Come Friday, May 5, 2023's Archibald Prize winner will be unveiled. Whoever emerges victorious, the award's just-announced finalists have already made history. This is Australia's most prestigious portrait prize, is now in its 102nd year and hands out $100,000 to its annual winner. And, it took until this year for more women than men to be make the final list of contenders. In total, 949 entries were received, with 57 artists named as finalists. They include 30 by women and 27 by men. One such piece: Packing Room Prize recipient Clown Jewels, a portrait of New Zealand-born comedian Cal Wilson painted by Perth-born, Cairns-based artist Andrea Huelin — who picked up the gong with her first Archibald Prize entry. [caption id="attachment_898390" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Packing Room Prize 2023 winner, Andrea Huelin 'Clown jewels', oil on board, 120.2 x 120.1 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter. Sitter: Cal Wilson.[/caption] The Packing Room Prize is picked by three members of the Art Gallery of New South Wales' packing room team, hence the name: Timothy Dale, Monica Rudhar and Alexis Wildman in 2023. "Andrea's work jumped out at us as soon as it arrived. The bright colours really popped, and we immediately recognised Cal as a familiar face," said Wildman. "Cal's been such a mainstay on Australian television for two decades. We love the interesting pose and unique headwear and, in the tradition of the Packing Room Prize, Andrea's painting looks like Cal! This is a great, joyful portrait of someone who has brought so much laughter to Australia." [caption id="attachment_898395" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Packing Room Prize 2023 winner Andrea Huelin 'Clown jewels', featured with prize judges (left to right) Tim Dale, Monica Rudhar and Alexis Wildman, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales, photo © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Diana Panuccio.[/caption] "Being a finalist is everything I could have hoped for. Winning the Packing Room Prize is simply gobsmacking," advised Huelin. "I was inspired to paint Cal because her Instagram posts modelling her brilliant homemade headpieces on her makeshift stage made me laugh out loud. Her poses reminded me of my sister and me making ourselves laugh by pulling funny faces in the mirror as kids and I could tell we share a similar sense of humour. I posted a congratulatory comment and Cal wrote back and admired my paintings, so I asked if she'd sit for a portrait." "Cal brought her creativity and imagination to the sitting, as well as a suitcase full of headpieces and outfits. Because I'm a still life painter, I thought the headpieces were a great way for me to incorporate a still life element into the portrait. The formal portrait mocks the 19th-century style in which women were once painted, while capturing her cheeky expression and sparkly headpiece, which is actually just arts and crafts," Huelin continued. [caption id="attachment_898394" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Archibald Prize 2023 finalist, Matt Adnate 'Echoes of a teenage superstar', spray paint and acrylic on linen, 198 x 198 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter. Sitter: Daniel Johns.[/caption] Alongside Clown Jewels, 2023's finalists include portraits of plenty of famous faces, Claudia Karvan, Sam Neill, Archie Roach, Noni Hazlehurst and Daniel Johns included. The latter comes courtesy of muralist Matt Adnate, and also marks his first Archibald entry. If you'd like to see all of the above, and the rest of 2023's finalists, they'll all be on display at the Art Gallery of NSW in Sydney from Saturday, May 6–Sunday, September 3. And, they'll have company from works shortlisted for the venue's similarly coveted Wynne and Sulman prizes. The Wynne received 726 entries, with 41 named as finalists, while the Sulman received 673 entries, naming 45 as final contenders. [caption id="attachment_898396" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Archibald Prize 2023 finalist, Anh Do 'Seeing Ruby', oil on linen, 240.4 x 200.3 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter. Sitter: Archie Roach.[/caption] In total, 2348 works tried their luck across the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes, making this year's pool the second largest ever, beaten only by 2020's. And, 2023 notched up another history-making stat: the highest-ever total number of entries by Aboriginal artists across the three prizes. Speculation about who will be awarded the coveted Archibald Prize — and, more often than not, the Archibald winner itself — usually causes much-heated debate. From 2018's five-time Archibald finalist Yvette Coppersmith's first win to Tony Costa's 2019 victory with his painting of fellow artist Lindy Lee — the first portrait of an Asian Australian to pick up the prize — it's hard a prize to pick. All that's really assured is that it'll be a portrait of a person by an Australian-based artist. [caption id="attachment_898397" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Archibald Prize 2023 finalist, Laura Jones 'Claudia (the GOAT)', oil and acrylic on canvas, 198.2 x 152.6 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter. Sitter: Claudia Karvan.[/caption] In 2020, Vincent Namatjira's portrait of Adam Goodes did the honours, and also marked the first time the award has gone to an Indigenous artist. In 2021, Peter Wegner's portrait of fellow artist Guy Warren nabbed the gong. And in 2022, it was Blak Douglas' portrait of artist Karla Dickens in the Lismore floods that came out on top. Whoever earns the nod for 2023's Archibald, there's still another award up for grabs afterwards. If you don't agree with the judges, you can cast your own vote for People's Choice, which will be announced on Wednesday, August 9. [caption id="attachment_898398" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Archibald Prize 2023 finalist, James Powditch 'Sam I Am', acrylic on paper and board, 200 x 240 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter. Sitter: Sam Neill.[/caption] ARCHIBALD PRIZE 2023 DATES: Art Gallery of NSW, Sydney, NSW — May 6–September 3, 2023 Mornington Peninsula Regional Gallery, Victoria — September 15–November 5, 2023 South East Centre for Contemporary Art, Bega, NSW — November 18, 2023—January 7, 2024 Goulburn Regional Art Gallery, NSW — January 19–March 10, 2024 Hawkesbury Regional Gallery, NSW — March 15–April 28, 2024 Tamworth Regional Gallery, NSW — May 11–June 23, 2024 Glasshouse Port Macquarie, NSW — July 5–August 18, 2024 If you can't make it to any of the above dates, you can check out the award winners and finalists of the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman prizes on the Art Gallery of NSW website. Top image: Excerpt of Packing Room Prize 2023 winner, Andrea Huelin 'Clown jewels', oil on board, 120.2 x 120.1 cm © the artist, image © Art Gallery of New South Wales, Jenni Carter. Sitter: Cal Wilson.
For the past five years, Pierre Roelofs and his team have taken over Café Rosamond on Thursday nights to create a new three-course dessert menu each week. While this isn’t a particularly new event on Melbourne’s culinary scene, it is undoubtedly a popular one, and one that is close to finishing forever. The very last Dessert Evening will be on December 18, but you absolutely shouldn’t wait until the eleventh hour to sample the goods. As well as the three courses, Roelofs also throws in a 'dessert tube' which can range from anything to Snickers-flavoured to Eton Mess. To get those taste buds tingling, last week’s menu included flavour combinations such as grape, oat, orange and passionfruit; spiced apple, custard and coconut; bubblegum, strawberry and vanilla. Intrigued? Salivating? You should be. To book a table, grab five of your sweet-tooth mates for a night of decadence, or you can try your luck as a walk-in if you haven’t quite got the numbers. We can't think of a better way to spend four hours (and a mere $50) on a Thursday night. See you there.
Just because you haven't got a big Greek family of your own, that doesn't mean that you have to miss out on the fun (and fine food) of a classic Greek Easter celebration. On Sunday, April 24, St Kilda's Stokehouse restaurant is marking the Orthodox Easter season with a festive dinner to remember, spiked with plenty of traditional flavours and a few modern twists. Joining Executive Chef Jason Staudt in the kitchen will be seafood king Matt Germanchis from Anglesea's Fish by Moonlite, so you can expect plenty of ocean-fresh elements starring throughout the evening's menu. It's set to be a truly share-friendly spread, with bookings available for large tables, at a cost of $160 per person. Gather the family or a few mates and get your tastebuds ready for dishes like charred Murray cod with rice and avgolemono (Greek lemon soup), slow-cooked lamb shoulder and Andean potatoes finished with an oregano brulee. And, for dessert, Pastry Chef Ash Smith will unveil his own riff on the traditional Greek Easter red eggs (or kokkina avga). For a special Easter addition this year, Pontoon will be getting involved just downstairs at St Kilda Beach. If you're after a more casual celebration, there'll will be an array of Fish x Moonlite's signature dishes to enjoy at the bar and eatery. Expect smaller eats such as potato cakes with taramasalata, fried calamari with skordalia, and a limited edition orange and ouzo sorbet — and live music from 4pm.
What Melbourne Music Week would be complete without a gig in a top-secret warehouse somewhere? The Lost Children's Project will be setting up their stage, along with a pop-up dining space and a stocked bar filled with Thunder Road Brewing Company and Starward Whisky. The Lost Children's Project supports African children and communities in need, and all profits from the evening will go towards building and running a children's refuge and education centre in Kenya. So the more you spend on making it a great night, the more money you will be contributing to a good cause. The lineup is absolutely gangbusters too, with Worlds End Press headlining the shindig, as well as performances from Tiny Little Houses, The Hounds Homebound, Neighbourhood Youth, Little Shock and Foreign National.
What's better than one queer-focused film festival each year? Two, of course. That's always been the motto of the the Sydney-based Queer Screen, which puts together the Mardi Gras Film Festival during the first half of every year and then gives cinephiles the Queer Screen Film Fest to close out the annual calendar. Two fests are still on the agenda in 2021 — but, after MGFF paired in-cinema sessions with an online program, QSFF will only be screening online. Running from Thursday, September 16–Sunday, September 26, the latter is popping up while Sydney is in lockdown, so you'll have plenty of viewing options from your couch. And, it'll be playing virtually nationally, letting fans of LGBTIQA+ flicks tune in Australia-wide. More than 40 films are on the bill, spanning new highlights and a few favourites that've graced Queer Screen's two fests in previous years. Among movies from 17 countries and in 18 languages, new standouts include François Ozon's 80s-set Summer of 85, about a two teens and their summer fling; Taiwanese drama Dear Tenant, which explores the experience of being a gay man in the country today; Lola, an award-winner that focuses on a trans girl and her estranged father on a trip to the Belgian coast; and A Sexplanation, which ponders the stigma that still surrounds talking about sexuality. And, from the past standouts, lesbian rom-com Signature Move, Germany's acclaimed Free Fall and Wild Nights with Emily, about poet Emily Dickson, all feature.
"Weird", "inscrutable" and "alienating". These are just a few of the words you'll find when googling Biophilia, the eighth studio album of Icelandic singer Björk. And those are just the positive reviews. It's hardly surprisingly then that her newly released concert film is every bit as bizarre as her music. Part live performance, part abstract nature doco and part Space Odyssey-style psychedelic mindfuck, Biophilia Live isn't exactly the sort of movie you'd want to watch on any regular sort of basis — not without the assistance of mind-altering chemicals, anyway. Still, as a one-off big-screen experience, it's definitely a trip. The film begins with a narrated introduction by the voice of science himself, Britain's national treasure David Attenborough. With perfect enunciation, he welcomes us to Biophilia, describing it as the intersection of nature and technology. It's all a bit grandiose, particularly given that the film consists primarily of Björk lurching around a stage in a frizzy orange afro and bulbous rubber dress. Is the outfit meant as a critique of the unrealistic expectations of female beauty? Perhaps. Or maybe she just really likes clowns. In front of a sold-out London crowd, the singer squeaks her way through the tracks on her latest album. She's joined on stage by a gaggle of collaborators including percussionists, audio engineers and an Icelandic women's choir, as well as a Tesla coil, a gigantic pendulum "that creates musical patterns by harnessing the Earth’s gravitational pull," and several other bizarre instruments, musical and otherwise, whose exact function is never quite clear. Cut over the footage is what could best be described as the B-roll recordings from an episode of Planet Earth. Volcanoes spew lava into the air, mushrooms spring from the earth, and starfish shimmy across rock pools in 100x speed. The mind-bending images, combined with the strange noises emanating from the stage, leave you feeling like you've stumbled into some impossible alternate world, one where the masses all worship at the temple of Björk. Certainly, co-director Peter Strickland is no stranger to intoxicating his audience with exotic sights and sounds. His previous film was Berberian Sound Studio, a luscious homage to '70s Italian horror movies. His newest work, the BDSM-themed lesbian love story The Duke of Burgundy, will hopefully screen in Australia at some point next year. Trust me when I tell you, it's every bit as good as it sounds. But regardless of Strickland's pedigree, the success of a concert film lies less with the filmmaker than it does with the musician. Those who love this movie will be the ones who love Björk already, while anyone who hates her will have an equally predictable reaction. For the rest of us, the appeal of Biophilia Live is its unapologetic strangeness. It's the sort of film that's worth seeing just to say that you have.
UPDATE, December 9, 2020: McQueen is available to stream via Stan, Doc Play, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Amazon Video. Glamour meets the grotesque in the couture of designer Alexander McQueen. Indeed, it's not by accident that a recent hit museum retrospective showcasing his work took the moniker Savage Beauty. For two decades as the enfant terrible of British fashion, he crafted clothing that didn't just make a statement, but screamed it down the catwalk, splashed it across glossy magazine pages and shouted it at the world at large. "I don't want to do a show that you walk out feeling like you've just had Sunday lunch," he once said. "I want you to walk out feeling repulsed or exhilarated — as long as it's an emotion." That telling soundbite joins many others in McQueen, the film that ostensibly unpacks the life, career and death of its titular working-class lad turned tailoring apprentice turned provocative toast of the town. But, making their first full-length documentary, directors Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui do much more than that. Theirs is a movie made in McQueen's image, keen to show more than tell even though it doesn't shy away from talking heads. The filmmakers are well aware that everyone already knows its rise-and-fall story, with the man called Lee by his friends ultimately committing suicide in 2010. Instead of pretending that it's telling viewers something new, the movie focuses on how it approaches its subject as much as it does the specific details of McQueen's story. Cue chapters that take their names from his famous runway shows, in a segmented yet still cohesive film that takes its concept from another of McQueen's own comments. (In one of his trademark displays of cheek, he dubs his own candid home videos 'The McQueen Tapes'.) Each part stitches together a narrative about his fashions — from both his own label and his time at Givenchy — and the context surrounding each highlighted collection. The end result isn't as obvious as it might sound, of course. McQueen refuses to simply state that one particular aspect of McQueen's experiences gave rise to a specific element in his work. Rather, it explores the fabric of his life while demonstrating how he wrangled fabric in bold ways in his designs. The documentary doesn't need to blatantly connect the dots, as each sartorial series makes its own statement. With names such as Jack the Ripper Stalks His Victims and Highland Rape, and challenging pieces within each collection to match, how could they not? Throughout it all, McQueen remains a constant presence thanks to archival footage, while his family members, friends and colleagues offer their intimate recollections and reflections. Even for those unfamiliar with the minutiae, there's much that's recognisable. Never seeming the typical fashionista, McQueen parlayed his talent, artistic eye and hard work into a thriving career from the early 90s onwards. But with success, attention and notoriety came drugs, depression and despair, matters that the movie perhaps doesn't touch on in as much depth as it could've. Still, even when it somewhat skirts over a few areas, the documentary proves revelatory in how it captures McQueen's complicated essence. The designer's clothing pieces were always going to feature prominently, but with its incredible detail, intricate construction and willingness to get dark, the film they're in feels like it was cut from the same cloth. If one scene in McQueen particularly stands out, it's one that's all McQueen's doing. More than that, it's one that he staged with as much theatricality, spectacle and flair as he ever displayed: his 1999 spring show. In a stunning sight to behold, model Shalom Harlow wears a white strapless dress made voluminous with layers of tulle, spins on a rotating platform like a jewellery box ballerina, and is sprayed with paint by two adjacent robots. As a depiction of life splattering and changing something luminous, it's vivid, almost violent and certainly intoxicating, all as its creator intended. McQueen was clearly relaying a message and, in both featuring the runway moment within the film and adopting its attitude, Bonhôte and Ettedgui ensure that McQueen sports the same force and power. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yKwCd6WLPdE
UPDATE, September 29, 2023: Cocaine Bear is available to stream via Netflix, Binge, Google Play, YouTube Movies, iTunes and Prime Video. Killer trailer, filler flick: that's the Cocaine Bear story. This loosely based-on-a-true-tale horror-comedy sports a Snakes on a Plane-style moniker that sums up its contents perfectly, as the sneak peek that arrived at the end of 2022 made enticingly clear. Going heavy on the so-OTT-it-can-only-be-real vibe, that initial glimpse also tasked Alden Ehrenreich (Solo: A Star Wars Story) with exclaiming a couple more sentences to express the utter bewilderment that this story sparks. "The bear, it fucking did cocaine. A bear did cocaine!" he shouts, and with exactly the right amount of infectious incredulity. That is indeed what happened in reality back in 1985, after all, and it's what Elizabeth Banks brings to the screen in her third stint as a director after Pitch Perfect 2 and Charlie's Angels — always playing it, for better when it's at its goriest and for worse when it stretches its idea thinner than a white line, like wild tale that it inescapably is. Yes, almost four decades ago, an American black bear did cocaine when drug smuggler Andrew C Thornton (Matthew Rhys, Perry Mason) dropped a hefty pile of the narcotic from the air. The stash landed in the wilderness, catching the attention of the world's most unlikely coke fiend in Georgia's Chattahoochee-Oconee National Forest. The creature ripped open the white powder-filled containers, then ingested — and Cocaine Bear endeavours to have fun hypothesising what could've come next. On-screen, a rampage by the critter now-nicknamed Pablo Escobear ensues, with blood, guts and limbs flung around; the body count mounting like Michael Myers is doing the offing (or maybe Winnie-the-Pooh: Blood and Honey's other recent ravenous bear); and two words getting screamed over and over. They're just the terms a picture called Cocaine Bear was always bound to focus on: cocaine and bear, obviously. To be fair to the characters in Banks' film, if you came face to face with a bear doing cocaine, you'd likely yell about it loudly and often as well. Here, the folks doing the bellowing are all 100-percent fictional, and mostly disposable. Nurse and single mother Sari (Keri Russell, Antlers) learns of the cocaine bear after her daughter Dee Dee (Brooklynn Prince, The Florida Project) skips school with classmate Henry (Christian Convery, Sweet Tooth) and ends up in the hopped-up mammal's path. St Louis-based drug kingpin Syd (Ray Liotta, The Many Saints of Newark) has his son Eddie (Ehrenreich) and dealer underling Daveed (O'Shea Jackson Jr, Obi-Wan Kenobi) actively looking for the coke, while Tennessee detective Bob (Isiah Whitlock Jr, Da 5 Bloods) is actively looking for them after Thornton's death. And, tourists Olaf (Kristofer Hivju, Game of Thrones) and Elsa (Hannah Hoekstra, Faithfully Yours) just happen to be hiking in the park that day, while Ranger Liz (Margo Martindale, The Watcher) and wildlife expert Peter (Jesse Tyler Ferguson, Modern Family) are onsite doing their regular jobs. In the leadup to Cocaine Bear's release, a free Pac-Man-style game hit the web — you play as the bear, snorting energy from lines, packets, piles and bags of cocaine, running around a maze and chomping down as many people as you can. Cocaine Bear, the picture, runs on the same simple thrill, just without anyone mashing buttons to make the animal get devouring. Accordingly, when the bear is coked-up and carnivorous, the flick revels in comedic creature-feature bloodlust and slapstick. A mid-movie ambulance chase and its aftermath is highly inspired and highly amusing, and just as gloriously ridiculous as it should be. The sequence's action choreography, pacing (thanks to editor Joel Negron, Jungle Cruise) and cinematography (via John Guleserian, Candyman) vibrates with a buzz, and nails the B-movie tone that Banks and screenwriter Jimmy Warden (The Babysitter: Killer Queen) are overtly pawing at. Do bears shit in the woods? Yes. Does Cocaine Bear struggle with almost everything around its woodland carnage? Yes again. Alas, if someone isn't being torn to pieces — and each death honestly could be anyone, with more and more supporting figures popping up but everyone lucky to be one-note — the film is about as convincing as its clunky CGI. The script strains so hard for low-hanging laughs around the mauling, which is where all those squawks about cocaine and bears come in, that it's a surprise that no one declares "I've had it with this muthafuckin' bear on this muthafuckin' cocaine". And trying to wring emotions out of parent-child bonds and loss just feels pointless; viewers are here for drug-addled ursine attacks in as many inventive ways as possible, not for cheap heartstring-tugging that does the bear minimum. Banks' cast put in as much effort as they're asked to, sniffing up the trashy 80s mood as they navigate all that bear-induced chaos. From Russell as a determined mum, Rhys' brief cameo as the man who starts it all and Martindale as a lovelorn ranger — all The Americans co-stars — through to the late, great Liotta in one of his last roles, the bickering-and-bantering Ehrenreich and Jackson, and Prince and Convery almost doing a Moonrise Kingdom parody, they're all visibly having a good time. Cocaine Bear isn't as much sustained fun for its audience, however, but it sure wants to be. Its trailer is a killer in two ways: supremely entertaining, and also everything it needed to be in less than three minutes, ensuring that a full film, even a concise 95-minute one, was destined to seem bloated in comparison. A silly slasher, but about a high-and-hungry bear getting grizzly: that's Cocaine Bear at its most engaging, and it's easy to see a gleefully absurd direct-to-streaming franchise springing with instalments like Methamphetamine Monkey and Ecstasy Alligator following — all with diminishing returns. Of course, every animal-attack movie will always pale in comparison to the wildest one there is, aka 1981's lion flick Roar, which'll also rumble to mind when anyone attempts to follow in its footsteps. That's the kind of predator pandemonium that Banks doesn't realise you can't set out to make, but becomes a cult film on its own tumultuous and messy merits. IRL, the cocaine bear that inspired Cocaine Bear didn't munch its way through the park's visitors, with the actual creature now stuffed and on display at the Kentucky for Kentucky Fun Mall — a far blander fate than Cocaine Bear posits, but one just as padded.
The dockless bike sharing phenomenon hasn't exactly proved a roaring success here in Australia, with rogue bikes clogging up footpaths, or winding up broken and abandoned in dangerous locations, and oBike withdrawing from Melbourne entirely. And still, yet another company is keen to give the concept a whirl locally — this time, featuring electric scooters. Aussie start-up Ride has announced it has launched a trial program of its ride share service, giving locals in Melbourne the chance to road-test its fleet of electric scooters. Riffing on the scooter systems that have been going gang-busters over in the USA, the local company is still nailing down its technology, launching the pilot program in St Kilda, before rolling out across CBD areas. At this stage, riders simply locate a scooter, scan and pay via the Ride smartphone app, before jetting off on their two-wheeled adventure. The company held a short trial in the area last month, which, according to founder Aaron LaLux, was a success, so it decided to re-launch for the busy summer holiday period. "We've decided to re-launch for the holiday season to gift St Kilda with this new way of getting around and to help get cars off the road. It's my wish that it won't be long before we see more clean energy alternatives to the carbon emitting vehicles that currently exist." Riders pay $1 to start the scooters then 25 cents per minute to use them. The only downfall of the service is the speed, with scooters going a maximum of ten kilometres an hour (to comply with Victorian road rules surrounding scooters) compared to Sydney's newly launched electric bikes, which go up to up to 23kmh. So, for example, a journey from St Kilda to the CBD would take about 45-minutes and cost around $12–13. When riding the scooters, be aware that Victorian rules also stipulate that you must wear a helmet and that the scooters can't be used on separated bike paths or on roads with a speed limit of more than 50kmh, but they can be used on footpaths. Well, for the moment. LaLux is hoping the extended Ride trial will give the State and Federal Government time to draft more comprehensive rules surrounding electric scooters. As the scooters are electric, they'll be picked up after 10pm each night by employees, charged and returned to designated spots around St Kilda. Ride's trial program is running now for an indefinite period. You can download the Ride app here.
Melburnians, prepare for the saddest garage sale ever. But at least it’s a chance to take a little piece of the Palace Theatre home with you, put it on your mantelpiece and reminisce over the days when live music came before hotels and apartment blocks. To all those who fought so hard and for so long after the Palace's dramatic and controversial closure, we salute you. The event is a follow-up to the Palace’s successful rare memorabilia sale, held last weekend. It saw hundreds of music fans nabbing bargains on all manner of music merchandise, from unframed Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds posters to ticket stubs and t-shirts. Some merch might still be hanging around, but you’ll also have the chance to buy bits and pieces of the Palace’s nuts and bolts. We’re talking sound gear, chunks of the bar, assorted fridges, stools, couches, scrubbing brushes, electronic gadgets and even the coffee machine. The coffee machine! The Palace Theatre garage sale will happen on Saturday 25 and Sunday 26 April at 11 Cromwell Parade, West Footscray. Doors will open and deals will be struck between 10am and 4pm. Just one word of advice: if your eyes are on the coffee machine, you’d better get there early. Fans were queueing for the merch sale for at least an hour before kick-off.
Booze delivery legend Jimmy Brings really came into its own during lockdown. Not only was it bringing drinks to homes within 30 minutes — allowing punters to have spontaneous lockdown sessions — it also delivered emergency rolls of toilet paper during that TP drought. Now, taking it up a notch, Jimmy Brings is offering you the chance to win six full months of free drinks for both you and your best mate. The prize is valued at a whopping $2000 and the competition has already begun, so best to get your entry in ASAP. To enter, simply post a pic of you (or you and your mate) enjoying a Jimmy Brings delivery on Instagram or Jimmy Brings' Facebook page, tagging @jimmybrings and #JBVibeCheck. The photo must include Jimmy's face, whether it's a delivery box, bag, magnet or internet cutout — anything will do. You can enter as many times as you want, too. The pic with the best 'vibes' will then win six months of loot, along with undying love from one very lucky friend. Jimmy Brings has been a go-to for its range of wine, beer and spirits since way back in 2011. It delivers organic drops, wine bundles and party packs, plus mixers and other extras — like chocolates, bags of crisps, Panadol and Berocca — to homes across Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide, the Gold Coast and Sunshine Coast. And, if you're you're still avoiding that midweek bottle shop run, the online bottle-o delivers seven days per week until late. So, go ahead, get your order in and get snapping. The Vibe Check comp will run from Friday, July 17 until 11.59pm on Sunday, August 16. Anyone from NSW, Vic, Qld, WA, ACT or SA can enter. For more information and for full terms and conditions, head to the website. FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
Now, a weekday trip to IDES might sound like pure madness to anyone who wants to pay their rent this month. You usually wouldn't get out the door without a hefty bill (fair payment for a very satisfied stomach), unless you're brave. The IDES sample tables are offered on Tuesday and Wednesday, and you'll get a four-course meal for only $70 a head. But there's a catch — the dishes on your menu aren't on the menu. It's a chef's selection of new dishes, so you'll effectively be the guinea pig for a very experimental (and ex-Attica) chef Peter Gunn and, frankly, we can't think of a more exciting way to spend a mid-week evening.
Stanley Kubrick's cinematic work was made for the big screen. Whether it be the blockbuster Spartacus, painstakingly perfect A Clockwork Orange, or genre transforming 2001: A Space Odyssey, the grandeur, creativity, atmospheric scores and meticulous attention to detail that are the markers of his masterpieces demand the silver screen. Thankfully whoever is calling the shots at the Astor Theatre agrees — the grandiose 1,150 seat theatre is showcasing a Stanley Kubrick Retrospective until Monday June 17, featuring the extended version of The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut, as well as the aforementioned classics. You can even take the kids along for a lesson in cinematography, with the G rated candle-lit classic Barry Lyndon screening on Saturday June 8. Most of the films will be aired individually, but penny pinchers with long attention spans will appreciate the $16 double feature of A Clockwork Orange and Full Metal Jacket. Take your droogs or devotchka, grab some popcorn and get ready to yell "Here's Johnny!" or my personal favourite, "I'm Spartacus!".
Fists fly in Polite Society. Feet as well. When the latter aren't suspended in mid-air attempting to execute stunning kung-fu stunts, they just might be busting out their best Bollywood dance moves. Words are screamed and shouted, often between sisters Ria (Priya Kansara, Bridgerton) and Lena Khan (Ritu Arya, The Umbrella Academy), who are thick as thieves until they suddenly aren't. Schoolyard fights rumble like they've spilled straight out an action movie, which budding stuntperson Ria dreams of being in. Showdowns with Lena's future mother-in-law Raheela Shah (Nimra Bucha, Ms Marvel) could've burst from a Quentin Tarantino film. Espionage missions are undertaken by high schoolers, as are heists at a spectacular Muslim wedding in a lavish London mansion. Lena scoffs down a whole roast chicken on a public footpath like it's the only thing she's ever eaten. Ria and Lena free themselves from their angst by letting loose in their living room to The Chemical Brothers' dance-floor filler 'Free Yourself'. And being a dutiful member of her community is the absolute worst fate that could await an ass-kicking British Pakistani teenage girl. In other words, a little bit of everything happens in Polite Society, the anarchic and eye-popping debut feature from We Are Lady Parts creator Nida Manzoor. That includes nods to Jackie Chan movies and The Matrix, plus Bond-style antics and Ennio Morricone-esque music drops. Add in riffs on Get Out, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon-inspired wuxia, video-game flourishes, musical dance numbers, and nudges in Jane Austen and Crazy Rich Asians author Kevin Kwan's directions. Scott Pilgrim vs the World and Kill Bill leave imprints. When it examines intergenerational pressure, so do Everything Everywhere All At Once and Turning Red. Whatever this high-energy charmer throws at the screen, it always serves the narrative. It also showcases Manzoor's lively and bold filmmaking eye. But more importantly, Polite Society is the spin-kicking whirlwind it is because that's what it feels like to be a schoolgirl training in martial arts, yearning to pack a literal punch, desperate to become anything but what society demands and tired of being dictated to — and saddled with cultural expectations but determined to propel along one's own path in general, too. At school, Ria is told that she should go into medicine. Other than her best friends Clara (Seraphina Beh, Top Boy) and Alba (Ella Bruccoleri, Call the Midwife), her classmates mock her stunt-performer ambitions. Bully Kovacs (movie debutant Shona Babayemi) even gets brawling over them. Ria's parents Fatima and Rafe (We Are Lady Parts alumni Shobu Kapoor and Jeff Mirza) advocate for a more practical life goal, not just for her but for aspiring artist Lena. And yet, Ria is certain that she's going to make stunts her career, so much so that there's only two other things she believes in as passionately. She has zero doubts that Lena is meant to be a great painter, ignoring the fact that she's just dropped out of art school. Then, when a surprise invite to the Shahs' Eid soirée sees Lena start dating Raheela's doctor son Salim (Akshay Khanna, Chloe), the most lusted-after bachelor in their family's social circle, and get engaged amid plans to move to Singapore, Ria couldn't be more convinced that the whole situation is 100-percent shady. When We Are Lady Parts hit TV screens in 2021, it did so with a clear understanding of complicated sisterly relationships. Focused on all-female, all-Muslim punk rockers, the gem introduced the titular Lady Parts with quite the track: 'Ain't No One Gonna Honour Kill My Sister But Me'. In Polite Society, the film's central sibling feud gets physical — when Ria and Lena throw down in one frenetic fray, "Khan vs Khan" is emblazoned across the frame like this is Street Fighter — and, whether they're flinging limbs or hugging it out, their clash is complex. Battling sisters is a nice shorthand for one of writer/director Manzoor's key messages, stressing that there's no such thing as just one type of Muslim woman. Ria and Lena couldn't be closer before Salim's charisma splinters their bond, but even they don't know everything that each other is, wants, hopes for or fantasies about. There's no one straightforward description for Polite Society either, with its kaleidoscope of genres, bouncing between capers, coming-of-age journey, comic tone, sibling celebration and arranged-marriage satire — and its Bend It Like Beckham-influenced narrative, swapping soccer for stunts. As it bounds through Ria's world, as well as her fears about not realising her only dream and losing Lena to a conventional existence, it manages to sprinkle in horror and science fiction. Manzoor also pays loving tribute to Ria's passion not only by staging dazzling stunts, but by having her protagonist idolise real-life stunt professional Eunice Huthart. The British ex-Gladiators star sports a resume that boasts GoldenEye, The Fifth Element, Titanic, 28 Days Later, Children of Men, Maleficent, Justice League and Eternals, as well as Star Wars, Harry Potter, Fast and Furious, Terminator, Pirates of the Caribbean and Tomb Raider titles, and Polite Society finds room to wink at many of them. Ensuring that the style of a film so utterly suits its story isn't easy, and nor is having every aspect of a movie's look and feel epitomise the statement it's making — then also doing both in a way that makes it plain that no other approach could've done the flick justice. That's a feat that Manzoor smashes, and repeatedly, with equally dynamic help from cinematographer Ashley Connor (Night Sky), editor Robbie Morrison (Starstruck), inspired sound effects and a thumping global soundtrack. The camerawork has as much of a spring in its step as Ria, as does Polite Society's happily hectic pace, vibrant use of colour and everything that echoes from the cinema speakers. All movies should be acts of immersion, but rare are the films that so deeply plunge their audience into their lead character's head and heart with everything it can, let alone so committedly, creatively, convincingly and compellingly. Rare are the on-screen finds like Kansara, too, who is as expressive and exuberant as the picture she's in. Polite Society doesn't idealise Ria at any moment — a film so devoted to shattering stereotypes and destroying any possibility of Muslim women being seen as a monoculture was never going to avoid her impulsiveness and hot-headedness — instead giving Kansara ample room to have a helluva lot of fun in her fleshed-out main part. She's playful, enterprising and heartfelt while operating at a mile-a-minute speed. She isn't afraid to make big leaps and stay spirited from the get-go, and to both unpack and lean into Ria's main-character syndrome. She's also a winning blend of pluck and spark in a roundhouse kick of a joyously entertaining flick that makes every single jab and strike matter.
World Chocolate Day (Wednesday, July 7) is on the horizon, so what better excuse for two of the country's top dessert masters to join forces? Aussie chocolate brand Koko Black and the ever-innovative, Sydney-born cake maestros Black Star Pastry have dreamed up some sweet-toothed magic, available for one day only this July. The Meteor Cake is the brainchild of Koko Black Head Chocolatier Remco Brigou and Black Star's Group Head Pastry Chef Arnaud Vodounou. First up, there are the neat layers of dark chocolate financier, caramel-infused chocolate, muscovado sponge, dense hazelnut cremeux, choccy mousse and praline. Crowning that delicious tower is a flying 'meteor' — a hazelnut truffle coated in black cocoa nibs — trailing a blazing edible flame crafted from luxe Sao Thome chocolate. There's even a pile of meteor 'rubble', made of crumbled cocoa nibs. It's here for a good time, but a very fleeting one, hitting stores for one day only on (you guessed it) Wednesday, July 7. The Meteor Cake comes in at $15 a slice, available to purchase only from select Koko Black stores in Melbourne. After the first half of this year, you bloody well deserve it.
Stop what you're doing. Get out of bed. Cancel that mid-morning meeting. Whatever it is — it can wait. Because this is happening again: In-N-Out Burger is back in Melbourne for one of its hectic late-notice pop-ups. Chapel Street's new eatery Lover will step in as the temporary home for the burger joint from 11am today, Tuesday, March 6. It's been over three years since the LA fast food legends set up shop in Melbourne, and a little over a year since they whipped together a few impromptu burgers out Sydney's Dead Ringer, so you can bet that burger aficionados will be desperate so get their hands on one of those buns. Today, the chain's Double-Double, Animal-Style and Protein Style signature lovelies will be available until they sold out. If you've been to one of In-N-Out's previous pop-ups though, you'll know those burgers sell like, well, cult-status burgers — so you'll have to get there early. Now is probably a good time. Go. The In-N-Out burger pop-up will run today from 11am till 3pm at Lover, 60 Chapel Street, Windsor.
'Be Brave. Make Change.' That's the theme guiding this year's National Reconciliation Week, which Melbourne Quarter is celebrating with a suite of activations and events from Friday, May 27–Friday, June 3. The inner-city precinct, set on land that was once a significant meeting place for the Woiwurrung people of the Kulin nation, will champion the spirit of reconciliation via a diverse program of happenings. It kicks off on May 27 with a smoking ceremony led by First Nations elders in the forecourt, before Melbourne Quarter launches the first episode of its new podcast, featuring Brotha Black in conversation with Clothing the Gaps' Head of Impact Lena Charles. It'll be available to listen to via Soundcloud. From May 31–June 2, the main lobby will play host to a retail pop-up showcasing threads and homewares from celebrated First Nations businesses including Gammin Threads, Clothing the Gaps, Haus of Dizzy and Our Dilly Bag. Meanwhile, Wurundjeri artist Simone Thomson has created a stunning mural along Gunpowder Walk, plus you can catch live acoustic sets by local First Nations acts from 12–2pm daily between May 31–June 2. And in the Two Melbourne Quarter lobby, check out 11 striking floral installations by Melbourne studio Alchemy Orange, each representing one of Victoria's First Nations groups. Top Images: Melbourne Quarter live music. Clothing the Gaps.
Melburnians, if you're currently reading this from somewhere dry, warm and cosy, we suggest that you keep it that way for the rest of the day. After a particularly rainy morning — parts of the city copped 12mm of rain between 6–7am — the wet weather is set to stick around for the rest of the day. And not just any old wet weather, either. The Bureau of Meteorology is reporting that around 50 millimetres of rain is expected to fall on Melbourne today — which is just under 59 millimetres, the average rainfall for the entire month of December. Flood warnings have been issued around the state after 130 millimetres of rain poured down on northeast Victoria in the last 24 hours. The wild weather is a result of tropical cyclone Owen moving closer to us, creating a low-pressure system across the state. That means heavy rainfall and lots of thunderstorms before the cyclone moves up to NSW on Friday. Take a look at it here. https://twitter.com/BOM_Vic/status/1072728661814591488 Naturally, the rain is affecting some services. Public transport looks to be experiencing only minor delays, but a few inbound lanes on the Westgate near Williamstown Road due to flooding. Stay dry out there. And remember to check Vic Roads, PTV and BOM for warnings and updates.
In 2013, 300 people danced to Kate Bush's' Wuthering Heights in a field — and in 2019, the idea is back and bigger than ever. The Most Wuthering Heights Day Ever is happening in Melbourne on Saturday, July 13 in Edinburgh Gardens. Yes, everyone should be dressed as Kate Bush, complete with a red dress, red stockings and black belt (men, that means you as well). On the day, a clowder (that's the collective noun for Kate Bushes, just FYI) will descend up the gardens and dancing the swaying, kicky dance in unison to the Wuthering Heights song for the pure joy of it. Support for this weird and wonderful outing has been widespread and Kate Bush fans from around the world have been inspired to create events in their home cities. So get your gear together (dress-makers are being flooded with orders for the day, check it out here) and ready yourself to roll and fall in green, out on the wily, windy moors of Edinburgh Gardens. If you need an incentive — other than the event itself, of course — it's now 41 years since the song was first released.
If you had a birthday sometime during the last few months, it probably didn't quite live up to expectations. Because of COVID-19, we've had (very necessary) restrictions on gatherings, which means that birthday shindig was most likely a little smaller than you'd hoped. To help ease the pain every so slightly, Krispy Kreme has announced it's giving away an extremely excessive number of doughnuts. How many? 350,000, to be exact. On Monday, July 13, Krispy Kreme is giving away a dozen Original Glazed doughnuts to Aussies who celebrated a birthday between March 13 and July 13. To snag yourself 12 signature glazed freebies, head to your closest store in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane or Perth. Sydneysiders have ten stores — stretching from Penrith to the CBD — to choose from, while Queenslanders can pick from five different doughnut shops, with the most central in the CBD Myer Centre, and Perthians can head to one of three Krispy Kreme stores. The free doughnuts are not available at BPs, Jesters or 7-Elevens. Because of stay-at-home restrictions in Victoria, the deal is only valid at one of three drive-thru stores: Fawkner, Fountain Gate and Bulleen. You can find out more about those restrictions over here. The 350,000 doughnuts will be spread across all Aussies stores. So, you'll want to get in relatively early if you want to kick off your Monday with a free sweet and doughy treat – and don't forget to bring your ID. If you do miss out, however, Krispy Kreme will be offering buy one dozen, get a dozen free from Wednesday, July 15 till Sunday, July 19. Krispy Kreme's free doughnut giveaway is happening nationwide on Monday, July 13 for those born between March 13 and July 13. To find your closest store and check its opening hours, head to the Krispy Kreme website.
Dubstep? Fuhgeddaboudit. Call me biased (I am a Kiwi, so you're probably right) but New Zealand artists have been making big waves recently in musical fields that have nothing to do with dubstep or flying anything, whether Conchords or Nuns. Here are ten of our favourites, which while in name might seem alarming (hello Cut Off Your Hands and Die! Die! Die!) are really very pleasant to listen to. https://youtube.com/watch?v=c-36lCKovBg 1. UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA One of the best things to come our of New Zealand in the early '00s was The Mint Chicks, an experimental noise rock/schizo-pop trio who once played a gig so loud that part of the St James Theatre complex actually fell down. The psychedelic spin-off formed by Ruban Nielson is just as good, albeit a little lighter on the ears. https://youtube.com/watch?v=gQSiiNrW8P4 2. OPOSSUM Ruban's brother Kody (also ex Mint Chicks) own pop-sych project is Opossum, a more polished musical venture that also features Michael Logie and solo singer Bic Runga. See the video for single 'Blue Meanies' above, which comes from their excellent just-released album Electric Hawaii and features Kiwi model/ultimate babe Zippora Seven, and see them live this Friday in support of Jinja Safari. https://youtube.com/watch?v=sIDCRga1LjI 3. LAWRENCE ARABIA Blending the quintessentially Kiwi sounds of Flying Nun with influences ranging from classical songwriting to 1970s West Coast Americana, James Milne played bass in The Brunettes and the Ruby Suns before his alter ego Lawrence Arabia was born. His quirky low-key songs have earned him praise in New Zealand for years, but it was a move to London (and a job selling Kiwi goods to homesick expats) that allowed him to gain global recognition. https://youtube.com/watch?v=Uq7aVOzRQow 4. ELECTRIC WIRE HUSTLE Wellington's Electric Wire Hustle have created a rather unique sound fusing hip hop, psychedelica, funk and soul. They're currently giving Europe a taste of their famously colourful live show (the Northern Hemisphere jumped on board the EWH bandwagon back in 2007), but unfortunately their Australian shows are considerably more sporadic. https://youtube.com/watch?v=LAJBwXcexxc 5. CUT OFF YOUR HANDS Cut Off Your Hands find influences in both the late '70s post-punk of Talking Heads and Gang of Four and the poppier sound encapsulated by the aforementioned Mint Chicks and This Night Creeps. The five-piece employ busy musical textures and soft harmonies to create a sound far more pleasant than the name suggests. Late last year the band toured Australia off the back of their album Hollow, which was recorded in Brent Harris' Auckland bedroom and mixed in Sydney. https://youtube.com/watch?v=46A3fqahGlM 6. SURF CITY Don't be confused by the name, Surf City has little to do with the also-good-but-different sound of Wavves, Best Coast, Beach Fossils and Surfer Blood. They were originally called Kill Surf City before they found out another band had already seized that tag, and while the earlier name is a bit sinister it's well suited to the darker, janglier spin they put on an indie surf rock sound. We're eagerly awaiting the follow up to 2010's Kudos. https://youtube.com/watch?v=bsAAZwLPGBg 7. THE VIETNAM WAR 'High Window' is a single from Auckland's alt-country kids The Vietnam War. Though a debut effort the album rattles along like a rollicking, jovial, booze-stained war veteran (in the best way possible), and the video injects some welcome roadside Americana into the Kiwiana outfit. https://youtube.com/watch?v=EKlm-PM-hMc 8. GLASS VAULTS Two boys from rural Manawatu who met at university in Wellington, Richard Larsen and Rowan Pierce make lush textural pop that sounds like nothing else coming out of the windy city. They are best known for 2010's Glass EP (and for recording it on Rowan's grandmother's farm) but new single 'Crystallise', the first offering from their upcoming debut album, promises that the best is yet to come. https://youtube.com/watch?v=4Jf4dwzTx_c 9. DIE! DIE! DIE! Thought their roots are in hardcore punk and their vocals deliciously abrasive, Die! Die! Die! put their own twist on noise pop with rhythms and drums that are both tight and danceable. As indefatigable as their name suggests, these guys are relentless at the gigging in between spitting out albums and will be playing a particularly exciting show at The Standard on Thursday 23 August. https://youtube.com/watch?v=1fdwOd5ACyU 10. STREET CHANT Street Chant has been gigging around Auckland's K Road since 2007, brought into being by a teenage binge drinker, a girl who hated her current band and the fully sick drummer from Don Julio and the Hispanic Mechanic. Since then their sharp, ballsy brand of punk has been winning over fans everywhere from Auckland to Texas, where they drew a massive crowd playing SXSW with The Naked and Famous. The girls also have super rad wardrobes.
This month, we've partnered with Miller Genuine Draft to celebrate Melbourne's thriving art and design scene with a series of events dubbed the Miller Design Lab. Across six nights, we'll be showcasing a bunch of emerging creatives doing exceptional things in their respective areas of expertise. The parties are an opportunity for you to discover and experience upcoming trends and mingle with like-minded culture vultures, plus enjoy complimentary food, beer and live music. Chances are you'll be having such a good time, you'll want to kick on once the gallery shuts. So we've taken care of that, too. Across four of the six nights, when the main event wraps up at 10pm, the revelry will move to the rooftop bar at The Emerson — the official after-party venue — for more music, dancing and beers. And if you buy four bottles of Miller Genuine Draft, you'll score a piece of exclusive merchandise designed by Melbourne label Nana Judy. We've got CASSETTE playing on Thursday, March 28 after the Christie Morgan (Pitch Studios) showcase. And Meagan Streader's night on Friday, March 29 will be followed by DJ Sezzo. Everyone who attends one of the Miller Design Lab events is invited. Entry is free, but there are limited spots available so enter your details below to ensure you're on the guest list. And to check out the full program of Miller Design Lab events, head this way. [competition]712151[/competition] Follow @millergenuinedraftaus for more details.
March is the month of movement here in Melbourne, all thanks to a brand-new major dance event twirling its way through the city. Running from Wednesday, March 1–Friday, March 31, the debut edition of dance biennial FRAME is serving up a stacked program of performances, talks, exhibitions, screenings and more. Expect a diverse lineup of events spotlighting talent both renowned and emerging, taking over venues including Arts House, The Substation and the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art. Celebrated Aussie choreographer Lucy Guerin presents a 21-artist performance installation recapturing elements from 21 of her company's previous productions, while A Certain Mumble sees First Nations dancer Amelia O'Leary and Chinese Malaysian artist Janelle Tan dissect the nuances of cultural identity. [caption id="attachment_892123" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 'NEWRETRO', by Gregory Lorenzutti[/caption] Elsewhere, there's a huge participatory public dance work titled Us and All of This, Jackie Sheppard's visceral exploration of grief, and Yumi Umiumare's mystical performance piece IN-VOCATION, which features a Japanese clairvoyant and uses 3D video in a compelling homage to the divine feminine. Plus, Raina Peterson fuses traditional Indian dance with the contemporary for psychedelic work Mohini. Further highlights include film-based exhibition REALREEL, a work-in-progress showcase by The Australian Ballet and — for those inspired to get moving themselves — a stack of free morning dance classes led by the likes of Chunky Move and Lucy Guerin Inc. [caption id="attachment_892121" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 'Slip', by Sarah Walker[/caption] Top image: Mohini by Anne Moffat.
Been looking for an excuse to try out BANG, the Thai-inspired restaurant inside the StandardX in Fitzroy? It's now at your fingertips. Every Saturday, BANG is hosting the Bangin' Brunch. Between 11am–3pm, you and a mate will be able to eat your way through three courses while sipping on a bottle of Chandon Garden Spritz for 66 bucks a pop. Or, if want to get fancier, add $22 and you'll also get half-a-dozen oysters, plus an upgrade from Garden Spritz to Brut. Either way, Executive Chef Justin Dingle-Garciyya has an array of traditional and innovative Thai delights waiting for you. Start with prawn har gao breakfast dumplings, before moving onto BANG's version of avo toast: coconut fried eggs with smashed avocado on Dench sourdough. Then wrap up with banana roti accompanied by a scoop of homemade vanilla bean ice cream. These are just a taster of what's on the menu – see the rest of it over here. Plus, on top of all the food and fizz, there'll be DJs on the deck throughout the session.
Thanks to the franchise's increasingly over-the-top sequels, it's easy to dismiss John Rambo as an idiotic and cartoonish action hero whose movies readily employ more bullets than brain cells. That would be to forget how pointed and politically charged First Blood was when it came out in 1982. Grappling with issues such as the hidden wounds of post-traumatic stress disorder and the disenfranchisement of Vietnam vets, the original film presented Rambo as a tragic figure simply trying (and failing) to slip silently through society's cracks as a harmless and withdrawn loner. In the original cut, he actually committed suicide, only for test audiences to declare the ending too disheartening and morose — hardly the stuff of action heroes. So it was that a franchise was born — one in which Rambo was slowly reinvented as a one-man killing machine and poster child for US military might. Politics and social themes were still in there, but the emphasis shifted with each instalment. First Blood Part II held mostly true to its origins, showing the secret abandonment of American prisoners-of-war and the disposability of assets like Rambo by the very government they vowed to serve. By Rambo III, however, the villain was now the Soviet Union, with the film concluding with a dedication to "the gallant people of Afghanistan". Yet even with the third movie's souped-up action, Stallone continued to present Rambo as a tragic figure, suffering in silence, tormented by demons, seeking penance wherever opportunity presents and as uncomfortable as ever over his god-given gift: dealing death better than anyone else. Rambo, coming out 20 years after its immediate predecessor in 2008, focused its politics on the atrocities of the army in Myanmar, however it also introduced a level of violence and gore that went far beyond anything previously seen in the franchise. There was a bloodlust to it, taking it out of harmless action-movie fun, and into something uncomfortable and almost voyeuristic. There were still some great moments, but it was clear that the franchise and character had changed forever. Which brings us to Rambo: Last Blood — a film that aspires to be Logan, yet lands somewhere closer to The Texas Chain Saw Massacre. Plot-wise, the trailers intimated something to do with hidden secrets coming back to claim their dues. Not so. Co-written by Stallone and directed by Adrian Grunberg (Get the Gringo), this is essentially Taken, Mexico-style. Rambo's niece Gabrielle (Yvette Monreal) is drugged, kidnapped and groomed as a sex slave south of the border, compelling him to use his "very particular set of skills, skills... acquired over a very long career, skills that make [him] a nightmare for people like [cartels]" (as Liam Neeson would put it) until he baits his new enemies to chase him back to Arizona. It's a bizarre mishmash of storylines, all trying to ground themselves in Rambo's ongoing PTSD. Sometimes that's done well, revealing that he sleeps underground in a Viet Cong-styled network of tunnels beneath his family ranch — or when he admits he never got better, but rather he's just trying to "keep a lid on it". Most of the time, though, the film feels rushed and clumsy. Cheap, even. Rambo is still softly spoken and withdrawn, but the nuance is no longer apparent. He abhors violence, yet maintains a terrifying arsenal of knives, guns and explosives. And beneath that picturesque ranch is a straight-up house of horrors, physically and psychologically. But is the film still enjoyable? Mostly, no. Last Blood's quiet moments feel forced compared to the surprisingly tender or revealing offerings from earlier instalments, and the action is heavily abbreviated for most of the movie — no doubt because Stallone is now 73. The ending, however, is a different story. It's at once insanely silly and confessedly satisfying: a veritable smorgasbord of gruesome deaths packed into a tight 10-minute sequence, culminating in one of cinema's most gory finishes. Suffice it to say, the audience in the press screening was both hiding behind its hands and cheering amidst horrified laughter. It's one of those rare cinematic experiences that brings a room of strangers together in a weird but wonderful way. And as for this being Rambo's Logan moment... we'll save the spoilers and leave it up to you to find out. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=83nGns3pErk
"Movies are dreams that you never forget," says Mitzi Fabelman (Michelle Williams, Venom: Let There Be Carnage) early in Steven Spielberg's The Fabelmans. Have truer words ever been spoken in any of the director's 33 flicks? Uttered to her eight-year-old son Sammy (feature debutant Mateo Zoryon Francis-DeFord), Mitzi's statement lingers, providing the film's beating heart even when the coming-of-age tale it spins isn't always idyllic. Individual pictures can come and go, of course. Only some — including on America's most populist filmmaker's own resume, packed as it is with Jaws, Indiana Jones, E.T., Jurassic Park, West Side Story and the like — truly stand the test of time. But as Mitzi understands, and imparts to her on-screen Spielberg boyhood surrogate, movies as an art form are a dream that keeps beaming in our heads. We return to theatres again and again for more. We glue our eyes to films at home, too. We lap up the worlds they visit, stories they relay and fantasies they incite, and we eagerly add our own. To everyone that's ever stared at the silver screen in awe and wonder, The Fabelmans pays tribute far more than it basks in the glow of its director. Because everyone is crafting cinematic autobiographies of sorts of late, Spielberg adds this tender yet clear-eyed look at his childhood to a growing list of similarly self-reflective flicks; however, he's as fascinated with cinema as a dream-sparking and -making force as is he with fictionalising and mythologising his own beginnings. Slot The Fabelmans in alongside James Gray's Armageddon Time, Kenneth Branagh's Belfast, Paul Thomas Anderson's Licorice Pizza and Alejandro González Iñárritu's Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths from the past year or so, then, and easily. Don't consider it merely Spielberg jumping on a trend, though. This is a sincere, perceptive and potent movie about how movies act as a mirror — and a vividly shot and engagingly performed one, complete with a pitch-perfect late cameo that's pure cinephile heaven — whether we're watching or creating them. First comes the viewing, as it does with us all no matter if we end up picking up a camera. While The Fabelmans charts Sammy's film fixation as it quickly expands from devouring celluloid dreams to fashioning them — giving Spielberg's career an origin story, clearly — that initial dalliance with the big screen in the 1950s couldn't be more pivotal. Heading to catch Cecil B DeMille's The Greatest Show on Earth with Mitzi and dad Burt (Paul Dano, The Batman), the boy is anxious. And, when his debut experience with cinema involves witnessing a train crash in the movie, he's haunted afterwards. The Fabelmans makes that obsession the source of nightmares as well as inspiration, but once Sammy begins working through and rewriting his feelings by restaging the scene using a model train set, plus capturing it on Burt's Super-8 camera, the latter wins out. Both before and after Sammy hits his teen years (where he's played by The Predator's Gabriel LaBelle), The Fabelmans adores staging the wannabe filmmaker's DIY shoots. The horror of the dentist, mummies wrapped in toilet paper, westerns, war flicks: enlisting his sisters Natalie (Sweet Magnolias' Alina Brace as a kid, then Hunters' Keeley Karsten) and Reggie (Pivoting's Birdie Borria, then Once Upon a Time in Hollywood's Julia Butters), and his Boy Scout troupe, he's constantly filtering what he spies in darkened rooms into his enthusiastic work. There's a touch of Be Kind Rewind to these moments, joyously, but Spielberg highlights technique, too, such as Sammy's genius idea to make gunfights look more realistic. Cinema isn't just about storytelling, he reminds, but also science — even if career-minded computer engineer Burt can't see past the art, disapprovingly and to Mitzi's dismay, to the technique behind dolly tracks, camera angles that convey meaning and careful editing. Every filmmaker wants their audience to forget they're watching a movie, getting so immersed that everything else fades from mind while the projector whirls, but Spielberg loves the dream as well as the method behind it. He highlights the push and pull between the two into The Fabelmans from the outset, from the instant that the young Sammy stands in the middle of the frame outside the cinema, putting his creative, emotive, ex-concert pianist mum on one side and his analytical, data-driven, workaholic dad on the other. That's a gorgeous and intelligent touch, benefiting from luminous lensing by Janusz Kamiński, Spielberg's regular cinematographer. As built into the screenplay co-penned with fellow returning collaborator Tony Kushner — the helmer's first script since 2001's A.I. Artificial Intelligence — it also speaks to the family chaos that keeps thrusting Sammy and the Fabelmans in an array of directions. This movie isn't called Sammy, after all. Filmmaking is a communal experience — again whether you're enjoying the end result or toiling for it — and Sammy's pursuit of it doesn't occur in a vacuum. That maiden cinema visit wouldn't have happened without his mother and father. His response to it, right through to wanting to make the pictures his career, couldn't have either. Just like the nocturnal kind, cinema's reveries flow from an everyday reality, with The Fabelmans deeply invested in Sammy's. That spans hopping around the US following Burt's work, from New Jersey to Phoenix and then California; Mitzi and Burt's fragile chalk-and-cheese pairing, plus her obvious fondness for his best friend Bennie (Seth Rogen, Pam & Tommy); fitting in as a Jewish family amid antisemitism; words of wisdom from a long-lost uncle (Judd Hirsch, The Goldbergs) with a Hollywood background; high-school romances, bullying and other dramas; and sibling rivalries and complicated parent-child bonds. As a memoir, The Fabelmans isn't nostalgic about anything except cinema's undying allure — crucially so for the film's performances. Spielberg's mother was a pianist. His dad was an engineer. They moved to same spots seen in the movie, and their relationship didn't survive the director's childhood. Every choice in The Fabelmans is warm, including the John Williams score, but that doesn't mean sweeping past Mitzi's unfulfilled professional and romantic desires, overlooking Burt's work focus or ignoring the restlessness simmering within the family. Embracing those complexities gives Williams, Dano and LaBelle ample fuel for thoughtful, moving and multi-layered portrayals that always feel personal. Playing your director's mum, dad or younger self isn't guaranteed to have that impact, but Spielberg's compassionate direction makes it a given. His clever, insightful, funny and oh-so-astute ending here also makes The Fabelmans unforgettable; "how would you like to meet the world's greatest director?" indeed.
Great news, Melbourne. Apparently the current 'feels like' temperature is a beautiful zero degrees. Time to rise and shine, bury your hands in your pockets and make take that horrid power walk from front door to tram stop and bloody well hope there's one coming ASAP. Although we complain about the weather every other day, today we're 100 percent justified in making it the topic of water cooler conversation. As of 8am this morning the temp was a cool five degrees, but — according to our weather app — it 'felt like' zero. That's literally freezing. It was so cold overnight that snow fell in Woodend, Gisborne and Mt Macedon, which are only one hour northwest of the city centre. Here's what it looks like: A video posted by Brad Clark (@bradclark) on Jul 12, 2016 at 2:36pm PDT A photo posted by Matt Anderson (@mattriand) on Jul 12, 2016 at 2:41pm PDT A photo posted by S A M A N T H A C O O K E (@sammi_cooke) on Jul 12, 2016 at 3:02pm PDT This pup is so excited. A video posted by Scout - thanks 4 following me! (@mydogeatsapples) on Jul 12, 2016 at 2:44pm PDT So, yeah, it's freezing. If you can't work from home today, well...godspeed. Top image: Matt Anderson via Instagram.
The World Rice Festival is headed to Melbourne from December 7–9 to celebrate the diversity of this global food staple. Rice-heavy dishes are found all over the world, from the Philippines and Thailand to India and Spain — and you'll get to taste it all under one roof here, alongside cooking demonstrations, live music and cultural performances. Expect around 20 vendors to set up at Birrarung Marr — think lamb ribs and pork belly (with rice, of course) from Rice Paper Scissors, Thai sticky rice boxes from Farang Thai Issan BBQ, and Filipino lechon cebu from Hoy Pinoy, plus stalls selling dosas, paella and rice paper rolls. Each stall will serve a special rice dish for the occasion, along with other signature menu items. The cherry on top is dessert from like torched rice pudding from the Brûlée Cart and rice flour durian mochi from Duria. The drinks will be supplied by HWKR, which will have its own 'chill out' lounge, serving cocktails, sushi and other snacks. The A'Beckett Street food hall will also host the launch party on Wednesday, December 5. For $41, you'll get five mini rice dishes, one dessert and a boozy beverage. Entry to the festival itself is free, and will be open from 5–10pm on Friday, 10–10pm on Saturday and 12–5pm on Sunday.
As digital accessibility continues to erode traditional methods for the communal experience of artistic events, more and more creatives are coming up with new ways to keep old-school activities relevant. Underground Cinema is one of the champions. No more checking schedule times, reading reviews to determine the pick-of-the-programme, queuing for tickets or choosing between popcorn and choc tops. Underground Cinema (or UGC for short) doesn't involve merely seeing a film; it's an immersive experience. Participants purchase tickets online knowing only the theme, date and time of the event. They're clueless as regards to where they're going to meet, what they're going to see or who's behind the programme. Upon receiving notice of a top-secret location (anywhere from a parking lot to a disused ballroom to an abandoned warehouse), they turn up to enter not a cinema but an alternate universe, arranged according to the ethos of the movie they're about to see. That means live performances, music, costumes and who knows what else. The next UGC event intends to transport attendees to 1950s Hollywood. "It's swinging, saucy and sexy," reads the site. "We've got big bands, colour TV and stars in our eyes. It's a world of glitz and glamour, allure and attraction, but beware — all that glitters is not gold." https://youtube.com/watch?v=3UMG2fXsyAU
Just when you thought Melbourne had seen just about every variation of yum cha and high tea imaginable, Gazi throws something entirely fresh into the mix: a series of weekly Greek yum cha feasts. Leaning into the CBD eatery's Hellenic roots, while also staying true to those classic yum cha stylings, the Sunday lunches will see diners tucking into a parade of Greek-Asian dishes. With the kitchen firing from noon until 3pm each Sunday, you can enjoy all ten of the new menu items for $49 per person. Expect innovative fusion bites, like spanakopita gyoza, feta spring rolls with honey and sesame, and a lamb-filled char-tsoureki (Greek sweet bread) that nods to the classic Chinese pork bun. Those looking to make a Sunday session of it can add on three hours of bottomless cocktails for an extra $35 per person. We're talking summery sips like the Oolong Island Iced Tea — featuring black tapioca pearls and a 'cola' whipped up from oolong tea, muscovado and lime — and San-Grecian a concoction of Greek white wine, peach, strawberry, lemon and rose.
Get Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand and more exceptional women in a room, point a camera their way, let the talk flow: Sarah Polley's Women Talking does just that, and the Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay Oscar-nominee is phenomenal. The actor-turned-filmmaker's fourth effort behind the lens after 2006's Away From Her, 2011's Take This Waltz and 2012's Stories We Tell does plenty more, but its basic setup is as straightforward as its title states. Adapted from Miriam Toews' 2018 novel of the same name, this isn't a simple or easy film, however. That book and this feature draw on events in a Bolivian Mennonite colony from 2005–9, where a spate of mass druggings and rapes of women and girls were reported at the hands of some of the group's men. In a patriarchal faith and society, women talking about their experiences is a rebellious, revolutionary act anyway — and talking about what comes next is just as charged. "The elders told us that it was the work of ghosts, or Satan, or that we were lying to get attention, or that it was an act of wild female imagination." That's teenage narrator Autje's (debutant Kate Hallett) explanation for how such assaults could occur and continue, as offered in Women Talking's sombre opening voiceover. Writing and helming, Polley declares her feature "an act of female imagination" as well, as Toews did on the page, but the truth in the movie's words is both lingering and haunting. While the film anchors its dramas in a specific year, 2010, it's purposefully vague on any details that could ground it in one place. Set within a community where modern technology is banned and horse-drawn buggies are the only form of transport, it's a work of fiction inspired by reality, rather than a recreation. Whether you're aware of the true tale behind the book going in or not, this deeply powerful and affecting picture speaks to how women have long been treated in a male-dominated world at large — and what's so often left unsaid, too. Stay and do nothing. Stay and fight. Leave the only home they've ever had behind, be excommunicated from their faith and forgo their spot in heaven. When the Mennonite women catch one of their attackers, he names more, arrests follow and the men are sent to the city — the culprits imprisoned, the rest there to bail them out — those three choices face the ladies of Women Talking. To decide which path to take, they hold a secret vote while the colony's males are away. When the results are tied, a cohort within the cohort chat it out in the barn. From elders to mothers and teens, everyone has a different perspective across three generations, or a different reason for their perspective, but the hurt, pain, dismay and distress simmering among the stern gazes, carefully braided hair and surrounding hay is shared. The women's religious beliefs dictate one solution only: absolution. That's the outcome demanded by the scarred Janz (The Tragedy of Macbeth's McDormand, also a co-producer here), so much so that she won't entertain alternatives. But her peers Agata (Judith Ivey, The Accidental Wolf) and Greta (Sheila McCarthy, The Broken Hearts Gallery) see shades of grey in their predicament — shades that Polley and her returning Away From Her and Take This Waltz cinematographer Luc Montpellier highlight in Women Talking's colour palette, even though their viewers will scream internally for the women to immediately leave. While dialogue-driven by necessity, the film also spies the country idyll that sits outside the barn doors, where the kids play contentedly in the crops. This isn't an aesthetically sunny movie — its tones are muted, as its women have long been required to be — but it still sees what departing means on multiple levels with clear eyes. As the debate rages against Hildur Guðnadóttir's (Tár) score of yearning — The Monkees' 'Daydream Believer' also gets a spin, surreally so — Agata's daughter Salome (Foy, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain) furiously advocates for battling. Her toddler daughter was among those attacked, which is understandably something she can't forgive, forget and keep living submissively beside the perpetrators, in a culture that allowed it to happen, afterwards. For Greta's just-as-irate daughter Mariche (Buckley, Men), who is abused by her husband openly aside from the widespread attacks, nothing good can come from running — including with their god. And for Salome's sister Ona (Mara, Nightmare Alley), who is pregnant from being raped, her ideals keep her going. As pros and cons about fighting or fleeing are thrown around, she speaks calmly but passionately about wanting a better community where the Mennonite women have agency and educations, as well as being safe and free. Indeed, because the group cannot read or write, formerly ex-communicated teacher August (Ben Whishaw, No Time to Die) is the lone male permitted to their meeting, taking minutes. More than a decade has passed between Polley's third film and Women Talking, and cinema has been all the poorer for it. How rich and resonant — how raw, sensitive and potent at the same time — her latest directorial effort proves. Compassionate and thoughtful in every frame, it scorches as a based-on-a-true-tale drama and as a state-of-the-world allegory, and says just as much beneath all the feverish utterances. Even with the Mennonite order's rules and conformity, costuming and hairstyles convey plenty about varying personalities. Letting colour seep into the movie's characters as the sun sets parallels the vibrant personalities these ladies are not expected to possess. And when Women Talking peers at the boys of the collective, it does so softly, asking what it takes to turn those innocent faces into men who'd subdue Salome, Mariche, Ona and company with cow tranquillisers to violate them. Such a complex and empathetic feature that's also intense, gripping and wide-ranging — pondering gender inequality, what community truly means and should stand for, religious devotion and the sins permitted in its name, unthinking compliance to any societal order and more — is unsurprisingly packed with performances to match. Women Talking's cast are deservedly up for the 2023 Screen Actors Guild Awards ensemble prize, while Buckley and Whishaw earned Gotham Awards nominations as well; there's no weak link in this troupe, including with all the rhythmic chatter. Each in their own way, Foy, Mara, McDormand and their co-stars radiate heartbreak, determination, vulnerability and anger. Whishaw is similarly excellent, but also never the film's focus. These portrayals are talking, too, in a movie that wouldn't fantasise about offering easy answers — but dreams of the possibilities spirited conversations and no longer staying silent can and do bring.
What's the secret behind a great chair? Why does one design fail and another one flourish? Can you tell a replica from the real thing? How does architecture impact upon the success of high-density living? They're just some of the questions that Melbourne Design Week looks to answer in its first-ever program, which will take over the city from March 16 to 26. In fact, the entire just-announced lineup seeks to pose and respond to a provocation: 'what does design value, and what do we value in design?'. With that in mind, expect everything from talks to exhibitions and tours to panels and industry during the ten-day event at NGV International and other venues throughout Melbourne. For anyone who likes to not only get comfy when they're sitting, but park themselves on an impressive piece of furniture, Creating the Contemporary Chair is a must-see, showcasing 35 pieces including a stool coated in volcanic rock from Chile's Villarrica volcanos and a suspended chair that resembles a killer whale. Elsewhere, 26 Original Fakes asks Aussie designers to make their own version of a famous Jasper Morrison creation, innovative local efforts spanning everything from wifi to bionic ears will be on display, and discussions will cover thrones (not games of them, though), Indigenous-led design, the history of objects, and more. Both shopping and wandering are also on the agenda, the former courtesy of the 2017 Melbourne Art Book Fair and the presentation of South Korean jewellery makers Galley O's pieces in the NGV Design Store, and the latter including a guided tour through the Melbourne studios and galleries that craft shiny bling, as well as open houses at 15 businesses and institutions. Basically, if you're a design-lover, you'll be spoiled for choice — and overflowing with sources of inspiration. Melbourne Design Week takes place from March 16 to 26, 2017. For more information, visit: www.ngv.vic.gov.au/melbourne-design-week-2/ Image: Jacopo Foggini, designer, Italian, born 1966. Edra, Pisa, manufacturer, Italy est. 1987. Alice armchair, 2011 {designed}, 2016 {manufactured}, polycarbonate, LEDs, electrical components, 80 x 114 x 98cm. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne. Purchased with funds donated by Gordon Moffatt AM, 2017.
Cleveland-based, alt-punk trio Cloud Nothings is set to head our way this week, armed with brand new album Here and Nowhere and ready to play Meredith Music Festival — as well as a bunch of sideshows. Since starting out jamming around singer-songwriter Dylan Baldi's basement, Cloud Nothings' trademark sound has become bigger, bolder and more powerful; nostalgic in its references to the Buzzcocks, Husker and Blink-182, yet very much its own thing. It's been an unexpected year for Cloud Nothings. After moving from a quartet to a trio in early 2014 (former guitarist Joe Boyer can't actually leave Ohio for legal reasons), the band's blistering live shows — including recent appearances at Pitchfork Music Festival and Primavera — have played a huge role in boosting their fanbase. In fact, you'll probably want to nab yourself a ticket super-fast: their 2013 Australian tour was a sell-out. In addition to Meredith, Cloud Nothings will play Sydney's Oxford Art Factory on Wednesday, 10 December, supported by Palms and Bed Wettin' Bad Boys; Melbourne's Corner Hotel on Thursday, 11 December, supported by Palms and Power; and Brisbane's The Zoo on Sunday, 14 December.
By now, you know there's only one true way to celebrate a national or international food day — and that's by enjoying a huge giveaway dedicated to said food, whether it's doughnuts, burgers or gelato. The question is, who's feeding you with freebies this month when National Fried Chicken Day rolls around? The answer, my friends, is Gami Chicken & Beer — the Korean-style fried chook chain that has grown to include 32 restaurants across Australia and is a regular among our top fried chicken picks. On Wednesday, July 6, these crispy chicken experts are getting into the spirit of the USA's National Fried Chicken Day (hey, any excuse, right?) and giving away literally thousands of wings. Rather than handing out actual chicken, the group's East Coast stores are giving away 5000 vouchers, each redeemable for an eight-piece wings pack. That equates to a huge 40,000 Gami wings, going for free. To nab your voucher, simply order something dine-in, or via takeaway or delivery, from any Gami store in NSW or Victoria on July 6 — you can check where your local outposts are online. The wings vouchers can then be used on a dine-in Gami feast up until August 31.
Given the hefty backlash copped by Lost Picnic's 2017 edition, you'd be forgiven for thinking the boutique Sydney festival might not live to see another day. But organisers have announced the event will return this October, promising to address last year's raft of issues and even throwing a debut Melbourne date into the mix. Taking over Melbourne's Flemington Nursery on October 7 and Sydney's Domain on October 13, Lost Picnic 2018 is out to dish up a family-friendly serve of live entertainment and top local eats. Taking the stage this year will be legendary young-gun Tash Sultana, off the back of releasing her debut album, joined by Meg Mac, New Zealand singer-songwriter Marlon Williams, Sydney's Odette and brass ten-piece Hot Potato Band. A finely-tuned food offering will show off some of the best of each city — think, Milky Lane and The Dolphin in Sydney, with Burn City Smokers and Pho Nom flying the flag down south. Lost Picnic's last outing suffered more than a few hiccups, with punters complaining of lengthy wait times, food and drink stalls running out of stock early, and a somewhat disastrous forced recycling system. But this time around, Simon Beckingham — co-founder of Finely Tuned, the group that organises both Lost Picnic and NYE bash Lost Paradise — says festival goers can expect a much smoother affair. "Since last year's event wrapped up, we have been working hard to vastly improve the customer experience for 2018," he told Concrete Playground. After taking "all feedback on board", Beckingham had confirmed that there will be double the food stalls and an increased number of toilets, bar staff and tills — and those keen to skip the food queues altogether will be able to bring in their own picnic snacks. It's unclear if the capacity of the festival has been reduced or not. And instead of last year's compulsory recycling system, which forced punters to put down a $1 deposit for cups and then line up again to get a refund, there'll be a more user-friendly $10 cash-back incentive for those recycling their empty wine bottles. Tickets are going for the same price — $89 a pop — so here's hoping all the changes make the ticket price worth it. Lost Picnic will be in Melbourne at Flemington Nursery on October 7 and in Sydney at The Domain on October 13. Grab early bird tickets here for $89.
Look out, Prahran. Your newest hang has arrived in town and it's a glitzy, glamorous creature, draped in pink, emerald and gold and inspired by the Riviera. Opening on Friday, December 7, The Greville hopes to take care of all your weekend needs — namely, drinking, eating and dancing. Walking in, you'll find yourself in the Champagne Bar. Grab a glass of Dom Perignon or a signature cocktail created by Bar Manager Alan Coop,such as the Mid Summer Night (Four Pillars gin, blood orange syrup, ginger juice and sambuca) or the Smoke & Mirrors (Vida Mezcal, Laphroaig whiskey, honey and Angostura Bitters), then sink into a pink velvet armchair, surrounded by pink velvet walls. When you've worked up an appetite, continue into the restaurant. In this lush space — splashed with gold, emerald and marble — you'll be feasting on the dishes of Head Chef Casey Norman (ex-Cumulus Inc. and Baby). Among her share plates are beef tartare with capers, radish, cornichons and croutons; grilled calamari with smoked ricotta, and king prawns with spicy remoulade, apple and quinoa crisp. Next up, it's time to dance. On Friday and Saturday nights, the staircase upwards will lead you to the first floor, where you'll be making shapes to some of Melbourne's favourite DJs. Alternatively, collapse into a booth, wait for a waiter and content yourself with being a wallflower. Find The Greville at 132–134 Greville Street, Prahran. It's open Wednesday and Thursday from 5pm until late, and Friday–Sunday, from midday until late.
Rejoice, gin enthusiasts of Melbourne, as a series of juniper-fuelled cocktail classes is coming to town so you can take your mixology to the next level. Teaming up with German distillery Monkey 47, riverside bar Ocean 12 will host classes every Thursday from March to May on its terrace, which will be transformed into a lush forest with glowing mushrooms, wild vines and plenty of greenery. Running from 6.30–8.30pm, the classes include a free G&T on arrival, food and expert tips of the trade — all for $79. You'll be shaking and stirring cocktails, including a cucumber-infused gin martini that even a tux-wearing 007 would want to knock back, as well as other impressive tipples using Monkey 47 dry gin and Monkey 47 sloe gin. Afterwards, keep the good times going by taking advantage of the bar's happy hour from 8–10pm, where select beer, wines and spirits are a cheeky $8 while Monkey 47-based cocktails will be $12 a pop.
What does the soundtrack to your life sound like? Music can so often bring memories flooding back to a time and a place, and by acknowledging that we can see how certain songs or artist have influenced the people we are today. The same can be said for influential literature; whether it’s a short story, poem or a classic novel, we develop connections to those writers who have (even if only in a small way) influenced the way we think and view the world. 'Words and Music' allows musicians and writers to share the artistic work that has influenced them on a creative level with a captive audience. This new series of events is a rare chance for artists to explain the connections they have with other musicians and writers, and how they have arrived at their own methods of storytelling. For this instalment, artistic director and serial collaborator, Genevieve Lacey, will host two celebrated Australian creatives on stage. Author Hannah Kent will be bringing in two pieces of music that have inspired her written work. Kent has just released her debut novel Burial Rights and is the co-founder and deputy editor of Australian literary journal Kill Your Darlings. ARIA-nominated folk singer/songwriter Lior will, in turn, bring in two pieces of writing that have influenced him when creating music. His debut album, Autumn Flow, is still as impossibly captivating and beautiful as it was when it first came out in 2005 — who did he listen to in order to get there?
With a loaded three-night program, this year's White Night Reimagined festivities call for some extra sustenance to fuel those extended late-night wanderings. Luckily, a couple of Sydney legends are more than happy to help. Once Leonardo's Pizza Place wraps up service on Saturday, August 24, it'll be handing over the reins to Sydney favourite Mary's Pizzeria and natural wine shop P&V Merchants, for a one-off session of after-dark revelry. The wine and pizza party kicks off at 10pm and will run all the way through to 2am, thanks to a special extended trading licence. On the menu, you'll catch a range of Mary's signature Detroit-style square pizzas, starring the likes of a classic pepperoni and the Mushroom Fucker, alongside party snacks and sides. Meanwhile, P&V Merchants' wine list will have lots of fun and funky drops, featuring a mix of Italian and Aussie bottles, and even a few cheeky magnums (1.5-litre bottle) and jeroboams (4.5 litres). It's all served with a side of raucous rock 'n' roll tunes to see you happily through until the wee hours. White Night at Leonardo's Pizza Palace runs from 10pm–2am with walk-ins only (no bookings). Image 1-2: Leonardo's Pizza Palace by Kate Shanasy.
The ninth annual CherryRock festival is kicking off this weekend with both local and international acts throwing down and leaving it all on the stage. As in the past, there will be two stages set up for the day and no clashes with the set times; as 13 acts are set to rock out. Headlining the weekend will be Portland stoner-rock icons Red Fang. Also performing is New Zealand’s very own Beastwars, Brisbane band HITS, as well as Child, My Left Boot, Fuck the Fitzroy Doom Scene, Dr. Colossus, Los Hombres Del Diablo and more. Many punters feared that they had seen the end of CherryRock when it did not go on as planned last November, however the grumpy neighbours are just going to have to suck it up for a night. Pastuso are also taking the night off to have their annual staff party early this year, so it’s all systems go for AC/DC Lane.
Melbourne's rotating Asian market HWKR has revealed its next pop-up concept — and, boy, is it a good'un. The team has joined forces with Australia's favourite instant noodle brand Indomie to bring Melburnians the Jakarta-inspired Warung Stall. The menu is 'pimp mie goreng' themed, so Indomie's classic instant noodles will be used as the base for the dishes — but they definitely don't resemble what you would cook up at home at 2am. Expect mie goreng with fried chicken ribs, telur balado (chilli sauced egg), anchovies and peanuts; spicy mie goreng with Balinese beef, tofu, shrimp crackers and sambal; and corned beef and egg-topped noodles. There are also a few noodle soups on offer, like the curry chicken version with corn fritters, or the fried chicken ribs option with egg, Asian greens and homemade cabe ijo (pickled green chilli paste). If you're just after a snack, you can grab an egg-stuffed martabak (that is, a savoury crepe), mie goreng-dusted potato crisps and a chicken and potato pastel jadul — a street snack that resembles an empanada. Large dishes range from $10.50–13.50, and snacks are around $7–8. The menu is completely halal, vegetarian-friendly and some dishes can be made vegan, too. If you get in quick, Indomie is also giving out 100 vintage tote bags with any order. Best hop to it. The stall is open daily from 11.30am–10pm and until 11pm on Fridays and Saturdays. Updated: July 9, 2019.
We've scored various incarnations of Pope Joan over the years, after the much-loved eatery moved from its OG Brunswick East digs into a new CBD site in 2019. And now, after an extended COVID-driven hiatus last year, she's back, delivering another new feasting format to see us through the tail end of summer. Pope Joan City is joining forces with Fitzroy's modern Indian diner Ish, serving up a special six-week collaboration from Monday, January 18. The Collins Street space will be turning out Indian-inspired eats for breakfast and lunch weekdays, along with a Friday night dinner session. Head on in to start your day with the likes of Punjabi-style scrambled eggs with spiced chilli and tomato, and a Parsi omelette featuring spiced pork sausage and potato rosti. Or, treat your lunchbreak appetite to a masala-spiced fried chicken sando, homemade milk buns stuffed with fried potato dumplings (vada pav), and cured kingfish with pomegranate and Indian crisps. Pope Joan favourites will also be on offer throughout the stint, while Fixation Brewing takes care of the drinks side of things with a lineup of IPAs, both classic and modern. Plus, pop in from 4–6pm each Friday for brewer chats, special-release tastings and happy hour specials. PopeISH is open 7am–4pm Monday–Thursday and 7am–late Friday. Images: Annika Kafcaloudis
Sunday afternoons were made for cold beers, tasty barbecue eats and good company. Your mates at Stray Neighbour know what's what, so they're wrapping up the first weekend of Good Beer Week in style with a good old-fashioned Sunday session. Head along to the Preston bar and eatery from 12pm on Sunday, May 16 to join in the fun, which is being co-hosted by the crew at local brewery Kaiju. Grab a $5 ticket and you'll enjoy a beer on arrival, plus a shot at Kaiju's Koin Shuffle game, offering the chance to win yourself some sweet beer merch. There'll be tunes spun by Stray Neighbour's house DJ, more games and prizes, and of course, plenty of Kaiju brews including both core drops and some special releases. The kitchen will also be firing up the barbecue, whipping up a tidy menu of meaty delights for you to purchase as you cruise through your afternoon. Top image: Stray Neighbour, by Brook James.
Come September 24, Belleville is launching their inaugural Southern Fried Sundays feast. Described as a maple-drenched brunch/lunch of epic proportions, the poultry fiends have answered all of your deep-fried desires — and your morning-after-a-big-night-out needs. There'll be baskets of buttermilk-brined fried chicken that you can 'paint' sauce onto, plus waffles of both the japaleño cornbread and bacon and cheddar varieties, smothered in maple syrup. If you're really hankering for a feed, the Southern Style Spread will be right up your alley. Comprised of chicken skin butter garlic bread, leek and ham hock greens, roast potatoes, two types of waffles, and southern fried chicken with maple, buffalo and ranch dips, this whopping meal won't leave much room in the old tum tum. You'll have to forge on though, because the crew will also be putting on their favourite Southern Comfort cocktails and Pepperberry Bloody Marys to help wash down their hefty offerings. Mosey on down to Belleville between 11:30am to 5:30pm on Sunday — just so you can cradle your belly in contentment as you waddle back out.
Brunswick is known for many things — it's one of the city's best spots for paste-ups and yarn bombs, it's the place to go if you're after personally tailored jeans on the cheap or a trolley full of second-hand swag, and it's pretty much the only Melbourne suburb where you can still get a fully-fledged house with a backyard for under $180 per room. But as of last month, it has one more jewel in its tatty second-hand crown — it has the world's best pizza. Last month Johnny Di Francesco, pizza chef and owner of Lygon Street's 400 Gradi, took out the top honours at the Campionato Mondiale della Pizza (World Pizza Championships) in Italy. It was a strange victory. But, much like the fact a Tasmanian single malt took out the title at the World Whiskey Awards just a month earlier, it proved Australians are a worldly bunch — currently beating everyone at their own game. Now you get to reap all the benefits! In light of his unprecedented win, Di Francesco is hosting a pizza-making masterclass at his award-winning restaurant on Saturday, May 17. In what will be a regular affair — scheduled for the third Saturday of every month — Johnny will be going back to the basics teaching novice pizza-chefs how to make the perfect margherita pizza. Di Francesco is a big advocate of pizza napoletana, so the end result will look nothing like the kind you might find at Pizza Hut or Dominos. Chewy, foldable and made with traditional ingredients, the pizzas at 400 Gradi are the real deal and this masterclass will give you a special insight into tricks of the trade. Learn how to make the perfect dough, how to cook the most delectable napoletana sauce, and how to sneak some bocconcini while your world-class teacher isn't looking. For more advanced (or adventurous) students, 400 Gradi also offers pizza acrobatics classes on the second Saturday of every month taught by Australian champion Daniele Caputo. Because be honest, you've always wanted to be able to spin the dough on your finger like you're the Magic Johnston of the pizza world. Frankly, if you knew it was possible to be a champion in pizza acrobatics you probably would have given up your job years ago. Don't worry, it's not too late. All classes are $70 per person and come with a complementary glass of Italian wine (and some hard-earned pizza). To book a place call 400 Gradi on (03) 9380 2320.
To those in the know, Michael White has long been the epicentre of the London entertainment scene, spreading his producing talents across the stage and screen in everything from Oh! Calcutta! to Monty Python and the Holy Grail to The Rocky Horror Picture Show. To those outside his orbit, his name remains unfamiliar even as his impact is inescapable. Documenting the untold story of his life and legacy, The Last Impresario dwells in the space between both extremes. Australian actress and filmmaker Gracie Otto once fell into the latter category, until spotting White at the Cannes Film Festival in 2010. There he sat, surrounded by the who's who of the industry, and her curiosity was instantly piqued. They quickly made each other's acquaintance, formed a firm friendship, and the idea for the film was born. In keeping with her enigmatic introduction to the now elderly entrepreneur, it is not White that monopolises Otto's insider look at his influence, but the myth of the charming man and the many people and projects that came under its thrall. A septuagenarian with declining health, he has a limited ability to tell his own tale, but there is no shortage of famous faces — from John Waters to John Cleese, Kate Moss to Anna Wintour, and Australians Greta Scacchi, Naomi Watts, Lyndall Hobbs and Barry Humphries — able to regale viewers with amusing anecdotes. Of course, much of the fun comes in reliving his celebrity experiences with Jack Nicholson, David Bowie and the like, as meticulously photographed by avid snapper White and further catalogued in decades' worth of memorabilia. His life and the documentary that results is the ultimate act of star-spotting, filtered through a charismatic figure who should be better known than those he interacts with. Scacchi succinctly puts it best; he is "the most famous person you've never heard of". Making her first full-length effort after a series of award-winning shorts, Otto is a naturalistic documentarian afforded ample access undoubtedly aided by her own movie pedigree (in addition to forging her own career, she is the daughter of Bliss's Barry and the sister of The Lord of the Rings' Miranda), yet only occasionally does she overplay her hand. Her visuals are vibrant, her interviews probe, but it is her tone that best impresses, celebrating the feature's subject while never shying away from the underlying melancholy of his less-than-ordinary existence. Two areas skirted around — White's illness and finances — provoke unfulfilled intrigue; however, what does comprise the film paints a very interesting picture nonetheless. The feature's thesis, that they just don't make them like White anymore, is easily proven. In name and in nature, The Last Impresario colourfully charts the final remnants of dying breed. https://youtube.com/watch?v=mRbUZA161vc
If you've ever copped a solid dose of the midnight munchies and found yourself begrudgingly out the front of the kebab shop you were at just last weekend, we hear you. Feeling peckish while out on the town is a given at some point, and sometimes there's not a lot standing between you and that lukewarm kebab choice. No judgment — we're just here to remind you that questionable 'babs aren't all there is to Melbourne post 9pm. In fact, eating delicious late-night snacks (such as a truffle-cheese toastie — more on that later) is just the start of your nocturnal adventures around the city. There's a whole lot more to check out around town that won't just make your stomach happy. Read on for the post-9pm things to do, see and ingest and get some inspiration for the next time you're doing the late-night city wander. CATCH SOME LATE-NIGHT ART AND BEATS AT NGV FRIDAY NIGHTS One of the highlights of Melbourne's summer (and what can make a hot, packed tram ride down St Kilda Road worth it) is the annual NGV Friday Night series — after-hours shenanigans at the city's (and Australia's) biggest art gallery. With a schedule lined up that includes DJ sets (Andy Bull, KLP, Eilish Gilligan and Japanese Wallpaper), dance and electro (Albrecht La'Brooy) and other music (anon performing Bach compositions), it's worth reminding yourself that you also get free entry to the main exhibition (Between Two Worlds | Escher X Nendo) with your ticket price. Add a pop-up bar into the mix, and you've got yourself a pretty arty date night – all open until 10pm to help kickstart your Friday night. [caption id="attachment_694046" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Roadshow.[/caption] SEE A POST-11PM FLICK AT CINEMA NOVA Carlton's Cinema Nova has long been a provider of quirky flicks, foreign films and cult hits to the masses (or the 22 people that can fit in its smallest cinema), and the choc-tops are right up there with some of the greatest cinema snacks our city offers. The cinema also holds late night film sessions on Fridays and Saturdays, so you can wander in after you've had a bite to eat and a couple of drinks and want to keep your night going. Latest sessions are from around 11pm, and the cinema lets you take alcoholic beverages from the bar into your flick, so if you've been planning on a late-night cry to A Star Is Born, why not do it here, and into your wine and choc-top. TRAVEL TO ANOTHER ERA OF PARTYING AT SPEAKEASY HQ'S THE VAULT Another city venue where you're not really sure what's in store for you until you get there, Speakeasy HQ runs the full gamut from weekly comedy sessions to Ella Fitzgerald cover artists to illusionists. But mostly, Speakeasy HQ is the veritable ringleader of Melbourne's vaudeville scene and at its Mercantile Place theatre, The Vault, you can really dive into the vintage vibes of burlesque. Hidden within a former gold rush bank vault, the historic space hosts a slew of late-night acts, including the weekly 'Burlesque Extravaganza' and a 'Tassel and Tease' situation. You can also find one-off shows playing each week. Pull up a seat and settle in for the show — with the variety of shows each night, you won't miss any of the 'spectacular spectacular'. DIG INTO STOMACH-LINING LATE-NIGHT EATS AT FERDYDURKE Getting down to perhaps the most important aspect of late-night Melbourne adventures now – appeasing your rumbling stomach – head to Ferdydurke for a whammy of a midnight sanga. Having just launched its late night food menu, Ferdydurke is serving up the goods for cheese-lovers. Pop in to line your stomach and say thank you to the cheese gods, because the late-night munchies are available 9pm till late on Friday and Saturdays. There's a truffle cheese toastie featuring two types of cheese on the go, as well as loaded tater tots and a Royale hot dog with a veg option, too, and not a single kebab in sight. All comes served up hot, fresh and quick to have you on your merry way to check out the local DJ collectives that play at the venue every Friday and Saturday night. Or, forget the d-floor altogether, and just stay to eat truffle cheese toasties until you want to cry (not recommended, but we're not telling you how to live your life). GET AMONG THE ARTY HAPPENINGS AT LOOP PROJECT SPACE & BAR This CBD space is a hodgepodge of art, culture and music on any given night — you can probably safely bet on coming across something interesting during a visit. Open every day except Sundays and kicking until 3am on Friday and Saturdays (and 11.30pm every other night), the space incorporates downstairs Loop Bar, a watering hole and event space, as well as upstairs Loop Roof, a rooftop cocktail bar/beer garden. Besides spending pleasant summer nights in the beer garden, you can expect to find film screenings, DJ sets, and art exhibitions going on at the same time. Check the online calendar to see what's going on and ready your scorecard to add several key Melbourne culture points. FIND YOUR HAPPILY EVER AFTER AT STORYVILLE Jazz your drinking habits up a little and opt for something quirkier than the regular three pints of lager for you and your mates. Lonsdale Street's Storyville provides a down-the-rabbit-hole vibe in its whimsical setting – think big mushrooms, swings and neon/pastel hues — that'll have you feeling like you've stepped inside a Lewis Carroll hallucination. This is the place to spend your cocktail budget for the month. Try a Harry Potter-inspired Polyjuice (gin, ginger liqueur, kiwi, basil and lime served in its own little potion pot) or an Alice-themed Through The Looking Glass (vanilla tea, Havana rum and cream, serves two and comes in a teapot featuring dry ice). Full marks for creativity and a little indulgence over here — it's definitely an after-dark adventure. LET THE JUKEBOX TUNES SET THE MOOD AT HEARTBREAKER If it's late night and you're looking for somewhere to sit and have a heart-to-heart with a hard drink in hand, look no further. Despite the name, dive-bar Heartbreaker was born to provide you and your late-night D&Ms a black leather seat and red neon illumination for dramatic effect. The bar is a moody yet warm venue that makes you think of both Bruce Springsteen and Lady Gaga at once, somehow, and promises that you'll be taken care of. Pop a song on the jukebox, sip your whiskey and dive into some good chats. However you choose to plan out your next late night out, don't forget to fuel (or refuel) up. Ferdydurke's got you covered with its new late-night menu, available from 9pm till late on Friday and Saturday. Top image: Jasmine Sim.
Melbourne is set to get a dose of unapologetic neon-lit Tex-Mex when El Camino Cantina opens in the old Fitzroy Social space on Brunswick Street this month. The restaurant features a 400-seat dining room and bar with giant margaritas, lively Tex-Mex fare — including unlimited free chips and salsa — and rock 'n' roll jukeboxes playing 80s, 90s and early-00s bangers. The menu includes fiery buffalo wings, sizzling fajitas, burritos and more. A happy hour will run from 4–6pm every weekday, featuring $7.50 margaritas, house beer, wine and tequila. And there'll be a bunch of daily specials to take advantage of, too, including $2 tacos on Tuesdays, 10-cent chicken wings on Wednesdays (when you buy select drinks) and $19 brunch on weekends. Oh, and those giant margaritas we mentioned? El Camino's massive 15-ounce and 24-ounce margaritas are available frozen or on the rocks in classic, mango, strawberry and tropical Red Bull flavours. It has a solid collection of over 100 mezcals and tequilas, too. This buzzing funhouse is set to open on Friday, June 14 and it's celebrating with a huge party. Running right across the weekend, the venue will be slinging free tequila shots and limited-edition sombreros on arrival for those with bookings. Plus, all margaritas, house wines, house tequilas and 'chalices' of beer will be $7.50. El Camino Cantina's grand opening celebration will kick off at 6pm on Friday, June 14 and run until Sunday, June 16. You can make a booking via El Camino Cantina's website.
Paradise Music Festival is once again starting off the summer music festival season on a high note, with the first lineup out now. Just like last year, the lineup is entirely made up of up-and coming Australian talent. The boutique, Lake Mountain Resort festival, picks artists, bands and DJs who are killing it in their respective capital cities; planting them in the scenic natural surrounds of Marysville. The weirdly wonderful Kirin J Callinan is stopping by, as is Melbourne R&B darling Oscar Key Sung, with reckless rock kids Drunk Mums, electronic wizards Rat & Co and Crooked Colours. For those looking to get their dance on, Young Franco, Tranter and Otologic are our picks for a toe-tapping good time. Presale tickets already sold out before the lineup had even dropped; an exceptionally good sign for those thinking of heading down. This is only the second year for Paradise Music Festival, proving themselves to serious contenders for your hard-earned summer festival budget. PARADISE MUSIC FESTIVAL 2014 LINEUP (FIRST ANNOUNCEMENT): Kirin J. Callinan Oscar Key Sung Crooked Colours Young Franco Drunk Mums Rat & Co SILENTJAY UV boi LUCIANBLOMKAMP The Sinking Teeth Klo Banoffee Friendships JPS I'lls Kirkis Apart From This Otologic Tranter DEER Total Giovanni Planète ESC Lanks Darcy Baylis Air Max '97 CC:DISCO! RaRa Hubert Clark Jr Foreign/National Jahnne Null Urban Problems Harold Femi
Pickleball remains a thing. Get used to it. The tennis-lite social sport format has kept gaining popularity in the past year, leading to the unveiling of new indoor pickleball courts in South Melbourne and the state is littered with leagues. Jumping on the sport's growing popularity is Humpday, a dating app that's meant to just be used once a week on the titular day. It's teamed up with the National Pickleball League to run an alternative speed dating event on Wednesday, January 31 — notably just a couple weeks out from Valentine's Day. Instead of sitting in a bar trying to pitch your most winning traits, this speed dating event comes with a healthy dose of competition to break the tension. Punters from the age of 21 to 35 will take to the court for a few rounds of pickleball with and against other attendees, helping potential couples let their guards down and have some fun. Unlike more traditional speed dating experiences in Melbourne, this is a scenario for good, clean fun and casual attire. And if you're still feeling a little nervous then you can bring a mate along for support — and end up just playing pickleball together at the end of the night if neither of you hits it off with anyone else.
