When Westworld finally returns for its third season next month, it's time for a big farewell and a few huge hellos. Firstly, say goodbye to the futuristic show's status quo, with the series finally stepping outside of everyone's favourite android amusement park. Then, prepare to watch a heap of series newcomers — including Aaron Paul. Yes, the Breaking Bad actor is joining Westworld for its next batch of episodes. As seen in the initial trailer for the third season, his new character was promised a better world, but this dream hasn't come true so he's now searching for something real. In the just-dropped full trailer, we see him join forces with Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), who is free from the theme park's confines, well aware of what she is and undertaking a similar justice-fuelled search herself. When it comes to newcomers, Paul is joined by Vincent Cassel (Black Swan), Lena Waithe (Master of None), Scott Mescudi (How to Make it in America), John Gallagher, Jr (The Newsroom) and Tommy Flanagan (Sons of Anarchy) — with Cassel playing a mysterious figure who isn't too fond of Dolores' plans. Obviously, plenty of familiar faces are returning for the third season as well, including Jeffrey Wright, Tessa Thompson, Thandie Newton, Ed Harris and Luke Hemsworth. If you feel like you've been hanging out for new Westworld for years, that's because the show's second season aired back in 2018. If that seems like a long time between android dramas, remember that the first season of the show arrived 43 years after the Michael Crichton-directed movie that it's based on, and 40 years after the film's sequel Futureworld. If you haven't done so already, both are worth viewing while you're waiting for the TV series to return. Check out the full trailer for Westworld's third season below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDJbFA32_QY Westworld's third season will air from Monday, March 16 — screening in Australia on Foxtel.
If you're a fan of whatever huge HBO hit happens to be airing at any given time, Monday public holidays Down Under are an extra-special joy. They mean watching whichever series is currently showing at the earliest moment possible, and also not having to spend your workday avoiding spoilers. Tuning in to see Succession on Easter Monday wasn't just a normal viewing experience, however. So, if you're now wondering what happens after the award-winning show's monumental third episode in its fourth and final season, HBO has dropped a midseason trailer to tease the series' endgame. This sneak peek comes with the biggest of spoiler alerts, obviously. If you aren't up to date on Succession, you shouldn't even be reading this article. But if you're dying to know where the Roy family saga goes from here, you'll obsess over all two minutes and 13 seconds of this glimpse at the show's last-ever seven episodes. "I just didn't see it coming," says Roman (Kieran Culkin, No Sudden Move) to start off the clip. He isn't alone, although Shiv (Sarah Snook, Pieces of a Woman) is swiftly chatting about "coronation demolition derby". Trust cousin Greg (Nicholas Braun, Zola) to pop up, try to stay relevant as he always does, and stress that he's sad — yes, while also attempting to secure his position in the family. Everyone has an opinion on how to handle things, including Waystar Royco's CFO Karl (David Rasche, Swallow) and general counsel Gerri (J Smith-Cameron, Fleishman Is in Trouble) — and, of course, executive and Shiv's estranged husband Tom Wambsgans (Matthew Macfadyen, Operation Mincemeat). Plenty of stern words are spoken, complete with how "the naysayers might frame it". And the deal to sell the firm to Lukas Matsson (Alexander Skarsgård, The Northman) looks shaky. Kendall (Jeremy Strong, Armageddon Time) is floating in a body of water again, while Connor's (Alan Ruck, The Dropout) bid to become the US President sees him polling well in Alaska — and laughing at the suggestion that he should do what's right for the good of the republic. As for the rest, as always in this high-stakes drama about who'll take over business titan Logan Roy's (Brian Cox, Remember Me) multinational corporation, it's best discovered by watching. "Let the games begin!", as Kendall announces. Check out Succession season four's midseason trailer below: Succession streams via Foxtel, Binge and Foxtel On Demand in Australia and Neon in New Zealand. Check out our review of season four. Images: David Russell/Macall B Polay, HBO.
This time last week, Melbourne was enjoying the pandemic's version of normality — so much so that a new rebate scheme to entice diners to eat out in the CBD had just been announced. But a lot can change in just seven days, as Victoria's current COVID-19 cluster has shown. The state is now on day four of a seven-day lockdown, case numbers have been growing and the list of exposure sites just keeps ballooning, too. When the first cases were revealed last week, two venues were named on Monday afternoon. The list had gone up to 43 by Wednesday morning, and then hit a whopping 83 locations on Thursday. Now, on Monday, May 31, it has reached 271 locations. So if you've spent your time in lockdown binging whatever you can stream and constantly refreshing the Victorian Department of Health's rundown of exposure sites, that's perfectly understandable. Among the latest inclusions, Chadstone Shopping Centre is one of the big ones. The alert covers seven locations within the overall site over a single day including the entire centre itself — as a Tier 2 site — from 11.53am–2pm on Wednesday, May 26. If you went shopping during that window of time, you'll now need to get tested immediately and self-isolate until you receive a negative result. If you went to Bakers Delight between 12.40–12.45pm, Zimmerman between 12.50–1.30pm, Optus between 12.27–1.17pm, Breadtop between 1.03–1.37pm and Woolworths between 1.16–1.56pm, you fall into the same category. And if you were at Yokozuna from 11.55am–12.52pm, you were at a Tier 1 site, which requires getting tested immediately and self-isolating for 14 days regardless of the result. https://twitter.com/VicGovDH/status/1398903110207033347 Other recent additions to the list include the 412 and 525 PVT bus routes at various times on Wednesday, May 26 and Thursday, May 27 (all Tier 1); Target and Coles at Point Cook Shopping Centre from 3.30–5.30pm on Wednesday, May 26 (Tier 1); and various sites at Northland Shopping Centre on Saturday, May 22 (including Tier 1 for H&M between 2.30–3.50pm). Obviously, with 271 places now named, the list goes on — also spanning the likes of Dan Murphy's Brunswick East (Tier 2, from 2.30–3pm on Saturday, May 22), Brighton Beach Hotel (Tier 2, from 3.09–4.52pm on Sunday, May 23) and the La Trobe University library (Tier 1 on level one and Tier 2 elsewhere, all from 11.45am–2.30pm on Tuesday, May 25) as well. Melburnians can keep an eye on the local list of exposure sites at the Department of Health website — as usual, it will change as more sites are identified. For those looking to get tested, you can find a list of testing sites including regularly updated waiting times also on the Department of Health website. And, has remained the case throughout the pandemic, Melburnians should be looking out for coughs, fever, sore or scratchy throat, shortness of breath, or loss of smell or taste, symptoms-wise. For further details on the latest exposure sites and updated public health advice, see the Department of Health website. Top image: Google Maps.
Two years ago, Pappa Rich gave tastebuds across Australia the culinary hybrid they didn't know they were craving: a nasi lemak burger. They were originally sneakily trialled in Sydney stores in 2018, then rolled out for a limited time in 2019. Now, they're back. The burger takes the typical accompaniments in this Malaysian rice dish and sandwiches them all between two toasted burger buns. There are layers of crispy Malay fried chicken, spicy sambal, peanuts and anchovies, all topped with cucumber, lettuce and a fried egg. As a side? Expect Pappa Rich's deep-fried chicken skin, of course. You can also opt for chips if you prefer. The Malaysian hawker chain is returning the nasi lemak burger to its menu — at all of its 31 stores countrywide, but only until Sunday, May 30. If you're instantly hungry, you'll want to pop into one of Pappa Rich's outlets, which includes Chadstone, Southern Cross and QV in Melbourne.
It's only taken a few short years for the British Film Festival to become a highlight of Australia's busy festival calendar, and their first titles for their fourth year demonstrate why. Fancy seeing this year's Cannes Palme d'Or winner? Or a host of high-profile titles direct from their premieres at the Venice and Toronto film festivals? Or a restored version of the David Bowie-starring sci-fi classic The Man Who Fell to Earth? Well, they're all on the bill when the festival returns to Melbourne's Palace Cinema Como, Palace Balwyn, Palace Brighton Bay and The Astor from October 26 to November 16. Ken Loach's I, Daniel Blake — which took top honours in Cannes back in May — takes a look at the British welfare system through the filmmaker's usual social realist lens, and ranks among the most highly anticipated of the bunch. It's joined by the high-profile likes of opening night's A United Kingdom and closing night's A Monster Calls. The former tells the true tale of a Botswana prince (Selma's David Oyelowo) who caused a scandal when he married a white Englishwoman (Gone Girl's Rosamund Pike), and is also slated to open the London Film Festival. Directed by The Impossible's Juan Antonio Bayona, A Monster Calls adapts a fantasy novel about a young boy coping with his mother's terminal illness, and features Liam Neeson as the voice of the titular creature. Audiences will also get the chance to see crime-drama Trespass Against Us, which not only stars Michael Fassbender and Brendan Gleeson, but marks the film debut of the Chemical Brothers' long-term visual collaborator Adam Smith. For cinephiles looking for something completely different, rom-com fans can get their fix watching Gemma Arterton and Sam Claflin in Their Finest, from An Education helmer Lone Scherfig. And because all good film fests don't just look forward to future hits but also peer back to the greats of years gone by, this year's British Film Festival has curated a ten-movie tribute to some of the country's enduring cinematic heroes. As well as Bowie proving his out-of-this-world acting abilities, catch Gary Oldman getting his punk on in Sid and Nancy and feast on the epic action adventure that is Highlander.
Enjoying a glass of wine might come with plenty of medical benefits, but having a tipple isn't typically an exercise-heavy pastime. You sit. You drink. You get up, top up your beverage and repeat. You usually don't walk particularly far, let alone run. Then came the Grapest 5K run, a new series of wine-tasting fun runs that kicked off around Australia in 2017. Asking participants to put in the hard yards before getting some boozy rewards, it was such a hit that it's coming back for another round in 2018. How does it work? Grapest consists of two sections. First, you sprint, jog or set forth at whatever pace suits you best, making your way through scenic vineyard surroundings. Then, you walk another kilometre — yes, in addition to the first five, or ten if you're feeling extra energetic — while stopping at tasting stations along the way and sampling the good stuff. The latter part, they're calling a "wine waddle". Don't worry, if you're not up to the active stuff and you're simply keen on wandering and sipping, that's an option (although it does defeat the idea of combining fitness with throwing back drinks). 2018's events are scheduled for March 10 at Bendigo's Balgownie Estate and October 6 at Leura Park Estate in Geelong.
Ring in the New Year in serious style at Arbory Bar & Eatery by the Yarra. The riverside venue is throwing one hell of a party, complete with DJs, projection art and more than enough food to see you through to the morning. We're talking roving canapes, including chorizo corndogs and steak tartare, yakitori such as ponzu-glazed barramundi, an honest-to-God charcuterie station plus doughnuts and espresso martini sundaes for dessert. With final release tickets currently on sale for just under $240 a head, it's not exactly the cheapest NYE option — but if you've got money to throw around you could certainly do worse. And good luck finding a better spot to watch the fireworks.
Nazi. Zombies. Those two words alone were probably enough to secure the support of executive producer J.J. Abrams and have him green-light Overlord, the new horror/war flick by Australian director Julius Avery (Son of a Gun). Set on the eve of the D-Day invasion of Normandy, the film sees a small troupe of American soldiers parachute into France tasked with destroying a Nazi radar station, only for them to discover a series of sinister, zombie-crafting experiments taking place deep beneath the facility's walls. In terms of the premise, gamers will immediately recognise similarities to both the Wolfenstein and Call of Duty franchises (the latter literally had a title called WWII Nazi Zombies – The Darkest Shore). At times the film tracks so closely to these games both in style and story that you expect the Xbox logo to appear on screen instead of the Paramount one. To the film's credit, though, for every example of borrowed content or tired cliche, Overlord surprises you with nifty subversions of horror-genre tropes and delights in its consistent, sumptuous cinematography. Much of the film's success actually lies in its pacing, and it's a testament to screenwriters Billy Ray and Mark L. Smith that they're willing to be so patient with their eventual zombie reveal. Indeed, it's so long before the first encounter with the undead that the film's trailer borders on misleading and deceptive marketing. Just like the shark in Jaws, we see the monsters in Overlord only after we've seen clues to their existence and their horrific, destructive power. And when at last they do arrive, the wait is (mostly) justified. Immensely strong and grotesquely twisted with sharpened bones protruding through burnt or shredded flesh, the fiends look and feel appropriately terrifying. If there's a complaint to be made, it's that – once revealed – they're deployed far too sparingly. Intentional or not, it's the mortal Nazis and not their flesh-eating compatriots who feel the most sinister in Overlord, and since the peril in the zombie genre traditionally comes from their unstoppable swarm dimension, removing that dynamic feels like a significant misstep. Overlord's characters aren't much for groundbreaking, coming straight from the stock WWII movie playbook. On the Allied side there's wise-cracking Italian-American Tibbet (John Magaro), timid war photographer Chase (Iain De Caestecker), grizzled loner Ford (Wyatt Russell) and pure-of-heart rookie Boyce (Jovan Adepo). On the Axis side, we're given an unapologetically evil commander named Wafner (Pilou Asbaek) who, to his credit, goes all-out in the performance. Also in the mix is French actress Mathilde Ollivier as Chloe, a civilian from the nearby town who helps hide the Americans from the Nazis and whose work is probably the film's standout. Given the film spends so much time in the company of these characters, it's disappointing that it rarely evolves their personalities or digs into their back stories. Still, the performances are above average for a B-movie, and while the film sometimes feels as though it's being pulled between two very different genres, it still has enough going for it to be worth your time and your money. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=USPd0vX2sdc
Take a must-visit Paris art museum, an acclaimed Victorian gallery, an iconic French painter and one of the world's most influential architects, mix them all together, and Australia's latest huge exhibition is the end result. So is something unsurprisingly stunning: the world premiere of Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi at the NGV International in Melbourne. The National Gallery of Victoria's revolving door of blockbuster exhibitions shows no sign of slowing, with this exceptional meeting of creative minds gracing its halls from Friday, June 9–Sunday, October 8. When the temperature dips each year, the Melbourne Winter Masterpieces series kicks in — and, as created in collaboration with the Musée d'Orsay, home to the world's largest collection of Bonnard works, this ode to Bonnard and Mahdavi is the current centrepiece. On display: more than 100 pieces by the famed French artist, but seen through a fresh lens. Helping provide that new perspective is scenography by internationally renowned architect and designer Mahdavi, in a major showcase that was originally slated to debut in 2020 before the pandemic did its thing. An icon of late 19th- and early 20th-century art, and a good mate of Henri Matisse, Bonnard is known for his colourful, textural depictions of French life, offering stylised yet subtle glimpses of intimate domestic scenes, urban backdrops and natural landscapes. Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi includes a hefty collection of the artist's own paintings, drawings, photographs, prints and other decorative objects, alongside works from his contemporaries — including Édouard Vuillard, Maurice Denis, Félix Vallotton and cinematic pioneers the Lumière brothers. Attendees can expect to step through Bonnard's early artistic days in the 1890s, highlighting his focus on Parisian street life; his evolution from there, including when he started focusing on more domestic scenes as inspired by his relationship with his companion Marthe Bonnard; and his love of landscape, especially from 1910 onwards, and as influenced by his fellow pal Claude Monet. Numerous pieces are on loan from the Musée d'Orsay, as well as other museums and private collections in Europe, Australia and the USA. The NGV's own collection also includes significant works, however, including Bonnard's 1900 painting La Sieste (Siesta). Considered one of the world's most influential architects, multi-award-winning Mahdavi has been commissioned to help bring the historic pieces to life via her scenography, tasked with creating a setting that complements Bonnard's signature use of colour and light. The results aren't just spectacular — they're dreamy. Images: Installation view of Pierre Bonnard: Designed by India Mahdavi, on display from June 9–October 8, 2023 at NGV International, Melbourne. Photos: Lillie Thompson.
It's that time of the year already. When mid-January hits, everyone is back at work and the summer's holidays start to fade away, we all get a new obsession: booking their next vacation. Consider Webjet's current flight sale, filled with discounted fares to Australia's Red Centre, exactly what you need, then — and an excuse to start packing your suitcase. Until 11.59pm AEDT on Friday, January 20, the travel site is slinging one-way flights to the Northern Territory from just $19 one-way — at a discount of up to $150 off in total on some fares. Of course, that first figure is just the starting point, so you mightn't score such a cheap flight depending on which day you're planning to travel, and also where you're jetting off from, but there are still some mighty cheap prices available. The sale covers trips to Uluru and Alice Springs, for travel from now — yes, right now — through to April 5 this year. Fancy an autumn jaunt to the middle of the country? Making end-of-summer plans to help brace yourself for the cooler weather? Just craving another break already? They're all options. One key caveat: the discounted prices are available for inbound flights only, so you won't receive the same discount to come home. [caption id="attachment_773731" align="alignnone" width="1920"] NT by Tourism Australia[/caption] Among the list of deals, the $19 fares are a starting point for flights from Sydney to Uluru, Melbourne's (from Tullamarine) start at $30 to the same destination, Hobart to Uluru legs begin at $108, and Adelaide to Alice Springs fares start from $115. Wondering what to do once you get there? Uluru's incredible Field of Light installation remains a permanent recommendation — and you can also check out our guide to visiting the Red Centre. [caption id="attachment_847444" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Tourism Central Australia[/caption] Webjet's Red Centre sale runs until 11.59pm AEDT on Friday, January 20. Top image: Tourism NT, Salty Travellers.
They can't all be great. They can't all be good. They can't all even be watchable. Every year, cinemas and streaming queues fill up with new movies — and every year, that includes a whole heap of excellent films. But, as the annual Golden Raspberry Awards also recognise, it also spans awful flicks as well. While the Oscars and Golden Globes shower love on the best and brightest movies of the past year each time that they roll around, the Razzies do the opposite, handing nominations and gongs to the films it considers the worst of the annual bunch. 2023's accolades mark the awards' 43rd and they're aiming big, with high-profile titles such as Blonde, Morbius, Elvis and Disney's live-action Pinocchio among the contenders. Of course, just as naming ace flicks is subjective, so is shaming terrible ones. Expect Elvis to notch up Academy Award nods, too, for instance. But the Razzies has given Baz Luhrmann's film two nominations, and both for Tom Hanks: for Worst Supporting Actor and Worst Screen Couple with his latex makeup. Hanks isn't just one of the world's favourite actors, but one of the Razzies' this year, also picking up a Worst Actor nomination for playing Gepetto in Disney's Pinocchio. That film received six nods in total, coming third to Marilyn Monroe biopic Blonde with eight and Machine Gun Kelly's stoner comedy Good Mourning with seven. Also among the nominees: Pete Davidson twice, for Marmaduke and Good Mourning; the Firestarter remake's Ryan Kiera Armstrong for Worst Actress; filmmaker Judd Apatow for the pandemic-set supposed comedy The Bubble; and the two 365 Days sequels. And yes, it's morbin' time at the Razzies, with the Jared Leto-starring supervillain flick ranking fourth nominations-wise with five: for Leto for Worst Actor, Worst Picture, Worst Supporting Actress (for Adria Arjona), Worst Director (Daniel Espinosa) and Worst Screenplay. The 43rd Annual Razzie Award winners will be announced on Sunday, March 12, Australian and New Zealand time. Check out the full list of nominees below: GOLDEN RASPBERRY NOMINEES 2022: WORST PICTURE Blonde Disney's Pinocchio Good Mourning The King's Daughter Morbius WORST ACTOR Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly), Good Mourning Pete Davidson (voice only), Marmaduke Tom Hanks (as Gepetto), Disney's Pinocchio Jared Leto, Morbius Sylvester Stallone, Samaritan WORST ACTRESS Ryan Kiera Armstrong, Firestarter Bryce Dallas Howard, Jurassic Park Dominion Diane Keaton, Mack & Rita Kaya Scodelario, The King's Daughter Alicia Silverstone, The Requin WORST SUPPORTING ACTOR Pete Davidson (cameo role), Good Mourning Tom Hanks, Elvis Xavier Samuel, Blonde Mod Sun, Good Mourning Evan Williams, Blonde WORST SUPPORTING ACTRESS Adria Arjona, Morbius Lorraine Bracco (voice only), Disney's Pinocchio Penelope Cruz, The 355 Bingbing Fan, The 355 and The King's Daughter Mira Sorvino, Lamborghini: The Man Behind the Legend WORST SCREEN COMBO Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly) and Mod Sun, Good Mourning Both real life characters in the fallacious White House bedroom scene, Blonde Tom Hanks and his latex-laden face (and ludicrous Aaccent), Elvis Andrew Dominik and his issues with women, Blonde The two 365 Days sequels (both released in 2022) WORST DIRECTOR Judd Apatow, The Bubble Colson Baker (aka Machine Gun Kelly) and Mod Sun, Good Mourning Andrew Dominik, Blonde Daniel Espinosa, Morbius Robert Zemeckis, Disney's Pinocchio WORST REMAKE, RIPOFF or SEQUEL Blonde Both 365 Days sequels: 365 Days: This Day and The Next 365 Days Disney's Pinocchio Firestarter Jurassic World Dominion WORST SCREENPLAY Blonde Disney's Pinocchio Good Mourning Jurassic World Dominion Morbius
In today's unpredictable world of infighting, internets and readily available guitar tabs, it's more probable than ever before that the biggest fan of a band will end up actually in the band. Ron Wood joining the Rolling Stones, Robert Trujillo joining Metallica, and now Jon Davison joining English progressive rock legends Yes (that's right, Yes) as their latest vocalist. "I'm still a Yes fan," he says from somewhere in Los Angeles. "I can't help it, these things happen. In instrumental sections where I'm holding back, I get caught up in thinking 'wow, here are these amazing musicians I've always admired just a few feet away from me — and I have a better view that anyone in the audience!'" With the sprightly American as frontman, the 50-million selling princes of prog are heading to Australia to perform their two finest releases, Fragile and Close to the Edge, from start to finish. I've played with bands for which these albums were like holy texts, and Davison doesn't dispute it. "Close to the Edge is, I think, based on the teachings of Siddhartha — a soul's journey through many lifetimes. It's very beautiful but there's a lament in it, about what the soul must endure, the challenges and the hard lessons we face as we go on. That's how I interpret it." There has been a "touch of the metaphysical" in most of Yes' output, and Davison still decodes their evocative and often cryptic lyrics from the stage. "It's not always a clear meaning. I approach the lyrics more emotionally I guess, but there are parts of songs that I very much relate to. 'And You And I' is heart-expanding, and I love 'Starship Trooper'. Those uplifting ones." Dotted throughout Fragile, meanwhile, are tracks focused on individual band members, the vocal showcase being 'We Have Heaven' — a gloriously overdubby affair. "I'm working on my own version of it now actually, in my home studio. I won't do any of [founding member of Yes] Jon Anderson's tracks, but I'll loop my voice a lot, and possibly Steve and Chris will do some other vocals too. We're going to make it as much of a live track as it can be." Anderson was an expectedly huge influence for Davison while he was finding his own voice, though they haven't become acquainted at any Yes parties yet. "I haven't had the privilege of actually meeting him, but a few who know him quite well say we would be good friends. I hope it happens eventually." The upcoming album will be the band's first with Davison, and they're champing at the bit to keep being, well, progressive. "I was very much encouraged by the others not to try to reference anything in the past, because then you compare and end up restricting yourself creatively. We've been aiming to only move forward and break new ground. Even in their heyday the band were making mindblowingly distinct albums, and we're aiming for that now. There's a real freshness to it; it moves in a new direction and accurately reflects this five-member line-up, just as it should." Despite being the lone American in a band comprised of people old enough to be his English dads, Davison is unfazed. "It's surreal but I seemed to fit in right away. They're very accommodating. What we share in common, of course, is the music — we both speak that language, despite our ages." And in a perfect world, would he sing in any other of his favourite bands? "I'd love to be a part of early Genesis. I wouldn't mind being Freddie Mercury for a day either, that would be pretty exciting." Yes 2014 Tour Dates: November 12 — PERTH Crown Casino November 14 — GOLD COAST Jupiters Casino November 15 — SYDNEY State Theatre November 18 — MELBOURNE Palais Theatre https://youtube.com/watch?v=_RJYxDfsvdg
Bourke Street's home of slow-cooked, American-style barbecue fare is getting a little raucous this New Year's Eve. Come Thursday, December 31, Fancy Hank's is farewelling the year that was with a foot-stomping, inner city hoe-down. Guest chef Ross Magnaye (formerly Rice Paper Scissors) will be in the kitchen, lending his signature Filipino twist to a menu of party-style finger food. Meanwhile, the drinks will be flowing from 9pm until midnight, with a range of tap brews, house wines, soft drinks and celebratory bubbly included in your $118 ticket price. As for the entertainment, it'll be taken care of by Melbourne's own Pauly Main and Andee Frost, as they take over the decks to treat your ears to what the venue is describing as "a searing selection of saucy songs to get you moving". Get set for everything from Dolly Parton to Acid Cowboy, kicking on until 3am.
Fixation Brewing Co, the Byron Bay brewery that is a joint venture between Tom Delmont and the Stone & Wood Group, is responsible for some pretty tasty brews. Well, one type of brew specifically: India Pale Ales. Brewing hoppy IPAs is the company's calling card — and its fixation, if you may — and now it's about to open a hoppy tasting room right here in Collingwood. Smith Street will soon be home to The Incubator, a tasting room for the IPA-dedicated brewery, which is opening this week. A bar and brewery all rolled into one, it will be creating and serving up a slew of IPAs — including some of its signature brews, and some Melbourne exclusives. Two new ones you'll be able to taste are The 86 IPA and Easey Street IPA, which will be poured straight from the tanks. The brewery bar isn't just good turf for those who want to drink, though, it's also the right place to be to learn about the brewing process, and IPAs in general. With the tanks right up close to where you'll be sitting having a tipple, be assured that any questions you might have – what is an IPA? What are hops? How does beer get made? What's in the vat? – are going to be answered by those IPA-obsessed folk in the know. No kitchen, but bringing in your own food or UberEats-ing is a go, so your stomach won't be going unlined. The Incubator is now open at 414 Smith Street, Collingwood from 4–9pm Wedneday to Friday and 12–10pm Saturday and Sunday. Images: DHyde Foto.
Not knowing where your bag is when you disembark from a plane is a downright travel nightmare, and also now hopefully a thing of the past if you're flying with Virgin Australia. In 2023, the carrier rolled out a free baggage-tracking tool to fix this much-hated situation, starting with a heap of domestic routes. Now, it's available across its whole network. Flying to Japan? Bali, Fiji, Samoa or Vanuatu? Queenstown? The bag-tracking app covers those destinations. Wherever you're heading, you'll get notifications when your luggage is ready to fly, then when it's on the plane and again once it is at the baggage carousel. Virgin started testing the new technology in May 2023, then launched it in August domestically on almost 70-percent of flights before January's full rollout. Unsurprisingly, the feature has been popular. Since last year, the app has been used around 1.3-million times by Aussie travellers. Obviously, this feature covers checked luggage only. If you're carrying your bags into the cabin with you, you'll know where they are. For those stowing their suitcases in cargo, however, you'll be able to see where they are across your entire journey. Here's how it works: you'll need that aforementioned app, and to check your bag. You'll also want to enable push notifications. From there, expect to be buzzed with all the relevant info — the app will tell you which baggage carousel to head to as well, solving another airport annoyance. "Australians find comfort in the ability to track food deliveries, postal deliveries, technology, even their heart rate, all via apps, and it made sense for travellers to be able to do the same thing when flying Virgin Australia," said Virgin Australia Group Chief Customer and Digital Officer Paul Jones. Virgin Australia's baggage-tracking tool is now available across all flights. Find out more via the airline's website, and download the app online as well.
It is with a heavy heart that we announce one of Melbourne’s retail gems, Alice Euphemia, is closing its doors in less than a week. After 18 years in Cathedral Arcade, Flinders Lane, this champion of the Australian design world will be closing on Thursday, June 26 at 6pm. Karen Rieschieck, owner of Alice Euphemia, has had her finger on the pulse of innovative Australian fashion since opening her store in 1997. Labels she has stocked and supported over the years include Romance Was Born, Christopher Esber, Kuwaii, Livia Arena, Carly Hunter and Kloke. The much-loved store is also well-known for stocking talented and independent jewellery designers. Work from Lucy Folk, Mavro, Seb Brown, Julia deVille, Dani M, and Millie Savage has regularly graced the shelves of this Melbourne institution. In Australia’s current fashion climate, where cheap and mass-produced imports of buzz brands are causing lines around the block, specialty stores like Alice Euphemia that support quality and creativity will be greatly missed. We visited the boutique yesterday to say goodbye and the loyal fan base that Alice Euphemia has generated over nearly two decades was extremely evident. Every second customer walked straight up to the shop girls to tell them how sad they were that they are closing down. However, this might not be the complete end to all things Alice. The store's Instagram account mentions the possibility of a "phase two" and an email sent to loyal customers announcing the shop’s final days stated "it’s time for a hiatus". In speaking to The Age, Rieschieck indicated the store may come carry on in its online form, or as a support for local business. "I really want to reinvigorate Alice," Rieschieck said. "The only way I can think to do that is to stop, have some time out, have a bit of long-service leave and come back with a different approach." Until then, Alice Euphemia is spending its final days hosting a massive sale of their clothes and some of their jewellery. They are also selling shopping fixtures such as mannequins, cabinets, vases, light fittings, mirrors, hangers, and other miscellaneous parts of the store. Time to get on down, pick up a bargain, and say your goodbyes as this beloved boutique bites the dust. Alice Euphemia is located in Cathedral Arcade, on the corner of Flinders Lane and Swanston Street in the CBD. The store will be open its usual hours: Monday-Saturday, 10am-6pm until its last day of business on Thursday, June 26.
The party specialists at Innocuous are making the most of the summer weather, with a trio of Sunday shindigs at the Shadow Electric. Dolce, Dolce, as the series has been christened, will see an eclectic mix of music acts take over the grounds of the Abbotsford Convent, spinning chilled out dance tracks until well into the night. The inaugural event, which kicks off at 4pm on Sunday, January 24, will be headlined by Swedish DJ Anton Klint in his debut Australian show. Other artists on the bill include local lads Midlife, Sydney DJ Nite Fleit and Innocuous co-founders 6AM AT THE GARAGE, to name but a few. The lineup for future parties — to be held on February 21 and March 20 — will be announced in due course. But if you want to get down ASAP, tickets for this Sunday's party are available through the Shadow Electric website.
With 35 hours worth of footage uploaded to YouTube every single minute, it's easy to get lost wading through all of the new content. Instead of wasting your time searching through crappy homemade videos, check out this list of 10 channels actually worth watching. 1. Vlogbrothers, Crash Course, and Sci Show Created by brothers John and Hank Green in 2007, Vlogbrothers was initially used as a way for the two to stay in touch. Today, it has become popular enough to have acquired its own fandom and spin-offs and is definitely worth catching up on. Check out the Green's other channels as well: Crash Course, which features the brothers' entertaining lectures on history and biology, and Sci Show, Hank's show on anything and everything scientific. 2. Ill Doctrine Jay Smooth takes a creative turn from his New York WBAI's Underground Radio show to discuss all aspects of modern culture on his YouTube channel. His thoughts on politics, race relations and music are incorporated with his great sense of humour. 3. BriTANick Comedy Two announcers from Cartoon Network, Brian McElhaney and Nick Kocher, got their start with this YouTube sketch comedy channel. Irreverent and hysterical, their video spoofs poke fun at everything from cooking shows to Shakespeare. 4. TED Education The TED media empire originated as a not-for-profit conference to discuss technology, design, and education. Today, their YouTube channel offers tonnes of different lectures and lessons, covering diverse educational topics and incorporating animation. 5. My Drunk Kitchen For those of us who have drunkenly stumbled into the kitchen after a night out to cook a very necessary bowl of mac 'n' cheese, there is My Drunk Kitchen, Hannah Hart's show dedicated to making sure "you don't puke your guts out". Be thoroughly entertained by Hart's drunken, yet somehow charming, kitchen antics. 6. College Humor 240 Jake and Amir videos, the College Humor Originals series and Hardly Working series are filled with enough crazy stupid shenanigans to keep you laughing for hours. 7. Julia Nunes For Julia Nunes, YouTube has been the vehicle to musical fame, but also the means to entertain us with her goofy ukulele covers of the likes of Justin Bieber. 8. Smart Girls at the Party Amy Poehler proves that smart girls can have a good time too by interviewing a different woman on every episode. These young women share their hobbies with Poehler and show the YouTube world that internet intelligence does exist. 9. Wheezy Waiter Craig Benzine's outlandish videos feature amazing production quality and not a whole lot of rhyme and reason. Posted almost every weekday, these quirky videos are ever-random and always entertaining. 10. Belated Media Dedicated to providing high-quality film reviews, Michael Barryte's channel features a green screen which allows Barryte to comment on the film as it happens. His reviews are carefully thought-out and well broken-down for his audience. [via Flavorwire]
Sand won't just be found on Australia and New Zealand's beaches this summer. On the last day of the season, sand will fill big screens Down Under when Dune: Part Two finally hits cinemas. Originally slated to release in November 2023, then postponed during Hollywood's strikes, the film now has a Thursday, February 29, 2024 release date — and a new sneak peek at its sci-fi tale. Will Dune movies just keep getting better and better? Here's hoping that's a natural outcome, just like spying sand as far as the eye can see across Arrakis, when the sequel to 2021's Dune arrives. The first time that Denis Villeneuve (Blade Runner 2049) followed in David Lynch's footsteps to make a new adaptation of Frank Herbert's novel, managing what Alejandro Jodorowsky sadly couldn't (see: excellent documentary Jodorowsky's Dune), he gave the world a stunning new science-fiction cinema classic. Villeneuve's picture scored ten Oscar nominations and six wins; however, it only told part of Dune's story. Cue Dune: Part Two to keep the tale going. War has arrived on the franchise's spice-laden planet, and Paul Atreides (Timothée Chalamet, Wonka) and the Fremen are ready to fight. The former doesn't just want to face off against the folks who destroyed his family, but for the sandy celestial body, with Zendaya's (Euphoria) Chani at his side. That's the tale teased in not one, not two, but now three trailers for the Dune sequel, with the third focusing on the battle to come. The 2021 film had Paul head to Arrakis because his dad Duke Leto Atreides (Oscar Isaac, Moon Knight) had just been given stewardship of the planet and its abundance of 'the spice' — aka the most valuable substance in the universe — and then get caught up in a bitter feud with malicious forces over the substance. It also saw Paul meet the population of people known as the Fremen, including Chani, plus Javier Bardem's (Lyle, Lyle Crocodile) Stilgar, which is who he and his mother Lady Jessica (Rebecca Ferguson, Silo) are with in Dune: Part Two. Expansive desert landscape, golden and orange hues (again, Villeneuve helmed Blade Runner 2049), sandworms, the director's reliable eye for a spectacle and Hans Zimmer's (The Son) latest likely Oscar-winning score: they've all shown up in the new film's three glimpses so far. So have some of the franchise's new players, with Austin Butler ditching his Elvis locks as Feyd Rautha Harkonnen, the nephew of Stellan Skarsgard's (Andor) Baron Harkonnen. Christopher Walken (Severance) and Florence Pugh (The Wonder) also join the saga as Emperor Shaddam IV and his daughter Princess Irulen. From the first film, Josh Brolin (Outer Range), Dave Bautista (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), Stephen McKinley Henderson (Beau Is Afraid) and Charlotte Rampling (Benedetta) return, while Léa Seydoux (Crimes of the Future) also joins the cast. Off-screen, Villeneuve has brought back not just Zimmer, but Oscar-winning Australian director of photography Greig Fraser (The Batman), Oscar-winning production designer Patrice Vermett (Vice), Oscar-winning editor Joe Walker (The Unforgivable), Oscar-winning visual effects supervisor Paul Lambert (First Man) and Oscar-nominated costume designer Jacqueline West (Song to Song). Check out the latest Dune: Part Two trailer below: Dune: Part Two will release in cinemas Down Under on Thursday, February 29, 2024.
Few designers working today create pieces so idiosyncratic and fanciful they may as well be art. One is Romance Was Born, the Australian label started in 2005 by Anna Plunkett and Luke Sales. So it's perfectly fitting, really, that for this year's Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia, they're smashing out a full, multi-sensory exhibition that is more guided acid trip than runway show. Collaborating with them on Reflected Glory is artist Rebecca Baumann, a technicolour master of her own with a practice spanning kinetic sculpture, photography, performance, digital animation and installation. She also happens to have won a Visual Arts SOYA the same year Plunkett and Sales won for fashion. Together, they're translating the never-boring design of Romance Was Born into a truly unwearable work of art, opening at Carriageworks on April 8. The promo video, released this morning by Carriageworks, shows the exhibition will be a kaleidoscope that plays off the unique light and space of the industrial venue. "We're really inspired by nightclubs and lighting and the feeling of when you see something sparkling in all its glory [and] it just has this fully beautiful, uplifting feeling," says Plunkett. Don't expect mere retrospective or showcase; the exhibition represents a completely new approach for the duo. "It's not like a collection of work; it's kind of just one big work, so the whole thing just feels like one immersive experience," says Sales. Reflected Glory opens at Carriageworks on April 9 and runs until May 11.
If ever there was anything Huckleberry Finn and Jim wished they sailed past as they made their way down the Mississippi River, surely it was a music festival. The Riverboats Music Festival is that dream come to life — and about 14,500 kilometres from Old Man River. Set in the twin-towns of Echuca-Moama, the festival takes place under towering river red gums in a natural amphitheatre next to the mighty Murray River. Sip local wine as you dance the night away to incredible music acts — this year will see Neil and Liam Finn headlining, as well as performances by Josh Pyke, Kasey Chambers and a whole stack of others. Mouthwatering regional food will also be on offer, as historic paddle steamers meander past on the Murray and the chorus of corellas welcome the sunset. Perhaps one of the prettiest and most laid-back music festivals in Australia.
Taking his homegrown charm to fans one last time, Bored Nothing is wrapping things up in spectacular classic pub style. Launching his second album 'Some Songs' (the first to be recorded outside his beloved bedroom set-up), frontman Fergus Miller will be playing two unforgettable shows in both Sydney and Melbourne. Born and bred in Geelong, Miller has decided to call it a day after three years of recording and producing the dreamy, melancholy tracks Bored Nothing is famous for. After two months gallivanting through Europe for late 2014 touring, a string of support gigs for Brisbanites The John Steel Singers and the release of a handful of hypnotic singles, the new year feels like the perfect time to end Bored Nothing's killer run on a truly great note. Pinned for two packed-out performances in Sydney and Melbourne, these intimate east coast gigs are a fitting send off before Miller sheds his Bored Nothing moniker once and for all.
It was a busy year for St Kilda's historic pubs in 2018. At the end of November, The Espy reopened after three years behind closed doors and a mighty reno. Then, the new-look Prince of Wales Hotel launched its restaurant. In 2016, Melbourne businessman Gerry Ryan and his son Andrew took over management of the pub — now just The Prince Hotel — and have since overseen a multimillion-dollar makeover, in with Melbourne's IF Architecture. Located on the second level of the spruced-up St Kilda haunt, Prince Dining Room has taken over the space previously home to Circa, which closed its doors after 20 years in 2017. In the kitchen, Executive Chef Dan Hawkins (Stokehouse, Circa and Longrain) and Head Chef Dan Cooper (Circa and Garden State Hotel) are creating a Mediterranean menu, showcasing local, sustainable and ethical ingredients from local markets, the St Kilda Veg Out garden and a network of producers, growers and fishermen. Make your may through a selection of skewers and flatbreads — like Flinders Island lamb with fermented chilli, and prawns with sesame, lemon and coriander — or a main, such as the woodfired turmeric chicken with pickled ginger, and add a bunch of sides. The lineup of smaller bites includes options like baby cabbage with prawn butter, and woodfired zucchini with feta, almond and ras el hanout (Moroccan spice mix). As you can probably tell from the aforementioned dishes, there's an emphasis on cooking with fire in the Prince Dining Room kitchen."Fire causes changes in flavour, texture and appearance, to provide a unique final product that cannot be replicated by other means," said Hawkins in a statement. Cocktails do not use fire, but are instead fruit-driven with colourful concoctions like the Jackie & Jess featuring grapefruit juice and thyme syrup, and the bourbon-heavy Louis Li a mix of Aperol, amaro and lemon juice. A succinct list of local and international beers and wines — including a few quality $10-a-glass drops — rounds out the drinks list. In coming up with the design, IF Architecture wanted to respect the building's Art Deco architecture and historical significance, while also adding more light and space. The centrepiece is an oval black steel bar, while eclectic seating — made by local and Italian artisans from metal, wrought iron and wood — and soft, curvaceous banquettes in brown, pink and green hues surround it. Images: Gareth Sobey.
The Grampians is one of Victoria's go-to outdoor destinations featuring sandstone mountains, vibrant native wildlife and towering waterfalls. Visitors have a huge variety of adventure activities to choose from, and going on a trip with Absolute Outdoors ensures you benefit from knowledgeable local guides. The company offers everything from guided hikes and canoe sessions to rock climbing and abseiling. So, there's something for everyone who has an interest in the great outdoors. If you're interested in canoeing, the three-hour guided paddle will see you cruise around the picturesque waterways of the area while spotting wildlife and learning about the area from your guide. More into the thrills of great heights? You can abseil anywhere between eight and 30 metres, or you can rock climb up to 25 meters if you'd rather clamber up the cliff. [caption id="attachment_740523" align="alignnone" width="1386"] Julian Kingma via Visit Victoria[/caption] Image: Visit Victoria
On a couple of occasions over the last year or so, McDonald's has spread some lockdown cheer by offering burger-loving customers free delivery. Now, with stores open for in-person dining around the country, it's doing something different — because there's a mighty big milestone to celebrate. Those golden arches have been towering over Australia for 50 years now, so of course Maccas is marking the occasion. On the bill: various different promotions, specials, deals and collaborations, starting with 50-cent Big Macs. You'll want to make a date with your local store on Friday, June 18, because that's when burger lovers can pick up the chain's best-known burg for just a dodecagonal coin at any of the brand's 1009 restaurants around the country. All you need to do is order through the My Macca's app, select the deal, then mosey on down to your closest McDonald's to pick it up. There'll be more promos to follow, too. This isn't the first time that the chain has run a heap of deals in a short span; however, these ones are hanging around for a while. When it comes celebrating a birthday, going big is the only option, so Macca's will be rolling out other yet-to-be-announced specials between right up until the end of August — with the details revealed each week from Friday, June 18.
The Koreans do violent. The Italians do romantic. The French do flowery and pretentious. But when it comes strange, no one make movies like the Greeks. Characterised by a deadpan, absurdist sense of humour often punctuated by moments of unsettling violence, the so-called Weird Wave has led to a renewed interest in Greek cinema in recent times — and what better place to get acquainted than at Australia's very own Greek Film Festival. Standout wave films on the program include Luton and the aptly named Miss Violence. The latter title caused quite a stir at the Sydney and Melbourne Film Festivals earlier this year for its extremely graphic content, which caused a number of audience members to walk out. It's a remarkably well-made film for anyone who can stomach it. Just don't say we didn't warn you. Thankfully, there's more to the Greek industry than brutality and existential angst. Opening night film Little England is a lavish period romance set during the Second World War, while Block 12 mixes Bollywood dance numbers into a comedy about the country's economic crisis — because really, they just seem like a natural fit. For the full Greek Film Festival program, visit their website.
Up-and-coming craft brewery Fury & Son opened the doors to its on-site taproom in early 2018. It was a much-anticipated move for the label, which set up shop in Keilor Park back in 2016, and has been winning fans and busting onto beer lists ever since. Now, punters are able to get an insight into the team behind the brews, as they sample beers like the pale ale and the IPA fresh from the source. It's open every Friday, serving an eight-strong tap list featuring six house creations alongside a couple of rotating guest beers. It's also be the number one spot for fans to get their hands on Fury & Son's special-edition releases, with the first keg of any new seasonal beer pouring here for free. Taking care of the food side of things is the team from Houston's BBQ, armed with a rotating menu of treats cooked low 'n' slow. Expect everything from US-style hot dogs, chicken wings and pulled pork burgers, plus veggie dishes like smoked cauliflower and capsicum. Working to the motto of "welcome to the family", it's the kind of joint that'll feel like coming home.
These days, Pokémon GO might just be another unused app on your phone; however the game's cute little pocket monsters aren't staying confined to a small screen. Animated Pokémon movies have been around for almost as long as the animated Pokémon television series, but now the game-to-TV-to-cinema franchise is getting a distinctive new addition: a live-action flick featuring a particularly realistic-looking Pikachu, who happens to be voiced by Ryan Reynolds. While playable Pokémon titles date back to 1996's Pokémon Red and Green for Game Boy, Pokémon: Detective Pikachu is based on the 2016 game of the same name — where, as the title suggests, everyone's favourite yellow, furry creature solves mysteries. He also talks, exclaiming more than "pika!"; is addicted to caffeine, like most of us; and has arrived to help former Pokémon trainer Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) track down his missing dad. The result: basically a Pikachu-and-human buddy cop movie, jam-packed with other Pokémon, of course. Two trailers have been released so far, and if you've spent to much of your childhood catching 'em all when it comes to Pokémon — and, thanks to Pokémon GO, plenty of your adult years as well — you'll be in heaven watching the newest sneak peek, which just dropped this week. As well as lending his acerbic attitude and vocal talents to what's certain to be the world's most adorable detective, Reynolds performed the role via motion-capture, and is joined by Kathryn Newtwon, Suki Waterhouse, Omar Chaparro, Chris Geere, Ken Watanabe and Bill Nighy among the cast. The first live-action Pokémon flick, Detective Pikachu is directed by Robert Letterman, who has Shark Tale, Monsters vs Aliens, Gulliver's Travels and the first Goosebumps film to his name. Catch the Pokémon: Detective Pikachu trailers below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8CKgQFo5U8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzvbzYoQE5o Pokémon: Detective Pikachu opens in Australian cinemas on May 9. Image: Courtesy of Warner Bros. Pictures.
Australian brothers Mike and Scott Norrie are onto a winner. While traveling through Africa, they were inspired to create a way to share music sustainably, and came up with Tembo Trunks. These silicone speakers integrate with your earphones, amplifying the sound to 80 decibels. Foldable, stackable, washable and virtually indestructible, they are the ultimate in sustainable speakers as they require no power, are made up of one material and are designed to last. The speakers are meant for use in a casual setting. "Don't expect to bust an eardrum or feel the ground shake when you're playing your music," say the Norrie brothers, "that's kinda the point." They're a great addition to any traveller's suitcase, and will soon be available in a range of bright colours. As a clever way of raising seed funding, the team allow you to pre-order a set of speakers by backing Tembo Trunks on Kickstarter. For a lazy ten grand you can even become the 'Chief of Colour' and the brothers will fly you to Sydney and cook you a beach-side BBQ. https://youtube.com/watch?v=IU2NVxN6zck [Via PSFK]
From gripping war stories to feel-good suburban romances, the 2015 Turkish Film Festival Australia once again promises a program full of cinematic delights. Now in its fifth iteration, this year’s festival has been brought forward to April to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Anzac campaign. Fittingly, the festival will open with WWI film Last Letter, a drama about a nurse and a fighter pilot drawn together on the Gallipoli battlefield. Other standout films include the sizzling romantic drama Let the Music Play, as well as the sweet coming-of-age tale Mixtape. Melbourne audiences will also get the chance to check out actress Melisa Sozen, star of the critically-acclaimed Winter Sleep, in her latest feature Once Upon a Time. For the full program and session times, visit the festival website.
Originally scheduled to run in April as part of the now postponed Wominjeka Festival's tenth anniversary edition, this thought-provoking exhibition will instead kick off from Tuesday, August 4. As with all of the festival's parties, workshops and events, Blak to the Future III is a project helmed by First Nations peoples — this one's been put together by artist and curator Rosie Kalina. Showing for free at the Footscray Community Arts Centre's Roslyn Smorgon Gallery, the exhibition features works from a dynamic group of young creatives, offering a collective peek at a decolonised Aussie future. Emerging Indigenous talent including Soju Gang, Kyle Taylor, Caleb Thaiday, Tre Turner and Kalina herself deliver a broad mix of visual art works and textile pieces designed to get you thinking. And don't miss the sprawling collaborative mural, which is set to take pride of place within the exhibition space. Image: Gianna Rizzo
More than a decade after making its off-Broadway debut, critically-acclaimed play The Exonerated will have its first ever Australian performance, courtesy of an independent Melbourne theatre company driven by an honourable cause. Written by husband-and-wife duo Jessica Blank and Erik Jensen, the play consists of six harrowing tales of death row inmates convicted of crimes they didn’t commit. It's grim stuff, particularly when you consider that all six stories were based on actual cases, whittled down from more than 40. The Melbourne show, at Chapel Off Chapel, is the latest production by The Sol III Company — a group which raises money for prison programs and to help overturn wrongful convictions in both Australia and the US. Money made from ticket sales will be donated to Innocence International and Liberation Prison Yoga. The Exonerated runs from May 20 to June 7. For more information, head over here.
University students might be accustomed to pairing their education with a few alcoholic beverages; however most don't expect their tertiary institution to have its own tipple. That rings particularly true when one of the most famous and prestigious universities in the world is involved — but, as well as teaching bright minds, Oxford University is bursting boundaries. The British uni has just added an official brand of gin to its list of achievements: Physic Gin, aka an especially aptly named juniper spirit. It's a product of The Oxford Artisan Distillery (TOAD), which is located in the same city, but is separate from the university. With their collaboration — the result of one of TOAD's distillers meeting one of Oxford's botany professors — they've created the first gin made for the university and bearing its name. Branding isn't Physic Gin's only Oxford connection. It's also flavoured using plants from the uni's botanic garden. Founded in 1621 to help teach herbal medicine, the patch of greenery in question is the oldest of its kind in the country. In total, 25 botanicals grown and foraged in Oxford's garden are used in the tipple, most of which were listed in a catalogue kept by its first keeper back in the 1640s. According to TOAD master distiller Cory Mason, anyone keen on a sip should expect a rich, earthy taste thanks to ingredients such as wormwood, rue and sweet woodruff — which "bring a deeply complex flavour to bear and take us back to the time when plants formed the base of all medicine." TOAD also use ancient, organic, super-sustainable grains in their production of Physic Gin, plus their original Oxford Dry Gin and Oxford Rye Vodka. For more information, visit www.spiritoftoad.com Via The Guardian. Image: The Oxford Artisan Distillery.
Stock characters and clunky, heavy-handed storytelling keeps Healing, the new Australian drama from Peaches director Craig Monahan, well and truly tethered to the ground. Co-scripted by Monahan alongside veteran TV writer Alison Nisselle, the film takes its inspiration from a real-life state prison program, in which inmates in minimum security help rehabilitate injured birds of prey. Despite the unique premise and setting, however, the film soon grows dreary and unfocused — leaving an unfortunate cast of workman local actors with no opportunity to soar. The most interesting thing about Healing is the location in which it takes place. A minimum security jail in bushland Victoria, the facility looks more like a camp site than a penitentiary, and offers an original spin on the traditional prison setting. The men housed here are at the end of their sentences, or have been convicted of lesser crimes. The focus is no longer on punishment, but on rehabilitation. It's in this setting that dedicated prison case-officer Matt Perry (Hugo Weaving), working in conjunction with staff at the nearby Healesville Sanctuary, decides to establish the avian care program. The timing coincides with the arrival of a new batch of prisoners, including sullen 18-year murder veteran Viktor Khadem (Don Hany). Despite the objections of his supervisors, Perry decides to put Viktor in charge of the initiative, in the hopes that caring for the animals will help prepare him for his imminent release. While the birds, particularly Viktor's favourite wedge-tailed raptor Jasmine, are undeniably majestic, animals yearning for freedom is a ham-fisted motif for a prison movie. Sadly, such clumsiness is all too typical of Niselle and Monahan's screenplay, in which plot points seem to vanish and personalities change drastically from scene to scene. Viktor goes from serene one minute to intolerably bull-headed the next, while antagonistic inmate Warren (Anthony Hayes) sneers constantly with one-dimensional villainy. Even worse, the arc of the film's most intriguing character — Viktor's drug-addled bunkmate Shane (a twitchy Mark Leonard Winter) — gets no resolution at all. Hany and Weaving are solid as always, but both have been far better elsewhere. For that matter, so has Monahan. Both Peaches and his debut feature The Interview had a certain edginess. Healing, on the other hand, feels safe to the point of total blandness. https://youtube.com/watch?v=RG7hQuVffOg
Forget ocker comedies and downbeat dramas — when it comes to Aussie cinema, there's a new trend in down. Sure, plenty of titles have made the leap from theatre to film during the country's movie-making history, but with Ruben Guthrie, Holding the Man, Last Cab to Darwin and Spear all hitting cinemas within the last year, the nation appears to be in the middle of a stage-to-screen renaissance. Next comes The Daughter, with actor and playwright turned filmmaker Simon Stone leading the charge. After treading the boards with his own take on Henrik Ibsen's 1884 work The Wild Duck, he now turns the tale into an Australian-set feature film. When Christian (Paul Schneider) returns to the mountainous outskirts of New South Wales after years spent in the US, his homecoming stirs up mixed emotions. His father Henry (Geoffrey Rush), is pleased to see him, but Christian has more than a few reservations about his dad's impending marriage to the much younger Anna (Anna Torv). And while his reunion with childhood best mate Oliver (Ewen Leslie) proves happy, the more time Christian spends with his pal, his wife Charlotte (Miranda Otto) and teenage daughter Hedvig (Odessa Young), the more troubles start to emerge. Some characters know things they shouldn't, others are hiding details they're trying to forget, and everyone gets caught up in the chaos when certain truths are exposed, making secrets and lies The Daughter's primary currency. There's more than a little bit of melodrama at play, though there's not much in the narrative that's unexpected. Even if you're not familiar with the source material or Stone's previous theatre version, it's not hard to see where the soapy story is going. That's disappointing in terms of delivering real twists, turns and mysteries, but it does showcase the movie's true focus: its characters and performances. Corralling an impressive, mostly Australian cast — a scene-stealing Sam Neill among them — Stone hones in on the actions and emotions of a close-knit group struggling with the weight of past and present deeds. Accordingly, the tension that bubbles throughout the feature stems from their reactions, rather than the many not-so-surprising revelations. Whether frozen with shock, arguing with anger or crying in pain, their response to the situation always feels real. Take the figure of Hedvig, the titular daughter, for example. She seethes with a blend of confidence and vulnerability not often seen in teens on screen, with Young giving her second great performance, behind Looking For Grace, of the year so far. It certainly helps that Stone, as a director rather than a writer, favours an empathetic, subjective approach in his stylistic choices. With a colour scheme that reflects the characters' moods, and camera angles that mirror their perspectives, he crafts a movie that looks as intimate as the age-old issues it trifles with. The end result may be obvious and histrionic, story-wise, yet it's still for the most part engrossing. As such, The Daughter doesn't just bring the stage to the screen, but the messy nature of life as well.
We really must stop being so surprised each time Ben Affleck does something good. Three grand directorial efforts in, and we still think of subpar rom-coms and tabloid relationships before we remember that the man actually won an Oscar for screenwriting at the age of 25. He's clearly observed each moment around the camera since Good Will Hunting, because everything he does as a director is interesting. He's a little like Clint Eastwood (minus the sting of Republicanism). After Gone Baby Gone and The Town, Affleck's third film is Argo, a nail-biter based on the 2007 Wired article 'How the CIA Used a Fake Sci-Fi Flick to Rescue Americans from Tehran', written after the details of the far-fetched espionage story became declassified. It happened during the 1979 Iranian Hostage Crisis, in which 52 Americans were held for 444 days by militants angry about the US giving shelter to their overthrown monarch, Mohammed Reza Shah Pahavi. At the time the embassy was breached, six diplomatic staff escaped and hid secretly at the Canadian ambassador's house, until CIA agent Tony Mendez (Affleck) could organise their exfiltration (or 'exfil', as its snappily referred to throughout) — yes, using the totally improbable cover of a sci-fi film called 'Argo'. It's a fascinating study, but what's remarkable is that this largely bureaucratic process has been rendered so tense and so funny by the director and his team. It will put you closer to the edge of your seat than likely any other film this year. Most of the laughs come courtesy of John Goodman and Alan Arkin playing lauded make-up artist John Chambers and producer Lester Siegel, who come on board to make the fake film look real. Their dry, cynical banter about the ins and outs of Hollywood filmmaking are a down-to-earth intrusion into a fantastical turn of events. After an impressive two hours, what turns out to be most impressive is the end credits, which place historical images alongside stills from the film so you can see the Mad Men-like attention to detail that has gone into re-creating this period in time. You can practically feel the polyester under your eyes throughout this Oscar contender, while the softly grainy texture of the film allows archival footage to be smoothly integrated. It is a bit disappointing, then, that the historical accuracy turns out to be so patchy. The role of the CIA, as opposed to Canada, is exaggerated for effect, but what's perhaps more damning is the lengths the film goes to demonise and dehumanise the Iranian people just to heighten the feeling of threat (any one of them could attack!). Arguably, given its bank of suspense, Argo could have afforded to swap some tension for a little more understanding. https://youtube.com/watch?v=QQkdOSwz2Kw
Thirty years' worth of PCBs, as well as heavy metals, sewage and urban runoff, have made the Hudson River a hazard for would-be swimmers for nearly a century. Clean-ups, initiated in the 1960s by Pete Seeger's Hudson River Sloop Clearwater organisation, and enforced since the 1980s by the US Environmental Protection Agency, have improved conditions significantly. Now, a new Kickstarter project, titled + POOL, promises to create a swimming basin in the Hudson's brother, the East River, right on the liquid doorstep of New York City. Fitted with an enormous layered filtration system, the pool will purify as much as half a million gallons of water daily. Consequently, New Yorkers will be able to swim in that part of the river, enjoying a level of cleanliness similar to 19th-century standards. Plus, of course, they’ll have the benefit of a 21st-century view. According to the project's creators, "+ POOL started with a simple goal: instead of trying to clean the entire river, what if you started by just cleaning a small piece of it? And what if you could change how New Yorkers see their rivers, just by giving them a chance to swim in it?" With 17 days of campaigning left to go, + POOL has raised US$120,360 of its initial US$250,000 goal, which will enable the construction of a 35' x 35' ‘Float Lab’ in August 2013. The final project is set to be completed in summer 2016, just before the Olympic Games. Donors receive rewards in the form of pool tiles and, so far, 1,328 people have pledged support. For US$25, you’ll see your name alongside seven others on a 'group tile'. For US$2500, you’ll earn yourself a 'graphic tile', featuring your logo, signature or any single-colour image of your choice, as well as 20 tickets to 'First Dips'. This means that you and 19 friends will be among the first individuals to jump into the pool, in the week leading up to its public opening.
The Queen Vic markets are embracing Melbourne’s artsy community once more in a joint venture with Craft Victoria. New Craft, a new design market held on the first Sunday of every month, is a goldmine if you’re on the hunt for handmade quality jewellery, ceramics, furniture, artwork, accessories, and other knick knacks. Some of the stall holders in May include ceramic and homewares specialists Bind | Fold, the clever design folk at Steller Atelier, the imaginative jewellery of One Sunday Morning and the colourful bags of Cassia Essentiels. Stallholders change every month, so each Sunday brings with it new designers and creatives to A Shed (located on the corner of Peel and Victoria Street). Like all things at Queen Vic, prices are reasonable and you won’t break the bank for quality pieces to decorate yourself or our home. Go on, treat yo' self and support local artistic talent. For an updated list of artists each month, check the New Craft website. Image: Steller Atelier.
Chunky Move's artistic director Anouk van Dijk has taken on our shared experiences and the current time we find ourselves in with her new piece Common Ground. An encounter between two dancers — contemporary artists Tara Jade Samaya (Chunky Move) and Richard Cilli (Sydney Dance Company) — the work will be a boundary-transcending study of the instability of the world we're living in. In it, Van Dijk will explore the common ground that unites all of us and that can rupture and disturb our lives. Common Ground will look at how to stand firm when the ground around you is shifting. "There is an incredible sense of instability in the world — social, political, economic and environmental — this affects us on a visceral level," she says. Common Ground will demonstrate the universality of our shared experiences, and how we manage to find unity in a world that is shook. It'll show at Chunky Move Studios from April 26 until May 5, then at The Drum Theatre in Dandenong on May 8.
Whether it's an elaborate escape act or a simple piece of sleight of hand, when it comes to magic audiences want two things. They want to be fooled into believing that what they're seeing is real, but they also desperately want to know how it's really done. It's the same principle behind heist films, with viewers keen to watch criminals execute high-stakes robberies, and then discover how they pulled it off. It's hardly surprising, then, that Hollywood decided to blend the two with 2013's Now You See Me – and when it proved a hit, a sequel was all but inevitable. Of course, easy and obvious isn't the same as interesting or enjoyable, a fact that the Now You See Me films seem to forget. Director Jon M. Chu spends the bulk of the movie showcasing slickly shot and quickly choreographed tricks, in the hopes that we won't notice that the script by writer Ed Solomon doesn't really make any sense. For those with short memories, the first film followed the Four Horsemen, a magic troupe that mesmerised crowds and fleeced banks at the same time. A year later, J. Daniel Atlas (Jesse Eisenberg), Merritt McKinney (Woody Harrelson) and Jack Wilder (Dave Franco) remain in the group, with newcomer Lula (Lizzy Caplan) filling the female quota. FBI agent Dylan Rhodes (Mark Ruffalo) calls the shots, throws law enforcement off of their trail and helps set up a big gig at a mobile phone product launch. Alas, when the Horsemen take to the stage, they soon find that they're caught up in someone else's game. As Lula, Caplan acts excited and mentions what the gang is up to as much as she can — and that's Now You See Me 2 in a nutshell. She doesn't ever look at the screen and say, "I'm having fun with magic, and you should be too," but she may as well. For a time the film's over-the-top eagerness to entertain is somewhat effective, especially when former boy wizard Daniel Radcliffe shows up as a villainous inventor. Over the course of 115 minutes, however, the setups get more absurd, the attempts at misdirection more laboured, the backstory more clumsy and the returning cast (particularly Morgan Freeman and Michael Caine) less enthused. In short, it all wears thin. Indeed, no matter how flashy it gets, Now You See Me 2 can't distract from a simple truth: at a certain point, seeing the same tricks over and over again is going to lose it's appeal. Eventually, people stop buying into the patter, grow tired of the parade of deceptions and explanations, and want more from a movie than a nod, a wink and a gimmick. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4I8rVcSQbic
They're called twin films: two movies with a similar idea that reach screens around the same time. Think Deep Impact and Armageddon, Dark City and The Matrix, and The Prestige and The Illusionist — plus The Raid and Dredd, Upgrade and Venom, and Skate Kitchen and Mid90s. Yes, the list goes on (and on and on). The same concept applies on the small screen, too, as two of 2020's new shows are demonstrating. Earlier in the year, Netflix debuted Space Force, which starred Steve Carell as a military man tasked with establishing the space-focused new branch of the US armed forces. Now, via US network Showtime — and streaming service Stan in Australia — Moonbase 8 is also trying to turn the quest to leave earth into a sitcom. Featuring Fred Armisen, John C Reilly and Tim Heidecker, and set to start dropping from Sunday, November 8, Moonbase 8 follows three men who are eager to take part in a lunar mission. Skip (Portlandia's Armisen), Rook (Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!'s Heidecker) and Cap (Reilly) are the epitome of enthusiastic, in fact, and they're doing their absolute best to complete their training at NASA's Moon Base Simulator in the desert in Winslow, Arizona. But whether they'll stay sane through the process is another matter entirely. The show's three stars also serve as Moonbase 8's executive producers, while the series is penned by Heidecker with Portlandia and Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! writer — and Baskets creator — Jonathan Krisel. And, based on the just-dropped first trailer, the new comedy promises plenty of stir-crazy silliness between three characters living in close quarters — something immensely relatable in 2020, obviously. Check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KECl99n-DI0 Moonbase 8 starts streaming in Australia via Stan on Sunday, November 8. The New Zealand streaming date is yet to be confirmed — we'll update you with further details when they come to hand. Top image: Courtesy of A24 Films/SHOWTIME.
Few festivals in Australia have the energy and dynamism of Next Wave. Even though it has just hit 30 years of age, the festival is still bouncing around in fluoro lycra, staying out in galleries all night, and finding the best emerging artists from home and abroad. This year Next Wave boasts a lineup of 239 artists over a month-long program in locations all across the city. And, with a real life fight club and a yoga dance party, the work on show is unlikely to disappoint. Themed 'New Grand Narrative', festival director Emily Sexton defines this year's offering as "a rallying call". "Many institutions that operated throughout the 20th century are cracking," she says. "These institutions have deep, deep flaws, and in this time of transition – to what, we don't know – we offer this festival and these artists, as a series of potent visions for a new world, and the relationships within it." Accordingly, much of the work on show is concerned with outsider stories. From the festival's keynote initiative Blak Wave to a puberty-themed games arcade made by transgender artist Jackson Fydim Stacy — Next Wave tackles the big issues with thoughtful detail and a little bit of a cheeky grin. The Testosterdome Puberty is a time of our lives often wilfully forgotten. The hormones, the hair, the social awkwardness and general awfulness... the mental scars rival the ones left over from our acne. But with this work, Sydney artist Jackson Fydim Stacy asks us to reexamine the maligned rite of passage in the best way possible. In the simplest terms, Testosterdome is a puberty-themed video games arcade. Instead of Dance Dance Revolution, Stacy gives us Sad Boy Hoop Shooter — a game in which we "slam dunk our repressed emotions"; the obligatory race-car game is transformed to a way of chasing girls. All of this does however come with a message. Stacy is a queer transgender artist who described the process of coming out and taking hormones a kind of "second puberty" — a complex time of transition that's not as easy to forget as teenage wet dreams. Fort Delta, May 1 - 11, Free Article 14.1 Next Wave Director, Emily Sexton, once described this artist's work as having an "eloquent politics", and this latest offering is no exception. From March 1 - 11, Phuong Ngo will be living in plain sight at No Vacancy Gallery with the same rations his parents had on their 10-day boat journey to Australia in 1981. In an act with obvious but important political implications, Ngo invites audience members to sit with him during the work and fold origami boats out of bank notes while listening to narrative recordings of other Vietnamese refugees. On the final night these boats will be burned in a huge, ritualistic fire. No Vacancy Gallery, May 1 - 11, free A Wake: Kids Killing Kids This show is a bit of an anomaly. In 2011, four young Australian writers travelled to Manila to collaborate with local artists from the Sipat Lawin Ensemble on an adaptation of the famous novel Battle Royale. The show attracted huge crowds as each performance birthed a cultish and worrying following. Then the writers decided to translate their experience to the stage in last year's Fringe hit Kids Killing Kids. This new show will tell the same story from the perspective of their Filipino collaborators. Is it overkill (for lack of a better word)? Time will tell. Either way, this is what it looks like when theatre-makers go full-on Inception. Arts House, May 1 -4; 7-11, $18 - $23 Maximum This latest work from Natalie Abbott is all about extremes. Big and small, toned and flabby — for something so diverse, it's nothing short of amazing that our bodies all operate in much the same way. In Maximum, Abbott is set to explore these differences and push them into the extreme. Joined on stage by a bulky male body-builder, this small lithe dancer will investigate the universal nature of the body and test its limits via the oh-so-gruelling medium of physical movement. Featuring dance, posing, lifts and even fake tan, Maximum seems more like a durational live art piece than a formal show. This is exacerbated by the fact it has nearly 10 performances in under two weeks. Yikes. Our muscles are hurting already (but we can't wait to see the results). Arts House, May 1 - 4; 7 - 11, $18 - $23 The Blaktism Part of Next Wave's Blak Wave program, this work by Megan Cope tells the true story of the artist obtaining her 'Certificate of Aboriginality' and the concerns which this process raised. "After discussing with an Elder about the procedure, the thought of being legitimately certified suddenly cast a dark shadow of doubt across my mind and left me wondering if I was Aboriginal enough," said the artist. This seven-minute film screening daily at Screen Space expounds that journey through satire and wit, and questions the relevance of such bureaucracy. Through caricatures of Australian racism and tradition, Cope interrogates the frameworks of power and assimilation that still lay in place today. Screen Space, May 1 - 14, free Deep Soulful Sweats Ever thought your yoga class would be more entertaining if there was some good dance music cranking? Maybe you've been dissatisfied with a night clubbing because you felt disconnected from your chakras? Either way, this yoga class come dance party has all your unspoken prayers answered. That's right — it's a yoga dance party. Punters are advised to come dressed in lycra, stretch valour and the same colour clothing as your star sign (just go with it), and all other instructions will be given at the door. Though no yoga or dance experience is necessary, participants should be willing to let loose in the LED mayhem. After all, what is a yoga dance party if not the perfect place to relax? Northcote Town Hall, April 24, $15 Can We Please Play the Internet? New media artworks about "the internet" and "the Facebook" and the "total lack of privacy in our networked society leading to a enormous cultural and artistic shift in our generation" can often be a bit naff. Everything always leads to Skynet references and inevitable doomsday predictions. What's refreshing about this show is its light tone. Can We Play the Internet is a joint exhibition at West Space featuring the work of Janine DeFeo & Paul Zaba (pictured), Andrea Buren & Eleonora Sovrani, Angus Tarnawsky & Nathan Liow and Ilya Milstein. If you've ever wanted to see Google Image search results printed and mounted on all four walls of a white room, this is the show for you. West Space, April 11 - May 11, free Smell You Later The best thing about these festivals is that art pops up all over the place. A drink with friends at the festival club can easily turn into a makeshift audience for a roaming performer; at the Fringe club I was even pulled into a closet for an intimate one-on-one performance. But Next Wave is going one step further and taking art to the corridors, stairwells and lobbies of venues all over the city — furthermore, it's art you can't even see. From May 1 - 11, artists will be hiding distinctive aroma diffusers around their shows, capitalising on the strong link between scent and memory. Two weeks after your festival experience you'll smell an apple and cinnamon pie and suddenly feel compelled to talk about a particular artwork. Magic! Various loactions, May 1 -11, free Altertruism Technology, hedonism, and performance seem like the making of a great party, but the work of Brisbane collective Golden Solution is a little more complex than that. From May 2 - 10, Michael Candy, Kiah Reading and Andrew McLellan will be confronting their audience with some particularly trying social experiments. Hosting Shower Party at Goodtime Studios on May 2, the group have crafted a system where guests can serve themselves cocktails, but each drink adjusts the correspondent water level in a giant martini-shaped goldfish tank. To induce further guilt, both the lighting and music are also controlled via motion detectors in the tank. Other happenings include a drones hovering over your head at BUS Projects, and a public symposium "for the future automation of our civil life". Goodtime Studios, May 2 - 10, free The Club 3.0 This is a real life fight club. I repeat: a real life fight club. The work is brought to us by one of the festival's few international commissions — Dutch collective, New Heroes — and it looks to be every bit as gritty, dark and political as both the seminal 1996 Palahniuk novel and subsequent David Fincher film. "This is not a play," the event reads. "It's a fight club in which people can fight, talk, blow up ideas and rebuild them again. This is a club where you search for your role in society." Covering topics as dense and diverse as climate change, asylum seekers and the economic crisis, New Heroes will be calling upon willing audience members to let out frustration via their fists. But don't worry — although we may have just broken the first rule — if this is your first time at fight club, you don't have to fight. Arts House May 1 - 4 & 7 -11, $18 - $23 For a full program of events including ticketing information, check the Next Wave website.
What's big, spiky and attracts tourists from all over? Whether you grew up in the shadow of one of south-east Queensland's great tourist attractions, made the trek to the Sunshine Coast to marvel an oversized fake fruit, or always thought you'd snap a pic next to the pineapple to end all pineapples, you know the answer. Soon, however, you might be able to do more than just visit, take photos, browse the markets, meet some monkeys and eat the sweet, juicy food in question — you might be able to sleep there. Yes, glamping could be coming to the one and only Big Pineapple. If that's not news that'll make you hightail it to Nambour, then we don't know what is. With the iconic site under new ownership, the folks in charge are thinking big — well, bigger than the previous owners did, including the people responsible for building such a massive monument to a particular tropical fruit. Among the additions mooted for the 165-hectare site: a family fun park, an RV park, walking trails, outdoor sport and recreation facilities, and fancy, fancy tents so that you can stay the night. The plans are designed to help bring the Big Pineapple back to its former glory, with the 16-metre-high attraction's tourist trade not quite at previous booming levels. Since opening in 1971, the heritage-listed fruit tower has seen a few changes, opening and closing over the years, undergoing several revamps, and introducing the annual Big Pineapple Music Festival in 2013. "What we want to do is make a food-based and eco-tourism-based destination that incorporates the existing big pineapple, but adds other things ... and has outlets for local produce," co-owner Peter Kendall told ABC Sunshine Coast. "There's rainforest on the land that would lend itself to eco-walks [and] we've talked about things like zip lining." Existing favourites, such as the animal hospital and train, will be retained. And, for anyone who feels strongly about just what the Big Pineapple should add to the site, an open day will be held on February 18 for interested parties to offer their input into the new proposals. Via: ABC Sunshine Coast. Image: Holiday Point.
Have you always dreamed of having your name in lights, your face on a billboard, people screaming out your name? Usually you'd have to become mega famous to get anywhere near that level of fanfare — but at this year's Melbourne Fringe, you could get your 15 minutes of fame for very little work. This September, an ordinary Melburnian will become they city's latest celebrity in this bold and ambitious new real-world performance work from art collective Field Theory. The person — picked at random from a lottery — will have their face on the digital facade at Federation Square every day during the festival, taking the public into the lives of the mysterious individual. The piece is designed to build an icon from the ground up. ICON will come to a head on the final day of the festival, with a special finale event where you'll be able to do everything from eat the icon's favourite food to dance to their favourite music. If you can deal with that level of attention, you can put your name into the lottery until September 12.
It's no secret that we Aussies are champions in the water and now's your chance to see the champions themselves achieve their goals at the Swimming Australia World Championship Trials — with a prize package that includes tickets, accommodation and dinner for two. Aussie swimmers will be hitting the lanes at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre from Tuesday, June 13 till Sunday, June 18. The aquatic superstars will be battling it out to make it to the World Aquatics World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan in July — you can expect familiar faces like Ariarne Titmas, Mollie O'Callaghan and Kyle Chalmers (to name just a few). Specifically, our winner will receive day passes for themselves and a mate (or date) to the Swimming Australia World Championship Trials on Saturday, June 17 and Sunday, June 18, plus one night at Middle Park Hotel and dinner for two at Chez Bagou on Saturday, June 17. It's the perfect getaway in South Melbourne for any swimming lovers — or those that just love cheering on our athletes. Enter and be in with a chance to see our Aussie swimming heroes in action. [competition]901032[/competition]
Many Victorians started the new year getting reacquainted with their face masks, after mask-wearing rules were tightened on December 31. Now, the government has announced the state will revert back to its former, more relaxed set of mask regulations, which had been in place from December 6. Starting from 11.59pm this Sunday, January 17, face masks will no longer be mandatory in all public indoor settings. With many of the rules being relaxed, you'll no longer need a mask when in a restaurant, at a cafe, in a church, library or indoor workplace. Of course, under the loosened restrictions, people will still be required to don a fitted mask in certain circumstances, including when riding in a ride-share or taxi, or using public transport. Masks are also a must when inside a shopping centre and its retail stores, any large retail store over 2000 square metres, indoor markets and hospitals. Plus, the face coverings will be required at airports, as well as on all domestic flights in and out of the state. https://twitter.com/VicGovDHHS/status/1349545904928292865 While the new rules are set to be a lot more relaxed than we've become accustomed to in the past couple of weeks, you'd best not go losing the mask completely just yet — the Victorian Government is advising people to always carry one with them unless they've got a lawful reason not to. It's also still "strongly recommended" that you pop a mask on in any situation where you can't maintain 1.5-metres distance from others. New mask regulations will come into effect from 11.59pm on Sunday, January 17. For full details of the updated rules, see the Victorian Government's coronavirus website.
For local distiller and qualified medical laboratory scientist Brogan Carr, making gin hits that sweet spot right between science and art. Along with her father Simon, Carr's created three signature gins, setting out to show the world just how diverse this spirit can be. There's the juniper-forward Australia Dry Gin dubbed Everyday Salvation, a fruity new-age number called Evening Light, and the navy strength edition called Royal Blood — a savoury concoction that pulls its flavours from Australian sea parsley, saltbush and roasted wattle seed. And it's with this character-filled trio that the Carrs have launched their new Richmond gin making operation and tasting bar to the public. North Street is now home to the modern, industrial but warm, Brogan's Way Distillery. It's a welcoming space that's primed for sipping gin when the bar opens on Friday, Saturday and Sunday nights — whether enjoyed straight, as part of a tasting flight, or infused into one of the exclusive cocktails. A collaborative effort between Brogan and the legendary Shaun Byrne (Gin Palace, co-founder of Maidenii Vermouth), the cocktail menu features bitters, aperitifs and digestifs also made by the talented gin-maker. And you'll find a strong lineup of tonics from Strangelove and Capi, carefully chosen to complement those house tipples. Visitors will be able to get stuck into a range of grazing platters, antipasto boards and charcuterie plates, starring local ingredients, even including pickles made using the distillery's spent botanicals. Brogan's Way Distillery is open 5–11pm on Fridays and Saturdays and 12–6pm on Sundays at 61 North Street, Richmond.
Victoria's Hot Chocolate Festival is back again this August. And, like last year, it's also bringing the decadence to you. Whether you're a Melburnian who can't make it to one of the three venues outside of town, or you're located elsewhere and you really love hot chocolate, Yarra Valley Chocolaterie is churning out boxes filled with creative hot choccie flavours. Like this year's physical fest, the flavour range is being released weekly — so you have an excuse to order more than a few boxes. To kick things off, there's the Tim Tam caramel bomb, which turns caramel Tim Tams into a ball and serves it with a caramel hot chocolate. Also tempting: the Devonshire kronut version features a berry hot chocolate topped with — you guessed it — a kronut. And, the Snickertini includes shots of Baileys and vodka, while the Dreamtime hot chocolate features lemon myrtle. Fingers crossed that fan favourite flavours like Tim Tam Slam and Golden Nutella Spoon will pop up throughout the month, along with the more adventurous likes of If You Like Piña Colada, Zingy Chilli and Cherry Matcha. All limited-edition hot chocolates come with an extra shot of hot couverture chocolate and handcrafted marshmallow, too. Plus, in previous years, some of the highlights arrived with exploding marshmallows, melting chocolate discs and truffle balls. If the eight-flavour pack each week is a little much — it'll set you back $49.95 — you can also order individual varieties for $6.50 a pop. The boxes are available to order until the end of August, and there's a flat-rate shipping fee of $15 to anywhere in Australia.
'Tis the season for gorging on chocolate treats with reckless abandon — and local family-run chocolatiers Melbourne Cocoa are making it even easier to get your mitts on their limited-edition Black Label Easter range. They're popping up at Preston Market for the occasion, slinging signature goodies on Wednesday, April 5, Thursday, April 6 and Saturday, April 8. Whether you're hunting down Easter gifts or stockpiling choccy for yourself, this little shop is serving up the goods. It'll have the full latest Easter range on offer, including themed chocolate blocks and a variety of eggs, big and small. Flavours range from cookies and cream, to rocky road, to a sprinkle-encrusted egg inspired by the classic Freckle lolly. What's more, you'll find an exclusive new creation made just for the pop-up — a decadent red velvet egg incorporating notes of vanilla and a sweet cream cheese decorative finish.
It's not like you need an excuse to get stuck into some hummus, but this week, Bar Saracen Head Chef Tom Sarafian is giving you a few extra reasons to load up on his restaurant's famed chickpea dish anyway. The kitchen has been quiet at the Punch Lane venue for the past few weeks, with the doors closed to both dine-in guests and takeaway orders during this current stretch of restrictions. Which has left Sarafian with a little extra time up his sleeve. And that time's now being used to whip up batches of signature hummus to raise much-needed funds for those impacted by last week's devastating Beirut explosion. The Lebanese capital holds a special place in the chef's heart and has been the catalyst for some of his best work. "I honestly wouldn't have learnt to make this hummus (or a lot of my dishes) and share it with Melbourne if it wasn't for my trips to Beirut, and the hospitality and generosity of its people," said Sarafian in a statement. https://www.instagram.com/p/CDpx6bxjH3E/ So now, for the first time in a little while, you'll be able to get your mitts on Bar Saracen hummus by the tub, all for an excellent cause. The 300-gram serves come paired with sumac pita crisps, clocking in at $20, with all proceeds going to Lebanese Red Cross. If you live within ten kilometres of the CBD venue, you can have a tub dropped to your door for free, with complimentary home deliveries running Sunday, August 16, and Monday, August 17. Can't wait that long and live within five kilometres of the restaurant? You can swing past Bar Saracen between noon and 3pm this Thursday to Saturday, to nab some fundraiser hummus straight from the source. If that's not in your allowed radius, thankfully a stack of other venues will also be selling the hummus tubs (for $15 with no crisps) this weekend, including Baker Bleu, All Are Welcome, Wild Life Bakery, Meatsmith, Falco Bakery, Spring Street Grocer and Park Street Pasta & Wine. Check in with your closest to see when they're open and whether they've got stock. Hummus le Beirut is available to buy online now, and can be picked up from Bar Saracen from 12–3pm, August 13–15 or home-delivered from August 16–17.
