You've heard of bottomless brunch, Paint 'n' Sip and colourful cocktail creation workshops. But what if you could combine the light-hearted fun of clay moulding with the buzz of a boozy brunch? Here's your chance. INDU is teaming up with Sydney-based leisure brand Crock'd to host an exclusive pottery workshop, complete with bottomless drinks and an enticing grazing table for $150 per person. Come Saturday, October 14, the local Sri Lankan- and southern Indian-inspired restaurant will transform one of its spaces into INDU's Kiln Room to host a day of clay-moulding activities. Head over to Angel Place to put your pottery-making skills to the test — you'll be crafting your very own incense holders while sipping on crisp G&Ts at this two-hour workshop. Plus, the seasoned pottery kit-providing team from Crock'd will be present to keep a watchful eye over participants and offer their expertise and guidance so that you won't be thrown too far into the deep end. The underground eatery will provide a curated grazing table filled with flavour-filled bites to fuel the creatives, serving up the likes of tuna croquettes, Ceylon-spiced and Sichuan peppercorn-coated chicken, and pani puri with whipped goat cheese and a green herb chutney to pair. The moreish snacks will be available alongside free-flowing G&Ts for the duration of the workshop. To secure your spot at this bottomless pottery workshop, head over to the event's booking page.
Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week Australia wrapped up last Friday after showcasing the best of local fashion design against the backdrop of Sydney Harbour. Noticeably absent this year were big names Lover, Josh Goot and Dion Lee, as well all as our well-shod friends from across the ditch like Kate Sylvester and Stolen Girlfriends Club, but often it's the emerging designers who put on the most impressive shows. To celebrate five days of more laser lights and short shorts than you could poke a complimentary bottle of San Pellegrino Aranciata at, here are five exciting local labels to familiarise yourself with immediately. 1. MICHAEL LO SORDO To say rising cool kid Michael Lo Sordo’s show at The Apollo was highly anticipated would be a sweeping understatement. Sydney-based Lo Sordo recently took out the Qantas Spirit of Youth Award for his prodigious grasp of construction, and lived up to the hype with a meticulously tailored collection of soft white shirting, coloured metallic tees and knockout party dresses with graphic prints and gladiator detailing. Buy his pieces at Maubourg, Roots & Wings Design or Adelaide’s Chasing Nel. 2. KAYLENE MILNER Among the six talented graduates showing at the highly anticipated TAFE show was Kaylene Milner. Milner has just been selected for an internship with Diane von Furstenberg, and it's thanks to this patchwork-luxe collection juxtaposing earthy furs with vibrant colours. The young designer also has a gutsy back story — she was flipping through a 2007 Vogue during a uni lecture when she decided to ditch musicology in favour of whipping up a portfolio to submit to the prestigious TAFE. Previous designers to have made their runway debut at the Innovators show include Dion Lee and Emma Mulholland, so expectations are justifiably high. 3. AJE Design duo Edwina Robinson and Adrian Norris staged a confident runway debut which mixed sequins, mesh, fishtail skirts and scalloped micro hemlines — sometimes all at once — without sacrificing the label’s nonchalant elegance. Among the many standout pieces was a heavily sequinned mermaid-inspired gown, fittingly anchored by beaten leather boots with the tongue hanging out. Aje is stocked in Desordre in Sydney and Strada in Noosa. 4. CHRISTOPHER ESBER Most 23-year-olds are navigating life one mistake at a time, but Christopher Esber is not most 23-year-olds. The young Sydney designer was one of the standout newcomers at Rosemount Australia Fashion Week last year, consistently proving himself worthy of the hype that has surrounded his collections since he debuted alongside Dion Lee in 2008. Esber’s clothing is characterised by minimalist design, meticulous tailoring and luxurious fabrics, and this season he's all about clinical whites offset by delicate sheer fabric. 5. AN ODE TO NO ONE Few things kick of a runway show like a holographic laser light display, but you don't want the theatrics to outshine the clothing. Luckily An Ode To No One designer Adi Setiadi is a sartorial genius. Last year he penetrated a market saturated with digital prints by rendering his own in trippy 3D, and this time he paraded an army of sci-fi bombshells in Tron-esque geometric dresses, sharply tailored pantsuits and silks that rippled like water. Setiadi cut his teeth working for iconic Aussie designers Akira and Nicola Finetti before starting An Ode To No One in 2008, but his futuristic aesthetic is all his own.
Muogamarra Nature Reserve, a hidden oasis of native wildflowers located near Cowan, is closed to the public most of the year in order to protect its fragile ecosystem and its Aboriginal cultural heritage. But, every now and then, it opens for everyone to enjoy for a limited time. That time is about to arrive for 2023, with the reserve welcoming guests for six weeks in August and September this year. The reserve is a thing of beauty, playing home to more than 900 species of native wildflowers that fill the area with a sea of vibrant colours when they bloom. Waratahs, angophoras, old-man banksias, pink boronias and native orchids — they're all here among the site's expansive bushlands and rainforests. You can also catch a glimpse of Aboriginal rock engravings and take in expansive views of Hawkesbury River, Berowra Creek, Bar Island, Milson Island and Spectacle Island. If this all sounds right up your alley, you've got a couple of options when planning a trip to Muogamarra Nature Reserve. You can book one of four different guided tours led by experienced NSW National Parks and Wildlife Service (NPWS) volunteers, who will take you through the reserve, teaching you about the floral wonders surrounding you. The tours each cover different sections of the park, and range from three to ten kilometres of walking. Or, if you want to tackle the reserve by yourself, you can also reserve a time slot for a self-guided tour. Slots for both are limited, so the NPWS is encouraging anyone keen to explore the wildflower haven to get in quick. Each of the four guided tours and the self-guided tours are available to book at different dates and times between Saturday, August 12–Sunday, September 17. Head to the NSW National Parks website to see the selected dates and to make a booking. Muogamarra Nature Reserve is located three kilometres north of Cowan Station, on the western side of the Pacific Highway. It will reopen to the public for 2023 across selected dates between Saturday, August 12–Sunday, September 17.
Sometimes, dumplings are all about the maestros behind them. Such is the case with Sea Bay Restaurant. Chinese owner Robert Guan has perfected his craft, dishing up tasty north-western classics and some of the gooiest dumplings around town. The traditional steamed pork and vegetable dumplings ($13.80 for 12) are some of the best we've had, and the spring pancakes ($13.80) will satisfy your cravings. Alternatively, the dumpling beef soup ($13.80) will do you nicely. Image: Trent van der Jagt
If there's one thing summer has in abundance it's activities. Whether you're heading on a trip or staying local, there's always plenty to do, see and explore when the sun comes out to play. Yet, somehow, we still seem to always do the same old things: quick dips in the ocean and having mates round for a Sunday session in your backyard. Don't get us wrong, they're both great. But, after a pretty rough year, why not take things up a notch and make this one more memorable? We've partnered up with Bacardi to help you be a bit more unconventional over the warmer months. Here are seven ways you can make the most of the glorious weather, without resorting to the predictable. Think underwater art museums, camping with the crew, multi-venue festivals and cocktail parties in parks. TAKE A HIKE Sure, it might not be the most original summer activity on the list, but getting out into nature is rewarding at any time of year. You'll want to avoid heatstroke, so it's best to get going early or in the late arvo when the temperature starts to drop — which means you'll see some mighty fine sunrises and sunsets. So, put on your best outdoor shoes, slap on some sunscreen and ready yourself for an adventure. If you're in Sydney, you can cruise along one of the city's many coastal walks or hike in a national park, where you'll find some swimming holes to cool off in. In Brisbane, you can conquer epic mountains, check out rushing falls and look out over stunning vistas, without having to venture too far from the big smoke — check out five of the best walks here. Down south in Victoria, there's everything from out-of-town seaside strolls to epic multi-day hikes, boasting idyllic views of pristine beaches, sprawling countryside and serene vineyards, plus plenty of local wildlife. [caption id="attachment_784354" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Disney+ Drive-In[/caption] CATCH A FLICK AT A DRIVE-IN CINEMA Looking for an idea for a date or fun night out with mates? Forget the recliner, keep to social-distancing requirements and catch a movie under the stars, while keeping cool in your car at a drive-in cinema. Head to Skyline Drive-In in Blacktown, Sydney, where you can catch something on the big screen every night of the week, whether it's a new blockbuster or cult classic. If you grew up in Brissy, you've probably already been to old fave Yatala Dive-In and, with such a great rotating program, who could blame you? If you'd rather do something different, though, head to The Tivoli Drive-In on a Saturday. Melbourne locals, you're spoiled for choice with Dandenong Lunar Drive-In and Village Cinemas Coburg Drive-In and, come December, a pop-up Disney+ Drive-In. HOST A COCKTAIL PARTY IN A PARK Know a good patch of green near you? Then, take your next event to the park and impress your mates with an impromptu cocktail party — with a dress code encouraged, of course. Grab some picnic blankets, portable speakers and fun snacks, then get ready to whip up some next-level bevvies. For tropical tipples, you'll need a few bottles of Bacardi, then check out these four super-easy rum cocktails. We recommend batch-making some frozen strawberry daiquiris to keep things simple — just make sure your party guests know to arrive on time. And, because no good cocktail party is complete without snacks, head to a park with a barbecue so you can throw on some snags, too. [caption id="attachment_770817" align="alignnone" width="2000"] White Rabbit 'And Now' by Kimberley Low[/caption] STAY COOL AT A BLOCKBUSTER ART EXHIBITION While being outdoors when it's sunny is ace, sometimes you just want to kick back in air-conditioning. If that's the case, head to an indoor art exhibition where you can get your cultural kicks — and stay cool. Check out contemporary Chinese art at White Rabbit Gallery, the MCA's landmark summer exhibition Lindy Lee: Moon in a Dew Drop or head to Eveleigh arts and cultural institution Carriageworks. Or, step into Brisbane's Queensland Art Gallery (QAG) and Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), with Unfinished Business: The Art of Gordon Bennett currently showing, or see some Bauhaus designs at the Museum of Brisbane. But, perhaps the most exciting of all is Victoria's NGV Triennial, running from December 19 till April next year. Expect to see marine monsters, giant mirrored sculptures by Jeff Koons and a multi-sensory walkway at this massive exhibition. The capital currently has a groundbreaking exhibition showing at the NGA, too, profiling prominent Aussie women artists. GO CAMPING WITH THE CREW No matter where you are in Australia, there's always a spot waiting nearby for you to set up camp. Whether your crew wants to be close to sandy shores or in a remote pocket of wilderness under luminous stars, camping is an awesome way to escape the daily grind. Because we're big fans of reconnecting with nature here at Concrete Playground, we've already sought out some of the top camping spots around the country, too. New South Wales has a bunch of free campgrounds — you can find our pick of the bunch over here, from riverside spots to mountainous getaways. If you're more into the high life, Queensland has plenty of luxe glaming stays. Otherwise, pitch your own tent in Lamington National Park or right by the beach at one of these ten spots. If you're keen to check out regional Victoria, there's beach camping galore as well as plenty of top-notch free grounds not too far from Melbourne. As most of us won't be travelling far this summer (or at least not overseas), many campgrounds are already starting to book out, so be sure to do your research before hitting the road. [caption id="attachment_792466" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Mushroom Creative House[/caption] SEE A LIVE GIG If there's one thing Australia does well across the country, it's live music — even now amid a global pandemic. After months of catching live tunes from our living rooms, it's time to chair-dance at IRL gigs once again. Sydney's Enmore Theatre, Mary's Underground, The Vanguard and Oxford Art Factory all have stellar lineups over the next few months and the annual Sydney Festival never disappoints. If you're in Queensland, or can make it up to the Sunshine State over summer, there are a bunch of COVID-Safe festivals going ahead, including To The Point Festival, This That, The Tivoli's Open Season and Mountain Goat Valley Crawl. Although Melbourne is still waiting for live gigs to come back, punters can see a live comedy show at The Catfish in Fitzroy and be sure to keep an eye out for gig announcements likely to come to a heap of Melbourne live music venues. HIT THE HIGH SEAS There's nothing like diving into the ocean when the mercury is rising. But, rather than just splash about by the shore, there are plenty of other ways you can hit the highs seas instead. Think paddleboarding, kayaking and surfing Sydney seas, or swimming with turtles and scuba diving with manta rays, which are particularly grand on the Queensland coast. While you're there, you should check out the southern hemisphere's first underwater art museum, too. Melbourne may not be known for its beaches, but you can chase plenty of nearby waterfalls instead, or take a windsurfing lesson at St Kilda Beach. Do what moves you this summer with Bacardi. Once you've ticked off all the above adventures, check out Bacardi's competition, where you and 20 mates could win the chance to attend Australia's smallest music festival. Top image: Bec Taylor
Central Sydney is looking a little brighter these days. That's because YCK Laneways has unveiled Lightstream, a new public lighting artwork located in York Lane that's helping to achieve a community good. Produced by renowned artists Fausto Brusamolino and James Peter Brown, in collaboration with YCK Laneways – a collective of independently operated businesses situated around York, Clarence and Kent Streets – this illuminating project aims to enhance safety and transform the pedestrian experience in the CBD, particularly for women, girls and gender-diverse people. While York Street serves as a key shared path through this buzzing inner-city precinct, its dark and unsafe nature has a discouraging effect on people. To rectify this, the YCK Laneways Association engaged government with their concerns, leading to Lightstream being commissioned by the NSW Government's Community Improvement District (CID) Pilot. Now, this once intimidating backstreet has a much brighter appeal. "Public spaces should feel safe and welcoming for everyone. Lightstream is a beautiful and practical intervention that directly addresses concerns raised by the community, ensuring York Lane is a vibrant and accessible part of Sydney's nightlife," says YCK Laneways President Nick White. More than just a solid light, Lightstream remains ambient when the lane is empty before bursting to life with pulsing, colourful energy as people approach. Guided by community engagement, Lightstream's design was produced in response to women documenting their perspectives on pedestrian safety. Throughout the testing phase, the creative team sought and addressed feedback, hosting two evening 'walkshops' to generate real-world observations. "By incorporating warm lighting, we are not only enhancing the aesthetics of the laneway but also actively improving perceptions of safety. Research shows that warm-toned lighting fosters a greater sense of security for women, which is critical for encouraging people to come out at night," explains Vice President and Treasurer Karl Schlothauer. Produced by Cobalt Engagement for YCK Laneways, the Lightstream initiative highlights the potential of creative interventions when it comes to positively impacting urban precincts, like the one surrounding York Lane. With the CID pilot program continuing to collect data on how similar projects could transform city spaces into safer environments, don't be surprised to see more installations like Lightstream illuminating our streets in the future. [caption id="attachment_999245" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Peter James Brown[/caption] [caption id="attachment_999248" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Peter James Brown[/caption] Lightstream is located in York Lane, Wynyard. Head to the YCK Laneways website for more information.
Looking for somewhere to eat in The Mix at Chatswood Place? Look no further than the top-notch Korean eats of The Evergreen — a lush greenery-filled eatery offering a menu of Korean classics with a subtle Italian influence. Head Chef Jun Hwang, who has previously led kitchens at Sheraton Grand Sydney and Manly Greenhouse, leads an accomplished team featuring several chefs who have worked across hatted Sydney restaurants like Tetsuya's, Kindred, LouLou and The Charles. Together, the team has created a menu that plays on the fun and nostalgic elements of Korean cuisine, creating a menu perfect for date-night dinners, midweek lunches or big group catch-ups. Among the menu highlights: a massive Korean barbecue platter featuring wagyu beef, pork belly, chicken, mushroom and corn served sizzling hot; a pair of loaded burgers available for lunch only, one fried chicken and one prawn; bulgogi beef noodle salad; and steak tartare with seaweed crackers. The Italian influence sneaks in through dishes like the kimchi arancini, which introduces the beloved fermented cabbage to the cheesy Italian starter — and the Korean-style gnocchi made from spicy pasta sauce, shallots, parmesan, tête de moine and chives. You'll also find Hwan's take on a tiramisu made with Toby's Estate coffee and dalgona. Patrons can also book in for a Korean take on a Sydney favourite: high tea. For $65, the package includes a tower of tartare, beef skewers, octopus, tuna tarts, cooked prawns, kimchi arancini, seasonal fruit tart and banana panna cotta — plus your choice of beer, wine or tea. Rounding out the menu is a drinks list featuring a selection of soju-infused cocktails, plus a kimchi margarita, mandarin highball, and a refined range of wines and tap beers.
One of Redfern's most beloved eateries, Ron's Upstairs, will close its doors after five years of feeding Sydneysiders with rotisserie-starring Mediterranean fare and a hugely agreeable drinks list amid a haven of late-70s kitsch. The team behind Ron's Upstairs has unceremoniously broken the news via Instagram with a message saying: "Hi All. The time has come to close the doors to Ron's Upstairs. We say this with a heavy heart that our last service will be Saturday 7 May. We want to take this opportunity to thank all that have come through the doors and hopefully we'll get to see your faces one last time. Cheers." When we know more about the future of the team and what's next for the venue space, we'll provide an update. In the meantime, switch off the fairy lights and pay your respects then make a booking for one final hit out before the pippis with white wine and cherry tomato soffritto and that rotisserie chook live on in legend alone. Ron's Upstairs is located at 133A Redfern Street, Redfern. It will close its doors on Saturday, May 7. Images: Kitti Gould.
Cycling to work is fun. But turning up to the office in lyrca and fluoros? Not so much. Fortunately (for everyone involved) San Francisco-based designer Parker Dusseau has come up with a solution. It's a suit that's cool enough to ride and work in. That's cool, temperature- and style-wise. Similar to the Wear-More, Wash-Less T-shirt that caught our eye last week, the 'Commuter Suit' is made of merino. Australian 135 Performance Superwool, to be precise, with spandex throw in for flexibility, poly tricot mesh lining and a water-resistant finish. Not only is it breathable, it actually wicks away moisture, minimising temperatures while maximising comfort levels. The cut is form-fitting yet allows plenty of room for movement. According to Dusseau's site, the Commuter Suit embodies "the perfect intersection of cycle gear and men's fashion". Pretty much every conceivable detail seems to have been taken into consideration. A pleat in the back section of the jacket creates an 'Action Back', enabling extension and stretching without resistance. A three-button enclosure prevents the wind cutting through. Super-deep internal pockets provide safe storage. Elastic bands hidden in the pant cuffs mean they can be secured to avoid entanglement in the chain. Available in navy and charcoal grey, the Commuter Suit can be purchased online. Jackets are selling for US$485 and pants for US$245. There's also a dress shirt, which comes in ivory white or periwinkle blue, for US$145 and 'Commuter Cinos' for US$145. Via PSFK.
Parklands Food Fest is returning to western Sydney with a lineup of some of the city's best chefs and food trucks. The festival, which is now in its eighth year, will feature celebrated pastry chef Anna Polyviou and Spanish TV chef Miguel Maestre. As well as the high-profile culinary maestros, who'll be leading a lineup of cooking demos, there'll be over 50 food stalls, serving up everything from smoked meats to soft serve-filled doughnuts and bread bowls filled with pasta. Or, you can grab something to take home with you at the fresh produce markets — complete with an Urban Farms stall where you can taste fresh-grown produce on the spot. Throw in makers' workshops to teach you a new skill or two, plenty of craft beer and cocktails to wet your whistle and live music as the soundtrack, and you won't be hungry, thirsty or bored. As an added bonus, it's also a dog-friendly affair. Just mark Saturday, September 7 in your diary, and head on down to Abbotsbury's Lizard Log amphitheatre. Parklands runs from 10am–4pm.
Haydenshapes Surfboards is a local brand gone global. Launched in 1996 by Mona Vale surfer Hayden Cox, the brand's innovative approach to board making has seen it become one of the world's most revered surfboard designers. The flagship studio store is now a destination for custom surfboards and will surely help you make the most of the coastal lifestyle that Mona Vale offers. This ultra-sleek company is all about clean style and high-performance boards, using its own FutureFlex technology. The locally-based team have created bespoke designs that could have you thinking they are pieces of art. Cox has collaborated with international names like minimalist-fashion designer Alexander Wang, art innovators Semi-Permanent at Carriageworks, and Melbourne art gallery The Cool Hunter. In store, you'll find the brand's complete customisable range, including exclusive models and colour variations, plus a curated selection of apparel, wetsuits, fins, traction and surf accessories. Images: Trent van der Jagt.
In Talk to Me, grasping perhaps the creepiest hand you'll ever see meant messing with the dead, bringing the souls of those who've passed swooping in. After their feature debut became a huge hit, Australian filmmakers Danny and Michael Philippou aren't done with hauntings yet. In the just-dropped full trailer for Bring Her Back, their sophomore movie, "some people believe the spirit stays in the body for months after death", a foster mother played by Sally Hawkins (Wonka) advises. The directors, who started out their careers behind the camera as YouTubers RackaRacka, aren't done with nightmarish vibes yet, either. When these Adelaide-born twins unveiled Talk to Me in 2023, a new Aussie horror sensation took the genre, and the world, by the mitt to share its entertainingly eerie energy. The duo behind it also became one of the hottest new things in scary flicks. Two years later, the Philippous are returning to conjure up more chills — and show again, even just based on Bring Her Back's teaser trailer and full sneak peek, how expertly they can whip up an unnerving mood. After Talk to Me's huge success, including for cult-favourite distributor A24, sequel Talk 2 Me was quickly greenlit; however, Bring Her Back will be in cinemas first. Its Down Under release date: Thursday, May 29, 2025. Horror? Tick. A24 onboard? Tick again. Dancing with the dead once more? That seems to be the case as well. Here, Hawkins has a brother and sister in her care, but they find more than just a new parent in her home. Cue petrifying rituals, plus grief, death, coffins, blood, strange circles, a creepy kid, shaky home-video footage and a whole lot of creaking. Among the cast, cue also Billy Barratt (Kraven the Hunter), Jonah Wren Phillips (How to Make Gravy) and film first-timer Sora Wong in the Australian-made picture. A24 went all-in on the Philippous after picking up Talk to Me in a Sundance Film Festival bidding war, when global attention started being showered upon the Aussie flick about shaking hands with an embalmed palm, feeling the rush while being haunted, having your mates watch and film it, and dealing with the spooky consequences. Danny and Michael made their feature directorial debut after racking up a huge following with RackaRacka's viral videos, and via behind-the-scenes work on Australian films such as The Babadook. Their first flick feature proved a big box-office success, taking in US$10 million on its opening weekend in America alone, which placed it second among A24's films after Hereditary. Across its big-screen run, it clawed its way up to second on the company's all-time worldwide list, after Everything Everywhere All At Once and Civil War. And, at the 2024 AACTA Awards, Talk to Me took home eight accolades, including Best Film of 2023, plus Best Director. Check out the full trailer for Bring Her Back below: Bring Her Back releases in Australian cinemas on Thursday, May 29, 2025. Read our review of Talk to Me, and our interview with Danny Philippou.
Scaling the Sydney Harbour Bridge is a breathtaking experience — both because of the stunning views and the 1332 steps it takes to reach the summit. But to fully appreciate this icon and the surrounding region, you need to understand the Indigenous culture and history it stands within. Burrawa, meaning 'upwards' or 'above' in local language, is a bridge climb led by Indigenous tour guides. As you ascend the Coathanger, your guide will explain the significance of Indigenous landmarks around the harbour, share local Dreamtime stories and detail the history of prominent First Nations figures, like Bennelong, Barangaroo and Patyegarang, who interacted with early European colonists, sharing knowledge, language and resistance. Images: Destination NSW
This town's no stranger to glamorous pop-up bars. Over summer we've swung by Bennelong for specialty cocktails on their balcony, visited the MCA for G&Ts in their whimsical gin garden, and sipped chardonnay with our shellfish at Waterman's Lobster Co. pop-up on Bondi Beach. But Sydney's newest temporary tavern is serving the most precious liquid of all: good old H2O. Set amongst the beautifully restored, subterranean Paddington Reservoir Gardens, the H20: Water Bar is more than just a watering hole. It's a reflective glass art installation by renowned local artist Janet Laurence, and is designed to examine Australia's fragile relationship with our most precious natural resource. Laurence was Australia's representative at an art exhibition at the United Nations climate change conference in Paris last year, where she presented a work that showcased the hectic environmental damage done to the Great Barrier Reef. Her new installation resembles an apothecary or lab complete with glass beakers and vials, and will serve a number of different drops from various regions around the country. Have you ever noticed how water tastes different from one city to the next? Now you'll be able to compare for yourself. And unlike some trendy pop-up bars, you won't need to worry about forking over your life savings for a drink — entry into the water bar is free. Alongside the installation itself, Laurence has programmed a raft of water-themed events, including water-focused film screenings, workshops with Sydney Water scientists, water-themed poetry readings, panels of fellow artists unpacking the mystique of water and big discussions from leading environmental groups on the threats to our water sources (coal seam gas, coal, climate change, you name it). Check the website for session times. If you're a little peckish, Miss Chu will be running a pop-up stall serving fresh rice paper rolls each evening. Open Thursdays and weekends 5pm – 9pm. Image: Josef Nalevansky courtesy of the City of Sydney.
Thought bingo was for your nan? Think again. Hijacking the traditional format of bingo and combining it with raves, conga lines and lip sync battles, Bingo Loco is 50 percent one of those strange dreams you get after eating too much cheese and 50 percent just a walloping good time. And it's returning to Sydney in partnership with DesignMyNight for its biggest edition yet on Saturday, July 10. This time around, a lineup of well-known comedians will take on MC duties, while confetti showers and smoke cannons go off throughout the evening. Plus, UK-based EDM and hip hop hero Example will be joining in the fun with a special guest performance. On the night, an anticipated 3000 bingo ravers will compete for ultimate glory (and prizes) over the course of multiple rounds — this is Bingo Loco XXL, after all. In between the traditional bingo games, you'll be expected to groove to classic 90s rave bangers, partake in dance-offs amd battle others for lip sync queen titles. Basically, be prepared for many high-octane, energetic activities — gone are the days of simply raising your hand when you've got a full sheet of numbers. Some pre-bingo muscle stretches and vocal warm-ups are well-advised. You'll vie for prizes, which in the past have included Coachella tickets, mobility scooters (nan, listen up), trips to Vegas and convertible cars among other goldmines. Bingo Loco has been running across the globe for a few years and is now in the middle of an extended Aussie tour, with show proceeds going to the Make-A-Wish Foundation Australia. Bingo Loco XXL will hit The Dome at Sydney Showgrounds on Saturday, July 10. Tickets cost from $65 per person and can be purchased here.
Something delightful is happening in cinemas across the country. After months spent empty, with projectors silent, theatres bare and the smell of popcorn fading, Australian picture palaces are starting to reopen — spanning both big chains and smaller independent sites in Sydney and Brisbane (and, until the newly reinstated stay-at-home orders, Melbourne as well). During COVID-19 lockdowns, no one was short on things to watch, of course. In fact, you probably feel like you've streamed every movie ever made over the past three months, including new releases, comedies, music documentaries, Studio Ghibli's animated fare and Nicolas Cage-starring flicks. But, even if you've spent all your time of late glued to your small screen, we're betting you just can't wait to sit in a darkened room and soak up the splendour of the bigger version. Thankfully, plenty of new films are hitting cinemas so that you can do just that — and we've rounded up, watched and reviewed everything on offer this week. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsWV2qTX21k NEVER RARELY SOMETIMES ALWAYS In the scene that gives Never Rarely Sometimes Always its name, 17-year-old Autumn (Sidney Flanigan) sits with a counsellor at Planned Parenthood in Brooklyn. The teen hails from Pennsylvania, but has taken the bus east with her cousin Skylar (Talia Ryder) upon discovering that she's pregnant and realising she only really has one option — knowing that her family is unlikely to help, and after her local women's clinic has advised that she should just have the baby. Before she can obtain the New York facility's assistance, however, she is asked questions about her history. The queries broach tough and intimate subjects, but Autumn only needs to answer with one of the words from the movie's moniker. While they're simple and common, those four terms explain much about why a small-town high-schooler is engaging in a practice that's been dubbed 'abortion tourism'. So too does the silence that punctuates her responses and the heartbreaking expression on her face that goes with them. From its opening frames, which sketch out Autumn's everyday life — the taunting peers, the awkward dynamic at home, the attentions of her boss at her after-school supermarket job, and the efforts to be seen by performing at her class concert — Never Rarely Sometimes Always is an intricately observed and stunningly detailed film. Accordingly, when the aforementioned scene arrives, it's the latest potent, compassionate and revealing moment in a movie filled with them. But filmmaker Eliza Hittman (It Felt Like Love, Beach Rats) refuses to give viewers even the tiniest reprieve here. Autumn can't escape these difficult questions or the entire experience she's dealing with, and the audience is forced into the same situation. Maintaining the feature's unobtrusive, naturalistic, almost documentary-esque style, cinematographer Hélène Louvart (Happy as Lazzaro) doesn't look away, while first-time actor Flanigan pours out an entire lifetime's worth of feeling under the film's unrelenting gaze. As intimated by its protagonist's name, as taken from the season when the leaves fall, warmth fades and the weather's frostiest period approaches, this is a film about decay, loss and change in multiple ways — and it's as grim and gripping as it is outraged, empathetic and affecting. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WxZ774gziwU THE CRAFT: LEGACY Written and directed by actor-turned-filmmaker Zoe Lister-Jones (Band Aid), The Craft: Legacy is clearly the product of someone who knows and appreciates its 1996 cult-favourite predecessor. It's also the work of someone keen to pay tribute to the original — a horror-thriller about teen witches using and abusing magic to cope with high school's troubles — and embrace what she sees as its strengths, as well as redress its wrongs, update it for a new time and a new generation of teens, and verbally and visibly champion inclusivity at every turn. But it's possible for a 24-years-later follow-up to show affection, make some smart changes, move with the times and still feel like the remnants left in a cauldron. Or, for it to recall one of The Craft's famed moments — one that The Craft: Legacy recreates, briefly — in an unintended fashion. When this feature's coven play with levitation, the words "light as a feather, stiff as a board" aren't heard; however, by the end of the movie, they best describe everything that's just happened. Starting as its inspiration did, The Craft: Legacy begins with Lily (Cailee Spaeny, Devs) and her mother Helen (Michelle Monaghan, Saint Judy) arriving in a new town, to move in with the latter's self-help author boyfriend (David Duchovny, playing a character who has penned a book called 'The Hallowed Masculine') and his three sons. Navigating school, Lily soon finds herself taunted by resident jock and bully (Nicholas Galitzine, Share) — but she's also found by witchy trio Lourdes (Zoey Luna, Pose), Frankie (Gideon Adlon, Blockers) and Tabby (Lovie Simone, Selah and the Spades), who are looking for the west to their north, south and east. Rather than seeing these young women become consumed by their blossoming power, and also punishing those who refuse to conform, it's a welcome shift that The Craft: Legacy calls out the patriarchal norms and attitudes that routinely put teenage girls in that situation. And yet the film just seems happy enough to have made that switch, instead of giving it any true weight or substantial depth. It's light thematically, visually, tonally and emotionally, and it also sports a stiffness — as though it's trying so hard to be loose, open, breezy and upbeat that it actually proves bland, strained and wooden instead. Read our full review. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wcvdq3WeHBc&feature=emb_logo THE MYSTERY OF HENRI PICK A new book. An enigmatic author. A twisty mystery involving not only the scribe of said novel, but the publishing and marketing process that's so pivotal in delivering the text to the adoring public. These three elements were key parts of The Translators, which hit cinemas Down Under in September, and now they sit at the heart of The Mystery of Henri Pick. In lightly comedic rather than tense and thrilling mode this time around, the focus falls on a manuscript found in a small town in Brittany. Eager young publisher Daphne (Alicie Isaaz, Elle) spots the unpublished work in the local library of rejected books, a repository for all the writing that's been lovingly penned but turned down by the industry's powers-that-be. Fresh from failing to turn her writer boyfriend Frederic's (Bastien Bouillon, Jumbo) first novel into a hit — or even getting famed newspaper and TV literary critic Jean-Michel Rouche (Fabrice Luchini, Slack Bay) to review it on air — Daphne instantly falls in love with her new discovery, called The Last Hours Of A Love Affair. So too do readers and pundits, with the book garnering buzz not just for its romance set against the death of Russian poet Alexander Pushkin, but also for the fact that the wordsmith behind it is a provincial pizza chef who died two years prior. On his regular television show, amid all the fanfare about Henri Pick and his book, Jean-Michel questions whether the story behind the story holds up. Within hours of making that controversial claim, he has lost both his wife and his job, and he's determined to show that something about this hit novel doesn't seem right. Jean-Michel is the type of character that no one is meant to love, with veteran French star Luchini playing the part in the spiky and arrogant way he has become known for — ensuring that viewers follow the character's amateur sleuthing hoping he'll proven wrong. It's a tactic that ensures the audience's investment, even with both unconvincing and highly predictable twists popping up along the way (including Jean-Michel's blossoming bond with Pick's adult daughter Josephine, as played by Call My Agent!'s Camille Cottin). Stemming from the page itself, with writer/director Remi Bezancon (A Happy Event) and his co-scribe Vanessa Portal adapting David Foenkinos's 2016 novel, this is an easy-going caper and a quickly involving whodunnit — and the source of eye-catching cinematography that brightly lenses its coastal French setting as well. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xg4zGf3_F1Q RAMS It's easy to see how Australian filmmakers watched Rams, the 2015 Icelandic movie about duelling sheep-farmer brothers, and realised that they could bring its story Down Under. In fact, it's easy because director Jeremy Sims (Last Cab to Darwin) and screenwriter Jules Duncan (a feature first-timer) make certain that that's the case — ensuring that viewers can see every choice they've taken in giving the story the Aussie treatment. It's all to be expected, of course, but it feels not only overt but also calculating. Indeed, Rams often seems like a remake that only exists because someone gleaned just how simple it'd be to make it happen (and noticed that the Cannes prize-winning initial flick had picked up quite a following, too). It swaps the original movie's frosty blizzard for drought, heat and bushfires, and its Nordic scenery for Western Australian tourism brochure-style shots. It brings in a cast of familiar faces, spanning both beloved local talents (such as Michael Caton and Asher Keddie) and actors we've virtually claimed as our own (Sam Neill). It leans into Aussie dialogue, scenes in pubs, small-town stereotypes and larrikin behaviour, localising every element possible, while also sticking steadfastly to the bulk of its predecessor's main narrative details (as anyone who has seen the latter will swiftly spot). For decades, brothers Colin (Neill) and Les (Caton) haven't spoken. They lovingly tend to their flocks on adjoining properties, send messages to each other via sheepdog when absolutely necessary and cross paths at local livestock competitions, but a lingering grudge has long since soured their familial bond. Then Les wins the latest contest, Colin notices that the applauded ram might be plagued by a contagious disease, and the duo are forced to band together or face the complete decimation of the only lives they've ever known. Instead of thoughtfully unpacking a plethora of contrasts — between the central siblings, by juxtaposing their close proximity with their strained relationship, in both prosperous and struggling times, and in trying to control nature in various ways — this version of Rams struggles with balance. That includes its efforts to juggle quirky comedy with its more serious dramatic sections, and in offering thoughtful commentary on men coping with their emotions and rural communities battling tough times. Cast-wise, Neill fares best thanks to a lived-in performance, with Caton in stock-standard cantankerous mode, and British actor Miranda Richardson (Churchill, the Harry Potter franchise) wasted in a thankless supporting part. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nmb9V2aibsQ&feature=emb_logo ALONE In one of the rare bright spots in this chaotic year, Bill & Ted returned to remind us all to be excellent to each other. If you're wondering what could happen if we don't take that advice to heart, two thrillers have hit screens in 2020 to show us the consequences, too. As seen first in Unhinged and now in Alone, a very particular type of behaviour is on display: driver courtesy, or the lack thereof. In the latter, Jessica (Jules Wilcox, Bloodline) is moving across the country to escape the lingering memory of a recent tragedy. With no company in sight — as the title advises — she packs a U-Haul trailer and hits the bitumen, tackling the multi-day trip in stages. That's all the invitation that a male fellow driver (Mark Menchaca, The Outsider) needs in this cat-and-mouse thriller from director John Hyams (Universal Soldier: Regeneration and Universal Soldier: Day of Reckoning) and screenwriter Mattias Olsson (Gone), with the menacing on-screen figure first toying with her on the road, then following her, then kidnapping her. Thankfully, Alone sits several notches above Unhinged; it isn't trying to posit that men stalk and attack women they've never previously met because they aren't treated nicely enough by either the opposite sex in general or this increasingly angry world that no longer has a place for them, for starters. But it does fall into the valley between generic and committed — with the film happy to stick to a recognisable template, but also devoted to executing its well-worn formula as leanly and efficiently as possible. More often than not, Alone hits its marks. It can feel repetitive, prolonged and like much of its bulk has been seen before; however, each scene sports a primal simplicity that's key to the movie's stripped-down nature. It's rarely surprising, including when it's trying to offer up twists and turns, but it's precise in its violence, tension and suspense. Wilcox turns in a memorable survivalist performance, but the standout element here is the feature's sound design. Endeavouring to echo the mounting paranoia, the spreading chaos, the pumping emotions and the pulsating adrenaline, Alone's acoustics are rich and layered — far more, in fact, than its stock-standard thriller storyline, and the texture that the script tries to add through Jessica's haunting sense of loss and alienation. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tk6u9X1bW30 THE EMPTY MAN At the beginning of 2020, after the two companies merged the year prior, Disney announced that it was ditching the 'Fox' part of the 20th Century Fox name. So when The Empty Man begins with the latter's moniker and famed roving searchlight title card in place as though nothing has changed, it shows how old this supernatural horror thriller is, having been shot back in 2017. It also demonstrates how little the Mouse House seems to care about a movie it only revealed would hit cinemas this year a mere month before it did just that. Adapting the graphic novel same name, this film definitely could've used some care and attention. Clocking in at 137 minutes and making viewers feel that length, it could've used a few edits, too. Instead, in the second long-delayed Fox horror movie to reach screens in 2020 — after the immensely forgettable The New Mutants — The Empty Man delivers a curse flick that's also a detective film and a creepy cult movie, and plays like a dull and derivative blend of The Ring, Candyman, Slender Man, Urban Legend and even the most recent season of Twin Peaks (completely absent any David Lynch-esque touches, obviously). In a prolonged prologue set in 1995, a group of friends hiking in Bhutan literally stumble upon a creepy corpse in a cavern. Across the three days afterwards, unpleasantness naturally results. Next, in 2018, a number of small-town teens go missing — including Mandy (Sasha Frolova, Little Women), the daughter of Nora (Marin Ireland, The Irishman), who has a history with grief-stricken ex-cop James Lasombra (James Badge Dale, Hightown). He's soon unofficially on the case, which leads him to a spooky tale about a shadowy figure who appears if you blow into an empty bottle on a bridge, then to a creepy sect with secretive and sinister plans. First-time feature writer/director David Prior serves up a suitably eerie mood, several effectively unsettling pieces of imagery, and an anxiety-inducing soundscape and soundtrack to match, but there's no overcoming a narrative that wants to be too many things at once — and consistently takes the silliest yet drabbest option as a result. And while Dale plays his part with a very apt everyman sensibility, and Barry's Stephen Root is always a welcome presence, too, they can't improve this drag of a movie either. If you're wondering what else is currently screening in cinemas — or has been lately — check out our rundown of new films released in Australia on July 2, July 9, July 16, July 23 and July 30; August 6, August 13, August 20 and August 27; September 3, September 10, September 17 and September 24; and October 1, October 8, October 15 and October 22. You can also read our full reviews of a heap of recent movies, such as The Personal History of David Copperfield, Waves, The King of Staten Island, Babyteeth, Deerskin, Peninsula, Tenet, Les Misérables, The New Mutants, Bill & Ted Face the Music, The Translators, An American Pickle. The High Note, On the Rocks, The Trial of the Chicago 7, Antebellum, Miss Juneteenth, Savage, I Am Greta, Rebecca, Kajillionaire, Baby Done and Corpus Christi.
Founded in 1998, the National Young Writers' Festival is this year celebrating its sweet sixteenth. Of course this doesn't mean they'll be spending the whole festival talking about blogs and feelings while chugging cheap champagne. Although, come to think of it, there is this panel on blogging and this thing all about feelings. And okay, sure, this fake formal is bound to have some Passion Pop on hand. But contrary to the testimony of anyone who's actually met a 16-year-old, being around for that long does give you a bit of wisdom. NYWF consistently delivers an appealing free program and offers amazing insight, advice and assistance to young creatives from all over the country. Like migration, hundreds of wide-eyed literary types descend on Newcastle for it each year — Moleskines in hand. From October 3-6, this year's festival will host 75 free events featuring over 100 young artists including the likes of Tom Ballard, Lorelei Vashti, Benjamin Law and Anna Krien. Over just three days, this can all be a bit overwhelming. NYWF offers frank and honest discussions with the best and most relatable voices in Australian writing, but how can we take it in with everybody talking at once? With the program just released and our fingers poised over Jetstar's 'confirm' button, here's a little of what you can expect from the blossoming festival — Passion Pop and all. Workshops and Panels First and foremost, NYWF is a time for the country's up-and-comers to get together and hone their craft. Ever feel like the lit nerd or the outsider? Don't worry. Everyone sitting next to you at this festival fawned over Vonnegut in high school; for these three days no one's going to give you shit for doing an arts degree. Writing can often be an arduous process so the best events are the ones that force you to put pen to paper. Get each morning started with the Everyday Flash Fiction workshop — breeze down from the seaside, pick up a coffee, and let Scum, The Lifted Brow, and Seizure put a (metaphorical) gun to your head to get you writing. You'll feel productive for the rest of the day, I promise. Plus, if you pen a really touching love poem you can head along to the Speed Writing event and share it. That's right, it's a mix between speed dating and writing — it should be fun because writers are really outgoing and not awkward at all. For the shier amongst us, there will also be a series of more introspective workshops: why do we write, why do we want awards — hell, why do we even go to these festivals? If those are a bit too Inception for you, there's also a handy session called How to not be a douche. Once that's covered, there's not too much else you'll need to know. Parties All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, and the same goes for writers. Just look at Jack Kerouac. That's not a great example, but you get the idea. As much as NYWF is a great place to learn, it's also an excellent place to get loose. This isn't class. The panellists won't care if you slur a question over your pint of beer. Actually, I wouldn't take the chance of that at the douche workshop — you'd really be asking for it. But hey, it's spring, you're by the sea, and most events are held in licensed venues — you should take advantage of it. At last year's launch, The Lifted Brow put a naked man on the stage to welcome in their new edition; there was a big party at the Great Northern themed 'Hip Hop Safari'; and it was very much encouraged to bring longnecks and bottles of tequila to the Late Night Read. This year will offer similar opportunities with another mixed bag launch, a session of oddly specific '90s literary trivia, and the most excellent idea of all, a Paranormal Formal. Even with all the civilised panels and writing workshops, I promise the best chances you have of wooing your favourite writer or editor will be as they're dressed as a magician drinking goon punch out of a plastic cup. Readings What would a writers festival be without hearing some of these much-praised words spoken aloud? My highlight of last year's festival was the Late Night Read — an intimate event where writers came together to share their work with midnight beers and mayhem. Lawrence Leung read a story about touching his housemate's underwear, Ben Law talked about old penises, and Tom Walker told an animated story about time travel — it was pretty great. This year, the event is back, with each night having a designated theme: Closer Each Day, Home and Away, Hi, Heartbreak, and Everybody Needs Good Neighbours. I can't say for sure that all the works will be about primetime Australian drama, but I also can't say they won't be. Sydney group Penguin Plays Rough will also be bringing their readings event to the festival, taking a select audience into the tunnels of Fort Scratchley. Underground, you can hear seven writers tell stories of Australia's military history. If you like your entertainment a bit lighter, there will also be readings about first times, trolls and a three-part exploration of memory. The Great Unknown Most things at writers festivals are pretty straight forward. The panels usually oscillate somewhere between 'Who Even Are We?' and 'Where Are We Going?', and the parties often turn into cringe-worthy soirees designed for 'networking' — the single worst word in the world, perhaps only with the exception of 'moist'. NYWF is different. Maybe it's just the sea-air, but things are a little more weird and a lot more fun. The element of the unknown or unexpected is what makes the festival so great. There's the Paranormal Formal and the Speed Writing — there's the 90s literary trivia. But there's a whole host of odd things to look out for over your three-day stay. To start with, there's a real-life sleepover. Yep, you actually have the opportunity to don a onesie and play truth or dare with your favourite writers. You can even sleep alongside them if they're cool with it — seriously, please get their consent. If that's not weird enough, Freya Wright Brough is going to be making you feel guilty about your lack of productivity by writing for 24 hours straight, and there's a workshop dedicated to scribbling all over Gina Rinehart's biography. After all this, you'll find the best events by meeting some new friends and stumbling into something unexpected. NYWF is only one element of the This is Not Art Festival after all, so hold tight, you haven't even heard the half of it. Photographs: Lucien Alperstein and Lucy Parakhina
According to the laws of physics, time travel is an impossible travesty of causality and physics. Well, probably. But according to the Compound — a normally forbidding-looking arts workshop strung between Serial Space and the White Rabbit — time machines are not only possible, they’ve got one upstairs. They’re showing it for one night only during Chippendale’s Art Month party in the form of Cassandra Scott-Finn’s sculpture Infinity. Her literature describes the Infinity sculpture as Tardis-shaped, though only one actually had the transparent prism vibe in the late–80s bits we don’t talk about any more. Better than its art-department predecessor, Scott-Finn’s sculpture follows through with such things’ deeper ambitions by disappearing into its surroundings. Evidence of its existence remaining in the warped, angular distortions you can see through it. If you’re planning to knock around Chippendale, lurching between the Compound’s bigger brethren and a quick nip at Fredas or the Rabbit, there’s a tube of art — prepared earlier — that might warrant a moment of your time.
One of the things that make the humble sandwich so great, is that you don't need to pull out all the stops to make it delicious. This unassuming little sandwich shop in a CBD food arcade proves that with its classic and gourmet options. A classic lunch bar, Northies (as the hordes of city workers who frequent call it) lets you choose your bread or wrap (there's white, brown or wholemeal Vienna loaves, and a few different sourdough and ryes for an extra 50 cents), then pops fillings like crunchy chicken schnitzel, slow-cooked pork shoulder and five-spice marinated grilled lamb between two slices. With sandwiches starting at $10, you can add a bunch of extra salads or sauce, plus chips and a drink and still keep it under twenty.
This family-owned Indian restaurant in Sydney has been feeding the lower north shore a taste of regional Indian fare for over two decades, first opening in Crows Nest back in 1998. Now, in its latest incarnation in the heart of Cremorne, Nilgiri's is delivering owners Ajoy and Meera Joshi's modern interpretation of the truly diverse cuisines of their shared homeland. Expect familiar flavours married with plenty of creative twists, across a menu that's entirely certified halal. Kick things off with the likes of tandoor-smoked chicken thigh fillets with tomato chutney, ground dried coconut, fenugreek & coriander seed marinade or cumin-spiced fermented white lentil fritters tomato & tamarind broth before settling in to heartier plates like the slow cooked yearling goat with ground fennel seeds and mint sauce, or the Queensland banana prawns served with coconut sauce and mustard seeds, fresh ginger & green chilies. Vegetarian dishes are in strong supply, too — go for the caalifilawar pulimkari, tandoor-smoked cauliflower florets with tamarind, fenugreek seed & garlic sauce or the fried baby eggplant with coconut, coondapuri masala & fresh curry leaf sauce. And if you fancy picking up some skills of your own, book in for Ajoy's ever-popular Indian cooking classes. Held throughout the year on Monday's, there are two dishes prepared each class including one vegetarian option. You'll Take them home to share with your housemates or family, or keep them all for yourself, feasting for a few nights after the class.
Fuzzy's national electronic-meets-hip hop festival Listen Out is back for another round and this year's lineup is a humdinger, topped by California's inimitable Anderson .Paak, with his live band The Free Nationals. He's joined by UK beatsmiths Gorgon City, big trap fiend Baauer, AV-happy producer Claptone live, Harlem Trap Lord A$AP Ferg, LA young gun Jauz, grime newcomer Stormzy, Swedish rap phenomenon Yung Lean and more. There's plenty of homegrown love on the bill this year, as always, with festival favourites Rüfüs marking their final Aussie shows of 2016, alongside the likes of Cosmo's Midnight, Ngaiire, L D R U, JOY, Sui Zhen and Willow Beats. Listen Out tours nationally to four of Australia's capitals, and will make its way to Centennial Park on Saturday, October 1. See the full slam dunk of a lineup below. LISTEN OUT 2016 LINEUP Anderson .Paak & The Free Nationals A$AP Ferg Claptone Immortal Live Cosmo's Midnight Gorgon City DJ Set Baauer JAUZ JOY. L D R U Ngaiire Rüfüs Stormzy Sui Zhen DJ Set Tash Sultana Tchami Willow Beats Yung Lean Image: Listen Out.
Having cut their teeth on the boutique strip of William Street in Paddington, Kaleidoscope Gallery is now ripping off that artist-run gallery band aid and making the move to rub shoulders with the art elite of Danks Street, Waterloo. No more sweet worker's cottage with weatherboard walls and courtyard coffees. Onwards and upwards they say! But if you live in Sydney you'll know how much moving house costs. So Kaleidoscope Gallery is hosting a seven day cash inducing bonanza with an art auction, a bake sale, market stalls, live music, wine, tea and liquid liquidity. Saturday 30 April will peak the week 'Carnival' style — all lions and tigers and bears, oh my. And if you can't manage to drag your sorry pockets anywhere near the Paddo end of town then not to worry. A click of your mouse and you can donate direct online.
Tounge-twister aside (try saying the above quickly, six times) iconic East Sydney Wine bar Dear Sainte Éloise is celebrating its sixth turn around the sun — with fancy food and wine specials for a corresponding number of evenings from Monday, May 8 to Saturday, May 13. Potts Point locals will no doubt be familiar with the late-night, little laneway vibes that have been on offer at Dear Sainte Éloise since it first flung open its doors in 2017. But, to celebrate its sixth birthday (practically a lifetime in hospitality years), the venue is hosting an epic Parisian-inspired party. And you're all invited. Expect the classics that have kept regulars returning to the moody wine bar for 2000-plus days. Including a lineup of rare drops from around the world. Except this time, sommeliers Felix Auzou and Marcus Dullard will serve them by the glass. If you fancy yourself as a bit of a oenophile you'll know that these hard-to-find wines are rarely ever available unless you blow the budget on an entire bottle. So the opportunity to try some of the world's best booze at a more affordable price is a pretty big deal. Think Grower Champagne from Egly-Ouriet, natural French wine by Matassa, Jean Foillard's 'Eponyme' Beaujolais, Vin Jaune from Jura's Domaine Overnoy and back-vintage Bordeaux from Château de Bel-Air. Those hungry for a little more than world-class wine will be happy to hear that Executive Chef James Elliott will also be firing up the hibachi for a rotating lineup of skewers. While this will deliver delicious offerings on the daily, word on the street is that the prawn with chilli and fennel dressing is truly unmissable. Anyone with a fondness for seafood can also feast on freshly shucked oysters topped with Champagne vinaigrette and salmon roe, lobster rolls and Dear Sainte Éloise's always-excellent a la carte and set menus. The daily specials will appear on a board each day at the restaurant, plus over on the venue's Instagram. However, the best way to tackle the six-night celebration is to head in blind and discover what's in-stall for the night. Guests are encouraged to book ahead to secure a spot, although walk-ins will also be welcome. Images: Trent van der Jagt for Buffet Digital.
The glowing Apple emblem on the cover of your Macbook has far surpassed 'icon' status. But in a sea of identical Apple laptops, how will yours stand out? With our list of 10 quirky Macbook decals, we can guarantee that your laptop will no longer remain anonymous in the coffee shop or library. 1. Banksy-esque An ode to the king of street art. 2. The Last Supper Perhaps a little irreverent, but hilarious nonetheless. 3. Moustache Parade Disguise your Apple logo in an array of dapper 'taches. 4. Typewriter Bring it back with a vintage-vibe typewriter. And then be thankful you can write that essay on your Mac. 5. Harry Potter 'Dark Mark' Join the dark side, Potterheads, with the Macbook mark of He-Who-Shall-Not-Be-Named. 6. Apple Bottom Apple Bottom jeans, boots with the fur. Everyone was looking at...your Macbook. 7. Marilyn Monroe Carry a little of Marilyn's effortless sex appeal in your briefcase. 8. The Giving Tree Recall the tear-jerking children's book with this too-cute-to-handle decal. 9. Bullet Simplistic, and a little cheeky, this decal will make everyone look twice. 10. Lego Man For all the little Lego men that your mum stepped on or vacuumed up.
Since his 2018 Cannes Palme d'Or win for short film All These Creatures, the world has been waiting for Australian writer/director Charles Williams to make his feature debut. Everyone should be thankful that Cosmo Jarvis is among the cast. Already one of the best Aussie movies of the year, Inside is the sum of stunning parts. It tells a prison-set narrative that's penned and conveyed with the utmost compassion. It hails from an acclaimed Aussie filmmaker not only making his first full-length picture, but taking inspiration from details close to him. It boasts The Brutalist Oscar-nominee Guy Pearce turning in yet another powerhouse performance, plus newcomer Vincent Miller (Plum) proving a spectacular find. And it also has Jarvis, fresh from the first season of acclaimed TV drama Shōgun, portraying what might be the most-complex role in a flick filled with them — and doing so with haunting and mesmerising potency. Miller's youthful Mel Blight sits at the heart of the film, as he's transferred from a juvenile facility to an adult prison. There, two men cast considerable shadows his way. Pearce's Warren Murfett is so close to parole that he's permitted on day release to reconnect with his son (Toby Wallace, The Bikeriders). The fact that Mark Shepard, played by Jarvis, has been dubbed "Australia's most-despised criminal" — and, after years calling a cell home, that the media still speaks of him and his crime with vitriol — sums up his contrasting chances of freedom. Incarcerated since he was 13 for a brutal act, the latter is trying to find a way to his own forgiveness, however, including by embracing faith and becoming the prison's self-styled man of the cloth. After jumping over to acting from music — initially making his film debut by writing, directing and starring in The Naughty Room — Jarvis has enjoyed a diverse range of projects. On a resume that also includes the Florence Pugh (We Live in Time)-led Lady Macbeth, episodes of Peaky Blinders and Raised by Wolves, Irish crime drama Calm with Horses with Barry Keoghan (Bird) and Jane Austen adaptation Persuasion, award-winning Japan-set TV shows and Australian prison dramas are just two recent examples. In 2025, Inside is just one of three films starring the English actor that'll hit the big screen, in fact. Opposite Robert De Niro (Zero Day) playing multiple characters, he'll next be seen in The Alto Knights. Then comes Warfare, Alex Garland's latest, after an uncredited appearance in the Civil War filmmaker's Annihilation. As Inside reaches cinemas Down Under, Jarvis is in production on Wife and Dog, directed by Guy Ritchie's (The Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare) — featuring alongside Anthony Hopkins (Those About to Die), Rosamund Pike (The Wheel of Time), Benedict Cumberbatch (Eric), James Norton (Playing Nice) and Paddy Considine (House of the Dragon). When we chat, he's working on an accent for it. Ask Jarvis about what's clearly been a huge couple of years for him — there's been nothing bigger on the small screen in the past 12 months than Shōgun, and it has a swag of Emmys, Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards to prove it — and he downplays it. "It's the same as it ever was, I guess, to quote the song," he tells Concrete Playground. "It's just the same but different. It's still trying to find interesting projects, trying to find interesting characters and attempting to execute the work competently." That start in music was a means to an end — "it was just sort of what allowed me to become an actor," he advises — but it did give Jarvis a connection with Australia long before Inside came his way. As a singer-songwriter, he achieved one of the pinnacles of Aussie music success, charting in the Triple J Hottest 100 in both 2011 (hitting number 85 with 'Gay Pirates') and 2012 (reaching number 59 with 'Love This'). On a trip Down Under during his musician days, he even performed a cover of Kylie Minogue's 'Spinning Around' for Like a Version. That history and making an Aussie film now is just a coincidence, though, Jarvis says. On the motivation for joining Inside, "it was the script. It was the script and the subject matter," he notes. "But I do obviously love the country, and I love the specificness of the culture, and I love the humour that the people have. And I've always found it very refreshing and just nice to be around." A movie like Inside doesn't pop up often — "a really emotional, beautiful movie," Pearce told us; a film about prisons, rather than being a breaking out-style prison picture; and one that sees clearly the disadvantages experienced by people who end up in prison, and that the prison system places on them, for starters. Neither does a part like Shepard. Williams has described Jarvis as fearless in the role, noting that even if he doesn't like the character himself, he doesn't take shortcuts in bringing them to the screen. This all came up in our discussion with Jarvis, too. So did the feature's compassionate refusal to see anything in black and white, including people who've caused harm to others; the research that goes into portraying someone in Shepard's situation, where he's been in the system since he was a kid, convicted of a horrific crime, confined alone for decades, drawn his own interpretation of faith, and is attempting to find forgiveness and connecting with Mel; cultivating empathy with a filmmaker who fills every frame with it; working with Miller and Pearce; and more. [caption id="attachment_944116" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Shogun, Katie Yu/FX[/caption] On the Diversity of Projects that Jarvis Has Enjoyed Since Making His Film Debut with The Naughty Room — Which He Wrote and Directed — Through to Shogun and Inside "I never really want to play the same person twice. I've been quite fortunate to have found, to have had scripts for things that had original ideas and original, specific characters that have come my way. And, in some cases, I've been fortunate enough to have won the job or gain the employment. So that's been good. And I hope to continue to try to search for specific worlds, specific narratives that involve specific people, but are potentially, at the same time, archetypal in some way. And so yeah, it's sort of an ongoing thing, really." On What Appealed to Jarvis About Inside and Playing Mark Shepard "Initially it was Charles' script — which, at first, I was really pleasantly surprised by the situation, the setting and the kinds of people that it was concerned with, because that's not something that I often see in scripts. It's not a world that's very often explored, despite the fact that everybody, a lot of people will say they have a favourite prison movie, or they might know a prison movie, what they call a prison movie. But realistically there aren't that many of them. Well, I haven't seen that many of them myself. And so when this came, I was interested basically because of that, but then also I was interested because there was, between the three principal characters, there was this sort of unmistakable symmetry in the triangle of how they came to relate to each other. And the shape of that was very appealing. It felt like something that had been really thought about and structured very deliberately. And so that was why I was really interested, was because I could tell that whoever made this had a strong, potent idea for something, and they'd taken a lot of time to structure these three relationships — the relationships between these three men." On the Importance of Inside Clearly Seeing the Disadvantages Experienced by Its Incarcerated Characters, and That the Prison System Places Upon Them "I guess one of the interesting things about it was about how it, despite the elements of it which are in keeping with a thriller, and despite the parts of it which you could say are archetypes of a crime thriller that is set in the prison, its chief concern — that is prominent throughout its entire runtime — is the internal capacity for rehabilitation of these people. And that's not to say just the lead, the three principal characters, but also all the other prisoners that are involved in the film in a sense. Its concern with the person's capacities and limitations for real internal rehabilitation was something that I really hadn't seen before, and it was really ripe ground for a unique exploration on that topic." On Whether the Film's Compassionate Refusal to See Anything in Black and White, Including Its Characters, Influenced Jarvis' Approach "It doesn't really, because no matter what the character and no matter what the film, nothing is really, really black and white. I suppose they can seem that way in hindsight. But my main concern was trying to take Mark for what he was at the time, at whichever point he was concerned with throughout the script, and trying to make sure that there was nothing about his terrible past that was relied too much upon to cloak him in entirely — because doing something like that would have ceased to allow him to be as real of a person as the script needed him to be. Like all the characters, all the characters within it are incredibly complex people, and they have so many — yes, okay, they are by definition all criminals, but they are all their own people despite that. And they all have very unique internal struggles despite that. And they all have their unique senses of humours despite that. And so allowing for those things, those sort of benchmarks of character, to be allowed to breathe was quite important in preparation for Mark." On the Research and Preparation That Went Into Playing a Man Convicted of a Horrific Crime But Now Trying to Find His Own Sense of Forgiveness "At first it was a case of looking at people who shared or seem to share a demographic with Mark — any examples that I could find of people who seemed to share something in common with him, whether it was from where he was from or what his early years had looked like, or the kind of activities he'd been involved with, the kind of upbringing he'd had. And then also looking into people who had found a sense of moral rehabilitation through things like an interpretation of faith. So I spent a lot of time looking through various materials trying to find examples of people that I felt had at least something in common with Mark. And then it was a case of amalgamating them all together into something that I felt, something that allowed the text to flow through. He's a very specific case. As I said, I mean everyone, all the characters in this film are very specific cases, and that's a credit to Charles and the research that he's done, and the fact that he really wanted this to be authentic — and the fact that he really cared about this setting, and he really cared about the complexities of the people within this setting. And so ultimately that's why I liked the script in the first place, was because it was so specific. So there was there were lots of different pieces from reality in Australia to draw on. I got lots of video materials, audio materials, lots of articles and internal information about the rehabilitation process, about the prisons, about people from severely underprivileged backgrounds and about people who have endured terrible things during their upbringing, and about people who have inflicted terrible things when they've grown up. So there's so much to draw on — and it was a case of amalgamating that into something that Charles' depiction of Mark on paper could then pass through." On Collaborating with a Filmmaker Who Is Just as Interested in Exploring Empathy as Conveying It "One of the good things about Charles is he's — really, I always got the impression that the emotional core of a person is what he's really concerned with. He's very concerned with the truth of the individual. And so that, it was actually pretty straightforward in that sense, because it was never the case that we were trying to humanise, there was going to be this effort to humanise this guy — because it was always obvious that this was a story about humans in a situation with their own plights and their own histories and their own attempts at futures. So it was never really a case of trying hard to find the humanity within that. It was always given as a sort of explicit permission from the outset." [caption id="attachment_777103" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Calm with Horses[/caption] On Williams Describing Jarvis as Fearless — and If That's How He Tackles Every Role "Well, yeah, I try, I suppose. That's very nice of him to say, but I suppose I try. But it's not for any particular reason — it's just because people are specific. Even the most boring, nondescript people are incredibly specific. And so every character presents a challenge to try to arrive at them, to try to find them somehow and live in them. In a lot of ways, the superfluous trappings of any given character — where they may be from or what kind of person they might be, or their intellect, or all these things — they're irrelevant to the actual work that must go into them, because it's always the same amount of work, regardless of the character. You just, for me, it's always a case of finding the person that the script is alleging or the script is depicting. It's very difficult to talk about — it's much easier to do than talk about." On Working with Newcomer Vincent Miller and Oscar-Nominee Guy Pearce "It was just great. It was just amazing working with both of them. Aside from the acting, you couldn't really hope for two better colleagues in general than the both of them. And when it came time to begin our work — and I suppose this is also partly credit to Charles — there's this environment of just wanting to work with each other and wanting to get to the truth of the matter, and wanting to strive to try to get to what's at the core of this moment of this scene. Both of those guys were just a just a pleasure to work with and just lovely guys. And yeah, like I said, I couldn't really hope for two better colleagues. Young Vincent is just amazing — and particularly with Vincent, some of the scenes contained some nastiness, and you really felt like he's got a really amazing energy about him where things just seem to roll off his back. But then when we begin, he's always right there where he needs to be. And so going through those scenes with him, it was great, and I really couldn't hope for anyone that better than those guys to be working with." Inside opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, February 27, 2025. Inside images: Mathew Lynn.
A Sydney institution, White Rabbit Gallery has been running free exhibitions showcasing contemporary Chinese art for over a decade. But visitors to the Chippendale space between now and Sunday, August 1 can expect a particularly luminous experience, with its latest eye-catching multimedia exhibition centred around the wonders of light. Showcasing works from 30 artists, Lumen's lineup stretches from interactive light pieces and frozen copper sculptures to video projections and rooms full of LEDs. As well as grabbing attention, each work on display uses light in a thought-provoking, awe-inspiring or fully immersive fashion. The boundary-pushing Zhang Peili, dubbed the father of video art in China, is displaying 2012 Portraits, a series of 14 portraits in which the both the subject and the viewer are blinded by light. Or, there's Yao Chung-Han's DzDz, which invites the audience to stand under movement-sensitive beams of light and create music by using their bodies. And, thanks to Wu Daxin's Ashley's Heart, you'll see copper tubes suspended in the shape of a heart and gradually frozen over the course of the day, creating a unique ice sculpture. [caption id="attachment_807673" align="alignnone" width="1920"] LUXURYLOGICO, Miniature, 2015, stainless steel, copper rods, LED lights, computer 207 x 576 x 168 cm[/caption] Art collective Luxury Logico is presenting two works as part of the exhibition. The first is Solar, a twinkling representation of the sun created using donated desk lamps — while the second, Miniature, is one of the exhibition's showstoppers. The display of LED lights draws upon images from a video reel, with each LED corresponding to a pixel. Both vivid and architectural in its appearance, the work is designed to remind viewers of celestial bodies in the sky, all while cycling through everything from reality TV and ads to soap operas and Adam Sandler movies. Lumen is running over all four levels of the White Rabbit Gallery. As usual with the site's exhibitions, entry is free and there are no bookings, so folks can just rock up and enjoy the art. And, free guided tours are available at 11am, 1pm and 3pm Wednesday–Sunday. [caption id="attachment_807667" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Cong Lingqi, Dust 2, 2008, plastic, paint, metal, spotlights, dimensions variable[/caption] Lumen is on display at White Rabbit Gallery, 20 Balfour Street, Chippendale, until Sunday, August 1 — open from 10am–5pm Wednesday–Sunday. Top image: Miniature by Luxury Logico.
Since opening in 2018, teamLab Borderless has been one of Tokyo's top tourist destinations, and with good reason. Dazzling, stunning, breathtaking, kaleidoscopic, worth a trip to Japan all by itself: all of those descriptions apply to the digital-only art gallery, which became the most-visited single-artist museum in the world during its first year of operation. But if it has been sitting at the top of your must-experience list for when Japanese vacations start getting easier, you'll still need to wait — because Borderless' Tokyo base is on the move. Japan's border restrictions ease again on Wednesday, September 7, allowing tourists to enter the country for holidays even if they're not on guided tours — as long as they still book their travel package through a travel agent. A stop at teamLab Borderless won't be on the itinerary until 2023, however, with the original Tokyo site in Odaiba shutting its doors at the end of August. That's the bad news. The excellent news: at some point in 2023, teamLab Borderless will relaunch at a brand-new site. Instead of crossing over Tokyo's gorgeous Rainbow Bridge to get to it, you'll be heading to central Tokyo, where it'll form part of the new Toranomon-Azabudai project. Those digs are only slated to be completed next year, so there's no exact opening date set for teamLab's new Tokyo Borderless museum — but the art collective has advised that the Toranomon-Azabudai location will let visitors "wander, explore, discover in one borderless world". If you were lucky enough to mosey around the OG spot before the pandemic, you'll know that that's an apt description of the Borderless experience, where vibrant, constantly moving, always-changing interactive digital art keeps glowing and flowing before your eyes. [caption id="attachment_701269" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Image: Sarah Ward[/caption] There's no word yet whether the same artworks will make the move over to the teamLab Borderless' new home, if old favourites will evolve in different surroundings, or whether fresh pieces will grace the walls, floors and every other surface imaginable — in Odaiba, that even included cups of tea. A second teamLab Borderless has already been open in Shanghai since 2019, and others are slated for Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and Hamburg in Germany — both with a 2024 opening date. teamLab also has operates a different museum in Macao, and has its first teamLab Phenomena in the works for the Saadiyat Cultural District in Abu Dhabi, again targeting a 2024 launch. [caption id="attachment_868129" align="alignnone" width="1920"] ⒸDBox for Mori Building Co.[/caption] As for the new Tokyo site, it'll still be a must on any Japanese holiday itinerary. Add it alongside the Super Nintendo theme park, Shibuya's famous scramble crossing, singing karaoke in a ferris wheel and wandering around the Studio Ghibli museum — and making a date with the animation house's theme park, which opens in November 2022. teamLab Borderless Tokyo: MORI Building Digital Art Museum is relocating to the Toranomon-Azabudai Project, Tokyo, from sometime in 2023 — for more information, visit the museum's website. Top image: teamLab, Exhibition view of teamLab Borderless: MORI Building DIGITAL ART MUSEUM, 2023, Tokyo © teamLab, courtesy Pace Gallery.
When you've directed two movies about zombies — the first of which you've basically become synonymous with — and also dabbled with on-screen demons, what do you tackle next? If you're Australian Wyrmwood, Nekrotronic and Wyrmwood: Apocalypse filmmaker Kiah Roache-Turner, you do battle with another classic horror concept. Sting takes its moniker from The Hobbit. The fact that its human protagonist is called Charlotte is particularly telling, however. What better name to use in a movie about a giant spider that falls from the sky, is discovered by a curious 12-year-old, then makes its growing presence petrifyingly known? Shot in the ABC studios in Sydney but set in a New York City apartment block in the thick of winter, Sting's nods elsewhere stretch across the film like a web. Lines recall Predator. Shots nod to Alien. "I pretty much copied that exact jump-scare from Alien, when Tom Skerritt goes into the air conditioning ducts, 100 percent," Roache-Turner tells Concrete Playground. He's loving about his influences, on- and off-screen. That affection for flicks gone by shows in the movie from the moment that its titular creature — he's named his spider well, too — first appears. Roache-Turner has also used himself and his own fear as a basis. Yes, he's afraid of spiders, as we almost all are. "I didn't necessarily want to confront it. It's just my job is to think of the worst thing, the scariest thing, the most-disturbing thing that could happen to me, and then put it in a script and then make you guys watch it and hope that it scares people," says Roache-Turner. "That's kind of what I do. I just sit around thinking about things that disturb me and then I write about them — and it's good because if you take your nightmares out of here and you put it down onto paper, and you spend a couple of years making a spider movie, the hope is that you might become a little less arachnophobic. So it could be therapeutic." Asked if making Sting ended up being cathartic, though, Roache-Turner has bad news for anyone thinking that they might cure their unease about eight-legged arthropods through filmmaking. "Not at all. No. I still hate spiders. Maybe it's worse now because I've had to look at so much footage of spiders, so now I'm doubly sure that I hate them," he shares. Ten years back on Wyrmwood, which he calls "one of the best things I've ever done in my life", the writer/director put everything that he had into what swiftly became his calling card. "It was three-and-a-half years of production. I shot a lot of it in my mum's backyard. It was me and my brothers and my mates just putting on zombie makeup and having fun," Roache-Turner notes. "I can't tell you how fun it was, and I still think about it almost every day. It's a huge part of my life, and it's the reason why I'm here talking to you about a giant spider movie." He's happy that it keeps coming up. "No matter what I do, people go 'you made Wyrmwood'. I think that's how Sam Raimi must feel, too. He can make as many A Simple Plan movies as he wants. He can do as many Spider-Man movies as he wants. But he's always the guy that did Evil Dead, and that's me," he advises. Roache-Turner is also still giving his all with Sting, including by drawing upon his own family setup. Charlotte, played by Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga and The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart's Alyla Browne, has an IRL analogue. So does her stepfather Ethan, with House of the Dragon and In Limbo's Ryan Corr the film's version of Roache-Turner. As happens in the picture — which features Noni Hazelhurst (One Night), Penelope Mitchell (What You Wish For), Jermaine Fowler (A Murder at the End of the World), Silvia Colloca (Wellmania), Danny Kim (C*A*U*G*H*T) and Robyn Nevin (Relic) as well — Sting's creative force had just welcomed a new baby. Similarities continue, albeit with a critter that Roache-Turner is most frightened of looming large, literally, aided by creature design by Wētā Workshop. How does taking inspiration from so much of your own life guide you when you're writing a horror screenplay? How did Sting get rolling from the idea that everyone hates spiders, not just Roache-Turner? What kind of balancing act was required to make this an unsettling spider flick, also a movie about a kid with an unusual pet Pete's Dragon and E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial-style, and a picture about a family in crisis? With Sting opening in Australian cinemas on Thursday, July 18, 2024, Roache-Turner filled us in, and also chatted about his inspirations, casting Browne and Corr, and what type of primal fear that he's grappling with next. On Starting with the Idea That Everyone Hates Spiders, Then Getting the Ball Rolling "The good thing about Sting is it's a primal fear like sharks. Everybody's scared of a thing in the bedroom. Everybody's scared of the idea of a ghost. These are primal fears. And as I'm arachnophobic, I've had the image or the idea — anytime I look at a spider, I'm scared, I want to cry. But a little part of my brain goes 'imagine that was big. Imagine that was big!'. I've been thinking about that for most of my life, and then finally I set myself a task. It was actually after I had a meeting with James Wan's producer, and he was explaining how he and James make films. And he goes 'we do a template system, so we go: single location, one monster, one family — go'. And he goes 'we just make the same movie over and over again'. And I was thinking 'I wonder if I could do that?'. So I thought 'okay, I'm going take a single location: let's say an apartment building. I'm going to take a family: let's say my family'. So I just had a baby. I'm married. I've got a stepdaughter. I'm going to just template that so I can make it personal. 'What's the monster?' And that whole thing in my head just started echoing 'imagine a spider was big'. That's the thing that I would be most scared of to see. So I just wrote the movie that would be the scariest movie that I could possibly make. The idea of a giant spider descending on a crib was one of the first images that I got, because I just was a new father and I had a baby, and I just couldn't imagine anything worse. And so I was like 'yeah, that'll make a good poster'. That's how these things get started. And I wrote the script, and I took it around. And I don't think anybody, I couldn't really find a producer who wanted to do it because they were all scared. They're just like 'no, no, no, no, no, it's probably going to be more than about five mil'. Everybody wants to make the five-mil Blumhouse template thing. And I'm like 'yeah, I could write that, but I didn't write that in this case. I don't think we can make a giant spider movie set in a New York apartment building for five. I don't know how to do that'. So Jamie Hilton and Michael Pontin and Chris Brown [Sting's producers] just were brave enough to just go 'okay, we believe in this, we're going push it'. Once we got the ball rolling, it just seemed like a good idea, because it had been a while since we had a really decent giant spider movie. I can't even really think of one. I mean Arachnophobia, but they're little. I'm talking about one the size of a pit bull terrier. Other than Shelob, there's not really that many out there. So we had something vaguely original and we just ran with it." On How Taking Inspiration From Your Personal Life Guides You When You're Writing a Screenplay "It guides the emotion, so all of this stuff with the father and the daughter and the wife and the baby and the tension, that all came out of COVID. I was going through that. The big difference is I get on with my family really well — I'll start to make up a bunch of really horrible drama to make it interesting, but the feelings and the emotion is there. In terms of writing the thing, there's no secret to it. It's unexplainable. The structure just jumps into your head. You go 'if there's an alien spider in the building, how does it get into the apartment? How do we keep it in the family? How does it then grow big? How does it then escape so it can start eating dogs and cats? Who's the first human it's gonna eat? What happens when it attacks the family?'. One thing leads to another, and it just becomes a question of thinking your way out of situations. And then you find yourself at the end, and then you write 'fade out'. Sometimes they're good. Sometimes they're bad. Writing is the most-unexplainable thing in the world, and it's the hardest part of the whole process. But there are little tricks to making it easier, and certainly templating your own family and your own experiences is an easy way to get into an emotional truth." On Balancing the Film as a Spider Horror Flick, But Also a Movie About a Kid with an Unusual Pet and a Picture About a Family in Crisis "It's the hardest part, balancing that stuff. And because I am the person who made Wyrmwood, my tendency is to just make films that feel like they just never stop. So I really was trying to make something that has more long sections of just straight drama. I wanted to slow it down a little bit. A huge part of the writing process and the rewriting was about making the family warmer at the start so that when cracks start to appear, we care about them more — and how much drama should there be between the father and the daughter? All that kind of stuff. Yeah, it's a real balancing act in a film like this. Sometimes, I'm not sure I succeeded. Sometimes, I'm like 'did I put too much family drama in there?'. And some people are like 'yeah man, you should have had more deaths and kills'. And then somebody else would go 'god, what? No, no. That was the best thing about the film'. So it's hard to know sometimes. I think you just make a thing and you hope it's right. You do some test screenings. You work on instinct. But on this one, I wanted it to be more than just about a spider eating people, and scares and thrills. I had a personal thing that I wanted to work through with the family dynamic, and we did that, we went a little bit more dramatic with it." On Casting Rising Australian Star and Furiosa Co-Star Alyla Browne as Charlotte "We went to Nikki Barrett [the Australian casting director] and just said 'Nikki, we have a really, really difficult task for you. We need you to cast a 12-year-old star in this film that we just wrote'. And she goes 'shhhh, stop talking. Cast Alyla Browne. Just don't talk about it. Don't talk about it. Just cast her'. And she doesn't talk like that. She's usually very considered, but she was just like 'this is the person. This is the girl'. I might've just looked up a clip on YouTube. I was like 'who is this Alyla Browne?'. It was two clips of an audition she did for a film years earlier when she was like nine. She did an amazing audition where she cried. And I was like 'oh, my god, she's so talented'. Then she did the same thing in a flawless American accent and cried. And I was like 'is she available immediately?'. We didn't even audition her. I just met with her and her mother and just tried hard not to stuff it up. I was more me convincing her to be in the film. But luckily she loved the script and wanted to do it. Her mum just wanted to meet me to make sure I'm not a crazy person and so I pretended not to be, and she signed up and did the movie. She's honestly one of the most-talented actors I've ever worked with. You put the camera on her and something happens. It's a star quality — she's a 12-year-old with the star quality of Nicole Kidman or something. The whole crew would go silent and people would be looking at each other going 'just how is this 12-year-old being this amazing?'. And she made my film just 30-percent better just by being on in front of the camera — and that's something that the director prays for." On Enlisting Ryan Corr to Play Roache-Turner's On-Screen Surrogate "I'd wanted to work with Ryan for years and years. We tried and we just had a few availability issues or whatever. I've been trying to work with him for a long time. So I was stoked to get him for this one, and I'm glad it was on this one because, yeah, this was very much like he's playing me. He's not playing a guy running around jumping in slow motion, firing a gun — this is me. I wanted to be a comics artist. I wear glasses. I have a beard. Like, he's playing me. He's just playing like a heaps better-looking version of me. And every actor knows that, he read the script, he knew the deal. He's like 'yeah, this is you. I get it, but I'm going to do my own version'. With Ryan, it's like working with Brando or Tom Hardy or something. You just step back, say 'action' and watch him improve your movie. There's not much directing that goes on. The guy's a genius." On the Film's Commitment to Incorporating Practical Effects "I love CGI and we've got some sick CGI in this film. Cumulus VFX, the company that did all that stuff, it was a flawless job. But I just believe, particularly with horror, sometimes there's just a bit of an uncanny-valley thing that pops in every now and again. You're just like 'oh, there's still just something wrong with the weight of it' or 'it's not quite interacting with the shadows right', and that's even when you've just got the best CGI you can get. So it's always important for me to have a big practical element. I prefer to have a layer of practical and CGI augments what's already there. Denis Villeneuve does that on Dune: Part Two — you look at the behind-the-scenes, most of it's practical, it's augmented digitally and that's why Dune is one of the best-looking science-fiction franchises of all time. I think with this one, it was really important that we had a practical element. And when that practical element is done by Wētā Workshop, who are the best at what they do in the universe, your life is made a lot easier." On Sting's Broad Array of Inspirations Beyond Roache-Turner and His Family "Charlotte's Web, 100 percent. That's just me having a dig at a cultural phenomenon — everybody read Charlotte's Web as a kid. And I figured most people have read The Hobbit, so the sting reference I think would be nice, too, and with all the giant spiders in Mirkwood. Also The Thing, with a single location with a bunch of people stuck with one monster being eaten. And there's a comedy aspect to The Thing that I love. The tone of John Carpenter's films, I love. Very heavily influenced by Jaws, even though narratively, it's very different — but just the tone of it. Poltergeist, also in that they're stuck in a house and it's a sort of flawed family with cracks in it being terrified by an entity in a house. I really was going for a Spielberg thing. There's a tendency, I think, in today's horror to be overly arty or overly bleak, and Spielberg has a light and an adventurous touch that I really like — as well as being a really good filmmaker who understands that Hitchcockian tension. So I wanted to play in that sandbox. Spielberg is a huge influence on this." On Which Classic Horror Setup Is Next for Roache-Turner "I'm in pre-production on a giant shark movie right now, so I'm literally a couple of weeks away from shooting. I'm doing an Australian World War Two shark movie where a ship gets shot down by Japanese torpedoes halfway between Darwin and East Timor, and these guys are trapped on a raft and they're bedevilled by this giant killer shark that's eating them one by one. So I'm just making my way through the monsters." Sting opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday, July 18, 2024.
Frozen has done it. Beauty and the Beast and Shrek, too. The Lion King is set to again in 2026. We're talking about animated movies making the leap from the screen to the stage Down Under, as another childhood favourite is, too. With Anastasia, Russian history first inspired a 90s hit, which then became a Broadway stage production since 2017. The musical is treading the boards in Melbourne from December 2025, marking the show's Australian debut, then playing Sydney from Tuesday, April 7, 2026. Sydney Lyric is hosting Anastasia's New South Wales premiere, with the Tony-nominated musical unveiling an all-ages-friendly tale inspired by Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov during the Russian Revolution, as the 1997 movie also charted. Accordingly, accompanied by songs such as 'Journey to the Past' and 'Once Upon a December' — both from the big-screen release — theatregoers can get ready to spend time with a young woman named Anya on her journey to discover her past, and to unearth a story that some in the narrative don't want revealed. Audiences have writer Terrence McNally and songwriting team Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens to thank for Anastasia's existence as a stage musical — and between its Broadway run and its Aussie stint, Anastasia has also toured North America, and hit the stage in Germany, Spain, The Netherlands, Brazil, Mexico and Japan. Images: Roy Beusker.
Even under normal circumstances, heading to the UK to see a theatre show isn't in most folks' budgets. So, for years now, Britain's National Theatre has beamed its performances into cinemas around the world via a series called NT Live. Over the past 12 months, however, the theatre has adapted to the online realm — first putting a selection of recorded productions on its YouTube channel for everyone to view for free, and now launching its own streaming platform. Both initiatives have the same name — National Theatre at Home — but now, instead of waiting to see which play drops online each week, you can browse through a selection of shows whenever you like. The new streaming service does come with a fee, costing around AUD$18 (£9.98) per month or approximately AUD$184 (£99.98 per) year, but subscribers then have unlimited access. There's also a rental option, where you just pick whichever production you want to see and pay a one-off cost (from around AUD$13.50/£7.99) to watch within a 72-hour window. All of National Theatre at Home's catalogue consists of previously recorded productions — which means that you can get cosy on your lounge, put your feet up and pretend you're at the theatre watching some of the company's greatest hits. New shows are added monthly, with subscribers receiving early access to new additions, as well as behind-the-scenes glimpses. At the time of writing, theatre fans can choose between the first-ever National Theatre Live broadcast, Phèdre with Helen Mirren; William Shakespeare's Coriolanus, starring Tom Hiddleston; and a London-set modern update of Federico García Lorca's Yerma with Billie Piper. Other titles include Medea with I May Destroy You's Michaela Coel — plus Julie, an updating of the play Miss Julie, starring Vanessa Kirby. And some works, such as Mosquitoes with Olivia Colman and a new Nigerian-set version of Chekhov's Three Sisters, are being released for the first time. On the technical side of things, you can stream National Theatre at Home via any web browser, or using Apple products (with iOS and tvOS), Google (through Android and Android TV), Roku TV and Amazon Fire TV. National Theatre's back catalogue is rather hefty — and star-studded, too. Accordingly, here's hoping that some of the company's absolute masterpieces also make the jump to the National Theatre at Home streaming platform in the future. Fingers crossed that its stripped-back version of Mary Shelley's Frankenstein, as directed by Trainspotting and Yesterday's Danny Boyle, and starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Jonny Lee Miller, is one of them — or its production of A Streetcar Named Desire with none other than Gillian Anderson as Blanche DuBois, alongside Ben Foster and Vanessa Kirby. National Theatre at Home is now available online, with subscriptions costing around AUD$18 (£9.98) per month or approximately AUD$184 (£99.98 per) year. Top image: Coriolanus. Photo by Johan Persson.
Sydney's southern suburb of Kogarah suffered a devastating loss to its culinary community when Pino's Dolce Vita caught fire and ultimately closed back in 2016. The award-winning Italian deli was founded by Pino Tomini Foresti back in 1978 and was the heart of the local food scene for decades. Now, after much deliberation and over one year's worth of renovations, the butcher, deli and cafe has returned to its original President Avenue location. Pino's reopened in December 2018 with a brand new fit-out and an extended offering of authentic Italian fare. The shop now sells over 100 types of handmade Italian sausages and salumi, plus cuts of meat that are exclusive to the butchery. There's also an extensive collection of local and international cheeses and a huge range of artisan small goods, too. In the cafe, the team is slinging freshly brewed coffee, breakfast and lunch, plus homemade cakes and pastries — including these cannoli. It's a true family affair here, with Foresti's wife Pia, daughter Carla, son-in-law Michael and sons Fabiano and Marco all taking part in the business. The new digs put emphasis on this family-friendly atmosphere and emulate the bustling vibes of a true Italian deli. If you're looking to book your next gathering, Pino's now offers a catered, warehouse-style event space, too — packages including grazing boards and Italian wines that'll transport your party to the European coast.
Let's get right to it, if the idea of audience participation tickles your fancy — hello, extraverts — One Infinity is the show for you at Sydney Festival 2019. Together with musicians Genevieve Lacey and Wang Peng and composer Max de Wardener, Gideon Obarzanek, director, choreographer and founder of Chunky Move will create a singular work every night of the show's run as he explores Chinese music and contemporary movement in One Infinity. The guqin, which is kind of like a guitar-violin hybrid and the recorder — you remember that from school, right? — will form the musical basis for the piece, then audience members will be invited to join in. Whether it's for the sheer delight of losing yourself to dance or a sneaky attempt to pad out your resume as a SydFest performer, One Infinity is your chance to see a new work come together from where you kinda always wished to be — the stage. One Infinity is part of Sydney Festival's dramatic and diverse 2019 program. Check out the full lineup here.
It's been three years since Koi Dessert Bar opened its doors and in that time it has become a go-to for incredibly lavish, almost too decadent looking desserts that we can't stop eating. Reynold Poernomo has gone far since being eliminated from MasterChef in 2015, and his wildly popular treats have earned him the rightful title of dessert king in these parts. As we've come to find out from Koi, Poernomo is part of a talented family. Brothers Arnold (former judge on Indonesian MasterChef) and Ronald (restaurant manager) have helped make the venue the dining destination it now is. In addition to the desserts' fame, the restaurant's lesser-known savoury dishes deserve their time in the spotlight, too. Sure, you've frequented the downstairs dessert bar, but if you haven't yet ventured upstairs for the set menu, we can decidedly say it's worth a gander. This is especially the case since this month's menu overhaul, which has seen fifteen new menu items — both savoury and sweet — added to the Koi offering. The degustation has been completely reimagined with a greater focus on native Indonesian flavours. Think starters of buttery bone marrow topped with spicy sambal and served with mini brioche buns, or king prawns with caramelised coconut and finger lime. For mains, they're serving up crisp-skinned barramundi with onion dashi and white fungus, as well as barbecue ribs with pumpkin puree and sweet tamari. The set menu desserts lean on Asian flavours as well, with oh-so-pretty options like a black sesame, chocolate and mandarin dessert bowl or the pineapple and coconut logs with mango puree. To complement the new menu, there are locally produced wines, iced green tea and black sesame lattes, plus Asian-inspired cocktails like a Geisha with umeshu, yuzu and strawberry, and the Green Sake — with pandan infused sake, apricot brandy, basil and egg whites. The set menu now comes with flexibility, too. Diners can choose between a three- or five-course menu ($60 and $90, respectively), along with which dishes they want to try, from entrees through to dessert. If you just can't get past the desserts, they get you, and they're also offering up a set dessert menu for $65 per person, which includes all four new desserts. "It's amazing to see the faces of people who dine upstairs, to see how shocked they are at the quality and creativity we plate up," says Reynold. "Our new menu is a testament to that and we want everyone to continue to be impressed." This menu revamp follows a successful three-month stint down in Melbourne's new HWKR Food Centre, where the trio ran a pop-up kitchen with sister venue Monkey's Corner. There is scattered talk of an interstate expansion, but for now, the brothers are focusing on perfecting their Kensington Street offering. The new Koi set menus are now available in the upstairs dining room for dinner from Tuesday through Sunday from 6pm to 9.30pm.
Whether you're wearied by the past 14 months or so, or you're just an avid movie buff all-year-round, everyone could use a dose of big-screen escapism every now and then. That's on offer every day of the week at the Ritz Cinema, of course, but between Thursday, May 20–Wednesday, May 26 it'll only cost you $5. Yes, that's a mighty cheap price for a trip to the movies, and it means that you can even treat your bestie, date or mum to a flick and pay just ten dollars for both of you. Some of the films you'll be able to catch during the week include Best Picture Oscar-winner Nomadland, Chris Rock-starring horror sequel Spiral: From the Book of Saw, and Angelina Jolie's return to the silver screen in Those Who Wish Me Dead. Or, you can check out Carey Mulligan's fierce performance in Promising Young Woman, enjoy the intimate family tale that Minari so engagingly plants, and see Anthony Hopkins deal with dementia in The Father — then watch Stanley Tucci do the same in Supernova. And, although A Quiet Place Part II doesn't officially release until Thursday, May 27, the cinema is hosting sneak peeks over the coming weekend — and they are actually included in the $5 deal. Otherwise, the $5 tickets are available at all regular sessions across the seven days — other than previews, special events and retro films. To book your $5 tickets, just head to the Ritz Cinema website. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Id00Eq1j8M4
Can you think of a better Sunday than being surrounded by some adorable greyhounds, enjoying a couple of top-notch craft beers and raising money for a good cause? Yulli's Brews is bringing together oh-so-many of our favourite things on Sunday, May 29 for the Greyt Masters Art and Ales auction. A bunch of super adorable greyhounds from Greyhound Rescue have all put their creative hats on and painted some colourful artworks that are being auctioned off to raise money and some much-needed funds for the organisation which rescues, helps rehabilitate and re-home greyhounds from the racing industry. "Greyhounds are invited to participate in creating artworks as a form of enrichment. Enrichment activities are excellent to help rescued hounds develop confidence and decision-making skills," Greyhound Rescue states on its website. The live auction will be happening at Yulli's Alexandria brewery from 2pm. Yulli's wide range of craft brews will be on hand at the brewery, and the pups will also be in attendance for some much-deserved pats and cuddles. If you can't make it on the day, you can bid online for your favourite greyhound-made masterpiece.
It has only been open for a few months, but Bulli's Resin Brewing is already filling up its trophy cabinet. The south coast brewpub took home the 2020 National Trust's Adaptive Reuse Award — and for good reason: it's located in a 130-year-old railway guesthouse that the team spent two long years transforming. Co-Owners Brendan Down and Steven House — who met surfing a stone's throw away in Stanwell Park — did away with the heritage-listed building's termite-infested timber, graffiti and lead paint; filled the space with leather couches, photography and a ten-hectolitre brewing system; and threw open the doors to Resin in early 2020. You can swing past just to try the duo's brews, which include the Flame Tree amber ale, Sandon lager and Refraction NEPA, in cans or a growler. Or, you can settle in for a meal and a few pints. Chicken wings ($15), house-made jerky ($12) and XO prawn toast ($18) are all options for those looking for a snack, while hungrier folk should look to the Malaysian fish curry ($25), smoked pork sausage hot dog ($22) and Korean-spiced eggplant burger ($20). One of the perks of opening in a railway guesthouse is its proximity to the train. Sydneysiders can jump on the South Coast Line and find themselves on the steps of the brewery in just 90 minutes — no designated driver required. Images: Reuben Gibbes
Take me with you, indeed: whether you're a Prince fan, a Purple Rain obsessive or both, you can now follow in the musician and the film's footsteps by sleeping in the house from the iconic movie. This is the actual abode from the inimitable flick, newly restored and decked out in purple aplenty. You'll slumber in The Kid's bedroom, hear rare Prince tracks, and go crazy with love for the picture and the late, great artist behind it, of course. Back in May, Airbnb announced that it was doing things a little differently in 2024 when it comes to its pop culture-themed stays. The accommodation platform is no stranger to giving travellers once-in-a-lifetime vacation options — see: Shrek's swamp, Barbie's Malibu DreamHouse, the Ted Lasso pub, the Moulin Rouge! windmill and Hobbiton, to name just a few — which it previously announced at random, with no advance warning. Now, however, it has created the Airbnb Icons category, grouping them all together. The company also revealed at the time that Prince's Purple Rain mansion was one of the many spots on the way. As a result, you might've heard about this Minneapolis listing before — but it's only about to become available now. Will you find out what it sounds like when doves cry if you nab a one-night stay here? You'll need to try to score a reservation between 11pm AEST on Wednesday, October 2–4.59pm AEST on Monday, October 7, 2024 for a stay between Saturday, October 26–Saturday, December 14, 2024. There's 25 stays on offer, each for up to four guest at a time. The booking isn't free, but only costs $7 per person because that was Prince's favourite number. That price only covers the stay itself. To get there and back, you'll be paying separately and organising your travel yourself. And your hosts, because Airbnb always gets someone pivotal involved? For this listing, it's Wendy and Lisa — aka of Wendy Melvoin and Lisa Coleman — who were part of Prince's band The Revolution. "We were lucky enough to be a part of the music scene in Minneapolis during such a pivotal era for rock music, playing with Prince in one of the most successful bands of our generation and starring alongside him in the Purple Rain film," said Wendy and Lisa. "The Purple Rain house stands as a tribute to our dear friend Prince, the timeless character he brought to life and the lasting impact he continues to have. We hope the space gives fans a glimpse into the eclectic world Prince created, and visitors walk away feeling a little bit closer to him as an artist and person." This is what it looks like: guests can get excited about staying in a spot with purple velvet wallpaper; a spa with a claw-foot bath and stained-glass windows (and purple robes, naturally) that's decorated to resemble the 'When Doves Cry' music video; and a music lounge with a piano, drums and guitar, plus instructions on how to play the chorus to 'Purple Rain' with pre-recorded vocals from The Kid. There's also a closet filled with Prince outfits, all behind glass — and more 80s-inspired threads, not worn by the man himself, that you can pop on. When it's time for bed, you will indeed feel like you've stepped into Purple Rain (although the personal tape collection with one of Prince's demo recordings mixes the movie with reality). Still on tunes, there's a vintage 80s stereo downstairs featuring songs that inspired The Kid — and you can listen to a personal commentary by scanning QR codes. You can also consider this a Prince scavenger hunt, in a way, thanks to a secret space that you need to find. It's filled with treasures — and you'll want to be paying attention to the fake vinyl album. In the past, Airbnb has also featured the Bluey house, the Scooby-Doo Mystery Machine, The Godfather mansion, the South Korean estate where BTS filmed In the Soop, the Sanderson sisters' Hocus Pocus cottage, the Paris theatre that inspired The Phantom of the Opera and a Christina Aguilera-hosted two-night Las Vegas stay. Its Airbnb Icons has also made sleeping at the Up house, Inside Out 2's headquarters, the X-Mansion from X-Men '97 and the Ferrari Museum a reality, as well as stays hosted by Doja Cat, Bollywood star Janhvi Kapoor and Kevin Hart. For more information about the Purple Rain house on Airbnb, or to book from 11pm AEST on Wednesday, October 2–4.59pm AEST on Monday, October 7, 2024 for a stay between Saturday, October 26–Saturday, December 14, 2024, head to the Airbnb website. Images: Eric Ogden. Feeling inspired to book a getaway? You can now book your next dream holiday through Concrete Playground Trips with deals on flights, stays and experiences at destinations all around the world.
When Quentin Tarantino first formed a film production company back in 1991, its name came from movie history. With A Band Apart, the then-fledgling director paid tribute to filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard, to 1964 picture Bande à part and to the French New Wave, and nodded to the imprints that cinema's past always leaves on its future. Godard, François Truffaut, Agnès Varda, Jacques Demy, Alain Resnais, Jean Rouch and Edgar Morin, Jacques Panijel, Jacques Rozier and company didn't need QT's ode to cement their greatness, or that of the movement they brought to life in the 50s and 60s, of course — but that recognition is just one example of how far their influences spread. Indeed, watch any film that falls into the Nouvelle Vague and you'll spy the inspiration for countless more from around the globe in the seven decades since it sprang up. That's the impact that the movement's group of French film critics and cinephiles-turned-filmmakers have had. And the Art Gallery of New South Wales wants you to watch, dedicating its latest movie season to these crucial and significant gems. Screening from Wednesday, July 9–Sunday, September 7, 2025 in the Domain Theatre, the venue's Nouvelle Vague lineup is packed with masterpieces that sparked more — from Truffaut's coming-of-age great The 400 Blows and ménage à trois flick Jules and Jim to Godard's crime drama Breathless, Varda's thoughtful Cléo From 5 to 7 and the technicolour wonders of Demy's The Umbrellas of Cherbourg. You can head along from 2pm on Wednesdays and Sundays for a middle-of-the-day movie, or at 7.15pm on Wednesday evenings. Whichever you pick, attendance is free, but those complimentary tickets can be booked online or collected at the door from one hour before each screening.
It may sound like a novel idea, but there are few better places to get lost in a book than a great neighbourhood bar. Think about it — comfy furniture, high-quality wines and all those delicious salty nibbles, plus you won't be distracted by the temptations of home or subject to the shushings of your local library. But first, let me preface this by saying not all bars are cut out for the task — there shouldn't be big crowds, dim lighting or amateur rock bands playing. Instead, you want serenity, snacks and some seriously good drinks. If you've been struggling to find the right nook, here's our list of the best bars to drink alone with a book.
From big cities to rural towns, the humble corner store is a staple of Australian suburbs. Whether you're ducking down to get milk for your morning coffee or a 50 cent bag of lollies with your pocket money, the corner store always has just what you need. Interior stylist Mia Cipolla is taking this local, community-focused tradition of the corner store and introducing locally sourced, high-quality food, drink and goods at her new Darlinghurst cafe- corner store hybrid, Darlo General. Darlo General has opened in the place of a previous, more traditional Darlinghurst corner store. While it may not be able to compete with the extensive selection on offer at the Redfern Convenience Store, it's certainly elevating the items list of your standard local shop, swapping out energy drinks for kombucha and red frogs for sourdough. The new inner city spot is serving up freshly brewed coffee each morning alongside a selection of handmade cakes and savoury goodies baked by two Darlinghurst locals. Alongside the tasty treats, you'll find bread from Pioik Bakery, drinks from Kombu kombucha, Strangelove soda and Monceau pét-nat and vegan nut butter from Brother Mountains Macadamias. Darlinghurst parents can also enjoy a helping hand from the Darlo General as kids head back to school. The cafe's tuck shop offers $10 packed lunches which include a sandwich and two morning tea snacks for busy parents who may not have time to make lunch five days a week. Taking things outside the realm of your usual cafe, Darlo General also stock an inspired collection of local home goods and gifts. On the shelves, you'll find pieces from Newport-based woodworker Rueben Bloom of Made by Rueben, body and bath products from Australian company Salus, homely ceramics, gingham totes and anything else you need to complete your homespun cottage aesthetic.
Thanks to the pesky Australian trademark system, Lazy Suzie is no more. Instead, her fun, cool sister, Lucky Suzie, has taken her place. The Darlinghurst restaurant, which was opened earlier this year by the Devon team, was recently issued an infringement notice by Lazy Susan's Comedy Den in Perth, who thought the Malaysian hawker restaurant was quite the copy cat. It doesn't seem all that confusing to us — considering the different concepts, different cities and different names — but hey, we're not trademark experts. In light of this potential lawsuit, owners Derek Puah and Noni Widjaja and executive chef Zacharay Tan didn't skip a beat. Rather than pay the court expenses, the team decided to just up and change the restaurant's name. And you can bet Lucky Suzie is a more vibrant and bolder version of the laidback sister she replaced. The restaurant plans to further emphasise the bar and street food aspects of the joint without losing their authenticity. To celebrate and solidify the new name, the restaurant is introducing a daily Lucky Hour from 5–7pm, which includes a selection of Marco Oscar Oshiro Giron's incredible cocktails for only ten bucks, along with a range of beers and wines for $7. The restaurant has also launched a new menu, which will emphasise local, seasonal produce from ethical and sustainable suppliers. The new bar-style dishes include a crispy-fried quail ($16), wok-fried clams ($23) pork belly satay ($14) and a pandan custard spiced layer cake for dessert ($14). Don't worry though — Aunty Yulia's beef rendang ($19) won't be going anywhere, nor will the infamous bubur cha cha and taro ice cream dessert ($14). The menu changes will continue, with a "luck-themed" new menu rolling out in August. Whether she's lazy or lucky, we're excited to see what yummy new treats she has in store for us. Lucky Suzie is located at 78 Stanley Street, Darlinghurst. Read our review of the restaurant in its previous incarnation here.
Founded in Chennai in the 80s, Saravanaa Bhavan is now one of the biggest chains of southern Indian vegetarian restaurants in the world, with 33 outposts in India alone and 47 across several other countries. In Parramatta, it's serving up an extensive menu of traditional southern Indian dishes, such as idly (lentil and rice cakes served alongside chutneys and sambar), parotta (flakey flatbread), thalis (platters of dahl, curries, rice and more) and gulab jamun (deep-fried dough balls served in a syrup). Oh, and dosa. So many dosa. These thin and crisp lentil crepes are available in 46 different varieties, from traditional potato masala dosa to chilli cheese dosa and even sweet peanut butter dosa. The more friends you bring to Saravanaa Bhavan, the more dosa you can try.
At first glance you might have thought, "Oh, this is obviously some kind of computer-generated building blueprint thing," when you saw the picture of Korean artist Do Ho Suh's latest artwork. These days we pretty much assume everything is Photoshopped. But in this case, the joke's totally on you. The walls are real, the windows are real. In fact, they're probably even more real than the people and cases on Judge Judy. So what is this ethereal blue structure? The whole thing's made of silk, and represents a 1:1-scale model of homes previously lived in by the artist, one nestled inside the other. Known for his zany, skewed-perspective manipulations of full-scale houses, walls and other exterior structures brought inside (you can check some of them out here, here and here, including earlier works constructed from nylon), Suh's latest installation is titled Home Within Home Within Home Within Home Within Home. Look closely and you'll see the distinction between the two homes: outside we have a modern Providence, Rhode Island apartment building — the artists' first US dwelling-place — and inside you'll glimpse, artfully suspended like a ghost, an exact copy of the traditional Korean house where Suh was raised. It's mind-blowing to conceive of the logistics of putting this project together, and the result is so big that visitors to the exhibition at Seoul's National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art are able to stroll through and study the work from every angle. Combining the intimately personal with replicated architecture carries a message about identity: according to the artists' bio, his installations explore "the relation between individuality, collectivity, and anonymity". Obviously the nesting of one cultural identity, represented by the physical house, within another — while both remain transparent — is a neat and direct metaphor for the artist's self. Memorialising familiar places through different media is a long-running theme for Suh — read his ideas about the sensuality of pencil-rubbings here. Via Colossal.
What do The Simpsons, Star Wars and Shrek have in common? They've all graced the big screen, they clearly share a love for the letter S and they're each huge hits. Oh, and they've all inspired their own firmly adults-only stage parodies, as pop-culture favourites starting with the 19th letter of the alphabet happen to do in Australia, it seems. Somebody once told us that Shreklesque is the burlesque and drag take pop culture's favourite green ogre that you didn't know you needed — and we're telling you that now. (And no, nobody informed you two decades ago that the animated hit would turn out like this, because no one could've predicted it.) On the bill at the aptly named show: the kind of irreverent and raunchy take on all things Shrek that The Bad Collective will be serving up with its upcoming The Stripsons, too — and, while Shreklesque has been around for a couple of years now, earning awards and acclaim in the process, the Aussie production is hitting the road for a national and New Zealand tour in 2022. That means that it's time to make a date with a production that might share a general storyline and a fondness for the colour green with the much less satirical — and actually family-friendly — Broadway hit Shrek the Musical, which came our way a year or so back, but couldn't be more different in a heap of ways. If you're wondering who had the brainwave to turn Shrek into a burlesque show, that'd be Trigger Happy as Shreklesque's creator and director. For this tour, the show's cast includes Bebe Gunn, Rainbow, Tugboat Tiffy, Baron Von Envy, Henny Spaghetti, Barbie Banks, Selin Tian, Rosaline DeRussi, Indea Sekula and De La Vinx. When Shreklesque hits the Enmore Theatre from Friday, June 3–Saturday, June 4, wearing green is obviously recommended — although you'll be seeing plenty of it on-stage anyway. And if this is exactly your sense of humour when it comes to beloved pop-culture commodities, all that glitters is gold, naturally. Image: SomeFX.
Some actors have a type. The films change, and the names of their characters as well, but it can feel as if they're always playing a variation of the same person. That sensation doesn't apply to Jackie van Beek's work. Many movie lovers discovered her on-screen as Jackie, the human familiar to a Wellington sharehouse-dwelling vampire in What We Do in the Shadows. In the decade since the hit comedy, she's helped end romances in The Breaker Upperers, which she also co-wrote and co-directed with Deadloch star Madeleine Sami — and then disrobed for Nude Tuesday, this time penning the script solo, alongside portraying a woman who attempts to reignite the spark in her marriage by heading to a couples' retreat where clothes are often optional. Now arrives Audrey, a delightfully dark Australian comedy from first-time feature director Natalie Bailey (Bay of Fires, Joe vs Carole, Run) and screenwriter Lou Sanz (The PM's Daughter, 6 Festivals) that enlists van Beek as a former star. Decades after her Logie-winning heyday, Ronnie Lipsick hasn't given up on her showbiz dreams. The world beckoned when she was at the top of the acting game, but then she had her first daughter and settled into married life; however, she still knows what she wants. Her focus after 18 years of being a mum: ensuring that the movie's eponymous figure (Josephine Blazier, Fires) makes it big as well, whether she likes it or not. Nothing is going to stop Ronnie in this quest — not even Audrey falling into a coma. There's regular second chances, and then there's Ronnie's path. When Audrey can't follow the route to fame and fortune that's been plotted out for her, Ronnie impersonates her instead. There's endeavouring to cope with tragedy, and then there's the Lipsick family's response to Audrey's plight as well — including on Ronnie's husband Cormack (Jeremy Lindsay Taylor, Force of Nature: The Dry 2) and younger daughter Norah's (Hannah Diviney, Latecomers) parts. As keeps proving the case across van Beek's filmography, no one will mistake Audrey for any other movie. After debuting at SXSW in Austin, the blackly and sharply hilarious feature now hits Australian cinemas in what's been a busy year for its lead. Off-camera in 2024, the New Zealand talent was one of the driving forces behind the Australian version of The Office, and also directed an episode of Time Bandits. Audrey appealed to van Beek's love of dark comedy, she tells Concrete Playground. Unsurprisingly, Ronnie stood out as the kind of character that isn't a standard fixture on-screen. When The Breaker Upperers released in 2018, she chatted with us, alongside Sami, about creating roles for the two that didn't exist otherwise. Now, van Beek advises that when she was reading Audrey's script, she thought "oh, she's delicious. She's so challenging to like. I thought as an actor, it'll be such a great kind of joy to try, and to try to pull her off with some degree of charm." "When I read Lou Sanz's script, Ronnie Lipsick is a morally ambiguous, very career-driven kind of obsessive mother, and I just thought 'what a delight'. Because you don't come across these characters — especially as a female — you just don't come across these characters very often. Well, I hadn't," van Beek notes. "I love dark comedy. I think I was probably told the premise, I imagine by Lou or the producer Michael Wrenn before I read the script. So as soon as I heard the premise, I was like 'ooh, this sounds perfectly dark for me'. I love comedy, but I do really like the edginess of this premise. I think someone who prioritises resurrecting her career over nursing her daughter back to health is a very interesting character to play." Also built into Audrey: recognition that being a mother shouldn't mean giving up on your own journey, an adult coming-of-age tale and a woman's quest, albeit by highly questionable means such as pretending to be her teenage offspring, to reclaim her own sense of self. We discussed all of the above with van Beek, too, alongside what she drew upon to play Ronnie, portraying such a tricky character in a heightened story, what gets her excited about a new project, what you learn making a movie like Audrey and more. On the Film's Ability Not Only to Rally Against Traditional Visions of Womanhood and Motherhood, But to Take That Idea to a Comedic Extreme "It was an interesting take, because I think we've seen a lot of films, dramas and comedies, about women who are struggling, as a lot of us do — women who are struggling with that work/life balance, being being pulled one way as a mother, being pulled another way by their career. And I think we're quite used to those stories. I think this film, obviously what I love, really pushes it to a comedic extreme. I mean, I find Ronnie kind of delusionally adorable, but also abhorrent. I hope that I'm a very different woman to her. But it was delightful to play, because pushing the idea that women aren't born simply to reproduce or mother, but are born to bring about your hopes and dreams, through a career or what have you, is fun. I did find Ronnie Lipsick to be quite mentally unhinged, and in need of some professional help, I would say. She's really spinning off the planet. She's such an egotist. She's so vain. And she's really lost sight of what's important in life. But I do love this idea, to the extreme in Lou's script, that she absolutely prioritises her career over her over her daughter's health." On Finding Inspiration to Play Ronnie — and Always Trying to Win the Audience Over "I'm a mother myself. I have three children, so obviously I was able to easily draw on my own life for the harried mum aspect of the character — organising the pickups, all the logistics with the husband, wanting them to do well. So I've drawn on a lot of that. In terms of her being dangerously delusional, I didn't have much to go on from my real life. So what I did was, I came up through theatre, I was in theatre for like 20 years before I got into TV and film, and a lot of my training was about trying to win the audience over. So whether or not you were a hero or a villain, you try to charm the audience so much that you can have them onside. I really thought that would be a fun game to play, just for myself, over the course of production, to see — by finding vulnerability or delusion or asking the audience to sympathise with me in any way — whether or not I could win the audience over to my side, so they would, I guess, forgive Ronnie for some of the choices she made." On Ensuring That Depth Shines Through When You're Playing Such a Tricky Character in a Heightened Story "It was hugely important for me to navigate a truth for the character throughout the story. And, in some scenes that was harder than harder than others, because it is a very heightened story, and a very heightened reality that we were playing within. Natalie Bailey, the director, was fantastic at helping me navigate that — as was Lou, the writer, who was on set the whole time, which was incredibly useful. But it was really important to me that I could feel truth in every single scene. And so some of the more heightened ones, I really had to lean into Ronnie's delusion, I guess — so that I thought if I, as Ronnie, can actually believe what I'm saying, even if it seems ridiculous to everybody else in the scene and in the audience, as long as I can believe it, it should feel like a real human being that's going on a journey. But some scenes are more tricky than others. That's a fun challenge. I love reading a role where I go 'ooh, this is going to be quite tricky'. And it was. It was such a fun challenge to take on that part." On Adult Coming-of-Age Stories Blossoming as a Genre — and Tales of Women Aiming to Reclaim Their Identities "I'm not sure why it's coming up more now. Maybe because more adults have access to therapy and so people are reflecting on these things? Definitely on my to-do list is to carve out time to go to see therapists. I haven't quite managed to do it yet. But I'm really enjoying the stories coming out at the moment, especially with female protagonists, about women around my age — I'm 48 — who have realised that they've lost a sense of self and they are really struggling to find a way to reclaim an identity. I think what interests me is a lot of people, they don't go deep enough, and try to just reclaim their youth through surgery or affairs or whatever. I'm really fascinated by that. I think all women that I know have just read Miranda July's All Fours, which I think is an incredible examination of that kind of reclaiming that sense of self. It's a fascinating subject." On Audrey, the Australian Version of The Office and Time Bandits All Reaching Screens Within Months of Each Other "The momentum of that is quite strange because, of course, these projects all happened at quite different times and it really is coincidence, I think, that everything lands in the same few months. It all depends on how long the post-production is or the distributor. But it's exciting to have things come out. I'm always someone who really itches to get a project in front of an audience to get that response. But I'm also someone who doesn't really dwell on the response, because I've always moved on to a million other things. But I love it — as I said before, I came up through theatre, so it was all about working as hard as you can and then opening night, the curtains open and you give the projects to an audience, you share that. So it's always a relief for me when something finally is out there and you're like 'oh good, okay, actually it's opening night, the curtains are parting, and people can actually now watch it and respond'. I think I do find it hard when you're in development for a number of things, and nothing's on-screen or you're not delivering anything to an audience. You just feel like you're working in this weird, insular bubble, and what's the point if nobody is able to see this thing you're working on and respond to it. And then, of course, with every response you learn so much about what we've created. And I then I take that onto my next projects. I'm very invested in learning, I guess." On What Gets van Beek Excited About a New Project at This Stage of Her Career "The most-exciting element for me with new projects is the team on it. There are so many people from all around the world, of all different levels of experience, that I'm just dying to work with. And so for my own projects, I of course seek these people out to collaborate with — actors, directors, writers. I think that is the driving force. Second to that, well, actually shooting location is quite important for me because I have three kids and my youngest is still only 12. So I am always trying to prioritise projects like Time Bandits that can be made here in New Zealand, so that I don't have to be away from the kids and my family for too long. And then, of course, the project itself — I'm very drawn, and always have been, to projects which will potentially polarise. I kind of find it thrilling to take on a project or be a part of a project that I think could go either way. The Office, for example, it did seem so silly to create the 13th version of The Office. But, of course, I leapt at the opportunity knowing it was going to be the first version with a female lead, and I knew that was quite high-risk because people are so besotted with the UK and the US versions. But it was that risk that really thrilled me. And the same with when I get involved in some local low-budget films here in New Zealand, sometimes it's the project that draws me, like it's something that I've never kind of seen before or they're taking a big risk on something. And I'm like 'ooh, I'd love to be a part of that because I like the thrill of it'. I'm not really drawn to something that feels quite kind of tried and true, I guess." On What van Beek Learned Starring in Audrey "It's interesting. I think when I'm acting in other people's films or projects, I learn a lot about writing and directing. And then I feel like when I'm writing and directing my own projects, I learn a lot about acting. I think I learn a lot from the other people that are surrounding me. And I really enjoy jumping between acting, writing and directing for that. So I'm constantly shifting roles and having these experiences from both sides. But I think with Audrey, I'm a real believer in 'if you say yes to a project, then you really are giving yourself over to that writer and especially to the director'. So once I say yes to something, I'm pretty much like 'what do you want me to do?' — like 'here I am, what do you want me to do? I'll do anything.'. I don't say yes to a project unless I unless I'm prepared to offer up everything." Audrey opened in Australian cinemas on Thursday, November 7, 2024.
While Redfern has retained a sense of inner-city grit, the area is undeniably becoming more upscale — especially when it comes to wining and dining. These days, it has a rooftop bar, a corner wine bar, a ramen joint with a line snaking out the door and now Southside Charmers: a cafe with a retro-Miami vibe by the team who brought us Scout's Honour and Morris (before selling them both) as well as local wine bar Bart Jr. Taking over the much-loved Eathouse Diner's digs on Chalmers Street, Southside Charmers has kept with the Americana theme, but adding a fresh lick of paint and some kitschy nods to 70s Miami. The 50-seater space (with an additional 20 seats outside) is a lively, colourful and full-of-character diner. "It's a little bit Golden Girls-y," says Southside co-owner Anne Cooper. "A very breezy, light and bright interior with a little bit of kitsch and a little bit of fun." [caption id="attachment_718525" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kitti Gould[/caption] Opening in early April, the venue is the brainchild of Cooper and Georgia Woodyard, with Georgie Easdale in the kitchen and Ryan Butler (Restaurant Hubert) leading the front of house. As locals, Cooper and Woodyard were driven by the desire of filling a culinary gap in their neighbourhood. It's the kind of place you'll find Redfern locals rubbing shoulders with a more transient crowd on weekends — a neighbourhood go-to. "We just look at what's missing," says Cooper. "We always want to create something that we would want to go to and where our friends would want to hang out." Following a produce-focused ethos, Woodyard — the "kitchen queen" of the pair — has developed a fresh, flavourful menu inspired by a trip they took around Mexico a few years back and the cuisine's influence on Miami and southern Cali. Dishes like the Pablo Rice Bowl with mushroom, chorizo, greens and egg, Woodyard's take on a Cuban sandwich and breakfast tacos of scrambled egg, smoky black beans, charred corn and roasted pumpkin are obvious nods to the Latin American influence. Meanwhile, the Eggplant Pahi Scramble and the coconut, turmeric and buckwheat granola are more in line with the duo's former cafes, Scout's Honour and Morris. "It's not a Mexican restaurant, it's just our flavour profile for here," insists Cooper. "It's also a point of differentiation to Bart, which has more of a European palate." [caption id="attachment_718506" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Kitti Gould[/caption] As well as nourishing food, expect fresh juices, well-executed smoothies, kombucha and Five Senses coffee alongside some brunch cocktails — including espresso martinis, bloody marys and, of course, southsides —a predominantly natural wine list and some boutique local brews hand-picked by Cooper. Currently open for breakfast and lunch (with booze available from 10am), Southside will soon be extending its hours to dinner from Thursday to Saturday, offering a relaxed, fun and boozy spot for any time of day. Southside Charmers is located at 306 Chalmers Street, Redfern and is currently open from 7.30am–3pm Tuesday through to Friday and from 9am–3pm on Saturday and Sunday. Dinner service is expected to be open soon Thursday to Saturday. We'll keep you updated with details. Images: Kitti Gould.
The art of flower making has been around for at least 2000 years. When the Chinese invented paper back in 100 BC, they started creating blooms, lanterns and fans pretty much immediately. And even now, thousands of years late, stunning paper flower arrangements are the stuff of many a maker's Instagram feed. Now, it's your chance to find out how it's done. Flowersmith and Papetal founder Jennifer Tran — whose works have appeared in the National Sculpture Magazine of China, Martha Stewart Living (US) and The Design Files (Australia) — is dedicating a wintry Sunday to sharing her secrets. On June 17 at Kinokuniya Books, she'll be hosting two workshops, one on peonies at 11.30am and the other on apple blossoms at 2pm. Whichever one you attend, you'll spend 90 minutes learning how to make your own flowers, before leaving with a Jen-created sample, plus a bunch of instruction sheets, so you can continue your new-found obsession at home.
Now streaming on Disney+, Moon Knight arrives as the latest chapter in a seemingly non-stop franchise that's near monopolised popular culture over the past decade and a half. The newest episodic series to join the Marvel Cinematic Universe, it adds yet another tale to the saga's ever-expanding web of superhero stories — this time focusing on a character first seen on the page back in the 70s; hardly as well-known as the likes of Iron Man, the Hulk, Captain America, Thor and Captain Marvel; and otherwise wholly unseen in the MCU so far. Moon Knight also starts unfurling as the latest instalment in another trend. For the second time in less than a year, Oscar Isaac stars in a must-see streaming series. In cinemas in-between, he's also added Dune and The Card Counter to his resume, too, because the compulsively watchable actor pinballs between projects vast and intimate — and between blockbusters and character-driven pieces. His two most recent small-screen projects couldn't demonstrate that chasm better, although Moon Knight has more in common with 2021's Scenes From a Marriage than it might initially seem. Or, to be accurate, it boasts one very specific and important shared trait: it wouldn't be what it is without Isaac's magnetic performance. Make that performances. The setup: in this six-episode miniseries, Isaac plays Steven Grant and Marc Spector. They're one and the same due to a case of dissociative identity disorder, although this is news to mild-mannered British gift-shop employee Steven. Usually, he wishes that he could lead tours at work, obsesses over studying Egyptian history and, thanks to a sleeping disorder, chains himself to his bed at night. But as gaps in his days lead him to learn, he is also American mercenary Marc Spector — or, to be exact, vice versa. Complicating matters further, he's the on-earth conduit for the Egyptian moon god Khonshu (voiced by Mythic Quest's F Murray Abraham) as well. Already struggling with being able to tell the difference between being awake and asleep, Steven's role as the moon god's offsider is a source of stress, unsurprisingly — especially with shadowy cult-like figure Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke, The Good Lord Bird) hanging around. Character-wise, the Steven/Marc combo swiftly proves as complex as the MCU has delivered so far in Moon Knight's first four episodes, as deepened even further during a continent-hopping mystery-adventure that has him doing Khonshu's bidding. That's where Harrow comes in, complete with unfinished business with the moon god and big plans of his own. Archaeologist Layla El-Faouly (May Calamawy, Ramy) also adds another layer, sporting ties to Marc's past that Steven is initially unaware of, and sparking a patch of romantic rivalry. Even within franchise confines, Isaac is mesmerising playing duelling dual personalities in Moon Knight, turning in the kind of portrayal that the MCU has been lacking. It isn't known as an actor's showcase, which is why even this far in — 27 movies and now six Disney+ series — the sprawling saga's standout performances make a splash bigger than throwing mjölnir into an ocean. It's what made Tom Hiddleston a hit in his big-screen outings, and also in fellow streaming show Loki. Also on the small screen, the greater texture served up by Elizabeth Olsen and Paul Bettany, and the scene-stealing perfection of Kathryn Hahn as well, ensured that WandaVision left an imprint, too. Isaac bests them all; while Marvel's knack for casting has long been one of its superpowers — even with simply entertaining rather than necessarily meaty performances resulting — it flexes those talents magnificently in Moon Knight. Indeed, it's as shrewd a casting move as has been made to-date in this pop-culture behemoth. The fact that Moon Knight also tasks Isaac with playing someone that film and TV fans aren't already acquainted with is also pivotal. Welcomely, the Marvel formula feels fresher here. The series still spins an origin story, and will undoubtedly tie into the broader narrative to come. It also often falls back on a template between daring to be stranger and weirder. And yet, by branching off with a previously unseen protagonist, this is the first MCU Disney+ series that doesn't feel like homework. That isn't a slight upon WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki and Hawkeye, but recognition that reaching in new directions reaps considerable rewards. Moon Knight doesn't lack in star power, of course — there's a reason that Isaac is rarely seen suited up with his face covered, Hawke is also fantastic, and they bounce off of each other compellingly — but it hasn't enlisted its big-name MCU newcomers to merely go through the by-the-numbers motions. Similarly leaving an impression: having Egyptian filmmaker Mohamed Diab (Clash) direct four episodes, and getting American sci-fi/horror wunderkinds Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead (Synchronic, The Endless, Archive 81) to helm the other two. Both help ensure that Moon Knight's biggest thrills come from its best asset, especially given that he's doing double duty in a Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde-style premise — and the scenes where Steven and Marc bicker with each other about who gets to control their shared body (which happens via reflective surfaces such as mirrors and puddles, and are shot with not just flair but boldness), are the show's clear highlights. The Indiana Jones nods, and the swings in The Mummy's direction, are clunkier, but the end product is still easily the most intriguing small-screen Marvel effort so far. Actually, when Moon Knight does ultimately end up overtly linking into the MCU in its final two episodes — and if it smoothes itself down in the process — that'll feel like a let down. Check out the trailer for Moon Knight below: The first episode of Moon Knight is available to stream via Disney+, with new instalments dropping weekly. Images: courtesy of Marvel Studios. ©Marvel Studios 2022. All Rights Reserved.
Music is about more than just a great tune — it also has the power to inform and inspire action. That's the idea behind the Environmental Music Prize — a $20,000 prize launched in 2022 awarded to artists exploring ideas around sustainability and conservation in their music. With voting open until Sunday, December 14, the public is invited to have their say on the tracks that get them reflecting on the importance of nature. Just choose three choice tunes and share them with your pals to help spread the word about music that speaks to the kind of world we want to live in. [caption id="attachment_1052482" align="alignnone" width="1024"] Debbie Hickey/Getty Images[/caption] "Music reminds us of what's at stake, but it also gives us hope," says Prize Founder Edwina Floch. "These songs capture the beauty of nature, the spirit of Country and the resilience of communities rising to protect it. Together, they form a powerful soundtrack for now." With the 30 finalist songs now revealed, each is jam-packed with lyrical meaning and taken to even greater heights with evocative music videos. Think King Stingray's Through the Trees, Angie McMahon's Mother Nature or DOBBY's Dirrpi Yuin Patjulinya, alongside dozens more. "Music connects where other messages can't," explains Floch. "By voting and sharing these songs, fans can help amplify the voices of artists shaping a more sustainable culture, because change begins in the stories we tell and the songs we sing." With this year's prize announced on Wednesday, December 17, the highest voted artist will join much-loved past winners like King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard and Xavier Rudd. Both donated the money to grassroots conservation initiatives, giving even more meaning to their songwriting prowess. Voting for the 2025 Environmental Music Prize closes on Sunday, December 14. Head to the website for more information.
