. Whether it appeals to you or disgusts you, graffiti exists and is a common form of art around the world. Belling teamed up with old schoolgraffiti artist, Prowla RDC, to make this unusual, radical and not-so-humble looking abode. Not only is the house inovative and cool, but it is environmentally friendly, too. Fully equipped with solar panels lining the roof, the Hive is a green hip-hop home. Arrows, swooshes, and drips have been incorporated into the concrete walls but the biggest statement of all is the four meters high concrete letters spelling 'hive' across the building. Watch out for ITN's next unconventional design as it is bound to be interesting.
When you've made a movie fictionalising your life, played yourself in it and managed to get Marissa Tomei as your mother, what comes next? After The King of Staten Island, Pete Davidson goes for another arrested development-fuelled comedy, this time in sitcom form. The show: Bupkis, the comedian's latest project following his departure from Saturday Night Live — once again riffing on star's own life, and this time enlisting the one and only Joe Pesci, Tomei's My Cousin Vinny co-star, as his grandfather. Arriving on Binge on Thursday, May 4, this may be Davidson's show — indeed, as the just-dropped trailer demonstrates, it pokes plenty of fun at his life, fame and chaos — but having Pesci among the cast is no minor feat. Since 2010, the iconic Goodfellas, Casino and Raging Bull actor (and Home Alone and Home Alone 2: Lost in New York talent as well) has exactly two on-screen appearances to his name: Martin Scorsese's The Irishman and now Bupkis. Well played, Pesci — if most of us could only roll out of bed for Martin Scorsese and Pete Davidson, we would. In Bupkis, Pesci plays the father of Davidson's mother Amy, which gives the series another tie to a great of the gangster genre: The Sopranos' Edie Falco. From there, the names keep on coming, with guest stars including It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia's Charlie Day, Red Rocket's Simon Rex, Everybody Loves Raymond's Brad Garrett and Ray Romano, Bodies Bodies Bodies' Chase Sui Wonders, SNL's Kenan Thompson, Miracle Workers' Steve Buscemi, Nine Perfect Strangers' Bobby Cannavale, Black Bird's Paul Walter Hauser, Machine Gun Kelly, Jon Stewart, John Mulaney, Al Gore and Method Man. With Day, Garrett and Romano popping up, clearly Davidson likes TV comedies as much as he likes mobster fare — although It's Always Sunny and Everybody Loves Raymond couldn't be further apart. Across eight episodes, Davidson and all that high-profile help will navigate another semi-autobiographical attempt to grapple with celebrity, everything it brings, keeping family ties healthy — and Davidson in general — and trying to forge meaningful bonds. Getting chased by the paparazzi, wielding a glave, life advice from Pesci, looking after a kid, movie stunts, guns and cars, Googling himself, Gore flashing the Wu-Tang hands: they're all included as well. Check out the trailer for Bupkis below: Bupkis streams via Binge from Thursday, May 4. Images: Heidi Gutman/Peacock.
The picnic mecca that is Moonlight Cinema doesn't just show movies outdoors each summer. It does exactly that, obviously, but it's also fond of theming its openair film selection around different parts of its season. So, when it kicked off for summer 2022–23 in November and December, it featured a heap of Christmas fare, naturally. When February hits, it'll be time for love — whether you're heading along with a date or mate. Surrounding both Valentine's Day and Galentine's Day — yes, Leslie Knope would be proud — Moonlight Cinema's just-revealed February program includes a week of romantic pictures spanning new and classic titles. Magic Mike's Last Dance will get a whirl, as will the Lily James (Pam & Tommy)-starring What's Love Got to Do With It. And, if you're fond of movie blasts from the past, perennial favourites 10 Things I Hate About You, The Notebook and Muriel's Wedding are also on the bill, as are the Julia Roberts-led Notting Hill and Pretty Woman. Other highlights include Australian favourites The Castle and Strictly Ballroom among the other retro titles — the latter, from Baz Luhrmann, also getting romantic — as well as repeat sessions of A Man Called Otto, Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre. Because the exact roster varies per city — and because Brisbane and Adelaide's season wraps up mid-February — some venues will also get treated to creepy doll thriller M3GAN, plus sneak-peek sessions of the cinema-loving, Olivia Colman-starring Empire of Light and Bill Nighy drama Living. As always, one piece of advice bears repeating: pack your picnic basket and get ready to watch a heap of flicks under the summer evening sky. Nosh-wise, Moonlight Cinema is letting you bring BYO movie snacks and drinks (no alcohol in Brisbane, though), but the unorganised can also enjoy a plethora of bites to eat from food trucks — perfect, messy treats made for reclining on bean beds. There's also a VIP section for an extra-luxe openair movie experience, a beauty cart handing out samples, and dogs are welcome at all sites except Perth — and there's even special doggo bean beds, and a snack menu for pooches. And, on Sundays in February, Moonlight Cinema will host a Singleton Whisky cart in Melbourne and Sydney. MOONLIGHT CINEMA 2022–23 DATES Brisbane: Thursday, November 24–Sunday, February 19 in Roma Street Parkland Sydney: Thursday, November 24–Sunday, March 26 in Centennial Park Perth: Friday, November 25–Sunday, March 26 in Kings Park and Botanic Garden Adelaide: Thursday, December 1–Sunday, February 19 in Botanic Park Melbourne: Thursday, December 1–Sunday, March 26 in Royal Botanic Gardens Moonlight Cinema runs through until March 2023, with dates varying per city. For more information and to buy tickets, visit the cinema's website — and we'll update you with further program details when they're announced.
Keen on chasing an endless winter, jet-setting to Switzerland's top slopes, and getting there in the most direct way possible? There's an airline for that. Because there's no niche too small these days, Europe now has a carrier dedicated to snow sports in the Swiss Alps. Due to fly its first passengers in December this year, Powdair will make its home base in Sion in the Valais region, near the Swiss resorts of Verbier, Saas-Fee, Crans-Montana, Zermatt and Nendaz. It'll connect to eight European airports, ferrying eager snow lovers from London Luton, London Southend, Bristol, Manchester and Southampton in Britain; Edinburgh in Scotland; Hamburg in Germany; and Antwerp in Belgium, straight to the heart of Switzerland's frosty playground. In an attempt to become the go-to airline for Swiss-venturing snow spots fans, Powdair also boasts free equipment carriage; yep, your skis and snowboard won't be classed as oversized baggage here. They'll also be offering season discounts for eager skiers. And, while their first routes are all focused on making the most of the icy weather, should they prove a hit, the startup plans to offer summer jaunts too — in case you'd like to check out the Alps in greener circumstances. Via: The Independent. Image: Aletsch Arena.
It's been over a decade since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows — Part 2 reached cinema screens, wrapping up the big-screen story about a certain Boy Who Lived. But, to the delight of wannabe wizards and witches everywhere, the franchise hasn't faded away. The Fantastic Beasts films have kept it alive in cinemas, and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child has done the same on the stage. Also, Harry Potter events have been a common occurrence, and dedicated stores sling merchandise related to the saga. For a few years, another addition to the wizarding realm has been rumoured: a TV series. There was a reunion special for the movies back in 2022, to celebrate ten years since they concluded, but word has persisted that all things HP would eventually accio up a spot on streaming. Those reports are swirling again, with Bloomberg breaking the news that a deal is apparently close. Also, it revealed that said show would remake the story that everyone has already seen on the big screen, with each season focusing on a different book. The details are still scarce, however, and nothing has been officially confirmed. So, who it'll star, who'll be guiding it behind the scenes and when it'll release are all obviously yet to be announced. That said, the idea is that HBO Max, the channel's streaming service, and Warner Bros would make a show that can go further in-depth into each of the novel's storylines — because movies can only cover so much. That means a return to Hogwarts, and obviously new faces playing Harry, Hermione, Ron and company. This is really a case of when, not if. The Lord of the Rings, Star Wars and the Marvel Cinematic Universe have all made the leap to streaming, after all. And no huge pop culture phenomenon ever truly disappears these days, so the Harry Potter realm is bound to reappear — if not with this project, then something else down the line. There's clearly no trailer for this Harry Potter series as yet, but you can check out the trailer for the very first film below: The Harry Potter TV series doesn't yet have a release date — we'll update you if and when more details are announced. Via Bloomberg.
The giggliest time of the year is back this month, as the Melbourne International Comedy Festival kicks off its 2023 instalment in a blaze of witty punchlines. Descending on the city from Wednesday, March 29–Sunday, April 23, this year's fest is set to serve up more than 600 shows, guaranteeing a huge month of laughs. The fun kicks off with the famed Opening Night Comedy Allstars Supershow, this year hosted by the internationally acclaimed Hannah Gadsby at the Palais Theatre and featuring a jam-packed lineup of hilarious guests. Other big-ticket highlights to follow include the national grand final of esteemed open mic competition RAW Comedy; Upfront's one-night showcase of stereotype-smashing female and non-binary comics; and the Deadly Funny National Grand Final, which is set to spotlight the country's funniest First Nations talent. As always, MICF will see comedic heroes flying in from all corners of the globe, taking the stage for sidesplitting solo shows and special events alike. Among them are celebrated British stars like Paul Foot, Carl Donnelly, Josie Long and Rosie Jones, plus Irish funnymen David O'Doherty and Dylan Moran, Emmy Award-winning US stand-up artist Sara Schaefer, Icelandic icon Ari Edljárn and Glasgow's Larry Dean. Homegrown heroes pack out the program, with big-name guests aplenty — Tripod, Claire Hooper, Lawrence Mooney, Kirsty Webeck, Wil Anderson, Akmal, Rhys Nicholson and Alex Ward are all there, along with the likes of Lano & Woodley, Dilruk Jayasinha, Osher Günsberg doing Night Time News Network National News, Dave Thornton, Diana Nguyen and stacks more. Of course, the rising stars of Aussie comedy will also get a huge look-in across the month, with MICF offering loads of opportunity for punters to scout out fresh talent. Check out the next generation of comic geniuses with a show at Comedy Zone, or stick closer to home and get your comedy kicks at one of the famed Neighbourhood Sessions. Meanwhile, Best of Comedy Zone Asia will deliver a lineup of emerging and celebrated talent from across Malaysia, India, Singapore and more. And, Headliners is set to dish up a hilarious taste of the US comedy circuit, featuring The Lucas Brothers, Patti Harrison, Sheng Wang and Shalewa Sharpe. [caption id="attachment_849381" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Jim Lee[/caption] Melbourne International Comedy Festival will take over venues across the city from Wednesday, March 29–Sunday, April 23. See the full program and grab tickets over at the website. Top image: Jim Lee.
The Back to the Future franchise has pinned this decade all too well. In the next development of unbelievably futuristic sounding technology, Google-backed company Kitty Hawk released the first video footage of its flying car prototype yesterday, April 24. Yeah, Doc Brown's Delorean just got real. The company is financially backed by Google co-founder Larry Page and its chief executive Sebastian Thrun, is the founder of Google's 'semi-secret' X lab and a pioneer of the self-driving car. The 'Kitty Hawk Flyer' is described as an "all-electric aircraft" designed to operate over water. The open-seated, 220-pound single seater is powered by eight battery-powered propellers — it essentially resembles a mix between a jetski and a hoverboard, seemingly powered by what looks like a bunch of mini-drones. It will not require a pilot's license to fly, as it is considered an "ultralight aircraft" by FAA regulations, and Kitty Hawk claims drivers will be able to learn how to operate the vehicle "in minutes". Here's the just-dropped intro video, with requisite cheesy inspirational music and somewhat shitty acting: The company is trying to attract enthusiasts to test-drive the vehicle by offering a $100 three-year membership that includes waiting list priority, company-branded gear, flight simulator access and invites to company events and demonstrations. Members will also get a $2000 discount once the car does go to retail. Kitty Hawk is not the first company to attempt the flying car feat, with the Slovakian company AeroMobil making their flying vehicle available for pre-order by the end of 2017 and the aerospace firm Airbus releasing plans for its ground-air hybrid car at the Geneva International Motor Show last month. The government of Dubai, in partnership with a Chinese firm, EHang has also released plans to begin operating flying taxis by July 2017 and Uber is holding a conference in Texas on Tuesday to discuss details of their own "urban-air transportation" vehicle. Though the car is said to be in consumer production by the end of the year, no retail price has been given yet. As of now, the vehicle will only be shipped within the US, so Australians will have to wait a bit longer for a ride. Via The New York Times.
2024's working year might've only just begun, but it's already time to book in a big overseas holiday. Put in that leave request ASAP. Block out your calendar. Bust out your suitcase, too, and make sure your passport is up to date. Your destination: the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California, because Coachella is back for 2024 with a characteristically impressive roster of acts. Mark Friday, April 12–Sunday, April 14 and Friday, April April 19–Sunday, April 21 in your diaries — including if you you're just keen to check out the livestream. (Remember, Coachella was livestreaming its sets long before the pandemic.) The full bill is a jaw-dropper, as usual, with Lana Del Rey headlining the Friday nights, Tyler, The Creator doing the Saturday nights and Doja Cat on Sunday nights. Also, the reunited No Doubt are on the bill, but without a set day so far. Also hitting the stage: a stacked array of acts that also spans everyone from Blur, Ice Spice, J Balvin and Peso Pluma to Sabrina Carpenter, Grimes, Lil Yachty and Flight Facilities. Whether you're after new tunes, the biggest music names right now or dripping nostalgia, it's on offer at Coachella 2024. Anyway, let's be honest, you haven't truly read any of those words — you'll be wanting this: View this post on Instagram A post shared by Coachella (@coachella) For music lovers planning to watch along from home, Coachella will once again team up with YouTube to livestream the festival. That's no longer such a novelty in these pandemic times but, given the calibre of Coachella's lineup, it's still a mighty fine way to spend a weekend. For those eager to attend in-person, you can signup for access to tickets over at the festival's website — with pre-sales starting at 11am PT on Friday, January 19 (aka 5am AEST/6am AEDT on Saturday, January 20). At the time of writing, the festival advises that best bet for passes is the second weekend. Coachella 2024 runs from Friday, April 12–Sunday, April 14 and Friday, April April 19–Sunday, April 21 at the Empire Polo Club in Indio, California. Find out more information and register for tickets at coachella.com — with pre-sales starting at 11am PT on Friday, January 19 (aka 5am AEST/6am AEDT on Saturday, January 20). Top image: Casey via Wikimedia Commons.
UPDATE: FEBRUARY 3, 2020 — Get ready to belt out 'Great Southern Land' and 'Electric Blue' when Icehouse return to St Kilda Festival. Performing a show entitled 'Icehouse Plays Flowers', the pub-rock legends will nod to their first performance at the free beachside festival back in 1980, when the group was named Flowers. If you're a fan of tasteful tunes and exuberant summer vibes that don't bruise the budget, the annual St Kilda Festival should be at the top of your summer bucket list. The nation's largest free music festival turns 40 this year, and returns to St Kilda's foreshore for a blowout celebration. You can expect multiple stages of live music, a tonne of food and market stalls, and interactive workshops stretching from Catani Gardens to the south end of Acland Street. As well as banging tunes, the air will be filled with the scent of delicious eats emanating from more than 100 food vendors. There'll be everything from curry to burgers, ribs and sushi — providing plenty of sustenance for all that dancing. You'll also need energy if you plan on attending one of the festival's free activities, which include bubble soccer, disco yoga and Latin dance workshops. The free fun begins just after 10am and runs well into the night. The 2020 extravaganza features more than 50 bands and DJs representing the diverse spectrum of Australian talent. On the main stage, you'll be dancing through the decades with Hot Dub Time Machine, bopping to pop duo Busby Marou and swaying to The Kite String Tangle. You'll also be partying to the seven-piece Horns of Leroy and Thando over at the Alfred Square Stage; singing along with hip hop artist Dallas Woods and Teenage Dads at the Fitzroy Street Stage; dancing with 15-strong girl group The Rebelles and Yergurl at the O'Donnell Gardens Stage; and, yes there's more, soaking up the sounds of First Nations artist Bumpy and singer Pirritu at the Little Catani Stage. You can check out the full lineup over here. Images: Nathan Doran
Google's glasses may be set to bring our eyes back up from the tiny screen, but until then we're happily on the path towards having a permanent earthbound gaze. It is no wonder then that our love for the portable, digital universe has caught the imagination of publishers seeking to enhance the quality of our heads-down attention. Enter Branches Publishing and their freshly sprouted, digital-only anthology of new Australian writing, Cuttings. Having budded from arts app composers The Nest, Branches Publishing launches with a well-designed experience for electronic letter lovers. Cuttings Issue Zero is now available for free on Apple and Android tablets and what you'll download is a time capsule about Australian life in 2013. Editors Angela Bennetts and Alice Fenton (of Even Books) have ensured that this memorial contains the right balance of humour and solemnity from a local suite of talented posteritists*, all presented with wit by senior designer Dave Fernandes. Every work in Issue Zero is shorter than a Borges and kept to its own page (there will be longer pieces from Issue One onwards in May), which is great news for the scrambled brains of overloaded content junkies. Some pieces are presented as contemporary artefacts, such as Sophie Braham's '2012 Job Description', which efficiently captures the plight of every 20/30-something in a 20km radius. Other works act as framing text for a series of curated hyperlinks — Wilfred Brandt's hypothesis of skateboarding as alien technology and Steph Harmon's historiography of dog fashion both succeed as tap-and-swipe pecha kucha equivalents. A result of these short pieces occupying their own pages is that your reading slows down. Your eyes will not melt from the fatigue of gleaning conversation pieces out of cluttered content sewers, and in turn you'll calm down enough to actually meditate on the world observed by Cuttings' contributors. This is a world populated by M.B. Windle's graphic epiphany about Hollywood's lies, Tessa Lunney's nostalgic dancers, and Max Lavergne's suggestion of what might happen should a savvy Mexican girl be dropped into the West Bank. Fernandes and the contributing illustrators and photographers have equally crafted something poetic. Cuttings is attractive in both landscape and portrait, and each piece is augmented by an interface design that reminds readers that they're looking at a tablet and not a print article with some hyperlinks. Two lovely visual effects pop up, for example, in A.H. Cayley's meditation on how ineffectual jacarandas are as barometers, and in Cleo Braithwaite's sketch of impending feline dominion. One slight tarnish is that as several of the articles are hyperlink-enhanced, you will need an active internet connection on your tablet to gain the full experience of Cuttings. Though copyright does make it difficult to include certain things in the downloaded content — such as a Taylor Swift video clip — Matt Roden's fantastic illustrations are bundled with the issue and pop up within the body of his words with an elegance that could ideally appear throughout the whole publication. That said, Cuttings has launched with an auspicious debut and stands to only gain in quality as it opens its submissions to a horde of head-bowed Australian talent. *this will be a real word when the time capsule is unearthed
Melbourne's northeast is on track to score a huge retail boom, now that a $500 million redevelopment of Westfield Doncaster shopping centre has been given the green light by the state government. The project will include a hefty expansion of the existing site, with a gateway building towering at up to 14 storeys, an extra 43,000 square metres of retail offerings, and another 18,000 square metres of office space. A new two-level podium of premium retail stores is also part of the redevelopment plans, which come as the centre prepares to celebrate its 50th year of operation. Once complete, the shopping centre will boast improved car and pedestrian access, a stack of extra car parks and an expanded bus interchange set-up. Which is quite necessary as trains don't service the area. Now that the project has been given the tick of approval by Minister for Planning Richard Wynne, following extensive community feedback, developers are set to lodge a planning permit for the first stage of works. According to Scentre Group Director of Development and Asset Management Stewart White, this part will be focused on boosting the existing specialty fashion, dining and entertainment, as well as creating a new health and wellness offering. In the meantime, the food precinct currently next to Westfield Doncaster cinema will undergo an extensive upgrade, which will include the addition of new restaurants and a new landscaped al fresco area. The specific restaurants haven't been announced yet, but construction for this is set to kick off in the coming months. Plans for the supercharged shopping precinct come off the back of January figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which showed Victorians had dropped a record $78.9 billion on retail sales over the previous year. With the upgrade, Westfield Doncaster will be hoping to compete with newer, and bigger, shopping complexes around town. Chadstone recently welcomed a multimillion-dollar dining and retail centre, and its $130 million luxury hotel, MGallery by Sofitel, is slated to open there by the end of this year. And Burwood Brickworks — which, topped with an urban farm, is set to be Australia's 'most sustainable' shopping centre — will open sometime this year, too. Westfield Doncaster will remain open as usual at 619 Doncaster Road, Doncaster for now. Work will only commence once a planning permit has been submitted and approved. We'll let you know where there are any updates.
It's been a huge few weeks for Australian tour news — Kraftwerk! Meredith! Strawberry Fields! This That! Summer Camp! Paul McCartney! Harvest Rock! Pendulum! Flight Facilities! Weezer! Beyond The Valley! Field Day! Bluesfest! — but only one big announcement can whip it, whip it good. When Good Things returns for 2023, it'll hit Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane with new-wave icons Devo on the bill. The 'Girl U Want' band will be celebrating 50 years since first forming in 1973, and also saying goodbye on a farewell tour that'll mark their last-ever Australian shows. Devo's famous energy dome hats will be on display at Centennial Park, Flemington Racecourse and Brisbane Showgrounds this December, on a jam-packed Good Things lineup that is brimming with nostalgia-inducing acts — including Fall Out Boy. A day after teasing that they were heading Down Under, the group behind 'Sugar, We're Goin Down' and 'Uma Thurman' have been confirmed as festival headliners, playing both tunes dating back to their 2000s heyday and recent tracks. From there, Good Things keeps rollin', rollin', rollin', rollin' with Limp Bizkit; will see Slipknot frontman Corey Taylor hit the stage solo; and is guaranteed to burst with punk energy thanks to Pennywise. Bullet for My Valentine, Taking Back Sunday and I Prevail are also on the bill, plus Enter Shikari, Pvris, Behemoth and Sepultura. Fresh from featuring a reunited TISM in 2022, Good Things boasts a packed roster of local names in 2023, too, celebrating Australian alternative rock with Spiderbait, Frenzal Rhomb, Jebediah and Eskimo Joe. On both the international and homegrown front, the list goes on, including Hanabie, While She Sleeps, Magnolia Park, Short Stack, Boom Crash Opera, Luca Brasi and more. And yes, this is a fest where you can likely hear 'Whip It', 'Dance, Dance', 'Society' and 'Buy Me a Pony' live on the same day, plus 'The Last Fight', 'Leaving Home', 'Punch in the Face' and a very non-George Michael cover of 'Faith' as well. GOOD THINGS 2023 LINEUP: Fall Out Boy Limp Bizkit Devo (The Farewell Tour celebrating 50 years) I Prevail Bullet For My Valentine Corey Taylor Pennywise Spiderbait Slowly Slowly Enter Shikari Behemoth Sepultura Taking Back Sunday PVRIS Bloom Boom Crash Opera Eskimo Joe Frenzal Rhomb Hanabie Jebediah Luca Brasi Magnolia Park Make Them Suffer Ocean Sleeper Royal & The Serpent Short Stack Slaughter To Prevail Stand Atlantic Tapestry The Plot In You While She Sleeps GOOD THINGS 2023 DATES: Friday, December 1 — Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne Saturday, December 2 — Centennial Park, Sydney Sunday, December 3 — Brisbane Showgrounds, Brisbane Good Things will hit the Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane in December 2023. Pre-sale tickets go on sale from 10am, Tuesday, August 22, and general sales from 10am on Thursday, August 24. Head to the festival website for more info and to register for pre-sales. Top image: swimfinfan via Wikimedia Commons.
Head into Lune Croissanterie's Melbourne and Brisbane stores any day of the week, and world-famous pastries await. Also on the menu: limited-time treats that you'll need to be speedy to enjoy. Usually, the Kate Reid co-founded chain swaps out its specials monthly; however, it also likes dropping particularly coveted bites for certain occasions. One such instance: the return of its apple pie twice-baked croissants just for Father's Day. Lune hasn't dropped its full range of September specials at the time of writing, but it has revealed that this one pastry will be back between Friday, September 1–Sunday, September 3 only. Vying to become your dad's favourite? Best your siblings by grabbing him one of these rarities. Fancy one (or more) for yourself? That's 100-percent acceptable as well. The apple pie twice-baked croissants are making a comeback for the first time in years — since Lune was in Elwood in Melbourne, in fact. These days, the chain has sites in Fitzroy, the CBD and Armadale in the Victorian capital, plus South Brisbane and Burnett Lane in Brisbane. (Not one but two Sydney venues are in their works, but not in time for Father's Day). What is an apple pie twice-baked croissant? It's a croissant, obviously, with apple purée and hazelnut frangipane as fillings — and apple pie filling itself, too. Then, on top, it features hazelnut frangipane and hazelnuts, plus whipped cream and coconut streusel. Sadly, if your dad isn't able to eat nuts, or you aren't, you'll need to give it a miss. Lune expects the special to be particularly popular, and recommends arriving early across the apple pie twice-baked croissant's three-day window. You can collect it at all stores for $15 per croissant — and it's an in-store only bite, so it won't be available to order online. [caption id="attachment_735740" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Josie Withers, Visit Victoria.[/caption] Lune's apple pie twice-baked croissants are available from all stores — Fitzroy, the CBD and Armadale in Melbourne, and South Brisbane and Burnett Lane in Brisbane — for $15 from Friday, September 1–Sunday, September 3 only. Images: Peter Dillon.
When you hear the word 'aurora', there are two possible things that pop into your mind. A lot of people will be reminded of fantastical images of the Northern Lights that colour the skies of Scandinavia — they're actually making their way over the UK right now. Then again, many of us will think of nothing other than Superintendent Chalmers yelling 'aurora borealis'. And, in our books, both are satisfactory responses. But what may not cross your mind is the lesser talked about aurora australis — the Southern Lights. Equally as magical and much closer to home, this phenomenal feat of nature may be visible from Australia and New Zealand this week. This Wednesday, NASA reported a huge sun flare that is currently hurtling its way towards Earth. As the ABC report, "the blast has sheared off a few billion tons of the sun's outer layer ... [it's] heading towards Earth at a speed of about 4 million kilometres per hour". And, while this sounds completely terrifying to anyone not well-versed in science, it's apparently a pretty good thing for those watching the skies. Once they arrive at Earth, the remnants of the blast could manifest themselves as beautiful auroras. NASA's already getting a preview of the show: The hot tip so far is to head to Tasmania, and locals are on high alert. Boasting over 14,000 members, the Aurora Australis Tasmania Facebook group is in constant chatter about the best place to see the magical lights and at what time they might strike. Though no definite auroras have been reported so far, the views aren't bad at all. Magaret Sonnemann, founder of the group and published author on the topic, is showing particular faith in the light's arrival. "We haven't seen an event like this for several years and we have no idea when it might occur again," she said. Though the event is incredibly difficult to predict, it's definitely worth keeping your eyes on the sky this week. Views like this would set the bar really high for next year's Dark Mofo. Via ABC. Images: Seabird NZ, 'J', Image Editor, Jonathan Esling Photography via photopin cc.
Spending your days jetting around the world is truly the travel dream. Doing so without paying for flights? Now that's a next-level fantasy. Actually, that's the exact gift that Jetstar is giving one lucky person and their favourite travelling companion to celebrate 19 years of operation. The discount carrier is having a birthday, but it's the one handing out a present. If you're the competition's winner, you'll fill a year zooming about, although there is a limit to how much you can get soaring over the 12-month period. The chosen recipient will receive 12 domestic return flights plus six international return flights, both for two people. So, if you win, your other half / bestie / sibling is going to want to start making holiday plans, too. That equates to three holidays every two months, whether you're keen to hit up your favourite places or try somewhere new. The winner will be able to choose from 86 destinations — and, if you want to be guided by where you would've loved to visit when you were 19, that's perfectly acceptable. Before you can go in the running for the contest, which is only open to over-18s, you will need to start pondering. Jetstar has dubbed the contest 'FEEL 19 AGAIN', and entering requires you to tell the airline in 19 words or less what your absolute dream job be. The specific question: "if you could try any job for a day, what would it be and why?". And yes, plenty of people are bound to answer "travelling the world". After you direct your response to the airline's Instagram, you'll then need to wait to find out if you're chosen as a semi-finalist, which will be revealed on Thursday, June 1. Nineteen folks will get the nod — spot the theme? — and will be picked based on the most creative, funny or quirky answers. They'll then have three days (until 11.59pm on Sunday, June 4) to create and send a short video highlighting why they'd be an ace fit (the best, in fact) for the gig. Following that, Jetstar will shortlist its top entries again, whittling down the contenders. Finally, the company's social-media followers will vote on Monday, June 5. Obviously, you'll want to pick something memorable to stand out. The airline suggests ghost hunting in Adelaide and being a professional mascot in Tokyo, but you can do better than that. Jetstar's 19th-birthday ticket giveaway runs from 6am on Thursday, May 25–11.59pm on Wednesday, May 31. Head to the airline's website and Instagram for further details. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
Sydney has had some fun with Mexican spirits this month and the revelry is set to continue when Surry Hills' Tio's Cerveceria brings its Mezcal Mini-Fest to Melbourne for the first time. Smith Street eatery Hotel Jesus will host the festivities on Sunday, March 25. The evening will celebrate the smoky agave spirit that — despite popular assumption — is more akin to whisky than tequila. It all kicks off from 4pm with a two-hour tasting session where you can try over 50 notable mezcals. The tasting is free so we recommend heading there early to secure a spot at the bar. The merriment continues from 6pm when the kitchen starts doling out tacos and DJs hit the decks. And a special drinks list put together by Tio's Hotel Jesus and Mamasita will help you wash it all down. Image: Carmen Zammit.
Great news, fans of LGBTQIA+ cinema: Mardi Gras Film Festival organiser Queer Screen is back with its second cinema celebration of 2023. That happens every year, but it's only been recently that the Sydney-based outfit's two fests both stream online — and nationally. So, getting cosy on the couch while watching your way through this year's Queer Screen Film Fest is 100-percent on the agenda between Wednesday, August 23–Sunday, September 3. Whether you're a Sydneysider with too heaving a social calendar to hit the picture palace in-person or you live outside of the Harbour City, a feast of new queer highlights and retrospective standouts awaits. Must-sees include the Berlin-set Drifter; the AIDS in Hollywood-focused Commitment to Life; and Equal the Contest, which follows regional women's Australian rules football team Mount Alexander Falcons in an exploration of the barriers still faced for women and gender-diverse people on the field. Gay, sapphic, and trans and gender-diverse shorts sessions are also streaming. And those retro titles? They span Anchor & Hope, about a trio's complicated relationship; German coming-of-age romance Centre of My World; rom-com Nina's Heavenly Delights, focusing on a woman reuniting with her Indian family in Scotland; and the southern Chile-set The Strong Ones.
One of the best pieces of Nicolas Cage news of 2023 has come to fruition, and your 2024 must-see list is likely to benefit. Back in May, word arrived that the inimitable actor was hopping from playing himself in 2022's The Unbearable Weight of Massive Talent and then Dracula in this year's Renfield to becoming an Australian surfer in a film called, fittingly, The Surfer. Production has now wrapped on the movie's shoot — and the flick will land in cinemas and on streaming sometime in the future. There's no release date for Cage's Aussie stint as yet, nor a trailer, but there is a first-look image of the actor looking bloody in a car with the sun streaming in, binoculars around his neck and a bullet in his hand. Stan, which is behind the movie, has also dropped more details about the picture that adds to Cage's resume — slotting in alongside everything from crooning Elvis songs in David Lynch's Wild at Heart to having everyone see him when they slumber in Dream Scenario. [caption id="attachment_901588" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Gerald Geronimo via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] The Surfer sadly isn't the only Point Break remake that needs to be made (forget the terrible 2015 do-over). Rather, it sees Cage star as an Australian expat returning home from America, then getting in a beach battle with a local gang of wave riders. Cage's titular character makes the trip Down Under after years in the US, only to get humiliated by other surfers in front of his teenage son. Cue a turf war, plus Cage's protagonist refusing to leave the beach. Cue the stakes escalating and the movie's namesake having his sanity tested, too. [caption id="attachment_901587" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Guillaume Paumier via Wikimedia Commons[/caption] The film shot in Yallingup in Western Australia, just in the single location, with director Lorcan Finnegan (Vivarium) helming and working with a script by screenwriter Thomas Martin. Featuring alongside Cage: an Aussie cast that spans Julian McMahon (FBI: Most Wanted), Nicholas Cassim (The Messenger), Miranda Tapsell (The Artful Dodger), Alexander Bertrand (Australian Gangster), Justin Rosniak (Mr Inbetween), Rahel Romahn (Here Out West), Finn Little (Yellowstone) and Charlotte Maggi (Summer Love). While we wait for the trailer for The Surfer, check out the sneak peek for Dream Scenario, Cage's next film in cinemas Down Under, below: The Surfer doesn't yet have an in-cinema or streaming release date — we'll update you when one is announced. Top image: Radek Ladczuk.
It’s time to get crafty Melburnians, the clever clogs behind Sydney’s Work-Shop are setting up their new home in Fitzroy. Work-Shop is a community-focused organisation that run short classes and courses in life skills and alternative art, and they’re all about unleashing your unrealised inner awesome. The eclectic range of classes are affordable, inspiring and tailor-made for those of us who are time poor but want to add a new or obscure skill to our repertoire. Classes running in Sydney at the moment include 'Flirt Academy', 'Write Songs Like John Lennon', 'Drink Like Don Draper: Whisky Tasting' and 'Etsy Masterclass: Fashion Illustration In Watercolour'. Intrigued? They've even run terrarium get-togethers. The Melbourne Work-Shop crew are setting up at Juddy Roller Studios and they're keen to get the ball rolling, with the first classes to begin in as early as September. Work-Shop also recently brought their unbridled creativity to Splendour in the Grass for a few classes between main stage sets. But maybe you've got some sweet skills already. Not only can you attend the classes of Work-Shop, you can also run them. The team are currently looking for teachers who are passionate about their craft — whether you're a particularly boss macrame master or know your uses of thyme and coriander like no one else. In Sydney, Work-Shop has worked with teachers from Etsy, Canon Australia, Young Henrys and The Planthunter, so if you’re making a bit of a name for yourself in what you love doing, shoot the team an e-mail at hello@work-shop.com.au. From bangle-making to magic tricks, there's a niche (and an audience) for every endeavour. Update Sept 1: Work-Shop Melbourne officially kicks off with Terrarium Making led by Candy Sparkles on Monday, September 8. Also look out for Tea Ceremony classes by Storm in a Teacup, Illustration with Daniel O'Toole (aka EARS), Typo Swearing with Old School New School and Pure '80s Jazzercise with Clarissa. Images from Work-Shop
