For everyone who's yearned for a sunny, sandy, surf-filled holiday over the past few years, screens big and small have come with a warning: be careful what you wish for. In M Night Shyamalan's Old, hitting a gorgeous beach meant ageing quickly. In The White Lotus, it sparked eat-the-rich dramas. While the horror movie remake of Fantasy Island arrived just before lockdowns and travel restrictions, it unleashed terrors in scenic surroundings (and a terrible movie upon audiences). And in the Tim Roth-starring Sundown, escaping to Acapulco permanently isn't as blissful as it sounds. Come the end of July, The Resort will keep this chaotic vacation streak going, all via an eight-part streaming series that'll hit Australia via Stan from Friday, July 29. Here, Nick Offerman (Pam & Tommy), Cristin Milioti (Made for Love) and William Jackson Harper (The Good Place) star in a comedy-thriller that's also a mystery and a coming-of-age love story. Plenty can happen on a getaway, after all. Milioti and Harper play Emma and Noah, two high-school teachers who've been married for ten years and head off on a trip to the Yucatan to celebrate. But while seeking a stint of vacation bliss, as well as attempting to reinvigorate a routine relationship and life that Noah at least is content with, they stumble upon a 15-year-old mystery involving Sam (Skyler Gisondo, Licorice Pizza) and Violet (Nina Bloomgarden, Good Girl Jane) — when they were each making the trip to Oceana Vista Resort with their respective parents back in 2007, but weren't seen again. As The Resort's trailer shows, Offerman plays Violet's father, who is still looking into the mystery, too. Also making an appearance: Luis Gerardo Méndez (Narcos: Mexico) as Oceana Vista Resort's head of security a decade and a half back, Gabriela Cartol (Hernán) as the concierge where Emma and Noah are staying, and Parvesh Cheena (Mythic Quest) and Michael Hitchcock (Barb & Star Go to Vista Del Mar) as two Teds who are married to each other. The cast also includes Ben Sinclair (Thor: Love and Thunder) as resort owner, Debby Ryan (Insatiable) as Sam's girlfriend, and IRL couple Dylan Baker (Hunters) and Becky Ann Baker (Big Little Lies) as Sam's parents. Behind the scenes, The Resort hails from showrunner, writer and executive producer Andy Siara (Palm Springs, Lodge 49), as well as producers Sam Esmail (Mr Robot) and Chad Hamilton, and was shot throughout Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic and Mexico. Check out the trailer for The Resort below: The Resort will start streaming in Australia via Stan from Friday, July 29. Images: Marisol Pesquera / Peacock.
It's almost time to tick over into another trip around the sun. But before our current rotation is complete, we have to give this year a massive send-off that celebrates the ups and, hopefully, helps us forget the downs. Fortunately, this New Year's Eve in Melbourne is stacked, with these dining encounters, late-night parties and luxe galas making for a memorable final night on the town. Cosmic Discoteca at Johnny's Green Room Bring your dancing shoes and send it intergalactic style, as Johnny's Green Room rings in NYE with the all-inclusive Cosmic Discoteca. Priced at $300 per ticket, this rooftop shindig kicks off with champagne on arrival, before guests indulge in a once-off menu created by chef Karen Martini. Then, catch sweeping city views of the fireworks and free-flowing drinks until 1am. Find out more here. New Year's Eve at The Royce's Showroom Bar NYE is a glamorous affair at The Royce — a former Rolls-Royce showroom turned coveted hotel and dining destination. Ease into the evening at the Showroom Bar, where guests can sip Taittinger champagne, knock back a negroni and snack on signature nibbles, like hibachi-flamed ocean trout. Open for walk-ins throughout the afternoon and evening, this spot is ideal for late planners. Find out more here. Midnight Merchants' Ball at Mill Place Merchants Look ahead from a throwback speakeasy, as Mill Place Merchants celebrate NYE with the Midnight Merchants' Ball. Ticketed from $358 per person, guests dressed in their best 'trades of the past' outfit score unlimited cocktails, canapes and live entertainment, including a three-piece jazz band. With prizes awarded for best costume, don your suspenders or feather boas and get immersed in this Prohibition-era party for the ages. Find out more here. [caption id="attachment_845602" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kristoffer Paulsen[/caption] New Year's Eve Dinner at Luci See out 2025 with a touch of elegance, as Luci offers a four-course NYE dinner brimming with old-world romance for $135 per person. Seated in the restaurant's heritage-listed dining hall, guests receive a selection of snacks — sourdough focaccia, taleggio arancini and more — before choosing an enticing entree, main and dessert. Plus, you're welcome to add a half-dozen oysters on arrival or a 2.5-hour bottomless drinks package. Find out more here. Baby Oliv B2B Cabu at Mr Mills Rounding out Mr Mills' Summer Music Series, presented in collaboration with Untitled Group, this happening subterranean spot is ending the year on a high note. With tickets available for $49, including a cocktail on arrival, guests can party late as Baby Oliv serves up a b2b set with Cabu, combining electronic, house and baile funk tunes. Pair with the Festive Set Menu upstairs at Marmelo for extra NYE indulgence. Find out more here. NYE Masquerade Party at VIVA Melbourne Looking for an event you'll still be talking about in a year's time? That might be VIVA Melbourne's NYE Masquerade Party. Ticketed at $155, this eclectic cabaret venue invites guests to wander its transformed spaces, with each brought to life with roaming musicians, comedic performers and immersive theatre moments. Building to a high-energy dance party, masquerade or formal attire is required, elevating the experience even further. Find out more here. Italian Dinner Party at Marameo Sometimes the best New Year's Eve party is the least complicated one. CBD Italian diner Marameo is keeping the formula simple: loads of delicious food. With two sittings available — early birds from 5.30pm or 8.30pm 'til midnight for those counting down — expect a stack of starters, blue swimmer crab linguine, braised lamb shoulder and a boozy tiramisu that's perfect for closing out the year. Find out more here. Archie Rose NYE Martini Menu at Commune Group Venues Love an Archie Rose cocktail? This New Year's Eve, Commune Group is elevating its six bustling Melbourne restaurants with the limited-edition Archie Rose NYE Martini Menu. So, shake and stir your way into Studio Amaro, Tokyo Tina, Firebird, Moonhouse, New Quarter and Hanoi Hannah Vol. II, to sip back five concoctions, like the Signature Martini, featuring Archie Rose Signature Dry Gin, Voir Cherry Blossom and lychee liqueur. Find out more here. New Year's Eve at The Waterside Hotel Eight years in the making, The Waterside Hotel has arrived just in time for its inaugural New Year's celebration. The crew has gone all out, with all four levels of this CBD pub resonating with luxe ticketed experiences. The main event is happening on the first two levels, featuring DJs until 3am and an all-inclusive package of roving canapes and drinks. Upstairs, indulge in a lavish banquet or party with prime views of the city's fireworks. Find out more here. New Year's Eve Feast at Hawker Hall You won't start 2026 hungry, as Hawker Hall hosts a jam-packed feast stacked with Singaporean and Malaysian hawker fare alongside crowd-pleasing DJs. Keep it simple with the $66 per person Feed Me Banquet, or step up the celebratory mood with the $99 NYE Yum Cha Feast, combining a massive dim sum spread with 90 minutes of bottomless Chandon Blanc de Blancs. Find out more here. Sunset Sitting and Midnight Soiree at Beverly Catch the final sunset of 2025 from the ideal vantage point — Beverly's 24th-floor rooftop. For $160 per person, you'll savour a Chef's Selection menu and take in the views. Then, from 8pm, the Midnight Soiree takes over, offering a Met Gala-esque experience, complete with a $250 set menu featuring lobster cannoli, MB4+ dry-aged T-bone and tiramisu lollipops. Meanwhile, you'll get first-class views of the fireworks from high above Chapel Street. Find out more here.
There's no Academy Award solely for vocal performances. If there was, Lupita Nyong'o might've added another of Hollywood's prized statuettes to her mantle when the 2025 ceremony rolls around. A decade after taking home an Oscar for 12 Years a Slave, her first feature, and following standout work in everything from Black Panther and Us to Little Monsters and A Quiet Place: Day One since, she's the voice of Roz — short for ROZZUM unit 7134 — in the big-screen adaptation of Peter Brown's The Wild Robot. Unsurprisingly, she's marvellous and moving, taking viewers on an emotional journey even while playing a robot without facial expressions. When Roz is fresh out of the box, powering up on an animal-filled island devoid of humans in a futuristic vision of earth, Nyong'o lends her vocals to the perky Siri and Alexa peer that audiences will wish spoke back to them from their own devices. As the task-oriented mechanical helper learns that there's more to life than her programming — as she befriends a gosling that she names Brightbill (Kit Connor, Heartstopper) and a fox called Fink (Pedro Pascal, Drive-Away Dolls), too, and wins over other wild critters who are initially fearful of the metallic interloper — the warmth that begins to infuse Roz's tones couldn't feel more genuine. The Wild Robot doesn't only prove a gem thanks to Nyong'o's pivotal performance, but it wouldn't be even a fraction of the film that it is without her. In 2024, the actor has had two movies in cinemas. In A Quiet Place: Day One, speaking was one of the worst things that anyone could do. In The Wild Robot, Nyong'o's entire portrayal comes down to talking. "I love that you made that comparison. I hadn't even thought about it that way," she tells Concrete Playground when we point out the contrast, and also ask what she seeks out in new projects at this point in her career. "What gets me excited? I think about the character that I've been offered to play, and I think about what I will require to play the character — and what I could learn as well from playing the character, what I'm curious about. If the character makes me ask questions of the world and of myself and I'm excited to find out the answers, then I want to play that character," Nyong'o explains. When The Wild Robot came her way, she didn't say yes immediately, however. For Nyong'o, voicing Roz was always going to need to be a creative collaboration; just showing up to speak her lines and leaving it at that isn't how she wanted to work. "I don't know how to be just a voice for hire. I have opinions and I want to share them, and I want to make sure that the person I'm sharing them with wants to hear them," she notes. Nyong'o joined the film after meeting with director Chris Sanders and understanding his vision. "You shape these things together. You go on this journey together, and she is a creative force just like every other artist in this film, for sure," he tells us. "And I have to say, she's an absolute genius. Taking Roz apart bit by bit to understand her thinking kept me honest as a writer," he continues. The Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon and The Croods director — and voice of Stitch — couldn't be more enthusiastic about the latest picture that now sits on his packed resume (also on his filmography from the 90s when he was starting out: production design on The Lion King, visual development on Beauty and the Beast, and story credits on both alongside Aladdin). Before signing on for The Wild Robot, Sanders describes himself as "book-adjacent" to Brown's illustrated tome, as his daughter had read it. "I saw it sitting around the house and I'd actually forgotten about it until the day I came into DreamWorks to look at what was in development. And there was the book, and they described it, and I thought 'that's the one I'm interested in'," he advises. As the feature's writer and director, he's crafted a version that takes inspiration from Hayao Miyazaki's enchanting Studio Ghibli fare, classics such as Bambi and the work of painter Claude Monet, too — and a gem for all ages. How does Nyong'o tackle a voice-acting part — and, whether she's seen on-screen or heard echoing from it, how does she find the right voice for a character? What kind of thinking and planning goes into expressing Roz's inner journey? How important was it to Sanders that the film didn't shy away from animals being animals, not just in appearance but also into recognising the food chain and cycle of life? We chatted with the pair about all of the above as well, and more, including how animated movies trade in big emotions —because we all have that flick, or several, that we'll never forget — and how that sits in your mind when you're making one. On How Nyong'o Approaches a Voice-Acting Part, Especially Playing a Character Without Facial Expressions Lupita: "I think the animators did a great service to Roz — and a great service to an audience — by not giving her facial features. Because then we stay truer to the fact that Roz is not a feeling entity. She is a robot and has a goal — she's goal-oriented and her goal, luckily, is to be of service to whomever purchased her. So that lends itself to kindness. And she's also very adaptable, so she's able to adapt to the behaviours and expressions of the wild animals that she is now living with. And through that, you can adopt sensibilities akin to emotional expression. I like figuring that out cerebrally. How do I play a character without emotions but still be able to convey a bunch of emotions, and then trust that an audience will project their emotions onto her? We are given that license because she doesn't have facial expressions, so she's not doing it for us. We were very much a part of the performance." On Finding the Right Voice for the Right Character Lupita: "It starts off with understanding the given circumstances of the character. What are the facts, right? And so for Roz, one of the main facts that was very important was that she is a programmed robot. That was very informativem and it led me to listen to automated voices like Siri and Alexa, the voices on TikTok and Instagram — they were an inspiration, their relentless, positive vibrancy was the inspiration there. For someone like Red in Us, I knew that there had been a strangulation at some point, and so that fed my imagination on what could that sound like if you were strangled. Things like that. Then I also work very closely with a vocal coach, and I worked with her on both Us and The Wild Robot, and that's really helpful to just externalise my ideas and make sure that I'm doing it in as healthy a way as possible to stave off injuries." On What Sanders Was Excited to Bring to the Screen in Adapting The Wild Robot Chris: "The story for sure. I've always wanted to do a robot movie. And the other thing that I never thought I'd get a chance to work on would be an animal movie like this. This is a lot like Bambi — the forest, the animals, the creatures. And it's a real forest, they're only slightly anthropomorphised. Bambi is a huge favourite. It always will be. One of the things I think that you cannot understate is the emotional power of that film. It has a staying power and a beauty that we wanted to emulate. Aspire to it, actually, is a better way to say it — that and the art of Miyazaki films. These are things that have a huge influence on us as animators and filmmakers. So we had big boots to fill if we were going to equal the power and the scale of those of those stories. Our animators really took to it, by the way. I didn't understand until they started working on the film the level of excitement that they had to do animals that were animals. That kind of movement, I guess, is really a huge thing for an animator. They're usually doing animals carrying cell phones and they have jobs, etcetera. Animals that are animals, there's a purity to the motion that I was really struck by. The animation went unusually quickly because of the lack of things, like jackets and coats and stuff. And so it was a joy to see all of this come to life day by day." On the Importance of Not Shying Away From the Reality of Animals Being Animals Chris: "It was critical because if there isn't consequence, then the story is just not going to work. We don't want to shy away from any of those things because we need that kind of ballast. I would actually harken back to things in The Lion King — if you don't have consequences, you're not going to have that emotional resonance, and I don't think you going to have a movie that works. So death shows up several times in this movie. The first time, of course, is the critical and pivotal event where Roz accidentally, quite literally, runs across this goose's nest by accident and that sets this whole story in motion. Later on, we revisit it, but we often revisit it with humour. We get a laugh out of it. It's a dark kind of humour, but boy is it effective. The animals on this island have programming, and that's the way that Roz looks at it. She's a creature of human programming, and she sees the animals as running programs as well. I thought that was a really interesting way to look at the world, and one of the load-bearing ideas and themes of the film is the idea that someday you may have to change your programming in order to survive. In our lives, we are creatures of habit, we resist change, and we may have to change the way we think. I think that sometimes we're so fearful of losing ourselves for some reason. I think we're very protective of ourselves. I can only speak for myself, but I get that — but whenever I've been forced to see things in a different way, I've been better for it." On What Goes Into Conveying Roz's Inner Journey Through a Vocal Performance Lupita: "I would say the intention was set at the beginning. Before I took on the role, I asked Chris why he thought I would be good for it, and he said he liked the warmth of my voice. So that was very good information for me, so that I knew what I had for free to offer Roz, and so that was where we would end up — that's the voice when Roz has taken on and embraced the role of mother most fully, that she sounds most like me. And then in the process, a two-and-a-half-year process, the script is developing, and along with it our understanding of who Roz is and how we experience her evolution is also developing. That was really quite technical, and we had certain markers, certain benchmarks for where the quality of my voice was shifting. And I did it quite technically, so it dials up in a way that when you're watching the performance is perhaps, hopefully, quite subtle and unnoticeable — until you meet the robots that are more like the other robots like her, towards the third act of the film." On the "Miyazaki by Way of Monet" Visual Approach to the Natural World Within the Film Chris: "All these things we've been talking about, what a perfect line of questioning actually, all these things are linked together like spokes of a wheel. I felt that it was absolutely critical, and I pushed very hard for this level of sophistication in the look of the movie. Think back to what we were talking about with Bambi, that level of sophistication, I felt, would make our audience see this film in the right way, if that makes sense. This is a film that kids will love. Kids should go see it. Families should go see it. But it's not a little kids' film — it's a film. And that's how Walt Disney looked at those stories as well, he always said so. So that level of sophistication helps us to get into the film in a certain way, and it really immerses us in a way that I've never seen a film like this accomplish. I have gotten so much feedback since we finished the film that it really blurs the line between a live-action film and an animated film, frankly, the way that you see it — and that was very deliberate. And I have to credit the artists and the incredible advances that DreamWorks had made technologically that allowed this look. The funny thing is all that technology opened this film up so that humans are more present than ever before. Literally everything is hand-painted. It would be as if I took out a brush and started painting dimensionally in space. That's exactly what they were doing. So there are no forms underneath the trees or the rocks. It's free handed. So the beauty that you get from that, there's no substitute for it. There's an analogue warmth that we reconnected with on this journey that we've taken through CG." On How Animation Allows Audiences to Have Big Feelings — and Thinking About That When You're Making an Animated Film Lupita: "You have to keep the audience in mind. One of the things that I remember us discussing, Roz has a lot of robotic language, just mumbo jumbo that she says — and you want to keep that in a way that allows for children to grow their vocabulary, and also a way for adults to understand and appreciate what she is saying. But you can't make it too difficult that you lose the children altogether. So those were fun workshops where we tried different words. I remember in the script, there was a time when a character asks Roz something and she goes 'hmm, let me see'. But 'hmm', that's a very human expression, and so I said 'processing' and everybody broke out laughing, and it became part of Roz's vocabulary. For children, that is perhaps maybe a new word — children never say processing, I can't imagine they do. But in that sense, you've expanded their vocabulary and stayed true to the character." Chris: "It's something I don't know if I'm really thinking about it, but in a sense I'm striving for it as I'm working on scenes. I'm scaling things. I think one of the neat things about taking a story like Peter Brown's to the screen is the potential for how big these feelings can be. I'm always going for audacity and scale. And I will run a scene over and over and over in my head, modifying it before I even commit anything to paper a lot of the time, until I'm feeling I've found every edge of the boundaries of that particular moment, and I've built it as large as it possibly can be. Because why wouldn't you, you know? Why wouldn't you? And then the really amazing thing is, I take it only so far, and then we have our actors and our and our animators — and eventually the cinematographer, the lighting, and then eventually Kris Bowers [who composed The Wild Robot's soundtrack]. I cannot overstate his contribution as well. I credit him for, I think, the gosh-darn best score I've ever heard in a movie ever." On What Nyong'o Makes of Her Career Over the Past Decade Since 12 Years a Slave Lupita: "I was sitting at the premiere of The Wild Robot at TIFF [the Toronto International Film Festival], and there was a moment, I think it was a moment when Brightbill is flying away and a feather floats into Roz's hands. And it's a very emotional moment within the story. But in that moment, I was just caught, I was struck by the truth that I have been living out my dreams and this project is another dream come true. I was just filled with gratitude, because not everybody gets to live out their dreams so exactly. And I've had that wonderful, wonderful privilege, and I just don't take it for granted. It's been deliberate. It's sometimes been scary. I've had to say no before I knew I could in order to wait for the project that felt like it would give me the kind of expansion I was looking for. And those times that I've said no have paid off. And looking at the last ten years, I'm very, very proud of the work that I've been able to do, and I look forward to continuing to live out my dreams one decision at a time." The Wild Robot opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, September 19, 2024.
The full 2023 Splendour in the Grass lineup isn't here just yet, but the festival's only announced headliner so far is planning a decent stay Down Under around her trip to Byron Bay. Whether you know that you can't make it to the annual fest or you're just keen to see the 'Tempo', 'Juice', 'Truth Hurts' and 'Rumors' singer more than once, Lizzo has just announced four arena shows in Australia and New Zealand this winter. Here's some news that's as good as hell: Lizzo will play Perth, Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland in July, with dates both before and after her Splendour stint. Given that she's set to take to the Qudos Bank Arena stage in the Harbour City on Sunday, July 23, she clearly won't be doing the same in Byron the same night — so, if you're headed to North Byron Bay Parklands, you'll be seeing the songwriter, singer and flautist (and Grammy- and Emmy-winner, too) on either the Friday or Saturday. Back to the solo show: it's tied to Lizzo's 2022 album Special, including, of course, Grammy Record of the Year-winning single 'About Damn Time'. But attendees can expect to hear hits from 2019's CUZ I LOVE YOU as well — and an overall set filled with dance-ready beats. Joining Lizzo on all shows as a special guest is Tkay Maidza, which means two must-see talents for the price of one. [caption id="attachment_750739" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Luke Gilford[/caption] While a Lizzo tour is always a welcome announcement, fans in Brisbane will note the usual Splendour setup — that is, when someone plays the fest and does their own gigs around it, Brissie is considered close enough to Byron to not warrant a separate stop. And if you're somewhere other than Auckland in Aotearoa, you'll need to head there as that's her only NZ concert. LIZZO — THE SPECIAL TOUR 2023: Friday, July 14 — RAC Arena, Perth Monday, July 17 — Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Sunday, July 23 — Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Wednesday, July 26 — Spark Arena, Auckland Lizzo will tour Australia and New Zealand in July 2023. The American Express presale runs from 11am Friday, March 24–11am Tuesday, March 28, followed by the Live Nation presale from 12pm Tuesday, March 28–10am Wednesday, March 29 — and general sales from 11am Wednesday, March 29 — with all times local. For further details, head to the tour website.
Already in 2023, Cate Blanchett has scored her seventh Oscar nomination. Thanks to her phenomenal performance in conductor drama Tár, she's likely to win her third Academy Award, in fact. However her luck pans out on Hollywood's night of nights in March, she'll be towering over Melbourne in June regardless — in a historic space built in 1867, across a film installation spanning an array of huge screens, and in one mighty impressive 360-degree display. The first event announced for this year's RISING, Melbourne's major annual arts festival, will feature Blanchett in her latest starring role for artist and filmmaker Julian Rosefeldt. The duo reteams for Euphoria after working on 2015's stunning installation Manifesto together. Set to take over Melbourne Town Hall from Friday, June 2–Sunday, June 18, their new multichannel work doesn't just focus on the acclaimed Australian actor playing multiple parts, however, instead honing in on the weighty topic that is capitalism. The Berlin-based Rosefeldt tackles his current topic — aka two thousand years of greed and the effect that unlimited economic growth has — via a spiral of screens that'll sit throughout the venue. On the ground floor, 24 screens will showcase a life-sized choir of Brooklyn Youth Chorus singers, while five jazz drummers will duel on the screens above them. And, there'll also be five theatrical vignettes looping above, too, which is where Blanchett playing an anthropomorphic tiger stalking supermarket aisles comes in. Those drummers? They include Grammy Award-winning drummer and composer Antonio Sánchez, who also composed the score for 2014 film Birdman. And those vignettes? They'll also feature Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul favourite — and recent Kaleidoscope star — Giancarlo Esposito among a cast that'll speaking thoughts penned by economists, writers and thinkers like Warren Buffett, Ayn Rand, Angela Davis and Snoop Dogg. As well as Blanchett as a jungle cat, RISING's first major international commission — which hits this year's fest as an Australian exclusive, and enjoyed its world premiere at the Park Armory in New York back in November 2022 — features homeless men chatting about economics, executives getting acrobatic in a bank lobby, and an all-round unpacking of capitalism via its own excess. Paired with it, Euphoria's original score by Canadian composer Samy Moussa and British saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi goes big on jazz, the tunes sung by the children's choir and those uttered ideas. Befitting the theme, the installation will run with a pay-as-you-can pricing model, and welcome in visitors for free on Fridays during its season. 2023 is turning out to be a stellar year for spectacular takeovers of town halls by citywide arts fests, after Sydney Festival turned Sydney Town Hall into an indoor beach — temporarily, of course — for an opera performance back in January. Check out the trailer for Euphoria below: RISING 2023 will take place across Melbourne from Wednesday, June 7–Sunday, June 18, with Euphoria displaying at the Melbourne Town Hall on from Friday, June 2–Sunday, June 18. Tickets for Euphoria go on sale to RISING subscribers from 12pm on Tuesday, February 14, with general sales from Friday, February 17. First top image: Katja Illner.
Melbourne is no stranger to a Korean barbecue restaurant. You'll find them all over the CBD and out in the burbs. We've also got all kinds of them — there are cheap BYO joints and all-you-can-eat affairs, as well as fancier varieties. Melbourne CBD's newest KBBQ spot Woo399 lands on the more premium side of things. Don't get us wrong, it's not a hushed-voiced fine-diner. There's still plenty of fun to be had fighting over the gas-fired grills in the 104-person restaurant. We say it's more high-end because of the quality of meat that's up for grabs. The team sources its pure-bred wagyu from Elbow Valley in Queensland, where the cattle are fed a combination of orange pulp and locally grown grains like wheat, barley and corn. This results in outstanding meat quality, with the team sourcing plenty of cuts with a 9+ marble score. And unlike most Korean barbecue joints, you don't just choose a banquet or selection of meats from the menu. At Woo399, you make your way up to the butcher's fridge, where top-grade meat has already been sliced and packaged for you. Either take this meat home or stick around to dine in. When dining in, simply pick the wagyu with your desired marbling (and price), add some other meats to your basket (pork belly and ox tongue are also available), pay at the counter and then start cooking. Choose from beef cuts like chuck eye roll, short rib, flat meat and the holy oyster blade. Each person is charged $9.99 to use the grills, which also gets you complimentary sauces, three side dishes and unlimited soft drinks. For an extra cost, you can order kimchi, croquettes, soups and a bunch of vegetables. And if you'd rather pair your KBBQ with some booze, Cass Korean larger and soju can be ordered from the waitstaff. Woo399 is ideal for Korean barbecue fans who are incredibly particular about the cuts and quality of meat they want to grill. There are absolutely no surprises here. You'll find Woo399 at 399 Lonsdale Street in the CBD, open from 5:30–10pm every day of the week. For more details, visit the restaurant's website.
Australia has so much wonderful wilderness that spending a few days trekking up hills and down mountains is something everyone should try at least once. But doing so is not something that anyone should take lightly — from safety steps, to preparing food and drink, to having the ideal gear, being suitably prepared for your journey is a must before heading off. Since 1973, Macpac has been ensuring that both new and experienced hikers get the most out of their overnight treks, all thanks to a range of technical clothing and outdoor gear that can handle any type of climate. So, we teamed up with the brand — in celebration of the opening of its new Adventure Hubs — to help you get properly kitted out and put your plan in place. It's time to go trekking. HIKE AT THE RIGHT TIME It probably doesn't come as much of a surprise, but Australia's weather can be pretty temperamental. So when it comes to overnight hiking, it's important to choose a track that's going to have the right conditions for when you're planning to set off. Throughout the year, many hikes can change dramatically thanks to heavy rain or snow, with some becoming inaccessible altogether. Ensure that you're not caught out in the wrong place at the wrong time by researching exactly where you're heading — and by keeping an eye on the weather forecast so you always have the appropriate gear. Pack this: Less is Less Rain Jacket in women's and men's styles ($329.99) MAKE A PLAN AND STICK TO IT Whenever you set out for an overnight trip into the hills, having a travel plan that you can stick to is the best way to avoid a bad situation. There are plenty of things to consider but, if it's possible, you should seek advice from the local Parks Victoria office or experienced local hikers so that you know what to expect when you arrive. (Plus, this way you may get some hints to some epic sights and views.) But bear in mind that if conditions change and any dangers arise, it's better to scrap the plan and cut your trip short than to keep pushing forward. Also crucial: making sure that you leave a detailed itinerary for someone at home, who can then raise the alarm if you don't return by your expected time. Include where you're going, the route you plan to take and how long you think you'll be gone for. You can also head to the Macpac website to make use of its helpful planning tool. Pack this: Suunto Spartan Sport Watch ($699) TAKE EXTRA FOOD AND WATER — JUST IN CASE More is more when you're heading off on an overnight hike — that is, it's always advisable to take more food and water than you think you'll need. And while packing food can be a bit of a challenge, you'll be thanking yourself if you largely opt for lightweight, dehydrated and non-perishable foods. As a general guide, you'll want to try to consume around 12,500 kilojoules or more per day; for water, it's recommended that you drink 250 millilitres for every 30–45 minutes of hiking. In terms of what to pack, many hikers prefer simple products that are easily stored like muesli bars, oatmeal sachets and basic pasta. But if you're feeling ambitious, here are a host of awesome camp food ideas that you can try if you consider yourself a bit of a chef around the fire. Pack this: Hydration Reservoir 3L ($59.95) PICK YOUR GEAR WISELY Bringing all of the right gear is going to make your overnight hike smoother and more enjoyable — plus, you'll feel like a seasoned adventurer. If you're the forgetful type, pack early and have a checklist of all the things you know you'll need. One thing that people often don't remember is just how useful a headlamp is, especially if you've ever tried cooking in the dark with one hand occupied by a torch. That also means bringing along some spare batteries, while sunscreen, a first aid kit and a paper map are always good ideas as well. Next, you need to consider if the gear you currently own is going to be suited for the climate that you're heading into. Consider upgrading your tent, sleeping bag or winter clothing if you think things might get a little chilly. Many popular hiking destinations also have online packing lists, so checking them out will also help. Pack this: Petzl Headlamp ($59.99) LEAVE NO TRACE Everyone loves Australia's pristine nature, so we all need to work together to keep it that way. Always plan to leave no trace when you go out hiking — that means carrying your rubbish with you and staying respectful of any wildlife you come across. Also, make sure that you're aware of any local camping regulations or environmental concerns in the area. One particular warning to take note of: total fire bans. While everyone wants a campfire when they set up their tent for the night, bans are commonplace across Australia and must be followed. If having a fire is allowed, try to keep it small while also using fire pans or mounds, which help keep the flames safely under control. Pack this: Scarpa Kailash Boots in women's and men's styles ($399.99) DON'T FORGET ENTERTAINMENT If storm clouds roll through and you find yourself stuck in your tent for a few hours, you might find that the conversation becomes a little stale. That's why bringing some light form of entertainment to keep yourself and others occupied never goes amiss. A deck of cards weighs next to nothing and is easy to carry, while paperback books (or a Kindle), magazines and audiobooks are other great ways to pass the time before you can hit the track again. Top image: Visit Victoria.
With almost every new Kristen Stewart-starring movie that has reached screens since her Twilight days, a distinctive feeling radiates. It was true with Clouds of Sils Maria, Certain Women and Personal Shopper, and then with Happiest Season, her Oscar-nominated role in Spencer and also Crimes of the Future as well: each of these films are exactly the types of flicks that one of the most-fascinating actors working today should be making. Then arrived Love Lies Bleeding, which partly sprang from that very idea and couldn't perfect it better. This revenge-driven, blood-splattered, 80s-set romantic thriller about a gym manager and a bodybuilder who fall in love, then into a whirlwind of sex, vengeance and violence, was written with Stewart in mind. As Saint Maud writer/director Rose Glass must've imagined while putting pen to paper, she's stunning in it. Love Lies Bleeding casts KStew as Lou, whose days overseeing the local iron-pumping haven — well, unclogging its toilets and scowling at meathead customers from beneath her shaggy mullet — are shaken up when female bodybuilder Jackie (Katy O'Brian, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) enters her remote New Mexico hometown. This is a girl-meets-girl tale, but it's also about the chaos of finding the person who best understands you, dealing with a lifetime's worth of baggage and trying to start anew. Here, amid neon hues and synth tunes, that means navigating Lou's gun-running dad (Ed Harris, Top Gun: Maverick) and abusive brother-in-law (Dave Franco, Day Shift), trying to protect her sister Beth (Jena Malone, Rebel Moon — Part One: A Child of Fire), chasing Jackie's competitive dreams and attempting to leave complicated pasts in the rearview mirror. Co-writing with Weronika Tofilska (a director on His Dark Materials and Hanna), Glass didn't just conjure up Lou with Stewart as her ideal lead; she also leapt into a helluva sophomore project that follows quite the experience with Saint Maud. The 2019 movie, Glass' feature directorial debut, marked her as one of the next exciting filmmakers out of Britain. But little about getting the psychological thriller to audiences, and to adoring acclaim, was straightforward. Premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival as all very well and good. So was A24 coming onboard afterwards. The timing of Saint Maud's original April 2020 US release date says everything, though. The early days of the pandemic might've derailed getting the picture to viewers, but it didn't stop it becoming one of the standouts of the past five years. "The release was very odd, because we went down well at festivals, and then 24 picked us up," Glass tells Concrete Playground. "And they'd been planning on doing this whole wide cinematic release in America, and everyone kept saying to me 'oh my god, this never happens with a debut, this is incredible'. And I said, 'oh wow, okay, amazing'. It didn't quite feel real anyway, and then we're literally days away from getting on a plane to come out to America to do a whole fancy press tour, which felt so surreal in and of itself, and then lockdown. Obviously, we all know what happened next." "I'd been nervous about bringing the film out into the world, and people's reactions, but I think a global pandemic certainly helps put things in perspective. It certainly helped to not take it too seriously, I think," Glass continues. Before that, writing Saint Maud was "very stressful and got very unpleasant, because you're plagued by so much uncertainty about whether it's actually going to happen," she shares. Then, "making it was wonderful and just very collaborative — it was just a massive relief that it was actually happening". Consider Glass' Saint Maud journey fuel for Love Lies Bleeding; the filmmaker herself does. The latter veers in an array of vastly different directions from its predecessor; compare Saint Maud's claustrophobic focus on a highly religious carer who becomes obsessed with saving her latest patient's soul versus Love Lies Bleeding's frantic lovers-on-the-run antics. And yet, as much as Love Lies Bleeding can play like a heel-turn response to Saint Maud, they also boast more than a few things in common, such as a fascination with transformation, a deep willingness to push boundaries and, of course, an uncompromising vision. We chatted with Glass about being motivated to make Love Lies Bleeding after her Saint Maud experience, how the idea for her second feature came about, the difference between writing a part for KStew and getting her to actually play it, finding IRL bodybuilder and former cop-turned- The Mandalorian and Westworld actor O'Brian as Jackie, the film's wild ride and more. [caption id="attachment_804112" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Saint Maud[/caption] On Glass' Approach to Love Lies Bleeding After the Response to (and Chaotic Release for) Saint Maud "I'm sure it lights a fire under the arse, or whatever the expression is. I mean, it's wonderful. It definitely exceeded anything any of us were expecting or hoping to happen on the film, so that was very cool. And I think maybe because also it happened during lockdown, so I was getting a sense that people were responding to it well, and it was going down well, but because it was all basically just through [online] — I wasn't used to doing everything over Zoom at that point — it all felt very removed. I was just in my house with my flatmates in lockdown like everyone else, so it sort of felt like it wasn't happening. [caption id="attachment_804111" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Saint Maud[/caption] But, in a way, because we didn't get to do the proper release then with the film, it did mean there was a pent-up frustration, which probably spilled over into making this next one, I think. It definitely gives you a confidence and a fearlessness, which I hadn't really felt before. And definitely there's this feeling of 'oh, wow, I get to make another one — I don't know if I'll get to do another one again after that', so you treat it as if it's the last one. I think maybe also Saint Maud's kind of uptight, obviously, and quite insular and claustrophobic — so I think maybe that combined with lockdown, probably this when I was like 'let's do something bombastic and a bit more extroverted, and try something risky and irresponsible and see what we can get away with'." On Coming Up with the Idea and Story for Love Lies Bleeding "Initially, it was just wanting to do something about a a female bodybuilder. That seemed psychologically and visually exciting territory. And I guess I feel like I'm probably the polar opposite of a bodybuilder — and the obsessive level of discipline is something I can only be fascinated by and aspire to myself, but never quite achieve. So maybe, maybe that's how it became a two-hander between a bodybuilder and a woman who's basically just 'oh, my god, you're amazing'. But I decided that I wanted to try co-writing. I had this initial germ of an idea about a bodybuilder who kind of loses her mind while she's training for a competition. And then I teamed up with my co-writer Weronika Tofilska, who I've been friends with for years. Then, so the rest of the story, all the twisty-turny rest of it, we basically came up with together just bouncing back and forth." On Having Kristen Stewart in Mind While Writing "She's just, I think, a very natural fit for the character. I guess it was just a quite instinctual thing. I like the idea of her playing a moody heartthrob in loose, boyish way — like she's playing someone who's kind of an asshole but you kind of really like her as well. Kristen, she's actually, in person, she's very twinkly and energetic and stuff, but there's I think a more famous version of her which is much more held back and a bit aloof, all this kind of thing, which I think is really what the character needs. She's kind of an enigma, like a mystery — she keeps a lot held back, and then hopefully throughout the film you pick her apart a bit. I just thought she'd be a really hot, moody heartthrob." On Getting Kristen Stewart Onboard as Lou "I couldn't believe it. I met her for the first time — we had an awkward blind date kind of thing, and it was the morning after they'd released Spencer in the UK, I think, so she'd had a late night. I was basically suddenly very starstruck and quite nervous, and just as far as I saw it, I just waffled at her incoherently for an hour, and she went 'mmmm'. But then, luckily, afterwards she sent me a really lovely message, and then I sent her the script. It's weird and awkward having a meeting where you don't actually have something specific — because I hadn't shared the script with her then, it was this awkward thing where I was told that I wasn't actually allowed to, even though I wanted to offer the her the role outright. It was more of like a temperature check. So it's much nicer to have a conversation when you're actually talking about a specific script, and she's agreed, and there's none of this weird awkwardness. Anyways, she basically said she really likes Saint Maud. She's said in interviews since then that she was up for doing whatever I wanted to do next — which is very obviously a very lovely feeling and takes the pressure off a little bit, because I thought I did a really bad job of pitching it to her. But anyway, she was all in." On Finding Katy O'Brian to Play Love Lies Bleeding's Pivotal Female Bodybuilder "Katy's just — I think both her and Kristen, just on a basic level, they're just incredibly charismatic and incredible to look at. They're two people that I'm like 'I would love to watch these two people falling in love with each other'. A lot of the film just has to play on you being like 'oh, these people are amazing'. But with Katy specifically, it's the duality. On the surface, she's obviously got this incredible physicality and a very imposing physical presence, or can be. And so this more steely action-hero stuff comes very easily to her. But actually naturally, in terms of how she is and as a person, you scratch just underneath that and she's incredibly warm and soft. She's described herself as like a snuggle bear. And also, her character goes on a pretty tumultuous up and down, and does some pretty terrible things, but ultimately is still the innocent of the film. There's a naivety to her. Katy is just so incredibly empathetic, I think, which the character needs — because otherwise she'd just lose her and it'd just be 'oh, it's just this crazy woman doing crazy things'. But Katy just makes you so care for her so much. Given it was her first big lead dramatic performance — she's acted before, but more as supporting roles, normally previously in roles which have mostly been requiring her just to do the physical kind of stuff — she jumped into this. We cast like two weeks before we started shooting, and then a few weeks later she's doing all these quite tricky scenes with Kristen. I immediately would just completely forget that it's the first time she's doing a role like this." On Making a Film That Feels Like It Can Go Anywhere and Everywhere, Even While Building in Familiar Elements "In terms of the surrealism, and some of the weird combinations of things, I think it's what comes naturally. Me and Weronika, when we were writing it, we were playing with a lot narrative and character tropes. There's quite a few formulaic elements in the story, which probably are quite familiar to people, which hopefully we then take off course into somewhere a bit more surprising. There's definitely a framework in this. I think there's a lot of elements in the film which are very recognisable and which will probably feel familiar in some way. So hopefully it's setting up an expectation of something to happen — and then, because you know what the expectation is, it's easy to go 'let's go the other way'." On Taking Love Lies Bleeding in the Opposite Direction to Saint Maud in So Many Ways, But Still Finding Connections Between Them "It's kind of intentional. I mean, I think there are quite a lot of things which do connect the films. But each film, you spend a few years of your life just obsessively thinking about that — so I think after several years of just thinking about one particular tone and style of story, it's definitely, I think, a natural instinct to want to mix things up a bit. So yeah, the idea of wanting to do something which was more extroverted and bombastic than Saint Maud was definitely a deliberate, instinctual kind of thing. And I guess also Saint Maud was kind of about loneliness, so in a way this one was like 'oh, if you think being lonely is hard, try being in a relationship'." Love Lies Bleeding released in Australian cinemas on Thursday, March 14, 2024, and opens in New Zealand cinemas on Thursday, April 4, 2024. Read our review. Images: Anna Kooris.
If you're starting to think hard about next year's travel plans, we've got a stay that warrants an extra stop on the list — and it's not a beachfront villa or five-star skyrise. South Island sheep and cattle farm Lake Hāwea Station is the only New Zealand property to have made Condé Nast's prestigious Gold List of accommodation options for 2023. Now in its third decade, the international publication's hand-selected Gold List consists of the international team of writers' favourite places to stay around the world. And, recognised for its eco-practices and luxe transformation of the farm's historic cottages, Lake Hāwea Station made the cut in the publishing house's Best Sustainable Hotels category. [caption id="attachment_882820" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Thomas Greenway[/caption] We can see why — just 15 minutes from Wanaka, Lake Hāwea Station is the first certified carbon-zero farm in Australasia, offering travellers an authentic farm experience while they stay on-site in one of its four luxe accommodation options. In their notes, Condé Nast editors wrote that it was "simply, one of the most impressive, can't-believe-this-place-could-possibly-exist retreats you'll ever be lucky enough to stay in." "[The] property's true point of difference is its pioneering ethos in New Zealand's approach to cultivation and sustainability." [caption id="attachment_882821" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Thomas Greenway[/caption] The farm has four accommodation options available: the three-bedroom glass-walled Lake House, the studio-like Little L tiny house (which comes complete with a miniature library), the simple two-bedroom Homespur cottage and the historic Packhouse cottage, which sleeps six. All houses boast stellar lake views, outdoor firepits, hot tubs and outdoor dining. [caption id="attachment_882819" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Thomas Greenway[/caption] Owners Jussie and Geoff Ross received recognition for their renovation and transformation of the 16,000-acre property which they purchased in 2018. They were also recognised for the farm's focus on animal welfare practices, enhanced farm biodiversity and their work to slow climate change — including the planting of more than 100,000 native trees. [caption id="attachment_882818" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Thomas Greenway[/caption] Jussie says that it's a sign of a changing travel industry to see a working farm on a list usually reserved for luxury hotels. "It shows that high-end travellers want to be part of a climate-positive experience," she said in a statement. "In an age of increasing demand for both climate action and transparency, Lake Hāwea Station immerses its guests in every aspect of their fight for the climate." [caption id="attachment_882817" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Thomas Greenway[/caption] Lake Hawea Station is the only New Zealand property to be crowned in Conde Nast's Gold List for 2023. You can find more info about the station's sustainability practices — and perhaps book your stay — on the official website. Top image: Thomas Greenway
Upon returning from a winter escape to sunny Vietnam, my response to the obligatory "how was it?" was consistent in message, and in enthusiasm. "THE FOOD! Oh my God!", pretty much sums it up. Most surprising was just how regional the cuisine is and how it can differ from the north to the south, east to the west. Of course, if you go along looking for pho, spring rolls and banh mi, you will indeed find — and no doubt enjoy — them everywhere. However, if you open your eyes and mind a little wider, you'll discover each region has a set of specialties, and an approach to food that differs slightly from everywhere else. What does consistently run through the entire country is a commitment to freshness and flavour; fragrant fresh herbs liven even the simplest of meals, and local dishes are borne from what's available to be caught from the sea or picked from the ground. In one reasonably short trip you can experience vast differences in not only the food, but also in the scenes and 'scapes. From city madness — which mostly entails throngs of scooters careering around the roads and tourists closing their eyes and hoping for the best when crossing the street — to beautiful beaches, and mountain peaks to rice fields in the valley. Here are a few highlights to be discovered with eyes, mind and mouth wide open. HANOI Hanoi in the north is the country's capital, and yet seems a touch more modest and visitor-friendly than Ho Chi Minh (Saigon). The traffic system will leave you aghast for the first day, and after that you must embrace it, roll with it and trust in the controlled chaos of the road when you close your eyes and run towards the other side. Taking the city on foot will let you discover hidden laneways, a hint of French architecture, buzzing street food stalls, plenty of cheap fake goods for sale, and a snippet of local life. The Old Quarter and area around Hoan Kiem Lake is the perfect base to explore the city. Hit the lake early one morning to get a glimpse of what keeps the locals so happy, healthy and vibrant: plenty of Tai Chi, stretching, breathing and all manner of interesting morning rituals. HANOI FOODNOTE Here it seems nearly all to do with rice noodles and soup (yes, you will find pho aplenty in Hanoi). One of the local specialties here is bun bo nam bo — which is not only delicious, but incredibly fun to pronounce. This is a beef noodle dish of vermicelli, barbecued beef strips, a tasty stock sauce, chopped peanuts and lashing of fresh herbs on top. At Bun Bo Nam Bo (67 Hang Dieu – be careful of imitators who have popped up nearby), you need only to walk in and tell them how many serves and you will be presented with a bowl of this tasty meal for all of about $2.50. Similar local options include bun cha (pork and noodles) and bun ca (crispy fish and noodles, this time served in a soup), while cha ca is a slightly different local treat – barbequed fish with chilli and lemongrass, served with dry rice paper, fresh salad and peanuts, and a dipping sauce all to be wrapped, dunked and downed. An unsung hero of Hanoi cuisine, cha ca will prove its worth if you seek it out. MAI CHAU Mai Chau lies about four hours south-west of Hanoi and is home to a White Thai community of people. There are small villages that can be reached by wandering through the rice fields (among the song of frogs, geese and cows), where you'll find homestay options, stalls selling woven scarves, bags and clothing, and even a few traditional looms on display or in use. It's a beautiful change from the city and a real taste of rural life. If you stay at Mai Chau Lodge, there are plenty of activities to book, such as walking tours with local guides, cave explorations, market trips and cooking classes. MAI CHAU FOODNOTE Because this area is inhabited by White Thai people, the food is highly varied and pulls strong influences from Chinese and Thai cuisines. So while dishes such as tom ka ghai and fried noodles might have you wondering if you've strayed from traditional Vietnamese cuisine, just think of how little you worried about the 'Frenchness' of that banh mi baguette. The cuisine here holds a very interesting identity, and that is precisely thanks to the different influences. Of course, being in the rice fields, the ubiquitous white grain features heavily, and is served with pretty much everything. As are the flavours of lemongrass, lime, garlic, chilli and salt. And, somewhat surprisingly, sweet potatoes that are grown in the fields and sold at the local markets in abundance. HOI AN Hoi An in central Vietnam is a quaint little delight of a town that seems highly geared towards tourism, yet still retains some element of small-town charm. Lanterns hang outside the shops and the old town's cobbled streets are filled with wanderers of the non-motorised variety, in very European fashion. Don't be overwhelmed by all the clothes tailors and shoemakers. Save time and energy and head straight to Miss Forget-Me-Not (37 Phan Chu Trinh Street) for clothes and shoes, and Tu Chi (24 Phan Boi Chau Street) for bags — they come highly recommended by many travellers, including this writer. Then find respite from it all at An Bang Beach, about four kilometres out of town. My recommendation is to base yourself out there, in one of the few homestay properties (there are no hotels, per se, but Beach Hideaway and Seaside Village both offer glorious villa-style cottages), and cycle into town when the days calls for dining or shopping. For the other times, the beach provides long stretches of white sand dotted with traditional fishing coracles, warm calm water to float about in, and a stretch of bars and restaurants with shaded beach lounges for their customers. Watch the local families descend on the beach as the sun recedes — they bring tables, chairs, big pots of rice and grilled meats, make a fire and settle in for an evening on the sand. It's quite a sight. HOI AN FOODNOTE Perhaps the jewel in Hoi An's food crown is cao lau, a traditional dish of noodles made using water from the well to give them a heavier, chewier texture. These noodles are sandwiched between rich, salty stock at the bottom and grilled pork and fresh leaves on top. It's served at breakfast time (although you can find it any time of the day) and is a surprisingly great way to start the day of eating. Other treats specific to Hoi An include white rose (rice paper dumplings filled with minced prawns) and com ga, shredded chicken with yellow rice. Of course, being by the sea, fresh seafood also features heavily. Ordering the fish special often means whatever the local fishermen have brought back in their coracles that morning, so you can guarantee it will be fresh, and local. Beyond all that, wherever you are in Vietnam, remember to wear sunscreen, cross the road with bravery, barter with a smile, look for regional specialties and try ca phe sua da (Vietnamese iced coffee) at least once, if not daily. Photography by Greg George and Julia Gaw.
There's a new gin in town and it's pink. And when we say pink, we mean really pink — like, Grease girl gang pink. This delightful concoction will be in glasses for spring and its creators are the master distillers at Bass and Flinders, which you'll find on the Mornington Peninsula in Victoria. Dubbed Cerise, the gin gets its pinkness from a blend of cherries and raspberries, which is layered with hibiscus and orange blossom aromas. These ingredients are sourced from farms at nearby Red Hill. All bottles are made in small batches, to keep the gin's high quality and delicate flavour profile. Apparently it will have a slight sweetness, similar to Turkish delight. As with all Bass and Flinders gins, the spirit is based on grapes. "Using grape spirit for gin provides another dimension to the gin's botanicals and adds to the viscosity, texture and flavour — this, combined with seasonal produce, produces extraordinary spirits," says head distiller Wayne Klintworth. The gin will go on sale on September 12. It'll be available for a limited time, only at the cellar door and via the distillery's website. Bass and Flinders have been making unusual gins and other spirits, including vodka, limoncello, grappa and a five-year-aged brandy called Ochre, since 2009.
UPDATE, NOVEMBER 13: SBS Viceland has confirmed that it'll screen Brooklyn Nine-Nine's seventh season from Friday, February 7, 2020 in Australia. The below article has been updated to reflect this announcement. The fine fictional detectives of Brooklyn's 99th precinct have long held a soft spot in sitcom viewers' hearts, but that hasn't always proven the case for TV's powers that be. After airing on America's Fox network for five seasons between 2013–2018, the show was cancelled in May last year — only to be picked up for a sixth season by rival US channel NBC just 31 hours later. That 18-episode sixth season finished airing back in May, screening on SBS Viceland in Australia. Thankfully, the show was renewed for a 13-episode seventh season in March — and, if you've been missing everyone's favourite comedic cops, as well as their Die Hard gags and 'title of your sex tape' jokes, it now has a 2020 release date. Yes, Brooklyn Nine-Nine fans can't utter "noice" fast or often enough. Or, as Andy Samberg's Jake Peralta would say: cool cool cool. The sitcom will return on Thursday, February 6 in the US — which is Friday, February 7 in Australia — with an hour-long season premiere. Aussie fans have been very fortunate in recent years, with SBS dropping new episodes in line with their US screenings, and that'll continue in 2020. https://twitter.com/nbcbrooklyn99/status/1192882629671997440 Breaking out a celebratory yoghurt, Terry Jeffords-style, is definitely in order. If you're more like Captain Raymond Holt, perhaps you'd like to treat yourself to a trip to a barrel museum. Or you could channel your inner Gina Linetti and dance about your happy feelings. However you choose to mark the news, it's worth it. Brooklyn Nine-Nine's seventh season will start airing from Friday, February 7, 2020, Australian time on SBS Viceland. Via Deadline / SBS.
Next time you work up a sweat, you could be surrounded by neon lights, wandering through plenty of concrete and descending into a South Yarra basement. That's what's on offer at 1R Melbourne, the first Australian outpost of the UK-based fitness club chain, which has just opened its doors on Chapel Street. Spread across 800 square metres, the Melbourne venue is 1R's biggest site to-date out of its eight worldwide. But, like its sibling venues in London, it's hardly your usual gym experience. That's a fairly familiar claim these days — Melbourne has also just welcomed its first Barry's Bootcamp studio, from another company that endeavours to give your standard workout routine a twist — but 1R tackles its task with industrial-style decor, high-intensity classes, music curated by local DJs and free prosecco on Friday nights. If you're all about exerting some energy, 1R's sessions fall into three categories: 'reshape', 'rumble' and 'reformer'. The first provides a full-body workout, while the second puts the site's boxing bags to good use — and also focuses on speed, footwork and high-intensity interval training. In the third group, pilates meets cardio, with everything once again dialled up to get the blood pumping. Whether one of the above classes has already piqued your interest, or you're keen on trying them all, 1R does memberships, packages and pay-as-you-go sessions — so you can choose how much you're keen to commit. One-off visits cost $25 a pop, newcomers can sample three classes for $30 in total, or gym diehards can opt for 28 sessions per month for $320. Thanks to the fitout by Foolscap Studios, 1R's decor and design is as much of a drawcard as its fitness routines, starting with its calm, crisp ground-floor reception area. That's where you'll also find the smoothie and coffee bar — which serves up the aforementioned sparkling to end the working week — as well as a retail space showcasing local activewear designers. Downstairs, each of 1R's different workout concepts gets its own room. When the sessions start, you'll be doing so in moody lighting and to a beat timed to match your movements. Then, afterwards, you can head to the repair rooms, which stock Grown Alchemist products and Dyson hair dryers, and are designed to look futuristic but also relaxing. You can also call upstairs to order a post-workout drink from the bar, too. Find 1R Melbourne at Shop 10, 625 Chapel Street, South Yarra. For more information about its sessions and prices, visit the fitness club's website. Images: Simon Shiff.
2020 is already shaping up to be a great year for Studio Ghibli fans, with the Japanese animation house confirming it's working on two new films this year. But, if you need something to tide you over until those undoubtedly gorgeous new movies are released — your Netflix queue will have the answer from February 1. In a huge deal that marks the first time Studio Ghibli's films will be available to stream in most of the world, Netflix has acquired the streaming rights for the bulk of the company's back catalogue — for almost the entire planet, including Australia and New Zealand. The arrangement covers 21 films, which means that every solely Studio Ghibli-produced animated feature except Grave of the Fireflies will hit the platform. Made-for-TV movie Ocean Waves will also be available to stream as well. So, getting spirited away, spending time with Totoro and chasing a moving castle will be as easy as clicking a few buttons whenever you feel like it. Netflix is making Ghibli's films available in three batches, with seven different movies joining the platform on February 1, then seven more on March 1 and the last seven on April 1 — so you can spread out your viewing. In February, prepare to feast your eyes on everything from Castle in the Sky to Kiki's Delivery Service, plus My Neighbour Totoro, Only Yesterday, Porco Rosso, Ocean Waves and Tales from Earthsea, too. Come March, heavy hitters Princess Mononoke and Spirited Away will join the lineup, as well as Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, My Neighbors the Yamadas, The Cat Returns, Arrietty and The Tale of The Princess Kaguya. Then, in April, Howl's Moving Castle and Ponyo lead the charge, alongside Pom Poko, Whisper of the Heart, From Up on Poppy Hill, The Wind Rises and When Marnie Was There. Working your way through all of the above, you'll obviously delight in the talents of the great Hayao Miyazaki — however, films by fellow Ghibli co-founder Isao Takahata, Miyazaki's son Gorō Miyazaki, and other directors Yoshifumi Kondō, Hiroyuki Morita and Hiromasa Yonebayashi are also on the bill. Until Ghibli's titles start hitting the streaming platform, feast your eyes on the delightful trailer for Howl's Moving Castle below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iwROgK94zcM Netflix will start streaming Studio Ghibli films in Australia and New Zealand from February 1, with further titles available on March 1 and April 1. Top image: My Neighbor Totoro
With seven bars in the one venue, Ms Collins is where you go when you're trying to wrangle a large, undefined group of people and you have one thing on your mind: dancing. It's also where you go when you want to show off. For bottle service to your booth, Dom Perignon, Moet Hennessy and Veuve Clicquot are all top of the drinks menu — ready for that champagne-popping moment in the middle of the club — and, as you're probably ordering a magnum, you get the full mini fireworks treatment, too. For snacks, everything's a lot more affordable — tempura soft shell crab sliders, southern fried chicken ribs and peri peri chicken bao are $12 each, as they know you're not here to feast. But if you're bringing more than four mates, there are after-work drinks and food packages to make splitting the bill that bit easier. Though events have been hit and miss, Ms Collins is also where you'll go to see big-name musicians and entertainers — Kevin Hart, Jaden Smith and Mos Def, have all performed there, for example. And, for the cheap and cheerful, it has free bachata and salsa dance classes on Thursday nights as part of its Latin-themed program.
If your hopes of owning an affordable Kenzo piece were dashed when you missed out on nabbing something from its highly popular 2016 collaboration with H&M, this will be welcome news: the French fashion house is hosting its first Melbourne warehouse sale. And things will be discounted by up to 80 percent. Details on what will actually be up for grabs are scant, but there will be men's and women's pieces across multiple past collections in stock. We're crossing our greedy paws for big prints, signature sweatshirts and basically anything clad with The Tiger. Delay and — just like with the H&M collab — you might find only empty coathangers. The sale will run this weekend on Johnston Street Collingwood. It will be open 10am–7pm Friday, 10am–6pm Saturday and 10am–5pm Sunday.
The past few years have seen virtual reality, technology spawn some pretty nifty things in the world of film and TV. Film festivals from Cannes to Byron Bay have added VR programs to their lineups, and cities across the globe have introduced festivals dedicated entirely to the technology. But you know VR has really taken hold whenthe world's oldest major film festival jumps on board, and in a big way. Kicking off its 74th run this week, the Venice Film Festival looks to have its sights set firmly on the future, hosting its inaugural Venice Virtual Reality competition and even taking over an abandoned island to showcase the selections. Creepily enough, Lazzaretto Vecchio was once a quarantine island and leper colony, but during the festival, which runs from August 30 - September 9, its hospital hallways and semi-renovated buildings will instead play host to a lineup of VR installations. There'll also be a dedicated VR theatre inside a former hangar, complete with revolving seats. The Venice Virtual Reality program features just 22 VR pieces from over 100 submissions. Six of those are huge, room-scale installations, which find visitors interacting with the space around them, and sometimes even with live performers. Highlights include Danish film Separate Silences, which features a near-death experience in hospital; and Alice - The Virtual Reality Play, an Alice in Wonderland-inspired piece from France, where viewers interact in real time with the film's characters. Credit: submarinechannel.com / Image: La Biennale di Venezia
Whether you're a happy-go-lucky type or you've just experienced a day that you'd rather forget, everyone needs a break from their own reality sometimes. The easiest way? A big dose of on-screen escapism. Maybe you'd like to creep your way through a haunted house? Perhaps you're keen to see what it's like in a witches' coven? If you'd prefer to explore a variety of different futuristic scenarios, head to space or navigate a zombie-riddled wasteland (all from the comfort of your couch, of course), there's a TV show that'll take you there. If all of the above scenarios sound familiar, there's a few reasons for that. Firstly, a number of TV programs have tried their hand at these ideas, both recently and over the years. Secondly, some of the best are currently available to watch via streaming platform Binge, including shows still releasing new seasons and cult favourites that have already wrapped up. We've teamed up with the service to recommend five must-sees — which you can stream right now, including via a 14-day free trial for new customers.
It's a family affair at Ormond Road boutique Obdressed, where the team of a mother and her two daughters select every piece on the racks. Among fashion bearing the store's own label, customers will find staple pieces from Assembly Label, knitwear from Nikel and Sole, Rollie shoes, jewellery by Jolie & Deen and The Following, Sancia handbags, and skin and beauty products from Theseeke and Salt by Hendrix. The Obdressed team prides itself on presenting a carefully curated selection of local and international brands, and delivering friendly customer service to help everyone that walks through the door leave feeling great. Images: Tracey Ah-kee.
The Australian Open is coming in hot for its 2023 edition, with thousands of punters set to descend on Melbourne Park for two weeks of Grand Slam tennis action from Monday, January 16–Sunday, January 29. But as usual, the tennis won't be the only thing pulling crowds and whetting appetites. Serving a few aces of its own is the AO's 2023 food and drink offering — a star-studded lineup of restaurant pop-ups and experiences to tempt tennis-goers and foodies alike. Throughout the tournament, a slew of big-name chefs and dining institutions will be headed courtside to dish up a blockbuster menu of culinary gold. Among these familiar favourites you'll catch Andrew McConnell's modern Asian diner Supernormal, hosting both a set-menu restaurant and a walk-in-friendly al fresco dining terrace. And yes, there'll be plenty of that famed lobster roll to go around. Meanwhile, award-winning Sydney chef and seafood maestro Josh Niland (Saint Peter) will treat locals to a taste of his sustainable fish and chipper Charcoal Fish, which is heading south for the first time. Hit the pop-up eatery for cult-fave dishes like a rotisserie Murray cod roll with gravy and crispy skin, and the double yellowfin tuna cheeseburger. You can also nab tickets to his one-off talk. [caption id="attachment_884148" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Charcoal Fish[/caption] Fellow Sydneysider Jacqui Challinor will be recreating the magic of her own Nomad stable courtside, serving bites like mushroom and bone marrow empanadas, standout house-made charcuterie and a Middle Eastern-inspired olive oil cream sandwich. There'll be restaurants by Penfolds and Rockpool Bar & Grill if you fancy dialling up the sophistication factor, as well as a pop-up fine-diner by the Stokehouse crew serving a sumptuous set-menu affair — including an adorable tennis ball dessert. And a collective of chefs including Victor Liong (Lee Ho Fook), Adam D'Sylva (Tonka, Coda) and Scott Pickett (Longrain, Estelle) are assembling to cook up the fusion feast of your dreams. Elsewhere, you can tuck into plates from the likes of Victoria by Farmer's Daughters, Shane Delia's Maha, Oasis, Ca Com (by Anchovy's Thi Lee and Jia-Yen Lee) and The B.East. Josh Fry will be whipping up a menu of two-handed delights a la Rocco's Bologna, while Mischa Tropp showcases his acclaimed Keralan fare — that legendary butter chicken included. No one's going thirsty, either. The palm-fringed AO Spritz Bar will be your go-to for all things fizzy, with the menu ranging from a booze-free guava marg to a signature hibiscus-infused spritz. It'll be rocking a breezy resort-inspired aesthetic, complete with bookable cabanas and a prime location adjacent to Charcoal Fish. Meanwhile, over at the Canadian Club Racquet Club, you'll find another tidy lineup of sips, alongside free gigs, street food by Beatbox Burgers and Taco Truck, and the tennis action playing live and loud on the big screens. Further booze pop-ups come courtesy of labels like Piper Heidsieck, Balter, Sommersby, Peroni and Gordon's. [caption id="attachment_884140" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Maha[/caption] [caption id="attachment_884143" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Penfolds Restaurant[/caption] [caption id="attachment_884145" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Supernormal[/caption] The 2023 Australian Open and its food offering will take over Melbourne Park from Monday, January 16–Sunday, January 29. For details on the full lineup or to book a table, see the website. Top images: Stokehouse, Nomad.
Australia's first urban surf park is one step closer to reality, with the team behind URBNSURF this morning confirming they've scored $28.3 million in funding for their much-anticipated Melbourne facility. Billed as the world's first full-size Wavegarden Cove surfing lagoon, URBNSURF Melbourne is set to transform a 2.1-hectare space near Melbourne Airport into a surfer's wet dream, churning out as many as 1000 two-metre waves each hour. The lagoon itself will boast six different state-of-the-art surf zones, catering to newbies, professionals and everyone in between, with enough room for around 84 surfers every hour. What's more, it'll be open year-round, which means you won't be forced to battle the freezing waters of Port Phillip Bay to get your surf fix come winter. Backing up the beach-style breaks, there'll be a concept retail space, a fully-equipped surf hire shop, a beach club and a plethora of food and drink options for those post-surf appetites. URBNSURF Melbourne will also play host to a surfing academy, fitness classes and high performance coaching and training options. Construction on the lagoon is set to kick off next month, with the hope Melburnians will be riding waves there by April 2019. URBNSURF's Sydney surf park, which was given the go ahead last year, is slated to be up and running by late 2019. URBNSURF Melbourne is slated to open in April 2019 at 394 Melrose Drive, Tullamarine. We'll keep you updated on its progress and you can visit urbnsurf.co for more info.
Sometimes, drinking beer can be a bit of a lucky dip: one person's favourite tasty ale or refreshing lager is another's least-preferred brew. But what if you could down a yeasty beverage that you were guaranteed to like, such as a tipple that had been crafted to suit your specific, distinctive tastes? Following in the footsteps of gastronomy wizards Bompas and Parr and their bespoke cocktails tailored to your DNA, London's Meantime Brewing Company are doing the same thing with beer. Meantime Bespoke uses a saliva sample to assess whether your tastebuds prefer the sweet or bitter side of things, with personal genetics company 23andMe probing down to the genetic and hereditary levels. Then, the service maps out a flavour profile for what should you be favourite drink (thanks science!). Once Meantime has come up with a proposed style of beer, you get to head into the brewery to help make your unique tipple come to fruition. Yep, that's the fun part — other than the drinking. Sounds like the solution to making a wrong choice at the bottle-o or having to stomach whatever beer your mate bought off the tap, doesn't it? Yes, but it comes at a very hefty price. Expect to pay a minimum of £25,000 for 12 hectolitres, or the equivalent to over 2000 pints. The fee also includes a course on the brewing process, and — although this isn't officially stated — the knowledge that you've spent a whole lot of money to ensure that your next drink is just right. Via Mental Floss.
Popping up might be all the rage at the moment, but Londoners are on their way to developing an appetite for Popping Down. Soon, their city will see a new underground public space, with a disused tunnel being transformed into a subterranean walkway, lined with urban mushroom patches. Last year, the Landscape Institute, in conjunction with the Green Museum and the Mayor of London, ran the High Line for London Competition, an open call for ideas for green infrastructure. According to the contest guidelines, submissions did not need to "be constrained by any restrictions such as current planning law, land ownership, budgets or health and safety issues". Of the 170 entrants, Fletcher Priest Architects came out on top. The tunnel central to their plan is known as the 'mail rail' and runs under Oxford Street. Posties once used it to enable speedy delivery of letters and parcels between Paddington and Whitechapel, avoiding London's over-crowded streets. Pedestrians will enter and exit 'Pop Down' at street level. Above ground, a sequence of glass-fibre mushroom sculptures will delineate the passageway, simultaneously letting in controlled amounts of light, to be supplemented by interior fibre optics. What's more, there'll be a chance to sample some subterranean goodness, with pop-up 'fungi' cafes at the tunnel's entrances sourcing their produce from below. The competition was inspired by New York City's 'High Line', a public park constructed on an abandoned freight train railway elevated above Manhattan's West Side. In winning, Fletcher Priest beat a 20-strong shortlist of impressively creative rivals. The runner-up was Y/N Studio, with its 'Lido Line' plan, which would have seen the construction of a clean basin in the Regent's Canal, enabling water babies to swim to and from work.
Unless you've spent the past few years north of the wall, you'll know that House of the Dragon is coming — the long-in-the-works prequel series to Game of Thrones, that is. HBO wasn't going to completely say goodbye to its huge fantasy hit when the original show wrapped up, of course, and plenty of other spinoffs are under consideration (including a Jon Snow-focused sequel); however, the first of the bunch starts airing on Monday, August 22 in Australia. House of the Dragon is set 200 years before the events of GoT, and focuses on House Targaryen. Yes, that means that dragons are obviously part of the series, and so is a Succession-style battle over who should sit on the Iron Throne. Always thought that you should park your butt on the hefty chair yourself? Thanks to Binge, which'll stream House of the Dragon when it starts, that's about to become a reality. No, you won't be making a trip to the show's sets — rather, the Iron Throne is coming Down Under. And yes, you really will be able to sit on it when it makes its way to your city. [caption id="attachment_864676" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ollie Upton[/caption] House of Dragon's version of the Iron Throne looks a bit different to the OG — newer, you'd expect, given it exists two centuries before the seat seen in GoT — and is covered in 1000 swords. This full-scale replica isn't small, either, measuring 3.7 metres wide, 2.8 metres high and 3.3 metres deep, and weighing 226 kilograms. Sydneysiders will get to live out their House Targaryen dreams first, with the throne first appearing at Sydney Town Hall, from 9am–5pm on Friday, August 19. It'll also head to the University of Sydney, in front of The Great Hall, from 9am–4pm on Wednesday, August 31–Thursday, September 1. Melbourne dates have been locked in as well, at Westfield Southland, on level one near Brioche by Philip, from 9am–5pm on Saturday, September 10 and 10am–5pm on Sunday, September 11. [caption id="attachment_864683" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ollie Upton[/caption] If you're a Game of Thrones fan elsewhere around Australia, start hoping like Arya crossing off her list that the Iron Throne will come your way — we'll update you when further dates are announced. And if you've forgotten the throne's backstory, it was forged from the blades of Aegon Targaryen's defeated foes, which were melted together by a dragon — of course — after he conquered Westeros. Check out the full House of the Dragon trailer below: IRON THRONE AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES: Friday, August 19 — Sydney Town Hall from 9am–5pm. Wednesday, August 31–Thursday, September 1 — University of Sydney, in front of The Great Hall, from 9am–4pm. Saturday, September 10–Sunday, September 11 — Westfield Southland from 9am–5pm on Saturday and 10am–5pm on Sunday. House of the Dragon's Iron Throne will tour Australia from mid-August. House of the Dragon will start airing on Monday, August 22 Down Under via Foxtel and Binge.
From Monday through until Saturday, each and every week, the aroma of freshly made coffee wafts from Bourke Street's Federal Coffee. But from 11am–12pm on Tuesdays and Thursdays between February 9–March 4, we expect that it'll smell a little stronger. On those days and at that time, the CBD cafe will be serving up free brews — so expect its baristas to be busy. The free coffee is in honour of Melbourne's return to work. Yes, it's now February, so the festive holidays finished long ago — but from February 8, Victorian workplaces will be able to welcome back 75-percent of their employees in-person. So, with more people heading to their desks, Federal Coffee is handing out free caffeine hits. Unsurprisingly, there is a caveat: you can only grab one free coffee per person per day. Still any free coffee is better than no free coffee, especially when it arrives mid-morning — just when your energy is starting to flag. You'll also be able to try out Federal Coffee's menu if you're feeling peckish, although that part isn't free.
First there was payWave, then there was Cardless Cash (thank you, Commonwealth), and also PayPal Here, which allows you to pay for coffee and things via Bluetooth from your PayPal account. These got us closer to the minimalist, tech-driven dream — a cashless, cardless (and, effectively, wallet-less) society — but not quite there. That's all set to change though, with Apple switching on their mobile payment system, Apple Pay. Launching today with payments provider eWAY, Apple Pay will make poor buying decisions even more effortless, with one-touch payments online, within apps and IRL — if you have an iPhone and use AMEX, that is. At the moment, Apple Pay can only be used on the Apple Watch or iPhone 6 and above, by those with a directly-issued American Express credit card. Which would seemingly rule out most people under 50. But I digress. Already in use in the US and the UK, the Australian launch comes in a rather inevitable move towards doing everything on that little pocket-sized piece of machinery you call your iPhone. For the moment, Apple Pay is accepted at around 21,000 retailers, including David Jones, Coles, Woolworths and Zara. You can even pay for your Uber ride with it and, most deliciously, your late-night pad Thai deliveries from Eat Now. To use Apple Pay, you'll need to add your card to the Wallet app. Then, just use the iPhone's Touch ID to make in-app purchases, or hold your phone near the contactless reader in-store. If Australia is to follow suit of the US, Visa and MasterCard should be accepted by Apple Pay in the near future. At least, let’s hope so. That extra bit of plastic in your pocket is weighing you down.
Saying goodbye to 2025 at Lost Paradise means farewelling the year with a jam-packed lineup of tunes. Ben Böhmer, Chris Stussy, Confidence Man, Duke Dumont, I Hate Models, KETTAMA, Marc Rebillet, Maribou State, Underworld, X CLUB: they're all headlining the annual end-of-year music festival in Glenworth Valley on the New South Wales Central Coast this year. So, mark Sunday, December 28, 2025–Thursday, January 1, 2026 on your calendar — and prepare for a huge few days. Other acts on the bill include Anna Lunoe, BIG WETT, Channel Tres, Fcukers, DJ Heartstring, Hot Dub Time Machine, Omar+, VTSS and plenty more. Some people love last-minute New Year's Eve plans, going wherever the mood takes them. Others can't start planning early enough. If you fall into the latter category, this December is for you. For Lost Paradise newcomers, the multi-day event turns a slice of its setting — which is located an hour out of Sydney — into one helluva shindig, complete with live music and DJ sets spanning both international and Australian talents. This year, organisers are promising newly reimagined versions of the festival's Arcadia, Lost Disco and Paradise Club stages. Tunes are just one part of the Lost Paradise experience, though. Here, art, culture, wellness, and food and drink also get a look in. And, at Shambhala Fields, you can hear talks and take part in workshops — so that's where you'll find the likes of Dr Karl, Eric Avery, Deano Gladstone, Lara Zilibowitz, Kath Ebbs, Sez, Tom Carroll, Simon Borg-Olivier, Gwyn Williams and others. Since first unleashing its specific flavour of festival fun back in 2014, Lost Paradise has become a go-to way to wrap up one year and welcome in the next — including if you're keen to camp for its duration. Lost Paradise 2025 Lineup Ben Böhmer Chris Stussy Confidence Man Duke Dumont I Hate Models KETTAMA Marc Rebillet Maribou State Underworld X CLUB Anna Lunoe Baby J Bad Boombox & Mischluft Balu Brigada Bella Claxton BIG WETT Blusher Bullet Tooth Cassian Channel Tres Dameeeela DJ Heartstring Dombresky presents Disco Dom Dr Banana Fcukers Folamour Heidi Hot Dub Time Machine INJI Jazzy Josh Baker Juicy Romance Kilimanjaro Luke Alessi Merci, Mercy Narciss Notion Odd Mob Omar+ Pegassi Prospa Riria Ross From Friends presents Bubble Love Sex Mask Silva Bumpa Sim0ne Sumner Swim (live) Two Another VTSS Wolters Alex Dowsing Badassmutha Bella Backe Caleb Jackson Couch Mechanic Cricket Dayzzi B2B Daug Disco Dora Elijah Something GMOZ Grooveworks Kai Kawai Large Mirage LAYTX Lily FM Lost Soundsystem Madame Reve Maina Doe Mash Middle James Mina Tonic Oscill8 Pamela Penelope People's Party Roxy Lotz Salarymen Selve Siila Silly Lily Sim Select Tia Lacoste Tokyo Sexwale Tseba Waxlily Yasmina Sadiki Shambhala Fields: Benny Holloway Catriona Wallace Chanel Contos Deano Gladstone Dr Karl Eric Avery Gwyn Williams Kath Ebbs Lara Zilibowitz Plastic Free Mermaid Sez Simon Borg-Olivier Tom Carroll Lost Paradise mages: Jess Bowen, Jordan K Munns, Byravyna and Amar Gera.
If you're deeply enmeshed in Melbourne's electronic music scene, you would've heard or been to three-floor, Bauhaus-inspired music bar, Solace. Tucked down Croft Alley in the space that used to be the iconic Croft Institute, Solace showcases a rotating roster of local and international DJs and live acts across techno, house, deep house, breaks, jungle and electro. [caption id="attachment_1018365" align="alignnone" width="1920"] James Whiting[/caption] On the ground floor sits a bar and central DJ booth. Ascend one floor and be met by a more relaxed space with couches. The top floor is the dance floor. Just like France Soir's sister bar Le Splendide, no photos are allowed on the dancefloor in a bid to encourage customers to live in the present. Drinks encompass cocktails, beers, wines, liquors and more. Expect classic cocktails like negronis, martinis and margaritas alongside more novel offerings, like the Sichuan Spicy Margarita that contains housemade Sichuan chilli sauce and a Sichuan-dusted rim or the Caramel Slice that reads like a dessert cocktail with its Sheep Dog peanut butter whisky, coffee liqueur and sugar syrup. [caption id="attachment_1018369" align="alignnone" width="1920"] James Whiting[/caption] The wine list leans towards local, independent, low-intervention producers from the Whitlands, King Valley, Heathcote and the Barossa. Snacks are limited to Chappy's chips — you're here for the music and drinks, not food. [caption id="attachment_1018371" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Reece Calculli[/caption] Top images: James Whiting.
Even as summer starts to wind down, the summertime spirit persists. Round out the season of sunshine by making your way to the Frankston Waterfront between Saturday, February 10 and Sunday, February 11, for the Frankston Waterfront Festival. This free-entry festival blends live music, food and wine, waterfront festivities and more. There's no shortage of activities throughout the weekend. A live music lineup stretches across Saturday and Sunday, including the likes of Touch Sensitive, The Grogans, Sunshine and Disco Faith Choir, The Belair Lip Bombs and over a dozen other artists. The free lifestyle precinct will play host to basketball shootouts, canoeing on the water, a Pongo Ping Pong game, Pickleball, nature crown making, a silent disco, a glitter bar to get you in the festival spirit and much more. Once you've worked up an appetite, follow the aromas of the wide range of tasty food truck offerings or wander along the beer, wine and spirits trail for refreshments from local providers. The choice is yours, and you've got no shortage of options. If you're heading down a little earlier on the Saturday morning, make sure you either join or spectate in the inaugural Frankston Swim Classic taking place on the bay, just in front of the Frankston Yacht Club. The Frankston Waterfront Festival runs from 12–10pm on Saturday, February 10 and 12–8pm on Sunday, February 11 at the Frankston Waterfront. For more information, visit the website. Images: James Terry
For 31 years, the Woodford Folk Festival has been a staple of south-east Queensland's event calendar, gifting the region with an annual array of music, arts, culture, creativity, camping and mud. As other festivals have come and gone around the country, it has remained an end-of-year mainstay, as well as a must-attend event for fest lovers; however that might not always be the case. Just days after the 2016/17 event wrapped up, Festival Director Bill Hauritz has announced that Woodford faces an uncertain future as a result of the strain being placed on the fest's infrastructure. This year saw audiences grow by more than five percent to reach 132,000 patrons over six days, with patrons flocking to see more than 2000 acts, performers and speakers across 438 events, including Paul Kelly, Gang Of Youths, Adalita, Amanda Palmer and Methyl Ethel. "It has been a most beautiful festival in almost every way but our future is unclear," said Hauritz in a statement. "This festival is becoming a hub for creativity attracting some great minds. It's been an inspiration for many of us," he continued. However, with growing crowds comes growing problems, as he also explained. "Raw water storage, and dusty and broken roads took the edge off what was a truly wonderful event. Dust was a big problem we have to fix, and the roads – they're just not up to required standards. That's just the beginning of our infrastructure issues." What happens next is yet to be determined, though given the massive amount of love and support Woodford Folk Festival receives — including from interstate attendees, with a third of festival visitors hailing from outside of Queensland — it's certain that everyone involved will be working to ensure the fest continues. The festival certainly has the backing of Moreton Bay Regional Council Mayor Allan Sutherland, who has called for more government funding. "With such a successful year of festival attendance and camping numbers – it has never been more important for all levels of Government to provide funding support and certainty to Woodfordia Inc. to turn Woodfordia into a destination worthy of ongoing national and international acclaim," he said. "Funding will be vital to ensure this site receives much needed infrastructure upgrades including permanent staging, toilets and amenities, dust control, roads, and camping space for this iconic Australian festival and Woodfordia itself to grow and flourish." Image: Woodford Folk Festival.
From Picasso to queer icons and Van Gogh-inspired projections: this winter, Melbourne has it all. As the weather gets even colder, those looking to spend the season exploring Melbourne's expansive art scene have a wide variety of exhibitions to choose from. With hundreds of lights, the Royal Botanic Garden's after-dark Lightscape installation turns the park into a festival of lights. On chillier winter days, you can head indoors to check out the NGV's QUEER exhibit to explore iconic moments in art history and queer history side by side, or visit the world premiere of The Picasso Century exhibition, developed exclusively for the NGV by the Centre Pompidou and the Musée national Picasso-Paris. No matter what you're looking for, this winter, you can find it. These are our picks for this season's must-see art exhibitions in Melbourne.
Radar Bar and Nightclub has some pretty big shoes to fill, taking over the space that was once home to legendary live music venue Lounge for almost thirty years. But if anyone can do it justice and deliver Melbourne a cracking new home for independent music, it's new owners hospitality group Cast of Falcons. Adding to a stable of popular haunts that includes Section 8, Ferdydurke, The B.East and Globe Alley, the team has reopened the Swanston Street site over the weekend, setting out to deliver a winning mix of diverse tunes, booze and late-night fun. [caption id="attachment_731267" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Julia Sansone[/caption] The team has given the space a quick overhaul, with a fit-out that's a little more grown-up than its predecessor, yet still laidback and comfy. The DJ booth has been relocated and lowered to open up the room, while plush green curtains and banquettes have created a series of cosy nooks for camping out between sets. A Funktion One sound system and lighting from acclaimed studio John Fish help bring things to life. And, of course, that stellar balcony remains, primed for the warmer afternoons to come. The music offering is set to be an eclectic one, spread across a considered program of regular club nights and ticketed gigs. From hip hop and techno to funk and jazz, it'll all be getting a workout at Radar. A slew of well-known labels and music collectives are joining in the fun, with the likes of 1800 Tequila's Thursday hip hop night and a weekly Friday party digging into deep French house and techno. You'll catch a loaded calendar of gigs with plenty of international names pencilled in for later this year, too. [caption id="attachment_731250" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Julia Sansone[/caption] In a similar spirit, independent labels reign supreme across the drinks list, headlined by a solid rotation of craft brews that currently includes the likes of Hop Nation's The Chop IPA, the Juicy NEIPA from 3 Ravens and Bad Shepherd's pilsner. You'll spy an organic-heavy wine selection peppered with plenty of French drops, like Goisot's 2017 aligoté from Burgundy. A crafty range of signature cocktails includes drinks like the caffeine-charged Black Mamba – a blend of 1800 coconut tequila, cold drip, coffee liqueur and orange bitters — and a couple of house tap cocktails will be joining the lineup soon. A food offering is slated to launch later this year, too once the kitchen has had a revamp of its own. Radar celebrated its soft opening over the weekend, but you catch the launch of the new weekly Wednesday party Connecting Service from 9pm on July 17. Find Radar Bar & Nightclub at 1/243 Swanston Street, Melbourne. It's from Wednesday–Thursday, 4pm–3am and Friday–Saturday 4pm–6am. Images: Julia Sansone
Once, dance and classical weren't music genres that you'd usually find swirling around in the same basket, unless you have a particular bent for the orchestral 'Sandstorm' covers found in the depths of YouTube. Since 2019 in Australia, however, Synthony has been here to prove that the disciplines go hand in hand — and it's returning for another tour in 2024. Initially founded in New Zealand, and now an annual highlight on Australia's gig calendar, the event gets a live orchestra joining forces with a selection of DJs and onstage performers to play the biggest dance tracks of the last 30 years. Think: tunes by Swedish House Mafia, Basement Jaxx, Fatboy Slim, Avicii, Fisher, Faithless, Disclosure, Eric Prydz, Flume, Calvin Harris, Wilkinson and the like, and as you've never heard them before. Wherever Synthony pops up, the venues that it temporarily call home take a few cues from the nightclub scene, with lights, lasers and mapped video all featured in the experience. And, as the orchestra busts out a selection of dance floor bangers note for note, vocalists also do their part — because this isn't just about instrumental versions of your favourite club tunes. The 2024 run first has a date with Melbourne on Friday, September 20, playing Margaret Court Arena. On the lineup: the Australian Pops Orchestra conducted by Sarah-Grace Williams, as joined by Ilan Kidron from The Potbelleez, Masha Mnjoyan, Emily Williams, Greg Gould, Matty O, Nate Dousand and Mobin Master — plus Example.
Anyone who's been on a tram when some entitled hungry arsehole thinks they're hungry and entitled enough to get on board with a bag of dim sims can agree that hot food on trams is a big fat red no symbol. But if its burgers? Well, maybe we can come around. And if it's a whole tram dedicated to Mr Burger burgers? Yep, we can definitely, 100 percent get on board with that. Literally. But unfortunately that's not going to happen anytime soon. Although Mr Burger seriously entertained the idea in an April Fool's announcement on their Facebook page earlier this morning. Branching out from food trucks and into the realm of food trams, the Mr Burger Tram was to take over one of Yarra Trams' B-class trams on the number 8 line from April to September. This tram of dreams would serve burgers, sides and drinks from a kitchen "specially fitted in the rear of the tram" — and you wouldn't need to tap on, you'd just need to buy a burger. If only. The jig was given up a few hours later through some comments on their Facebook page. We've got to give it to them — the Mr Burger team are about as good at pulling our legs as they are at flipping delicious burgs. Just look at these images: Along with some pretty great PhotoShop skills, they also tapped into something that Melburnians obviously — from the euphoric responses — want so bad. And it isn't actually so unbelievable. We do have a burger joint in a train carriage on a rooftop, after all. If your dreams of eating unabashedly on public transport are crushed, never fear. You can just grab one to go and hop on any tram you like to dig in. Just be prepared to cop daggers from other passengers.
Dripping ice creams are just one of the unavoidable realities of a scorching summer day. Until now. Some geniuses at the Biotherapy Development Research Center in Kanazawa, Japan have invented a popsicle that doesn't melt, keeping its cool even when temperatures are skyrocketing. The frosty treats, called Kanazawa Ice were released earlier this year, according to Japan's Asahi Shimbun. They're made using polyphenol, which is extracted from strawberries. Developer Tomihisa Ota told the paper that the ingredient's properties "make it difficult for water and oil to separate, so that a popsicle containing it will be able to retain the original shape of the cream for a longer time than usual and be hard to melt". The company stumbled upon this discovery while trying to create a new kind of confectionary using strawberries that weren't good enough quality to be sold. What they ended up making instead was a frozen snack that stays in perfect drip-free condition, even after a five minute stint in 28-degree heat. A post shared by 金座和アイス (@kanazawaice) on Nov 18, 2017 at 12:45am PST They're currently available in a range of flavours and designs at stores across Kanazawa, Osaka and Tokyo. But we're hoping this icy technology makes its way down under — with sweltering days approaching and our Frosty Fruits in extreme peril, it's a matter of national importance that we ship some here, stat. Via The Asahi Shimbun.
It has been 21 years since The Offspring topped Triple J's Hottest 100 with 'Pretty Fly (For a White Guy)', a win that still ranks as the annual countdown's most controversial result to date. It has also been nearly four decades since the band first formed in the early 80s, and almost 30 years since it came to mainstream attention with hits like 'Come Out and Play' and 'Self Esteem' — but the Californian outfit isn't done belting out its catchy brand of punk just yet. Offering music fans their latest huge blast from the past, The Offspring is heading to Australia and New Zealand for a massive tour in 2020. No, it won't be doing that brand new thing, but rather playing all of its famous tracks — including 'Gotta Get Away', 'Why Don't You Get a Job?', 'The Kids Aren't Alright' and the song that's forever cemented in Australian radio history, obviously. Still led by frontman and guitarist Bryan "Dexter" Holland — the band's only remaining member from its initial 1984 lineup, so you can definitely call him the original prankster — The Offspring will hit up Perth, Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and Auckland in April. And, because one old-school band isn't enough, it'll have company in the form of Canada's Sum 41. Basically, this big tour is your excuse to pretend its the late 90s and early 00s, bust out the appropriate attire — retro sneakers are a must — and get the words "gunter glieben glauchen globen" stuck in your head for another couple of decades. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AltMeuPkWRs THE OFFSPRING 2020 AUSTRALIAN TOUR DATES Perth — Sunday, April 19, HBF Stadium Adelaide — Tuesday, April 21, Entertainment Centre Theatre Melbourne — Thursday, April 23, Margaret Court Arena Sydney — Friday, April 24, Horden Pavilion Brisbane — Saturday, April 25, Riverstage Auckland — Tuesday, April 28, Spark Arena Early bird tickets for The Offspring and Sum 41's Australian and New Zealand shows go on sale from 9am local time on Friday, January 31, with general tickets on sale at 9am local time on Monday, February 3. Visit the tour mailing list to sign up for further details. Top image: Sum 41 via Selbymay for Wiki Commons.
Melbourne's summer weather is in full swing, but the ice cream masters at Billy van Creamy are here to help you keep your cool no matter how high those temperatures soar. Not only have they opened the doors to a brand-new store on Sydney Road, but they're celebrating its launch by giving away a stack of free and cheap scoops this weekend. To score yourself some complimentary all-natural ice cream, simply swing past the new Brunswick digs this Friday, February 12, between 5pm and 7pm. If you miss out, you can still get your ice cream fix on the cheap, with $2 scoops up for grabs from 7–10pm. Plus, there'll be even more $2 scoops on offer from 12–10pm on Saturday, February 13, and again on Sunday, February 14. If you don't already know Billy van Creamy from its roving ice cream truck and events cart, or the OG Fitzroy North store, now's the perfect chance to get acquainted. All that's left to do is choose a flavour — will it be a core classic, or a special edition like vegan mocha with almond brittle, or salted mango swirl? Billy van Creamy is giving away free scoops from 5–7pm on Friday, February 12 and $2 scoops from 12–10pm on Saturday, February 13 and Sunday, February 14.
Melburnians can now dine in at restaurants, cafes and pubs — but with restrictions in place around what you can and can't do when you get there, you may prefer to bring the experience home. If you're enjoying the comfort of your own space, with the freedom to cosy up to your loved ones, or to invite a bunch of friends over for a socially responsible dinner, you can still order from a number of excellent Melbourne bars and eateries that are happy to bring restaurant quality dining to you, or bottled cocktails if that's more your vibe. In partnership with Belvedere, we've found eight venues delivering quality meals and cocktails (as well as other celebratory drinks) so you can level up your next night in, and stay nice and cosy indoors.
Sydney's no stranger to world-class drinking dens, but even we're due for a few surprises when one of the world's best, and most enduring, speakeasies hits Aussie shores next month. Since the first Employees Only bar opened its doors in New York back in 2004, it has picked up a whole swag of accolades — including ranking among The World's 50 Best Bars for ten years running, this year coming in at 26 — and its founders have successfully taken the concept global, launching outposts in Singapore, Hong Kong and Miami. And now, they're headed Down Under, taking over a heritage basement space in Sydney's CBD and bringing in Sydney native Anna Fang, for the bar's much-anticipated Australian debut. Here, Employees Only is sticking to its original principles, promising memorable cocktails and sophisticated fare in a beautiful space. But it'll also be rounded out with a distinctly local edge and a healthy dose of Sydney style. The Sydney outpost is being run by EO co-founder Dushan Zaric, along with EO New York bartender Robert Krueger and Fang as venue manager. And it seems no one is deterred by the city's ongoing lockout law woes, with Krueger saying, "We're excited to work with the incredible local bar community, together helping to reinvigorate Sydney's nightlife and bring it back onto the global stage." To that end, expect a cocktail offering that lives up to the hype, with some of the New York outpost's favourites sitting alongside a slew of new, Sydney-exclusive creations. Must-try classics that will appear on the menu include the Amelia, crafted on vodka, elderflower liqueur, puréed blackberries and fresh lemon, and the Provençal, with lavender-infused gin, vermouth and Cointreau. Meanwhile, the kitchen is taking its cues from classic New York bistro fare, the menu sporting a mix of Employee's Only favourites — think house-made pork sausage cavatelli, bone marrow poppers with bordelaise sauce, and the now legendary steak tartare, here done with hand-cut filet mignon — and Head Chef Aurelian Girault's latest Australian-inspired creations. Enter beneath the signature neon "psychic" sign, pull up a seat at the curved, brass-topped bar and get ready for some pretty exceptional boozing. Employees Only Sydney is slated to open in November at 9 Barrack Street, Sydney. Images: Robert Krueger and Anna Fang, by Joe Cheng.
Dine-in cafe service sure didn't get much of a run in 2020. But while those doors were closed, Melbourne-born Only Hospitality Group came up with a winning formula for its next new venture — a COVID-friendly cafe concept heroing takeaway baked goods, loaves of fresh bread and coffee to-go. And so, Juliette Coffee & Bread was born, taking over a former jewellery shop in the heart of Malvern. New sibling to the group's many other cafe hits (including Fitzroy's Bentwood, Glovers Station in Elsternwick and Camberwell's My Other Brother), Juliette opened its doors in July, fast becoming a neighbourhood favourite for it's lockdown-friendly grab-and-go offering. Here, behind a cheery salmon-hued facade, you'll find a simple, yet considered lineup of house-made sourdough breads, pastries and baguette sandwiches, available to takeaway or to enjoy at one of the curbside tables. Signature treats including fruit danishes, almond croissants and Portuguese tarts fill the cabinets, along with the likes of Nutella-stuffed doughnuts and chunky chocolate peanut butter cookies. Drop by for a bacon and egg muffin, or maybe the pork, fennel and black sesame sausage roll. Or, try a sambo made on Juliette bread — popular options include a saucy eggplant parma baguette, and another teaming shaved pastrami with sauerkraut, cheese and Russian mayo. Only Hospitality's own Inglewood Coffee Roasters are taking care of the caffeinated side of things, with state-of-the-art Modbar machines gracing the counter. You can match your pain au chocolate with an espresso coffee from the Sunset BLVD house blend, a filter option, or something from the rotation of single origins. The concept has proved such a hit, that two more Juliette Coffee & Bread outposts have joined the original in recent months, launching in Hawthorn East and Ringwood East. And the family's set to expand even more, with Armadale and Camberwell slated to welcome their own iterations next week.
Owned by married couple Raj and Krystle, Punjabi Curry Cafe in Collingwood serves up authentic North Indian cuisine, without boasting about any modern twists. This stuff is the real deal, and with 15 years experience as restaurateurs, they know what they're doing. The restaurant features an exposed tandoor oven, so while you wait for your meal to arrive, you can sit back with a drink and watch the chefs skilfully fry up some of the best naan bread in Melbourne. The menu is extensive, with a vegetarian list that puts most other restaurants to shame. Highlights include the palak paneer, a fresh spinach and cottage cheese dish cooked with herbs, tomato and spices, and the shimla aloo jeera, a dish of capsicum and potato cooked with cumin and spices. Elsewhere, meat eaters aren't forgotten, with a range of lamb, beef, goat and seafood to choose from. If ordering goat the goat masala is excellent, cooked in the chef's special mixture of mushroom, tomato and capsicum. Then there's the delicious Punjabi kadai. King prawns are cooked in a traditional wok with fresh tomatoes, onions, capsicum, ginger, garlic and spices — it is as authentic a dish you'll find anywhere. Wash all this down with a good selection of beer and cider, including Kingfisher lager on tap, or a glass wine from their modest but well curated wine list. There is also a fair selection of whiskies to indulge in, depending on the kind of night you're having. If you're after something other than booze, then try one of its lassies, including mango or namkeen.
The latest production in the MTC’s Neon Festival of Independent Theatre is taking outdated gender demarcations and turning them on their head. The women in Patricia Cornelius’ bluntly titled new play aren’t afraid to scream, swear or throw punches. They’re mean and tough and damaged, and about as unladylike as you can get. And that, of course, is the point. Shit marks the latest collaboration in a more than three-decade partnership between Cornelius and director Susie Dee. Their previous work together, Savages, won four 2013 Melbourne Green Room Awards as well as the 2014 Premier’s Literary Award for Drama. According to its creators, the aim of this new play was to allow the kinds of women rarely seen on the stage "the chance to come back at a world which despises them." Shit runs from June 25 to July 5, with a post-show Q&A with Dee and Cornelius scheduled for June 28. For more information, go here.
Sometimes it's nice to celebrate the little things, and at Crop Up! you'll be doing just that — by exploring the importance of seeds, grains and berries and their impact cultures across the globe. The event, as part of the North South Feast West festival at the Immigration Museum, will be filled with talks, tasting and demos, and you'll even have a chance to get your hands dirty in a berry planting workshop with the green thumbed legends at Do it on the Roof. For those interested in the art of brewing, head down to the Hawkers Beer event with brewer Mazen Hajjar. If cocktails are more your thing, grab an extra ticket to Fred Siggins' cocktail workshop From Bush to Bar, where you'll learn about the use of foraged and native ingredients in modern food and cocktails, among many other things. Plus, there will be Pimms. So get yourself to the Immigration Museum on Sunday, November 15 for the ultimate productive Sunday session.
By now, it's an all-too-familiar story. Put the human ball of hilarity that is Kate McKinnon in a film and it instantly improves. It was true in Office Christmas Party, Rough Night and Masterminds, no matter how average, sometimes awful those movies ultimately were. It's true again in The Spy Who Dumped Me as well. Thankfully, however, the Saturday Night Live standout isn't a rare diamond this time around. McKinnon's latest action-comedy doesn't always hit the mark, but it entertains in both the action and comedy departments — complete with death by fondue, affairs with Edward Snowden and completely relatable gushing over Gillian Anderson. That said, even when she's declaring that Anderson's MI6 boss is "the Beyonce of the government", and delivering other one-liners and asides with gusto, McKinnon is only one half of The Spy Who Dumped Me's modest charms. Mila Kunis is the other, playing the straighter role against McKinnon's gloriously goofy energy. Together, they not only make an engaging comedic pair, but furnish a funny, mayhem-fuelled ode to female friendship. That's the film's secret weapon. Director Susanna Fogel doesn't just throw women into the usually male-dominated realm of big-screen espionage, and nor is she content to just laugh as ordinary folks get caught up in the spy world. Rather, she shows that her characters cope with their new outlandish life by relying on each other. It's a recognisable scenario, even when it isn't. Girl meets boy, they bond over beers and bad jukebox songs, and then settle into a comfortable relationship. A year later, grocery store cashier Audrey (Kunis) is suddenly dumped by text, and aspiring actress Morgan (McKinnon) is her trusty shoulder to cry on. What they don't know is that Audrey's ex, Drew (Justin Theroux), is a lethal CIA agent immersed in a globe-trotting plot. When they find out, it's courtesy of two fellow operatives (Sam Heughan and Hasan Minhaj), a hook-up gone wrong and a shower of gunfire — plus a promise to travel to Europe to finish Drew's mission. "Do you want to die having never been to Europe, or do you want to die having been to Europe?" Morgan asks. Hopping between Vienna, Prague, Paris and Berlin, Audrey and Morgan try to do what's right, work out who they can trust and, of course, not die even though they've now been to Europe. And they do it all amidst cafe shootouts, an eventful Uber ride, stealing from Australian tourists, chatting about Balzac and trying to outrun the icy Russian gymnast turned model turned assassin (Ivanna Sakhno) on their trail. Whether you're a seasoned spy flick fan or barely know your Bond from your Bourne, everything you expect to happen happens. Well, almost everything, with the Cirque du Soleil finale a zany surprise. But even when the film seems predictable (and stretches its material about 30 minutes too far), the hyper-violent set-pieces always come with a slice of humour, the gags always inspire at least giggles, and the movie knows it is wading through a sea of genre cliches. More than that, its love of its central duo remains. This might be Fogel's first foray into big, bouncy action, but it's telling that her only other film — 2014's Life Partners — spun a story of lifelong besties who find their relationship being tested. While espionage wasn't part of that flick, there's plenty that's universal about women grappling with life's challenges with a pal by their side. Here, co-writing the script with David Iserson (United States of Tara), Fogel never questions Audrey and Morgan's camaraderie. Rather, The Spy Who Dumped Me feeds off of the characters' connection, using it as a constant source of affection, affirmation and amusement throughout all of the chaos. There are the foreseeable high points and a few low points, and most of the movie falls firmly in the middle, but it always feels fitting: that's friendship, after all. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URUVhRYJsgA
This one-woman show from Sydney artist Nat Randall is part performance piece, part act of mental and physical endurance. For 24 hours straight during Next Wave Festival, Randall will repeatedly perform a single scene from John Cassavetes' cult film Opening Night. Each time, she'll be joined by a different male co-star — you can even volunteer to join their ranks yourself, no acting experience required. The free performance will take place from 1pm on Friday, May 20 at ACMI in Federation Square, with audience members free to venture in and out as they please.
With more than 1,100 outlets in South Korea, NeNe Chicken is quite the popular crispy chicken joint in its home country. And it seems we've bought into the hype, too, with almost two dozen NeNes now found all across Australia. Sure, it's little more than the usual food court-style greasy spoon — but it's the succulent chicken pieces that should get your tastebuds tingling. There's a reason that the chain has taken its name from the Korean phrasing for "Yes! Yes!" after all, as its menu of chicken pieces, burgers, wraps and more demonstrates. Come for the main attraction in flavours such as freaking hot, bulgogi, snowing vegetable, green onion and lemon, and then stay for the kimchi wrap, tornado potato, and black sesame and green tea soft serves. Now that's our kind of fast food.
The words “never did me any harm” are most often uttered by the old and cantankerous to justify some form of extreme child disciplining they’re itching to dole out. Appropriate then, that they’re used as the title for this exploration of modern parenting from director Kate Champion. Performed by members of Champion’s dance company Force Majeure and actors from the Sydney Theatre Company, the show is a blend of dance, physical performance and documentary theatre. Champion, working with Mr Cate Blanchett, STC’s Andrew Upton, used a wide array of actual interviews on the subject to create the script, making for a detailed and nuanced examination of the role parenthood plays in our lives. Having garnered plenty of acclaim at this year’s Sydney Festival, Never Did Me Any Harm now comes to Melbourne. It’s a show for parents, children and the child-free alike. Go see it (or go to your room…)
If you're due for your next Yarra Valley getaway, this might just be the weekend to do it. South Yarra's much-loved Leonard's House of Love is packing up its retrotastic food truck, hitting the road and descending on Four Pillars' Healesville headquarters in a blaze of deliciousness. Camping out at the much-loved distillery on Saturday, March 16 and Sunday, March 17, the burger maestros will be slinging an assortment of signature eats, from brisket cheeseburgers and a smoked mushroom burgers to vegan classics. And of course, at this spot, no one's going thirsty either. In at the bar, Four Pillars will have all your booze needs sorted, with gin tastings and flights, a range of house G&Ts, and a lineup of crafty gin cocktails to boot. Four Pillars is open from 10.30am–9pm on Saturday and 10.30am–5.30pm on Sunday.
If you're a fan of true-crime stories, then you'll know a disturbing truth: that there's no shortage of real-life tragedies that films and series in the genre can draw upon. White House Farm's inspiration comes from the notorious killings known as the White House Farm murders, which took place outside an Essex village and saw five members of the Bamber-Caffell family lose their lives, and continued to garner headlines intermittently in the decades since as appeals were lodged and reviews took place. Across six episodes, the show not only heads back to August 6, 1985, but also follows the investigation into the case. Feeling tense is part of the package, even if you're already familiar with the details. Cast-wise, Snatch's Stephen Graham and Game of Thrones' Mark Addy play the detectives trying to get to the bottom of the traumatic and complex situation — and fellow GoT alum Alfie Allen also pops up.
If you’re familiar with Cat Power (aka Chan Marshall), then you know how badass she is. Her singer-songwriter meets rock star persona sets her apart as one of the more unique musicians out there. Those who saw her at Golden Plains this past March know what we’re talking about. Don’t fret if you missed her then, because you’ll soon have another chance. Cat Power is crossing the pond again for an Australian tour this summer. Cat Power’s ten-show tour will kick off this January at the Sydney Festival. It was just announced that she would be a guest performer at the festival’s Big Star tribute show alongside Jody Stephens, Mike Mills (R.E.M.), Ken Stringfellow (The Posies), Chris Stamey (The dB’s), Mitch Easter (Let’s Active), Edwyn Collins and Kurt Vile. Power’s Sydney shows will continue the day after at the Circus Ronaldo Tent with a matinee and midnight show. After, she’ll continue down the coast, performing in Milton, Canberra, Melbourne, Menniyan and concluding in Perth. So if you haven’t heard Cat Power in a while, it’ll be worth hitting up one of her shows. Her newish album, Sun, is freshly awesome and and her blonde coif is shocking, but that’s why we love Cat. She always keeps you coming back for more.
