Looking for an excellent wine to sip? Plenty of prizes, nods and gongs have you covered. Looking for a great bar to drink a few glasses in? That's the domain of the Wineslinger Awards — which announced its top 50 venues for 2020 back in August, and has now revealed its picks for the best four wine-sipping spots in the country. Wine lovers in Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane and Geelong, rejoice — your patch of turf is home to one of 2020's top vino venues in Australia. Only one can boast the overall winner, though, and that'd be Melbourne. This year's Wineslinger award went to the Carlton Wine Room — and that's a particularly nice win given that the venue was closed for almost seven months of the year due to COVID-19 lockdowns. In the other fields, Adelaide's Leigh Street Wine Room nabbed the 'Best New Haunt' prize. Yes, that gong is rather self-explanatory. And in the 'Maverick' category — which is awarded to a venue that pushes the limits — Brisbane's Snack Man emerged victorious for defying food-and-wine pairing combinations (including matching Chinese snacks with European vino). The three aforementioned awards were all voted on by more than 100 industry experts; think sommeliers, winemakers, hospitality tastemakers and journalists. But for vino aficionados at home, there's also the 'People's Choice' prize — and that went to Union Street Wine in Geelong, which has been serving great drops since 2014. [caption id="attachment_789256" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Carlton Wine Room[/caption] For folks looking for your next drinking spot, you now have four places to add to your must-visit list — whether they're close to home or you're making travel plans for when life gets back to normal. If you need further suggestions, the 50-venue shortlist shared the love around the country, with 15 bars in New South Wales and the Australian Capital Territory, 12 in Victoria, eight in Western Australia, and five each in South Australia, Tasmania and Queensland. The Wineslinger Awards were created in 2018 by Rory Kent, who also founded the Young Gun of Wine Awards. Where the latter prize aims to recognise stellar up-and-comers, the former is all about excellent and innovative places where vino lovers can enjoy an ace drop. Announcing this year's Wineslinger winners, Kent noted that "2020 has been the toughest year ever for Wineslingers in this country, and that's made it equally tough on cutting edge winemakers who rely on the passionate individuals and their brilliant venues to capture the imaginations of wine lovers". He continued: "we're so excited to celebrate the places and hospitality professionals serving up the best wine experiences in the country, and after months of lockdown and restrictions, getting back to supporting them in person." For further details about this year's Wineslinger Award winners, visit the awards' website. Top images: Carlton Wine Room, Snack Man, Leigh Street Wine Room, Union Street Wine.
We're about to slide speedily into summer — and if that's put you in the mood for a wardrobe shakeup, well, you're in luck. The treasure trove of vintage threads that is the Round She Goes Fashion Market is returning to Melbourne, taking over Coburg Town Hall on Sunday, October 22. This time around, the ever-popular market is treating shoppers to around 60 stalls heaving with quality pre-loved designer fashion, vintage pieces, retro accessories and handmade goodies. And as always, there'll be a whole stack of affordable items in the mix. Get your stylish self along from 10am to score covetable finds from big-name labels that usually range from Prada to Phillip Lim, and from Balenciaga to Bianca Spender. Grab yourself a bit of Gucci, score some Christian Dior, and splash out on threads from Romance Was Born, Jean Paul Gaultier, Mister Zimi or Gorman. There'll be specialty coffee and baked treats from Coffee on Cue to fuel your rummaging, too, and entry costs $4.
When it comes to watching films in the open air when the weather is warm, Melbourne isn't short on options, whether you're keen to hit up Moonlight Cinema's local program, or head to the Lido's rooftop, hit up the Classic's roof as well or enjoy Pentridge's outdoor setup. Here's another joining them from Wednesday, February 1–Saturday, March 4: Sunset Cinema, which is adding a St Kilda season to its national tour. Maybe it's the twilight glow. Perhaps it's the stars twinkling above. Or, it could be the cooling breeze, the picnic blankets and beanbags as far as the eye can see, and just seeing a movie grace a giant screen with a leafy backdrop. When the weather is warm enough, a trip to the cinema just seems to shine brighter when it's outdoors for all of these reasons and more — and that's what's on offer at the St Kilda Botanical Gardens for just over a month. Kicking off the St Kilda run is The Menu and its culinary thrills — and it pops up on the program again later in the season, too. Or, viewers can enjoy Oscar-nominees The Banshees of Inisherin and Everything Everywhere All At Once, Aussie drama Blueback and Olivia Wilde's Don't Worry Darling. It's an eclectic array of flicks, clearly. Other titles include box-office behemoth Top Gun: Maverick, the Tom Hanks-starring A Man Called Otto, adorable animation Marcel the Shell with Shoes On and M3GAN's robo-horror chaos. Or, get a blast from the past with Crazy, Stupid, Love on Valentine's Day — when else? — and see why Paul Mescal deserves his first ever Academy Award nod for Aftersun. This is Sunset Cinema's second Victorian stint this season, after hitting up Mt Martha first. BYO picnics are encouraged here, but the event is fully licensed, so alcohol can only be purchased onsite. Didn't pack enough snacks? There'll be hot food options, plus plenty of the requisite movie treats like chips, chocolates, lollies and popcorn.
Last year's inaugural Antidote, Sydney Opera House's new festival of ideas, action and change, saw an impressive lineup of LBGTQI+, Indigenous and feminist rights activists — and 20,000 balloons — fill the iconic building last year. For its second weekend-long run on September 1 and 2, the festival is bringing in a host of international heavyweights to inspire and incite positive change in this crazy messed-up world. Leading the list is investigative journalist Ronan Farrow, whose exposé on Harvey Weinstein in The New Yorker — along with The New York Times' piece — won him a Pulitzer Prize and triggered the start of last year's global #MeToo movement. He'll speak alongside WikiLeaks whistleblower, trans activist and US Senate candidate Chelsea Manning and Black Panther comic writer Ta-Nehisi Coates. These high-profile American voices will be joined by a pretty diverse list of thought-provokers, including Syrian urban planner Marwa Al-Sabouni, South African storyteller Sisonke Msimang and Liz Jackson, the founder of disability self-advocacy organisation, the Disabled List. You'll also be able to settle in for a night of queer stories with Maeve Marsden and get Benjamin Law and his mum to answer some of your most embarrassing questions. Extending its practical positioning, the festival will also feature a few workshops this time around — you'll be able to learn how to fillet a fish with Saint Peter's sustainable fishmonger Josh Niland and Kirsty Mootz will show you how to make your own organic skincare with things you find in your house. Antidote comes at a time when a lot of us are angry and anxious about what's happening in the world. Hopefully you can take away some action points — and if you don't, well, talking it out should at least prove cathartic. Antidote will take place at the Sydney Opera House on September 1–2, 2018. Tickets will go on sale at 9am on Friday, June 22 here.
There's no longer any need to save that big, lavish seafood feast for a special occasion. The folks at New Quarter are now whipping up ocean-fresh magic every weekend with their new Cajun-Vietnamese lunch banquet, Hook, Line and Drinker. On offer from 12pm Saturdays and Sundays for groups of two or more, the seafood feasts promise a gloriously messy ol' time, filled with punchy flavours like lemongrass, hot chilli, XO sauce and black pepper. Leave your light-coloured clothes safely at home so you can dig into piles of blue swimmer crab, tiger prawns and chargrilled corn, teamed with bahn tieu savoury doughnuts and rice noodles. Even dessert is sorted, with a coconut yoghurt concoction featuring puffed rice, and sweet and sour mango. Your lunch will set you back $60, but if you're thirsty, you can add on bottomless sips for an extra $50. Boozy options run to the likes of makrut lime margaritas and bloody marys by the carafe, local vino, and tap brews including Hop Nation's organic lager and the Bodriggy Cosmic Microwave.
I, along with many of my fellow Gen-Yers, am at a unique crossroads when it comes to the creation of deliberately grainy photography. I am just slightly too young to have had the childhood pleasure of making pinhole cameras (damn you disposable cameras, damn you), yet I am just old enough to watch on with dismay as every teenager with a smart phone claims the faux artistry afforded to them by Instagram. Designer Kelly Angood's new project the Pop-Up Pinhole Camera is not only a nostalgic throwback to the good ol' days of the DIY camera that Instagrammers can only emulate but still a source of basic wonder as pictures emerge from little more than a cardboard box. While making your own pinhole camera was often nothing short of a total nightmare, Angood has come up with a way of recapturing that old-timey, do-it-yourself feel but without the stress and strain of countless failed attempts: IKEA-style flat-pack kits. Yes, it's just like one of those build-your-own desk sets, except at the end you are left with a beautiful camera, named the Videre (definitely not a Hasselblad), that can take amazingly high-quality pinhole photographs. Best of all, Angood has already managed to raise over 20,000 pounds online to fund the project, and as such has promised her legions of fans that their very own pop-up pinhole camera should arrive on their doorstep by November. But don't let this stop you from donating: Head to her website if you fancy making a donation or picking up your own camera for photographic playtimes more surprising than anything on the end of an app.
It's been almost twenty years since the aliens of Independence Day came down and made a global nuisance of themselves. Fair to say a lot's happened since then, mostly to do with iPhones and TV shows about 'real housewives'. But in the world of Roland Emmerich's movie, things have advanced even further. We're talking flying cars, moon bases and even above ground monorails! Hybrid alien/earth technology has led to giant leaps forward in almost every facet of life, not to mention ushering in an unprecedented era of global peace. But then, wouldn't you know it, the aliens return, and – surprise surprise – they are pissed. Independence Day: Resurgence reunites pretty much the entire cast of the original film save for Will Smith – who has been unceremoniously killed off – while also introducing some newer, younger and more marketable faces in the form of Liam Hemsworth, Maika Monroe, Jessie Usher and Chinese superstar Angelababy. Then it does EXACTLY THE SAME THING AS LAST TIME. First, aliens invade and park a giant ship where there was clearly a no parking sign, ruining several perfectly lovely cities like London and Hong Kong in the process. Next, Earth launches a counter-attack with an impressive aerial armada, only to be completely scuttled and sent packing with our tails between our legs. Then the aliens reveal their true purpose (literally to do again what they came to do last time, exactly the same way), before Bill Pullman gets into a fighter plane and brings down the invaders with not a second to spare because – and we can't stress this point enough – 'that's what worked last time'. The result is an altogether dull blockbuster, assuming that's not an oxymoron. There's zero chemistry between any two members of the cast, while the battle scenes feel disappointingly familiar. It's also one of those frustrating films where giant plot holes are constantly pulling you out of the story, as you find yourself wanting to yell questions at the screen. These may include: "Why are we still baffled by the alien shields if we knew they had them twenty years ago?" or: "Why are we surprised by the speed of the alien ships when they've not changed since the last time?" and of course: "Why do we have countdowns on our earth-defending weapons, when all they do is give the aliens more time to blow them up?" Big, dumb and fun is an established genre in Hollywood these days, and one that's not entirely without its merits. Silly blockbusters are great for whiling away a rainy afternoon or getting you to the end of a long-haul flight. But when the 'dumb' is so overbearing that it drowns out the 'fun', and the 'big' being made 'bigger' represents the only substantive change, then you're left with a massively expensive yet spectacularly hollow sequel that quite simply fails to entertain. Rest in peace, Will Smith's character. Yours is the only one whose memory hasn't been soiled. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LbduDRH2m2M
Whether you're an architecture and design nerd, or just super nosey, Open House Bendigo will be right up your alley. More than 20 public projects, buildings and spaces within the historic city of Bendigo will open their doors to the public for one weekend. From October 22–23, locals and tourists (who can make the easy two-hour drive from Melbourne) will get to explore some of Bendigo's finest historical and contemporary buildings, some of which are often closed off to the public. A boom town during the gold rush period, Bendigo is home to a rich architectural heritage that has been met with rapid development in recent years. The Open House weekend is a chance for guests to engage with their city and discuss Bendigo's design future. Highlights include Emporium Creative Hub, a coworking and events space for local creatives; former Eaglehawk Town Hall (now operating as the Star Cinema Boutique); and La Trobe University Library Bendigo which was redesigned during Covid-19 lockdowns. As part of the special program, tours of the Garden of the Future will also run at Bendigo Botanic Gardens. Alongside the lineup of open spaces will be a series of talks, films screenings and a public workshop. Each will touch on a particular aspect of design and architecture that's important for the Bendigo community — from sustainability to social housing. For more information or to pre-book tours, head to the Open House Bendigo website. [caption id="attachment_873911" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Garden of the Future, Bendigo Botanic Gardens.[/caption] Top Image: Bendigo Town Hall.
The restaurant world is facing a bit of lockdown-induced chaos, but that sure hasn't stopped the 2020 truffle season. It has arrived with as big a bang as ever, inspiring a whole host of new, limited-edition dishes heroing this hot-ticket fungi. All across town, you can expect to find cheesy, truffle-infused toasties, handmade pasta dishes adorned with fresh truffle shavings and plenty of other indulgent truffle creations. We've helped narrow down the selection with a round-up of five truffle dishes you can sink your teeth into in Melbourne right now. Let the fun-gi begin. Under current COVID–19 restrictions in Victoria, residents of metro Melbourne and Mitchell Shire can only leave home for one of four reasons, which include getting food or other essentials. The Department of Health and Human Services has said that you must visit your closest cafe or bottle-o — no trekking across the city for a certain cup of joe — so if one of the below eateries is not in your immediate vicinity, check its delivery options. [caption id="attachment_774411" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kristoffer Paulsen[/caption] TRUFFLE TOASTIE, MAKER & MONGER Just like truffles and cheese are a match made in food heaven, so to are Prahran Market vendors Maker & Monger and Damian Pike the Mushroom Man. The pair has joined forces to create a limited-edition truffle toastie that takes the concept of hot cheese sandwich to dazzling new heights. Clocking in at $9.50 a pop, this little beauty heroes freshly shaved truffles from Manjimup in Western Australia, which are considered some of the best in the biz. These shavings of black gold are teamed with perfectly toasted Brasserie brioche, porcini mushrooms and a decadent ooze of Marcel Petite comté bechamel. Pick one up from Maker & Monger if you can — or order a range of other toasties for delivery within ten kilometres of Prahran Market. AGNOLOTTI DEL PLIN, TIPICO Over in Windsor, Italian restaurant Tipico has earned a solid reputation for its dreamy house-made pasta dishes. But for truffle fiends, there's one true star of the show and that's the signature agnolotti del plin. This menu staple features plump agnolotti pasta filled with a blend of creamy buffalo ricotta and Western Australian truffle. It's then finished with thyme and porcini mushrooms, coming in at $32 a serve, and is now available for takeaway and delivery. As an added bonus, you can get your fix all year round — the kitchen freezes a portion of its truffle haul each season to ensure this popular dish gets a run all 12 months of the year. Want to level-up your own chef game? Right now, Tipico's online store is also slinging 200-gram jars of house-made truffle butter for $15. SPINACH AND TRUFFLE ARANCINI, MISTER BIANCO Kew's Mister Bianco might have had to put its new truffle-focused cooking classes on hold, but the southern Italian restaurant is still dishing out some truffle goodness to see you through winter. It's celebrating the ingredient with a new menu addition — cheesy arancini stuffed with spinach and Buxton black truffles ($4 each). These Sicilian-style treats are available hot and ready to eat, courtesy of Mister Bianco's takeaway offering (Tuesday to Saturday). Or, you can grab a serve to heat and devour at home — either swing past and pick up from the restaurant, or order via The Italian Job delivery service to have them dropped to your door. TRUFFLE & CHEESE TOASTIE, RIPE CHEESE AT QUEEN VICTORIA MARKET For a truffle toastie that doesn't hold anything back, a visit to Ripe Cheese in the Queen Victoria Market's Dairy Hall is sure to impress. The specialty cheese store's three-cheese toastie has a cult following year-round, but now with truffle season in full swing, it's passed the spotlight on to an even more decadent sandwich sibling. The Truffle & Cheese Toastie stars buttered sourdough loaded with an oozy gruyère and fromage fondant from the folks at L'Artisan Cheese, alongside truffle-infused mascarpone and around ten grams of freshly shaved Victorian black truffle. Then, you'll find another five grams of truffle shavings piled right on top of this beauty after toasting. The$25 snack is available Friday through Sunday, though there's only 30 up for grabs each week. Nab yours by pre-ordering here. [caption id="attachment_776413" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Pete Dillon[/caption] JERUSALEM ARTICHOKE SOUP WITH TRUFFLE CREAM, ESTELLE At his Northcote wine bar and restaurant Estelle, chef Scott Pickett is championing this season's black fungi in not one, but two tasty truffle creations. Alongside a cracking truffle toastie ($15), the kitchen's whipping up a rich jerusalem artichoke soup to warm your cockles ($18). It's elevated with pieces of saltbush, a sprinkling of Jerusalem artichoke crisps and a lush dollop of black truffle cream designed to melt through the dish and take things to a whole new level. Both limited-edition items are now available delivered to your door, ready to heat, via new meal delivery platform Providoor. Top image: Maker & Monger by Kristoffer Paulsen
Parking spaces along Carlton's Lygon and Rathdowne Streets could be scrapped to make way for bike lanes, bus lanes and wider footpaths, as Melbourne City Council looks at ways to best evolve with population growth and unclog our roads. The two stretches were named as potential spots that could be transformed into 'Complete Streets', as outlined in the Council's recent Transport Strategy Refresh report. In an effort to reclaim the increasing amount of space taken up by cars, the proposal would see the two streets' current parking bays — or motor vehicle lanes, as both streets currently have two lanes going in each direction — swapped out for a mix of cycling infrastructure, bus lanes and extra footpath space, incorporating things like street art, cafe seating and planter boxes. If these changes were implemented, it could making commuting from Brunswick to the city, or to the University of Melbourne, much easier. With estimations that by 2036 the number of people commuting to Melbourne's CBD for work will rocket to 1.4 million on an average weekday, the Council has highlighted the need for some serious changes. Currently, in the City of Melbourne, a huge 460 hectares of space is dedicated to parking. The Chair of the Transport portfolio Councillor Nicolas Frances Gilley explained, "we need to optimise our city streets for people walking, cycling and taking public transport because that is how the majority of people move around and it's the most efficient way to move large numbers of people as our population grows." You can read City of Melbourne's Transport Strategy Refresh here and offer feedback via the website. Image: Visit Victoria
If seasonal change has left you in a dizzy headspin of new colours and fabrics and prints and jackets — or if, y'know, you just like some fancy new clothes now and then — you'll be pretty pleased to know that the Big Fashion Sale is coming back to Melbourne for four days this March. The name pretty much says it all. This thing is big. You'll find thousands of lush items from past collections, samples and one-offs from over 50 cult Australian and international designers, both well-known and emerging, including Kenzo, Marni, Phillip Lim, Karla Špetić, Adidas, Kowtow, Macgraw, Thursday Sunday and more. With discounts of up to 80 percent off, this is one way to up your count of designer while leaving your bank balance sitting pretty too. Prices this low tend to inspire a certain level of ruthlessness in all of us, though, so practise that grabbing reflex in advance. This is every person for themselves. The Big Fashion Sale will be open 9am–7pm Thursday, 9am–8pm Friday, 9am–6pm Saturday, and 10am–4pm Sunday.
At skate parks around the world — and on consoles in lounge rooms, too — many an hour has been spent kickflipping and ollieing because of Tony Hawk. He's the professional skateboarder who became a household name, and the man whose licensed video game series had everyone sliding and grinding just by furiously mashing buttons. And, come 2024, he's coming to Australia to chat about his career. The skater icon is taking part in a talkfest aptly called An Evening with Tony Hawk. If you've ever wondered how he landed his famous '900', becoming the first skateboarder to complete two-and-a-half mid-air revolutions — or if you just want to know why Tony Hawk's Pro Skater, its sequels and spinoffs are so damn addictive — head along to The Athenaeum in Melbourne on Monday, January 22 to find out. [caption id="attachment_924147" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Joshua Cutillo[/caption] In the chat, Hawk will discuss life, turning skating into a job, career highlights, his pop culture prominence and other topics, and maybe even his on-screen appearances in everything from the first xXx movie to Sharknado 5: Global Swarming. He'll also be joined by Birdman: Or the Unexpected Virtue of a Tony Hawk Pro Skater Cover Band. Setting the vibe through tunes from the games, their setlist includes Rage Against the Machine, Millencolin, Goldfinger and more.
Often when a musician or band announces a world tour, they start with dates in America and Europe, but leave fans Down Under waiting for local details to drop down the track. That isn't the case with Tyler, The Creator's new Chromakopia tour. Mark your diaries: as well as revealing US gigs, plus shows in a heap of European city, the hip-hop and fashion trailblazer has locked in a new trip to Australia and New Zealand. Tyler, The Creator last headed this way on a headline tour in 2022, and played Splendour in the Grass as well, and will now return in August and September 2025 on a five-city, seven-show visit that celebrates a new album also called Chromakopia. That record drops on Monday, October 28, 2024, and has unveiled its first single 'Noid' complete with a music video starring The Bear's Ayo Edebiri. [caption id="attachment_976993" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Raph_PH via Flickr[/caption] The tour details for your calendar: Auckland's Spark Arena is the first Down Under stop on Monday, August 18. After that, Tyler, The Creator is hitting up Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne for two shows across Friday, August 22–Saturday, August 23; Qudos Bank Arena in Sydney for another two gigs on Tuesday, August 26–Wednesday, August 27; Brisbane Entertainment Centre for one evening on Saturday, August 30; and RAC Arena in Perth on Thursday, September 4. On all local dates, the genre-bending rapper will have Lil Yachty and Paris Texas in support. The Chromakopia tour follows Tyler, The Creator's 2024 Coachella headlining set, on a bill that also included Lana Del Rey, Doja Cat, No Doubt and plenty more. Before 2022 — which marked Tyler's first set of headline shows down under in over eight years — the last time that the star graced Australian shores was for a series of festival appearances over New Years 2020–21, hitting up the likes of Beyond the Valley and Field Day. [caption id="attachment_823369" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Demxx via Flickr[/caption] Tyler, The Creator Chromakopia World Tour 2025 Monday, August 18 — Spark Arena, Auckland Friday, August 22–Saturday, August 23 — Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Tuesday, August 26–Wednesday, August 27 ‚ Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Saturday, August 30 — Brisbane Entertainment Centre, Brisbane Thursday, September 4 — RAC Arena, Perth [caption id="attachment_823366" align="alignnone" width="2556"] Luis 'Panch' Perez[/caption] Tyler, The Creator is touring Australia and New Zealand in August and September 2025. Ticket presales start at 10am local time in Brisbane, Melbourne, Perth and Sydney, and 12pm local time in Auckland, on Wednesday, October 30, 2024 — with general sales from 10am local time on Friday, November 1, 2024. Head to the tour website for more details. Top image: Raph_PH via Flickr.
It goes without saying, Melbourne's characteristically buzzing cultural ecosystem has thrived this year, with the city's most innovative, forward-thinking residents taking bold risks in their field. More inventive, forward-thinking and experimental than ever, Melbourne's newest restaurants have defied traditional fine dining, turning small dinner clubs into full-blown establishments, reexamining degustation formats and prolifically pedestalling barbecue. At Concrete Playground we encourage exploration and showcase innovation in our city every day, so we thought it fitting to reward those most talented whippersnappers pushing Melbourne to be a better, braver city. And so, these six new restaurants, opened in 2016, have been nominated for Best New Restaurant in Concrete Playground's Best of 2016 Awards. Vote for your favourite.
Director Hiner Saleem takes the trappings of an old-school American Western, and infuses them with a distinctively Kurdish feel, in the Cannes selected drama My Sweet Pepper Land. Set in a remote village in Iraqi-Kurdistan near the borders of both Turkey and Iran, the film offers an intriguing new spin on the time-honoured genre — one that works in parallel to its examination of life after the fall of Saddam. The stoic Korkmaz Arslan plays our protagonist, Barlan. Once a high-ranking officer in the Kurdish resistance, the liberation he helped bring about has, ironically, left him at a loss. Ill-suited to his position in the new government, and eager to leave the home of a mother who wishes to see him married, Barlan takes a position as sheriff in an isolated mountain town, in the hope that he can maintain the newly established rule of law. It's a classic set-up that wouldn't feel at all out of place in a John Ford movie. Upon arrival in town, Barlan is quick to draw the ire of the local warlord Aziz Aga (Tarik Akreyi), who wishes to continue his smuggling operations with impunity. Barlan's cautiously loyal deputy (a moustachioed Suat Usta) warns his boss against a fight he cannot win. For the fiercely principled soldier, however, retreat is not an option. Saleem, best known for the award-winning Vodka Lemon, embraces the tropes of the Western genre, fostering a pleasing familiarity in a world that is otherwise foreign. The destruction of the one bridge into town means that everyone travels by horseback, while the local saloon, from which the movie takes its name, houses a posse of villainous henchmen. But Saleem also subverts expectations, both cinematic and cultural. Actress Golshifteh Farahani plays Govend, the local schoolteacher who, like Barlan, finds herself at odds with Aziz Aga — in her case because she's a smart, independent woman who refuses to cower in the face of intimidation. Scenes shared with her 12 overprotective brothers are played as humorous, until you realise that they too expect her to fall in line with male authority. Farahani, for her part, is no stranger to patriarchal attitudes, having been barred from her native Iran after posing nude in a magazine shoot in Paris. The overcast skies and grey-green hills of rural Kurdistan are a far cry from the scorched reds and yellows of the Old West, yet the two landscapes share a similar, inhospitable beauty. The wistful echoes of Govend's steel hang — a kind of round metal drum — fit with the film's contemplative pacing, while evoking quiet feelings of hope for a land rocked by instability and violence. https://youtube.com/watch?v=MYnNsHXbO_A
Writers' festivals are getting more and more 'with it' these days. People wear shirts with hashtags on them, you're encouraged to live-tweet questions for authors on panels, and the events are no longer held at local library reading rooms, but cool back-alley warehouse spaces. The kind of place where everyone's wearing black-rimmed glasses and talking about Tao Lin. All this is old news now however, as the Emerging Writers' Festival has just announced the creation of the world's first exclusively online writers' festival to take place in February 2014. While writers' festivals once lamented the damning effects of the internet and digital technology on the written word, the Digital Writers' Festival will be a 12-day celebration of it. Digital publishing, eBooks, alt lit, fan fic, webcams and Twitterbots — the publishing industry and the nature of writing itself has transformed dramatically in even the past few years, and DWF is going to be a dedicated space in which to examine it. This also has a huge impact on accessibility. Do you live in the Northern Territory and always feel jealous when you see pictures of the Melbourne Writers' Festival? Maybe you live in Melbourne, but never felt quite cool enough to head along to the events. Perhaps you tried, but got lost looking for the event down a laneway? The DWF will be the first truly accessible festival for a vast array of people all over country, and more than that, the world. Read our Twitterview with DWF director Connor Tomas O'Brien here. Update 29 January: The full program for the Digital Writers' Festival is now up on the site.
Going into Scream VI, viewers know who the killer definitely isn't: the horror franchise's OG final girl Sidney Prescott. Neve Campbell's (The Lincoln Lawyer) character has been a pivotal part of every Ghostface-stalked flick from 1996's initial Scream through to 2022's fifth entry Scream, but famously isn't in the stab-happy saga's latest chapter due to a pay dispute. That's one big change for returning filmmakers Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett to grapple with in their second slice of the blood-splattering, scary movie-loving action. À la Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan — which gets an early nod, naturally — they also move said action to New York. But even if you take Ghostface and the murderer's targets out of Woodsboro, and shake up who the masked maniac swings a knife at, Scream is going to Scream in a screamingly familiar fashion. It has before in Ohio in Scream 2 and Hollywood in Scream 3, and the series knows it. New movie, new city, same setup, same gravelly Roger L Jackson voice, same 'Red Right Hand' needle drop, same overall formula: throw in the same winking, nodding, self-referential attitude, plus the same penchant for mentioning horror movies, their tropes and cliches, and general film theory, and that's Scream VI's easy cut. Once again, someone dons Ghostface's ghost face, of course, and uses whichever blade happens to be in the vicinity (and a shotgun) to terrorise teens and long-victimised targets. Murder Mystery's James Vanderbilt and Ready or Not's Guy Busick haven't taxed themselves with the screenplay — their second Scream effort, after the previous flick — but the franchise's pattern keeps making a comeback for a reason. While intrepid reporter Gale Weathers (Courteney Cox, Shining Vale) notes the world's current "true-crime limited series" obsession, whodunnits and murder-mysteries date back further, and that's where every Scream instalment has also carved a niche since the late, great Wes Craven and Dawson's Creek creator Kevin Williamson started things off. With Sidney happily explained away, Sam Carpenter (Melissa Barrera, In the Heights) is Ghostface's present obsession. She was last time, too, which didn't end well for some of her friends and acquaintances. A year later, she's in the Big Apple because that's where younger sister Tara (Jenna Ortega, Wednesday) goes to college, and Sam isn't keen to let her out of her sight. Horror movie fanatic Mindy Meeks-Martin (Jasmin Savoy Brown, Yellowjackets) and her twin Chad (Mason Gooding, Love, Victor) are also new-ish ex-Woodsboro kids on campus. And, when bodies start piling up, starting with the saga's obligatory and engagingly effective cold open — with Samara Weaving (Babylon) reuniting with her Ready or Not directors to follow in Drew Barrymore (Santa Clarita Diet), Jada Pinkett Smith (The Matrix Resurrections) and the like's footsteps — Scream VI's core four have another date with a psychopath. Sam, Tara, Mindy and Chad also have fresh-faced NYC company, adding to the suspect pool. Sam and Tara are bunking with sex-positive roommate Quinn Bailey (Liana Liberato, A Million Little Things), who has a police detective (Dermot Mulroney, Umma) for an overprotective father. Chad does the same with the studious Ethan Landry (Jack Champion, Avatar: The Way of Water), while Mindy is dating Anika Kayoko (Devyn Nekoda, Sneakerella). Plus, Sam is enjoying a secret fling with neighbour Danny Brackett (Josh Segarra, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law). Because they're all well and truly in a franchise — when Mindy gives her obligatory lecture about what movie conventions dictate should happen next, she expands beyond just horror films to ever-sprawling sagas — Gale hightails it to campus when murders start occurring, and Scream 4's Kirby Reed (Hayden Panettiere, Nashville) also finds reason to drop by. Sadly, when Mindy does get a-babbling about "the rules", she mentions a word that no one who saw 2022's Scream should ever want to hear again: requel. At least that term for do-overs that stick with an established timeline, bring back legacy characters, but pump in new blood to also give the original a remake doesn't then get splashed around as frenetically as Ghostface splashes gore in this followup. Scream VI doesn't get to insufferable levels of geeking out, either — that its predecessor did even for the most adoring horror-movie fans, aka the series' main audience, was an unwanted feat but a feat nonetheless — instead satirising itself by literally asking "who gives a fuck about movies?". Still, Mindy's whole speech, surveying her pals, assessing who is likely to kill or be killed, and waxing irreverent about scary film and franchise lore, shows how beholden Scream VI is to the saga's standard formula. Accordingly, don't believe Mindy when she says this isn't a requel sequel: it is. Also don't believe her when she states that old rules no longer apply: they patently do. Don't believe Mindy when she starts talking about subverting expectations as well, claiming that franchises will only keep on keeping on if they do just that. The horror genre gushes with ongoing series — some namechecked in Scream VI — that've proven the exact opposite because viewers showed up anyway, and little in this Scream entry upends the saga's basics. In fact, the big reveal is dispiritingly by-the-numbers, lacking the smart and savage commentary that helped improve the last Scream's choice of culprit in the process. Noting the wearing nature of living with trauma is a meaningful touch, but never deeply explored. The shoutout to franchise fatigue is also far more superficial than any Ghostface-caused gash. Plus, though focusing on Sam's inner turmoil has the potential to get the inevitable seventh flick to truly try something different, the callback that comes with the storyline is already clunky and played out. Scream VI is still fun enough as a slasher-comedy-slash-whodunnit; staging that slashing, plus the suspense and sleuthing around it, remains Bettinelli-Olpin and Gillett's best Scream-relevant skill. That was never in doubt after Ready or Not, and their aforementioned cold open here is entertaining, playful and expertly executed. The New York setting sparks stabbings in alleyways, subways and bodegas, all impressively and tensely shot — although Montreal makes a particularly unconvincing Big Apple. And if you're going to stick with business as usual no matter what the sassy dialogue promises, Barrera, Savoy Brown, stalwart Cox, eagerly anticipated returnee Panettiere, and especially growing scream queen (see also: X and Studio 666) Ortega and always-welcome The Other Two star Segarra, are killer company.
Windsor bar Galah is known for its elegant take on Australiana cocktails and contemporary fare. Now, the team is giving the same treatment to the humble high tea. Held across multiple sittings this Sunday, June 9, An Aussie High Tea promises to be the perfect (bottomless) boozy addition to those long weekend plans. Across two hours, you'll tuck into a sumptuous showcase of great native flavours, with bites like mini cheese toasties, crocodile croque monsieurs, house-made pâté and reimagined cucumber sandwiches. LuxBite dessert master Bernard Chu is lending his talents to the sweets menu, with a parade of reworked classics. Expect to find the likes of a Weiss Bar-inspired mango, coconut and macadamia mousse cake, an Iced Vovo dessert and even Vegemite and chocolate macarons. To match, there'll be free-flowing drinks — expect teapot serves of espresso martinis, Bloody Matildas and a Cuddle Pot & Honey Pie peach iced tea, along with spritzes, mimosas and wines. Sittings are available between noon and 8pm on the day, with two hours of high tea and unlimited drinks setting you back $70 each. Bookings are a must and if you've got a table of five or more, you'll score $60 tickets. Images: Duncan Jacobs.
Embrace the icy weather at Madame Brussels Lane, which, for the fifth year running, will transform itself into a bustling European-style night market each Friday in July. Inspired by the picturesque Christmas markets in places like Germany, Austria, Switzerland and the UK, the market will feature some of Melbourne's most decadent food vendors, serving tasty European goodies to warm your insides and satisfy your sweet tooth. Kicking off on July 6, there'll be a selection of European eats to keep you warm from 5–9pm. You can expect everything cheesy — from raclette scraped on top of potato and charcuterie to pasta straight from the cheese wheel and cheese boards— to Bavarian snacks like pretzels and sausages. There will even be gluten-free cannoli for dessert. That's in addition to the live music and entertainment, and, of course, many, many mugs of piping hot mulled wine and warm spiced rum. Short of actually taking a holiday to Europe, this is a pretty great way to finish a frosty working week.
Standing in a bar, being forced to make small talk with a stranger: we've all been there. Hearing from your parents more frequently than you have time for, despite your best intentions: many of us have experienced that as well. In Toni Erdmann, both scenarios combine in a way that might well give you nightmares. Just imagine if the person accosting you while you try to enjoy a drink turned out to be your dad in a bad wig and false teeth. At its simplest, that's the idea behind writer-director Maren Ade's 162-minute comedy, which has been garnering acclaim since it premiered at the 2016 Cannes Film Festival, and remains the favourite to win his year's Oscar for best foreign-language film. A German consultant living in Bucharest, Ines (Sandra Hüller) is irritated when her practical joke-loving, divorced and lonely father Winfried (Peter Simonischek) arrives for an unexpected visit. But that soon gives way to unbridled horror when his alter ego Toni starts following her around. Once is odd, twice is annoying, and three times… well, that's something else. Then again, one of the basic elements of life is repetition, which Toni Erdmann demonstrates disarmingly well. First, you'll cringe. Then you'll laugh. Before long, you may find yourself crying. Those are the stages audiences cycle through while watching Ade's film, and it's no accident. The mastery evident in ensuring that every detail of the movie imitates life can't be underestimated. The naturalistic camerawork and astute commentary on the importance of humour is not unlike Toni's ridiculous headpiece: it's just what's visible on the surface. With all the buzz around the film in the lead up to the Oscars, it's hardly surprising to learn that we'll soon be getting an American remake (starring Jack Nicholson and Kristen Wiig). Why the world needs an English-language version is a question Hollywood is happily ignoring, but its high-profile cast certainly have huge shoes (and wigs, and false teeth) to fill. As Toni keeps ramping up his antics and Ines keeps struggling to contain her reactions, Hüller and Simonischek prove the film's most important pieces, ensuring their characters are not just likeable, but thoroughly believable as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0uwi5EPnpA
After what has felt like an endless, unrefreshed eternity, the boycott of Carlton United Breweries and their products can finally come to an end. It was announced by the Australian Unions on Twitter this morning that the workers at the heart of the bitter feud had "won all their demands" and would be heading back to work for the brewery. A statement released by the Australian Council of Trade Unions this morning confirms that the 55 workers who were effectively sacked from the Abbotsford brewery would be returning to their jobs under "fair and decent union terms and conditions, which provide job security to the workers". BREAKING: #CUB55 just WON all their demands and will RETURN TO WORK! No matter how strong a multinational corp, we can fight them. And win. pic.twitter.com/PtRYs9cI3h — Australian Unions (@unionsaustralia) December 7, 2016 The whole debacle kicked off in June, when 55 maintenance workers were told that their contracts would be handed over to a new company, and that this new contract would include a pay cut that the workers, and the unions behind them, deemed unfair. This led to worker strikes in both Sydney and Melbourne, a national boycott by many members of the public on Carlton United products, and even attracted the ire of respected political commentators, The Simpsons Against the Liberals. Although Carlton United Breweries have publicly denied any allegations of wrongdoing, it appears that the brewing giant behind some of Australia's most treasured beers and beer ads has caved to the pressure applied by the workers, the unions and the general public. Lauded by secretary of the Australian Council of Trade Unions, Dave Oliver, as a win for the 'little guy', he's clear about leaving the past in the past — although called on the Federal Government to introduce changes to labour hire and subcontracting laws. "We hope that the unqualified success of this campaign is a clear indication to all employers that sham contracting and abuse of the labour hire system will not be tolerated," he said in a statement. "We are glad to finally be able to end the boycott on CUB products, which are once again proudly union made at Abbottsford." So, now that the system has actually worked, we can let bygones be bygones and enjoy the first guilt-free Reschs in six months.
If you're anything like us, you don't really feel like sipping on a tannic shiraz or a full-bodied cabernet sauvignon when the mercury hits above 26. And, if we're being totally honest with ourselves, we've really given the standard rosé (frosé, rosé icy poles, rosé spritz, rosé Christmas ornaments, rosé bath bombs…) a good run for its money. So, we think, maybe, it's time to branch out. This is where the orange wines, the skin-contacts, the pét-nats and the naturals step in. If you haven't had one yet, you've heard your friends talk about them. And they're perfect summer drinking — light, textured and exciting. To help you make some educated oenological decisions these holidays, we asked funky-wine aficionado Joel Amos, co-founder of DRNKS — an online wine store specialising in sustainable, organic and biodynamic wine — to give us a rundown of the top ten interesting drops to drink during the scorching summer months. To buy these wines, head to DRNKS (they're offering same-day delivery from now until Christmas in the Sydney metro), check the wineries' websites or ask your favourite local bottle-o. KIDS OF THE BLACK HOLE, OCHOTA BARRELS, ADELAIDE HILLS Ochota Barrels began as a conversation during a Mexican surf trip, now it's a name synonymous with natural wine. If you're a stranger to funky wines, this is a good place to jump in. This drop is a light skin-contact riesling, so it has a touch of orange colour but tastes fresh and zippy. For the uninitiated, skin-contact refers to white wines that are fermented with the grape skins left on for longer, which gives the wine an orange colour (usually the skins are removed before fermentation when making white wine). Amos says this wine is, "kind of like perfect perfection being made perfectly". So, perfect? SKINS, FROM SUNDAY, ORANGE "Orange wine from orange," says Amos. "It's always exciting to see interesting wines out of NSW." You'll notice that a lot of wines on this list are from SA, but NSW has been producing some interesting wines recently, too. This one is a skin-contact pinot gris — it's light, but textured, and way too easy to drink. It's also more rose-coloured than orange, but don't be tricked by its tint, we still recommend drinking it chilled. Then, taking it outdoors to a beach, park, forest or garden. RIESLING 2017, OISEAU ET RENARD, CLARE VALLEY Bird and Fox (the English translation of its name) made a similar skin-contact riesling in 2016 that was widely popular. This is the 2017 version and it doesn't disappoint. It's fresh and pretty, while still have a noticeable texture. It's also fermented in an amphora — a terracotta jar used often in Roman times — instead of barrels or stainless steel tanks. Amos says that it's, "pretty special stuff". We think you should order a bottle before it sells out. GEWURZTRAMINER, YETTI AND THE KOKONUT, BAROSSA VALLEY This wine label possibly has the best name in the business (yes, big call). It has also produced a might fine array of wines during its two years in production. A typically European grape, this gewürztraminer was grown in SA then fermented on skins. Now, you can find it in a host of restaurants and bottle shops around Australia. Amos says it's "fruit juice that can get you drunk", so we're going to recommend you drink with caution. RAINBOW JUICE, GENTLE FOLK, ADELAIDE HILLS Do you want to drink rainbow juice? We want to drink rainbow juice. We think the more rainbows in 2017 and beyond, the better. Gentle Folk is another big name in the funky-wine business, and another name that sells out quickly — so don't hesitate when buying your rainbow juice. It's made from 23 different red and white grape varieties, from around Basket and Forest Range, that spent some time fermenting in oak. Once again, Amos would like you to not be fooled by its colour — "serve it ice cold". PINOT BLANC, LUCY MARGAUX, ADELAIDE HILLS Last year's Lucy Margaux wines were pretty wild — highly textural and oft described as pond scum (which is not necessarily a bad thing with natural wine). This year they're slightly more pared back, light, fresh and really well priced. This pinot blanc is made organically (as are all the LM wines) and slightly dry and carbonated. We suggest pairing with a secluded beach. PINK, SI, MARGARET RIVER OK. We lied. We included a rosé. But it's not a typical rosé. It's a minimal-intervention cabernet sauvignon (with a touch of malbec) grown and fermented in Western Australia. Amos says, "this is really light and pretty — who knew you could have a not gross cabernet rosé?." Si knew. Now you know. And Santa won't cross you off his Christmas list if you turn it into frosé. PASH RASH, BORACHIO, ADELAIDE HILLS Luckily, this pash rash has nothing in common with the one you experienced during high school. It's a blend of pinot gris and sauvignon blanc and it's tart and easy to drink. The winemakers, Mark Warner and Alicia Basa — who can usually be found stomping grapes at another natural winery, Jauma — call it "boozy pub squash". GOOD TIMES, LATTA VINO, WESTERN VICTORIA Rounding out the lineup with a bang (literally), is this 1.5-litre bottle of pétillant-naturel. A pétillant-naturel, or pét-nat, is a sparkling wine made using the traditional méthode ancestrale — it's not a quick process to describe, but there's a full rundown here if you're interested. This juicy bottle is made using pinot gris and we highly recommend you ring in the new year with a bottle or two.
If you're anything like us, you probably use pay day to book yourself a long-overdue dentist appointment, pay your rent and buy groceries that aren't on Manager's Special — y'know, the necessary stuff. But sometimes — especially if you've just got a bonus, pay rise or your tax back — you want to treat yourself to something nice rather than practical. We're talking holidays, massages and even just nights at the cinema with friends. But don't move too fast. You've still got to make your money last until the morning of pay day when you need to scrape together a few coins for a coffee. That's why we've teamed up with Westpac to find five ways to treat yourself when that slice of financial pie comes rollin' in hot to your bank account. Not only are they all awesome experiences — but, if you're a Westpac customer, you can nab them all at sweet discount on the Westpac Rewards Hub. And, best of all, none of them include gloves and drills rummaging around in your mouth. You're worth it. BOOK YOURSELF AN OFF-GRID CABIN RedBalloon has been around for a while, but it's still one of the best go-tos for finding experience-based gifts (a gift to yourself is still a gift) that you probably wouldn't have thought of yourself. If you've been hankering for a mini getaway for a while now and think it's time to fly the coop, tune in: RedBalloon have some whopper deals. Spend a romantic night in a French cottage in the Mornington Peninsula with a partner, or head to Tilba on the south coast of NSW to an eco pod for an experience a little more off the grid. The best bit? If you book through the Westpac Rewards Hub, you get a further discount when you spend $175 or more. BUY THOSE OVERSEAS FLIGHTS It's still a little cold and summer is still a whole month away, so you're more justified than ever for impulse-booking overseas flights. How about escaping to the Philippines or Portugal? They're both on our 2019 travel bucket list. If you're still unsure, take a scroll through Expedia's last-minute options or its destinations of the week. You'll also get 10 percent off if you book through the Westpac Rewards Hub. Then you just need to book in that annual leave. SCHEDULE IN A WEEKEND MASSAGE Is your happy place smack-bang face down on a table being kneaded by someone with strong-yet-soft hands while some sleep-inducing music plays and the smell of rosewater subtly wafts around you? Then you, my friend, need to book in a massage. Think of it as a way of neutralising your body after a long week at work. Try Endota Spa — its massages range from soothing relaxation and remedial through to the two-hour couples experience, while its extensive array of facials cater to all types and include Endota's Dermalogica, Glycolic, HydroPeptide and Hydro-microdermabrasion treatments. It's sure to turn you into a greasy (in a good way) ball of bliss. Top tip: buy a gift card from the Westpac Rewards Hub to save yourself a few dollars. TREAT YOURSELF TO A NIGHT AT THE MOVIES Perhaps one of the greatest personal (and relatively affordable) pastimes is heading to the movies for an evening, whether it's seeing the latest blockbuster or checking out something obscure and Latvian. It's also the only place that popcorn for dinner is fine. You can't put a price on treating yourself to a night out but, if you don't want that price to blow out, grab some discounted movie tickets via the Westpac Rewards Hub so you can spring for the extra large popcorn. [caption id="attachment_673026" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Trent van der Jagt[/caption] BUY THOSE ITEMS IN YOUR ICONIC CART Pay day is treat day, so there's no reason it can't be buy-that-dry-clean-only-suede-onesie-you've-had-in-your-Iconic-cart-for-two-months day, too. Grab yourself some new threads to say well done on making it through another week at work without crying at your desk or spilling soy sauce on your shirt again. Or, buy yourself some new clothes because you've spilt soy sauce on all your shirts — any reason works. With free delivery and returns, and over 20,000 products, we barely even need to mention that you'll also cop ten percent off a full-price purchase through the Westpac Rewards Hub. Enjoy this splurge and plan for the next one. Open your own Westpac Choice account here.
When it comes to father figures, Darth Vader probably isn't winning any Dad of the Year awards. But that doesn't mean the iconic villain can't help take your Father's Day experience up a notch this year, thanks to an interactive encounter designed to mark the occasion. Taking over the immersive Star Wars Galactic Cafe at Melbourne Museum — running alongside Lego Star Wars: The Exhibition — I Am Your Father's Day is a chance for guests to meet and greet the Sith lord, snapping photos with the cinematic icon. Held across Saturday, September 6–Sunday, September 7, the leader of the Galactic Empire will be available for pics at 11am, 12pm, 2pm and 3pm on a first-come, first-served basis. Dress to impress and match his menace. As for the Galactic Cafe, now is the perfect chance to experience it. Designed to look like a Corellian Star Cruiser, this official Star Wars pop-up is serving food inspired by the space opera, from bright green burgers to Chewbacca cookies and dessert space stations.
One of Melbourne's original grocers is making a major comeback this week as King and Godfree is revitalised into K&G Deli and Espresso Bar. The enormous upgrade will be unveiled as the Italian grocer finally reopens this Saturday, December 8. The Carlton grocery shop dates way back to 1884, and has been under the Valmorbida family ownership since 1955 — Carlo Valmorbida is said to have introduced parmesan cheese, olive oil and pasta to the Carlton community. Now, the Valmorbida grandchildren are in charge, and they're set to reveal a fully refurbished fit-out that pays homage to the original heritage digs, but with modern twists. Designed by Melbourne architects Herbert & Mason, the fit-out combines elements of old-world Italy with a modern Melbourne espresso bar. Expect bespoke everything, from the custom-built lighting and furniture down to the handmade deli plates, by local ceramicist Ingrid Tuft. The original K&G crest has also been rebuilt by an old-fashioned terrazzo maker and inlaid at the entrance. The Roman-style delicatessen aims to be your 'one-stop shop' for everything Italian, and houses an espresso bar, deli and traditional grocer. In the espresso bar, expect house-roasted coffee by head barista Lucas Carrington (ex-All Press, London), along with Italian espresso and fair trade Guatemalan single origin. For breakfast, there are also fresh juices and smoothies, plus Italian baked goods and breakfast plates — these include the fried egg, pancetta and basil panino and scrambled eggs with cured salmon, chives and toast. During the day, there's a succinct list of pastas and cicchetti (Italian-style tapas) to choose from, as well as rotisserie meats, roasted veggies, ready-made Italian sandwiches and daily specials. The cicchetti will also be available for classic aperitivo hour from 4–7pm — think arancini, sweet and sour sardines and spinach pie, all served alongside spritzes, cocktails and Italian beers. In the deli, there are freshly baked breads, a massive assortment of local and imported cheeses, artisan salumi and DOP accredited prosciutto to look forward to. Italian smallgoods, fresh flowers and meals for takeaway round out the offering. Deciding what to buy will be the hard part, but luckily there will be plenty of tastings and demonstrations on offer, too. Opening alongside K&G Deli and Espresso Bar (or, should we say, on top of) is Johnny's Green Room. Taking its name from an old 1960s Carlton haunt, the relaxed rooftop bar has stunning views across Melbourne. Opening from noon til late, daily, Johnny's will be serving up a range of cocktails on tap — including Carlton classic the Northside, negronis and espresso martinis — as well as a slew of local and international beer and wine. You'll be able to eat up here, too. Take a seat on one of the banquettes — made from repurposed terrazzo steps — and dig in to classic Roman pasta dishes, like the cacio e pepe or rigatoni pomodoro; pork and fennel sausage rolls; and antipasto plates made with meats and cheeses from the downstairs deli. Pidapipo, also part of the building and run by Carlo's granddaughter Lisa, will be providing choc tops for dessert. While this incarnation of Johnny's Green Room won't have pool tables and gangsters, it will still have a bit of a nightclub vibe with a lineup of DJs, chosen by Hope Street Radio, taking to the decks regularly. The reopened King and Godfree has a lot going on, and a wine bar, dubbed Agostino, is set to join the party soon, too. The intimate, 50-seat wine bar — inspired by classic Italian enotecas — will open its doors late next week. The K&G Deli, Grocer and Espresso Bar and Johnny's Green Room will open on Saturday, December 8 at 293-297 Lygon Street, Carlton. Images: Josh Robenstone.
Back in 2000 and 2003, the world probably didn't need a couple of films based on Charlie's Angels, with Cameron Diaz, Drew Barrymore and Lucy Liu taking on the hit 1976–81 television series. Almost two decades later, the world doesn't really need a third Charlie's Angels movie about a private detective agency, its formidable ladies and their globe-trotting hijinks, either. But the franchise is back anyway — with a few new faces. Also called Charlie's Angels, the latest flick both revisits the franchise's familiar scenario with a fresh cast, and reportedly continues on from both the TV show and the the first two films. Star-wise, it features Kristen Stewart, Aladdin standout Naomi Scott and British up-and-comer Ella Balinska. Elsewhere, Elizabeth Banks sits in the director's chair, co-wrote the script and plays Bosley. Well, one of them — Patrick Stewart and Djimon Hounsou both pop up as Bosley, too. Like her Twilight co-star Robert Pattinson, Stewart has made some savvy film choices since farewelling the vampire romance saga, including Clouds of Sils Maria, Certain Women and Personal Shopper — and while this upbeat action flick about kick-ass ladies saving the world clearly shares little else in common with her recent dramatic roles, here's hoping it continues her good run. She certainly seems to be having plenty of fun in the two Charlie's Angels trailers so far, with the latest combining ample espionage antics with a shout-out to day drinking. Music fans can also look forward to the new movie's soundtrack, with Ariana Grande, Miley Cyrus and Lana Del Rey all collaborating on the song 'Don't Call Me Angel' — and Grande featuring on four other tracks. The film's big collaborative tune is a bit of a throwback of its own, given that 2000's Charlie's Angels also featured a killer hit, aka Destiny's Child's 'Independent Women'. Catch the latest glimpse of the new Charlie's Angels in the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VTg3YWqHuQ&feature=youtu.be Charlie's Angels releases in Australian cinemas on November 14, 2019.
After introducing its cookie pies to the world earlier this year — and serving up an OTT red velvet version, a gooey choc-hazelnut-filled one and a peanut butter and jelly variety as well — Gelato Messina is bringing the decadent dessert back yet again. This time, though, it's quite the Frankenstein's monster of a dessert. If you like fairy bread, cookie pies and Messina's gelato, prepare to get excited. Hang on, a cookie pie? Yes, it's a pie, but a pie made of cookie dough. And it serves two-to-six people — or just you. You bake it yourself, too, so you get to enjoy that oh-so-amazing smell of freshly baked cookies wafting through your kitchen. Now that you're onboard with the overall cookie pie concept, the fairy bread version really is exactly what it sounds like. That crunchy, crumbly cookie dough is filled with vanilla custard, then topped with more 100s and 1000s than you've probably seen since your childhood birthday parties. On its own, the indulgent pie will cost $20. But to sweeten the deal, the cult ice creamery has created a few bundle options, should you want some of its famed gelato atop it (vanilla is recommended for this particular pie). You can add on a 500-millilitre tub for $28, a one-litre tub for $36 or a 1.5-litre tub for $39. If you're keen to get yourself a piece of the pie, they're available to preorder from Monday, July 27 — with pick up between Friday, July 31 and Sunday, August 2 from your chosen Messina store. Once you've got the pie safely home, you just need to whack it in the oven for 25–30 minutes at 165 degrees and voila. You can preorder a Messina fairy bread cookie pie from Monday, July 27, to pick up from all NSW, Vic and Queensland Gelato Messina stores (except The Star). Melburnians are currently instructed to only visit their local cafe or shop, with Messina's Melbourne stores located in Fitzroy, Richmond, Windsor and, as a pop-up, in Brunswick East.
If you've been hit with a serious case of post-summer blues, consider Sunset Sounds your autumn saviour. Come Easter, if you're looking for an excuse to escape the city, this huge day of live music stacked with Aussie music legends will descend on Torquay. Presented by Here Comes The Sun and Empire Touring, ten artists will perform non-stop classic hits at the idyllic beachside Torquay Common on Saturday, April 8. The musical talent lineup includes ARIA Hall of Fame recipient Daryl Braithwaite, blues singer-songwriter Russell Morris, vocalist Wendy Matthews, guitarist Jack Jones, pop group The Chantoozies and rock band Matt Finish. Pre-sale tickets for Sunset Sounds go on sale at 10am local time on Thursday, March 9. Then, general public tickets will go on sale at 10am local time on Friday, March 10. Visit the Sunset Sounds Facebook page for further details. Images: supplied.
If there's ever going to be any more Indiana Jones movies following this year's Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, bringing Ke Huy Quan back as Short Round should be the number-one mission. For now, Disney — which is behind the Indy flicks — is enlisting the Everything Everywhere All At Once Oscar-winner in another of its big franchises. And, it's plunging him into more multiverse madness. When Loki finally returns for it second season this spring, Quan will join the cast as OB, who works for the Time Variance Authority. In the just-dropped full trailer for the show's long-awaited comeback, he isn't surprised when the Marvel Cinematic Universe's God of Mischief is glitching. In fact, he's on hand to help. Continuing Loki's small-screen exploits two years since the show that bears the Tom Hiddleston (The Essex Serpent)-played character's name first debuted in 2021 — when it was just the third MCU series to hit Disney+ after WandaVision and The Falcon and the Winter Soldier — this second season grapples with the aftermath of that initial batch of episodes. Cue a fight for the TVA, alongside Mobius M Mobius (Owen Wilson, Marry Me), Hunter B-15 (Wunmi Mosaku, Black Mirror) and more. Also set to pop up: Sylvie (Sophia Di Martino, The Electrical Life of Louis Wain), Judge Renslayer (Gugu Mbatha-Raw, Summerland) and Miss Minutes (Tara Strong, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3). As also seen in the trailer, Jonathon Majors (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania) makes an appearance. Calendars out: after Secret Invasion aired in June and July, Loki will start streaming via Disney+ from. Friday, October 6, making good on the "Loki will return in season two" promise. Also joining the MCU's TV ranks this year is newcomer Echo, a Hawkeye spinoff, which will arrive on Wednesday, November 29 — and enjoy a first for the MCU on streaming. Disney+ usually drops a few episodes at once for each show, then unfurls the rest weekly afterwards; however, this series about Maya Lopez (Alaqua Cox) will arrive all at once on the same day. Check out the trailer for Loki season two below: Loki season two will premiere on Disney+ on Friday, October 6. Top image: © Marvel Studios 2021. All Rights Reserved.
With the silly season nearly upon us, it is the surely time to get your Christmas alcohol order in check. And what better way to do it then at dirt cheap — with the Vinomofo pop-up shop and flash wine sale just about to hit Melbourne. Vinomofo is the leading wine retailer with the cult following. Their focus is on the excellence of wine, at even more excellent prices. This will be the first time the retailer has opened a shopfront, with the pop-up set to celebrate the culture of wine, making it simple, fun and, most importantly, more accessible to those on a smaller budget. Bottles will start at $10, including names like Yalumba, Yarra Burn and De Bortoli. The entire Vinomofo range will also be available to taste, with experts on hand all weekend to offer advice and guidance on choosing a top drop. The Vinomofo pop-up is at Lennox Street Exchange, 285 Lennox Street, Richmond on Friday 13 (9am-8pm), Saturday 14 (9am-6pm) and Sunday 15 December (9am-6pm). Cases of high quality wine will be available at up to 80 percent off, with free tastings and one on one masterclasses scheduled all weekend. With bargains like this, 'tis certainly going to be the season to be jolly.
Do we really need another movie about male mid-life malaise? The answer, obviously, is no. Still, don't discount the partially crowd-funded Anomalisa on account of its seemingly familiar storyline. Springing from the mind of Being John Malkovich, Adaptation and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind writer Charlie Kaufman, who also co-directs with stop-motion specialist Duke Johnson, this animated effort is far from commonplace. Kaufman's latest sad-sack protagonist is author Michael Stone (voiced by David Thewlis). In Cincinnati overnight to speak about his latest book at a customer service convention, he's lonely and restless, not even raising a smile when he calls home to talk to his wife and young son. Instead, he meets up with an ex-girlfriend, an interaction that unsurprisingly ends badly. Everyone he encounters seems the same, until he comes across visiting call centre worker Lisa (voiced by Jennifer Jason Leigh). She looks and sounds different to everyone else. In a sea of blandness, she stands out. As they spend an evening together, Michael realises why: Lisa is an anomaly. Yes, there's some titular trickery at work, though there's much more than that to this perceptive, precisely paced feature. Stylised touches of the classic Kaufman kind — everyone other than Michael and Lisa is stripped of their individuality because they're all voiced by actor Tom Noonan, for example — amplify an atmosphere that's both mundane and surreal. However, what shines brightest is Anomalisa's haunting understanding of the frailties and anxieties that linger inside all of us, whether we're following our usual routines, falling in love when we're not supposed to, witnessing romantic bliss turn sour, or simply stewing over our unhappy place in the world. There's something about animation that, in the right hands, can get to the heart of such existential, universal angst — and that's not just one of Kaufman's specific skills, as the astute and affecting works of Don Hertzfeldt also show. Perhaps it's a product of forcing viewers to emphasise with figures rather than actors. Perhaps it's the act of focusing on emotions over appearances. Perhaps it's the ability to splash even the strangest thoughts and feelings across the screen. Perhaps it's all of the above. Certainly, the vocal work of the mournful Thewlis, radiant Leigh and versatile Noonan deserves ample credit in Anomalisa's case, particularly given its dialogue-heavy nature (a remnant of the material's origins as a play that wasn't initially intended to make the leap to cinema). One of the movie's main pleasures stems from listening to Thewlis and Leigh talk, whether Michael and Lisa are sharing stories about their lives or awkwardly engaging in puppet sex. In fact, their fluid tones help achieve Kaufman's ultimate aim: making the audience forget they're not actually watching real people. There's nothing strained or tiring, or remotely ordinary, about that.
Falls Festival might be gearing up to celebrate a quarter-century, but it feels a bit like we're the ones getting the birthday presents instead. Helping to ring in the art and music festival's 25th year is a pretty buzzworthy gang of musical mates, headlined by Australia's own wunderkind Flume, as he returns to the Falls stage for the first time since wooing the Lorne crowds in 2012. He's joined on the bill by international names like Seattle-based Grammy nominees Fleet Foxes (who were here earlier in the year for Sydney Festival), Oxford four-piece Glass Animals (who were also just here for Laneway), Californian indie-pop darlings Foster The People and The Kooks, who'll be celebrating a milestone of their own, having clocked up ten years since their debut album. If you've had your ear to the ground, you'll already know the part about Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher dropping in for his first-ever Aussie headline shows. True to form, the Falls 2017 local lineup is equally exciting, and every bit as broad. Homegrown acts hitting the stage include the party-ready Peking Duk, Brisbane rockers Dune Rats, Melbourne natives The Smith Street Band and Total Giovanni, and indie duo Angus & Julia Stone, off the back of their soon-to-launch album Snow. And it looks like you can start limbering up those vocal chords for a gutsy rendition of 'The Horses', with the legendary Daryl Braithwaite also slated for an appearance. As always, the tunes are backed by a colourful curation of art events, performances, pop-ups, markets, wellness sessions and gourmet eats. You can, however, say goodbye to the usual drink ticket situation, which has been ditched in favour of paywave and cash-enabled bars. It's all happening over New Years at the usual spots in Tassie's Marion Bay, Lorne in Victoria, and the North Byron Parklands, with WA's 2017 Falls Festival landing itself a new home within the Fremantle Oval precinct. But here's the full lineup. FALLS FESTIVAL 2017 LINEUP Flume (no sideshows) Fleet Foxes Run The Jewels The Kooks Glass Animals (no sideshows) Peking Duk Angus & Julia Stone Foster The People Liam Gallagher Vince Staples Jungle Dune Rats The Smith Street Band D.R.A.M Daryl Braithwaite Everything Everything Allday The Jungle Giants Thundamentals Methyl Ethel Slumberjack D.d Dumbo Anna Lunoe Dz Deathrays Confidence Man Julia Jacklin Bad//dreems Cosmo's Midnight Winston Surfshirt Luca Brasi Alex Lahey Camp Cope Flint Eastwood Ecca Vandal Dave Total Giovanni + More to be announced
Melbourne is doing everything it can to retain its label as world's most liveable city, with a pair of green spaces set to spring forth in the CBD. As outlined in the City of Melbourne's 2017-18 draft budget, both Elizabeth Street and Southbank Boulevard are facing significant redevelopment, in what Lord Mayor Robert Doyle has called "a once-in-a-generation project." The draft budget allocates $11 million to a three-year $35 million project that will see an entire lane of Southbank Boulevard, along with adjoining Dodd Street, transformed into an open space featuring greenery, public art spaces, 'green' tram tracks and 1.2 kilometres of bike lanes. "The new public space planned for the front of the ABC alone would be roughly the same size as the City Square," said Doyle. "Dodds Street will be remade into a public space that can cater for everything from street performances to farmers markets and medium scale music festivals at the doorstep of the Victorian College of the Arts." "Dodds Street will be redesigned into a public space that can cater for everything from street performances to medium scale music festivals at the doorstep of the Victorian College of the Arts," he added. Meanwhile, $1.5 million will be used to revitalise the southern end of Elizabeth Street between Flinders Street and Flinders Lane. The southbound traffic lane will be closed in order to make way for new paving, lighting, street trees and drainage works that will in turn improve pedestrian access to Flinders Street Station. "Elizabeth Street is one of Melbourne's most significant civic spines but it's fallen behind and it needs an upgrade," said Doyle. "It's crucial that we make this area more pedestrian-friendly to cater for Melbourne's booming population." Updated: July 13, 2017.
The best spot in Australia for a picnic is hotly contested. Melbourne has some good ones. So do Sydney and Brisbane. Mount Buffalo, a picturesque mountain surrounded by green valleys roughly a four-hour drive from Melbourne, is now coming for the title — as long as you're not afraid of heights. The Bright Adventure Company is offering secluded picnics for thrill-seekers suspended off the cliff face of Mount Buffalo, on a platform 300 meters off the ground. For $449, you'll get a set up on the suspended ledge suitable for two people, a delicious picnic hamper and all the safety equipment and training required. Then you can relax with your partner or picnic buddy as you take in the views of the Mount Buffalo National Park. All you need to bring is warm clothes, sturdy shoes, a water bottle and a total lack of fear of heights. The experience goes for three hours with sunrise, lunch and dinner packages all available. If you have a group of four you can organise a set of two edges side-by-side so you can share the experience with your besties. Book a cliff picnic through the Bright Adventure Company. Before heading interstate, check the relevant state's COVID-19 guidelines.
If you're yet to get acquainted with the unique combination of fried chicken, sneakers and champagne that is Butter, here's your chance. The Sydney favourite is venturing south, joining forces with Melbourne's own Kong BBQ to deliver a feast of wildly tasty proportions. Descending on the Richmond restaurant on Saturday, October 26, the Fire, Fried Chicken and Champagne Party promises to hit some big flavour notes, as both chefs get down to some creative collaborating, pulling inspiration from the US, Japan and Korea. The one-off eight-dish menu is set to feature finger lickin' options like the 'Peking Cluck' bao — stuffed with crispy tenders, cucumber, pickles and condiments — and popcorn chicken bites teamed with spicy mayo. You'll also be getting stuck into treats like barbecued corn cobs slathered in miso butter, wood-grilled edamame with spiced dashi seasoning, and Butter's creamy cabbage and apple slaw. Oh, and peanut butter and jelly ice cream sandwiches for dessert. The lunch feed clocks in at $55 a head, but of course, it wouldn't be a Butter affair without some fancy bubbles to match. You'll be able to team that fried chicken with flutes of Moët for $15 a pop. Images: Steven Woodburn
Two quintessential Aussie summertime treats are coming together in delicious harmony this week — and if you're quick, you can taste-test the clever fusion for free. The gelato maestros at Messina have teamed up with celebrated wine label Brown Brothers to create a limited-edition prosecco rosé gelato. The icy-cool creation features all the vibrant watermelon and strawberry notes of Brown Brothers' signature prosecco rosé, mixed with bellini-inspired elements like blood peach and lychee cream to form a cooling, creamy gelato blend that's primed for a balmy summer's day. And, since the gelato itself has no alcohol content, it's a treat that everyone can enjoy. But like most Messina creations, this beauty is here for a good time, not a long time. If you're keen to get your mitts on the rosé gelato, you'll find complimentary scoops being handed out at Cleve Gardens in St Kilda West; only between 1–4pm this Friday, January 21.
The end of winter means warming temperatures, blooming flowers and summer inching closer. In 2023, it also means looking up. To close out August, a super blue moon will take to the sky — or a blue supermoon, if you prefer. Both terms fit, because the Earth's only natural satellite will serve up both a supermoon and a blue moon. The date to point your eyes to the heavens: Thursday, August 31. Stare upwards with your own two eyes and you'll see a noteworthy sight — but it'll actually be at its peak that morning. Heading outdoors at 11.35 AEST is recommended; however, if you train your peepers towards the sky the evening before or afterwards, you'll still be in for a glowing show. While super full moons aren't particularly rare — several usually happen each year — blue moons only happen every few years. Wondering why else you should check this one out? We've run through the details below. [caption id="attachment_769713" align="alignnone" width="1920"] NASA/Joel Kowsky[/caption] WHAT IS IT? If you're more familiar with The Mighty Boosh's take on the moon than actual lunar terms, here's what you need to know. As we all learned back in November 2016, a supermoon is a new moon or full moon that occurs when the moon reaches the closest point to Earth in its elliptical orbit, making it particularly bright. Again, they're not all that uncommon — and because the supermoon on Thursday, August 31 is a full moon (and not a new moon), it's called a super full moon. A blue moon refers to the second full moon occurring in a calendar month. Despite the name, it isn't blue in colour. Also, despite the saying, they happen more often than you might think, but still only ever few years. The next monthly blue moon after this is set to occur at the end of May in 2026. Normally, the August moon is also a sturgeon moon, too — and while that's the case in 2023 as always, that moon has already been and gone. That's what happens when there's two months in a month, with this year's sturgeon moon happening on Wednesday, August 2. The name, doesn't refer to its shape or any other physical characteristics, but to the time of year. In the northern hemisphere, August is around the time that sturgeon fish start to show up in big numbers in North America's lakes. Of course, that doesn't apply in the southern hemisphere, but the name still sticks. WHEN CAN I SEE IT? As mentioned above, the super blue moon will officially be at its peak at 11.35am AEST on Thursday, August 31, Down Under — but thankfully it will be visible from Wednesday night Australia and New Zealand time. The moon does usually appear full for a few days each month, so you should find the night sky looking a little brighter this week anyway. That 11.35am AEST time applies in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, with folks in Perth needing to look at 9.35am local time and people in Adelaide at 11.05am local time. In New Zealand, get peering at 1.35pm NZST. WHERE CAN I SEE IT? You can take a gander from your backyard or balcony, but the standard advice regarding looking at glowing sights in the sky always applies — so city-dwellers will want to get as far away from light pollution as possible to get the absolute best view. Fancy checking it out online? The Virtual Telescope Project is set to stream the view from Rome at 1.30pm AEST on Thursday, August 31, too. For more information about the super blue moon on Thursday, August 31, head to timeanddate.com.
Melburnian and Sydneysiding bartenders take their craft truly seriously. Twisting limes, straining shakers and floating on spoons in their sleep, these lovers of a good muddle are a proud, dedicated hoard. But which city owns the mad skills: the salty sea dogs of Sydney or the metropolitan marauders from Melbourne? The convolutedly titled but cleverly programmed World Class World Cocktail Week has had enough of shouting over the fence. In a momentous stately exchange, Sydney and Melbourne will front up their finest three bartenders from two celebrated cocktail bars and swap venues for two evenings of pure exhibitionist swagger. Melbourne’s Black Pearl will take over Sydney bar The Rook on Tuesday, May 13, to sprinkle a little Victorian savvy on the lobster-loving CBD bar. On Saturday, June 17, The Rook will return the visit, with bartenders Cristiano Beretta, Jason Williams and Rollo Anderson venturing south to claim the Black Pearl as their own. Both carefully crafted teams will be whipping up their own concoctions from the stores of each venue, undoubtedly provoking some smuggery at where certain bits and pieces are kept behind the bar. Throwing down every last twist and roll, the grudge match forms part of the neat libation-loving event program of WCWCW. Carnivores will be able to pair their love of meat and liquor at the Newtown Hotel for ‘Meat Meets Whiskey’ (May 6 – May 13), where you can consume Bulleit Bourbon via bone luge, as well as many other meat-inflected concoctions. Vegetarians should probably avoid like the plague. Sydney's Hinky Dinks and Melbourne's Belle's Diner will both be tempting their fair share of nostalgics with 'Pimp Your Shake'. That entails Zacapa rum-spiked milkshakes paired with heady American desserts — the Plenty a Platano is served with warm banana doughnuts and the Peanut Buttered Rum Shake with a slice of pecan pie ($22 each). There's also a nationwide #garnishoff happening on Instagram, and your dinky orange slice ain't going to cut it. To brush up on your cocktail terminology and know what you’re looking for in an Old Fashioned, have a tipple with the bartenders in your city here and here. The end of Prohibition has never tasted so good. World Class World Cocktail Week runs a series of Australia-wide events from May 6-13, curated by celebrated Sydney foodie Ms Darlinghurst. Check out the website for more information.
Melburnians will get their first taste of South Yarra's $800 million Capitol Grand development (and its star-studded food precinct) when Omnia opens its doors this week. Launching on Friday, June 7, the pop-up restaurant will be a classic European bistro with an unmistakable Aussie edge. It'll also have a team helmed by award-winning chef Stephen Nairn (whose impressive resume boasts stints at Matilda 159, Vue de Monde and New York's three Michelin-starred Eleven Madison Park) and World Class Global Bartender of the year Orlando Marzo (Lûmé). From the kitchen comes a lineup of European-inspired favourites reimagined with a focus on top local ingredients. Expect sophisticated plates like steak tartare teamed with a smoked egg yolk and gaufrette potatoes, oysters mignonette and a stuffed quail with pine mushroom and sauerkraut. Desserts come courtesy of pastry chef John Demetrios (Vue de Monde), with combinations like bitter chocolate mousse with pears and caramel, and a modern reworking of a classic Gascony-style apple pie. [caption id="attachment_716271" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Capitol Grand[/caption] A matching 150-strong wine list shines a spotlight on producers from all corners of the world. But it's perhaps Marzo's cocktail offering that steals this drinks show, with botanically focused creations nodding to the venue's light-filled Garden Bar. Settle in here for upscale snacks — such as gougères, oysters and shellfish — matched to drinks like the All Spice (a blend of banana, Champagne and citrus oil) or the aged tequila, pear and riesling-infused riff on an old fashioned. As well as being a restaurant in its own right, Omnia will also be a testing ground for the Capitol Ground's food precinct. The pop-up will be open to the public for dinner and cocktails at night from Tuesday to Saturday, while during the day the kitchen team will develop menus to be unveiled elsewhere in the precinct later in the year and in early 2020. Find Omnia at 25 Toorak Road, South Yarra, from Friday, June 7. It's open from 5.30pm Tuesday–Saturday. Images: Harvard Wang
If Vincent van Gogh can do it, and Claude Monet and his contemporaries like Renoir, Cézanne and Manet as well, then Frida Kahlo can also. We're talking about being the subject of huge, multi-sensory art exhibitions — the kind that takes an artist's work and projects it all around you so you feel like you're walking into their paintings. First came Van Gogh Alive, which has been touring the country for the last few years. On its way next is Monet & Friends Alive, launching at Melbourne's digital-only gallery The Lume at the end of October. And, after that, Frida Kahlo: Life of an Icon is heading to Sydney as part of the hefty Sydney Festival program for 2023. Frida Kahlo: Life of an Icon will make its Australian premiere in the Harbour City — and display only in the Harbour — from Wednesday, January 4, 2023. For two months, it will celebrate the Mexican painter's life and work, taking over the Cutaway at Barangaroo Reserve with holography and 360-degree projections. The aim: turning a biographical exhibition about Kahlo into an immersive showcase, and getting attendees to truly understand her art, persistence, rebellion and skills — and why she's an icon. Visitors will wander through seven spaces, and get transported into the artist's work — including via virtual reality. That VR setup will indeed let you step inside Kahlo's pieces as much as VR can, although the entire exhibition is designed to cultivate that sensation anyway, with digital versions of Kahlo's paintings expanding across every surface. The showcase hails from Spanish digital arts company Layers of Reality, alongside the Frida Kahlo Corporation, and will feature historical photographs and original films as well — and live performances of traditional Mexican music. As part of the interactive component, attendees will also be able to make their own flower crowns, and turn their own drawings into Kahlo-style artworks. And, you'll be able to immortalise the experience in souvenir photos, too.
First launched back in 2006, TarraWarra Museum of Art's Biennial returns this autumn for its 2023 edition — this time centred on the relationship between Australia and its neighbouring societies, exploring everything from celestial navigation practices to intercultural connections. Running at the stunning Yarra Valley gallery (a perennial inclusion on our guide to Healesville and the Yarra Valley) from Saturday, April 1–Sunday, July 16, TarraWarra Biennial 2023: ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili is set to showcase works by 15 contemporary artists and groups, all newly commissioned in response to this year's theme. [caption id="attachment_894739" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 'Speak the Wind', 2015–2021, Hoda Afshar. Image courtesy of the artist and Milani Gallery, Brisbane.[/caption] Taking its name from a Samoan proverb translating to 'the canoe obeys the wind', the exhibition zeroes in on the ancestral ties binding us to the lands and people of Asia and the Great Ocean. It poses complex questions about past issues, while also looking towards hopeful futures. Visitors can expect to find themselves transported to other cultures, histories and traditions, via a lineup of compelling works curated by Indigenous critical theory expert Dr Léuli Eshrāghi. You'll find pieces by Australian First Nations artists like Regina Pilawuk Wilson, Vicki West, The Unbound Collective, Sonja Carmichael and Elisa Jane Carmichael, along with others from further afield, such as Hoda Afshar, Elyas Alavi, Dr Kirsten Lyttle, Phuong Ngo and David Sequeira. [caption id="attachment_894740" align="alignnone" width="1920"] 'Tanpa Sempadan', 2023, Abdul-Rahman Abdullah. Image courtesy of the artist and Moore Contemporary.[/caption] Top image: 'Ngumpi (Home)', 2022–23, Sonja Carmichael and Elisa Jane Carmichael (Quandamooka). Image courtesy of the artists and Onespace Gallery, Brisbane. Photo by Louis Lim.
The folks at Moo Brew are launching a limited edition beer to celebrate some fairly limited edition humans. Available at select venues in Hobart for just a few days at the end of April, Moo Brew Wet Hop is the latest creation from the MONA's onsite brewery, and comes emblazoned with the image of a video store employee on the can, along with the slogan "a super rare beer for super rare people". The brewery has created just 70 kegs of the Moo Brew Wet Hop, so named because it was made within two days of the hops being harvested. Described as a "bright, hoppy and deliciously refreshing pilsner," it's expected to sell out within days of becoming available. To celebrate their latest baby, Moo Brew is hosting a launch party on the evening of April 26 at Video City, a VHS rental store in the Hobart suburb of Newtown. In addition to the store employees, other rare guests will reportedly include a fax machine repairman, a blacksmith, a chimney sweep and a full service servo attendant.
A menu of weapons of destruction, to be consumed to fill a hungry stomach, is one way to criticise violent solutions. The latest project from artist Kyle Bean called Soft Guerilla, a series of sculptures depicting weapons made out of harmless materials. Stage a war in the kitchen and attempt to replicate these deliciously evil masterpieces.
Just in time for summer, a much-loved Prahran pub has soared back into our lives following a major revamp courtesy of its new owners. It's been a long time between pints, but backstreet gem The Flying Duck Hotel is reopen once more, this time sporting a fresh look, with the crew from Rustica and Hobsons Bay Hotel in the driver's seat. You'll be happy to know the pub's famed beer garden and atrium have stuck around and are sporting a makeover of their own, ready and raring for those impending summer afternoons. That's complemented by a modern public bar, an open-plan main dining space and a private dining room seating up to 40. A fitout by local architect practice Fiona Drago has seen the 150-plus-year-old building's internal spaces completely opened up, re-energised with earthy hues, brass accents and a generous splash of olive green. Head Chef Ben Pigott (Hobsons Bay Hotel, Supernormal, Cumulus Inc) is behind the all-new gastropub offering, featuring brasserie-style fare brought to life via the kitchen's new wood grill. Wood-fired flatbread is matched with black garlic toum and smoked salmon caviar, wood-grilled Shark Bay scallops are elevated with herb butter, and smoky hose-made aioli graces a prawn po boy slider. You'll find many nods to the classic counter meal in plates like the local fish and chips, a cheeseburger and the dukkah-roasted cauliflower steak with smoked hummus. Deeper in, wood-fired barramundi is paired with warrigal greens and a seaweed butter sauce; a slow-cooked whole lamb shoulder feeds two or three people; and there's a couple of hefty grass-fed options for the steak-lovers. A stack of weekly specials runs from a weekday happy hour slinging $7 schooners and $8 wines (4–6pm), to Monday's steak night, to half-priced oysters and prosecco bumping up the mood each Thursday. Find The Flying Duck Hotel at 67 Bendigo Street, Prahran. It's open daily from 12pm–late. Images: Parker Blain
Jeff Wall, the grandaddy of modern photography, has been a trendsetter since he started taking pictures in the mid-'70s. His cinematically staged, technically impeccable style has been adopted by some of the world's most successful artists. But Wall has the diversity of any great genius. Though best-known for his incredibly staged tableaux, he also ventures into simpler, docu-verite territory with intimate portraits and more spontaneous work. This exhibition spans a career that has carried Wall through international high-art prestige to associations with musicians such as Iggy Pop. Don't miss this rare opportunity to see his breathtakingly enormous shots in the flesh, and to explore his gentler, more intimate side.
Created by French artist, designer and master of audience interaction Antonin Fourneau, this Treasury Gardens experience is one for the creatives, young and old. The enchanting Waterlight Graffiti features a wall made up of thousands of LED lights, which illuminate when touched by water and revert to darkness once dry. White Night punters of all ages are invited to experience the mystical sensation of using water to draw light — scrawl a glowing message to that special someone, or have some fun with environmentally friendly graffiti. It's said that the lights shine brighter the more water is thrown on them, so pack a poncho and some gumboots and get ready to make a big of a splash. Hot tip? Rainy nights make for some pretty spectacular Waterlight Graffiti fireworks — we suggest keeping an eye on the weather forecast. Waterlight Graffiti is open Thursday–Friday 7pm–midnight and Saturday 7pm–2am.
Cafe, designer's paradise and overall very cute space Cibi is expanding. Having spent the past decade on Keele Street in Collingwood, it has outgrown the original site — filling it to the brim with Japanese homewares and cafe customers — but it won't be moving far. Just a few hundred metres down the same street, actually. Taking up residence in a huge, 800-square-metre warehouse, which was once a garment factory, Cibi will be able to stretch out across a space four times the size of the original. Although the word "cibi" means "little one" in Japanese, little it won't be any longer. Sticking with the Japanese concept of wabi-sabi (acceptance of beauty in imperfection), the warehouse will have exposed beams, concrete and brick finishes, with owners Meg and Zenta Tanaka purposefully leaving things untouched. Previously focusing on Japanese homewares and a minimal Japanese-inspired cafe offering, Cibi will add a third notch to its belt at the new site, with the introduction of pantry staples. Using local seasonal produce, Meg will be bottling up a variety of goods in the new spacious kitchen and delivering them straight into your hands — expect pickles, sauces condiments and locally made tofu. The cafe will be expanding its cafe menu, too, with food available from breakfast through to afternoon tea. You'll also be able to try dishes for the store's recently published cookbook, Cibi: Simple Japanese-Inspired Meals to Share with Family and Friends, and its super-popular Japanese Breakfast — with grilled salmon, omelette, seasonal greens, rice and miso soup — will be now available every morning, instead of just weekends. In terms of the homewares, the brands exclusively imported by Cibi (such as Hakusan porcelain and Sori Yanagi cutlery) will be built on, with the addition of larger items — such as furniture — and more brands. And Zenta will explore one-off collaborations with local artists and designs, expanding on the popularity of the Cibi drinking glass. While you're in store, you'll be able to snag green babies for your home from The Plant Society or get a painting framed by United Measures, who'll both be taking up residency in the space. And for the future? Cooking lessons, Meg hopes, thanks to the larger kitchen, as well as other workshops and special events. Cibi will open at its new location at 31–39 Keele Street, Collingwood in early October.
Everyone has different ideas of the perfect holiday - lying on a tropical beach until you're as brown as Giorgio Armani might be your thing, or maybe you dream of walking the El Camino Del Ray. But you would be hard-pressed to find someone that doesn't have a trip to Italy on their bucket list. Who could possibly not love a land of the best pizza and ice cream you will ever eat? Italy is not just about the food though, as the folks at Mr & Mrs Smith know. Their website offers reviews of the most unique and stylish hotels from all over the world, for those who are looking for an alternative to the bland monotony of Holiday Inns. They've now created a beautiful coffee-table-worthy travel guide of Italy, including, of course, 32 of the country's coolest boutique hotels from the grand, baroque kind to the sweet and rustic and hidden coastal retreats. Also included is an insider lowdown of what to do in each destination, including restaurant recommendations, what to pack and tips like which deli sells the best prosciutto or which vineyard to visit for the most romantic day. A perfect Christmas present for someone who's been talking about doing the Italy trip for far too long. To win one of five books by Mr & Mrs Smith, make sure you are subscribed to Concrete Playground then email hello@concreteplayground.com.au (for Australia) or auckland@concreteplayground.co.nz (for New Zealand) by Wednesday 7 December, 2011 at 5pm. Winners will be notified by email soon after.
