Chocolates, roses, free-flowing drinks, all the gelato you can eat, spending every day at the beach: none of these play a part in animated Prime Video series Undone. But if they all were a standard element of everyone's everyday lives — if we were all blissfully happy all the time, in other words — then stories like this multiverse mind-bender wouldn't exist. Screens big and small keep being filled with alternate realities, and tinkering with time as well, because asking "what if?" is an inherently human way to cope with all of life's disappointments. We dream of what might be if things were different and, when we escape into movies and TV shows, our on-screen fantasies keep dreaming those dreams for us. What if there was another realm where things were better? What if, somewhere else out there, those choices you regret had gone another way? What if you could venture backwards to mend whatever you and your loved ones are struggling with, or forwards to solve the consequences of your misdeeds? What if you could reunite with the people you've lost — or get a do-over on the opportunities you'd missed? These are the questions that Undone ponders, as the likes of Everything Everywhere All At Once, Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Rick and Morty, Russian Doll and The Matrix franchise have in their own ways. A particular point of obsession flutters at the heart of all these trains of thought, and all these films and television programs, too: fixing everything that's stopping your existence from being perfect. Returning for its second season three years after its first — which was one of the best shows of 2019 — the gorgeously and thoughtfully trippy Undone is especially fixated on this idea. It always has been from the moment its eight-episode initial season appeared with its vivid rotoscoped animation and entrancing leaps into surreal territory; however, in season two it doubles down. Hailing from BoJack Horseman duo Kate Purdy and Raphael Bob-Waksberg, it also remains unsurprisingly concerned with mental illness, and still sees its protagonist caught in an existential crisis. (The pair have a type, but Undone isn't BoJack Horseman 2.0). Again, it deeply understands that contentment doesn't lead to "what if?" queries. Indeed, learning to cope with being stuck in a flawed life, being unable to wish it away and accepting that fate beams brightly away at the heart of the show. During its debut outing, Undone introduced viewers to 28-year-old Alma Winograd-Diaz (Rosa Salazar, Alita: Battle Angel), who found everything she thought she knew pushed askew after a near-fatal car accident. Suddenly, she started experiencing time and her memories differently — including those of her father, Jacob Winograd (Bob Odenkirk, Better Call Saul), who died over 20 years earlier. In a vision, he tasked her with investigating his death, which became a quest to patch up the past to stop tragedy from striking. Undone's first season was purposefully and perceptively vague, though. Spectacular to look at, and also inventive, smart, funny and tender, it wasn't keen on offering firm answers about Alma's mission, her mental state and its ending. Rather, it was determined to dive deep but stay ambiguous as it examined the meaning of life, and also slotted in alongside shows such as The Good Place, Forever and Maniac. Undone didn't necessarily need a second season, but this repeat dive into Alma's story is just as exceptional as its first — even with one big change. This time, her actions in the last batch of episodes are given a clearcut answer, and another timeline seems to glimmer with almost everything she's ever wanted. But every family's troubles are multifaceted, with more springing up here to fracture the Winograd-Diazs' seeming idyll. With help from her elder sister Becca (Angelique Cabral, How It Ends), Alma now splashes around in her visibly sorrowful mother Camila Diaz's (Constance Marie, With Love) past, including learning about chapters in Mexico decades back that again disrupt the status quo. If it wasn't evident already, it should be now: while it shares more than a few themes in common with BoJack Horseman, Undone dwells in its own world. Still, in its second season, it has another topic on its mind that Purdy and Bob-Waksberg's last show also surveyed — and fellow multiverse effort Everything Everywhere All At Once as well, plus the recent second season of time-travel comedy Russian Doll. Both Encanto and Turning Red mused on the same concept, too: intergenerational trauma. That some pain is so deep-seated in those bearing it that it passes down alongside genes isn't a new realisation, and wasn't back in the 60s when One Hundred Years of Solitude made it its basis on the page. But reckoning with it more often, as is happening now, is a product of a world that's far more willing to pull apart the sins and scars of the past. Accordingly, Undone joins the parade of pop-culture titles excavating it, spying the marks it leaves from generation to generation, and exploring how to face it. There's more certainty in Undone's second go-around — about what's happening, why, what it means and where it comes from — but that doesn't mean that this devastatingly astute series is done with uncertainty. Using rotoscoping, which involves drawing over filmed footage of its actors (see also: Richard Linklater's Waking Life, A Scanner Darkly and Apollo 10 1/2: A Space Age Childhood), isn't just a stylistic preference or a way to get the best performances out of the series' phenomenal cast. Able to reflect Alma's ever-changing, always-fragile emotional and mental state in every frame, Undone's dreamlike animation is thoroughly unburdened by reality and all the more expressive for it. Show, don't tell: not that it shies away from talking through what's happening, but that's clearly this soulful, stunning and supremely moving program's motto. Deeply rich and resonant, as intelligent and affecting as sci-fi and animation alike get, and dedicated to thinking and feeling big while confronting everyday truths, Undone is like nothing else that's streaming. And yes, that's still accurate even in these busily multiverse-hopping, existence-contemplating times, where dreaming about alternate lives is as natural as breathing. Check out the trailer for Undone season two below: Undone is available to stream via Prime Video.
AFC Richmond supporters, rejoice — and get ready for a hefty rivalry. If you're a fan of the fictional soccer team, then you're obviously a fan of Ted Lasso, the award-winning hit Apple TV+ sitcom that tells its tale. After a year gap, sitting on the bench in 2022, the Jason Sudeikis (Saturday Night Live)-starring show is finally set to return in 2023. Even better: Apple TV+ has confirmed that season three will arrive sometime in autumn Down Under, which is sometime in the next few months. There's no exact release date as yet, but the streaming platform has dropped an initial image for the new episodes which teases quite the clash in the works — between perennially optimistic American Ted and his former offsider Nathan 'Nate' Shelley (Nick Mohammed, Intelligence). View this post on Instagram A post shared by Apple TV+ (@appletvplus) While Ted Lasso has felt like streaming's biggest warm hug across its first and second seasons, it wasn't afraid to skew darker in the latter, including as Nate felt pushed aside, ignored and unloved by Ted. Viewers will know that the last batch of episodes culminated with Nate's defection to opposing club West Ham United, as owned by Rupert Mannion (Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Anthony Stewart Head), ex-husband to AFC Richmond owner Rebecca Welton (Hannah Waddingham, Hocus Pocus 2). Also part of the Ted Lasso crew: sweary now-retired veteran champion Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein, Uncle), recent hotshot player Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster, The Devil's Hour), Jamie's ex-girlfriend and Roy's current partner Keeley Jones (Juno Temple, The Offer), Ted's laconic second-in-charge and long-time friend Coach Beard (Brendan Hunt, Bless This Mess), and AFC Richmond Director of Football Operations Leslie Higgins (Jeffrey Swift, Housebound). As the sitcom's first two seasons have shown, viewers definitely don't need to love soccer or even sport to fall for this series' ongoing charms — although if you obsessed over the 2022 World Cup, it might help fill the gap until the 2026 version arrives. Kind-hearted in the way that Parks and Recreation, Wellington Paranormal, Brooklyn Nine-Nine and Abbott Elementary have also proven, Ted Lasso will be in for a significant obstacle in 2023, thanks to Ted and Nate's battle. Usually, this series celebrates people who support each other, are always there for each other and form close bonds as a result. Indeed, that's what has made it so instantly likeable. But with Nate now working for the competition, change is afoot — don't expect to see the show mess too much with its winning formula, though. There's no trailer for season three just yet, but you can check out the trailer for Ted Lasso's second season below: Season three of Ted Lasso will stream via Apple TV+ sometime in autumn 2023 Down Under — we'll update you with an exact release date when one is announced. Read our full review of season two.
It was really only a matter of time before someone went there — and they finally have. Residents that fit into the intersection of the 'Singapore resident' and 'Orange Is the New Black fan' Venn diagram will be stoked to hear Netflix is opening an a pop-up restaurant themed around the show's prison cafeteria. As of yesterday, June 16, Singaporean diner OverEasy has been transformed into Litchfield Penitentiary Cafeteria to bring the TV prison experience to the people (and also to cash in on the hype surrounding the OITNB season four debut, which should be going up on Netflix sometime today). Chef Bjorn Shen has created the menu inspired by the depressing slop served up in the prison cafeteria but, you know, more gourmet. On the menu? An appetiser of corn kernels with spiced butter, cheese and lime, a main designed to replicate Nutraloaf (the US prison punishment food of three meals literally blended into one), and gruel for dessert (which is actually white chocolate and coconut rice pudding, almond crumble and 'fruit' of the day). And to wash it all down? Delicious tap water (moreish, healthy and flavourful!). Unfortunately the restaurant has filled up pretty quickly but if you're in Singapore right now, you can chance your arm for a walk-in. It's worth a shot because the prison-style grub is free — probably because no one would actually pay for prison fare. And for everyone else, well, we can sleep easy knowing that OITNB-branded GruelTM is surely coming soon to a supermarket near us and get stuck into binge watching season four. Via CNET.
Mark your calendar: if you like free ice cream, as everyone should, then you have a date with a Ben & Jerry's store in April. Each year, the dessert brand chooses one day per year to give everyone a treat without paying a cent. In 2024, that day is Tuesday, April 16. If there's one thing this chain loves above all else, it's the obvious: ice cream in a huge array of ridiculously named flavours. It's the brand behind Chunky Monkey, Cherry Garcia, Phish Food and The Tonight Dough — and has been responsible for Liz Lemon Greek Frozen Yoghurt, Stephen Colbert's AmeriCone Dream and Schweddy Balls, too. But, to the delight of your sweet treat-loving tastebuds, on Free Cone Day it loves giving away free scoops just as much. The occasion is exactly what it sounds like: a day where your ice cream is on the house. It ran annually since 1979 until the pandemic, then took a break for obvious reasons — returning in 2023 for the first time since 2019, and now backing it up in 2024. Here's how it works: if you adore ice cream as much as Ben & Jerry's adores ice cream, then you just need to hit up your local participating store (which is most stores) between 12–8pm. You can choose whichever flavour you like, and you can also line up for a free cone as many times as you like within that eight-hour period. Free Cone Day is happening in both Australia and New Zealand — worldwide, too, in more than 35 countries — at Ben & Jerry's Scoop Stores. Last year, the brand gave away 970,000 scoops around the world, with 180,000 of those Down Under. This year, it wants to top one million free scoops globally, and also beat its Aussie and Aotearoa figure. In Sydney, you'll be hitting up Manly, Bondi Beach and Parramatta, for starters. Melburnians have St Kilda, Flinders Lane and Burwood East stores to choose from, while Brisbanites can head to South Brisbane. In Western Australia, Fremantle, Hillarys and Northbridge Scoop Shops are taking part. Ben & Jerry's also has stores in some Hoyts cinemas — so you might be able to join in when you're seeing a movie, such as at Hoyts Norwood in South Australia. Across Australia, these four spots aren't on the list, sadly: Adelaide Oval, Melbourne Zoo, Werribee Zoo and Healesville Zoo. Over in Aotearoa, options for a free ice cream include Commercial Bay and Ponsonby in Auckland, plus Cuba Street and the airport in Wellington. Free Cone Day runs from 12–8pm on Tuesday, April 16, 2024 at Ben & Jerry's Australian and New Zealand stores. Head to the brand's website for further details.
Step aside Viennetta: there's a new luxe dinner party freezer-treat in town. Connoisseur — that purveyor of luxurious, eat-it-by-the-tub ice cream — has teamed up with artisan Australian chocolate brand Koko Black for a new range of ice cream sticks for more discerning chocolate aficionados. The duo of new flavours serve as a good reminder that, sometimes, you can't go past a classic. The vanilla version sees Connoisseur's vanilla coated in Koko Black's 54 percent dark chocolate. If you're looking for a bit more crunch, make a beeline for the honeycomb stick that stars honeycomb ice cream in Koko Black's signature Tasmanian Leatherwood Honeycomb pieces in 54 percent dark chocolate. It's the first time the Melbourne-born chocolatier has made its way into the frozen aisle, which is surprising given that its more recent collabs have included cake and beer. Connoisseur's Koko Black selections are available as four-packs ($8.40), while the classic vanilla is also available as an individual stick ($4.40). They're available right now from leading convenience and grocery stores around Australia.
When international art collective teamLab launched Borderless, its Tokyo-based permanent digital-only art museum, the kaleidoscopic space became the most-visited single-artist site in the world in just its first year of operation. Wherever the outfit pops up — be it in Shanghai oil tanks, Japanese hot springs or Melbourne — its installations are always hugely popular. So it's no wonder that the group keeps expanding its footprint by opening more permanent locations. Late in 2019, teamLab launched a new venue in Shanghai, which is also called Borderless. This year, it also started a museum called SuperNature in Macao. And, come 2024, it'll set up shop in The Netherlands as well — thanks to a new permanent digital art exhibition in Utrecht, which'll become the Europe's first centre dedicated to digital art. Called Nowhere, the next teamLab site will take over a 3000-square-metre space — and fill it with a range of the collective's typically vibrant and luminous works. While specific details about these pieces are yet to be revealed, Nowhere will be home to 'Future Park' and 'Athletics Forest' areas like its other venues. That means digital art fans can expect an all-ages, educational range of works, as well as engaging and fun activities that'll get you to physically interact with the pieces on offer. With the space's opening still four years away, clearly more details will be provided in that period; however teamLab will be pondering familiar themes. In a statement about the new exhibition, the group noted that it'll be exploring the expanding and spreading notion of beauty, the way it changes people's perceptions, and the fact that "everything exists in a fragile yet miraculous continuity over an extremely long period of time" — and that it's aiming "to create an experience through which visitors recognise this continuity itself as beautiful". In other words, it sounds like teamLab's next batch light and projection-heavy art will once again dazzle, immerse and get audiences thinking as they wander through and interact with the new space. In terms of its location, Nowhere will form part of an impressive spot, too. It'll nestle into the ground floor of Utrecht's new biodiversity-focused Wonderwoods development, which'll feature more than 360 trees and almost 9750 shrubs and plants in a green urban space next to Utrecht Central Station — so, before you mosey around teamLab's digital wonders, you have soak in some natural splendour as well. Of course, digital art aficionados Down Under will need to cross their fingers that international travel has returned to normal by 2024 — so put visiting Nowhere on your post-pandemic travel bucket list. teamLab Nowhere will open at Wonderwoods, Jaarbeurs Boulevard, Utrecht, at a yet-to-be-announced 2024 date — we'll update you with further details when they're announced. Top image: teamLab SuperNature. Mountain of Flowers and People: Lost, Immersed and Reborn, 2020, Interactive Digital Installation, Endless, Sound: Hideaki Takahashi © teamLab.
Beef starts with two strangers meeting, but there's absolutely nothing cute about it. Sparks don't fly and hearts don't flutter; instead, this pair grinds each other's gears. In a case of deep and passionate hate at first sight, Danny Cho (Steven Yeun, Nope) and Amy Lau (Ali Wong, Paper Girls) give their respective vehicles' gearboxes a workout, in fact, after he begins to pull out of a hardware store carpark, she honks behind him, and lewd hand signals and terse words are exchanged. Food is thrown, streets are angrily raced down, gardens are ruined, accidents are barely avoided, and the name of Vin Diesel's famous car franchise springs to mind, aptly describing how bitterly these two strangers feel about each other — and how quickly. Created by Lee Sung Jin, who has It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Dave and Silicon Valley on his resume before this ten-part Netflix and A24 collaboration, Beef also commences with a simple, indisputable and deeply relatable fact. Danny could've just let Amy beep as much as she liked, then waved, apologised and driven away. Amy could've been more courteous about sounding her horn, and afterwards. But each feels immediately slighted by the other, isn't willing to stand for such an indignity and becomes consumed by their trivial spat. Whether you're a struggling contractor hardly making ends meet, as he is, or a store-owning entrepreneur trying to secure a big deal, as she is — or, if you're both, neither or anywhere in-between — pettiness reigning supreme is basic human nature. If you've ever gotten irrationally irate about a minor incident, this new standout understands. Episode by episode, it sees that annoyance fester and exasperation grow, too. Streaming in full from Thursday, April 6 just in time for Easter long-weekend binges, Beef spends its run with two people who can't let go of their instant rage, keep trying to get the other back, get even more incensed in response, and just add more fuel to the fire again and again until their whole existence is a blaze of revenge. If you've ever taken a small thing and blown it wildly out of proportion, Beef is also on the same wavelength. And if any of the above has ever made you question your entire life — or just the daily grind of endeavouring to get by, having everything go wrong, feeling unappreciated and constantly working — Beef might just feel like it was made for you. For Los Angeles resident Danny, Amy's rudeness is just another source of frustration on what seems like an endless list. He was only in her vicinity at all to return a heap of grills, but the shop assistant was snarky, he couldn't find his receipt and ended up taking them home again anyway. He's also exhausted from continuously needing to hustle for work, and from ill-mannered customers — all while getting attitude from his younger brother Paul (Young Mazino, Prodigal Son), who he's doing his best to look out for. Then there's his quest to make enough cash to bring his parents (first-timers Jerry Hanjoo Kim and Gina Lee) back from Korea after the motel they ran fell on hard times, plus the shady get-rich-quick shenanigans that his fresh-out-of-prison cousin Isaac (David Choe, The Mandalorian) is always plunging him into. For the Calabasas-dwelling Amy, there's always something to deal with — Danny's ute almost reversing into her SUV is just the latest. Her artist husband George (Joseph Lee, Searching) plays primary parent to their anxious daughter Junie (Remy Holt, The Afterparty), which means that she's the overworked financial provider via her designer plant company (and getting grief from his mother Fumi, played by Pretty Little Liars' Patti Yasutake, for it). That's involved years of toiling hard to establish the business, and make it a success. She's also spent the past two years attracting Jordan Forster (Maria Bello, NCIS), who owns the chain of hardware stores that leads her to Danny, to buy her out. All that she wants is to enjoy time with her family, but finalising the deal requires jumping through the eccentric billionaire's many hoops, even while getting insider tips from her sister-in-law Naomi (Ashley Park, Girls5eva). There's a chalk-and-cheese air to Danny and Amy's dynamic early, as Beef gets them duelling as seeming opposites. But as their fight escalates — and, from road rage to urine-soaked floors, catfishing, sabotaging careers and more, it escalates to dowright civilian warfare — they're united in their immature pettiness, their many flaws, and their individual despair over where life has taken them and why. Beef is smartly penned as a dual character study of an unhappy pair stuck between quarter-life and midlife crises, striving to move forward but treading water, and terrified of losing what they've worked for. It's a portrait of two people fracturing and fraying well before they set each other off, and it knows and sees how little that truly separates Danny and Amy, especially when they can't spy that themselves. Beef is also smart about the vengeance- and obsession-seasoned stew it splashes across the screen: its Los Angeles setting, its masterful tonal swerves from deep drama to dark comedy and back again, its treasure trove of hostilities, its willingness to get Lynchian, its lived-in characters from its central duo down to its supporting players, and the generosity and sympathy that it shows everyone even at their worst. Its brightest move in a show filled with bright moves is casting Minari Oscar-nominee Yeun and Always Be My Maybe's Wong, however. Each is exceptional. That's a word that keeps being directed Yeun's way, and deservedly — see Minari, Nope, Burning, Okja, his skit on I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson — but it demands screaming here as he navigates such a range of scenarios, emotions, squabbles, revelations, sources of inner turmoil, and stints of both physical and witty comedy. As an actor, Wong has never been better, also while taking the same journey. And whether they're shouting at or plotting against each other, they're dynamite together. At the end of episode one, with Danny and Amy enlivened by their feud — living for it, even — Beef plays out its debut instalment with Hoobstank's 'The Reason'. Its words are fitting; this twosome is feeding off each other, thriving in their meanest ways and only letting themselves truly be themselves in their newfound enemy's company. That's another of the show's strokes of genius. So is the 90s-heavy soundtrack, which also spans Tori Amos, Smashing Pumpkins, Bush and Offspring like it's Yellowjackets. And, equally as shrewd is the inbuilt acknowledgement that Danny and Amy are mad, sad, disappointed and frustrated about everything, not just each other, but so is everyone around them. We all have beef. "It's always fucking something," as Beef's two leads both espouse and we all feel. Recognising that makes for hilarious, grim, tense, savvy, sometimes-surreal and always-irresistible viewing. Check out the trailer for Beef below: Beef streams via Netflix from Thursday, April 6. Images: Netflix.
UPDATE, June 10, 2021: Before the lockdown ends, the Victorian Government has changed the mask rules that'll come into effect from 11.59pm on Thursday, June 10. Under this change, which stems from updated public health advice, masks will still be mandatory outdoors. Usually when winter hits, it's tempting to spend more time at home to escape the cold. Melburnians haven't had any other option so far in 2021, with the city under lockdown since the end of May — first as part of week-long statewide stay-at-home conditions to combat Victoria's latest COVID-19 outbreak, and then during a further week of lockdown just in metropolitan Melbourne itself. Come 11.59pm on Thursday, June 10, the city's current stay-at-home stint will come to an end, with Acting Premier James Merlino advising today, Wednesday, June 9, that "significant steps" will be taken. So, from Friday, June 11, you'll be able to leave your house for whatever reason you like. As Melburnians are used to by now, though, some restrictions will be in place. In fact, the rules that'll apply once lockdown lifts are all very familiar. Firstly, the five reasons to leave the house will be scrapped — so you can head out for whatever reason you like. But, you can't venture too far, with ten-kilometre rule giving way to the 25-kilometre rule. Accordingly, travel to regional Victoria will remain off the cards, including over the upcoming long weekend. To exceed your 25-kilometre bubble, you'll need to be heading to work, education, caregiving or to get a vaccination. It's expected that this rule will only be in effect for a week, but further details will be provided next week. https://twitter.com/JamesMerlinoMP/status/1402444545082593281 Other changes coming into effect largely mirror the settings that have been in place in regional Victoria over the past week. You still won't be able to have anyone come over to your house, for instance, but you will be able to gather outdoors with up to ten people. Also, food and hospitality businesses will be able to open for seated service only — with a cap of 100 people per venue and a maximum of 50 people indoors. Retail stores can also reopen, with a density limit of one person per four square metres. Offices can welcome in 25 percent of their employees, too — or ten people at a time, whichever is greater. Religious gatherings and ceremonies can return with 50 people, weddings can have ten attendees and 50 mourners can go to funerals. And, while masks will still remain mandatory indoors, the rules are changing outdoors. You won't have to wear them outside, but only if you can maintain a 1.5-metre distance from other people. https://twitter.com/VicGovDH/status/1402398048232349698 Announcing the end of lockdown and the new rules that'll come into effect, Acting Premier Merlino said the government expects that "next Thursday night, that the original metro divisions will come down and we will be able to travel more freely around the state again." He also noted that the city will be hopefully able to further ease restrictions on venues. "We will continue to assess the data each day and provide more detail, more certainty, as soon as we can," he advised. Victoria now has 83 active COVID-19 cases, including just one new local case identified in the 24 hours to midnight last night. Melbourne's lockdown will end at 11.59pm on Thursday, June 10. For more information about the rules that'll be in place from that time, head to the Victorian Department of Health website. Top image: Visit Victoria.
Whether it's a television series or a movie, when a beloved pop culture entity comes to an end these days, fans rarely have to say goodbye forever. We live in a time of remakes, reboots, revivals, sequels and prequels, after all — and stage adaptations and film-to-TV leaps, too — so usually we're just pressing pause on our favourites, rather than farewelling them permanently. Given how successful Game of Thrones proved for HBO — even after its eighth and final season caused plenty of uproar — the on-screen world inspired by George RR Martin's books was never going to simply disappear. Indeed, before GoT even finished, there was chatter about what would come next, with the network first announcing that it was considering five different prequel ideas. It then green-lit one to pilot stage, scrapped it and later decided to adapt Martin's House Targaryen-focused Fire & Blood for the small screen as a show called House of the Dragon. Next, it opted to give novella series Tales of Dunk and Egg the TV treatment, too, and to work on an animated GoT show. And, it's been reported that another three prequels are also under consideration. Of course, all of the above announcements have been happening for so long that it's easy to forget that new GoT-related shows will eventually grace the small screen — and that we won't just merely be talking about them. In House of the Dragon's case, it's actually due to release its ten-episode first season in 2022, so you now know what to look forward to watching next year. Expect to spend more time with flame-breathing scaly creatures and the family that adores them. If you thought the Targaryens were chaotic already, delving into their history — and their love of using dragons to wage wars and claim power — is certain to cement that idea. We all know what happened to the last surviving members of the family in GoT, including Daenerys and her boyfriend/nephew Jon Snow; however, House of the Dragon, like Fire & Blood, jumps back 300 years earlier. Cast- and character-wise, House of the Dragon stars Emma D'Arcy (Misbehaviour) as Princess Rhaenyra Targaryen, the first-born child of King Viserys; Matt Smith (His House) as Prince Daemon Targaryen, the King's brother; Rhys Ifans (Official Secrets) as Otto Hightower, the Hand of the King; Olivia Cooke (Pixie) as Alicent Hightower, Otto's daughter; and Steve Toussaint (It's a Sin) as Lord Corlys Velaryon, aka 'The Sea Snake', a nautical adventurer from a Valyrian bloodline as old as House Targaryen. And if you're wondering how they all look, HBO has also just released its first official images from the series. These Westerosi folk will all grace a tale that harks back to Aegon I Targaryen's conquest of the Seven Kingdoms — which is what started the hefty 738-page first volume in Fire & Blood's planned two-book series — and then works through the family's history from there. Aegon I created the Iron Throne, so you'll probably get to see one returning favourite. And you don't have to be the Three-Eyed Raven to know that this tale involves plenty of GoT's staples: fighting, battles for supremacy and bloodshed. Also set to pop up on-camera: Paddy Considine (The Third Day) as King Viserys, Eve Best (Nurse Jackie) as Princess Rhaenys Velaryon and Sonoya Mizuno (Devs) as Mysaria, Prince Daemon's paramour. Behind the scenes, Miguel Sapochnik and Ryan Condal are acting as the series' showrunners. Sapochnik has a hefty GoT history, winning an Emmy and a Directors Guild Award for directing 'Battle of The Bastards', helming season eight's 'The Long Night', and doing the same on four other episodes. As for Condal, he co-created and oversaw recent sci-fi series Colony, and co-wrote the screenplay for the 2018 film Rampage. House of the Dragon is due to start airing on HBO sometime in 2022. When and where it'll be available to watch Down Under hasn't yet been revealed — we'll update you with further details when they're announced. Images: Ollie Upton/HBO.
Some shows should always be on TV, and The X-Files is one of them. Across nine initial seasons between 1993–2002, an additional two seasons that aired in 2016 and 2018, and two big-screen movies as well, this sci-fi favourite investigated all manner of weird and wonderful cases — usually with FBI Special Agents Fox Mulder (David Duchovny, You People) and Dana Scully (Gillian Anderson, Sex Education) doing the sleuthing. Anything could happen in The X-Files. Almost everything did, in fact. If it involved the paranormal, supernatural and conspiracies, spanning aliens, psychic abilities, sewer-dwelling man-worm creatures, teenagers who could channel lightning and more, it helped make the series a smash while it was airing, and also a science-fiction classic ever since — as well as a show that might just be making another comeback. Fittingly, there's almost always a rumour about The X-Files popping up again. A few years back, an animated series was floated, going the comedic route to cover investigations considered too ridiculous for Mulder and Scully. Now, the word is that a new live-action TV show could be on its way from filmmaker Ryan Coogler, who has Fruitvale Station, Creed, Black Panther and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever on his resume. The Hollywood Reporter and Variety report that the aim is to reboot the series with a diverse cast. The news came from The X-Files' creator Chris Carter during a radio interview to celebrate 30 years since the show launched, made Duchovny and Anderson into huge stars, and had plenty of folks wanting to be FBI Agents just like Mulder and Scully, There's no word on when The X-Files latest go-around will reach screens, who'll star, if Anderson nor Duchovny will be involved in any way, or any other specifics. If the truth is out there on this, all hasn't been revealed as yet. The X-Files does like to keep on keeping on, though, including the OG show itself's hefty run, its big-screen adventures, the revival, and two spinoffs: 1996–9's Lance Henriksen-starring Millennium, which was set in the same universe; and 2001's The Lone Gunmen, about the three conspiracy-obsessed characters initially seen helping Mulder and Scully. The X-Files' existing 11 seasons are currently available to stream via Disney+ and SBS On Demand. We'll update you with news regarding the reboot if and when more details are announced. Via The Hollywood Reporter / Variety.
Planes are not the first mode of transportation you associate with relaxation. Sure, Qantas plaster their lounges with posters about gourmet dining at 30,000 feet and if you're in first class you can settle into the flight with a warm lavender scented towel on your face (I assume). But for most of us, flying is a literal rollercoaster of anxiety and frustration. On every trip, I have the same devastating thought: Is this how I die? "She went peacefully," the eulogy will read. "The air hostess plied her with a $10 plastic cup of wine and she seemed mildly entertained by the rerun of Modern Family." Anyway. Apparently, it's not all that bad. When planes are stationary, closer to the ground and filled with handcrafted luxury items, they're okay by me. Enter Costa Rica's Costa Verde resort — the world's premier destination for finery and fuselage. Crafted from the airframe of an abandoned 1965 Boeing 727, Costa Verde's Phoenix Suite is understandably the hotel's 'most exclusive' accommodation. The two-bedroom luxury suite is entirely fitted out with Costa Rican teak panelling and hand-crafted Indonesian furniture, and it also a large deck on what was once the plane's right wing. Nestled at the edge of the Manuel Antonio National Park, this suite offers amazing access to the nation's wildlife too. Sloths, iguanas, birds and butterflies roam freely around the area, but most famously the grounds are home to a large variety of monkeys — squirrel, howler, and white-faced. As you might expect, it's somewhat exxy ($250-750 per night without taxes). Perhaps you could write it off as a medical expense — an entirely necessary measure to cure your fear of flying. Regardless, in the land where money is no object and all the animal kingdom are at one with us, we would like to be taken there immediately. Via Lost At E Minor.
Beau was afraid. In Ari Aster's third feature — another excellent and unforgettable film after Hereditary and Midsommar — Beau was anxious and unsettled and agitated and knocked off-kilter, too. Sheriff Joe Cross is all of these things also, with Joaquin Phoenix (Joker: Folie à Deux) again taking on a key role for a writer/director responsible for some of the best movies, and viewing experiences, of the 21st century. Along with the filmmaker's initial two pictures, Beau Is Afraid earns that description, as does Eddington, Aster and Phoenix's mid-2020-set, COVID-era-probing, brilliant and chilling and equally very amusing latest collaboration. Its focus: a small New Mexico spot struggling when normality as everyone knew it just months prior has vanished and seems as if it might never return. The Sevilla County official at Eddington's centre is as much a man interrupted, as his community is — but the Cross way of coping is to flout and defy anything that doesn't match his preferred status quo. His dislike of incumbent Mayor Ted Garcia's (Pedro Pascal, The Fantastic Four: First Steps) way of handling the pandemic, aka respecting social-distancing restrictions and mask mandates, inspires the Sheriff to take action, entering the race to lead the town (population: 2345) himself. Eddington is a western, as well as being an unnerving thriller and a hilarious dark comedy; Aster has Cross and Garcia headed for showdowns and standoffs more than once. With a Best Actor Oscar for Joker to prove it, Phoenix has been enjoying a recent stint of playing characters who are fixated, obsessed, unyieldingly determined and driven to act of late — since before the outstanding You Were Never Really Here, but that's firmly a recent example prior to his time as Arthur Fleck and now Joe Cross. He hasn't necessarily noticed that trend, he tells Concrete Playground, or recognised that anything particularly draws him in that direction. "I've never thought of it that way, but you say that and I go 'I don't even know what the last two movies I made are'," Phoenix advises. "But maybe you're right. I don't know why. I think I'm always just — it is an instinct. I either react to something that I'm reading it or I don't. And I don't really analyse why." Eddington is easy to spot trends and parallels in and around. Given that it peers into very recent history, to a period forever seared and scarred into memories — and has the era's paranoia and polarisation in its sights, spotting how neither have subsided since — that's by design. Another piece of mirroring comes via Aster's filmography. Chatting with Concrete Playground in 2018 when Hereditary released, he described his debut as "a family tragedy that curdles into a nightmare". Grief over a mother and grandmother begets worse in the feature that won Toni Collette (Mickey 17) a deserved Best Actress Gotham Award — in a movie, too, that cemented itself as an instant horror great. That "curdling into a nightmare" idea resides in each of his features, Eddington included. "I think that could be one way of describing this film," Aster tells us. "I would say that this is a film about a bunch of people who are all very paranoid, and who have very clear but kind of oppositional ideas of what is happening. And everybody's picture of the world is pretty sinister. Then, by the end of the film, the film itself becomes gripped by this paranoia — and so the movie too becomes paranoid." He continues: "and in that way, the film goes off the rails in a way that I like. It's got a long, sustained climax, which I like, especially in a genre film. It's easy to make this film, in an interview like this, sound like eating your vegetables — but it's supposed to be fun, even though what it's talking about is no laughing matter. But the film is about the circus of America, and the tilt-a-whirl goes faster and faster until the teacups start flying off." Cross' blatant and inescapable acrimony for Garcia, Joe's depressed wife Louise (Emma Stone, Kinds of Kindness) embracing online conspiracy theorists and becoming particularly enthralled by the charismatic Vernon Jefferson Peak (Austin Butler, The Bikeriders), local teens staging Black Lives Matter rallies to share their anger over the death of George Floyd, tech company SolidGoldMagikarp's plans to build a data centre on Eddington's outskirts, doomscrolling feeding the pervasive sense of distance between townsfolk: these all help that rotating ride spin. As the whirring of conflicting attitudes and opinions that's unbalancing its setting gains speed, Aster's film digs into America's contradictions, patently, as well as conservative-versus-liberal clashes. Internet hokum's easy spread, our immensely tech-reliant lives and AI earn attention; giving up power to the powerful without realising it, too. Anti-fascist activism, performative bandwagon-jumping, ignoring health-protection rules when folks are dying, not knowing how to cope with this chaos: they're also among the swirl. Aster doesn't see it as a horror movie; however, Eddington is as perceptive a portrait of 2020 and the times since as had reached screens so far, and as disquieting yet clear-eyed. The path to the feature started with an old idea predating the pandemic, which also came up while talking to the director, as did piecing the narrative together, living in a world where no one agrees on what's true anymore, reteaming with Phoenix and more — alongside chatting with Phoenix about that repeat collaboration and reuniting with filmmakers of late, interrogating fear and anxiety with Aster, what he recognised in the script, and bringing humanity and humour to Cross. On How Aster Following His Instincts in the Early Days of the Pandemic, and Picking Up an Old New Mexico-Set Idea, Lead to Eddington Ari: "Well, I feel like we're living in a very, very weird time. And the human capacity for adaptation is amazing, and everything becomes normal very quickly, and things that might be obvious become less so once they become ambient. And I just found that I wanted to pull back as far as I could, and try to describe this new reality that we're living in as well as I could — which is that everybody is living in a different version of reality, and we totally distrust anybody and anything that falls outside of our little bubble of certainty. And we've become unreachable to each other. So I wanted to make a film about that. And I'm from New Mexico — and that's really what the project was that had already been there waiting for me, which is that I have just been wanting to make my New Mexico movie. And I wanted to make a western. And it felt like the right framework for this." On Whether Returning Collaborations with Directors, Such as Ari Aster Here, Todd Phillips on Joker: Folie à Deux and Ridley Scott on Napoleon, Help Phoenix Challenge and Extend Himself as an Actor Joaquin: "I think that's what you would hope for, right, because it's almost like a long relationship, just the value of growing with somebody and changing — and somebody that learns to read you better after time. We all put our best foot forward when we first meet people and are working with them, and I think after some time we start really showing ourselves and there's real value in mining that. With Ari, it's weird, because I had one of those experiences where when I first met him, when I first just talked to him on the phone, I instantly knew that he was — I don't know, a friend just doesn't even sound like it's enough. I just knew that we were going to be working together closely, and I knew that he was somebody that I loved the way that he talked. And I understood him, like I felt like I really understood. And I think he understood me. And so there's real value in that — and I hope, I think, that he did and does challenge me in ways that are really beneficial to me and helpful." On When Aster Realised That He Wanted to Reteam with Phoenix on Eddington Ari: "After working with Joaquin on Beau Is Afraid, I really wanted to work with him again. Before Beau, he was one of my favourite actors and somebody that I very seriously wanted to work with. But when I was writing Eddington, at least the first pass of it, I hadn't worked with Joaquin yet, didn't know him yet, and so I didn't really have anybody in mind. But after we shot Beau, then I rewrote Eddington and spent a lot of time in New Mexico, travelling around, going to different small towns and meeting different people, public officials, Sheriffs of different counties, police chiefs, Mayors — went to different pueblos — and tried to get as broad a picture of the political climate of New Mexico as possible. And then once I had incorporated all of that and I had a script, it was clear to me that I wanted to at least try Joaquin again and see if he was interested. And happily he was, and I really think he does something really special with this character, Joe Cross, the sheriff of Eddington — or the sheriff of Sevilla County. Eddington is a town in Sevilla County. These are made-up places. But I think what he does here is really wonderful. He brings so much humour and humanity to this character. And I think part of the trick of the film — or I don't know if it's a trick, or if it's just something that is important to the film working — is that you have to kind of like this guy, whether you have his politics or not. There's something winning about him. And then, of course, as the film goes on that should get more complicated — our relationship to him should change." On Whether There's Something Unique to Digging Into Fear and Anxiety with Aster Joaquin: "I don't think he's exploring these traits because they're good for a character, for a movie, but it feels like it's a genuine curiosity for him. And maybe it's part of his experience, or maybe it's the experience of people that he knows. I don't know why he has that curiosity — or I don't know if it's an obsession — but definitely it's a curiosity to explore those feelings, and I don't know where it comes from. I've never asked him 'is that your personal experience, or ... ?'. I think oftentimes writers obviously observe things in others and become fascinated by it. So there's definitely a real drive and curiosity. And so I think when you're — there's not a standard way of playing that for Ari, right? It always has to be something very detailed and specific. And I'm struggling with trying to come up with an example, probably because there's so many and they're all running together. But I wish we could come up with an example of a scene. Like even in the scene where I'm — it's such a brief moment, you may not even remember — but I go back to the police station and somebody that was in the police station that was locked up is no longer there. It was really this very quick scene that's in the midst of the most-manic moment. And it was a long process for us that went throughout the day, as we discussed all the possibilities of what would be going through the character's mind and then how that is translated to somebody else as he speaks or whatever actions he takes. And so I think with Ari, it always feels that we are trying to find something that feels very specific and unique to that character in that moment — versus a blanket approach to anxiety or fear." On the Crucial Elements to Create a Film About Living in a World Where No One Can Agree on What's Real Anymore Ari: "For me, the most-important thing was to pull back as far as I could, because what I wanted to talk about was the environment, right — and I feel like we've become so atomised, and things have become so complicated and so intensely partisan, that it felt very important to move back and just try to get a picture of the landscape. And to see just how many of those particles were floating around not actually meeting each other. And then it's a genre film, and so it's built on conflict. And so the question then became 'well, what happens when these atoms start bumping up against each other? What comes out of that?'. And the answer is almost always violence, because there's nothing in the ether to hold anybody together anymore. And so that was, I guess, the challenge, but also the thing that felt necessary." On Phoenix Seeing Himself and Reality in Eddington When Aster First Sent the Script His Way Joaquin: "My first reaction was 'I recognise so much of myself and my family and my friends and my neighbours in all of these characters, and that makes me uncomfortable at times. But I'm laughing and I can't stop laughing'. That was my first reaction. And then I think I was like 'oh yeah, it's us'. And as ridiculous as we were, we were scared. Like, everyone was scared. Whether they should have been scared or whether we overreacted, it doesn't really matter. In that moment, it was kind of like waking up from a nightmare and they're like 'yeah, in the moment, it really felt like that monster was going to get me and I was scared. And all the things I did in that that moment, it was just how I reacted. I couldn't help it.' And I think in some ways, it made me just have a lot of forgiveness and understanding for how we behaved." On Putting the Pieces of Eddington Together — Including the Societal Landscape, America and Western Society's Pervasive Polarisation, and COVID-19 — in a Western-Meets-Thriller That's Also Darkly Humorous Ari: "First of all, the film is set in 2020. It's a period piece, set in June 2020, and so it helps to have something as specific as that, right, because then you're asking 'okay, what is happening right now? Who are the players here?'. And of course, I would have liked to have included far more characters, but I jammed as many people as I could into the film without sacrificing coherence or narrative clarity. But it all felt pretty intuitive that we begin with the arguments of the day, the most popular ones, which had a lot to do with masking and personal freedom versus public safety and health. And from there, things start unraveling and spinning out. And then you have these more fringe figures coming in. And I think what's interesting about this moment, even right now in 2025, is that this counterculture had been building up in America for a long time that the prevailing culture at the moment wasn't aware of. And that counterculture meanwhile was being fed and agitated, and was growing. And now that counterculture has kind of taken over. And it's all become very, very distorted and strange. It's so interesting that the right kind of adopted the language of 1960s–70s radicalism. Everything has become — I want to use the word farcical, but none of this is any laughing matter. It's feels pretty catastrophic, what's happening. And it's also why the western felt right, because it is about the building of America and forging new societies. And it feels like right now we're living through the collapse of something — we're on the cusp of something, something new. And I think everybody's feeling it and there's a lot of anxiety and a lot of fear. And for some people, a lot of excitement. I wrote this film in a state of anxiety and fear." On Whether Trying to Convey the Humanity of Joe and Also Bringing Humour to the Part Helped in Stepping Into His Shoes Joaquin: "Nothing ever feels easy. You just feel that — yeah, it doesn't feel easy, but it seemed like very much from the beginning, I could not create any separation between me and Joe. Like, that if I at any point stood above him in judgment, I would lose it, I would lose him. And so it just felt important to humanise him as much as possible. I wanted to surprise anybody that might have a preconceived idea of what conservative Sheriff in a small town might be like, and so that definitely felt like my directive. But what helped me, probably most of all, was meeting with real Sheriffs. Ari and I went on a trip together in New Mexico and spent some time, and there were a few people that I met that I really connected with that seemed like great examples of who Joe could be. So it felt to me that as much as there's something very humorous and absurd about so much of this film, I wanted to make sure that Joe was really grounded and that he was recognisable to people that actually know a Sheriff like Joe." On Whether Aster Considers Eddington to Be a Horror Film — and What's at the Heart of the Film That Scares Him, Be It Humanity's Embrace of Existential Risks, Including Not Just Health But Also AI, or Stopping Questioning the Powerful Ari: "No, I don't consider it a horror film. No. But, I do think it's talking about something that scares me. There's a lot that scares me. I'm scared that the people who are leading us don't seem to believe in the future. You mentioned AI, and I would say if you asked me to say in one sentence what this film was about, I might tell you it's about a data centre being built. And that's happening on the periphery of the film, but it's really pretty central. And all these stories are really just data for this giant wooden wheel — to churn into what? What is coming? The film is about people navigating a crisis, but all the while, there's this other crisis that's incubating in a lab over here. And who knows, the utopian dream of what this thing could bring might be true. It might come to pass. But we really don't know what's coming. And yeah, I think that what's happening all over the world — and it's happening in the United States, but it's happening everywhere — it's something that's already happened to us, which is that we've been fortressed off. And I think that's very scary that we're completely unable to reach each other, and we're living out an experiment that has already failed badly. And it doesn't seem like anybody at the levers has any interest in slowing this thing down. It feels like, on the contrary, it's only accelerating." Eddington released in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, August 21, 2025.
When a hit show comes to an end, the network behind it often tries to fill the gap with something similar. It's the situation that HBO found itself in last year when Game of Thrones wrapped up, with the US cable channel quickly launching new fantasy series His Dark Materials and committing to making a GoT spinoff called House of the Dragon. And, with Big Little Lies looking like it's also all done and dusted, the station seems to be in the same predicament in the star-studded murder mystery genre as well. Enter The Undoing. Starring Nicole Kidman, and written and produced by Big Little Lies' David E. Kelley, it's definitely a case of HBO sticking with what they know. Kidman plays a successful therapist who appears to have the perfect life, with a loving husband (Hugh Grant), a son (Honey Boy's Noah Jupe) attending an elite school and her first book about to be published. Then a violent death sparks a chain of revelations that shatters her life as she knows it. Also part of the plot, as seen in the show's first teaser, its second teaser as well and now its just-dropped new full trailer: a missing spouse, plenty of public attention, a heap of interrogations and a plethora of tough choices for Kidman's Grace Fraser. It'll all play out as a once-off limited series — although that was originally the case with Big Little Lies before it came back for a second season. Based on the novel You Should Have Known by Jean Hanff Korelitz, The Undoing also features The Burnt Orange Heresy's Donald Sutherland and American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace's Edgar Ramirez — with Bird Box director Susanne Bier behind the camera on every episode, just as she was on excellent Emmy-winning mini-series The Night Manager. As for when you'll be able to watch it, it was originally set to premiere sometime in May; however now it'll launch on Monday, October 26. In Australia, it'll screen via Foxtel, Foxtel Now and Binge. Check out the latest teaser below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QWoiNlLqLR8&feature=emb_logo The Undoing will screen in Australia via Foxtel and Binge, with episodes airing weekly from Monday, October 26. Top image: Niko Tavernise/HBO.
Doing the environment a solid, British MPs have called for a compulsory fee on disposable takeaway coffee cups. Proposed by the UK parliament's Environmental Audit Committee, the suggested 'latte levy' would charge customers an extra 25 pence, as part of a bid to reduce waste and encourage caffeine fiends to switch to reusable containers. More than 2.5 billion cups are used in the UK every year, with half a million becoming litter each and every day. While they're difficult and expensive to recycle thanks to the plastic lining, it's not impossible. With less than one percent of cups being recycled, at present most are incinerated, exported or end up in landfill. "The UK's coffee shop market is expanding rapidly, so we need to kickstart a revolution in recycling," said committee chair Mary Creagh. "We're calling for action to reduce the number of single use cups, promote reusable cups over disposable cups and to recycle all coffee cups by 2023." Fees collected would be invested into recycling facilities, and as the recycling rate for coffee cups improves, it's anticipated that the charge could be lowered. The proposal also suggests increasing the price of the cups for producers, if they're made from materials that are hard to recycle; improving labelling so that customers know if their one-off cup will be recycled by the store, stating "not widely recycled" and "recyclable in store only"; and banning disposable cups outright if the 2023 target isn't reached. In Australia, the move towards reusable cups is growing. A Sydney cafe stopped using single-use cups last August, while two Melbourne cafes gave away free coffee to anyone with their own container. Throw in creatives making adorable ceramic keep cups and the company recycling coffee waste into environmentally friendly cups, and there's a definite push to minimise waste in the local coffee scene, where an estimated one billion disposable cups are used annually.
If you're a fan of whatever huge HBO hit happens to be airing at any given time, Monday public holidays Down Under are an extra-special joy. They mean watching whichever series is currently showing at the earliest moment possible, and also not having to spend your workday avoiding spoilers. Tuning in to see Succession on Easter Monday wasn't just a normal viewing experience, however. So, if you're now wondering what happens after the award-winning show's monumental third episode in its fourth and final season, HBO has dropped a midseason trailer to tease the series' endgame. This sneak peek comes with the biggest of spoiler alerts, obviously. If you aren't up to date on Succession, you shouldn't even be reading this article. But if you're dying to know where the Roy family saga goes from here, you'll obsess over all two minutes and 13 seconds of this glimpse at the show's last-ever seven episodes. "I just didn't see it coming," says Roman (Kieran Culkin, No Sudden Move) to start off the clip. He isn't alone, although Shiv (Sarah Snook, Pieces of a Woman) is swiftly chatting about "coronation demolition derby". Trust cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun, Zola) to pop up, try to stay relevant as he always does, and stress that he's sad — yes, while also attempting to secure his position in the family. Everyone has an opinion on how to handle things, including Waystar Royco's CFO Karl (David Rasche, Swallow) and general counsel Gerri (J Smith-Cameron, Fleishman Is in Trouble) — and, of course, executive and Shiv's estranged husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen, Operation Mincemeat). Plenty of stern words are spoken, complete with how "the naysayers might frame it". And the deal to sell the firm to Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård, The Northman) looks shaky. Kendall (Jeremy Strong, Armageddon Time) is floating in a body of water again, while Connor's (Alan Ruck, The Dropout) bid to become the US President sees him polling well in Alaska — and laughing at the suggestion that he should do what's right for the good of the republic. As for the rest, as always in this high-stakes drama about who'll take over business titan Logan Roy's (Brian Cox, Remember Me) multinational corporation, it's best discovered by watching. "Let the games begin!", as Kendall announces. Check out Succession season four's midseason trailer below: Succession streams via Foxtel, Binge and Foxtel On Demand in Australia and Neon in New Zealand. Check out our review of season four. Images: David Russell/Macall B Polay, HBO.
In her book The Artist’s Way, Julia Cameron describes meeting people who are concerned about being too old to start learning an artistic pursuit. Her answer to the question, ‘But do you know how old I will be by the time I learn to really write or play an instrument or act?’ is ‘The same age you’ll be if you don’t learn to play at all.’ Hal Lasko is one artist who sees age as no barrier. Having just turned 98, and diagnosed as legally blind, he spends ten hours a day painting with Windows 95’s Microsoft Paint program. This year has seen his debut exhibition, and according to Colossal, his work has been described as a 'collision of pointillism and 8-bit art'. An array of pieces is available for sale online. Affectionately nicknamed Grandpa, Lasko was born in Taledo, Ohio, on July 28, 1915. After commencing work as a graphic designer, he was called to draft directional and weather maps for bombing raids during the Second World War. Once the bombing stopped, he returned to design, working for the likes of General Tire, The Cleveland Browns, Goodyear and American Greetings. Evenings would be spent painting. However, it wasn’t until retirement that Lasko could find enough time to focus entirely on art. And he was in his late 80s before he learnt how to use Microsoft Paint. Vision loss came in 2005, with the onset of wet macular degeneration. In the video below, documentary maker Josh Bogdan takes a journey through Lasko’s creative world. [via Mashable]
Album artwork, gig posters, band t-shirts, on-stage theatrics — music is mainly about the sound, but it’s also about the look. From endless highways snapped from the window of a tour bus to Capybaras that look like Rafael Nadal, Concrete Playground rounds up ten Instagram accounts that give you a look inside the intoxicating life of a modern muso. 1. ED DROSTE OF GRIZZY BEAR Username: @eddroste If you want to believe that rock stars survive solely on beer, passion and leftover pizza, look away now. According to his Instagram feed the frontman of indie rock band Grizzly Bear halts the tour bus to capture isolated beaches, sundrenched city skylines and pretty pink Peonies. Droste’s mastery of digital filters makes the Brooklyn Botanic Garden look like a scene from Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland, and he’s one of the few people who can Instagram his lunch without you wanting to poke him in the eye. 2. BENJAMIN CURTIS OF SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS Username: @benjamincurtis Benjamin Curtis’ spacey, psychedelic guitar sound is echoed in his trippy Instagram shots. Capturing everything from dead birds to dilated pupils and blurry neon signs, this futuristic photo feed is the antithesis of Ed Droste’s comparatively tranquil digital scrapbook. Not recommended for pregnant women or sufferers of motion sickness. 3. CATCALL Username: @catcallmusic Catcall’s Instagram feed confirms everything you thought you knew about her — she’s cute, funny and hangs out at cool spots. She’s also a huge fan of tennis, which is a fact you might not ascertain just from listening to her music, and has posted photos of Capybaras that look like Rafael Nadal on more than one occasion. 4. AZEALIA BANKS Username: @azealiabanks A life it would be particularly enjoyable to steal is the life of Azealia Banks. In between rubbing shoulders with Karl Lagerfeld and Kanye West at Chanel parties Banks hangs out with bottles of Veuve Clicquot and Prada handbags, but shots of funny cats and novelty condoms show she’s really just like us. Sometimes. 5. GROUPLOVE Username: @grouplove Grouplove’s Hannah Hooper is a painter as well as a singer and has a BFA from New York’s Parsons School of Design, so she’s probably overqualified for the post of managing her band’s Instagram feed. Her sharp eye has given Grouplove’s Instagram account a pleasantly consistent, colourful aesthetic, kind of like an action-packed hippie convention with less dried kale and more Texas BBQ. 6. BIG SCARY Username: @bigscarymusic Big Scary’s unique blend of indie pop has provided the busy duo with travel opportunities aplenty, and with touring around California comes In-N-Out Burger and Jimmy Dean’s meal sized breakfast biscuits. Big Scary have Instagrammed only 23 times to date, which isn’t great in the fast-paced world of social media, but in this case it’s a matter of quality over quantity. 7. THEOPHILUS LONDON Username: @theophiluslondon Theophilus London’s Instagram bio warns that the feed contains “emotional photos”. The emotion he’s referring to is probably jealousy because the photos are primarily of amazing sneakers, but Instagram’s most stylish rapper also has a penchant for gig posters and his equally stylish friends. 8. TWERPS Username: @twerps “We’ll get drunk, we’ll get stoned, we’ll get high, we’ll get drunk…” A satisfying mix of gig shots, scenery, alcohol and delicious/hilarious food, Twerps have got the workings of a great Instagram feed down pat. The jangly Melbourne quartet might sing about getting sauced, but their digital album is surprisingly coherent (and munchies like Klondike’s frozen Choco Tacos do make for great photographs). 9. PEAKING LIGHTS Username: @peakinglights The Wisconsin duo with an eight-and-a-half minute song called “Marshmellow Yellow” has an equally psychedelic and sun-drenched Instagram feed filled with highway scenery, neon signs and old motorcycles. There’s even a picture of a miniature leather motorcycle jacket for baby Mikko’s birthday present. Cute! 10. SOULJA BOY Username: @souljaboytellem “thanks for liking my pictures if you have time sign up on sodmg.com”. Grammar might not be Soulja Boy’s forte, but he’s incredibly skilled at taking selfies while flexing his muscles, pulling gangsta signs and wearing copious amounts of bling. Instagram is available via the Apple App Store or Google Play
Darling Group is best known for opening and acquiring some of Melbourne's top cafes (Higher Ground, Top Paddock, The Terrace, Kettle Black), while recently branching out into the restaurant scene (Token and Stringers). Like many of the larger hospitality groups in Melbourne, the Darling Group continues to expand (even if the industry is struggling right now). Most recently, it opened Cheri — a new all-day eatery located right across from South Melbourne Market. Cheri has taken over neighbouring sites Bibelot and Chez Dre, transforming them into one huge 150-seat venue that's open from 8am–5pm every day of the week. Darling Group's Executive Pastry Chef Michael Germanos is making sure Cheri is home to incredible pastries, cakes and bread, made on-site every morning to be exclusively sold here and across all of Darling Group's other venues. Expect an expansive collection of sweet and savoury croissants, classic eclairs, small and large tarts and cakes, sourdough loaves, baguettes, piadinas and focaccia sandwiches. It's giving full bakery energy throughout the morning, while also serving up an all-day dining menu that covers most of your breakfast and lunch bases. Brekkie bites include polenta porridge with confit spiced dates, mandarin, creme fraiche, cinnamon and pistachios; croissant loaf french toast with maple syrup and cultured butter; eggs benedict served on a croissant wheel; and a lamb merguez fry-up with poached eggs, za'atar yogurt, preserved lemon, mint and pita bread. This is a stacked morning menu that reads like those at Melbourne's best breakfast spots. For lunch, you've got ricotta gnocchi with pancetta, broad bean leaf verde, spring peas, stracciatella and green onion oil; chicken cotoletta with sprouting broccoli leaves, asparagus and cafe de Paris sauce; and seven different pizzas made with 72-hour fermented dough. Pair this all with some signature cocktails — you can never go wrong with a cheeky bloody mary — teas, shakes, sodas, and a decadent Cheri hot chocolate made with milk chocolate, whipped cream and crema di pistachio. You can drop by this spot for a quick takeaway pastry and coffee, or choose to sit in the main dining room or 50-person courtyard — when the sun is shining. We have high expectations for Cheri, not only because Darling Group has proven it knows how to cafe, but because this food menu looks like an absolute banger. Images: Julian Lallo.
Ethical shopping is really goddamn hard sometimes. On one hand, you don’t want clothes that have been painstakingly made by someone earning a dollar a day in a sweatshop. On the other hand are a bunch of shopping bags because you've no idea where to even start shopping ethically. Like everything, an ethical mindset happens incrementally and the first step you can take is here — the Good On You ethical shopping assistant app is seeking crowdfunding. Intended to help you make better consumer choices, the Good On You app amalgamates information on the ethical rating of fashion brands, either by search term or in your local area. The app also measures different production impacts and processes such as child labour, treatment of animals and contribution to climate change. Basically, the app tells you all the real ingredients that went into making your must-have leather jacket, leaving no stone unturned. At times, it may be a hard pill to swallow if your favourite brands don’t pass the test, but the GOY team don't want you to stop shopping — the app also feature alternative suggestions, based on your style, that do better ethically. And perhaps the feature with the greatest potential to catalyse change is the ability to directly message brands who don’t pass muster (fire up your emoji dictionary for maximum emotional impact). There are a few ethical shopping assistant apps on the market right now, however this is the first that systematically catalogues Australian fashion and beauty brands — and it’s about time. Ethical shopping needn’t be a time-consuming ordeal and with an app that creates brand transparency it hopefully soon won’t be. Image: Dollar Photo Club and Good On You. UPDATE DECEMBER 18, 2015: Thanks to awesome crowdfunded dollars, Good On You reached their target of $15,000 and the app is now live. You can download it from their website. Go team!
Finally, the Bloody Mary will have a breakfast bev companion. Bacardi has been cooking up what is thought to be the first spirit distilled from tea leaves, a new product they're calling Tang. Although we're pretty sure that's already a long-copyrighted drink name for a sugary orange fizz, Bacardi are running with it as inspired by the Chinese Tang Dynasty — when the country's obsession with tea really put down its roots. And with tea still the second most widely consumed beverage in the world (behind coffee, of course), it looks like Bacardi's capitalising on a still-travelling bandwagon. Someone at Bacardi obviously saw more than The Grim in their tea leaves. Apparently the company has been developing a brand new distillation process for four years, according to The Spirits Business. Releasing complex sugars from green tea leaves, the process makes the tea leaves fermentable — so able to become booze. Looks like someone at Bacardi left the leaves in their home teapot too long and had a Brilliant Idea. The fermented gloop then heads to distillation phase, before being blended to really get those tea flavours out. Then the whole thing is diluted with French spring water at Cognac's Grey Goose distillery and you've got yourself a 'tea spirit', designed to drink alongside Chinese food or dropped into cocktails. If you're all fired up to drop a little Tang in your morning cup, be warned; it's going to be exclusively distributed in China (initially only from DFS Hong Kong until May). Plus, it's not going to be cheap. Bacardi are only making small batches of 2000 500ml bottles a go (HK$1888 or AU$318), with the first 500 of the batch numbered, so you're going to see some pretty steep eBay prices on Tang. Via The Spirits Business.
One of Australia's most redeeming qualities is its ability to give good afternoon sun. There's something about its familiar glow that almost demands casual drinks — whether it's cracking open a cold beer after a long day, heading to the pub after work, or deciding on a whim that your backyard is perfect for having people over. Here in Melbourne, we love a drink in an inner city park. In the height of summer you'll see people of all ages chilling out in Fitzroy Gardens, Edinburgh Gardens or any other area where there's an expanse of green grass. The standard of our parks is off the chart. Here's a list of ten outdoor spots where you can BYO drinks in Melbourne. DIGHTS FALLS After a bike ride in the sunshine, head to the Merri Creek trail for a stroll past tree-lined banks and on to Dights Falls. The weir here is artificially made and was built in the 1840s to provide water to the 'Ceres' flour mill. After spending an afternoon lying in the sun here, saddle up your bike and head for home. They way home might include a stop in at Collingwood Children's farm for a chat with some pigs, and then a visit to all-round charity good guys Lentil As Anything for some post-ride sustenance. FITZROY GARDENS One of the most stunning parks in town, Fitzroy Gardens is home to Victorian-era design and pathways lined with shrubs. Don't you just love a good shrub? Get your fix here as you wander the diverse and picturesque grounds. You might explore the Fairie Tree or the model Tudor village, or you might just pull up a spot on the lawn and lie in the sun with a drink. It's completely up to you. [caption id="attachment_593161" align="alignnone" width="1280"] Instagram: @isa8486[/caption] TIDAL PARK Wilson's Prom is a classic camping spot, and Tidal River is the main spot within it for camping and accommodation. Norman Beach is only a walk away from your tent (or cabin) home, and even though there are 484 camping and caravan sites you won't feel like the crowds are too much, except on school holidays when you should probably choose to not come during that time and that'd be a-ok. Camping facilities are pretty comprehensive (such that you won't be far from a hot shower) and if you want to barbecue your dinner you can on the free gas barbecues. CUMBERLAND RIVER HOLIDAY PARK You want to make sure that you book well ahead to get a prime river spot at this popular holiday park. This uber-picturesque location is nestled on the mouth of the Cumberland River, and is a pretty hot location for wedding pics because of a very photogenic backdrop. Grab your tent, a few mates, an esky full of drinks and set off on a weekend out of town in one of the prettiest spots around. HALF MOON BAY A little bit further south on the ocean past St Kilda lies Half Moon Bay. This local's spot is protected by a rock wall, and has in the past played host to some impromptu beach parties. If there's not a spontaneous beach rave happening at the moment that you happen to be there that's okay – it's plenty of fun to frolic in the shallows as you spend a sunny afternoon here enjoying some rays. There's also a row of shops not too far away in case you run out of drinking and eating supplies. PRINCES PARK This sprawling green is home to approximately a million possums, mums jogging with prams, kids playing soccer and, if you're lucky, a bunch of die-hard fantasy fans doing a spot of Larping (prime people watching opportunity). With free barbecue facilities on site, Princes Park is the perfect spot for an afternoon get together with some mates. Keen for some friendly exercise? Hire a tennis court for a hit, and then cool off with a couple of cold ones in the afternoon sun. EDINBURGH GARDENS It's the spot to see and be seen, and if you head there on a sunny day you'll probably find that at least 20 percent of your friends have checked in here. Space is the only issue here – there's a risk of getting doinked in the head by a rogue frisbee. But that's a small price to pay for the possibility that the person chucking it might be incredibly good looking (it's Fitzroy). The all-round amazing supermarket Piedimonte is right around the corner. It's picnic location perfection. TURPINS FALLS We'll be honest. The water at Turpins Falls is cold, no matter what the season. But if you grab a spot in the sun to warm up like a lizard, you won't find it too bad. Pack up a cute picnic and hightail it outta town for a 70 minute drive north out of Melbourne. This stunning spot is always pretty packed in summer, but that only adds to the atmosphere of the place. PARLIAMENT GARDENS When you're riding the 86 or 96 trams (or any other tram that passes Parliament) you'll be greeted with the lovely sight of Parliament Gardens. This cute-as-a-button patch is recognisable for its fountains, palm trees, statues, and park weddings that often occur within it. It's a great spot to cool off on a hot day, and boasts a great view of Parliament House, Eastern Hill and St Patrick's Cathedral. Check out the bronze statues of Pastor Sir Douglas and Lady Gladys, two of Australia's most prominent Indigenous leaders, then relax on the grass as you watch the world go by. Top Image: Kimberley Low
Chucks: for a long time, it seemed like every second person had a pair. There have been different colors, patterns and materials, but there has never been a significant redesign of this ubiquitous shoe. Or at least there hadn't been – until now. On July 28 Converse is officially set to release the All Star II, a brand new iteration of their classic Chuck Taylor All Star. It's about time, too. As iconic as they may be, Chucks aren't historically the most comfortable shoe to actually wear. Walk any significant distance in them and your feet tend to feel like a combination of white noise and the burning sensation of the sun. Thankfully, it would appear Converse has been listening to our complaints. You won't hurt your arches with the new All Star II, which uses Nike Lunarlon cushioning to make it feel like you're walking on a fluffy cloud. The shoe will also feature a more "breathable" micro-suede lining and a padded non-slip tongue. At the end of the day though, while the guts may be different, the outside remains more or less the same. Converse is keeping the familiar rubber toe, All-Star patch and matte eyelets, albeit with a few minor enhancements. Moreover, classic Chuck-lovers don't need to worry: the All Star II isn't replacing the original. Rather, it's an addition to the family. Unlike its predecessor, there are only four colours available for the limited initial run (black, blue, red, and white). That being said, don't be surprised if Converse release more versions of this new shoe after the first run has ended.
Some things just get better with age. And if its first 2017 program announcement is anything to go by, Melbourne Music Week (MMW) is certainly one of them. Celebrating its eighth run this November 17–25, the festival will again transform spaces throughout the city into unique live music venues — and, as usual, expect a few surprises. The biggest is the addition of a new all-ages event called Miscellanea, which'll take over all three levels of the Melbourne Town Hall on Sunday, November 19. You'll see the iconic building as never before, its many varied spaces playing host to a program of gigs, DJ sets and performances from the likes of HTRK, Tyrannamen, Taipan Tiger and Underground Lovers. The multi-genre event will even feature a Grand Organ takeover in the Main Hall. Also on the agenda is a November 11 performance by American singer-songwriter Ariel Pink at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall, and the return of the annual Face The Music industry conference, with its diverse lineup of workshops, conversations and performances. This year, hear from the likes of legendary Ramones drummer Marky Ramone and German promoter Silke Westera, along with local minds like triple j music director Nick Findlay and Brisbane-based artist Mallrat. Meanwhile, Harvey Sutherland's Bermuda headlines an evening of live music gold for The Age Music Victoria Awards after-party, and Saturday, November 25 sees Ferdydurke and Section 8 join forces to host the ZOO street party. This will be a smorgasbord of visual art, live music and performance, featuring the likes of indigenous rapper Briggs and UK duo Fatima and Alex Nut. Melbourne Music Week 2017 will take place across the city from Friday, November 17 to Saturday, November 25. Tickets are up for grabs from 11am today, September 19, with the full program set to drop on Tuesday, October 17. For the first annoucnement, visit mmw.melbourne.vic.gov.au.
A few months after Tropfest's near-death experience, founder John Polson has gone into greater detail on the alleged "financial mismanagement" that almost led to the festival's downfall. Appearing on triple j's Hack with Tom Tilley, Polson spoke about the moment when he first found out about the event's economic woes, and appeared to imply that blame lay at the feet of his business partner, Tropfest managing director Michael Laverty. "We raised well over a million dollars towards Tropfest last year and I got an email in early November saying we had not enough money to move forward with the event," Polson said on the Thursday, February 12 radio show. "It was obviously an incredible shock and a devastating blow." Polson claims to have documents proving the financial mismanagement, but declined to share them due to his impending court case against Laverty's company. "I don't believe Michael Laverty did the cliche thing of going off and spending it in the Bahamas but clearly something went wrong," he said. "There was massive, massive financial mismanagement that went down with this event and it's terrible and I'm trying to fix it." Tropfest was thrown a lifeline in December when CGU insurance stepped in to fund this year's festival, which will take place this Sunday in Sydney's centennial gardens. Polson is currently working on plans to secure the festival's long term future, and recently launched a crowdfunding campaign which has a week left to reach its $100,000 target. Polson also spoke about Hollywood star Mel Gibson, who was this week announced as a Tropfest judge alongside actors Simon Baker and Rebecca Gibney, director Jocelyn Moorhouse and cinematographer Don McAlpine. The news raised some eyebrows, given Gibson's unfortunate habit of saying appalling things whenever he's near a microphone. Nevertheless, Polson defended the choice, calling Gibson "an Australian icon." "As a 15-year-old in 1980 I went to see Mad Max and watched it three or four times over," said Polson. "What's happened to him in the last few years you'd have to ask him about." Via Hack. Image: Tropfest.
Cinderella horrifically mangled in a pumpkin car crash. Dodgem cars run by the Grim Reaper. Model boat ponds filled with dead bodies. Welcome to Banksy's Dismaland. Banksy has unveiled his biggest show to date, a family theme park that's highly unsuitable for children, a festival of "art, amusement and entry-level anarchism". Opened on a 2.5 acre site on the Weston-super-Mare seafront in the UK, Banksy's largest project has been kept under wraps for months, until today. According to the Guardian, locals and tourists were convinced the disused '30s lido space was being used for a Hollywood film set — fake crime thriller Grey Fox. Wander through cardboard airport security and you'll find a frankly terrifying theme park — a huge flip of the bird to Disneyland, even though Banksy banned any imagery of Mickey Mouse on site. Banksy personally selected 58 artists including Damien Hirst, Jenny Holzer, Julie Burchill, Jimmy Cauty (former KLF) and more, most of whom never met the elusive legend. The theme park's 'attractions' are another world of messed-up. Banksy's own ten works include Cinderella's pumpkin crashed in a large castle, a grisly recreation of the death of Princess Diana, surrounded by paparazzi (and you get a souvenir photo on the way out, lovely). The Grim Reaper rides the dodgems. There's a Punch and Judy show, rewritten with a nod to Jimmy Saville. Yeesh. There's a model boat pond, filled with dead bodies and overcrowded asylum seeker boats. There's cute little model village, swarmed by 3000 riot police following civil conflict. There's a Jeffrey Archer Memorial Fire Pit, locked in for daily book burnings, and an armour-plated riot control car used in Northern Ireland, with a slippery dip. For the kids, there's a 'pocket money loans' shop, handing out sweet sweet junk change with a 5000% interest rate to land them in debt for life. There's an 'advice bureau' where you can buy tools to break into bus stop ads and replace them with propaganda. "Are you looking for an alternative to the sugar-coated tedium of the average family day out? Or just somewhere a lot cheaper?" says Banksy. "Then this is the place for you. Bring the whole family to come and enjoy the latest addition to our chronic leisure surplus." #Dismaland #dismaland_park #banksy #streetart #dismalanbeamusementpark # A photo posted by Banksy (@dismaland_park) on Aug 20, 2015 at 6:21am PDT #dismaland #banksy A photo posted by Banksy (@dismaland_park) on Aug 20, 2015 at 8:39am PDT Dismaland Park #dismaland #banksy #dismaland_park #streetart #banksyart #disney #ladydi #paparazzi A photo posted by Banksy (@dismaland_park) on Aug 20, 2015 at 11:56am PDT Banksy's dismaland park #dismaland #banksy #dismalanbeamusementpark #disney #england #streetart A photo posted by Banksy (@dismaland_park) on Aug 20, 2015 at 5:20am PDT #streetart #dismaland_park #dismalanbeamusementpark #dismalandpark #dismaland #banksy #fuckthepolice A photo posted by Banksy (@dismaland_park) on Aug 20, 2015 at 5:53am PDT #dismaland #banksy @dismaland_park A photo posted by Banksy (@dismaland_park) on Aug 20, 2015 at 6:33am PDT Dismaland park #dismalandpark #dismaland #banksy #dismalanbeamusementpark #disney @dismaland_park A photo posted by Banksy (@dismaland_park) on Aug 20, 2015 at 5:36am PDT Dismaland bemusement park @banksy @dismaland_park A photo posted by Banksy (@dismaland_park) on Aug 20, 2015 at 5:02am PDT #dismaland #banksy A photo posted by Banksy (@dismaland_park) on Aug 20, 2015 at 6:47am PDT #dismaland_park #dismalanbeamusementpark #dismalandpark #Dismaland #banksy #england A photo posted by Banksy (@dismaland_park) on Aug 20, 2015 at 5:42am PDT Banky's Dismaland is open until September 27. There'll be 4000 tickets available each day at £3 each at dismaland.co.uk. Via Guardian, Huffington Post, NY Daily News. Top image: Yui Mok.
Hey kids, seems pizza does grow on trees, according to mightily-moustachioed, all-American comedian Nick Offerman. In a brand new Funny or Die video, the Parks and Recreation star takes you on a rip-roaring tour through his fictional Pizza Farm — where the team are hard at work "growing the ripe, juicy pizzas your kids love.” We wish. "What could be healthier than this? Acres of pizza, kissed by the sun, stretching as far as the eye can see." Offerman, or ‘food expert’ Daniel Francis, unearths Sloppy Joes from moist fields irrigated by cola, picks taquitos from the tree, wanders past fish finger vineyards, and eats a fresh slice of pepperoni pizza straight from the tree. “If it’s on a plant, it’s good for you, who cares how it got there.” According to TIME, Offerman’s genius Pizza Farm is apparently a big ol’ flip of the bird to idiotic protests against First Lady Michelle Obama’s huge campaign to change US school lunch regulations and get Congress to reauthorise the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010 — which regulates the amount of unhealthy, high fat, high sugar, high salt food you can serve to school kidlets at lunch. Until then, most US school lunches will remain as cheaply-made and unhealthy as they can possibly can be. But as Offerman says, "French fries are practically salads, which is why I like mine with ranch." Pizza Farm with Nick Offerman - watch more funny videos Via TIME.
When Melbourne's beloved Middle Eastern restaurant Rumi moved from Lygon Street to Brunswick East Village in 2023, owners Joseph and Nat Abboud decided to also create a neighbourhood wine bar next door. Playfully named after the Lebanese Rocket Society — a university club that endeavoured to join the space race in 1960s Beirut — the wine bar is a brilliant spot to drop by before dining at Rumi, or to spend a few hours sipping and snacking with mates. During the day, Rocket Society serves up flatbread sandwiches, fries with tahini mayo, HSP croquettes and a bunch of mezze plates. As the sun sets, a heap more mezzes make the list, including lamb and sweetbread skewers, pickles aplenty, crunchy fried cauliflower leaves, cheesy doughnuts and freshly shucked oysters with pickled verjuice grapes. Being directly connected to Rumi, we expect great things in the food department. And we were absolutely not disappointed on our visit. These eats pack a punch, with plenty of spice and umami goodness weaved into each dish. The team behind the bar also know their bevs. They shake up a mean martini and a bunch of other classic cocktails, and pour a well-curated selection of 50+ wines hailing from Australia, Lebanon, Morocco and Europe. These drops range from mild to funky, so let the crew find your ideal pairing. You can't book a spot at this small wine bar in Brunswick East, so get in early to nab one of the few seats available. There are a handful of streetside tables, but we recommend heading inside to get all the vibes. Jump onto one of the high tables, or get a stool at the bar where the team is mixing drinks and spinning vinyl until 11pm each night. When compared to the local institution that is Rumi, Rocket Society feels like the cool younger sibling. It stays up later, plays alternative beats and is a bit more playful with its food and drink offerings.
If taking high tea or riding a bike across a balance beam four storeys in the air sounds like your kind of thing, then read on. After five years of construction, Sydney's newest aerial park, Skypeak Adventures has opened. The park, which is located next to the Saint Mary's Leagues Stadium is the second park of its type and scale to open in Sydney after Urban Jungle was unveiled in Olympic Park in 2013. The adventure park features a series of obstacle courses and challenges, all suspended high in the sky. Think bridge walks, barrel runs, rope climbs, chasm jumps or trapeze swings, 22 metres above ground. A variety of passes are available, giving visitors access to different areas of the course. The 'Momentum' pass involves a 15-metre freefall/leap of faith into the unknown (hopefully a net?), while the 'Skypeak Tree' course involves scaling a huge ancient River Red Gum. High tea, minus the scones and cakes will be available, in the form of a picnic table suspended nine metres above a void. For the less adventurous (or perhaps more sane) visitors, a series of very stable platforms allow you to take an elevated walk through the park and interact with the more courageous. No judgement. Western Sydney is becoming a bit of a destination for thrill seekers, offering a host of extreme activities including Wet 'n' Wild, iFly, Cables Wake Park and, of course, Aqua Golf. Skypeak Adventure passes start at $29 for adults, with the course open from 9am to 7pm everyday.
What would you do if you were a little less freaked out by consequences? Would you talk to more new people, fear a bit less, dance a little more like FKA Twigs, quit your desk job and dedicate yourself to the hobby or interest you've always wanted to turn into a career? Some sparkling young Australians are already flinging their inhibitions into a ziplock bag and seizing this little ol' life with both hands. Concrete Playground has teamed up with the Jameson crew to give you a sneak peek into the lives of bold characters who took a big chance on themselves. They've gone out on a limb and rewritten their path, encapsulating 'Sine Metu', the Jameson family motto which translates to 'without fear' — getting outside your comfort zone and trying something new. After all, we only get one shot at this. Take notes. Every kid fills their schoolbooks with sketches, but few actually consider turning their doodling into a career. In fact, Sydney-based illustrator Barry Patenaude certainly didn't think that his squiggles and scribbles could take him into the hectic freelance world of illustrating for big brands — even Concrete Playground (thanks Barry) — let alone illustrating his highly popular series Beers in the Sun. Instead, he followed the same path most of us do, progressing from high school to university, studying architecture and drafting, and then getting an office job. But sometimes, our true passions just can't be ignored; in fact, that's what embracing the 'Sine Metu' mindset is all about. WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU TOILETS TO DRAW, DRAW THEM WELL There's a reason most job choices — the ones that stem from a couple of years at uni, then lead to the 9-to-5 grind — are considered sensible choices. They're the kind of careers that provide security, as well as a clear plan for the future. If you'd met Barry when he was a child, he wouldn't have mentioned being an illustrator. "I did draw a lot," he says. "I did art at school, but I never really thought illustration could be a career path." There's such a thing as being too sensible, however — and if you ever find yourself using your artistic talents to sketch toilets, you might just come to this realisation. After pursuing all the practical options, Barry worked in an architecture office, designing buildings and delving into the ever-fascinating task of drawing toilets. That he found it a bit monotonous is stating the obvious. But, breaking away from the path you're already on is easier said than done, of course. And sometimes you need to experience all the boring stuff to shatter that mindset and discover what you really want to do. As Barry explains, "I finished school and was like, 'So the path is: you study, you get a job and then you work.' That's the mindset I had for ages, but over time it just didn't appeal to me. I didn't want to be an office jockey." SOMETIMES YOU'VE GOT TO SKIP TOWN FOR AN INTERNSHIP Like many big life decisions, it was a change of scene — and a change of city — that helped alter Barry's perceptions about just what his chosen profession should be. He had spent a few years travelling overseas and enjoying working holidays, but it was the move from Brisbane to Sydney that proved the true catalyst, or at least got the ball rolling. Not that that's actually what he was thinking about when he headed interstate with his girlfriend so that she could secure an internship. Sometimes, though, you just have to go where the moment takes you. As Barry started calling New South Wales home, "that's when I started drawing a lot more in my spare time," he advises, "and it was something I didn't realise that I had missed until I started doing it again". Illustrating became the thing he did on the side for a few years, leading to an art show in 2011, as well as paid freelance opportunities. Then, three years ago, his regular job switched from full to part time. It's the kind of news most employees dread, but he took it as an opportunity and royally bit the bullet. "I wouldn't have thought that I'd be in this position six years ago when I moved here, but it has worked out for the best I think," he says. "Like a lot of people, I was questioning what I was doing with my life. Now, I do have a path and I like where it is going, and it is definitely better than drawing toilets." ILLUSTRATE, INSTAGRAM, THEN LET THE BUSINESS COME TO YOU Today, Barry's decision to give illustrating a proper go might seem-like a no-brainer, but trying to make a living doing what you love is tricky, particularly when that involves a creative field, cultivating a gig-based resume, and never knowing what's going to come next. While his artwork is now featured on everything from bar walls to websites, getting to this stage wasn't an easy — or quick — process. Starting with a safety net — his part-time drafting job — certainly helped. So did just going for it; as Barry puts it, "you don't really have anything to lose. I mean, apart from your finances." He doesn't shy away from just how tough making his mark has been, but he also recognises the importance of self-belief and perseverance. "The first year was super hard. I was so poor. I just kept at it, and that's what I'm doing now — keeping at it. But it's definitely an evolution and a slow process. You've just got to have patience, and believe in your work, and let people realise that it's good." Take the project he has probably become best known for, Beers in the Sun. It actually started as a hobby and a way to unwind — and the fact that it combined two of his biggest passions certainly made it plenty of fun. It seems that people quite like pictures of their favourite beverages, with a flock of Instagram followers leading to media attention, more interest in his illustrations, gigs with booze brands, and yes, a few free brews to drink as well. When it comes to what will help kick your career into gear, "you just never know," says Barry. Want to experience a little bit of 'Sine Metu' yourself? Thanks to Jameson and The Rewriters, one extremely fortunate Concrete Playground reader (and their even more fortunate mate) will get the chance to 'fear less' and go on a big ol' adventure to Ireland. In addition to two return flights departing from your choice of Sydney, Melbourne or Brisbane, this epic giveaway comes with five night's accommodation and $500 spending money you can use to paint the Emerald Isle red. ENTER HERE. For more about how 'Sine Metu' influenced John Jameson's journey visit Jameson's website. Images: Andy Fraser.
Suffice it to say, it's been an exciting few days in the world of Australian politics. And by exciting, we mean depressingly familiar. Although the recent Liberal Party leadership spill did manage to spark some truly excellent memes, its primary function seems to have been to drive home just how shambolic things in Canberra have become. It's also a flat-out terrible turn of events for the federal Opposition, who you have to imagine will have a harder time taking back the leadership from a prime minster whose foot isn't permanently lodged in his own mouth. The good news is that Labor does appear to have finally cottoned on to the fact that in order win to the vote, you do need to occasionally take a position. As such, opposition MP and Shadow Minister for the Arts Mark Dreyfus has publicly pledged that, if elected, Labor will reverse the current government's $105 million worth of cuts to the Australia Council for the Arts. Speaking to The Australian last week, Dreyfus said that the raid on the Australia Council's funding, overseen by Federal Arts Minister George Brandis, was "a disaster for the arts" — an opinion that he shares with large swathes of the nation's artistic community, who have been protesting the cuts since they were announced back in May. The Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance today released a statement describing Labor's decision as "good news" and have promised to continue their campaigning in the lead-up to the next election. That being said, Brandis may have more pressing concerns than a potential Labor challenge in 2016. According to The Daily Review, a number of artists and arts groups are planning to gather outside Malcolm Turnbull's Sydney electorate office at 2pm today, where they will petition the shiny new PM to sack his much-maligned Arts Minister and take over the portfolio himself. "We think Malcolm Turnbull would make a terrific arts minister," executive director of the National Association for the Visual Arts Tamara Winikoff told TDR. "If the PM actually took on the arts portfolio, in one fell swoop this action could profoundly change the way Australians value the arts and culture." If nothing else, it really can't feel good to be George Brandis right now. It's almost enough to make you feel sorry for him. Almost.
A brand new streaming service could change the way you watch new release movies — assuming you're willing to fork over the cash. The latest online endeavour from Napster co-founder Sean Parker, Screening Room wants to bring movies into your living room on the same day they hit cinemas. The idea has already received backing from several major Hollywood filmmakers, including Peter Jackson, Martin Scorsese, J.J. Abrams and Steven Spielberg. But hostile theatre chains and prohibitive costs could mean the service remains a way off yet. The biggest hurdle, it would seem, is the cost of the service. Subscribers would need to purchase a US$150 set top box, after which they'd be charged $50 per film, which would remain available to them for 48-hours. Admittedly, you're paying for the convenience of not having to leave the house, and if you get enough people to chip in, it could easily work out cheaper than going to the cinema. But by the same token, if you're willing to wait a few months, you'll be able to watch the exact same movie on Netflix for a fraction of the price. The reason for the cost is in part to placate theatre owners, who might understandably be none too pleased about Parker trying to muscle in on their territory. According to Variety, as much as $20 out of each $50 rental fee would be paid to exhibitors, in return for two free tickets to see the given film in theatres, should Screening Room subscribers so choose. Film studios would also get a substantial slice of the pie, with Universal, Sony Pictures and Twentieth Century Fox all expressing interest in getting on board. There have, however, been several prominent naysayers, including filmmakers James Cameron and Christopher Nolan, who reaffirmed their commitment to theatrical presentation. It's easy to see their point: films are designed to be viewed on the big screen with the best possible picture and sound, something that cannot be replicated at home. On the other hand, it only takes one jerk on their phone in front of you to ruin the whole experience. Of course regardless of what happens with the Screening Room, we'd wager it'll still be quite a while before it makes its way to Australia. Looks like movie night is still a go, for now. Via Variety.
Nightcrawler glides through the streets of Los Angeles, following the efforts of a young man doing whatever he can to make a living. Trying to survive and thrive, Lou Bloom (Jake Gyllenhaal) warms to a career as a freelance cameraman. He stalks the Los Angeles streets by night to find and film humanity at its worst, all for television news consumption — and maybe gets a little too good at his new profession. Nightcrawler also brings two familiar creative forces together, but in a new fashion. For writer/director Dan Gilroy, Nightcrawler marks his first helming effort after more than two decades writing screenplays for the likes of The Bourne Legacy, Two for the Money, The Fall, and Real Steel, among others. For star Jake Gyllenhaal, his leading man looks are whittled down to a lean, mean figure of determination and desperation. Their combination results in what's widely regarded as one of the best films of the year — and certain highlights of both of their careers. We chat to Gilroy about collaborating with Gyllenhaal, creating such a distinctive character, and telling this dark, cynical and twisted tale of modern life. How did Jake Gyllenhaal come to be involved in the film as an actor and a producer? Jake's agent read the script. Jake responded to the script. I flew to Atlanta when he was doing Prisoners. We had a four-hour dinner, and we had just an instant creative spark. If I was going to distil it down, Jake very much wanted to rehearse and be a collaborator, and I very much wanted to collaborate with Jake. He never changed a word of the script, but what we did do is, we rehearsed for months before we started to shoot. We would discuss the script, the scenes, the character. We would then start to rehearse the scenes themselves, trying them different ways — "what if the character was this? What if the character was that?" And was Jake's physical transformation part of that? During the process, Jake came up with a number of very crucial components. One was that it was his idea to lose the weight. He was thinking about a coyote, which you see at night in Los Angeles. They're very hungry and lean looking creatures, and Jake used that as a sort of symbol animal for himself. So it was Jake's idea to lose like 26, 27 pounds, and it utterly transformed him. It was a very bold decision. Very difficult to keep that weight off, and it changed him physically, but it also gave him a tremendous odd energy in the film. I feel like he just wants to consume everything around him — and it's not just food. I feel like he wants to consume ideas and people and anything he can get his hands on. It is a very scary energy that it adds to the character, and to the movie. It was Jake's idea to put his hair up in a bun any time he does something larcenous. These are the small things. Jake and I worked as creative collaborators on this film in every way. Let's talk about Lou Bloom. He's such a distinctive character. Where did Lou Bloom as a creation come from? I have tremendous empathy for tens of millions of young people around the world who are looking for work, and being offered internships and wages that you can't sustain yourself on. So I was very interested in a younger man who was desperate for work. That was the doorway that I came through for the character, which is why at the beginning of the film, he is truly desperate for work. I took that desperation and started to play around with it, and use it as an inner force that has driven this character over the bend in terms of what he was willing to do and not to. And that was pathway to lead me into the character. Looking at the film more broadly, what inspired the story? There's many components — the media, at face value, as well as questions of ethics and the complicit nature of the audience in consuming news stories, and also the current state of the American economy, trying to chase the American dream... Well, the story on its largest level, I wanted to do an entertaining, engaging story, so obviously there's suspense and there's uncertainty and there's drama. So all those things I knew were going to be the things that were at the top of my list when crafting the story. As I started getting into the story, it started to become personal on the level that you just talked about. Which is, I feel that the world I am seeing right now, that I am living in right now in Los Angeles, and I guess the United States, and probably globally in some degree, is one where everything has been reduced to transactions. It seems like the bottom line is driving everything, that capitalism — and I'm not advocating any other system other than capitalism, because I don't know if there is anything better — but capitalism seems to be becoming hyper-capitalism, and it is forcing people to do things in the workplace that I don't think is healthy and I don't think they would normally be inclined to do if they weren't being forced to do it. I saw in Jake's character the opportunity to create an employer who has started a business and very much embodies that principle — that because of the landscape and the lack of work for people, he can pretty much get people to do whatever he wants to each other. The film is set in Los Angeles, showing a side of LA we don't often see. How did the location shape the film? Could it have been set and made anywhere else? Well, the location shaped the film in the sense that Robert Elswit, the cinematographer and I, were trying to show the Los Angeles you don't normally see. Los Angeles is usually a very urban environment with cement and buildings. Los Angeles for me is a place with much more of a wild, untamed energy. It is place of mountains, ocean and desert. So we were looking for locations where civilisations met a national park, as in literally. Or we were up on top of a hill looking down, on top of almost a mountain, looking down where you could see forever. We were trying to show a large, sprawling landscape that was physically beautiful — that really was as untouched by man as it tamed by man. And that the character of Lou is like a coyote moving through this nighttime environment of this wilderness. The sense of tension is unrelenting — not just in the action scenes, with cars racing along the street, but in all of Lou's conversations. How did you maintain that sense of pressure throughout? The pressure, in many ways, came from the script. The script is designed that way. He is an unsettling character. He is a character who has all these touchstone qualities of humanity — he wants a job, he wants a relationship. He is earnest, he is polite, he is respectful. But at the same time, he is utterly unhinged, and because we shot so close to him, and we would always keep him in frame, and because the score was always going counterpoint, I think the tension is an inner tension of "why am I so emotionally involved in this character?" Or "why are they making me pay attention for this guy? Why am I rooting for him at times when I know I shouldn't be rooting for him?" And I think there's a subconscious energy that starts to build up, a disquieting energy of tension. Questions of "where is it going?" and "why do I like him?", which was as much a design of the script as anything. Given that Nightcrawler falls into a number of genres, were there films that inspired you in writing and making it? The films that inspired me more weren't so much journalism films, but films where the hero was also the antihero. Where you could take a character who was your hero and your villain at the same time. One of them was Scorsese's The King of Comedy. And another one is actually Nicole Kidman in To Die For. I loved that film, and I thought she did a great job. I love the idea that she is so perky and personable, and she is a complete murderer. But at the same time, she is your hero — she is your hero and your villain. That was very illuminating when I saw that film. That film was in my mind. Nightcrawler opened in cinemas on November 27. Read our full review.
Richmond Oysters started its life way back in 1959, when brothers Nick and Tony Anassis opened a small shopfront next to a rail line on Church Street in Richmond. The story goes that one of the brothers stayed in the store, shucking oysters and selling them to the locals, while the other brother drove around town, sprucing their wares to all the bars, pubs and restaurants. From their early successes, the business has now grown into a family-run retail store, wholesaler, takeaway fish and chip joint and excellent fine dining restaurant. They're all about family and tradition here — plus, many a restaurateur in Melbourne learnt their trade shucking away at Richmond Oysters. It is a proper Melbourne dining institution. The restaurant itself opened back in 2006 and boasts an elegant dining room where the vibe is sophisticated but not too formal. The dining menu features a map of Australia, detailing where along the coast it sources its produce. The Richmond Oysters team prides itself on having some of the most sustainable seafood in the world on its menu, and it is clear that great love and care for the ocean is the bedrock of its philosophy. Let's get down to the oysters, though. It offers up Pacific or Sydney either cooked or natural, with a vast array of sauces and mignonettes to liven them up. The natural oysters can be paired with a house sauce of sweet chilli, lime and ginger, a mignonette, a spicy nam jim or a granita of apple cider and champagne vinegar. The cooked options include classics such as Kilpatrick and Mornay or the slightly spiced Japanese crumbed recipe with panko bread crumbs and wasabi mayo. The rest of the menu plays out with market specials, which can be cooked to your liking. Our favourite main from the sea would have to be the seafood linguini, and those after some red meat will be more than happy slicing into the perfectly succulent 230-gram Cape Grim scotch fillet with chips and garlic butter — that can become a highly recommended 'surf n' turf' if you choose. Richmond Oysters is a clear must-visit for seafood lovers in Melbourne. Images: Tran Nguyen
Maybe you're old enough that you can remember where you were when you heard the news of his death 21 years ago. Maybe you grew up only ever knowing of his loss and his legend. Either way, Nirvana fan or not, Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck is essential viewing. This isn't your usual music documentary, or the standard package of talking heads, childhood photos and backstage pics — though they're all there in some shape and form. As the name suggests, this is a mosaic of his tumultuous life as it happened, drawn from the most intimate resources and largely spoken in his voice. Filmmaker Brett Morgen uses art, music, journals, home videos and audio montages provided by Cobain's family to journey, step by step, from the birth to the death of the rock icon. First he's a bright child, then a disaffected teen, a creative genius, a reluctant star, a drug-addicted celebrity and a doting father. What he rarely seems, though, is happy. Indeed, think of Montage of Heck less like a portrait of Cobain and more like his thoughts and emotions being allowed to roam free. Biographical information is included, but this is about who he really was, rather than interesting trivia. Things get dark, clearly; however, the fleshed-out image the film composes of the troubled musician is probably the most complex audiences have ever seen. Examinations of tortured artists rarely come across as quite so honest, or so genuine in peeking behind the veil of their public personas, or so willing to embrace the complications of their subjects. Morgen's style has much to do with the movie's air of authenticity, the writer, director and co-editor piecing everything together with a lived-in mood and a stitched-together look unlike the bulk of similar offerings. From animation that brings Cobain's drawings to life and scrawls his handwritten lyrics, lists and love letters onto the screen, to footage of his brand of wedded bliss with Courtney Love, to revealing chats with those who knew him best (Love, Cobain's parents and sister, his ex-girlfriend Tracey Marander and Nirvana bassist Krist Novoselic), it never feels anything less than hand- and home-made. The wealth of content the feature has at its disposal is certainly astonishing, both in providing much more than a glimpse Cobain's most personal moments, and in allowing fans a few opportunities to really geek-out — such as spying his sketches for Nevermind's album cover and his suggestions for 'Smells Like Teen Spirit''s music video. That Montage of Heck is the first effort made with the support of his loved ones shows, though this is as far from a glossy tribute as you can get. It might be light on performances, but the film also has an amazing soundtrack, obviously — and the way Morgen weaves Nirvana's music into the mix is so well done, it causes goosebumps. That's the kind of reaction Montage of Heck inspires. By the time it makes it to the MTV Unplugged clips from what turned out to be one of the band's last major performances, expect your eyes to get misty. With so much said about Cobain for the past two decades, it feels fitting that a compilation of his own words actually says the most. Never basking in the cult of his fame, nor wallowing in his demise, this is Cobain being Cobain. It's not just a montage: it's a haunting, heartbreaking cinematic poem about a lost icon — and perhaps the finest music documentary of its generation.
The Australian art industry's most talked about face for 2017 has been revealed, with the announcement of this year's Archibald Prize. This year's winner is Camden artist Mitch Cairns, who painted a stunning portrait of artist (and Cairns' partner) Agatha Gothe-Snape. He'll receive a cheeky cash prize $100,000 and bragging rights for life — and hey, when you've been shortlisted in the Archibald Prize four times already, you're already there. The subject of the portrait, Gothe-Snape is a celebrated artist in her own right, exhibiting at the 20th Biennale of Sydney and recently opening a solo exhibition at Tokyo's Mori Art Museum — a first for an Aussie artist. Her work constantly engages with the way the public engages with contemporary art, how we read it, understand it, and debate it. "In this painting, Agatha is both an active subject and a recalcitrant muse embracing and resisting simultaneously any idea of what it is to be fixed. Ultimately this is what is most attractive about Agatha. She embodies an uncompromising agency whilst having the grace to accept the ready complications inherent within our life as artists," says Cairns. "I composed this portrait with love in the full knowledge of its inevitable and palpable quake." Here's the work in full: South Australia's Betty Kuntiwa Pumani is the winner of the 2017 Wynne Prize with her striking ode to her mother country, and Joan Ross is the winner of the 2017 Sulman Prize for her mixed media work Oh history, you lied to me. See the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prize exhibition, including Mitch Cairns' winning work, at the Art Gallery of New South Wales from July 29 to October 22. More info here.
UPDATE: SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 — Frankie's Tortas and Tacos is now open for takeaway tacos, Mexican sandwiches and tinnies every Tuesday–Sunday, from 11.30am–3pm. This Mexican joint doesn't have a heaving tequila selection, a dinner menu, or a single cerveza in sight, but it is dishing up a lunchtime offering that'll keep you coming back for more. Opening on Smith Street just before Christmas in 2019, Frankie's Tortas & Tacos is located in a tiny car park kiosk most recently home to a kebab joint. It has chain-link fencing, a charmingly low-key vibe and room for not much more than 15 diners. The menu might be short and simple, but it's the stuff lunchtime regulars dream of, served speedily out of a busy streetside kitchen and best enjoyed perched on one of the venue's red plastic stools. You can leave the formalities at home — here, it's paper plates all the way. A trio of tortas — or Mexican sandwiches — features soft, white Vietnamese-style rolls, stuffed with beans, avocado, queso, lettuce and coriander, and served with house-made pickles. There's a classic al pastor starring marinated pork cooked on a shawarma-style spit, another with crumbed beef and a vegetarian-friendly mushroom number. Tacos play the simple game, too, with a lineup of just three options, each jazzed up with onion, coriander and a dollop of salsa. You'll find an al pastor with pineapple and another meat-free mushroom creation (both gluten-free), along with a beef asada. Add a squeeze of lime and a few splashes from the hot sauce collection and you're good to go. Just don't leave it too late to visit, as the kitchen only serves up limited portions each day. While you can't match this Mexican feast with a beer, Frankie's is slinging daytime-appropriate sips like Jarritos Mexican sodas, glass bottles of Coca Cola, horchata (a sweet rice milk drink) and a cold brew and filter from Abbotsford's Blume Coffee. Images: Tracey Ah-kee
There's plenty to love about newly-opened, vegan snack bar, Follies. Along with a food and beverage menu that's entirely plant-based, Follies pays homage to the classic pintxos bars found in Barcelona and San Sebastian. Everything on the menu comes in a bite-sized ration, served on toothpicks as a nod to its Basque Country heritage. Follies is the lockdown brainchild of Melbourne-born and bred Olivia Franklin, a young but eager hospitality veteran. A nostalgic ode to the 70s, Follies' fit-out has been brought to life with the help of retro wallpaper prints, bright orange table tops and the fuzzy, original carpet from the 70s. Patrons will find a reliable everyday menu of hot, cold, sweet and savoury pintxos priced at $5.50 for a small stick and $7 for a large. The pintxos bar choices run to the likes of peach and goats cheese crostini done with a balsamic glaze ($5.50), and cream cheese-stuffed peppers laden with walnuts ($7). Extra soft and juicy Italian meatballs are served coated in a rich tomato and red wine sauce ($7), while a Patatas Bravas with roast chickpeas ($7) is a must-try. Seasonal and event-themed specials are also promised to make appearances throughout the year. Drinks take the form of house cocktails, spritzes, local beers and an ever-evolving selection of vegan, low-intervention wines. The Frosty Fruit margarita contains a crowd-pleasing tequila, Cointreau, passionfruit and lime ($22), while a Porny Pom mixes vodka, vanilla, pomegranate liquor, molasses and prosecco ($22). Low-to-no alcohol drinks are given plenty of love too, with a range of iced teas, spritzes and pét-nat for guests looking for alternative bevvies. An enticing daily happy hour offers $18 cocktails, $10 spritzes, $9 wines and $7 schooners. Bottomless lunch comes in at an easy $75, including bottomless pintxos, spritz, beer and wine. Images: Genevieve Rankin
If anyone has treated Melbourne to a contemporary taste of the Middle East, it's Joseph Abboud, who first opened Rumi on the Brunswick East end of Lygon Street back in 2006. With this hugely popular venture, he helped lay a path for plenty of other Middle Eastern restaurants in Melbourne to follow and expand upon. Then, at the end of 2023, he packed up Rumi and moved it around the corner to East Brunswick Village. Next door, he also teamed up with his wife Nat to create The Rocket Society — a small neighbourhood wine bar with next-level mezze. When we revisited Rumi in the new location, we quickly breathed a deep sigh of relief. The team hadn't tried to reinvent the much-loved restaurant. They didn't transform the menu or the friendly and highly personable style of hospitality. Instead, all that changed is that the team improved the wine menu, installed a new charcoal grill and designed a space that's altogether more polished and grown-up compared to its previous site. You'll still find the moreish sigara boregi — crispy pastry cigars filled with haloumi, feta and kasseri — the fried cauliflower; Persian meatballs; and incredible tiny Turkish beef dumplings that come doused in tomato sauce, kashk yoghurt and nutty butter. Think of the dish as a Turkish pasta. It's a must-order. The Rumi set menu remains, too, and is still really affordable. For $65 per person, you get a bunch of dips, bread, cheesy cigars and pickles to start. You then get meatballs, a selection of grilled and fried vegetables, a melt-in-your-mouth lamb shoulder (another longtime menu item), barbecue chicken wings and a couple of salads. Turkish delights finish off the feast. And while the food remains much the same, the drinks got a proper glow up in the new location. Pre-dinner sips include sherry, vermouth, amaro and arak — a Lebanese spirit made by extracting anise seeds in grape brandy. There's also a stack of local beers and signature cocktails made with a Middle Eastern edge. Then there are the wines. There are over 100 of them, hailing from Australia and around the Middle East, on the Rumi menu. They're split into the following categories: mates and local legends; the old, old world; funky trendy; and classic and conventional. So, whether you're into your orange wines and pét-nats, prefer your Aussie classics, or are keen to try something new from further afield, this bar's got the goods. Rumi remains a true Melbourne treasure. It even regularly books out on weekday nights, as locals flock here on the regular. Be sure to book ahead if you want to try some of the best Middle Eastern food in the city.
Paradise Alley is the latest addition to Collingwood's multi-faceted dining warehouse on Easey Street. The shared space includes a microbrewery, deli, art gallery, motorbike shop and, now, a 150-seater public bar and pool hall. Hospo vet and owner Laura Twomey (ex-City Wine Shop) maintains the warehouse's roots in this massive open space with polished concrete floors, original stained glass windows and exposed brick walls, along with eclectic furniture and a gorgeous handmade blonde timber bar. A separate pool room features a red table surrounded by hard-backed booths and the laneway doubles as a 35-seater beer garden, complete with potted plants and large-scale street art across every wall. The bar is serving up a rotating tap list of Australian craft beer, along with a small specialty cocktail menu and natural wines. For food, they're collaborating with neighbour Little Latin Lucy, who also resides in the warehouse and serves up Latin American street food with a Californian twist. Dishes can be ordered from the bar and include chipotle pork or smoked duck tacos topped with charred pineapple, lamb ribs and grilled whole fish. The bar also hosts weekly charity meat raffles and regular wine tastings. The co-op type space is also shared with Backwoods Gallery and Casati's Deli, the latter of which has begun brewing their own beer from the warehouse's microbrewery — which is visible from Paradise Alley and will make its way onto their taps soon enough. Images: Eduardo Vieira.
After a cocktail next door, don't be surprised if you find yourself on the doorstep of San Telmo, succumbing to the enticing pull of the Argentinean grill. Inside, carnivores congregate around the Parilla (the imported Argentine charcoal grill, pronounced par-ee-sha) — feasting on slabs of tender, smokey charred meat. Order by cut: short ribs, flank, rib eye and all the steaks of rump are on offer here. The menu is designed to share, which means that our vegetarian friends needn't miss out. The sweet-burnt carrots with thyme and goats cheese, provolone, charcoal roasted cabbage salad, or brussel sprouts with parsnip and chestnut puree will appease the non-animal eaters, while desserts like the dulce de leche creme caramel with salted peanut praline will have both tribes fighting over the fork. From the grill try the chorizo and morcilla to start, while the pasture fed lamp rump marinated in garlic thyme and rosemary is the perfect dish for the main event. Pair it with a bottle of 2017 Colome Altura Maxima Malbec for a truly unforgettable Argentinian experience at San Telmo.
You probably think that James Bond hails from Scotland. But that's where you'd be wrong. As a matter of fact, the world's greatest secret agent actually grew up in rural NSW. Forget about Connery, Brosnan and Craig. To the people of Goulburn, the name Bond is synonymous with hometown hero George Lazenby — and now they're hosting a festival in his honour. Kicking off today and stretching on into the weekend, Spyfest Goulburn is a festival dedicated to the world of international espionage, running September 25-26. There'll be parades, parties and a city-wide game of I Spy, capped off by an appearance by Lazenby himself, who grew up in Goulburn before shooting to (short-lived) stardom as the second man to portray the world's most famous big screen spy. Event organisers will host several free screenings of Lazenby's sole Bond adventure, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, over the course of the weekend. Other events include a Secret Agents Gala Dinner featuring the music of the great Shirley Bassey, and a Shagadelic Disco inspired by MI6's other international man of mystery. Naturally, costumes are highly encouraged. Several local businesses will also be getting into the spirit of the festival by temporarily changing their names, including one chemist who has gone with the inspired new moniker 'Licensed to Pill'. We're pretty sure 007 would approve of the pun — at least Roger Moore would. For more information about Spyfest Goulburn, visit the festival website. Via ABC News.
Goodbye Hollywood, hello Hallyuwood. No, that's not a typo. Instead, it's the thriving Korean film industry, which has become a major player in the global cinema realm in more ways than one. First, there's the spate of high-profile Korean directors making the jump to English-language movies, such as Okja's Bong Joon-ho and Stoker's Park Chan-wook. Next, there's the growing list of Korean flicks that have earned American remakes, like Oldboy and The Lake House. And finally, there's the all-round ace movies that Korean's finest cinema talents keep pumping out. It's the latter that's in the spotlight at the annual Korean Film Festival in Australia, which marks its eighth year in 2017. From high-octane crime efforts to different takes on familiar genres to thoughtful dramas, this year's lineup is filled with highlights — including these five must-see picks. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoc0KZQnoKA THE VILLAINESS It's a great time for kickass women in cinema, finally. Wonder Woman and Atomic Blonde have company, however, and her name is The Villainess. This killing machine-focused thriller ramps up the action and body count as a trained assassin seeks bloody vengeance after her husband is murdered on their wedding day. Spies, secrets, Kill Bill-like mayhem, and La Femme Nikita-esque trickery and duplicity — they're all on the bill, as is a memorable display from star Kim Ok-bin (perhaps best known for Park Chan-wook's Thirst) as the formidable Sook-hee. THE DAY AFTER Another Australian film festival, another Hong Sang-soo film. It's becoming a habit, but the Korean writer/director is nothing if not prolific, having made four flicks in the past year alone. Hong's latest boasts his usual trademarks — booze and interpersonal battles — in a tale about a publisher's affair with his assistant, his wife's expectedly unhappy reaction, and his new helper caught in the middle. Fans will know that misunderstandings and written missives feature as frequently in his movies as free-flowing soju, and that's the case here. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7STTUWI0as SEOUL STATION One of 2016's unexpected highlights gets an animated prequel — and yes, that's a rather rare development. Train to Busan was exactly what a zombies-on-a-train flick should be, and while Seoul Station isn't that movie, it is intriguing in its own right. Flesh munching and mindless shuffling takes over the titular railway stop, as brought to light in grittily drawn frames that somehow make the ravenous masses of undead even more frightening. You might think you've seen every take on zombie movies ever made, but we're betting that you haven't seen this. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uvqaLwfh0C0 THE WORLD OF US Winner of best youth feature at the 2016 Asia Pacific Screen Awards, The World of Us uses the friendship between two ten-year-old girls to explore the social reality facing kids in modern-day South Korea, and dissect the situation given to them by their adult counterparts. In doing so, the small in feel, sizeable in impact effort relays a relatable story audiences all around the world have been through. There are few things tougher in childhood than realising the inequities and differences that are used to separate the population, particularly when they don't go in your favour, something that director Yoon Ga-eun clearly understands. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_jhPgL0_3ac BECAUSE I LOVE YOU Even given their fantastic premise, a good body swap film can not only entertain and amuse, but can also offer ample insights about walking in someone else's shoes. Because I Love You is the latest to attempt that feat, though it's not just content with making songwriter Lee-hyung inhabit one other person. No, a sole soul switch clearly isn't enough. Instead, after an accident renders him hospitalised, he hops from body to body trying to solve their romantic problems, all while his own potential fiance waits for him to wake up. Need a couple more suggestions? Here's two others. We recommended The Bacchus Lady highly back when it played at the 2016 Brisbane Asia Pacific Film Festival, while Karaoke Crazies caught our interest from the 2016 SXSW lineup. The Korean Film Festival in Australia tours the country from August 17 to September 23, screening at Sydney's Dendy Opera Quays from August 17 to 26, Melbourne's Australian Centre for the Moving Image from September 7 to 14, and Brisbane's Event Cinemas Myer Centre from September 8 to 10. For further details, check out the festival website.
A number of prominent Australian musicians, including Little May, Montaigne, Ngaiire and Abbe May, are uniting through social media in order to throw their support behind International Breast Cancer Awareness month. The I Touch Myself Project was inspired by the 1990 hit song by Australian rock band Divinyls, whose lead singer Chrissy Amphlett died from breast cancer in 2013. The campaign was originally launched by the Cancer Council in 2014, with the likes of Megan Washington, Sarah Blasko and Olivia Newton John collaborating on a music video to encourage women to check themselves for the disease. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeaO2BrrIf8 Now the campaign has been resurrected by a new group of female artists, who have taken to Instagram to share photos of themselves holding their breasts in their hands and encouraging other women to do the same, using the hashtag #itouchmyselfproject. "Every year, hundreds and thousands of women die from treatable breast cancer, simply because they are diagnosed too late," posted the members of Little May. "In memory of the late legend, Chrissy Amphlett, we have joined friends @ngaiire @actualmontaigne @katysteele @abbemayzing to touch ourselves as she had asked." Every year, hundreds and thousands of women die from treatable breast cancer, simply because they are diagnosed too late. In memory of the late legend, Chrissy Amphlett, we have joined friends @ngaiire @actualmontaigne @katysteele @abbemayzing to touch ourselves as she had asked. The Divinyls 'I Touch Myself' is now an anthem for the early detection of breast cancer. For International Breast Cancer Awareness month take a picture of your own hand bra, and tag 5 of your friends to do the same.. @becsandridge @catalish @ella_hooper @lexi_b__ @jessicahamiltn #myhandbra #itouchmyselfproject @itouchmyselfproject A photo posted by Little May (@littlemaymusic) on Oct 3, 2016 at 8:54pm PDT Every year, hundreds of women die from treatable breast cancer, simply because they are diagnosed too late. @actualmontaigne @abbemayzing @katysteele , @littlemaymusic and I have stepped out in our hand bras in honour of the late Chrissy Amphlett who wanted her song 'I Touch Myself' to be an anthem for spreading the awareness of touching ourselves for early detection. Spread the word this Breast Cancer Awareness Month by taking a pic of your own hand bra and tagging 5 of your friends to do the same. Will you touch yourself @beemcsee @haileycramer @julianedisisto @summerpagaspas @mamikoyo @vassi_lena ? #myhandbra #itouchmyselfproject #ngaiire A photo posted by N G A I I R E (@ngaiire) on Oct 3, 2016 at 7:07pm PDT Chrissy Amphlett did a wonderful thing before the world lost her to breast cancer, and that was to make sure she was doing the most she could to avail women of a similar fate. I am proud to be a part of the #itouchmyselfproject and to raise awareness of breast cancer alongside a plethora of other excellent women and @berleiaus. I touch myself for breast cancer awareness. Will you? Photographed by the amazing Tony Mott! A photo posted by Montaigne (@actualmontaigne) on Oct 4, 2016 at 2:08am PDT Every year, hundreds and thousands of women die from treatable breast cancer, simply because they are diagnosed too late. In memory of the late legend, Chrissy Amphlett, I am humbled to join friends @ngaiire @actualmontaigne @littlemaymusic @abbemayzing to touch ourselves as she had asked. The Divinyls 'I Touch Myself' is now an anthem for the early detection of breast cancer. For International Breast Cancer Awareness month take a picture of your own hand bra, and tag 5 of your friends to do the same.. @tanzertanzertanzer @leelulahula @sezzyfilmy @wheelsanddollbaby @jaala_bandthing Photo by #tonymott @itouchmyselfproject #itouchmyself #myhandbra A photo posted by Kａt y S t e e l e (@katysteele) on Oct 4, 2016 at 3:02am PDT Every year, hundreds of women die from treatable breast cancer, simply because they are diagnosed too late. The great @ngaiire, @actualmontaigne, @katysteele , @littlemaymusic and I have stepped out in our hand bras in honour of the late Chrissy Amphlett who wanted her song 'I Touch Myself' to be an anthem for spreading the awareness of touching ourselves for early detection. Spread the word this Breast Cancer Awareness Month by taking a pic of your own hand bra and tagging 5 of your friends to do the same. #itouchmyselfproject #myhandbra Photo taken by the radical Tony Mott. A photo posted by Abbe May (@abbemayzing) on Oct 3, 2016 at 7:10pm PDT
You may have heard that Chinese artist and political commentator Ai Weiwei's work will be hitting Australia for the huge blockbuster summer exhibition Andy Warhol Ai Weiwei at the National Gallery of Victoria in December. But in a bizarre twist, the artist's work and freedom of speech is being threatened by none other than Lego, the Danish toy company that has brought delight to kids dads everywhere for generations. In a move that shocks nobody who’s ever stood barefoot on a tiny plastic brick, Lego have revealed themselves to be pretty damned villainous. Weiwei announced via Instagram on Saturday that Lego refused his studio’s order for bulk bricks on the grounds that Lego “cannot approve the use of Legos for political works”. The order was going to be used to build a room-sized installation of portraits of Australian activists who fight for human rights and free speech. Weiwei sardonically adds that Britain is opening a Legoland in Shanghai as a direct result of the special political relationship between the UK and China, which most definitely falls under the category of 'political works'. In September Lego refused Ai Weiwei Studio's request for a bulk order of Legos to create artwork to be shown at the National Gallery of Victoria as "they cannot approve the use of Legos for political works." On Oct 21, a British firm formally announced that it will open a new Legoland in Shanghai as one of the many deals of the U.K.-China "Golden Era." A photo posted by Ai Weiwei (@aiww) on Oct 23, 2015 at 6:04am PDT As expected, the resultant internet furore has been A+. One plucky Twitter user @dgatterdam astutely reused an Ai Weiwei quote “Everything is art. Everything is politics.” to generate debate while others proceeded to give in to their baser instincts and gave the (in some cases literal) middle finger to Lego. @aiww Uh oh, no one tell @LEGO_Group I used my Legos to make a political statement! #legosforweiwei pic.twitter.com/euOyW86xrP — Mila Johns (@milaficent) October 25, 2015 Both approaches worked in spreading the word however and it wasn’t long before the good people of the internet were offering up their own Legos for Weiwei's use instead. Weiwei made a statement yesterday that his studio will be collecting donated Lego in different cities to create the exhibition anyway (suck it, Lego, may you walk on a sea of thousands of your jagged blocks for eternity). He also said that he would be changing his exhibition piece to reflect the events and defend (more fervently) the tenants of free speech. In September 2015 Lego refused to sell Ai Weiwei Studio a bulk order of Lego bricks for Ai's artworks to be exhibited at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne on the basis of the works' "political" nature. Ai posted this notice on his Instagram on Friday, October 23rd. Lego's position triggered a torrent of outrage on social media against this assault on creativity and freedom of expression. Numerous supporters offered to donate Lego to Ai. In response to Lego's refusal and the overwhelming public response, Ai Weiwei has now decided to make a new work to defend freedom of speech and "political art". Ai Weiwei Studio will announce the project description and Lego collection points in different cities. This is the first phase of the coming projects. A photo posted by Ai Weiwei (@aiww) on Oct 25, 2015 at 10:37am PDT So how can you stick it to Lego and send your own blocks to the cause? We expect the Weiwei studio to announce collection points in the coming weeks and we’ll keep you updated. In the meantime, follow Weiwei's tweets, check the studio website and collect up all your old Lego pieces because soon enough they’ll be going down in history. Via New York Times/NPR. UPDATE OCTOBER 28, 2015: National Gallery of Victoria has been announced as the first international Lego collection point for the Ai Weiwei project. The artist today confirmed that the NGV will become the first Lego collection spot outside of Beijing. From Thursday, October 29, a car will be placed in the NGV sculpture garden in Melbourne as a repository for the Lego blocks. Donors are encouraged to bring in their Lego blocks and drop them through the sunroof of the vehicle.
Watching cat videos online is about to get a whole lot more intense, with Google revealing plans to enable virtual reality content on YouTube. The announcement, made at the Google I/O 2015 developer conference, is one of a slew of new innovations the global tech giant has in the works, as it slowly furthers its plan for total world domination. Your move, Bing. According to the announcement made in San Francisco overnight, YouTube will be able to host specially-created, immersive VR videos as early as this July, viewable through any virtual reality headset including Google’s own budget option, Google Cardboard. In order to ensure there’s plenty of VR content to choose from, Google will supply select YouTube partners with its new 360° Jump camera rig, developed in partnership with GoPro. The extreme sports-friendly camera company has actually been developing and selling multi-directional camera rigs for some time now, and recently acquired a company that specialises in panoramic video software — so the partnership certainly makes sense. Check out GoPro's VR demo video posted yesterday. Use the top left directional buttons to peruse: As they did with Google Cardboard, Google will be making the blueprints for the Jump rig public, meaning that anyone can theoretically build one. The rig will be compatible with consumer grade cameras, although you’ll need 16 of them to get the full effect. Google also announced upgrades to its cardboard VR headset, which can now be assembled in just three steps and fits phones up to six inches in size. The low-tech hardware, which offers an inexpensive alternative to the likes of Oculus Rift, has already racked up more than one million users since debuting at I/O last year. Between Google Cardboard and the new Jump platform, Google is clearly trying to push VR content into the mainstream. Next up: hoverboards! (Fingers crossed.) Via Gizmodo. Images: Google.
In January next year Noma will open in Sydney for ten weeks. For that time it will likely be the only restaurant in Sydney entirely inspired by Australia’s native ingredients, landscape and climate. When he was here in 2010, Noma’s visionary chef Rene Redzepi said this: "I think this is the essence of great cuisine. I think that in any city they should have all the ethnic and multicultural cuisines, but I think that it's a poor culture if it doesn't have its own true, unique expression that can only be represented right there at the place." He was making a comparison between the restaurant food he’d eaten in Sydney and Melbourne and the indigenous feast he'd had in the Flinders Ranges. Redzepi was surprised that, given the incredible variety of native produce we have, no one outside of indigenous communities (and a tiny pocket of restaurants) were using them. A lot has changed since then. "After listening to Rene Redzepi's keynote address at the Sydney Opera House, I was completely inspired and left that night on a mission to track down Australian native produce which I could weave into my Cantonese cooking," says Kylie Kwong, owner and head-chef at Billy Kwong — the only restaurant in the world making traditional Cantonese food with Australian ingredients. At the moment, their latest menu includes wallaby cakes with Kakadu plum, crispy saltbush parcels and stir-fried spanner crab with a trio of native greens. Elsewhere, Adelaide's Orana has a dish of emu, plum pine and mountain pepper, while at Attica in Melbourne you'll find salted red kangaroo with pepperberries and bunya bunya, a starchy Queensland nut roughly comparable to a chestnut. With the exception of the above restaurants and a handful of others though, the use of native ingredients is rarely more than an occasional flourish — a few wattle seeds here and there, a lemon myrtle infusion or maybe a sight of warrigal greens. Finding a native vegetable, fruit or meat is an extreme rarity. You get the impression that Australia's portfolio of native ingredients is simply a short list of easily substitutable herbs and greens. [caption id="attachment_552283" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Billy Kwong[/caption] REVOLUTIONISING OUR RELATIONSHIP WITH NATIVE FOODS John Newton's been researching native ingredients for his book The Oldest Foods on Earth. The history of native Australian food, with recipes. Australia has around 6000 unique edible plants and, in South East Queensland alone, there are more than 1500 different fruiting trees, he says. "We have the most fantastic native game birds. I've tasted the magpie goose — I love duck, and it's ten times better than duck. There's the bustard, there's scrub turkey, which tastes like pheasant. Beautiful." Even if only a tenth of our native ingredients tasted any good, it would be more than enough to completely revolutionise a green grocer’s shelves or an entire restaurant menu. But that particular revolution will have to wait, as there's not nearly enough farms or even knowledge of how to farm the vast majority of those ingredients. A lot of that information was lost after Europeans first arrived and started terraforming Australia for the production of beef, wheat and wool. [caption id="attachment_552284" align="alignnone" width="960"] Quay[/caption] FARMING NATIVE FOODS Picture this: you're an enterprising land owner who wants to start a farm. Given the resources and knowledge out there, you're more likely to start growing blueberries, cabbage or some common vegetable, rather than spend several years fiddling with native ingredients that have little to no backlog of info on how to actually cultivate or propagate them. Well, this has been the life of Mike and Gayle Quarmby. The owners of native food farming and distribution initiative Outback Pride have dedicated the best part of two decades to figuring out how to grow various native ingredients on a commercial scale. "We've done an enormous amount of research, development and horticultural work to actually domesticate these native food plants to get them to perform in a sustainable way," says Mike Quarmby. When they started, the majority of native produce farming consisted of simple wild harvesting, now their business is the biggest general supplier in the native food industry. Their clients include some of Australia's most innovative restaurants, chefs and grocers — and in January they'll be supplying almost their entire range of 65 ingredients to Noma Australia. [caption id="attachment_552289" align="alignnone" width="960"] Scallops with beach succulents at Orana.[/caption] SO, WHY THE STIGMA? It’s been a tough slog for the Quarmbys to get here. Aside from their trials in horticultural adventure, Quarmby says the duo has had to battle against an entrenched negativity against indigenous produce. "Australians have an inferiority complex about everything and anything related to food. ‘If it comes from overseas it must be good’. That has had a major effect,” he says. When we talked to John Newton about this, he mentioned the experience of three of Australia's early native produce pioneers: Jean-Paul Bruneteau and his restaurant Rowntrees, and Jennice and Raymond Kersh with Edna's Table. Interestingly, this first wave of restaurateurs made a big noise about using Australian native ingredients. Newton, who was working as a food critic in the '80s when the restaurants were operating, says the restauranteurs regularly faced criticism from customers solely due to the fact that they sold indigenous ingredients. "I don't know why. You could explore that in terms of racism all that you like," he says. But Newton says the worst thing to happen to the industry was a TV show called Bush Tucker Man. "Every time he puts something in his mouth he screws up. He hated it." Quarmby gave a similar review: "All due respects to Les Hidden, but he gave the impression that you only ate bush tucker if you were starving, and it tasted like shit." Quarmby says Redzepi has proven so influential because, as a Dane, he didn't come to Australia attached to any cultural prejudice or inferiority complex around Australian ingredients and the idea of a national cuisine. And now, despite a rough past, both Quarmby and his competitors in the native food industry are witnessing rapid growth. "We can't believe the number of new restaurants — we have nine exclusive distributors around Australia and our phone is running hot. They're saying things like 'this is the easiest thing we've sold all our lives'." WHERE TO EAT NATIVE INGREDIENTS Orana 1/285 Rundle Street, Adelaide, South Australia Attica 74 Glen Eira Road, Ripponlea, Victoria Vue de Monde 55, Rialto Towers, 525 Collins Street, Melbourne, Victoria Billy Kwong 1/28 Macleay Street, Elizabeth Bay, NSW Quay Upper Level, Overseas Passenger Terminal, George & Argyle Streets, The Rocks, NSW Bennelong Sydney Opera House, Bennelong Point, Sydney, NSW Top image: Salt cured red kangaroo with bunya bunya at Attica.
When news broke last month that Dominos had invented a $30,000 delivery robot, we thought we'd reached the apex of pizza-related technology. Turns out we couldn't have been more wrong. In a development that threatens to shatter the very fabric of existence, a pizzeria in Williamsburg, Brooklyn has invented...a pizza box. No, not a pizza box. A pizza box. A pizza box. Made from pizza. Behold. Introducing The PIZZA BOX PIZZA! A pizza box made entirely out of pizza! No waste, 100% pizza and 100% delicious. pic.twitter.com/2KxxndlK4Z — Vinnie's Pizzeria (@vinniesbrooklyn) April 27, 2016 Rendering all other modes of food transport and storage obsolete, this glorious edible container is the brainchild of Vinnie's Pizzeria owner Sean Berthiaume, who might actually be Thomas Edison reincarnated as a guy who really, really likes pizza. Having previously caught our attention after photos of his pizza with pizza topping went viral online, Berthiaume came up with this new creation while trying to think of ways to reduce waste. "I thought 'what if you can make something that you can eat every part of,'" he told NBC 4 New York. The pizzeria is still working out the finer points of delivery – for the time being, anyone who orders one will have it delivered to them wrapped in foil. A pizza delivered in a pizza box will run New Yorkers up a bill of around $40. Unfortunately we suspect that even if they did deliver internationally, both the box and its contents might go a bit stale in the time it takes to get to Australia. Via NBC. Header image via Dollar Photo Club.
Usually, when a new year hits and Hollywood starts handing out shiny trophies for the best movies and television programs of the past 12 months, audiences are asked to get watching not once but twice. First, there's all of the ceremonies — and then there's the must-view list that springs from those newly anointed winners. The initial cab off the rank each year, the Golden Globes, did their thing for 2022 on Monday, January 10. This isn't a normal event for these accolades, however. After multiple controversies surrounding the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, the organisation behind the awards, the Globes weren't given out at a star-studded event. Plenty of films and TV shows still emerged victorious, though. Yes, even without sitting through the three-hour-plus televised ceremony, you still have a whole heap of freshly minted Globe-recipients to see — and you can watch most of them right now. Whether you're keen to hit the big screen to catch a filmic gem, stream a stellar flick or binge your way through an excellent series or two, here's 12 of the Globes' best winners that you can check out immediately. (And if you're wondering what else won, you can read through the full list, too.) MOVIE MUST-SEES THE POWER OF THE DOG Don't call it a comeback: Jane Campion's films have been absent from cinemas for 12 years but, due to miniseries Top of the Lake, she hasn't been biding her time in that gap. And don't call it simply returning to familiar territory, even if the New Zealand director's new movie features an ivory-tinkling woman caught between cruel and sensitive men, as her Cannes Palme d'Or-winner The Piano did three decades ago. Campion isn't rallying after a dip, just as she isn't repeating herself. She's never helmed anything less than stellar, and she's immensely capable of unearthing rich new pastures in well-ploughed terrain. With The Power of the Dog, Campion is at the height of her skills trotting into her latest mesmerising musing on strength, desire and isolation — this time via a venomous western that's as perilously bewitching as its mountainous backdrop. That setting is Montana, circa 1925. Campion's homeland stands in for America nearly a century ago, making a magnificent sight — with cinematographer Ari Wegner (Zola, True History of the Kelly Gang) perceptively spying danger in its craggy peaks and dusty plains even before the film introduces Rose and Peter Gordon (On Becoming a God in Central Florida's Kirsten Dunst and 2067's Kodi Smit-McPhee). When the widowed innkeeper and her teenage son serve rancher brothers Phil and George Burbank (Spider-Man: No Way Home's Benedict Cumberbatch a career-best, awards-worthy, downright phenomenal turn, plus Antlers' Jesse Plemons) during a cattle-run stop, the encounter seesaws from callousness to kindness, a dynamic that continues after Rose marries George and decamps to the Burbank mansion against that stunning backdrop. Brutal to the lanky, lisping Peter from the outset, Phil responds to the nuptials with malice. He isn't fond of change, and won't accommodate anything that fails his bristling definition of masculinity and power, either. GLOBES Won: Best Motion Picture — Drama, Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture (Kodi Smit-McPhee), Best Director (Jane Campion) Nominated: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Drama (Benedict Cumberbatch), Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture (Kirsten Dunst) The Power of the Dog is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review. WEST SIDE STORY Tonight, tonight, there's only Steven Spielberg's lavish and dynamic version of West Side Story tonight — not to detract from or forget the 1961 movie of the same name. Six decades ago, an all-singing, all-dancing, New York City-set, gang war-focused spin on Romeo and Juliet leapt from stage to screen, becoming one of cinema's all-time classic musicals; however, remaking that hit is a task that Spielberg dazzlingly proves up to. It's his first sashay into the genre, despite making his initial amateur feature just three years after the original West Side Story debuted. It's also his first film since 2018's obnoxiously awful Ready Player One, which doubled as a how-to guide to crafting one of the worst, flimsiest and most bloated pieces of soulless pop-culture worship possible. But with this swooning, socially aware story of star-crossed lovers, Spielberg pirouettes back from his atrocious last flick by embracing something he clearly adores, and being unafraid to give it rhythmic swirls and thematic twirls. Shakespeare's own tale of tempestuous romance still looms large over West Side Story, as it always has — in fair NYC and its rubble-strewn titular neighbourhood where it lays its 1950s-era scene. The Jets and the Sharks aren't quite two households both alike in dignity, though. Led by the swaggering and dogged Riff (Mike Faist, a Tony-nominee for the Broadway production of Dear Evan Hansen), the Jets are young, scrappy, angry and full of resentment for anyone they fear is encroaching on their terrain. Meanwhile, with boxer Bernardo (David Alvarez, a Tony-winner for Billy Elliot) at the helm, the Sharks have tried to establish new lives outside of their native Puerto Rico through study, jobs and their own businesses. Both gangs refuse to coexist peacefully in the only part of New York where either feels at home — but it's a night at a dance, and the love-at-first-sight connection that blooms between Riff's best friend Tony (Ansel Elgort, The Goldfinch) and Bernardo's younger sister María (feature debutant Rachel Zegler), that sparks a showdown. GLOBES Won: Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy, Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy (Rachel Zegler), Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in Any Motion Picture (Ariana DeBose) Nominated: Best Director (Steven Spielberg) West Side Story is currently screening in Australian cinemas. Read our full review. ENCANTO Five years after Lin-Manuel Miranda and Disney first teamed up on an animated musical with the catchiest of tunes, aka Moana, they're back at it again with Encanto. To viewers eager for another colourful, thoughtful and engaging film — and another that embraces a particular culture with the heartiest of hugs, and is all the better for it — what can the past decade's most influential composer and biggest entertainment behemoth say except you're welcome? Both the Hamilton mastermind and the Mouse House do what they do best here. The songs are infectious, as well as diverse in style; the storyline follows a spirited heroine challenging the status quo; and the imagery sparkles. Miranda and Disney are both in comfortable territory, in fact — formulaic, sometimes — but Encanto never feels like they're monotonously beating the same old drum. Instruments are struck, shaken and otherwise played in the film's soundtrack, of course, which resounds with energetic earworms; the salsa beats of 'We Don't Talk About Bruno' are especially irresistible, and the Miranda-penned hip hop wordplay that peppers the movie's tunes is impossible to mentally let go. Spanning pop, ballads and more, all those songs help tell the tale of the Madrigals, a close-knit Colombian family who've turned generational trauma into magic. This is still an all-ages-friendly Disney flick, so there are limits to how dark it's willing to get; however, that Encanto fills its frames with a joyous celebration of Latin America and simultaneously recognises its setting's history of conflict is hugely significant. It also marks Walt Disney Animation Studios' 60th feature — dating back to 1937's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs — but its cultural specificity (depictions of Indigenous, Afro Latino and Colombian characters of other ethnicities included) is its bigger achievement. GLOBES Won: Best Motion Picture — Animated Nominated: Best Original Score — Motion Picture, Best Original Song — Motion Picture Encanto is currently screening in Australian cinemas, and is also available to stream via Disney+. Read our full review. DUNE A spice-war space opera about feuding houses on far-flung planets, Dune has long been a pop-culture building block. Before Frank Herbert's 1965 novel was adapted into a wrongly reviled David Lynch-directed film — a gloriously 80s epic led by Kyle MacLachlan and laced with surreal touches — it unmistakably inspired Star Wars, and also cast a shadow over Hayao Miyazaki's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind. Game of Thrones has since taken cues from it. The Riddick franchise owes it a debt, too. The list goes on and, thanks to the new version bringing its sandy deserts to cinemas, will only keep growing. As he did with Blade Runner 2049, writer/director Denis Villeneuve has once again grasped something already enormously influential, peered at it with astute eyes and built it anew — and created an instant sci-fi classic. This time, Villeneuve isn't asking viewers to ponder whether androids dream of electric sheep, but if humanity can ever overcome one of our worst urges and all that it brings. With an exceptional cast that spans Timothée Chalamet (The French Dispatch), Oscar Isaac (The Card Counter), Rebecca Ferguson (Reminiscence), Jason Momoa (Aquaman), Josh Brolin (Avengers: Endgame), Javier Bardem (Everybody Knows), Zendaya (Spider-Man: No Way Home) and more, Dune tells of birthrights, prophesied messiahs, secret sisterhood sects that underpin the galaxy and phallic-looking giant sandworms, and of the primal lust for power that's as old as time — and, in Herbert's story, echoes well into the future's future. Its unpacking of dominance and command piles on colonial oppression, authoritarianism, greed, ecological calamity and religious fervour, like it is building a sandcastle out of power's nastiest ramifications. And, amid that weightiness — plus those spectacularly shot visuals and Hans Zimmer's throbbing score — it's also a tale of a moody teen with mind-control abilities struggling with what's expected versus what's right. GLOBES Won: Best Original Score — Motion Picture Nominated: Best Motion Picture — Drama, Best Director (Denis Villeneuve) Dune is currently screening in Australian cinemas. Read our full review. NO TIME TO DIE James Bond might famously prefer his martinis shaken, not stirred, but No Time to Die doesn't quite take that advice. While the enterprising spy hasn't changed his drink order, the latest film he's in — the 25th official feature in the franchise across six decades, and the fifth and last that'll star Daniel Craig — gives its regular ingredients both a mix and a jiggle. The action is dazzlingly choreographed, a menacing criminal has an evil scheme and the world is in peril, naturally. Still, there's more weight in Craig's performance, more emotion all round, and a greater willingness to contemplate the stakes and repercussions that come with Bond's globe-trotting, bed-hopping, villain-dispensing existence. There's also an eagerness to shake up parts of the character and Bond template that rarely get a nudge. Together, even following a 19-month pandemic delay, it all makes for a satisfying blockbuster cocktail. For Craig, the actor who first gave Bond a 21st-century flavour back in 2006's Casino Royale (something Pierce Brosnan couldn't manage in 2002's Die Another Day), No Time to Die also provides a fulfilling swansong. That wasn't assured; as much as he's made the tuxedo, gadgets and espionage intrigue his own, the Knives Out and Logan Lucky actor's tenure has charted a seesawing trajectory. His first stint in the role was stellar and franchise-redefining, but 2008's Quantum of Solace made it look like a one-off. Then Skyfall triumphed spectacularly in 2012, before Spectre proved all too standard in 2015. Ups and downs have long been part of this franchise, depending on who's in the suit, who's behind the lens, the era and how far the tone skews towards comedy — but at its best, Craig's run has felt like it's building new levels rather than traipsing through the same old framework. GLOBES Won: Best Original Song — Motion Picture No Time to Die is currently screening in Australian cinemas. Read our full review. TICK, TICK... BOOM! "Try writing what you know." That's age-old advice, dispensed to many a scribe who hasn't earned the success or even the reaction they'd hoped, and it's given to aspiring theatre composer Jonathan Larson (Andrew Garfield, Under the Silver Lake) in Tick, Tick… Boom!. The real-life figure would go on to write Rent but here, in New York City in January 1990, he's working on his debut musical Superbia. It's a futuristic satire inspired by George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, and it's making him anxious about three things. Firstly, he hasn't yet come up with a pivotal second-act song that he keeps being told he needs. Next, he's staging a workshop for his debut production to gauge interest before the week is out — and this just has to be his big break. Finally, he's also turning 30 in days, and his idol Stephen Sondheim made his Broadway debut in his 20s. Tick, Tick… Boom! charts the path to those well-worn words of wisdom about drawing from the familiar, including Larson's path to the autobiographical one-man-show of the same name before Rent. And, it manages to achieve that feat while showing why such a sentiment isn't merely a cliche in this situation. That said, the key statement about mining your own experience also echoes throughout this affectionate movie musical in another unmissable way. Lin-Manuel Miranda didn't write Tick, Tick… Boom!'s screenplay; however, he does turn it into his filmmaking directorial debut — and what could be more fitting for that task from the acclaimed In the Heights and Hamilton talent than a loving ode (albeit an inescapably overexcited one) to the hard work put in by a game-changing theatre wunderkind? GLOBES Won: Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy (Andrew Garfield) Nominated: Best Motion Picture — Musical or Comedy Tick, Tick… Boom! is available to stream via Netflix. Read our full review. SMALL SCREEN BINGES SUCCESSION For fans of blistering TV shows about wealth, power, the vast chasm between the rich and everyone else, and the societal problems that fester due to such rampant inequality, 2021 has been a fantastic year. The White Lotus fit the bill, as did Squid Game, but Succession has always been in its own league. In the 'eat the rich' genre, the HBO drama sits at the top of the food chain as it chronicles the extremely lavish and influential lives of the Roy family. No series slings insults as brutally; no show channels feuding and backstabbing into such an insightful and gripping satire of the one percent, either. Finally back on our screens after a two-year gap between its second and third seasons, Succession doesn't just keep plying its astute and addictive battles and power struggles — following season two's big bombshell, it keeps diving deeper. The premise has remained the same since day one, with Logan Roy's (Brian Cox, Super Troopers 2) kids Kendall (Jeremy Strong, The Trial of the Chicago 7), Shiv (Sarah Snook, Pieces of a Woman), Roman (Kieran Culkin, No Sudden Move) and Connor (Alan Ruck, Gringo) vying to take over the family media empire. This brood's tenuous and tempestuous relationship only gets thornier with each episode, and its examination of their privileged lives — and what that bubble has done to them emotionally, psychologically and ideologically — only grows in season three. It becomes more addictive, too. There's no better show currently on TV, and no better source of witty dialogue. And there's no one turning in performances as layered as Strong, Cox, Snook, Culkin, J Smith-Cameron (Search Party), Matthew Macfadyen (The Assistant) and Nicholas Braun (Zola). GLOBES Won: Best Television Series — Drama, Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Drama (Jeremy Strong), Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Supporting Role (Sarah Snook) Nominated: Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Drama (Brian Cox), Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Supporting Role (Kieran Culkin) All three seasons of Succession are available to stream via Binge. SQUID GAME Exploring societal divides within South Korea wasn't invented by Parasite, Bong Joon-ho's excellent Oscar-winning 2019 thriller, but its success was always going to give other films and TV shows on the topic a healthy boost. Accordingly, it's easy to see thematic and narrative parallels between the acclaimed movie and Netflix's highly addictive Squid Game — the show that's become the platform's biggest show ever (yes, bigger than everything from Stranger Things to Bridgerton). Anyone who has seen even an episode knows why this nine-part series is so compulsively watchable. Its puzzle-like storyline and its unflinching savagery making quite the combination. Here, in a Battle Royale and Hunger Games-style setup, 456 competitors are selected to work their way through six seemingly easy children's games. They're all given numbers and green tracksuits, they're competing for 45.6 billion won, and it turns out that they've also all made their way to the contest after being singled out for having enormous debts. That includes series protagonist Seong Gi-hun (Lee Jung-jae, Deliver Us From Evil), a chauffeur with a gambling problem, and also a divorcé desperate to do whatever he needs to to keep his daughter in his life. But, as it probes the chasms caused by capitalism and cash — and the things the latter makes people do under the former — this program isn't just about one player. It's about survival, the status quo the world has accepted when it comes to money, and the real inequality present both in South Korea and elsewhere. Filled with electric performances, as clever as it is compelling, unsurprisingly littered with smart cliffhangers, and never afraid to get bloody and brutal, the result is a savvy, tense and taut horror-thriller that entertains instantly and also has much to say. GLOBES Won: Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Supporting Role (Oh Yeong-su) Nominated: Best Television Series — Drama, Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Drama (Lee Jung-jae) Squid Game is available to stream via Netflix. TED LASSO A sports-centric sitcom that's like a big warm hug, Ted Lasso belongs in the camp of comedies that focus on nice and caring people doing nice and caring things. Parks and Recreation is the ultimate recent example of this subgenre, as well as fellow Michael Schur-created favourite Brooklyn Nine-Nine — shows that celebrate people supporting and being there for each other, and the bonds that spring between them, to not just an entertaining but to a soul-replenishing degree. As played by Jason Sudeikis (Booksmart), the series' namesake is all positivity, all the time. A small-time US college football coach, he scored an unlikely job as manager of British soccer team AFC Richmond in the show's first season, a job that came with struggles. The ravenous media wrote him off instantly, the club was hardly doing its best, owner Rebecca (Hannah Waddingham, Sex Education) had just taken over the organisation as part of her divorce settlement, and veteran champion Roy Kent (Brett Goldstein, Uncle) and current hotshot Jamie Tartt (Phil Dunster, Judy) refused to get along. Ted's upbeat attitude does wonders, though. In Ted Lasso's also-excellent second season, however, he finds new team psychologist Dr Sharon Fieldstone (Sarah Niles, I May Destroy You) an unsettling presence. You definitely don't need to love soccer or even sport to fall for this show's ongoing charms, to adore its heartwarming determination to value banding together and looking on the bright side, and to love its depiction of both male tenderness and supportive female friendships (which is where Maleficent: Mistress of Evil's Juno Temple comes in). In fact, this is the best sitcom currently in production. GLOBES Won: Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Series — Comedy (Jason Sudeikis) Nominated: Best Television Series — Comedy, Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Supporting Role (Hannah Waddingham), Best Performance by an Actor in a Television Supporting Role (Brett Goldstein) Ted Lasso's first and second seasons are available to stream via Apple TV+. THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD Two words: Barry Jenkins. Where the Oscar-nominated Moonlight director goes, viewers should always follow. That proved the case with 2018's If Beale Street Could Talk, and it's definitely accurate regarding The Underground Railroad, the phenomenal ten-part series that features Jenkins behind the camera of each and every episode. As the name makes plain, the historical drama uses the real-life Underground Railroad — the routes and houses that helped enslaved Black Americans escape to freedom — as its basis. Here, though, drawing on the past isn't as straightforward as it initially sounds. Adapting Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize-winning novel of the same moniker, the series dives deeply into the experiences of people endeavouring to flee slavery, while also adopting magic-realism when it comes to taking a literal approach to its railroad concept. That combination couldn't work better in Jenkins' hands as he follows Cora (Thuso Mbedu, Shuga), a woman forced into servitude on a plantation overseen by Terrance Randall (Benjamin Walker, Jessica Jones). As always proves the case in the filmmaker's work, every frame is a thing of beauty, every second heaves with emotion, and every glance, stare, word and exchange is loaded with a thorough examination of race relations in America. Nothing else this affecting reached streaming queues in 2021 — but even one series like this made it a phenomenal year for audiences. GLOBES Won: Best Television Limited Series or Motion Picture Made for Television The Underground Railroad is available to stream via Amazon Prime Video. HACKS It sounds like an obvious premise, and one that countless films and TV shows have already mined in the name of laughs. In Hacks, two vastly dissimilar people are pushed together, with the resulting conflict guiding the series. Ava Daniels (Hannah Einbinder, North Hollywood) and her new boss Deborah Vance (Jean Smart, Mare of Easttown) couldn't be more different in age, experience, tastes and opinions. The former is a 25-year-old who made the move to Hollywood, has been living out her dream as a comedy writer, but found her career plummeting after a tweet crashed and burned. The latter is a legendary stand-up who hasn't stopped hitting the stage for decades, is approaching the 2500th show of her long-running Las Vegas residency and is very set in her ways. They appear to share exactly one thing in common: a love for comedy. They're an odd couple thrust together by their mutual manager Jimmy (Paul W Downs, Broad City), neither wants to be working with the other, and — to the surprise of no one, including each other — they clash again and again. There's no laugh track adding obvious chuckles to this HBO sitcom, though. Created by three of the talents behind Broad City — writer Jen Statsky; writer/director Lucia Aniello; and Downs, who does double duty in front of and behind the lens — Hacks isn't solely interested in setting two seemingly mismatched characters against each other. This is a smart and insightful series about what genuinely happens when this duo spends more and more time together, what's sparked their generational conflict and what, despite their evident differences, they actually share beyond that love of making people laugh. And, it's a frank, funny and biting assessment of being a woman in entertainment — and it's also always as canny as it is hilarious. GLOBES Won: Best Television Series — Comedy, Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Comedy (Jean Smart) Nominated: Best Performance by an Actress in a Television Series — Comedy (Hannah Einbinder) Hacks is available to stream via Stan. Read our full review. MARE OF EASTTOWN Kate Winslet doesn't make the leap to the small screen often, but when she does, it's a must-see event. 2011's Mildred Pierce was simply astonishing, a description that both Winslet and her co-star Guy Pearce also earned — alongside an Emmy each, plus three more for the HBO limited series itself. The two actors and the acclaimed US cable network all reteamed for Mare of Easttown, and it too is excellent. Set on the outskirts of Philadelphia, it follows detective Mare Sheehan. As the 25th anniversary of her high-school basketball championship arrives, and after a year of trying to solve a missing person's case linked to one of her former teammates, a new murder upends her existence. Mare's life overflows with complications anyway, with her ex-husband (David Denman, Brightburn) getting remarried, and her mother (Jean Smart, Hacks), teenage daughter (Angourie Rice, Spider-Man: Far From Home) and four-year-old grandson all under her roof. With town newcomer Richard Ryan (Pearce, The Last Vermeer), she snatches what boozy and physical solace she can. As compelling and textured as she always is, including in this year's Ammonite, Winslet turns Mare of Easttown into a commanding character study. That said, it's firmly an engrossing crime drama as well. Although yet again pondering the adult life of an ex-school sports star, The Way Back's Brad Ingelsby isn't just repeating himself by creating and writing this seven-part series, while The Leftovers and The Hunt's Craig Zobel takes to his directing gig with a probing eye. GLOBES Won: Best Performance by an Actress in a Limited Series or a Motion Picture Made for Television (Kate Winslet) Nominated: Best Television Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television Mare of Easttown is available to stream via Binge.
