You've watched your way through every episode of Stranger Things to date, including the just-dropped first part of the show's fourth season. Thanks to your latest binge, you've now got Kate Bush's 'Running Up That Hill' stuck in your brain permanently, too. You've eaten a demogorgon burger, seen an Upside Down rift open up in Bondi and played Netflix's Stranger Things mobile game as well. Yes, there's no shortage of ways to indulge your love for the 80's-set streaming hit — but only one involves both singing and laughing. Stranger Things is heading to the stage — well, Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical is, to be exact. Because every popular TV show and movie seems to tread the boards eventually, whether in a serious (Back to the Future, Moulin Rouge!, Amelie) or satirical (Friends, Shrek, The Simpsons) guise, everyone's favourite tale about kids fighting monsters in Hawkins, Indiana has also made that leap. Even better: it is now venturing Down Under for the first time. Already an award-winner in the US, where it picked up seven 2021 BroadwayWorld Off-Broadway Awards — including Best New Musical (Off-Broadway) — Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical retells the tale we all already know, but on-stage, with amusing songs and while making fun of the whole thing. So, you'll be watching Mike, Eleven, Dustin, Lucas and the rest of the Hawkins gang navigate the wild antics that've made their town the worst place to grow up in since Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Sunnydale, and both tapping your toes to tunes and giggling along. Obviously, creepy creatures are a feature — singing and dancing ones, in fact. And, so are pop-culture references aplenty, big hair, throwback fashions, a synth-heavy soundtrack and possibly justice for Barb. Penned by Jonathan Hogue — book, music, lyrics and all — Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical will make its Australian debut thanks to Melbourne's Salty Theatre, with co-founders Ashley Taylor Tickell directing and Sarahlouise Younger assisting. So far, only dates for the Victorian capital have been announced — so lock November 3–19 in your diary, and get ready to hear a song-filled account of Hawkins' weirdness at Meat Market Melbourne. Tickets aren't yet on sale, but you can sign up to be notified when they do at the production's Australian website Fingers crossed that Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical eventually brings the Upside Down to other Aussie cities, obviously. Stranger Sings! The Parody Musical will play Meat Market Melbourne from November 3–19, 2022. For more information, or to sign up to be notified about tickets, head to the production's Australian website. Images: Bruce Glikas / Danny Hildago.
Summer has landed at last and with it, all the fun and frivolity that goes hand in hand with the silly season. It's time for kicking back with mates and soaking up the sunshine and happy vibes of December, with top-notch tipples and cracking eats. And Melbourne's got no shortage of bars serving up exactly this situation. So, to help see you through the season in style, we've teamed up with Pernod Ricard, purveyors of festive tipples like Chivas, St Hugo and Mumm Champagne, and created a stellar lineup of spots to hit with your crew this December — from contemporary feasting halls to famous cocktail bars where indulgence is the name of the game EAU DE VIE 'Tis the season for quaffing stand-out signature cocktails and luckily, you'll find some of Melbourne's most ingenious concoctions at laneway legend Eau de Vie. With its dapper old-world charm and penchant for great booze, this destination promises to lend a sophisticated edge to any festive season adventures. Head in with the crew, commandeer a plush little corner and prepare for a flavour-filled evening. We love the nostalgia-inducing sips like the Popcorn Flip — a sweet fusion of Martell VS cognac, honey, white chocolate and popcorn — best enjoyed alongside a couple of gourmet grazing platters. Right now, bites like smoked duck liver parfait, freshly shucked oysters and an oozy baked camembert have those party vibes on lock. [caption id="attachment_662771" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kate Shanasy.[/caption] MJOLNER If ever there was a place made for sumptuous festive feasts with friends, it's viking-inspired CBD spot, Mjolner. Upstairs lies a contemporary Scandi-style restaurant complete with beautiful private dining spaces, while a moody basement bar below proves the ideal pit-stop for those post-dinner libations. Reigning supreme on the drinks list is an impressive, Thor-worthy whisky lineup, with iterations from every corner of the globe. Match the three-course banquet menu with a quality dram like the Chivas Regal 18-Year-Old, or indulge in a signature concoction like The Raider — a punchy blend with Jameson whiskey, rum, rotisseried pineapple syrup and lactart. THE ALBION The newly relaunched Albion Hotel has fast become a South Melbourne hotspot, boasting a key DJ program and a rooftop primed for sun-drenched summer socialising. A haven for afternoon wind-downs and rollicking weekend parties alike, it's got something for just about every taste. To really celebrate the holiday season, venture upstairs, grab a bottle or two of Mumm Champagne to share with your favourites and enjoy the Saturday night soundtrack of funk and disco jams. The food offering is snappy, casual and replete with summer vibes — think, chicken karaage poké bowls and first-rate cheese boards, best enjoyed with a sunset tipple in hand. ENTRECOTE To infuse your summer season with a touch of French elegance, look no further than Domain Road darling Entrecote. An all-day haunt inspired by the corner cafes of Paris, this beauty sits overlooking the Royal Botanic Gardens, dishing up good times and upscale fare from breakfast through till late. On weekends, a Champagne-matched bottomless brunch offering is hard to pass up. Or, you can make like a true Francophile and venture in for the daily 'apéro' hour from 4–6pm for an afternoon spent unwinding over coupes of Mumm Champagne, charcuterie boards and freshly shucked oysters sounds like a pretty enviable summer celebration to us. [caption id="attachment_680289" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Giulia Morlando.[/caption] WOOLSHED With its primo setting, collection of openair waterfront spaces and broad-ranging food offering, it's not hard to see why Docklands' Woolshed remains a firm festive season favourite. From after-work hangs to sit-down feasts, it's got the mood, food and drinks to suit. Wine-lovers are especially spoiled, with an impressive selection of Australian and New Zealand drops to choose from, including gems like Jacob's Creek Double Barrel, which has been finished in whisky barrels, and St Hugo cabernet sauvignon from the Barossa Valley. Alongside a sophisticated a la carte menu, the kitchen dishes up an excellent lineup of share-friendly bar snacks — think beef tartare, Kampot pepper squid and a daily changing cheese board selection, which will pair well with the aforementioned vino. Start planning your festive hangs — Christmas will be here before you know it. And if you're entertaining at home or just having a Sunday arvo barbie down at the beach, waltz on into any Cellarbrations, The Bottle-O, IGA Liquor Stores or Big Bargain Bottleshop, grab any two Pernod products listed here and go in the draw to win a $500 travel voucher, offered every day until Christmas.
Melburnians, when it comes to burgers, puppies and glamping, you absolutely can't get enough. And now another opportunity to disappear into a bell tent has arisen. This time, you'll be heading to Terindah Estate, a winery on the Bellarine Peninsula, 20 minutes' drive east of Geelong and 80 minutes' southwest of Melbourne. Terindah has partnered with Twilight Glamping to bring you Glamping Amongst The Vines, a pop of up 15 luxury bell tents. Perched near a private beach, this temporary village overlooks epic views of Port Phillip Bay, backdropped by the Melbourne skyline. The scene is particularly dramatic, come sunrise and sunset. In between soaking up nature, kick back on a queen-sized bed (or a twin, if you're travelling with a mate), draped in luxurious linen and plenty of cosy blankets. Every tent also comes with a jute rug, chairs, side table, mirror, towels and USB-powered lantern. Shower facilities are also located on site. There's no need to cook – nor go anywhere – if you're not in the mood. For $25 per person, Terindah will deliver a French breakfast basket, packed with fresh pastries, chocolate bread, orange juice and coffee ($25 per person). To keep you going through the day, you can add a picnic hamper ($100 for two), crowded with terrines, smoked and cured meats, fresh sourdough bread, Manzanillo olives, cornichons and pickles. You can choose to devour this on the beach, or eat it amongst the wines. Another culinary option is The Shed, Terindah's onsite restaurant, which is open for brekkie on weekends and dinner on Saturday nights. If you don't have a car, you also have the option of catching a ferry to the new beachside glamping site. Jump on the Port Phillip Ferry at the Docklands and you'll be picked up when it docks at Bellarine's Portarlington Tents are $200 per night. Images: Ferne Millen.
Wes Anderson and symmetry are virtually synonymous. Wes Anderson and pastel hues, too. And, Wes Anderson and stars such as Jason Schwartzman (I Love That for You), Tilda Swinton (Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio), Ed Norton (Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery), Adrien Brody (See How They Run), Willem Dafoe (The Northman), Tony Revolori (Servant) and Jeff Goldblum (Jurassic World Dominion) are frequently (repeatedly, even) mentioned in the same breath. All of the above gets a big tick in the trailer for the filmmaker's latest film Asteroid City, but so is something else. If you've ever wondered what a Wes Anderson movie would look like with aliens descending on a desert town, you're about to find out. Two years after The French Dispatch hit cinemas, Anderson is returning to the big screen, with his 11th feature hitting cinemas in 2023. And, that movie now has a trailer that is about as Wes Anderson as Wes Anderson gets — a description that every trailer for his flicks, and every picture itself, keeps earning because it keeps proving true. Releasing on June 16 in the US, and August 10 in Australia and New Zealand, Asteroid City sports a Moonrise Kingdom-esque premise. The flick follows a Junior Stargazer/Space Cadet convention in the titular (and fictional) American town in 1955. Students and their parents descend on the contest from around the country, all in the name of scholarly competition; however, then world-changing events shake things up. Anderson isn't one for making the same thing twice, of course, with aliens invading Asteroid City's plot (which was penned by the filmmaker with his frequent writing partner Roman Coppola, who also co-wrote Moonrise Kingdom and The Darjeeling Limited, and has a story credit on Isle of Dogs and The French Dispatch). The trailer for the film firmly gives it its own vibe, too. That's present in the imagery alone, which makes ample use of desert tones to stunning — and yes, sometimes symmetrical — effect. Alongside Schwartzman, Swinton, Norton, Brody, Dafoe, Revolori and Goldblum, fellow Anderson regulars Scarlett Johansson (Black Widow), Jeffrey Wright (The Batman), Liev Schreiber (Ray Donovan), Stephen Park (Warrior) and Bryan Cranston (Better Call Saul) help bring the story to life. They're joined by Tom Hanks (A Man Called Otto), Margot Robbie (Babylon), Steve Carell (The Patient), Matt Dillon (Proxima), Hong Chau (The Whale), Hope Davis (Succession), Rupert Friend (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Maya Hawke (Stranger Things), Jake Ryan (Uncut Gems), Grace Edwards (Call Jane), Aristou Meehan (The Contractor), Sophia Lillis (IT: Chapter Two), Ethan Lee (Mr Robinson) and Rita Wilson (Kimi). Check out the trailer for Asteroid City below: Asteroid City will release in Australia and New Zealand on August 10, 2023. Images: Focus Features.
The Irishman screens in cinemas from Thursday, November 7, and will also stream via Netflix from Wednesday, November 27. Is Martin Scorsese cinema's foremost purveyor of pissing contests? In the posturing men that fill the filmmaker's frames, penis-measuring and ego battles keep bubbling up. The urge to assert one's superiority and claim one's domain pulsates through gangster classics such as Mean Streets, Goodfellas and The Departed. It's also evident in The Wolf of Wall Street, which takes aim at the need to one-up everyone and everything. But, spread across six decades and told with a deeply melancholy sense of contemplation, this notion seeps through The Irishman with particular weight and purpose. It's impossible not to notice it when, surrounded by mob heavies on one side and a corrupt labor union leader on the other, the film's central hitman observes these two opposing forces agitating for supremacy — by any means possible, and frequently to their own detriment. That hitman is Frank Sheeran (Robert De Niro), after the World War II veteran-turned-truck driver crosses paths with Russell Bufalino (Joe Pesci). Taken under the crime boss's wing, he rises through the ranks as far as any non-Sicilian can — becoming, at his mentor's behest, the mob's conduit to outspoken Teamsters head Jimmy Hoffa (Al Pacino). Adapted by Steven Zaillian (The Night Of) from Charles Brandt's 2004 non-fiction text I Heard You Paint Houses, Scorsese's film is told from the octogenarian Sheeran's perspective, as he reflects on his life's volatile ups and downs while remembering a pivotal road trip, and the events that led to it. It's no spoiler to say that, in bookending scenes, he's whiling away his remaining days in a nursing home. And even if you don't know your 20th century American history, it's no spoiler to say that Sheeran's cronies don't all enjoy the same fate. Sometimes, Scorsese introduces bit-players via text outlining their name, date of death and its cause, stressing the cutthroat nature of the gangster world. In the process, he illustrates the cost of behaviour that's as common as breathing in The Irishman, and that his protagonist becomes accustomed to. As Sheeran progresses from stealing steaks to grease mob wheels, to "painting houses" (read: killing), to taking on a union role to help control the headstrong Hoffa, he's thrust into the thick of ego-driven conflict. He not only adapts, but prospers at the expense of many a life, with this violent true tale doubling as an indictment of the destructive deeds and mindsets that remain baked into society. It's telling that, when a remorseful Sheeran finally confronts the fallout from these constant power struggles, he's no longer cool, calm and collected. It's just as potent when, after seeing her dad at his worst, his daughter Peggy (played by Lucy Gallina as a child and Anna Paquin as an adult) makes the movie's biggest statement by shunning this dog-eat-dog regime, and refusing to even really speak. Scorsese ruminates on the consequences of acquiescing, and the strength required to avoid being complicit — ideas that reach far wider than Sheeran's story. The director has probed the murky basis of American life in complex gangster flicks for half a century, with The Irishman proving a meaty musing on the subject as filtered through one mobster's recollection. And, what a gangster flick this is. Nearing 80 himself, Scorsese is as stunning a filmmaker as ever. The Irishman swaps the endless energy of his earlier output for a more patient but still lively unravelling across three-and-a-half hours — and revelling in the minutiae, hearing conversations that seem to go nowhere, and spying the cycles and repetition is all by design. Stylistically, the film is classic Scorsese from the opening tracking shot that recalls Goodfellas through to the devastating final image, all thanks to cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto (Silence). As she's done since Who's That Knocking at My Door and Raging Bull, editor Thelma Schoonmaker not only gives the movie its pace, but moves seamlessly between time periods as Sheeran's story jumps back and forth between decades. What would a Scorsese film be without his on-screen muses, though? De Niro is a powerhouse, taking the ebbs and flows of Sheeran's life in his stride, and acting his way past the barely noticeable de-aging special effects that help wind back the clock. Somehow, this is Scorsese and Pacino's first pairing, but the director and actor are on the same wavelength, especially when they're at their most boisterous. Harvey Keitel steps in front of the filmmaker's lens for the sixth time, and Vinyl's Bobby Cannavale and Ray Romano make an imprint as fellow mobsters, too. If one star acts as weathervane for The Irishman, though, it's the inimitable Pesci in his welcome return. He has barely acted since Casino, and he's in quietly menacing rather than frenetically ferocious mode, which sums up this compelling epic perfectly. Gangster chest-beating resonates through every second of the phenomenal crime drama, which earns its lengthy running time — but the toll that's left unsaid echoes far louder. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHXxVmeGQUc
The top end of the Northern Territory is postcard-perfect Australia — World Heritage-listed national parks, islands, wetlands, pristine beaches and off-the-beaten-track (and croc-free) swimming holes are all within its borders. And Darwin is its gateway. Darwin is Australia's only tropical capital city. With hot, balmy summers and dry, sunny winters, it feels worlds away from the inner-city hustle of our nation's other capitals. On top of its incredible natural beauty, there are plenty of action-packed adventures to be had. From a helicopter pub crawl around the Darwin region to an outdoor deckchair cinema and a music festival right on the beach, the city is the perfect launchpad. Really, it's the perfect summer getaway for when it's cold everywhere else and it's right on our doorstep. Go on, get acquainted with Australia's Top End. SAIL INTO THE SUNSET Darwin is a city known for its harbour and close proximity to the crystal-clear Timor Sea, so kicking back on a cruise is a must when it comes to exploring. Grab a beer and sail into the sunset. You won't have a care in the world with that balmy breeze and endless ocean as far as the eye can see. There's a variety of sailing tours available from Darwin Harbour, lasting from a few hours to adventurous overnight and multi-day trips. But if you're just after a relaxing mini jaunt, the sunset harbour cruise is a winner. Operated by local company Darwin Harbour Cruises, you can choose to either just jump on board and see the sites or indulge in a sunset buffet dinner while being ferried around. Darwin Harbour Cruises sunset tours typically run between April and December, from 6–8.30pm daily. For more information and online bookings, visit the website. SWIM WITH CROCS No trip to Darwin is complete without saying hello to a few crocodiles. Get up close and personal with the prehistoric beasts at Crocosaurus Cove — a croc and reptile haven in the heart of Darwin. It houses the world's largest display of Australian reptiles and is home to Australia's only crocodile dive for the Steve Irwin enthusiasts among us. If the Cage of Death is too far out of your comfort zone, there's a bevvy of other scale-studded attractions like the aforementioned reptile house, croc feeding shows — where you'll see Burt (the star of iconic Australian film Crocodile Dundee) — a freshwater aquarium, a swimming pool and a chance to hold a baby croc. Better to see a croc here than while sunning yourself at the beach. Visit the website for more details and bookings. BOOGIE ON THE BEACH Going to music festivals isn't strictly a summer activity — at least, not in Darwin. Mid-May sees the return of Darwin's huge one-day music shindig, the People's Choice BASSINTHEGRASS festival. This year's lineup features a stack of ace musicians, including Hilltop Hoods, Nick Murphy FKA Chet Faker, Amy Shark, Broods, Meg Mac, PNAU and more. Plus, for the first time in its 17 years, BASSINTHEGRASS will take place at Mindil Beach. So, in between catching your favourite artists, you can gaze out at the Timor Sea and forget that winter is waiting for you back home, as you soak up bucketloads of Top End sunshine. BASSINTHEGRASS 2019 will take place from 11am–11pm on Saturday, May 18. For the full lineup and to purchase tickets, visit the website. WATCH A MOVIE UNDER THE STARS Run by the local not-for-profit film society, Darwin's Deckchair Cinema grew from the desire to screen films that were not otherwise available in the city. Since it began in the 90s, it has become a go-to activity for locals and passersby alike, hosting an eclectic mix of films in a beautiful outdoor setting. Based on the edge of the harbour, Deckchair Cinema is decorated with fairy lights, artworks by local artists and, of course, deckchairs. There's also a licensed bar and food by local caterers, plus complimentary cushions and (very mandatory) bug repellent. It's the ideal balmy evening activity. Deckchair Cinema runs from mid-April to mid-November with daily screenings. Visit the website for more information and the current program. VISIT DARWIN'S MASSIVE WATERFRONT PRECINCT Darwin Convention Centre, shopping, restaurants, a park, swimming lagoons and a wave pool are all part of the mammoth precinct along Darwin's harbour. The lagoons and wave pool are notable drawcards, offering croc-and-stinger-free cooldowns in the Top End heat. Plus, it's home to some of Darwin's top eateries, including casual Vietnamese eatery CHOW!, Il Lido and the luxe Oyster Bar, which boasts waterfront views and some of the best seafood in town. For more information on the Waterfront Precinct, visit the website here. WANDER THROUGH MINDIL BEACH SUNSET MARKETS Held every Thursday and Sunday night from late-April to October, Mindil Beach Sunset Markets are undoubtedly Darwin's largest and most popular markets. Alongside arts, crafts, and entertainment stalls, there are over 60 food vendors offering up cuisines from almost every international corner — Mexico, Greece, Turkey, Sri Lanka, South America, North Africa, India and across South East Asia. Enjoy a picnic on the beach, then check out what the jewellers, tarot readers, indigenous artists, tailors and leatherworkers have on offer. Oh, and expect street theatre, magicians and plenty of musicians to keep you entertained while you peruse. For more information, visit the website here. [caption id="attachment_718143" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Emma Pritchett[/caption] EXPLORE KAKADU NATIONAL PARK AND STAY IN A LUXURY SAFARI LODGE If you're planning a visit to Darwin without venturing to one of its surrounding national parks — Litchfield, Mary River and Kakadu — you're really missing a trick. Australia's Top End is abundant with wildlife, exotic flora, rock art, waterfalls, floodplains, colossal termite mounds and swimming holes — it's some of the most diverse terrains in the country. World-Heritage-listed Kakadu, the largest national park in Australia, is 253 kilometres east of Darwin. Cruise down the remarkable Yellow Waters, visit Nourlangie Rock — famed for its indigenous rock art — and see some crocs and Australia's most diverse bird population. Be sure to fit in a visit to Warradjan Aboriginal Cultural Centre and dive into a few of the croc-free swimming holes, too. While day tours from Darwin exist, we recommend going all out and staying at Bamurru Plains — Australia's version of an upscale safari lodge — situated on the Mary River floodplains on the edge of Kakadu. Nine bungalows, artfully kitted out in timber and corrugated iron, are enclosed in mesh that offers sheer views over the wetlands. Be warned though — it'll set you back a cool $1360 per night. Visit Kakadu National Park's website for more information. For bookings and more information on Bamurru Plains go here. GO ON A HELICOPTER PUB CRAWL Being a tourist is thirsty work. Luckily, Airborne Solutions has got you with its helicopter pub crawl, which stops at some of the region's more remote watering holes. While up in the air, you'll see unparalleled views of the Top End's natural beauty, covering Darwin, its harbour and coastlines, eucalypt woodlands, termite mounds, billabongs and mangroves. Offered as both a half-day and full-day tour, this pub crawl is sure to get you rubbing shoulders with some quintessentially Aussie characters. You'll visit The Lodge of Dundee, Crab Claw Island Resort, Darwin River Tavern and Goat Island Lodge, before deciding between Humpty Doo Hotel and Noonamah Tavern for your final stop. Although the tours don't come cheap — $795 each for a half-day and $975 a pop for the full Monty — it's a pretty fair dinkum deal for a chopper ride and a beer (or few). For more information and bookings visit the website. To help get you to Darwin this season, and BASSINTHEGRASS festival, Northern Territory Major Events has partnered with Virgin Australia to release a bunch of discounted holiday packages. For more information and to book a flight and accommodation package, head this way. Top Image: Emma Pritchett.
Melbourne's change of seasons and weather shake-ups always inspire a fresh raft of offerings and events, sending locals chasing new ways to best soak up the city. Now, after a long, sleepy winter, sights are firmly set on spring and the promise of al fresco cocktails, sunset sessions and rooftop visits that it brings. So, we've partnered with Tanqueray to pull together a lineup of activities that'll see you enjoying the best of Melbourne this season with, of course, a gin in hand. SIP COCKTAILS ON CHAPEL STREET Make tracks to these celebrated Melbourne bars and enjoy negronis on tap. Melbourne has no shortage of hidden cocktail bars well worth the effort of locating, but none dish up those spring vibes quite as well as Jungle Boy. Tucked away behind a coolroom door out the back of a Chapel Street takeaway joint, this one will remind you just how strong Melbourne's bar game is. Wrangle a spot among the ferns, and get acquainted with this banger of a booze list — think, Tiki drinks in proper ceramic mugs and a stand-out Tanqueray negroni on tap. Afterwards, cruise across the street to try for a table at fellow Windsor hotspot, Mr Miyagi. This neon-drenched bar is your go-to for mod Japanese fusion fare that pops with creativity. Feast on dishes like miso-glazed pork belly pancakes and salmon nori tacos, married with one of the bar's crafty signature gin concoctions — like a frozen G&T or salted watermelon martini. HEAD FOR A FEAST THEN A SPOT OF THEATRE Settle in at one of Melbourne's best fine diners for a wattle seed negroni, then see a show. There's one surefire way to reawaken your tastebuds after a long and uninspiring Melbourne winter, and that's with a mind-blowing feed at somewhere like Lûmé. One of the city's most innovative fine diners, this South Melbourne restaurant by chef-owner Shaun Quade packs a serious punch, from the thought-provoking fare to the clever use of native ingredients to the edible herb garden gracing the back wall. Not to mention, it's also home to cocktail master Orlando Marzo, who was recently crowned the World's Best Bartender. Settle in for a pre-theatre feast, perhaps matched with a wattle seed negroni — Bar Lûmé's inventive blend of Tanqueray No. Ten, roasted wattleseed, vermouth and Campari. After dinner, a quick stroll will bring you to Southbank bar Blondie, where you can always count on some live jazz and a top-notch gin martini. Stop in for a drink before you head to Southbank Theatre, home of the Melbourne Theatre Company, for a show — right now, compelling play The Architect (showing until Wednesday, October 31) is pulling plenty of applause. TAKE A TRIP TO WONDERLAND Venture down the rabbit hole at this immersive exhibition. ACMI's Wonderland exhibition is now in its final few weeks, so it's time to pick a date and head along to check out the immersive celebration of Lewis Carroll's famed tale before it wraps on Sunday, October 7. In the spirit of spring, you can even round out your adventures with a lavish high tea as part of the exhibition's Mad Hatter sessions, featuring a spread of sweet treats, savoury nibbles and a special choc-berry brew from T2. Afterwards, balance out your time indoors by soaking up some of that long-awaited spring sunshine, drink in hand. Sitting right in the heart of the Yarra, Ponyfish Island is a primo spot for an al fresco gin this time of year — match yours with a toasted sandwich while enjoying a spot of Southbank people-watching. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Fortyfive Downstairs.[/caption] CATCH SOME EXPERIMENTAL ART, FINISH WITH ROOFTOP VIBES Experience some of Melbourne's famous creative edge, with a visit to Flinders Lane gallery and art space Fortyfive Downstairs. Champion of the experimental, independent and often challenging, this non-profit hub is a haven for any contemporary art lover. Right now, see renowned local artist Marco Luccio's evocative ode to The Big Apple with his Manhattan Dreaming exhibition, or escape to the downstairs theatre to take in Amelia Roper's production Lottie in the Afternoon — an edgy comedy billed as having "a Seinfeld-meets-Samuel Beckett feel". Once you're feeling sufficiently cultured and loaded with inspiration, let your hunt for a post-show tipple draw you around the corner to Siglo. The longstanding rooftop bar has undeniable charms, stellar views across to Parliament House and a penchant for well-made classic cocktails. Pull up a seat on the open-air terrace and match a few of those legendary house-made sausage rolls with a perfectly balanced negroni or gin martini. [caption id="" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Arbory Bar.[/caption] DINE AL FRESCO BY THE RIVER Right now, Melbourne's lauded art scene is packing even more goodness than usual, with more than 200 works from New York's iconic Museum of Modern Art on show at our own National Gallery of Victoria. You've got a couple more weeks to dive into MoMA at NGV: 130 Years of Modern and Contemporary Art before it heads back stateside, and you don't want to miss out on a culture fix of this size. Take a friend, then debrief over a springtime jaunt through the nearby Queen Victoria Gardens. Afterwards, a quick wander over the Southbank Pedestrian Bridge will deliver you into the arms of Arbory Bar — the riverside bar and eatery that stretches an impressive 100 metres along the Yarra. Nab yourself a prime al fresco position and launch into the new seasonal menu, filled with delights like tempura zucchini flowers and a soft shell crab salad. A couple of barrel-aged negronis, topped with Tanqueray, vermouth and Campari, should round out the fun. Celebrate the return of warmer, sunnier days with a Tanqueray tipple in hand at home or around your city.
At this point, winter is but a distant memory. Long live summer. But if you can think back to those days when your sunnies and togs were still in hibernation, you may recall a few key outdoor spots had emerged onto the scene. Some classics were renovated, some rooftops were revealed and some Latin American eateries opened to serve their treats on the streets. Perhaps you visited a few; perhaps the cold chill whisked these names right out of your mind. Either way, we're here to remind you of the new(ish) outdoor spots to head for summer hangs this season. To help you plan the perfect al fresco eve, we've put together a list of Melbourne's new, hot but breezy spots where you can go from sunset and well into the night. There's a limited window to soak up all the vitamin D before that chill begins to creep in again, so get out there and enjoy the sunshine — and don't forget your hat.
Victoria's High Country is one of the first places we think of when planning an escape from the city. When winter hits, these snow-cloaked mountains become a wonderland of cold weather experiences. From dogsledding to wintery cheese adventures to world-class alpine resorts, the snow-based activities are virtually limitless. Since 1973, Macpac has been kitting out adventurers with the latest technical clothing to protect you from whatever harsh conditions you encounter. So, together, we've picked out five of the best experiences you can organise right now for your winter getaway this year. We've also included some packing tips — because when sweeping backcountry trails, you need to make sure you have the right gear. [caption id="attachment_669834" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Visit Victoria[/caption] SNOWSHOE YOUR WAY TO CHEESE FONDUE This isn't quite your average wine and cheese night. The Snowshoe to Cheese Fondue adventure leads you through the snow gums, concluding with some high-quality French cheese and a delightful three-course dinner. After departing at sunset, you'll follow your dedicated guide through a 30-minute snowshoe tour before arriving at a remote eco-village. Find a warm spot inside the central tipi and indulge in a spectacular meal. Up in the ice peaks, you'll also learn the culinary secrets behind making traditional fondue while sipping a glass of Scandinavian-style spiced wine by the outdoor fire. For adventurers who want to take their wintertime journey to the next level, you can also opt to spend the night in a plush alpine dome. Pack this: Macpac Men's & Women's Quest Hoody, $199.99 [caption id="attachment_669851" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Visit Victoria[/caption] LET HUSKIES GUIDE YOU THROUGH THE ALPS Among the unique activities on offer in Australia's winter wonderland, one of the best ways to experience the alpine region is going dogsledding with a pack of huskies. The Howling Huskies is one of Australia's most prominent dogsledding services. Take your pick from seven incredible tours, ranging from rapid 30-minute trips to epic four-hour ventures that include traipsing through the snowy countryside along the nation's longest commercial dogsled trail. This great alpine adventure is possible at both Mount Baw Baw and Mount Hotham, and each offers its own maze of backcountry trails and special panoramic views. The husky squad is made up of 58 dogs altogether, with 47 of those rescued over the last few years. The temperature may be icy, but these doggos will give you all the warm and fuzzy feels. Pack this: Macpac Piste Gloves Unisex, $59.99 SNOWBOARD WITH AN OLYMPIC CHAMPION Falls Creek is quite possibly Victoria's most picturesque snowcapped location, featuring striking rolling hills, towering snow gums and a variety of charming stays. This section of the Alpine National Park boasts 450 hectares of skiable terrain and 90 awesome runs for snowboarders to test out. The Backcountry Tours with Steve Lee will whisk you away with the three-time Winter Olympian and legendary free-rider to visit the mountain's remote open bowls and vertigo-inducing steeps and chutes for an action-packed day. You don't have to be a pro — Falls Creek has some great runs for beginners such as the Wombat's Ramble, which is Australia's longest at just over two kilometres. Pack this: Macpac Powder Ski Jacket Men's & Women's, $349.99 [caption id="attachment_717523" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Visit Victoria[/caption] CROSS-COUNTRY SKI THROUGH SNOWY MEADOWS When it comes to cross-country skiing, Lake Mountain is the third most visited destination in the world for this gut-busting activity. The rugged landscape hosts a sprawling network of ski trails spread across the mountain, which both beginners and expert skiers are more than welcome to come and explore. As the closest snow resort to Melbourne, Lake Mountain is home to 30 kilometres of groomed trails. Meanwhile, a further 7 kilometres of ungroomed tracks present more of a challenge for the well-versed skier. After a morning of activity, warm up and share a relaxing glass of wine at Lake Mountain Resort cafe. Pack this: Macpac Tech Ski Socks, $34.99 [caption id="attachment_628046" align="aligncenter" width="1920"] Andrew Railton[/caption] SKI AND SPA AT MOUNT BULLER Mount Buller is undoubtedly one of Victoria's (and Australia's, for that matter) most popular winter destinations. It presents snow lovers with a variety of slopes and terrains that stretch across the enormous mountainside. Whether you're just starting out or have grown up attached to a pair of skis, Mount Buller is bound to have a run that suits your skill level. Particularly popular amongst skiers, Mount Buller features 300 hectares of snowy scenery for you to explore. Once you've had enough action for the day, warm yourself up with dinner and drinks at one of 30 bars or restaurants situated nearby. More than just a snow sports destination, Mount Buller also offers a luxe spa resort, a cinema, a museum and even a sculpture park for when your body needs a break from the slopes. Pack this: Macpac Merino 220 Merino Baselayers, $109.99
What is the one thing better than something excellent? Two excellent things merged into something incredible. That is the beauty of the mash-up, providing the best of both worlds inside a brand new world. We should all say a deafening thank you to all those inspired enough to say 'por qué no las dos' when confronted by the dilemma of choice, who create something ingenious for us all to enjoy. Now, inspired by Red Bull Flying Bach's (think Bach meets breakdancing) forthcoming tour of Australia, we've gathered the top ten mash-ups of anything ever for you. Some you may be pretty familiar with; others may blow your mind. BRUNCH When someone suggests brunch, I get exactly this excited. While this list is not hierarchical, brunch is the greatest mash-up ever. Combining the best elements of breakfast (the food) and the temporal qualities of lunch (that it isn't early), there is no greater meal in culinary history. Brinner deserves an honourable mention here, but given brunch's ability to cure any hangover and save your Sunday, it has to win, hands down. Whoever decided to put the likes of pancakes, bacon and a cheeky bowl of Coco Pops on the menu after a much-deserved sleep-in deserves all of the Nobel prizes. https://youtube.com/watch?v=yfG94k41MrI GIRL TALK When most people think of a mash-up, their brain takes them to the musical kind. In fact googling 'mash-up' returns page after page of remixes. Some are awful, others aren't too bad, and then there are those that excel, and they are made by artists such as Girl Talk. Having sampled songs for over a decade, Girl Talk (otherwise known as Gregg Michael Gillis) knows what he is doing, seamlessly blending around a dozen songs per track into his own musical masterpiece. While hip-hop in the 1970s brought sampling to the fore, artists such as Girl Talk really laid the foundation for the modern mash-up, allowing songs that shouldn't belong together to fuse perfectly into songs such as this. RED BULL FLYING BACH This is a serious clash of cultures, a performance where Bach meets breakdancing and produces brilliance that "turns the international classical world upside down". It is really no surprise it has been so successful; it features music from arguably the greatest composer of all time (who happens to be German) expressed physically by four-times breakdancing world champions Flying Steps (also German). No coincidence, just a collaboration that shatters the suggestion that breakdancing and Bach don't blend and thrusts the cohesion of the classic and the contemporary into the present. The best part? It's coming to Australia, visiting Sydney September 10-12, Brisbane on September 24-26 before heading south to run in Melbourne from October 1-4, so grab your tickets now. SLAMBALL In a nutshell, Slamball is basketball that includes full contact and, most importantly, TRAMAMPOLINES! That's right, while the court remains much the same dimensions as a regular basketball court and retains a hoop at either end, there are also four trampolines at either end of the court for players to gain as much air as possible to dunk spectacularly. Dunking (or 'slamming' in Slamball) is pretty crucial as it scores three points compared to your usual two for non-dunks inside the arc. (You still get three-points shooting from deep as per normal basketball.) I don't know about you but I'm asking my local council to install some trampolines at my local court. Check out some Slamball highlights here. GLAMPING For those not in the know, glamping is glamour camping. It's just like camping, only comfortable, warm and something you want to do regularly. Still trying to paint a picture in your mind? Just imagine that you are in your bed, only the roof is now a nice canvas and you can hear the soothing sounds of nature right on your doorstep. Glamping has taken off in the last few years across the nation as it's removed almost all of the reasons that people use to avoid camping. It's basically an alfresco hotel and no matter where you are there's bound to be a five-star tent pitched nearby. HIP HOP SHAKESPEARE Bach is just a baby compared to old man Will. Joining Red Bull Flying Bach in the classic-meets-contemporary mash-ups are hip hop 'ad-rap-tations' of Shakespeare's classics. It's a perfect fit. After all, Shakespeare was the original lyricist and excellent at smack-talking: "A knave; a rascal; an eater of broken meats; a base, proud, shallow, beggarly, three-suited, hundred-pound, filthy, worsted-stocking knave; a lily-liver'd, action-taking, whoreson, glass-gazing, superserviceable, finical rogue; 1090 one-trunk-inheriting slave; one that wouldst be a bawd in way of good service, and art nothing but the composition of a knave, beggar, coward, pander, and the son and heir of a mongrel bitch; one whom I will beat into clamorous whining, if thou deny the least syllable of thy addition." Building on this wit and transforming it into modern urban classics are troupes such as the Q Brothers, whose Othello: The Remix is about an artist who rises out of the ghetto and wins the respect of the music industry, only be taken down by hip hop purist Iago. SWISS ARMY KNIFE The ultimate mash-up, the Swiss Army Knife is a must-have for general life. Need a knife? Done. Need a screwdriver? Done. Need a corkscrew? Done. Need a warm hug at night? I'm sure it can find a way to do that too, because they can do just about anything. If you don't have one and are now scrambling out the door to buy one (which you can do once you've finished reading this article all the way to the end), then spend the extra cash on a good one that will last as it could end up saving your life. TURDUCKEN A turducken is a deboned chicken stuffed inside a deboned duck, which is then stuffed inside a deboned turkey, which is then stuffed in the oven, cooked and then stuffed into your mouth with absolutely no regrets. Whether you know it as a turducken or a chuckey, this is something that you must try if you enjoy these three birds. Apologies to our vegetarian friends out there, but this really is delicious. If you're really into your meats, you can also wrap bacon around your turducken, but have 000 pre-dialled into your phone just in case you pop. CHESS BOXING If you laughed at the concept of chess boxing, then I don't blame you. It may sound absurd, but once you actually watch a match, you realise the mental and physical strength needed to take part and find yourself having a lot of respect for those who can cop a barrage of punches and then sit down and play chess so well. They do this for 11 alternating rounds of chess then boxing, for a total of six chess rounds and five in the ring. Victory either comes in the form of a knockout or checkmate. (PS Okay, after watching more matches this sport is ridiculous. The players wear headphones while playing the chess rounds in order to not hear the live chess commentary. I find this sport dreadful and yet feel weirdly compelled to play.) THE MEAN GIRLS OF EUROPEAN HISTORY Finally, we have arguably the greatest (and possibly only) Tumblr mashing up the classic Lindsay Lohan film Mean Girls with European history to create The Mean Girls of European History. Words are useless here, just visit the blog and soak in all of it's uncannily appropriate use of Mean Girls quotes and accept that it may have won the internet.
"Over the past few weeks I've been hunted, haunted and mimicked millions of times across the internet. It's been pure torture. Thank you." So starts the new Netflix video announcing the return of one of the streaming platform's late 2022 favourites, with Addams Family revamp Wednesday officially renewed for season two. Given how much of a hit season one of the Jenna Ortega (X)-starring show proved, this news is hardly surprising. Also, given how popular all things Addams Family have always been — the Christina Ricci-led 90s films have been beloved for decades for good reason, and the 1960s TV show and 1930s The New Yorker comics before that — it's also far from unexpected. Indeed, if you were channelling your inner Wednesday, as we all should, you wouldn't raise an eyebrow in astonishment. If you devoured Wednesday's first season like its namesake and does with all things creepy, kooky, mysterious and spooky, however, you'll be so thrilled that you feel like her perky lycan roommate Enid (Emma Myers, Girl in the Basement). Announcing the renewal, Wednesday season one co-showrunners Miles Millar and Alfred Gough (Smallville) said that they "can't wait to dive headfirst into another season and explore the kooky, spooky world of Nevermore. We just need to make sure Wednesday hasn't emptied the pool first." Giving Wednesday a second spin comes after the first go-around broke the Netflix record for most hours viewed in a single week, then did so again — notching up 341.23-million hours viewed in its first week, then 411.29-million hours viewed in its second. Netflix hasn't revealed when it'll be getting a witch's shawl on and a broomstick you can crawl on yet again, or any fresh additions to the cast, but season two will pick up from season one's big ending — which left plenty of room for more Nevermore antics to follow. And yes, with Scream and Studio 666 s Ortega in the lead again, it will be spending more time at the school for outsiders that the Addams' eerie teenage daughter was enrolled in to kick off the series, as well as offering up another mystery to solve. In season one, Wednesday's titular figure had been terrorising her way through various educational facilities, hopping through eight of them in five years. That's how she ended up at Nevermore Academy, where her mother (Catherine Zeta-Jones, Prodigal Son) introduced her with an apology: "please excuse Wednesday, she's allergic to colour". Morticia actually met Gomez (Luis Guzmán, Hightown) at the school, and thought that their eldest would love it there as they did, but Wednesday's storyline was never going to be that straightforward. With Tim Burton executive producing, plus sitting in the director's chair for the first four episodes — in the job the Frankenweenie, Beetlejuice and Edward Scissorhands filmmaker was clearly born to have — cue high-school chaos, a monstrous murder spree to stop and a supernatural mystery linked to her parents a quarter-century ago to solve. Oh, and a killer goth wardrobe, naturally. Check out the season two announcement video for Wednesday below: Wednesday streams via Netflix, with season one available now and season two arriving at a yet-to-be-announced date. We'll update you with further details about season two when they're revealed. Read our full review of Wednesday season one. Images: Courtesy of Netflix © 2022.
As well as being part of many an art-gazing adventure when it opens its blockbuster Escher x Nendo exhibition this summer, the National Gallery of Victoria will also become a temporary workout destination when it hosts a slew of free wellness classes. The classes come courtesy of Lululemon — the brand is celebrating its 20th anniversary and will take over the gallery's serene Grollo Equiset Garden for a 20-week series of yoga, circuit and meditation classes. And they won't cost you a cent. Kicking off Wednesday, November 14, there are three sessions to choose from, running both in the mornings and after-hours. Punters can reconnect with their flow at a grounding yoga class, build mindfulness with a meditation session, or bump up the heart rate at the all-body 'sweat' class. They'll be led by a team of Lululemon's local ambassadors and fitness experts and will cater to all fitness levels. They're designed to get you bending, stretching, de-stressing and working those muscles, right through the summer months. Classes are free to join, with mats provided, though you'll need to book here (and quick!) to secure your spot. Breathe. Sweat. Stretch. will take place in the Grollo Equiset Garden at the NGV International from November 17 until March 26, 2019.
How do you say goodbye to one of Australia's great music festivals? Bringing together as many local acts as possible, filling the event's stages with homegrown talents, is one excellent option. When Bluesfest bids farewell with its 2025 fest, it'll also have help from international artists, but so far the lineup is jam-packed with Aussie names. It's the end of an era, and it's going out with some impressive assistance. Come April 2025, Crowded House, Ocean Alley and Vance Joy will lead the roster of talent getting behind Bluesfest's microphones in Byron Bay for the last time, as already revealed back in August. The festival has now dropped its second lineup announcement, which adds everyone from Hilltop Hoods and Budjerah to Kasey Chambers and The Cat Empire to the bill — and there's more on the list now, and still more to come. [caption id="attachment_969986" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LD Somefx[/caption] On their return to Bluesfest, Hilltop Hoods will headline Sunday night lineup. Also no strangers to the event: Xavier Rudd and John Butler. From there, the bill also features Miss Kaninna, Velvet Trip, Melbourne Ska Orchestra, CW Stoneking, Lachy Doley Group, Ash Grunwald and Kim Churchill. The new additions will join Tones and I, Gary Clark Jr, Rag'n'Bone Man, RY X, Allison Russell, Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram and plenty others across Thursday, April 17–Sunday, April 20, 2025. Another announcement is on its way soon, which is when international artists will start hitting the roster. [caption id="attachment_969990" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Joseph Mayers[/caption] "While this lineup focuses on our homegrown talent, it's still a strong blues and roots announcement, staying true to the heart of what Bluesfest has always been about. I can't begin to tell you how many incredible artists have reached out, wanting to be part of our final festival," said Festival Director Peter Noble about the second Bluesfest 2025 lineup drop. "Scores of amazing talents from across the country have thrown their hats in the ring. It's a testament to how special this festival is to the Australian music community. As much as I would love to include everyone, there are only so many spots we can fit into one lineup." "That said, I'm thrilled to welcome back some of our all-time favourites. You can't say no to artists who have helped shape this festival over the years, including Hilltop Hoods returning after a 20 year gap — and how can we be doing a best of Bluesfest without Xavier Rudd, John Butler, The Cat Empire and the incredible Kasey Chambers, alongside some rising Australian stars who represent the future of our music scene? This mix of legendary performers and up-and-coming talent is what makes this announcement so special and uniquely ours." The festival has been showered with affection since news arrived, also back in August, that it was planning to wrap up after the 2025 event. An ePetition has been launched by New South Wales MP Tamara Smith, asking the NSW Government to put together a rescue package for Bluesfest — a petition that'll be debated in the state's parliament if it hits 20,000 signatures. "It's been truly humbling to see how much Bluesfest means to so many of you. While the future remains uncertain, I am encouraged by the petition that's been raised to keep the festival going by our state member of parliament. There's real hope that with your continued support, and the backing of our community, we might just keep the Bluesfest legacy alive for generations to come," advised Noble. Bluesfest 2025 Lineup: First announcement: Crowded House Vance Joy Ocean Alley Tones and I Gary Clark Jr Rag'n'Bone Man RY X Allison Russell Christone 'Kingfish' Ingram Brad Cox Here Come the Mummies The California Honeydrops Marc Broussard Pierce Brothers Taj Farrant Fanny Lumsden 19-Twenty WILSN Cimafunk Neal Francis Second announcement: Hilltop Hoods Xavier Rudd John Butler The Cat Empire Kasey Chambers Melbourne Ska Orchestra CW Stoneking Budjerah Lachy Doley Group Ash Grunwald Kim Churchill Miss Kaninna The Beards Velvet Trip FOOLS ROSHANI Sweet Talk The Memphis Three featuring Fiona Boyes, Jimi Hocking and Frank Sultana [caption id="attachment_969988" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Roger Cotgreave[/caption] [caption id="attachment_969989" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LD Somefx[/caption] [caption id="attachment_969987" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LD Somefx[/caption] [caption id="attachment_867504" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kurt Petersen[/caption] Bluesfest 2025 will run from Thursday, April 17–Sunday, April 20 at Byron Events Farm, Tyagarah. Early-bird tickets are on sale now — for further information, head to the Bluesfest website.
Everyone loves heading overseas for a holiday, but no one likes spending more time actually getting from point A to point B than they absolutely have to. So, before the pandemic grounded international getaways from Australia for the better part of two years, Qantas had been working to make stopovers a thing of the past — introducing direct flights from Perth to London, and exploring the possibility of doing the same from Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane. While those non-stop east coast legs are currently on hold, the Aussie airline has just announced a new direct trip — and the only flight that'll connect Australia to continental Europe. Between June and October 2022, the carrier will fly return from Perth to Rome three times a week. And yes, that timing is 100-percent aimed at letting Australians take full advantage of European summer holidays. The new flights will technically end and begin in Sydney, with a stopover in Perth — and they'll be more than three hours faster than the current quickest travel time from Australia to Rome. That means fewer hours spent in transit, and more to actually soak in Italy. It also means spending a big unbroken block of time in the air, which still sounds a bit like science fiction after so long without international travel. If that's your 2022 plans sorted — why just have an Australian summer when you can enjoy Europe's warmest season as well? — tickets for the new route have gone on sale, starting from $1785 return. The Sydney–Perth–Rome flights will debut on Wednesday, June 22, and are currently scheduled to run until Thursday, October 6. And, if you're keen to head elsewhere on the continent, you'll be able to use Rome as a connection point to fly to 16 other European destinations, including Athens, Barcelona, Frankfurt, Nice, Madrid and Paris — and 15 spots in Italy, Milan and Venice among them. Also, if you fancy flying into Rome but coming home from London, or vice versa, Qantas will let you combine the two direct routes on the one return ticket. Qantas' new Australia–Rome direct flights will fly from Wednesday, June 22–Thursday, October 6. For more information, or to book tickets, head to the airline's website.
If you love a good stinky cheese, then South Melbourne Market's A Fromage Affair best be on your hit list for things to do this October. From Wednesday, October 18–Saturday, October 28, cheese lovers can embark on their own self-guided food tour of the market, tasting their way through 11 different dishes made just for the event. The $85 ticket gets you a stamp card and map to all the traders slinging cheese-filled treats, all included in the ticket price. You can then visit each vendor within your allotted session. Start the day at K-Sein Fromagerie, where you'll nosh on three cheeses and learn about all the different cheeses available at the market. From there, you'll choose the order of your own self-guided tour, trying a special brie and apple croissant at Agathe Patisserie, and a big German pretzel with camembert beer dip at Little Hof. What else is on the menu? Mornay oysters from Aptus Seafood Grill, ten-cheese croquettes from SMITHBURG, gorgonzola arancini from Pieno Do Grazia, raclette from Emerald Deli, lemon cheesecake gelato from Fritz Gelato and a heap of other cheesy treats. You can buy extra goodies to take home from each trader, or upgrade your ticket for an extra $55 to include an exclusive produce bag filled with gourmet cheeses and accompaniments. Think of the whole tour as a moving degustation — where you wander around the market trying 11 small courses, each from a different vendor. [caption id="attachment_922469" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Simon Shiff[/caption]
The CBD's massive new entertainment and dining precinct has arrived — and it's a triple threat. Ella has a street art gallery, a live music venue and a food-filled laneway that includes outposts from some of the city's favourite eateries. The precinct spans a whopping 2500-square-metres and takes inspiration from the food-filled train stations in Asia. It's the latest creation by the GPT Group, which also developed next-door Melbourne Central. As far as food goes, Ella is home to ramen, fried chicken, momos and Israeli classics created by some of the city's most loved eateries. These include Colours Bowls, the latest plant-based offering by young gun chef Charlie Carrington (of South Yarra's hatted Atlas Dining); Korean fried chicken joint Sam Sam; Pick a Stick Chinese Skewers by the Dainty Sichuan team; and a new concept by Collingwood's Son in Law, dubbed The Pad, which serves up Thai street food. Already located in the space are Nepalese restaurant Chilli Everest and Japanese noodle shop Ajisen Ramen, both of which have reopened with a new fit-out for the Ella launch. A second outpost of Collingwood's hospitality hub and co-working space Worksmith will round out the initial openings — when it's open it will come complete with a drinks lab and events space. Apart from the extensive food offering, expect live gigs by emerging and established musicians to be on offer several days per week — the precinct has been given special acoustic treatment for just this purpose. Local Melbourne artists will pull together the soundtrack on nights without gigs, and the app crowdDJ will be on offer for visitors to to choose their own tunes, too. Melbourne street art will also be on display, covering a dedicated mural wall that will be continuously refreshed by local artists. Phase two of Ella's openings will happen June 27, when bottle shop Blackheart & Sparrows launches, followed by a new cocktail bar by famed bartender Luke Whearty (of Singapore's award-winning Operation Dagger) called Byrdi. Further openings are expected in early 2020, too. Ella is now open at the corner of Elizabeth and La Trobe streets. Opening hours are 10am–10pm, daily. To check each restaurant's opening hours, head to the website.
Thailand is undoubtedly one of Australia's favourite holiday destinations, and Bangkok is one of the world's most visited cities by international tourists. The sprawling metropolis makes room for the old and the new — one minute you're cruising down the Chao Phraya river, the next you're travelling through the city at breakneck speed on the BTS skytrain. We've going to bet that a few of you have been to Bangkok before. Maybe you've even trekked up to Chiang Mai and Pai, or soaked up some sun scuba diving off one of Thailand's many islands. That's why we've left some of the obvious Bangkok destinations out of this article, like the mind-boggling Chatuchak markets, the opulent Grand Palace and the silk-lovers heaven that is Jim Thompson House. If you're in the country's capital and looking for a fun way to spend a few days, we recommend giving a few of these a visit. Drink at high altitudes Bangkok has quite a nifty reputation for its rooftop bar scene, so we decided to check out the highest one we could find — it was the Sky Bar at the Lebua State Tower (also known as the rooftop bar from The Hangover 2). Come alone or come in a wolf pack to the 65th floor — the service is friendly and the cocktails are outstanding. We could drink their blueberry sour G&T's all damn day, but there's also a Hangovertini for those looking to stay in theme. Sunset is generally the best time to arrive but, then again, we're yet to find a bad time to drink at high altitudes. We also climbed to the top of Moon Bar at the Banyan Tree Bangkok, located on the 61st floor. It's extremely easy to pass the hours when you're seated against the glass wall overlooking the city — with free bar snacks that were constantly replenished, no less. There was a smart casual dress code at both of these rooftop bars, so it's worth checking ahead to make sure drinking in the clouds stays firmly on your conquered list. Yes, both of these places were a bit pricier than your average 60 Baht bottle of Chang beer, but if you're after a nice night out, this is it. What can we say? Bangkok has us now. Work Your Way Out Of Escape Hunt Escape rooms are becoming a bit of a thing in Australia, but we tried out the Bangkok version at Escape Hunt anyway. For the uninitiated, escape rooms are like playing real-life Cluedo: you get 'locked' in a room, left to solve a murder mystery before your time is up. In our case, we had an hour to figure out who had killed a female painter — one of her three boyfriends, or the groundskeeper? This was totally awesome. And if Bangkok hasn't already tested your relationship with your travel partner, this certainly will. You're allowed to get clues from your host, but each clue deducts one minute off your time, so we recommend only using them when you're desperately seeking some Sherlock intuition. Thankfully, we made it out with just under two minutes to spare, and we were given the cutest tweed detective gear to put on and take photos in. Check Out Cat, Dog and Bunny Cafes Cat cafes did originate in Asia, so it's no surprise there are a few here in Thailand's capital. We're not sure exactly how many cat cafes Bangkok has, but we know there are at least three. Purr Cat Cafe Club is one of the more prominent ones in Sukhumvit, and in a city filled with apartment buildings and high rises, it's no wonder Bangkok locals are looking to spend some quality time with a furry friend. Purr is run by a Thai sitcom actress and houses 14 fluffy Persians cats. At the cafe you can have cat-shaped brownies and whiskers drawn on your hot chocolate. There is also Kitty Cat Cafe and Makura Cat Cafe in Bangkok if you can't get enough of your feline friends. Cats not your thing? Don't even worry about it. Bangkok also has a cafe that specifically houses Siberian huskies called True Love Cafe. There are 17 of these adorable pups running around, all of different colours and sizes. One final animal establishment we'd like to throw out there is the Lucky Bunny Cafe & Restaurant, which houses happy, healthy rabbits. All of the cute, all at once. Food and (Safe) Sex Together At Last With a tagline like 'Our food is guaranteed not to cause pregnancy', how could you possibly refuse a meal here? There are mannequins covered in elaborate condom costumes which are hilarious and honestly quite impressive, but Cabbages and Condoms is not the money-grabbing, photo-opportunity establishment you might first think. Cabbages and Condoms was initially created to promote a better understanding of sexual health and family planning, as a portion of the profits go towards the Population and Community Development Association (PDA). It's all in the name of an excellent cause, so you might as well get amongst. The menu is strictly Thai cuisine, and there's plenty to choose from. There are a few Cabbages and Condoms located all over Thailand, so if you're heading over to Thailand but not staying in Bangkok, there's still a chance to check this out. Grab a handful of free dingers on the way out and have yourself a safe and merry day. Choose Your Own Adventure: Thai Street Food Let's be honest, this section could be a whole article to itself. Thai street food is the best kind of street food — cheap, unpredictable (in a good way), and, above all, delicious. The rules are simple: eat anything that looks interesting, ask questions later and try something new every time. On a personal note, I spent two years of my childhood living in Thailand, so I had a slight advantage of knowing that (1) My chances of death were slim if I chose wisely, and (2) I could identify some of the strangest looking toppings on Thai snow cones. Boat noodles (kuay tiew rua) are a Bangkok street food staple, and there is a whole alley dedicated to this delicacy located near Victory Monument. For other noodles on the run, a safe bet is the readily available stir-fried wide rice noodles (pad see ew) or Pad Thai. Our favourite savoury snacks were easily the bacon-wrapped enoki mushrooms, as well as the ever-present and super cheap grilled pork sticks (moo ping). For sweets you can't go passed mango and sticky rice (kao niao mumuang) — it's traditional and delicious. For some who are keen for a little lucky dip, give the Thai snow cone (nam kang sai) a go. You fill the bottom of the bowl with anything from black jelly, chestnuts, sweetened taro to red beans, then place a mound of shaved ice on top of that and cover with flavoured syrups and condensed, evaporated or coconut milk, depending on how sweet you want it. Top image thanks to Scalino, Lubua photo taken by Vicky Chung via Flickr, cat image thanks to ironypoisoning, Cabbages and Condoms image thanks to micamonkey, street food image thanks to jaaron.
Part of Victoria's road system is about to get a little bit greener, under a new Victorian Government trial that'll see a stretch of the Hume Freeway rebuilt using material made from recycled waste products. A massive haul of plastic bags, glass bottles, printer cartridges and reclaimed asphalt will be converted into more than 2100 tonnes of road product and then used to redo an 850-metre section of the freeway's southbound lane. The stretch of road is located at Balmattum in the state's northeast, near Euroa and about two hours out of Melbourne. Not only is the recycled road material better for the planet, but it supposedly works even better than the regular stuff, with testing showing the new product is longer lasting, more durable and more resistant to cracks. Clocking in at $845,000, this particular project should save the equivalent of around one million glass bottles, 746,000 plastic bags and 21,800 printer cartridges from otherwise heading to landfill. The new trial comes three years after an Aussie-first project helmed by Hume City Council saw a similar mix of waste products recycled into 250 tonnes of asphalt and used to construct a road in Craigieburn, in Melbourne's north. Victoria's war on waste has been ramping up considerably in recent years — with the state's ban on single-use plastic bags coming into effect in 2019, a container refund scheme in the works, and single-use plastic straws, cutlery, plates and stirrers, plus polystyrene food and drink containers, all set to be banned from 2023. You can read more about the Victoria's use of recycled materials on the Hume Freeway on the government's website.
From the adventurous team responsible for Cookie, Boney, The Toff in Town and Revolver Upstairs comes yet another street-transforming venue: The Magic Mountain Saloon, set to open on Wednesday 14 January. Owner Camillo Ippoliti, chef Karen Batson and architect Phillip Schemnitz have rejuvenated a 19th century warehouse on Little Collins Street and magicked it into a one-of-a-kind, saloon-inspired eatery and bar. Drawing on materials salvaged from the renovations, as well as timber, stone and steel, they've reimagined the space, infusing it with a historic yet ethereal feel. The bottom floor maintains a laidback Melbourne warehouse vibe, while a pop-top-style extension on the first floor creates a 1940s, loft-style atmosphere. Archways and balconies afford unusual perspectives on the city — at both street and skyline level. And fashion/art designer Misha Hollenbach (Perks and Mini, PAM) has filled two walls with beautiful murals. Batson brings twelve years of experience to the menu. Combining Thai and Australian sensibilities and flavour profiles, she encourages a casual, fun, tasty approach to eating. Breakfast goodies include freshly squeezed soya bean milk, coconut pikelets and papaya; heart-warming congee and rice soups; steamed eggs and roasted pork belly; and Thai staple Kanom Jeen. Then at lunch and dinner, the woodfired grill is ignited for the turning of classics into Thai-inspired specials and the creation of hearty surprises. Promising morsels include potted duck, spiced pineapple and onion roll; veal scallopini with apple eggplant and turmeric; stir fried kale and crispy pork; pork scratchings, sticky pork and beer batter mussels; and green prawns, cured kingfish and bitter melon, with lemongrass, mint and green chilli. Just as much care is going into the soundtrack as every other element, with Phil Ransom, who's been involved with the team's aforementioned venues, programming both recorded music and a rotating schedule of DJs. "We have always aimed to produce warm, vibrant and convivial spaces," says Schemnitz. "I hope that Magic Mountain Saloon will be a place that people look forward to coming to, whether it be to pause between home and office, to meet friends or lovers, to steal some quiet time from an increasingly hectic world or to go looking for late-night stimulation and excitement. I hope that it will be a place in which people walk through the door and feel better. Our cities need such places. They define us in a way that natural beauty might define other cities." Magic Mountain Saloon, found at 62 Little Collins St, Melbourne, opens on Wednesday, January 14. Opening hours are Monday to Thursday, 7am-3am (kitchen open till midnight), Friday 7am-3am (kitchen till 1am), Saturday 8am-3am (kitchen till 1am) and Sunday 8am-3am (kitchen till midnight). Image: Michelle Tran.
The Mornington Peninsula has quickly shaped up to become the ultimate relaxation destination for bathing enthusiasts and wellness fiends this summer. Already, we had the OG, Peninsula Hot Springs, followed a few months ago by stunning newcomer Alba Thermal Springs & Spa. And now, the region's scored another gem, with the final phase of the much-anticipated Aurora Spa & Bathhouse opening within the Continental Sorrento this week. A new flagship for the award-winning Aurora Spa Group, the site is set to make a huge splash with this cutting-edge, 500-square-metre bathhouse — a luxe indoor wellness precinct boasting numerous mineral pools and one of the largest saunas in the southern hemisphere. Inside, award-winning design studio Woods Bagot (W Melbourne, Barlow) has created a stylish coastal-inspired sanctuary filled with neutral tones, sandy terrazzo tile and oak panelling, aligning to their design notes in the adjacent hotel. Offering a modern take on traditional bathing practices, Aurora is kitted out with a suite of state-of-the-art facilities and experiences for you to explore. Along with that Nordic-style sauna, you'll find features like an icy plunge pool, an aromatherapy steam room, the 36-degree sky-lit Daydream Pool, a reflexology pool and a suite dedicated to halotherapy — a treatment that involves breathing in salty air. You can take a beat to revel in your newly rejuvenated state in the Centella Thermal Lounges, beneath a striking hand-sculpted copper art installation. And for a bracing, Finnish-style experience, hit the custom-designed Glacial Mist Room — a chamber that's dialled into between 6 and 10 degrees, and recreates the elements of wind, rain, mist and ice. Meanwhile, the adjoining spa is offering treatments ranging from holistic facial therapies and massages, to algae body wraps and botanically-charged scrubs. And of course, you can mix and match spa offerings and bathing rituals to really maximise your bliss. If you're after some guidance, Aurora has a suggested 10-step bathing ritual designed to optimise your time in the bathhouse, or you can luxuriate at your own leisure. Prices start from $95 for a 90-minute weekday visit. Find the newly completed Aurora Spa & Bathhouse in The Continental Sorrento, 23 Constitution Hill Road, Sorrento. The bathhouse is open daily from 9am–9pm. Images: Nikole Ramsay
Escaping to Tasmania has long been a popular way to get away from it all, especially if you're keen to swap the Australian mainland's hustle and bustle for the Apple Isle's stunning surroundings for a brief spell. Vacationing in a tiny house has also become a beloved way of leaving the daily grind, your usual routine and everyday stresses behind — so a tiny house in Tassie is clearly a holiday dream. Make that two tiny houses, actually, thanks to eco-friendly tiny house company Tiny Away. Good things definitely come in small packages here — and in scenic locations, too, with the accommodation network making its first leap to Australia's southern-most state. The two new spots join Tiny Away's 120-plus tiny house lineup, with each small-scale home architecturally designed, set on private land in rural and regional locations, and available for short bookings. If you're keen for a getaway in a fishing village around 45 minutes from Hobart, then Quirindi in Dunalley is your ideal destination. It sits on an eight-acre property, in the middle of wildlife-filled bush and grassland, that's been in the same family for three generations. The small abode even comes with its own nine-hole putting course — which, yes, you can use amid warming up by the fire pit, cooking on the barbecue or exploring the area. Nearby drawcards include the coastline at Eaglehawk Neck, plus seafood joints The Cannery and Bangor Wine & Oyster Shed. If you're eager to venture to Launceston — well, around half an hour away — then Cottesloe in the small town of Hagley is for you. This tiny house sits among a small farming operation on the edge of Meander Valley, which means that green pastures and farm animals come with the territory. Here, local highlights include Georgian and Victorian buildings in the town of Deloraine — and bakeries for a snack — plus the Western Tiers Distillery and the limestone caves at Mole Creek Karst National Park. With not only getting back to nature but respecting the natural environment a key part of Tiny Away's ethos, each of the company's homes is fashioned out of sustainable materials, and also includes waterless compost toilets, rainwater collection tanks for showers, plus solar panels. Checking that leave balance already? Scouring your calendar for a free weekend getaway slot? We understand. Tiny Away's new Quirindi and Cottesloe tiny houses are available to book online. For more information, head to the company's website.
Two inner-city Melbourne favourites are joining forces this weekend to help elevate your lockdown feasting game. East Melbourne's Hemingway's Wine Room is teaming up with good mates at CBD Italian spot Pentolina for a one-off finish-at-home banquet, available for pick up and delivery this Friday, October 15. A generous four-course feed for two, the $129 dinner pack features a roll-call of soul-warming Euro-accented dishes, plucked from the kitchens of both restaurants. You're in for the likes of a wine-poached chicken salad, Pentolina's spinach 'swallow's nest' pasta, whole rainbow trout en papillote (in a bag) teamed with green pea and jamon fricassee, and a rich tiramisu starring dulce de leche and almond praline. Pre-orders are open here until 10am on Thursday, October 14, unless they sell out earlier. You can arrange click-and-collect from either venue, or order for delivery across metro Melbourne, the Mornington Peninsula, Gippsland, Geelong and Torquay.
One of the most crippling and persistent of first world problems is the fact that sometimes things remain over there when you in fact want them over here. But now cutting-edge spy technology could change all that. How did we fail to see the answer, when it was right in front of our eyes? All we need is a way to give objects wings, and Dutch designer Jasper van Loenen has already done the bothersome design work for us. Drone It Yourself takes the guesswork out of droning, by using simple components to transform any (lightweight) item into a flying beast of the skies. Channelling our Zeitgeist's motif of personal customisation, anyone can 3D-print the kit's parts, which can also be altered and enhanced with any clamps or other addenda you may wish to incorporate into your quadrocopter. Grab your remote control/pizza/Frankie magazine, and dispatch it on its stealth mission. The kit's four propellors connect to a control unit containing a receiver, bluetooth module, 4 ESCs and OpenPilot CC3D flightcontroller. Presto: next-level convenience — and a springboard for further innovation — is achieved. Check out the video below to see how it looks when drones become tools that anyone can make. Via Mashable.
In late-night vibe, music scene and food mecca considerations, Melbourne and New York have been called sister cities by many. Well, now our city is making it official. MEL&NYC is a new winter program of multi-disciplinary events showcasing the influence that New York City has on the Melbourne arts and culture scene. The program will take over the city's cultural venues from June through August and see collaborations between leading New York-based institutions and talent with their Australian counterparts. In short: a series of top-notch conversations, live music, performances, educational talks, dinners and community outreach events are in store. The program is split into seven fairly self-explanatory sections: My New York Experience, A Taste of the City, New York Sounds, Art & Creativity, On Broadway, Professional Development & Exchange and Community. Plus, as an ode to our shared underground music scene, Melbourne's best laneways will come alive with secret pop-up performances throughout winter. In addition to Ilana Glazer's starring spot, with the Broad City star coming to town with her first Australian stand-up act, headline gigs include Arts Centre Melbourne shows by singer-songwriter Regina Spektor and contemporary ensemble Exo-Tech (featuring Kimbra and Sophia Brousa); a Melbourne Museum gig by soulful Harlem group The Rakiem Walker Project; and a jazz show by famed artist Gretchen Parlato. The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra will also present multiple tributes for renowned composer Leonard Bernstein, including a live-to-film performance of West Side Story. Food and wine experts from New York will take up residence in Melbourne restaurants and bars, too. Natural wine bars The Four Horsemen (by LCD Soundsystem's James Murphy) and Melbourne's Embla will team up, along with Momofuku Ko and Fitzroy's Marion. Plus, Starward Whisky is making five bespoke cocktails that embody what they consider to be Melbourne's five boroughs, and the Green Light Diner will transform itself into New York's Grand Central Station Oyster Bar for a night. Bringing the Big Apple to the big screen, in July The Astor will curate a program of classic New York films, including New York, New York, Ghostbusters and Do The Right Thing. On the other side of the spectrum, political speakers include an already sold-out conversation with journalists Ronan Farrow, who has spearheaded the reports into Hollywood sexual misconduct, as well as a panel discussion with The New York Times award-winning investigative reporter Nikole Hannah-Jones. The program also links up with with the National Gallery of Victoria's world-premiere exhibition, MoMA at NGV: 130 Years of Modern and Contemporary Art. It will see New York's MoMA take over the ground floor from June 9 and feature over 200 works from artists such as Picasso, Dalí, Frida Kahlo, Jackson Pollock and Georgia O'Keeffe, to name a few. The MEL&SYD program will take over Melbourne's iconic cultural venues from June through August. Tickets for some events are on sale now, with others going on sale throughout the next month. Events are already selling out, so best check out the full program now.
Discounted airfares have been quite the topic of conversation over the past year or so, as Australian airlines have endeavoured to encourage us all to explore this scenic country of ours. If we can't holiday overseas while the international border is closed, we should all make the most of our own backyards — or so the very sensible thinking goes. That said, with lockdowns and border restrictions still a regular part of pandemic-era life Down Under, holidaying within Australia isn't straightforward. But, if and when that becomes a bit easier in the coming months — with both New South Wales and Victoria set to start easing stay-at-home conditions when the two states each reach certain vaccination thresholds — enjoying an Aussie getaway will hopefully be back on the cards nationwide. And, in preparation for that becoming a reality, Virgin is hosting a five-day sale that's serving up cheap flights. Called 'Anywhere But Here', this sale has more than a million discounted fares up for grabs — but you'll need to get in quick. They went on sale today, Monday, September 6; however, they're only available until Friday, September 10 or sold out, whichever comes first. All one-way fares, the discounted economy flights cover 70 different routes. Some of the specials on offer include Sydney to Byron Bay for $49, Sydney to the Sunshine Coast for $69, Melbourne to Launceston from $49, Melbourne to the Whitsunday Coast from $139, Brisbane to Hamilton Island from $105, Brisbane to Darwin from $149, Adelaide to Melbourne from $79 and Perth to Broome from $179 (and vice versa in all cases, naturally). And, if you're wondering when you can travel — depending on lockdowns and border restrictions, of course — you can book flights for trips between October 6, 2021–June 23, 2022. Only some fares cover seat selection and checked baggage, however, with the airline announcing back in August that it is now splitting its economy flights into three types. Economy Lite doesn't include checking any baggage or picking your seat, but Economy Choice does — and Economy Flex gives you extra flexibility (hence the name) if you have to change your plans later. As we are still in the middle of a pandemic, flying is little different to normal. Virgin has introduced a range of safety measures, including hand sanitisation stations, contactless check-in and face masks provided to all passengers. Wearing masks on flights also became mandatory in Australia in January. Virgin's 'Anywhere But Here' sale runs from today, Monday, September 6–Friday, September 10 — or until sold out. Find out more about current interstate border restrictions via the Australian Government's Health Direct website.
Rich, magnificent and a little bit fancy are all things that come to mind when truffles are on the menu. But do we know anything about them, really? Long-time favourites of fine dining restaurants, truffles are now popping up on cafe menus too, having entire festivals thrown in their honour — they've even been added to beer, for goodness sake. In order to dispel the air of mystery surrounding truffles (and just so we can stop pretending we know what we're talking about), we've called upon truffle aficionado Bernadette Jenner from Madame Truffles to set us straight about where to find them, how to eat them, and what makes them so magical. What are truffles? Truffles are a type of fungi, and are part of the genus tuber. While there are many different types of truffles, only a few are edible; the white truffle (tuber magnatum) and the black Perigord truffle (tuber melanosporum) are the most highly sought after. Truffles range in size from as small as a marble to as big as your fist and retail for around $2,500 per kilogram. They're found underground surrounding the roots of a host tree, which is often either oak or hazelnut. Currently only the black Perigord truffles are harvested in Australia. Originally pigs were used to sniff out truffles; however, most farmers use dogs these days, as pigs were notorious for eating their discoveries. "Fighting a pig for a truffle is probably not worth your life," says Jenner, and we believe her. Interestingly, the truffle has a pheromone in it that smells like a male boar, so the female pigs are actually searching for a mate, rather than a fine-dining delicacy. "In pig world it's actually the smell of the male that speaks to its dominance. It's not about how pretty it is or how much money it earns; the better smelling the pig, the higher up in the pecking order he is." Weirdly enough, the pheromones in male pigs are actually similar to that found in male humans. Figure that one out. Where do they come from? Australia is actually the fourth largest black truffle producer in the world, following closely behind Italy, France and Spain. Black truffles can be found all over the country. So where can you get the best ones? "As a general rule, there's a great truffiere in Pemberton, WA," explains Jenner. "Truffles from Braidwood in NSW are smoky and gorgeous, and you can also get good truffles from Tassie." So how do our truffles compare? Jenner says that Australian truffles are strong competitors in relation to their European counterparts. "About 95 percent of the truffles from WA are exported to Italy and America, and they fill up the Michelin star restaurants." When are truffles in season? In Australia, peak truffle season is from the end of May through to the end of August. One great thing about truffles is their unpredictability and the variety you can have from one harvest, as Jenner explains. "Each harvest is different and even truffles from the same tree can taste and smell different." This is the fourth year Jenner has run her pop-up shop Madame Truffles during the peak season, and she has noticed a definite increase in interest in truffles. Bernie puts this down to two reasons: "The truffieres know much more about what they're doing so not only are they producing more truffles, but the quality is great." The second reason comes down to us: we're craving something new and special. "People are feeling more confident and adventurous with food," she says. How do you cook with truffles? The possibilities here are nearly endless. Truffles love heat, which make them lovely additions to pasta or risotto, where you can either mix it in while cooking, or shave some on top to add depth to your meal. Jenner's hot tip is to keep things simple. "The truffle is the diamond," she explains. "I love a decadent breakfast, so I love putting heaps of the truffle in scrambled eggs and pop a little bit on top when I serve it." A little bit goes a long way with truffles, and it’s important not to overcook as that can decrease their flavour. Where can you get them? Truffles are purchased by weight and are most often ordered online through various truffieres around Australia. Part of the thrill of buying truffles is inspecting them yourself, and most importantly, smelling them. That's what makes going to Madame Truffles such an experience. "The truffles that you buy here, you would have smelled them, we don’t sell it to you without smelling it first," explains Jenner. As well as buying truffles whole you can also by them as products such as truffle pasta, truffle butter, truffle ice cream, and Madame Truffles is even making truffle Monte Carlos for the adventurous sweet tooth. Where to enjoy truffles in Melbourne Melbourne has embraced truffles wholeheartedly this season, from top-of-the-range restaurants to humble cafes. "There are so many places now," Jenner acknowledges. "When we first started four years ago it was only the flash restaurants that used them, and last year we worked with four cafes to introduce the truffle toastie, so anyone could have an experience with truffles." So where should you head to make the most of this year's truffle-filled culinary creations? Jenner recommends the pig trotters with truffles at Duchess of Spotswood (pictured) and the truffle-infused dishes at St Ali. It's a good way to indulge in some fine produce without investing in it, says Jenner. "Yes, truffles can be decadent and expensive, but it's nice to go somewhere where the prices aren't too high to try it.” If we could be so bold as to add one more to Jenner's list, check out the truffle risotto at the Town Hall Hotel in Fitzroy. The Madame Truffles winter pop-up shop will be selling freshly harvested Australian truffles at 17 Yarra Place, South Melbourne (across from St Ali) until Saturday, August 23. Feature image courtesy of ulterior epicure via photopin. Other images thanks to Madame Truffles.
Conformity rarely bodes well in cinema. Whenever everyone's dressing the same, little boxes litter the landscape or identical white-picket fences stretch as far as the eye can see, that perception of perfection tends to possess a dark underbelly. The Stepford Wives demonstrated that. Pleasantville, Blue Velvet and Vivarium all did as well. Yes, there's a touch of conformity in movies about the evils of and heralded by conformity; of course there is. That remains true when Florence Pugh (Black Widow) and Harry Styles (Eternals) navigate an ostensibly idyllic vision of retro suburbia in a desert-encased enclave — one that was always going to unravel when the movie they're in is called Don't Worry Darling. Don't go thinking that this handsome and intriguing film doesn't know all of this, though. Don't go thinking that it's worried about the similarities with other flicks, including after its secrets are spilled, either. It'd be revealing too much to mention a couple of other movies that Don't Worry Darling blatantly recalls, so here's a spoiler-free version: this is a fascinating female-focused take on a pair of highlights from two decades-plus back that are still loved, watched and discussed now. That's never all that Olivia Wilde's second feature as a filmmaker after 2019's Booksmart is, but it feels fitting that when it conforms in a new direction, it finds a way to make that space its own. That's actually what Pugh's Alice thinks she wants when Don't Worry Darling begins. The film's idealised 1950s-style setting comes with old-fashioned gender roles firmly in place, cocktails in hand as soon Styles' Jack walks in the door come quittin' time and elaborate multi-course dinners cooked up each night, with its protagonist going along with it all. But she's also far from keen on having a baby, the done thing in the company town that is Victory. It'd curtail the noisy sex that gets the neighbours talking, for starters. Immaculately clothed and coiffed women happily playing dutiful housewives in a cosy sitcom-esque dream of America generations ago: that's Wilde and screenwriter Katie Silberman's (also Booksmart) entry point; however, they waste zero time in showing how rebelling in her own child-free way isn't enough to quell Alice's nagging and growing doubts about utopia. There's much to get her querying, such as the earth-shaking sounds that rumble when Victory's men are at work, doing top-secret business on "progressive materials" out in the sandy expanse. There's the reflections in the mirror that briefly take on a life of their own, too — starting in a ballet class that's about retaining control, coveting symmetry and never upsetting the status quo far more than dancing. And, there's the pushed-aside Margaret (KiKi Layne, The Old Guard) after she disrupts a company barbecue. All the rules enforced to keep Victory's women in their places, and the cult-like wisdom that town and company founder Frank (Chris Pine, All the Old Knives) constantly spouts, are also inescapable. So is the force with which asking questions or daring to be different is publicly nixed, as Alice quickly discovers. And, it's impossible to avoid how the men band together when anything or anyone causes a bump, even their own other halves. Swiftly, Alice's days scrubbing and vacuuming her Palm Springs-inspired bungalow, then sipping cocktails poolside or while window shopping with fellow Victory spouses like Bunny (Wilde, Ghostbusters: Afterlife) and Peg (Kate Berlant, A League of Their Own), fall under a shadow — not literally in such sunnily postcard-perfect surroundings, but with shade still lingering over every part of her routine. Speaking up just gets dismissed, and Frank and his underlings (including a doctor played by Timothy Simmons, aka Veep's Jonah Ryan, who is instantly unnerving thanks to that stroke of casting) have too-precise answers to her concerns. As set to a jaggedly breathy score by John Powell (Locked Down), hell is all those drinks, chats and parties teeming with plastered-on smiles and oh-so-fake conversations. It's also the idea that deviating from the norm is an act of betrayal. Hell is the glitching existence that Alice finds herself in, in other words, as her suspicions won't subside and the urge to investigate and challenge keeps swelling. When it comes to showing the cracks fracturing Victory's gleaming facade, Don't Worry Darling moves fast — plenty of other movies have spent more time in the illusion of domestic bliss before shattering it, and Wilde smartly knows that her audience don't need to luxuriate in all that glitters to care about why nothing truly does glisten. Her audience can't miss the mirage anyway, thanks to the stunning production design and costuming, as brightly lensed by cinematographer Matthew Libatique (The Prom). Given how pristine that Alice's life literally looks, it's easy to see the flaws just as she does. It's easy to buy how speedily Alice's status quo starts to unfurl from there when the performance that accompanies it is so phenomenal. Pugh just keeps going from strength to strength since first earning attention in 2016's Lady Macbeth, in just her second film role, then backing it up with everything from The Little Drummer Girl and Fighting with My Family through to Midsommar and Little Women — and her anxious and alarmed work here is on par with her best. When Don't Worry Darling doesn't quite put its pieces together (when it gets repetitive with its psychological thrills in its midsection, primarily), she's the unbreakable glue still holding the movie in place. Forget the supposed feuds, screaming matches, affairs, boycotts and flying saliva, aka the picture's long list of highly publicised off-screen dramas; Wilde knows how to cast just as well as she knows how to lay impeccably manicured and yet insidiously tense scenes. That knack for finding the right actors for the part extends to Wilde enlisting her own talents (and visibly having a whole lot of fun in the process) as the gossipy but compliant Bunny — and, yes, casting Styles as well. The pop superstar-turned-actor is meant to pale in comparison to Pugh, in a portrayal that clicks exactly as it's designed to when the twist comes. On that subject, Don't Worry Darling's big revelation is hardly difficult to predict. It also doesn't say anything new about our patriarchal society, the power that men have long wielded over women and today's toxic perspectives. Still, that doesn't make Wilde's cautionary tale any less engaging, involving and rattling. It's imperfect, but that's apt; eschewing conformity always has to be.
Peninsula Hot Springs just keeps getting bigger and better. Back in 2018, it received a massive $13 million upgrade, which saw the addition of several hot and cold pools, and a hilltop bathhouse amphitheatre. In 2020, luxury glamping facilities landed on the property. And now, a couple of years after scoring a cool $3.3 million investment from the Regional Tourism Investment Fund (RTIF), the crew is ready to unveil its new Eco Lodges in early November this year. These will each feature a plush 60-square-metre suite complete with wifi, room service, a mini bar, and split-system heating and cooling. One thing that makes these accommodations so special is the dedication to giving guests a damn good night's sleep. Each room has self-guided sleep wellness content like sound and movement experiences, plus sleep masks and mineral salts. Co-founder and Creative Director of Peninsula Hot Springs Charles Davidson notes how "Wellness is a holistic and multidimensional feeling of wholeness and happiness, of which sleep is a quintessential factor. Understanding that humans spend a third of their lives asleep, it was important to us to create an environment in which guests can achieve cathartic release through our extensive wellness programs. "Our Eco Lodges have been designed with our seven pillars of wellness in mind to ensure our guests leave feeling rejuvenated and restored." Each Eco Lodge also opens out onto its own garden and private hot spring bathing pool that looks out over the surrounding wetlands. Usually, you'd need to share the property's large geothermal pools with others, so this private experience is an absolute win. Nonetheless, if you do want to jump around the other natural hot spring pools, your stay includes unlimited access to all of them. Both guests also get a complimentary wellness session and buffet breakfast each morning. This is some next-level treat-yourself stuff, so expect to pay handsomely for it. Rooms within the Eco Lodges sleep two adults, with accommodation and bathing packages starting at $880. The new Peninsula Hot Springs Eco Lodges will open in early November 2024. For more details, visit the venue's website. Top image: Alarna O'Connell.
Perched on Brisbane's inner-city outskirts for the past 141 years, the XXXX Brewery has become a bona fide landmark. It's the source of much of the beer drunk across town, a place to sip plenty of pints after seeing where the brewing magic happens, and — noticeably — the reason that the suburb of Milton often smells like yeast. This November, it'll also become Brissie's newest music venue, with the iconic spot hosting a festival with bands and brews for the first time ever. Knocking back cold ones while you're catching live tunes may be an everyday gig experience; however, usually when you're enjoying this combo, you're not hanging out in a huge brewery. XXXX Presents: Live at the Brewery will change that when it takes over the site from 2–9pm on Saturday, November 16. Not only is it the XXXX Brewery's first event of this kind — it's the first time it has opened its gates to the public, other than for tours or to patrons at the onsite Alehouse, for 26 years. While the music lineup won't be revealed until mid-September, Brisbanites can look forward to five local and interstate artists, who'll all perform at the base of the brewery's towering, logo-adorned silos. The folks at Jet Black Cat Music have been charged with picking the bill, building on their past work at the End Of The Line Festival and drawing upon the curatorial skills evident in their West End record store. As well as bands, XXXX Presents: Live at the Brewery will have food stalls, a post-fest shindig at the Alehouse and plenty of limited-edition merchandise — should you need a souvenir from your day spent drinking and partying at the home of the Milton Mango. And, while the festival is a once-off affair, attendees will get two chances to wander around the XXXX site, with each ticket also including a free return visit before June 30, 2020 for a brewery tour. XXXX Presents: Live at the Brewery takes place from 2–9pm on Saturday, November 16 at the XXXX Brewery, 185 Milton Road, Milton. Pre-sale tickets will be available from 9am on Monday, September 16 — sign up here for further details. We'll let you know when the lineup drops in mid-September.
A plug nickel is a five cent coin where the "plug", or centre disk, has been removed to decrease its value. The guys from Dr Morse may have named their new hole-in-the-wall café after one of them because, well, it's not much more than a hole punched into the wall — but while Plug Nickel is definitely small, it's by no means short of value. Located just off Smith Street a few doors up from Lazerpig, Plug Nickel only has ten seats. The reasoning behind this bare bones layout is that this pocket of Collingwood already has Proud Mary and Major Major; it didn't need another sit-down speciality coffee café. Plug Nickel instead focuses on takeaway food and coffee — and you don't need many seats for that. So how do they produce edibles in a space so small? Well, food is prepared at Dr Morse on Johnston Street every morning and brought over to the Peel Street space. It's then placed, on request, into their high-tech Turbo Chef oven, which heats up food in three minutes and takes it from cold, to hot, to crispy. "Our whole thing is to have food and coffee out the door within three minutes," says Lucien Kolff, one of Plug Nickel's owners. "It fits with our whole ethos of getting things out as fast and efficiently as possible. But it's not like we're just chucking it in the microwave. It's good food." A small takeaway menu features breakfast roti, pork sandwiches, sausage rolls, pies, noodle salads and soup. They also have two cold coffee taps installed on the back bar. One pours Nitro Black, a single origin espresso infused with nitrogen that tastes like a creamy, fizzy cold coffee. The other serves Sparkling Cascara, which sees dried berries from the coffee plant brewed like tea for 48 hours. It tastes like iced tea, but is still highly caffeinated. There might not be a kitchen at Plug Nickel, but there is a hairdresser and a bike shop. After acquiring the heritage space, the owners decided it would be too disjointed to have seating in the other rooms. So they rented it out to their hairdresser friend Ginger Light, who has opened her one-seat salon Ginger Hair. Bike shop Northside Wheelers plan to be open and running in the next room by mid-June.
For many, it's already considered the creative heart of Melbourne's CBD — its myriad studio spaces playing host to countless creatives and their artistic endeavours over the past four decades. But the iconic Nicholas Building is now set to take things to a whole new level, under bold new redevelopment plans unveiled this week. The vision would build on the art deco beauty's status as a significant creative precinct, adding a new rooftop pavilion and green public space, and a live performance venue. Aimed at ensuring the site remains a cultural precinct of affordable creative studios, the proposal is the work of social impact capital firm Forza Capital, the City of Melbourne and a new purpose-built cultural foundation occupying nine levels of the historic Swanston Street tower. Currently home to more than 200 creative studios and businesses, the landmark site was put on the market in July 2021, spurring the Nicholas Building Association to launch a campaign to save it from developers. Thousands petitioned to retain the building as a cultural asset and many donated to the cause, which will help fund the new plans, along with investments from the three groups spearheading the project. In addition to the rooftop pavilion and public space, which'll boast inbuilt state-of-the-art solar technology, the proposed revamp would include improved facilities, a multi-functional performance space and a slew of new hospitality offerings. Ultimately, the Nicholas Building would play host to a diverse self-determined creative community, and provide a home for leading cultural service and festival organisations — many of which are set to be displaced as a result of the NGV redevelopment. Plans would also see the building facilitating a strong cultural events program in collaboration with a range of local and international players — from exhibitions and performances, to festivals and talks. [caption id="attachment_659146" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The Nicholas Building, via Visit Victoria[/caption] You can see the full plans and stay tuned to the latest developments at the Nicholas Building Association website.
With the cost-of-living crisis still hitting Melburnians, places that offer unlimited food and bottomless booze experiences are gaining popularity. People still want to go out with mates, but they don't want to leave hungry after splashing a decent amount of cash. Jumping on this trend is W Melbourne's Culprit. But it's not just offering one kind of booze- and food-filled experience like you find at most Melbourne bottomless brunch spots. It's got three, running every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday from 5–7pm. Tuesdays are the most luxe, with the team serving up unlimited oysters and sparkling wine for just $50 per person. This is a pretty epic deal, as you can get through quite a lot of oysters within two hours. And if you are feeling a little fancy, there's an option to upgrade to premium Aussie bubbles for an additional $39 a head or to French champagne for an extra $79. Come Wednesdays, it's all about bottomless margaritas and margheritas. For $50 per person, you can down as many pizzas and margs as you can. And on Thursdays, Culprit patrons get access to a huge cheese buffet and bottomless wine for $69. Park yourself right up at the cheese station, snacking the two hours away while drinking sparkling, rose, red or white vino. These have got to some of the best after-work food and drink deals in Melbourne right now. If you're in the area, seriously consider getting around to W Melbourne's Culprit for a proper feed.
It's been an unusual year for Melbourne's music scene across the board, but one of its most iconic live music venues now looks set to face its biggest change yet. The legendary Festival Hall has been snapped up by Christian superchurch Hillsong, earmarked to become the new city location for Hillsong Melbourne. As reported by The Age, the new owners forked out a cool $23 million to acquire the historic site, whose stage has played host to a roll call of musical greats including The Beatles, Frank Sinatra and the Red Hot Chilli Peppers. Hillsong announced the new via YouTube video over the weekend, with Global Senior Pastor Brian Houston telling viewers: "by God's grace, we've been able to purchase Festival Hall." He explained that a new entity called Community Venues had been set up to acquire the site and that Hillsong would be the anchor tenant. "In other words, every Sunday night, or Sunday morning, or whenever we have church, to be honest, it will be our venue," he says. "But we're going to continue running it as a community venue, it's to reach the community." According to Houston, the purchase had been in the works for a while and was made using designated funds that were planned ahead of the pandemic. Hillsong also revealed plans for a complete renovation of the inner city building in the near future, though it won't have free rein. Any future works would have to be keeping with Festival Hall's permanent heritage protection status, which was granted back in 2018. Originally constructed in 1915, then rebuilt after a fire in 1955, the hall has enjoyed a colourful history. As well as its many famed musical guests, the space has hosted its fair share of significant boxing matches over the years, and even held a number of events during the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. Festival Hall is located at 300 Dudley Street, West Melbourne. We'll let you know when more dates and details of the renovation are announced.
There's never been a show on TV quite like Kevin Can F**k Himself — or on streaming, where the series is now available in Australia via Amazon Prime Video. But, there have sadly been far too many programs over the years that resemble one half of this clever and cutting dark comedy. Even if you aren't a fan of the fare this newcomer riffs on, you know the type. For too long, screens have been littered with sitcoms about families, and about specific kinds of couples and their kids. Accordingly, a different one probably springs to mind for each of us. You might've started thinking about Home Improvement, or Everybody Loves Raymond — or, thanks to Kevin Can F**k Himself's title, you could've just remembered all the shows starring Kevin James. Kevin Can F**k Himself's moniker does indeed conjure up the words many of us have thought to ourselves after stumbling across awful sitcoms led by James. Here, Kevin McRoberts (Eric Petersen, Sydney to the Max) is the obnoxious manchild of a husband, while Allison (Annie Murphy, Schitt's Creek) is his put-upon wife — and whenever they're together, generally at home, she's clearly in a sitcom. The lights glow brightly, her house resembles every other cosy abode in similar shows about comparable characters, and multiple cameras capture their lives. Also, canned laughter chuckles whenever something apparently amusing (but usually just cringeworthy) occurs. And, that source of terrible humour tends to be Kevin, who skates through his days with the arrogance and obliviousness of a white thirty-something man who has always been told he can do no wrong. Helping to reinforce that mindset, he always has his ever dimwitted best pal and neighbour Neil (Alex Bonifer, Superstore) by his side, gushing over his every move. Also frequently hovering around: Neil's one-of-the-guys sister Patty (Mary Hollis Inboden, The Righteous Gemstones) and Kevin's own ever-present dad (Brian Howe, Chicago Fire). We've all seen this setup before, and Kevin Can F**k Himself's creator Valerie Armstrong — who also worked on the excellent, underrated, cancelled-too-soon Lodge 49 — definitely knows it. She isn't trying to recreate these abysmal sitcoms for fun, though. Instead, she knows that Allison and the women who've been in her place are devastatingly miserable, and she's determined to give them their time in the spotlight and explore what happens when they're not supporting player to a man they don't even want to be with. That's where the twist comes in, and it's oh-so-savvily handled. (It's also laid bare in the show's first episode, because it's that important to the series' premise.) So, whenever Kevin Can F**k Himself's leading lady is blissfully free of her horrible hubby, her life becomes a premium cable drama. Murkier tones and a much more realistic vibe kick in, just one camera films her struggles, and no one is giggling. Also, Allison starts trying to do something about her soul-crushing marriage. The visual and tonal contrast between the show's two halves is big, stark and obvious. It hits you over the head. It's meant to. On paper, the creative decisions behind Kevin Can F**k Himself stem from a high-concept gimmick, and purposefully so — but the show's central idea is also exceptionally smart. This series needs to be as blatant as it is in contrasting Allison's time with Kevin with her experiences whenever he's not around. It needs to make flagrant moves to illustrate how the world still sees marriages like theirs as bright and inviting, even when Allison endures a grim struggle. Subtlety isn't usually the best way to make a statement, after all, and that applies when you're calling out how an entire genre of TV has long treated women; that its instantly recognisable toxic tropes have become not just accepted, but imitated; and that real-life relationships based on this dynamic aren't healthy or happy. These notions bubble away throughout Kevin Can F**k Himself, including when over-lit scenes of Allison putting up with Kevin segue into dark-hued shots as soon as she's out of his presence. Usually, the change kicks in because she's walked into the kitchen and left him on the couch with his pals, or she's gone to work while he gets up to standard sitcom-style hijinks; however, Allison is desperate to make a permanent change. The series follows not just her efforts to leave Kevin, but her quest to ensure that she'll be free of him forever. You could say that she breaks bad, but she's doing good — just for herself for once. Allison's path forward is messy, naturally, and only gets more chaotic the more she commits to achieving her Kevin-free new life. Her high-school crush Sam (Raymond Lee, Made for Love) moves back to town, too, while Patty becomes an unexpected ally. Soon, the two women have a police detective (Candice Coke, Indemnity) snooping around their lives as well. Everything Allison faces could've easily fuelled a drama that didn't include sitcom-savaging segments, but the show is all the better for embracing its gimmickry. It pulls back the curtain on the glossy way that its protagonist's existence is presented to the world, exposes the reality and finds ample ways to interrogate why this sitcom fantasy has proliferated for so long. Thanks to weighty key performances by Murphy and Inboden, it also dives deep into the internalised miseries that women who've been caught in the orbit of men like Kevin keep navigating — and, episode by episode, it grows and fleshes out the pair's complicated friendship as well, and unpacks the "cool girl" archetype Patty initially represents. In the process, amidst all of its layers and switches, Kevin Can F**k Himself quickly becomes one of the best new shows of 2021. Thankfully, it has already been renewed for a second season, too, so more of its incisive charms and astute social commentary — and Murphy and Inboden's stellar work — awaits. Check out the trailer for Kevin Can F**k Himself below: The first four episodes of Kevin Can F**k Himself's first season are available to stream via Amazon Prime Video, with new episodes dropping weekly. Images: Jojo Whilden/AMC.
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.
When the Godzilla franchise first started rampaging through Japanese cinemas almost 70 years ago, it was in response to World War II and the horrific display of nuclear might that it unleashed. That saga and its prehistoric reptilian monster have notched up 38 movies now, and long may it continue stomping out of its homeland (the American flicks, which are set to return in 2024, have been hit-and-miss). In such creature-feature company, the films of Makoto Shinkai may not seem like they belong. So far, the writer/director behind global hits Your Name and Weathering with You, plus The Place Promised in Our Early Days, 5 Centimetres per Second, Children Who Chase Lost Voices and The Garden of Words before that, sadly hasn't applied his talents to good ol' Zilly, either. But Japan's animators have been musing on and reflecting upon destruction and devastation for decades, too — stunningly and heartbreakingly so. In Studio Ghibli's Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind, Grave of the Fireflies and The Wind Rises — in Howl's Moving Castle, Porco Rosso and From Up on Poppy Hill as well — conflict lingers in a variety of ways. In 2016's gorgeous and affecting In this Corner of the World, war is utterly inescapable. And in Shinkai's recent work, it's another catastrophe that casts a shadow: the Great East Japan Earthquake and the resulting Fukushima nuclear disaster. He's made his past three movies, including his latest beautiful and heartfelt effort Suzume, with that incident clearly in mind. Indeed, although it hops all over Japan, acting like a travelogue in magnificently realistic animated form, this new tale about a teenage girl, matters of the heart and the earth, supernatural forces and endeavouring to cancel the apocalypse firmly has its soul in the part of Honshu that forever changed in March 2011. Suzume meets its namesake (Nanoka Hara, Guilty Flag) on Kyushu, Japan's third-largest island, where she has lived with her aunt Tamaki (Eri Fukatsu, Survival Family) for 12 years. More than that, it meets its titular high schooler as she meets Souta (SixTONES singer Hokuto Matsumura), who catches her eye against the gleaming sea and sky as she's cycling to class. He's searching for ruins, and she knows just the local place — an abandoned onsen, which she beats him to. There, Suzume discovers a door standing mysteriously within a pool of water, then opens said entryway to see a shimmering sight on the other side. That's an ordinary act with extraordinary consequences, because Shinkai adores exactly that blend and clash. To him, that's where magic springs, although never while spiriting away life's troubles and sorrows. Every single door everywhere is a portal, of course, but this pivotal one takes the definition literally. Suzume can't walk through the opening; instead, she's left peering at the enticing evening-hued realm lurking within its frame. That said, she does unwittingly unleash a monster that Souta and his family have spent generations trying to contain. The worm lives up to its moniker, sprawling high into and across the sky, and sending its red tendrils far and wide. As his grandfather was, plus a long line of other relatives before that, Souta is a closer, which means he's tasked with shutting the doors that pop up at Japan's abandoned places — including a school and an amusement park — to keep the worm away and humanity safe. Sometimes, he needs a keystone to do so; however, the one in Suzume's hometown turns into a cat when she picks it up. Also transforming, but not by choice: Souta himself, who swiftly takes the form of a three-legged yellow chair that his new pal has owned and loved since she was a pre-schooler. What's a girl, a walking-and-talking seat and a tiny white kitty — Daijin, aka that metamorphosed keystone, which can also speak (as voiced by newcomer Ann Yamane) — to do? The latter cutely but quickly scampers, unsurprisingly attracting ample social-media attention, while Suzume and Souta follow as fast as they can. Most road trips don't involve attempting to save the planet, but Suzume's is as scenic as any cross-country jaunt by ferry, scooter, van, train and car thanks to one of Shinkai's ever-reliable hallmarks: his breathtaking visuals. Whether or not any member of the film's audience has been to Japan themselves, watching this spectacular affair feels like stepping right into Miyazaki, Shikoku, Kobe, Tokyo and more. Once again, as he did with Your Name and Weathering with You as well, Shinkai brings the Japanese capital to the screen with detail so gloriously lifelike that it makes for simply exquisite animation. That gift is shared with everywhere that Suzume, Souta and Daijin visit, mesmerisingly so. It's both a fitting and knowing touch to get Suzume's heroine residing in the city that shares its name with Studio Ghibli great Hayao Miyazaki. By the watching world, Shinkai has been anointed the Spirited Away and My Neighbour Totoro filmmaker's successor frequently since Your Name proved such a delight and smash — and so stirring, melancholy and dazzling — and, while thoroughly earning those comparisons yet another time, he leans in. Whisper of the Heart, which is similarly about a teen chasing a cat, gets a direct (and lovely) shoutout. Nods to Kiki's Delivery Service also ripple, again thanks to the crucial adorable feline. As its characters tumble through episodic adventures sparked by that fateful first door, Suzume adds references elsewhere, starting with Alice in Wonderland. It's easy to see the thematic trilogy it's happily forming with Shinkai's last two movies, too. There's a mythic air and a determination to make something meaningful and with a message that's oh-so Ghibli always, though; like the animation house, Shinkai crafts films as devoted to getting viewers marvelling at the planet, life on it and the relationships forged as they are committed to entrancing the eyes with their radiant sights. Already the fourth-grossing Japanese film of all time globally — Your Name is third, and Weathering with You ninth — Suzume is vivid in every moment. Aided by its music from Shinkai regulars Radwimps and composer Kazuma Jinnouchi (Star Wars: Visions), it's rousing in all the fashions that a feature can be, in fact. Its guiding light makes cosmic romances, fantastical voyages and supernatural disaster flicks as well, plus contemplations of growing up and taking care of nature, and ensures that they swell and swirl with all the emotions that they demand. In a national cinema industry so well-known for confronting the country's past that it turned part of it into a giant stalking lizard, Shinkai keeps finding bewitching and sensitive methods to achieve that feat, and wonderfully. Here, as Suzume battles her own hulking force, she faces life-changing heartache that no one can ever truly get over, still learns how to go on but never lets her history slip away. It's no surprise that Suzume is as sweet and swoonworthy as Shinkai's work comes, and as earnest, intricate, intelligent, involving and enchanting.
It has been two short weeks since Banksy pulled what might be the artist's greatest prank yet — ripping one of his own paintings to shreds the very moment it was sold at auction. And if you just can't get enough of the stunt, Banksy has released a new extended video that peers behind the scenes as it all goes down. Called Shred the Love: The Director's Cut, the nearly three-minute clip is available on the artist's website, and reveals not only what went down when Banksy's Girl with Balloon artwork self-destructed as the hammer fell on the winning bid, but what was supposed to happen. Alongside the bidding at London's Sotheby's auction house, footage of someone pressing a button on a remote to start the shredding process, and the shocked mayhem afterwards, Banksy reveals that the entire painting was supposed to be cut to pieces. "In rehearsals it worked every time," the video notes. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxkwRNIZgdY Understandably, the stunt has sparked plenty of chatter both in the art world and in general over the past fortnight, including suggestions that the work has now gone up in value. The Telegraph reports that the collector with the winning £860,000 (AU$1.6 million) bid has decided to keep the piece, which has been retitled Love is in the Bin — although if Banksy had gotten his way, only torn strips of the painting would remain. The new video expands upon the original clip that Banksy posted in the immediate aftermath of the October 5 prank, showing a shredder being secretly built into the artwork, with an explanation that this was done a few years ago "in case it was ever put up for auction". Sotheby's has repeatedly advised that it had no knowledge of the prank before it happened. "It appears we just got Banksy-ed," Alex Branczik, head of contemporary art for Europe, told The Art Newspaper. Of course, whether Banksy is building the world's most depressing theme park, crafting a dark tourism ad for Gaza, opening a Bethlehem guesthouse with a view of the Israeli-Palestinian border or spray painting his pieces all over the globe, the artist's work tends to make a statement. The latest stunt certainly does continue Banksy's fascination with both creation and destruction, which has long been a theme at the centre of the street artist's work. Images: Olga Rozenbajgier, The Art of Banksy / Banksy.
It's been winning over fans since opening its OG pasta and wine bar in Highett in mid 2020. But Abbiocco is about to earn itself a whole swag of new loyal followers, as it adds to the family with a second outpost, this time in the heart of St Kilda. Abbiocco 2.0 has set up shop on Barkly Street, its light-filled space paying homage to its sibling with a mix of olive green tones, terrazzo flooring and timber slatting throughout. The name references an Italian phrase that loosely translates to 'food coma', hinting at the kind of generous feasting situation that awaits you here. Familiar Italian flavours are given a creative, contemporary refresh and, while the menu shares a similar feel to that of its Highett counterpart, it's also a treasure trove of new additions, too. Pasta is the hero, made fresh in-house each day. You might be in for prawn tortelli starring fennel and lemon thyme butter, pumpkin gnocchi with gorgonzola and wattleseed, or a pork sausage campanelle finished with chestnuts. A strong antipasti lineup includes the likes of preserved lemon and baccala arancini, veal carpaccio matched to a rocket gremolata and black garlic, and even Abbiocco's own mortadella, served with veneti peppers and pistachios. There's a hefty t-bone for those looking beyond a pasta fix, and revamped classics like mandarin bomboloni and lemon myrtle cannoli beckon from the dessert list. Meanwhile, the wine offering celebrates Aussie drops alongside plenty from the homeland, with an impressive range pouring by the glass — you can just as easily match your after-work snacks with a Yarra Valley savarro by Soumah, as with the Caprili Rosso Di Montalcino sangiovese out of Tuscany. A collaboration lager made with Bad Shepherd headlines a solid craft beer lineup, while cocktails sport a distinctly Euro lean; from the blood orange negroni, to a limoncello and grapefruit spritz. Find Abbiocco's new outpost at 173 Barkly Street, St Kilda. It's open from 5.30–11pm Wednesday to Friday, 12–2.30pm and 5.30–11pm Saturday, and from 12–2.30pm and 5.30–10pm Sunday.
It has won 11 Tony Awards and is one of the Obamas' favourite musical, and now Lin-Manuel Miranda's game-changing musical Hamilton is finally coming to Australia. The critically acclaimed hip hop musical, for which Miranda wrote the music, lyrics and the book, is about the life of Founding Father Alexander Hamilton, as well as inclusion and politics in current-day America. As well as its 11 Tony Awards, which include Best Musical, it has nabbed a Grammy Award and even a Pulitzer Prize. After hitting Broadway in 2015, then West End in 2017, and beginning its third tour of the US earlier this year, Australians can finally catch Hamilton — when it makes its Southern Hemisphere premiere at the Sydney Lyric Theatre in March 2021. While this is not new news, with the musical heading Down Under first announced back in May 2019, the fact that it's still planning to go ahead in seven months despite the global pandemic is. And, Aussies keen to head along will be able to snag tickets in just a few weeks. Those who've signed up to the waitlist — or do so before Sunday, August 23 — can get pre-sale tickets from 10am on Monday, August 24. General public tickets will then go on sale at 9am on Tuesday, September 1. Tickets will set you back $70–250 a pop — but there'll be a limited number going for just $10, available as part of the Hamilton lottery. We'll be sure to let you know more details about that when they're announced. [caption id="attachment_731122" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Joan Marcus[/caption] There's no word yet on whether it'll head to other Aussie cities later on — it's possible, other big musicals, such as The Book of Mormons, have. But, if you don't want to risk it, those located interstate should to start planning a trip ASAP — we think it'll be more than worth it. Of course, if you're hoping to make the journey to NSW from interstate, you'll be keeping your fingers crossed that all the internal borders will finally be open by next March. It's not Miranda's first musical to hit Australia, either, his take on the classic 200s film Bring It On: The Musical hit Melbourne in 2018 and quadruple Tony Award-winning In The Heights just finished a short season at the Sydney Opera House last year. In the meantime, you can watch the filmed version of Hamilton with the original Broadway cast on Disney+ — yes, it's as phenomenal as you've heard. Hamilton will make its Australian premiere at the Sydney Lyric Theatre from Wednesday, March 17–Sunday, August 1, 2021. You can sign-up for pre-sale tickets now before they are released at 10am on Monday, August 24 via Ticketmaster. General public tickets will then go on sale at 9am on Tuesday, September 1. Image: Hamilton, Broadway. Photo by Joan Marcus.
The bad news: Melbourne's NYE fireworks will not be going ahead. It's not an unexpected announcement — with the annual event usually attracting 400,000 people to the city (a number that certainly doesn't scream 'COVID-safe') — but it's a little sad nonetheless. The good news: instead of fireworks, the city is getting a new two-day food and wine celebration run by the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival (MFWF) team together with the City of Melbourne. New Year Street Feasts, as the new dining experience has been dubbed, will see the city filled with 11 food precincts inspired by Europe's piazzas and squares. More than 50 venues will be involved, with precincts popping up across Little Bourke Street, Little Collins Street, Lonsdale Street, Springs Street, Russell Street, as well as AC/DC, Hardware, Flinders and Market lanes, and Docklands. As well as being exciting news for the food-loving citizens of Melbourne, it's also great news for the city's hospitality venues, with bars, cafes and restaurants restricted to takeaway-only for the better part of seven months. It's been a particularly difficult seven months for venues in the CBD, too, as many Melburnians continue to work from home. According to a July survey by the City of Melbourne, 15 percent of the city's hospitality businesses were unlikely to reopen after lockdown. Some big-name venues have already announced their permanent closure. One of the first was Chinatown's 30-year-old Shark Fin House, which saw an 80 percent drop in customers back in February; and Ezard, with the Flinders Lane restaurant departing after 20 years. Little Bourke Street stalwart Longrain also announced it was shutting up shop for good back in May, but then Chef Scott Pickett swooped in and revived the restaurant. The MFWF itself was impacted by this year's pandemic, first postponing, then cancelling its March festival. [caption id="attachment_744121" align="alignnone" width="1920"] The NYE fireworks will not go ahead this year.[/caption] When announcing the new event, Lord Mayor Sally Capp mentioned the difficult year it has been for the industry. "This has been an incredibly tough year and we want to mark its end by celebrating and supporting Melbourne's wonderful cafes, bars and restaurants," the Lord Mayor said in a statement. "We are tailoring a program to safely encourage more patrons into our incredible and deserving hospitality businesses that have struggled through lockdown restrictions." While the events are under wraps for now, you can expect some pretty exciting announcements, if MFWF's 2020 program is anything to go by. The OG lineup included a tongue-tingling Sichuan Snack Fair, a party dedicated to hot chips and an homage to 40 years of The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book. We'll let you know as soon as they're announced. New Year Street Feasts will run from Thursday, December 31–Friday, January 1 at more than 50 venues across Melbourne. Tickets will go on sale to the public from Monday, November 23. More info will be available at melbournefoodandwine.com.au. Top image: MFWF by Daniel Mahon
What do you get when you combine two restaurants that love fresh food, funky wines and Asian fusion? You get K-Town Shik, which will take over Supernormal Canteen on Sunday November 25. For this one night dinner, Supernormal Canteen's head chef Tim Stapleforth will join forces with Restaurant Shik's owner, chef and sommelier Peter Jo (Berta, Momofuku Seiobo, Belles Hot Chicken) — better known in the industry as 'Kimchi Pete'. The seven-course feast focuses on the Korean flavours that Jo is known for. Expect a party atmosphere, pumped up tunes and a menu that features seasonal, produce-driven dishes. Think raw bar items, hibachi-fired ssam chilli sauce and, as expected, heaps of kimchi. Alongside the meal, patrons can purchase low intervention and one-off natural wines that are the custom at both Restaurant Shik and Supernormal Canteen. It'll cost you a relatively reasonable $85 per person, with sittings from noon–8pm. Spots can be reserved online — but this event isn't one for those with dietary restrictions, so be sure to call ahead if you have any questions on that front. Image: Kate Shanasy.
This quirky, bright blue store has been on Brunswick Street for over 20 years now. Founded in 1993 by furniture makers Jeremy Wilkins and Stephen Kent, Wilkins and Kent was conceived as a workshop for custom-made bookcases, cupboards and chests. Now it's a fully-fledged boutique of not only furniture, but homewares of all kinds. While you can still find yourself a specialty-made desk or tallboy, you can also pick up terrariums, alarm clocks, kitchen goods, and bedspreads — anything that makes your home just that little bit brighter. You can also find Wilkins and Kent in the city at 372 Lt Bourke Street, Melbourne.
Australia’s oldest, largest and most celebrated queer film festival is back for another year, showcasing the very best of LGBTQ cinema from all around the world. With screenings at ACMI and Hoyts Melbourne Central, the Melbourne Queer Film Festival is the premier event for queer cinema in Australia, with dramas, comedies, documentaries, shorts and now, in its 24th year, a lesbian werewolf movie with a cameo by Kylie Minogue. There will also be speed dating, gay bingo and a 20th anniversary screening of that quintessential Australian queer film Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, complete with an audience costume competition. With such a variety of films to choose from, compiling a top five list is nearly impossible. Honourable mentions go to award-winning South Australian drama 52 Tuesdays which will be released in cinema in May, as well as the heartbreaking American documentary Valentine Road, about a transgender high-school student shot by his classmate, which placed second in the audience award poll for Best Documentary at last year’s MIFF. Shout-out also to the entire short film program, especially the Oz Shorts selection. BAD HAIR One of the festival’s Centrepiece Presentations, Venezuelan drama Bad Hair has drawn comparisons to 2012 festival favourite Tomboy for its honest portrayal of pre-teen sexual identity. Young actor Samuel Lange plays Junior, a nine-year-old boy whose desire to have his hair straightened for his yearbook photo seems to confirm his working-class single mother’s worst fears. A commentary not just on homophobia and youth sexuality, but also Venezuela’s grim socio-political situation, Bad Hair won the gong for Best Film at the San Sebastian Film Festival, and has been pointed to by MQFF director Lisa Daniel as one of the highlights of the program. BRIDEGROOM When Tom Bridegroom’s life was cut short in a tragic accident, it was only the beginning of the heartbreak for his long-term partner Shane Bitney-Crone. Without any protection from marriage laws, Bitney-Crone was ostracised by Bridegroom’s conservative family, prohibited from even attending his loved-one’s funeral. Linda Bloodworth-Thomason’s documentary recounts the relationship between the two men, while also shining further light on the importance of marriage equality. The film won the audience award at last year’s Tribeca Film Festival in New York, where it was introduced by former US President Bill Clinton. Bitney-Crone is expected to be in attendance at the MQFF screening. TEST A favourite at last year’s Outfest in Los Angeles where it was awarded the Grand Jury Prize for Outstanding US Dramatic Feature, Test takes place in 1985 San Francisco, when the AIDs crisis was at its peak. Scott Marlowe plays Frankie, the newest member of an up-and-coming dance troupe, who is agonising over the decision as to whether to take a blood test that will reveal if he’s infected with the disease. Set in the same era as Oscar-nominated AIDs drama Dallas Buyers Club, the film has been praised for its life-affirming approach to an obviously dark period of history. VICKY – THE GAY GENE COMES TO MELBOURNE Chosen by Barack Obama to deliver the invocation during the inaugural weekend of his presidential election, Gene Robinson is the world’s first openly gay Bishop. From director Sasha Hadden, this Australian-made documentary chronicles Robinson’s recent trip to Melbourne, where he butted heads with Reverend Fred Nile of the Christian Democrats Party. Released at a time when Australian politicians are coming under increased pressure from gay rights activists, the film explores the role religion has to play in reversing existing prejudices, for which religion is itself partly responsible. WHO’S AFRAID OF VAGINA WOLF? The last film on this list brings with it some much-needed frivolity, in the form of the award-winning comedy Who’s Afraid of Vagina Wolf? Described by one critic as a lesbian blend of Edward Albee’s title-inspiring play and the raucous adult humour of Judd Apatow productions like Bridesmaids and This is 40, the film tells the story of Anna, played by writer-director Anna Albelo, a single lesbian filmmaker in the midst of a mid-life crisis. The semi-autobiographical comedy is another favourite of festival director Lisa Daniel, who describes it in the program notes as a movie “not to be missed.” For the full festival program and to pre-book tickets, visit www.mqff.com.au.
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.
The increasing rise of streaming platforms could mark the death of movie-going as we know it, or so says the popular line of thinking that's been floating around for years. We're fairly certain that online services won't completely kill cinemas, however, even as huge companies like Apple and Disney try to battle it out with Netflix. There's a simple reason, and it's all about the spectacle. If the big screen dies out, all of those huge superhero battles will lose a bit of their sheen — and so will nerve-wracking creature features. It's a truth universally acknowledged that there's nothing quite like watching savage critters attack while you're sat in a darkened theatre, where nothing can disrupt the tension and a whole room of people are reacting to the on-screen horrors. That's one of the reasons Steven Spielberg's Jaws proved such a hit, after all, with the movie credited with inventing the mid-year blockbuster season. Since the 1975 thriller, plenty of films have tried to follow in its footsteps, both seriously and comedically. Crawl is the latest, slinging killer crocodiles at Skins and Maze Runner star Kaya Scodelario — because, well, why not? Directed by Alexandre Aja (The Hills Have Eyes, Piranha 3D) and produced by Sam Raimi (the original Evil Dead trilogy, Drag Me to Hell), Crawl takes place in Florida, just as a huge hurricane hits. Scodelario's Haley is told to evacuate, but she wants to find her missing dad (Barry Pepper) first — and he's injured and stuck in the crawl space of their family home. So far, so unfortunate. But then floodwaters rise, the storm keeps belting down and something with teeth is lurking below the water. If you're not fond of jumps, scares and snapping foes, this won't be for you. If you are, check out the trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4WuVXo_XAM&feature=youtu.be Crawl releases in Australian cinemas on July 11. Image: Sergej Radović. © 2019 Paramount Pictures Corporation. All rights reserved.
Busy scenes at St Kilda Beach and its surrounds over the weekend have led two local councils to unleash strong warnings for those ignoring public health directives. After crowds gathered beachside to take advantage of the warmer weather, with some reportedly ignoring social distancing guidelines, City of Port Phillip has come out swinging, taking to Facebook to warn the rule-breakers. "Unfortunately, if we have large crowds of people doing the wrong thing, then we will have no choice but to close the beach or park as a last resort," Council CEO Peter Smith explained in a post yesterday. "We are extremely disappointed by the number of people who breached the Victorian Chief Health Officer's orders," he said, labelling the crowd's behaviour as "unacceptable" and warning that such actions could delay Melbourne's reopening efforts. The mayor of Bayside Council Clarke Martin echoed this sentiment in a statement to The Sunday Age, saying, "my message to Bayside residents and anyone who wants to come down to the beach is not to. Please, just stay away for another two or three weeks and let this virus eat itself out." https://www.facebook.com/cityofportphillip/posts/3497330073666492 A Victoria Police spokesperson said that while the "vast majority of Victorians" had displayed good behaviour over the weekend, there were still some who'd flouted the rules, "with a number of arrests made and infringement notices issued". The spokesperson reminded Melburnians that police will continue to be out in force patrolling popular public spots and handing out fines. Meanwhile, City of Port Phillip is currently working on finalising its Play It Safe summer management plan, with a few of the key measures also trialled over the busy weekend. They include the installation of social distancing circles — similar to the ones that have popped up in Prahran — at South Beach Reserve. The St Kilda markers range between three and four metres in diameter, with the larger ones designed to cater for group exercise. They're spaced 1.5 metres apart, in keeping with the DHSS's social-distancing guidelines. The Council also says it's bumped up policing of the sites, having put additional Local Laws officers on the ground and "worked closely with the police to ensure an increased police presence". As it implements further measures in the coming months, expect to also see new pedestrian areas and expanded footpath dining precincts. You can check out all of metropolitan Melbourne's current restrictions over at the Victorian Department of Health and Human Services website. Top image: St Kilda Beach by Matteo Artizzu via Flickr.
When Anchovy co-owners Jia-Yen Lee and Thi Le first started slinging khao jee pâté — the Lao cousin of the Vietnamese banh mi — during last year's lockdown, it was never meant to become a permanent venture. But as lockdowns and restrictions continued, and the duo's street food offering earned itself a loyal following, it became clear the Ca Com pop-up was here to stay. Now, it's spawned its own standalone shopfront next door. Named after the Vietnamese words for 'anchovy', Ca Com first made an appearance at the front window of Anchovy in May 2020. The restaurateurs were keen to keep busy while Anchovy was closed to dine-ins, and a rotating menu of banh mi was exactly the kind of accessible, lockdown-friendly fare the neighbourhood needed. The pair have been running the pop-up on and off ever since, using a hibachi on the window sill to barbecue proteins and ramping up opening hours whenever Melbourne goes into a snap lockdown. The concise banh mi menu changes regularly depending on the availability of meat cuts and other ingredients, giving the team a chance to flex their creativity and test out new flavour combinations for its dedicated Melbourne fans.
Bendigo Art Gallery will honour one of the most influential fashion icons of all time when the Balenciaga: Shaping Fashion exhibition opens on August 17. A pioneering 20th century designer hailing from Spain, Cristóbal Balenciaga was considered one of the leaders of haute couture — and hundreds of his designs are making their way to Australia this winter. For this exclusive exhibition, Bendigo Art Gallery has collaborated with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Expect over 100 garments and hats designed not only by Balenciaga, but also by his 30 contemporaries and apprentices at the design house — who include the likes of Oscar de la Renta and Hubert de Givenchy. Along with the designer pieces — including pieces worn by actress Ava Gardner, mononymous 50s model Dovima and 60s fashion icon Gloria Guinness — visitors will gain access to Balenciaga's house through archival sketches, fabric samples, photographs and fashion show footage. This is the gallery's latest fashion-focused installation, with past exhibitions including Melbourne's own Toni Maticevski in 2016, golden era Hollywood designer Edith Head in 2017 and, most recently, an exhibition on Finnish textile icon Marimekkoin June 2018. The art gallery is located about two hours' drive northwest of Melbourne. Instead of flying into Melbourne, out-of-towners can opt to take a newly operating Qantas direct flight from Sydney to Bendigo — and August would certainly be the time to do it.
Two of our favourite things — good food and fantastic film — are coming together at Caulfield Racecourse again for 2018. Gourmet Cinema will return for the third time on Thursday, March 1 to pair menus from some of Melbourne's top restaurants with a critically acclaimed film. So bring your picnic blankets, but leave the baskets at home. Six of Melbourne's top-notch restaurants will feature throughout the festival — four food stalls will operate at each session, with one restaurant showcasing a menu matched to the movie on the screen. Luke Hammond from Hotel Jesus will pair a Mexican menu with a viewing of Chef (even though the film features Cuban sandwiches), and you'll have one of Shannon Bennett's Benny burgers in your hand as you watch Top Gun. Other vendors in 2018's highly anticipated culinary lineup will include Jimmy Grants, Uncle, Hellenic Republic and Mamasita. Gourmet Cinema will run for eight nights, from Thursday to Sunday, for two consecutive weeks. Gates open at 6pm with the film set to commence around 8.15pm. Tickets are $22.50 for adults, or you can shell out $35.50 for a reserved deck chair and blanket hire.
