Another Sydney public holiday is upon us, you're keen to spend it in a cinema, but your wallet doesn't want to play ball. Call Dendy Cinemas' latest special a case of great timing, then, with the chain offering up discount tickets that'll solve your problem. All day on Monday, October 1, regardless of whether you purchase online or in person, you'll only pay $5 for your movie of choice at Newtown and Opera Quays. With everything from McQueen and Crazy Rich Asians to Christopher Robin and Ladies in Black currently screening — plus The Predator and Searching, too — there's plenty to watch if you're keen to spend as much time in a darkened room as possible. Spike Lee's award-winning BlacKkKlansman is still on the big screen, too, so if you haven't watched it yet, here's your chance. The special isn't available for special events, Dendy Arts sessions or preview screenings, but you can score extra luxe Lounge Tix for $10 on this one day, too.
Colour, cuisine and culture harmonise as locally-based Swiss-New Zealand painter Annabelle Gfeller presents Golden Hour at Iberica — Bondi's much-loved Spanish-Mediterranean restobar. Held over four weeks, Gfeller's dreamy still lifes and botanical works will bring new meaning to the restaurant's sunlit interiors and terracotta hues. On display until Tuesday, November 25, the mostly self-taught artist is renowned for her vibrant canvases, where a deep connection to nature and spirituality resonate through warm ochres, deep olives and soft corals. For Iberica visitors, that likely sounds like a match made in heaven, considering how the restaurant's interior leans into Southern European influences. This collaboration is just the latest in Iberica's pursuit of immersive dining experiences. Forming a special kind of simpatico with each dish and drink, the idea is to feature remarkable art that enhances the sensory journey of dining. So, get ready to experience how Gfeller's paintings converse with ceramics, vessels and elevated Med-style cuisine in fascinating ways. "The paintings felt completely at home within the space — the play of light, tones and texture creating a natural dialogue between art and interior," said Gfeller following Golden Hour's launch at Iberica. "It was such a joy to see everything come together so naturally."
When that sun's blasting and the mercury's peaking, it can be a tough decision between cooling down with an icy pint of beer or a scoop of your favourite frosty treat. But now, you can have the best of both worlds, thanks to the new limited-edition, dulce de leche-flavoured Gelato Ale, which is about to hit shelves and taps across New South Wales. This sweet beer is the result of a collaboration between Sydney's award-winning Australian Brewery and the ever-innovative dessert minds at Gelato Messina. And it's looking like it'll be the ultimate summer treat for beer-lovers and sweet-toothed folks alike. Crafted on-site at the Rouse Hill brewery, the beer has fruity malt flavours, backed by a smooth caramel hit of dulce de leche sweetness. If you're yet to get acquainted with the latter ingredient, it's a sticky Latin American caramel made from sweetened milk. The Messina team learned to make its own authentic dulce de leche from scratch after Australia banned imports of milk products from Argentina (because of a spate of foot and mouth disease cases), and have been whipping it up at its Rosebery HQ ever since. A long-time favourite on Messina's gelato menu and also available to purchase by the jar, the concoction now stars in this limited-edition Gelato Ale, though it complements those beer-y tones and stops short of making the drink too sweet. The beer's set to make its grand debut with a public launch party at Surry Hills' Royal Albert Hotel this Wednesday, November 27, kicking off from 5pm. Head along to be one of the first to sample it. After that, it'll be available at select pubs across Sydney, in all Dan Murphy's and select BWS stores. If you'd like to get your mitts on more Gelato Ale, it's hitting the taps at select Sydney pubs from December 1. It's also landing in all Dan Murphy's, select BWS stores and other leading liquor retailers across NSW.
If you're the kid who spent their early teenage Saturday mornings sitting on the couch with a bowl of Coco Pops spacing out to ABC TV's seminal music video program rage, then this exhibition is for you. Music videos, the undisputed popular art form of the last two decades, have changed the way we experience culture: they’ve taught us dance moves, fashion trends, a dictionary's worth of slang, and how to just be kool. The rage crew have collected 110 television sets, old and new, and hoisted them up on four huge metal scaffolds into the shape of the iconic rage logo. It's a striking installation considering artworks are often dwarfed by the cavernous, industrial Carriageworks foyer. The exhibition is both a historical documentation of and a homage to what is now the world's longest-running music video program: rage began in 1987. The 'r' showcases the program's earliest years, with videos from artists including Kylie Minogue, Mental As Anything, Bobby McFerrin, Paula Abdul, and the Beastie Boys. The 750 videos (chosen from a library of 35,000) move in chronological order through to the 'e', where Justin Timberlake, Gotye, Lana Del Rey, Janelle Monae, and loads more have added their own flavours to the endlessly malleable art form. Four pillars strung with headphones correspond to the videos playing on each of the letters, and despite tangled wires and limited space, it is really fun to pop on a pair of headphones and scan the multitude of flickering TVs to spot the corresponding film clip. From Prince and Michael Jackson through to Silverchair, Metallica, Sonic Youth, Grandmaster Flash, Michael Hutchence, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beck, Malcolm McLaren, OK Go, Bjork, Britney Spears, MIA, Beyonce, and Jay-Z, there is something here for everyone who ever liked music. Within the 700 hours of video highlights, you can also spot archived footage of guest hosts such as Nick Cave, You Am I, Blondie, and Radiohead. It's both educational and surprisingly nostalgic, and a fun way to see how music video production has developed over the last 25 years — from spangles to sparkles, from mullets to mohawks, from smoke machines and cardboard props to green-screen special effects. rage is an iconic Australian cultural touchstone and this celebratory exhibition has been creatively and thoughtfully put together by Carriageworks curator Beatrice Gralton, rage programmer Tyson Koh, and the rest of the rage team. It runs as part of Vivid Sydney until June 17. Image by Daniel Boud.
"We all deserve better". "Change never comes easy." "Blessed be the squad." If the latter quote didn't already give it away, they're all lines that are uttered in the first trailer for the fourth season of The Handmaid's Tale. And, as usually proves the case with the show's dialogue, they all feel like they could be said today, in reality, in everyday life. Using a deeply dystopian scenario to reflect the modern world has always been one of the acclaimed, award-winning series' strengths. It was true of Margaret Atwood's 1985 book that started it all, too. So, with the TV adaptation of the acclaimed novel now reaching its fourth season, it's no wonder that it's continuing what it has always done best — and that the first glimpse of the new season feels even more timely at present. First, some bad news, though: due to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Handmaid's Tale won't return to our screens in 2020. Instead, viewers will have to wait until a yet-to-be-revealed date in 2021 to find out what happens next in Gilead (no, not the masterplanned Sydney community with the same name), and what the future has in store for the show's protagonist, June (Elisabeth Moss) after season three's cliffhanger ending. The good news, of course, is that this tale of rebellion and revolution isn't anywhere near done yet. Toppling a totalitarian society that's taken over the former United States, tearing down its oppression of women under the guise of 'traditional values', and fighting for freedom and equality doesn't happen quickly, after all. The first sneak peek of the ten-episode fourth season doesn't reveal too much; however fans should prepare for not just an uprising, but a war — and for the return of Bradley Whitford's Commander Joseph Lawrence and Ann Dowd's Aunt Lydia, too. Check out the teaser trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1WLqBUi4r6o The fourth season of The Handmaid's Tale will hit screens sometime in 2021 — we'll update you with further details when they're announced.
To be honest, Rihanna could sell us anything. She could sell us a box full of Fenty bees or a Fenty sleeve of Oreos and we would worship her. Thankfully, there are exactly zero bees in her new collaboration with Puma, but it is just as buzzing. And lucky Sydneysiders will be able to get their hands on (and their feet into) Rih Rih's latest shoes at a four-day Fenty x Puma pop-store in the CBD. Rihanna's gone for a 'dismantled school uniform' direction for her AW17 collection, which, in human language, means exaggerated varsity jackets and luxe felt creepers. The pop-up will be located on the mezzanine of Foot Locker on George Street from Thursday, September 28 to Sunday, October 1. The pop-up will be styled to look like a college dormitory space and, if you wander down on Thursday, there'll be giveaways to grab.
Summer's well and truly kicked into gear, and we've been busy making the most of it with catch-ups with mates, family dinners and backyard barbies with the crew. But not all summer hangs are created equal. First, the set-up needs to suit the occasion, whether that's on an airy rooftop for sundowners or comfy garden seats for your crew to chill out on while basking in sunshine. What you're drinking is also key — and you can't go run with gin in the warmer months. And, if you're hosting an at-home do, you need the quintessential Aussie tool: a barbecue. To help take the fuss out of summer events (which should always be laidback), we've teamed up with UK distillery Whitley Neill Gin to bring you everything you need for lazy days in the sun. One lucky winner in Australia will score four bottles of Whitley Neill gin — namely, two bottles of its Original London Dry and one bottle of both its raspberry and blood orange-flavoured gins. To serve up your summery sips, you'll also score a Whitley Neill Gin carafe and four balloon glasses. And because every backyard event needs a barbie, we're also throwing in a Weber Family Q barbecue. Whether you've been meaning to get one since you moved house or need to upgrade, this top-quality grill is a big drawcard. Finally, to deck out your garden, courtyard or balcony, the prize pack comes with four branded deck chairs, too. Keen to win this epic prize? Enter your details below to go in the running. [competition]837183[/competition]
Electronic super duo Canyons are collaborating with celebrated visual artist Daniel Boyd to present 100 Million Nights, a multisensory performance making its way around the country. Boyd's digital artwork is presented as a three-panel video installation, in front of which Canyons perform live as a four-piece band. Ryan Grieve and Leo Thomson of Canyons have been friends with Boyd for a while. Recently, Boyd was preparing for an exhibition when he asked the duo to create some music to complement his video works. The project was a hit and the three decided to create a much larger-scale sight and sound work. The trio have worked closely together, sharing images and snippets of music to create a unique, multisensorial experience. "The big thing for all of us was wanting to make it one united piece in the sense of a true collaboration", explains Grieve. "We didn't want it to feel like Dan's visuals were just a backing track for us. He created the visuals in response to music we would give him as a starting point and vice versa. "It was quite different in the sense that if we were writing an album, it would be a much longer process. With this, we went with the initial feeling and thought and mood that came up and felt right. If something didn't work, it didn't work, but we tried not to question it too much when something came up and felt good." In Boyd's words, "100 Million Nights is an idea, an expanse. Looking at something that connects everyone and, to me, the birth of the universe is what this was about. Acknowledging the loss of memory and not being able to fully comprehend our past." Boyd has established himself as one of Australia's most talented artists. He was initially known for his paintings but recently has moved to digital works. He exhibits regularly both domestically and internationally. In 2007, Boyd was selected to participate in the first National Indigenous Art Triennial, Culture Warriors, at the National Gallery of Australia. In 2011, he was London's Natural History Museum's artist in residence. Boyd's work is held in pretty much every major collection of art in Australia: the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, the Museum of Contemporary Art Australia in Sydney, the National Gallery of Victoria and the Tasmanian Museum and Art Gallery. Ryan Grieve and Leo Thomson released their first EP on the duo's own label Hole in the Sky (they've also released records by Tame Impala and Pond). They've achieved a great deal of success internationally. In 2011, the New York Times described their music as "a good exercise in categorical confusion — pre- and post- disco, analog-synth ambiance and noise, drones, 1970s German experimental rock, new wave. All that, and it doesn't feel over-thought". The music of 100 Million Nights is somewhat of a musical departure from Canyons' usual style with the pair understanding it as more of a "creative side-step". At the Sydney Festival show in January, 100 Million Nights will comprise half the program. Also included is another sight and sound work by former Battles frontman Tyondai Braxton. Hive will blend modular synthesisers, sound design and percussion with custom built "architecturally designed" illuminated platforms. Image: from APT7 Up Late, at the Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. Photography: Ben Sullivan, Brodie Standen. Brodie Standen images courtesy Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art. https://youtube.com/watch?v=P83821HGsqg
Creative space Commune is launching Our Hood, a massive new monthly precinct night that brings culture, art and music together with wellness, maker markets and food stalls. It all kicks off on Wednesday, April 25 from 5 to 10pm, and will run on the last Wednesday of each month going forward. With the aim of bringing the neighbourhood together, the evenings provide a collaborative outlet and meeting space for the community. The launch event will see FBi Radio present live performances from audio visual artist Sampology, local rap-poet Kimchi Princi and electric rap duo Slim set. Alongside the music, the workshop will become home to a large-scale exhibition by painter Jess Cochrane, with 10 percent of art sale profits donated to The Rough Period women's charity. On the culture side, they've also got Tent Talks, which will focus on social justice and plant-based health, and a hatha yoga class that'll include a live set by DJ James Mack. Yoga will be followed by a therapeutic workshop, run by award-winning performing arts educator Lily Balatincz. Sydney Vegan Market has curated the food offering and maker stalls, and the bar features the likes of Young Henrys, Archie Rose and Urban Winery Sydney. All events are also dog and family friendly, so it's really a catch-all kind of event. Image: Sam Ali.
The school holidays are upon us once again, which means parents, guardians and eager aunts, uncles and pals are likely on the lookout for ways to entertain the kids in your life. Sometimes the best approach is to leverage the expertise of blue card-wielding professionals, keeping the activity calendar full and the kids away from their screens. Over the next two weeks, Sydney Olympic Park is hosting a huge lineup of activities encouraging kids to get active — whether they're looking to work on their existing skills or learn new ones under the guidance of some of Sydney's best coaches and professional athletes. Read on to find out more about the venue's stacked school holiday program. FOR SPORTY KIDS If you're dealing with a kid who loves to keep active, make a beeline to the Quaycentre. Over the next two weeks it has a jam-packed sports program for kids of any experience level. Reckon your kid has what it takes to become a football superstar (or just looking for something to kick)? Book them a spot in the two-day Wanderers in the Park, where seasoned coaches will help participants develop their football skills with a focus on technique and game knowledge. They'll also get their own Western Sydney Wanderers training jersey to take home so they can look the part as they keep practicing their skills. On the indoor courts, Australian Diamonds star and NSW Swifts co-captain Paige Hadley will be running a session for budding netballers of all skill levels. Over on the basketball court, NBL legend Bruce Bolden will put budding ballers through their paces on a two-day workshop for beginners and advanced players through skill development, drills and mini-games. Meanwhile, professional coaches from Volleyball NSW will lead a fun and educational day for boys and girls aged between 8–14. The afternoon-long program will see little diggers develop their individual skills as well as their team skills via gameplay. Got a kid who wants to try their hand at a bit of everything? Book them a spot in the all-day multi-sports camp where they can have a go at table tennis, soccer, basketball, netball, gymnastics and more, all under the one roof. FOR WATER BABIES Sydney Olympic Park is home to one of the city's premier aquatic centres which is offering up a bunch of activities for kids who can't get enough of the pool. If they're a natural in the water, book them in for a water polo clinic. Over this 90-minute session, instructors will guide participants through a range of drills like water polo swimming, jumping and defending. They'll also learn the rules through some game-time with their newly acquired skills. For the kid with no fear, the Aquatic Centre will also host diving workshops these school holidays. These regular sessions will give participants the chance to learn the fundamentals of acrobatics, stretching, safe diving and more from an experienced coach, as they take the plunge off the centre's world-class diving tower. FOR CURIOUS KIDS Are the children in your life always outsmarting you? Sydney Olympic Park also has a range of activities to please even the most strategic of kids these school holidays. The Young Archers sessions are tailor-made for kids aged 7–9. The hour-long sessions cover the basics of the bow-and-arrow sport under the watchful eyes of skilled instructors, and include practice rounds and gameplay. Sounds like something the whole family can get involved in? Kids, parents, grandparents and everyone in between can sign up to the all-ages Sharp Shooters session, which'll be a surefire way to add some friendly family rivalry to the school holidays. For kids looking to get a little more active, Sydney Olympic Park is home to an excellent outdoor laser tag battlefield. Kids can join forces with their mates and duck and weave behind blockade bunkers and walls as they try to outsmart the opposition with laser tag weapons and props. These fully supervised sessions have different challenges and games to keep participants entertained throughout. If your little one is looking to have fun and learn new skills in a non-competitive environment, sign them up to a circus arts or flying trapeze workshop. At these immersive classes held on the expansive outdoor grounds of Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Centre, kids will get to try their hand at activities including juggling, pyramids, low aerials, hula hooping and tight-wire. They'll also get to test their above-ground skills on the flying trapeze. Sydney Olympic Park has a jam-packed program of fun activities for kids to take part in these school holidays, from circus arts to creative writing and more. For the full lineup and to book, head to the website.
Art Posters: Big Fag Learning to run the Big Fag Press took time. About four years in, they got a commission from the MCA for the cover of the exhibition book Avoiding Myth and Message. They still had their printing press stored in Alexandria, rather than their current Firstdraft-run digs in Woolloomooloo, when they were still learning their craft. According to Big Fag member Lucas Ihlein, when they presented the cover to the printer doing the book's pages he was "just aghast. He was like That's just the worst I've ever seen. And then he said Don't worry, we'll reprint them for you." He seemed to think that he was doing them a favour, but Ihlein thought otherwise. "I had a hunch at the time that, although I wasn't entirely satisfied, the MCA would be really pleased with it." And he was was right. The MCA loved what would ordinarily be seen as errors or mistakes. "In a period of time where even your Kmart catalogue is the most beautifully, clearly, crisply printed thing, perfect printing is no longer something to get excited about. What gets people excited is imperfect printing." The "Fag" in Big Fag is a F.A.G. offset proof press. ("Offset," here, means the plate and paper never touch, while "proof" means it can go from design to a real print quicker than some more complex machines.) The Big Fag Press — before it was formally called that — got its hands on this huge printing press for $50. As luck would have it, that original incarnation of the collective-to-be were living in an Alexandria warehouse big enough to house the thing. But it still cost them $1200 just to move it back home. The press is grey, four tonnes and occupies most of a room. It's a complex beast to run. According to Big Fag member Diego Bonetto, you have to take into account "air humidity, consistency of the paper, some inks react differently than others, fresher than others. So there's lots of variables that need to be taken into account. To master all of that, you need to have worked in the industry 40 years." Given the complexities involved in running the press, it's surprising how much access Big Fag gives artists to the machine. Unlike the Rizzeria, it's Big Fag members who actually run the machine. But visiting artists are still deeply involved at every step of the process. Bonetto says it sets them apart. "We can allow artists to be part of the process, and engage with the whole process of printing. Which, in commercial terms, is something that is unthinkable." For an artist, using the press starts with an image. They bring in a high resolution image of their artwork (at least 300 dpi). Then, as each colour needs its own pass by the printer, the image needs to be separated out into its component colours. If the artist doesn't know how, Big Fag does it for them. The image then gets transferred to a special metal plate — one per colour — at a Marrackville print shop. With the plate made, you're ready to print. Printing is like a relay process. Ink goes from the rollers to the plate, the plate to a rubber "blanket", the "blanket" to the final piece of paper. To start, the ink is put on the top of the rollers, where it rolls down a cascade of rollers, being pressed flatter and flatter by the process until it finally reaches the rollers at the bottom, which presses the ink into rollers second from bottom. These will be the rollers that actually apply the ink onto the printing plate. The day we visited, Big Fag was printing a first green layer of a design by Lucas Ihlein and Ian Millis, so rollers and ink were all green. The rollers then move along the press to apply the ink to the printing plate. The plate has been washed with water first by the press. The plate is specially treated so that water will sit on most of the plate, but not the design. So, after the plate gets wet, and the inked-up rollers roll across, these oil-based inks won't stick to the wet parts. But they do stick to the design. So it's only the design that gets inked up. Also inside the massive moving top part of the press is "the blanket". This is the big rubber cylinder that does the final printing. Once the plate is inked-up, this cylinder rolls over it, picking up the design in ink, then laying it down on the actual paper that the artist wants to print on. It takes one pass per colour, and often multiple passes of each colour until the right amount of colour has been applied. The final result is usually an oversize poster (like this one, for example). Big Fag custom quotes for each job, so fees can vary to cover the cost of running the workshop, having a Big Fag member there to operate the press, paper, the metal plates and other sundry expenses. More detailed information can be found here. < Prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | Next >
For proof that Australia's cocktail game is world-class, look no further than the calibre of the international mixology stars lining up to play on our turf. In 2015, it was New York's famous speakeasy Please Don't Tell, taking over the bar at Fitzroy's acclaimed cocktail haunt The Black Pearl. Then Sydney Bar Week 2016 saw The Everleigh in Melbourne and Sydney's Henrietta Supper Club each play host to pop-ups by Asia's best bar, 28 Hongkong Street. Now it's time for one of the world's most famous hotel bars to make its way Down Under. The American Bar, which is located at London's Savoy Hotel, will take over Darlinghurst's own cocktail gem Eau de Vie from October 18–19. As England's longest surviving cocktail bar, The American Bar has quite the pedigree — in the last year alone, it's scooped the title of Best Bar in Europe at the World's 50 Best Bars awards and seen its team voted Best International Bar Team by Tales of the Cocktail. Backed by the creators of local coffee liqueur Mr Black (who are behind the Espresso Martini Festival in Sydney and Melbourne), this Aussie adventure gives The American Bar the opportunity to showcase some of its own caffeinated mixology magic. At the helm will be senior bartender and World Coffee In Good Spirits champion Martin Hudak, as he treats local audiences to American Bar signatures like the Green Park, the Black Diamond and the Hanky Panky. It's not a ticketed event, so you'll have to be there when the doors open at 6pm each night for the best chance of scoring a seat.
If you've been lusting after this Twisties burger and you live in Sydney's northwest, do we have some news for you. Burger Head, the Penrith-based burger joint responsible for the monstrous creation and some all-round top burgs, is about to pop up in Beaumont Hills. The team hasn't released its opening date quite yet — keep an eye on the Facebook page for those — but we do know the temporary eatery will be showing up within a matter of days and hanging about for about three months. So you can consider your burger needs for spring more or less taken care of. The same trio who run the Penrith eatery — that's Tim Rosenstrauss (previously of the now-closed Master), Richard Borg (ex-Momofuku) and Joshua DeLuca (ex-Quay) — will be overseeing the Beaumont Hills incarnation. They've has a busy 2017, after opening in January, they've also made appearances at Burgapalooza and the Sydney Royal Easter Show. On the menu you'll find all the tasty morsels that've had Penrith salivating, from the cheeseburger (Angus beef patty, onion, pickles, cheese, Burgerhead sauce, mustard mayo) to the Clucker (buttermilk fried chicken thigh, pickled onion, mayo) and — needless to say — the Twisties burger. Burger Head will pop up at Shop 7, 70 The Parkway, Beaumont Hills within the next week. For opening details, keep an eye on their Facebook page.
If you've visited The Lord Gladstone in Chippendale, you've probably had one of its espresso martinis on tap. Well, you've probably had a couple of schooners of Resch's, then decided that you'd love a fancy Kahlua espresso martini on tap. While you can't go and drink either of those inside the pub at the moment, with the government's current closure of non-essential indoor venues in place, you can swing by and pick up both to enjoy at home. The longstanding Chippo pub, which was bought by its OG bar team early last year, is currently closed to the public, but it's getting by, like many Sydney hospo venues, by offering takeaway. As well as offering its kitchen menu to-go — including its burgers, wings, schnitties and $10 steak and chips on Thursdays — it's also selling takeaway booze. https://www.instagram.com/p/B_bi9AYDIrQ/ If you have a growler you can go and get refills of the pub's tap beers, including Resch's. If you have anything from a jar to an empty wine bottle, you can go and get it filled with espresso martini for the bargain price of $5 per 100 millilitres. While one commenter was told they could, in fact, bring a hat to fill with espresso martini, we recommend bringing something that transports slightly better. The takeaway espresso martini is available while stocks last, so keep an eye on the pub's Instagram to see when it sells out. https://www.instagram.com/p/B_gflzpDLbS/ If and when you do go outside to pick up food or booze, remember to follow the NSW Government's public gathering and social distancing rules. The Lord Gladstone is located at 115 Regent Street, Chippendale and open for takeaway only from 12–3pm and 5–8pm Monday–Sunday. To order, call (02) 9310 1483.
Four months after it first hit Australian cinemas, Bohemian Rhapsody is still showing on the big screen — and on DVD, pay television and on planes too. Basically, it's everywhere, with the Freddie Mercury and Queen biopic proving an enormous success. It's nominated for five Oscars, and it has rocketed up the Australian all-time box office charts, currently sitting in sixth place just shy of Titanic, and only behind Avatar, Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awakens, Avengers: Infinity War and Star Wars: Episode VIII — The Last Jedi otherwise. Clearly filmgoers love seeing the origin stories of iconic musicians played out on screen, a trend that Rocketman looks set to continue. This time around, Elton John gets the movie treatment, with Kingsman's Taron Egerton stepping into his winged shoes, oversized glasses and over-the-top outfits to relive the singer's early years. Egerton both stars and sings all of the expected tunes in the Dexter Fletcher-directed movie, which also features Jamie Bell as Elton's lyricist and writing partner Bernie Taupin, Richard Madden as his first manager John Reid, and Bryce Dallas Howard as his mother. And John himself is one of the executive producers, so expect this tale of 70s excess to be of the officially sanctioned variety. The film's timing couldn't be better, with the muso himself set to play a slate of Australian gigs late in 2019 through until early 2020, all as part of his huge worldwide farewell tour. If you think it's gonna be a long, long time until then, check out Rocketman's latest trailer below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTm5DWgL-MU&feature=youtu.be Rocketman opens in Australian cinemas on Thursday, May 30. Image: David Appleby / © 2018 PARAMOUNT PICTURES. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
If you liked choosing your way through Black Mirror: Bandersnatch — or telling Bear Grylls what to do in interactive series You vs. Wild — then Netflix has more where that came from. Come Tuesday, May 12, you'll be able to decide what happens to everyone's favourite kidnapping victim turned wide-eyed New Yorker in a one-off Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt special. While the Tina Fey co-created, 18-time Emmy-nominated comedy finished up its regular run with 2019's batch of episodes, which closed out the show's fourth season, it's coming back this year to put viewers in control. Netflix has actually been in the interactive game for a couple of years thanks to its children's shows like Puss in Boots, Buddy Thunderstruck and Stretch Armstrong; however this'll mark the streamer's first interactive comedy. Always wanted to curb Kimmy's (Ellie Kemper) ample enthusiasm? Keen to steer ex-socialite Jacqueline White (Jane Krakowski) towards a few sensible decisions? Think that landlord Lillian (Carol Kane) could be more eccentric and misanthropic? Just love everything that aspiring actor and singer Titus Andromedon (Tituss Burgess) does? Then this is for you, obviously. If you're fond of Jon Hamm's Reverend Richard Wayne Gary Wayne, too, you're also in luck — this interactive episode is called Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend, after all. A whole heap of other famous faces co-star as well, including Daniel Radcliffe, Amy Sedaris, Fred Armisen, Chris Parnell, Jack McBrayer and Johnny Knoxville. Story-wise, few details have been announced, other than a wedding, a journey across three US states, explosions, an evil plan and potentially starting a war against robots. Announcing the special last year, Tina Fey explained that "fans will be able to make choices on behalf of our characters, taking different story paths with, of course, different jokes," in a Netflix statement. Check out a sneak peak below: https://twitter.com/KimmySchmidt/status/1250446252786847745 Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt: Kimmy vs. the Reverend will hit Netflix on Tuesday, May 12. Image: Netflix.
Sometimes, you're eager to spend your spare hours binging your way through serious dramas. At other times, only clever comedies will do. But, there also comes a time when you just want to feel nostalgic — including by revisiting the local TV show that absolutely every Aussie kid watched in the 90s and 00s, and more than once. For two seasons between 1990–93, then another two from 2000–01, Round the Twist adapted Paul Jennings' popular books into an offbeat fantasy series. If you were the right age, it was must-see TV. It's the source of plenty of lighthouse obsessions, given that's where the Twist family lived. And, it's also a show that knew how to balance humour, strangeness and scares. All four seasons of the show are headed to Netflix, so you'll be able to binge your way through them from Saturday, May 1. They're also currently available on Amazon Prime Video, because that's what tends to happen with older TV programs on streaming these days — one day, they're on one platform; the next, they're elsewhere. Yes, the latter two seasons of Round the Twist really aren't as great as the first two, but we're betting they're still baked into your childhood memories anyway. And, we're certain that you'll now have the show's theme tune stuck in your head for at least the rest of the day, likely until the series hits Netflix over a week away, and probably for plenty of time afterwards as well. Check out the trailer for Round the Twist's first season below: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjuXTD0m9Lc All four seasons of Round the Twist will be available to stream via Netflix from Saturday, May 1. Top image: Round the Twist filming location Split Point lighthouse, Natalie Maguire via Wikimedia Commons.
It's time to say alright, alright, alright to a film festival like no other, and to four days of odd, offbeat, unusual, unnerving and electrifying flicks. Every year for 13 years now, the Sydney Underground Film Festival has unleashed its eclectic movie choices upon the city. It's back to do the same again in 2019, with a lineup that starts with Matthew McConaughey as a perpetually high poet, features everything from hyper-violence in Tokyo to cinema-obsessed documentaries, and ends with snowstorm-set horror. If your kind of festival involves watching McConaughey amble around Florida like he's in a documentary, catching the latest film from Spring Breakers' Harmony Korine and doing so at a special smell-o-vision screening — the cinema will match its scent to the movie — then mosey on over to opening night's The Beach Bum on Thursday, September 12. It's a roving, neon-hued, star-studded trip, with Zac Efron, Snoop Dogg and Isla Fisher also among the cast, and it's certain to set the mood for a weird, wonderful and wild SUFF. Across the rest of the festival — which runs until Sunday, September 14 at The Factory Theatre, Marrickville — Sydney cinephiles can see Henry Rollins turn gangster in Dreamland, fall for the chaos of Takashi Miike's First Love, witness stop-motion animation get eerie in The Wolf House and see Oscar-winner Olivia Colman step into cult-like church territory in Them That Follow. The list goes on, including on the documentary front, where you can prepare to tap your toes to films about rock 'n' roll magazine Creem, London label Trojan Records and alternative rock in general, then explore the work of filmmakers William Friedkin and Uwe Boll, as well as the ups and downs of rom-coms. Elsewhere, Jesse Eisenberg takes down toxic masculinity in the hilarious, must-see satire The Art of Self-Defense, while Memory — The Origins of Alien is unmissable if you're fond of Ridley Scott's seminal 1979 space horror classic. Shorts and workshops are also on the bill, before SUFF eventually comes to an end with mind-bender The Lodge.
If you've been using every birthday, wedding and office party as an excuse to jump online and order box upon box of Bakedown Cakery's sesame-raspberry chocolate bark, blood orange flavour bombs and white chocolate skulls, then we'd like to introduce you to your new home. Today, Bakedown opened a flagship on the Lower North Shore, where you can buy their creative sweet hits anytime you get a craving. You'll find the shop, which doubles as a chocolate studio, in the TWT Creative Precinct in St Leonards. Paint splashes, neon signs and sparkles make it hard to miss. If you're in any doubt, look out for the cabinet packed with bite-sized chocolates, the block-o-chocs in flavours such as passionfruit-sesame and matcha, and the face bark, printed with customers' faces, so you can eat not just your hat but your head as well. "We wanted to develop a store that delighted the senses and gave our customers the 'kid in a candy-store' experience, with stunning products that really catch the eye, but also have sophisticated flavour profiles," said Jen Lo, Founder and Creative Director, Bakedown Cakery. More often than not, you'll find Jen herself there, in chocolate-making and cake-decorating action. After all, there are always pralines that need filling, cupcakes that need icing and new flavour combinations to dream up. One of the secrets of Bakedown's success is never staying still for long. "Our in-cabinet chocolate range is on constant rotation, using different products and seasonal ingredients," said Jen. "One day you may bite into a mandarin, yuzu and dark chocolate bonbon; the next, a summer-inspired infusion of blood peach and white chocolate; and the next some homemade, heartwarming fudge." Find Bakedown Cakery at 62 Atchison St, St Leonards.
By now, the fact that almost every beloved TV show arises from the dead at some point is hardly new news. From Gossip Girl and Saved By the Bell to Twin Peaks and the upcoming Sex and the City small-screen sequel series, plenty of programs have been doing it. The next former hit set to make a comeback: Dexter. Yes, that means that television's mild-mannered blood-splatter expert by day, serial killer by night is returning — so if you didn't like how the original series wrapped up back in 2013, that's no longer the end of Dexter Morgan's (Michael C Hall, Shadowplay) story. Eight years have passed when Dexter: New Blood kicks off, just as they have for audiences. As the just-dropped first trailer for the revival demonstrates, Dexter is now living a quiet life in the small town of Iron Lake, New York, and trying to forgo his murderous urges. He's also going by the name Jim Lindsay, which nods to author Jeff Lindsay, who penned the series of novels the show was initially based on. But, as fans saw again and again in Dexter's original eight-season run, resisting picking up a knife isn't all that easy for the program's protagonist. In fact, the trailer features plenty of blades — and all within its namesake's vicinity. In the sneak peek — the first look we've been given of the upcoming ten-episode limited series — Dexter finds his old ways calling after his new hometown is rocked by unexpected events. US network Showtime, which'll air the series in the US, obviously wants to keep the bulk of the plot up its sleeves for now; however, Julia Jones (The Mandalorian), Alano Miller (Sylvie's Love), Johnny Sequoyah (Believe), Jack Alcott (The Good Lord Bird) and Clancy Brown (Promising Young Woman) are all joining the cast. And, Jennifer Carpenter (Dragged Across Concrete) is set to return as Dexter's sister Debra, as is John Lithgow (Perry Mason) as the Trinity Killer — presumably in flashbacks, given the characters' fates in the OG series. Australian viewers will be able to check out Dexter: New Blood via new streaming platform Paramount+, which launches locally on Wednesday, August 11. The new show itself doesn't start airing in the US until Sunday, November 7, and just when it'll hit Down Under hasn't been announced — but fingers crossed that it'll be around the same time. Check out the Dexter: New Blood trailer below: Dexter: New Blood is set to stream in Australia via new streaming platform Paramount+, which will launch on Wednesday, August 11. The new series will start airing in the US from Sunday, November 7; however, an exact stream date for Australia hasn't been announced as yet — we'll update you when it is.
You oughta know, Alanis Morissette is heading Down Under. The famed 90s singer will perform in Sydney and Melbourne as part of her world tour celebrating the 25th anniversary of her chart-topping 95 album Jagged Little Pill. So, get ready to sing along to 'Ironic', 'You Oughta Know' and 'All I Really Want' at Sydney's Qudos Bank Arena on Melbourne's Rod Laver Arena on April 11 and April 15, respectively. If you're keen and willing to make the trek to Byron Bay, you can also catch Morissette there for Bluesfest, where she'll be singing alongside the likes of Patti Smith, Dave Matthews Band, Crowded House and Lenny Kravitz. Back at her two stadium shows, the 90s icon will be supported by Australia's own Julia Stone. Stone has released two solo albums, with a third due out later this year, and four together with her brother Angus, including Down the Way, which won Album of the Year at the 2010 ARIA Awards. Morissette's own collection of music awards is hefty, and includes seven Grammys and 12 Juno Awards. While her 95 album Jagged Little Pill is the most critically acclaimed, the Canadian singer has released eight albums and is set to drop her highly anticipated ninth, Such Pretty Forks in the Road, in May. In the meantime, though, hype yourself up for the Aussie tour by belting out the following banger: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jne9t8sHpUc ALANIS MORISSETTE 2020 AUSTRALIAN DATES Saturday, April 11 — Sydney, Qudos Bank Arena Wednesday, April 15 — Melbourne, Rod Laver Arena Alanis Morissette pre-sales begin at 2pm on Tuesday, February 4 with general sale kicking off at 10am on Friday, February 7 via livenation.com.
Working as a drug and safety officer in St Kilda, Peta Brady (The Slap, Kath and Kim) has a real insight into the violent horrors that many sex workers face on a regular basis. Brady was one of the last people to see Tracy Connelly alive before she was murdered last year in the van she shared with her boyfriend. Ugly Mugs is Brady's attempt to shed light on the culture of silencing violence against women on the street and to challenge the lack of police support and protection. The title is taken from a pamphlet of the same name initiated by the Prostitute Collective of Victoria (now RhED) in 1986 that identified particularly aggressive clients. Directed by Malthouse Theatre's artistic director Marion Potts, Ugly Mugs comes to Sydney for the first time with Brady co-starring alongside Steve Le Marquand (Death of a Salesman, The Return), Sara West (Dreams in White) and Harry Borland (The Turning).
King Street Wharf may have long seemed like a purpose-built festival venue for the 18-20 bracket come each weekend, but the kids at Keystone have decided to take it to the next level: four main stages over three established venues housing local and international music talent: introducing Harbourfest. This Easter Sunday theloft, Bungalow 8 and Cargo Bar will join forces for the first time to bring us the best of dance: Tonite Only and the Aston Shuffle DJs are taking charge of headlining responsibilities, while ARIA-winning band Yolanda Be Cool round out the tail end of the line-up. Kicking off at 2pm, the day promises to be the best years of Chinese Laundry and Purple Sneakers rolled up into one harbourside, turbo-charged Harbourfest.
Thisisfortunate.com presents #CROSSSECTION The Marketplace, a fortnightly fashion designers' market replete with music, eats and drinks in Angel Place. #CROSSSECTION places emerging designers alongside their more established peers to sell direct to you. Think Project Runway meets The Grand Social at the foot of the Ivy — and there is a theme. 2013 is a big one for the recently rebranded initiative (formerly Bizarre Bazaar), which will spread to Melbourne later this year, so expect a no-punches-pulled '70s Miami Beach theme on March 28. Of the more established designers taking part this month, you should definitely check out Serpent & the Swan, a Sydney sister act who strike a perfect balance between mystique appeal and understated cool in top-quality fabrics. A suggestion and warning for the costume-committed: heat up the ghd and start practicing your Fawcett-flicks, but beware of roller-skaters— for those of you born after the mid-'80s, they are way harder than rollerblades. If March 28 is already booked, remember, it's on once a fortnight.
Vivid Sydney will add a little more British — or Time Lord, depending on your level of devotion — flavour to its 18-day run this year with a celebration of all things Doctor Who lined up for June 1, as the iconic BBC series has its 50th anniversary. The Spinifex Group, whom you may remember from the Beijing Games Opening Ceremony and who will be lighting the sails this year, have been brought on board to cover Customs House with a 3D-mapped projection of the Doctor in action. The Australian innovators have gone to town playing with a cast of licensed characters and polishing their time-travel animation effects for the occasion. Accompanied by some of the show's unmissable music, these special projections will run six times over the night with the first screening set to go just after dusk at 6.50. They'll be interspersed with the main Customs House light attraction, Move Your Building, which is the first interactive projection to grace the structure. Simultaneously, and at 48 other cinemas across the country, Dendy Opera Quays will run two episodes from series seven. But, what is sci-fi without a costume competition? Squat. Something our friends at Vivid clearly had in mind when they brainstormed the photo costume competition, also announced today. In other news, and assuming that Gallifrey is within the zodiac (it's not), being born on June 1 would make the doctor a Gemini. Which makes a lot of sense, right? The BBC publicity unit is showering Sydney in attention for this 50th anniversary; there's also a pop-up shop in Newtown until mid-June.
Last November Jim Finn, of Art vs Science fame, launched his solo project Vydamo with the single 'Gonna Make It', a user-friendly, catchy little anthem of a hit that almost fooled me into thinking the New Radicals had finally followed up their '90s one-hit wonder 'Get What You Give'. But this is real music that is real fun or, as Richard Kingsmill of triple j puts it, this guy (and this music) is "extremely likeable". Vydamo will kick off his first tour this Friday when he plays to Sydneysiders at OAF before heading south for a Saturday at the Toff in Melbourne. Next weekend Brisbane will get their taste of Jim Finn solo and live. Art vs. Science first got our attention in 2008 with the call-and-response dance number 'Flippers'. The dynamic little three-piece have been on the up ever since, and with their most comprehensive tour of the States coming up in June, it could well be worth your while to catch their frontman doing his thing before it starts costing you $200 a pop.
Old girl David Jones turns 175 this year, which means it's time to dig through the archives and get sentimental. The Elizabeth Street store will play gallery to David Jones: The Exhibition from May 25 through June. An undeniable Australiana icon, and a childhood fixture for many of us, the grand dame of Australian department stores promises a flashback to the glory days of home deliveries, hat boxes and Max Dupain. Sure, he might be better remembered for his penchant for swimmers, but before the war Dupain was knocking around DJs as an illustrator and fashion photographer. Renaissance woman Florence Broadhurst will also feature in the 175 artefacts on display (yep, one for every year), along with Queen Elizabeth II's 1954 visit and Christian Dior's 1947 Fashion Show. Attendees will also get a taste of yesteryear's opulence with a modern eatery paying homage to the Grand Restaurant that once operated in the Elizabeth Street store.
As cinephiles of Melbourne well and truly know, August always marks the arrival of the Melbourne International Film Festival. That even remained the case in 2020, when the event was forced to go digital due to the pandemic. And, although the 2021 fest has had to go through a few changes itself and will now only play online, too, it is still showering film buffs with movies from Thursday, August 5–Sunday, August 22 this year. Initially, in-person sessions were set to span the festival's first week or so, before the event closed up online; however, just days before this year's MIFF kicked off on Thursday, August 5, the fest flipped that order and expanded its virtual component. It was due to then add in-person sessions from Thursday, August 12, but that'll no longer be happening. So, via its digital platform MIFF Play, the festival is screening more than 90 features for film lovers to watch from the comfort of their couches. The lineup has been growing, too, with exisiting highlights including college-set rom-com Freshman Year, Spanish influencer satire La Verónica, New Zealand thriller Coming Home in the Dark and Norwegian comedy Ninjababy. The Mads Mikkelsen-starring Riders of Justice and psycho-thriller music mockumentary The Nowhere Inn — featuring Carrie Brownstein and St Vincent — sit among the recent newcomers. More films are set to become available on Saturday, August 14 as well, such as documentary Hopper/Welles, which sees Dennis Hopper and Orson Welles meet and chat back in 1970; Night of the Kings, a prison thriller set on the outskirts of Abidjan; and Stray, a doco about the 100,000-plus stray dogs that rove freely around Istanbul. And, other titles will drop later in the fest, like Australian drama Little Tornadoes, which is co-written by The Slap's Christos Tsiolkas; Woodlands Dark and Days Bewitched: A History of Folk Horror, a documentary exploring the folk horror genre; and closing night's Language Lessons, which takes place via video calls. MIFF's digital platform is available Australia-wide, ensuring that cinephiles around the country — including those in lockdown elsewhere, like in Greater Sydney — can enjoy its lineup, too. That facet of the online program proved popular last year, unsurprisingly, with 2020's virtual festival resulting in MIFF's biggest fest yet, audience-wise. Updated August 11.
Twirling elegantly around the stage as part of a world-class ballet performance is one thing, but just imagine getting to do so kitted out in stunning outfits by Jean Paul Gaultier. Announced today, a dark contemporary retelling of Snow White by France's Ballet Preljocaj is set to launch at the Sydney Opera House this June, complete with a wardrobe of captivating costumes by the internationally acclaimed haute couture designer. Gaultier's work will complement what promises to be a multi-sensory masterpiece; the show features choreography from renowned French choreographer Angelin Preljocaj, gorgeous set design by celebrated artist Thierry Leproust and a soundtrack of lush Gustav Mahler symphonies. Preljocaj's Snow White adaptation made its Australian debut at QPAC for the 2016 Brisbane Festival, last year scoring the Helpmann Award for Best Ballet. "I was very keen to tell a story, offer something magical and enchanted," explained Preljocaj. "I have followed the version by the Grimm Brothers, with just a few personal variations based on my own analysis of the symbols in the tale". Snow White will be the first story ballet to be programmed by Sydney Opera House Presents in the newly relaunched Joan Sutherland Theatre. Images: Jean-Claude Carbonne.
Inner west pub goers will no doubt be familiar with The Oxford Tavern — the Petersham pub is known for its barbecue (sweetly dubbed Black Betty) and sunny courtyard. But it's about to be synonymous with something else: craft beer. As of today — Monday, January 21 — the pub has changed hands, and the new owners are keen to turn it into a beery heaven. Brothers James and Josh Thorpe — who currently own Darlinghurst beer pub The Taphouse and, more recently, its sour ale and natural wine bar Odd Culture — cite the pub is one of their favourite inner west venues, and they're set to inject it with their passion for local, independent beer. In addition to a sprawling craft brew offering, there are plans to eventually install a brewery on-site and launch a beer label. And they've already made a head-start, teaming up with mates at Capital Brewing Co. to create the mango and turmeric-infused Hi-Vis New England IPA, to mark their latest pub venture. The drop will be launched officially in-house this weekend, on January 26. The Oxford Tavern bar is set to showcase a hefty rotation of sips from locally owned, independent breweries, with a focus on hyper-local beers made within a five-kilometre radius of the pub — so you can probably expect to see some brews from Batch, Sauce, The Grifter and Wildflower on the taps. Meanwhile, the kitchen's smoked barbecue offering Black Betty won't be going anywhere, but it will be pumping out some different offerings, including a barbecued version of The Taphouse's signature Sunday roast. You're in for plates like smoked pork belly and tender brisket, matched with roast veggies and Yorkshire puddings. This is not the first time the pub has changed hands in recent years. It was taken over and given a completely new life by the Drink 'n' Dine Group — which, when it was still operational, was run by Jaime Wirth, who just re-did The Duke — back in 2012. It was then sold to (what's now known as) the Australian Venue Co. in 2016, who were reportedly looking for new publicans to run The Oxford Tavern last year. The pub appears to have sold instead. Find The Oxford Tavern is located at 1 New Canterbury Road, Petersham. Images one and two: Katje Ford.
After a seven year hiatus, Pulp are back. Led by their luscious leading man Jarvis Cocker, they are aiming to take back their mantle as the kings of Britpop. With seven albums over a 22 year career, the band are raring to go and are heading to Sydney as part of the Splendour in the Grass sideshows. The celebrated outfit are promising to play your favourites - 'Common People', 'Disco 2000', 'Babies' to name but a few. With seven albums in 22 years, including the seminal Different Class (1995) and This Is Hardcore (1998), you'd be a nonce to miss them. Tickets go on sale May 27th so snap them up while you can. https://youtube.com/watch?v=yuTMWgOduFM
If spending all this time at home has made you realise you're a pretty poor bartender, don't despair. Just turn to the big wide web and you'll be shaking and stirring some tasty tipples in no time. Want a martini, negroni or a giant cosmopolitan? Meryl Streep, Stanley Tucci and Ina Garten have you covered. But what about a real party starter, like the espresso martini? Well, now top-quality spirit labels Mr Black (coffee liqueur) and Belvedere (vodka) are bringing you an online class, so you can shake up an espresso martini good enough for a caffeine-craving James Bond. Kicking off at 7pm on Thursday, June 11, the Espresso Martini Masterclass will be led by some of the best in the biz. Belvedere's Australian brand ambassador, Garth Foster, and Mr Black's Martin Hudak will be teaching you how to make a mean coffee-fuelled martini in just one hour. The live-stream class will be available via Facebook or Zoom (link provided closer to the event). Don't have any Belvedere or Mr Black in your liquor cabinet? Both Shorty's Liquor and Wine.com are delivering pre-bundled kits so you don't have to subject yourself to subpar booze. Belvedere's x Mr Black's Espresso Martini Masterclass is taking place from 7–8pm on Thursday, June 11. To order the necessary booze, head to Shorty's Liquor or Wine.com.
Australian vernacular photography, on show at the Art Gallery of NSW until May 18, is a glorious, poignant and amusing look at Australian life over the last 55 or so years. Sixteen photographers are featured: Jeff Carter, Ed Douglas, Peter Elliston, Gerrit Fokkema, Sue Ford, Fiona Hall, Robert McFarlane, Hal Missingham, David Moore, Trent Parke, Roger Scott, Glenn Sloggett, Ingeborg Tyssen, John F. Williams, William Yang and Anne Zahalka. The group contribute a broad cross section of images that capture the Australian experience. Crocodile-skinned bathers, toys on display at the Easter Show, backyard swing sets, beach babes and surfer dudes, protesters and hearses — it's Australiana at its best. The exhibition is filled with really superb works. Hal Missingham's Surf carnival, Cronulla (1968) is a celebration of beach babes and surfer guys in a wonderfully composed, heavily geometric image. Trent Parke's somewhat blurred and abstract Backyard swing set, QLD (2003), is an example of contemporary photography at its best. Images range from the quaint (a shot of the Grafton Jacaranda festival crowning ceremony) to the funny (a budget funeral company promising to bury your loved ones "cheaper and deeper" than their competition) to the politically charged (people protesting the Vietnam War). The idea that photography can be high art has come about relatively recently and it's interesting to chart the development of the medium over the course of several decades. The earliest photographs in the exhibition, from the 1960s and the '70s, seem somewhat more spontaneous and impressionistic than their contemporary counterparts. As you move towards the present day, emphases on composition and construction become more pronounced. For an exhibition that aims to capture the Australian vernacular, Max Dupain is notably absent. The show does include a sunbather, and it's a wonderful shot of a tanned, hairy man holding his thongs while he scopes out the scene near a beach. Unfortunately, the danger of skating too close to what is perhaps the most iconic Australian photograph is that you will always fall short by comparison. You can't help but be impressed at the technical virtuosity of the photographers. Australian vernacular photography is bursting with beautifully shot, masterful images. It's a snack of an exhibition; it won't take you very long to see at all. It's well worth a visit. Image: Cheaper and Deeper, 1996, Type C Print (image detail).
In the latest line of wholly unnecessary (yet ever popular) all-you-can-eat meals in Sydney, Barangaroo's NOLA Smokehouse and Bar is adding one to the list. Head in for lunch every Sunday from October 6 and you can feast on endless plates of the venue's signature barbecued meats for $65 per person. It's all part of NOLA's ongoing Southern Sunday offering. These unlimited boards of smoked meat include slow-roasted pork shoulder, Rangers Valley Black Onyx brisket, Creole-spiced blackened chicken, cold-smoked lamb and the house Andouille sausage. The meat is sourced from organic and free-range farms where possible, too, so you know you're getting some quality cuts. The meal will start with a shared 'pit-master's' plate, and additional serves can be ordered afterwards per 50 grams. If all that isn't enough, you can also order one side per person, with options including sweet and spicy barbecue fries, southern slaw, and fried brussels sprouts slathered in blue cheese mayo and hot sauce. The venue is looking after the all-you-can waste problem as well — so no ordering up before you clean your plate, and no takeaway allowed, either. If you're eating alone or sitting at a table of up to eight, you'll be able to keep eating for two hours. For groups of nine or more, you can stay for two-and-a-half hours. Images: Steven Woodburn.
Never one to embrace cliches as an actor or director, Ralph Fiennes avoids the obvious with his latest film. While The White Crow tells the involving tale of Rudolf Nureyev, the biopic doesn't quite dance across the screen. Although it features exceptional sequences of real-life dancer and first-time actor Oleg Ivenko as the Russian ballet great, it doesn't ever let its subject's distinctive talents do the heavy lifting, or explain them away as a product of his difficult existence. There's still a flow and a rhythm to the movie, yet it's never exactly fluid. The film doesn't deny that Nureyev and his skills were influenced by the world around him, or ignore the struggles it caused him, but it doesn't simply connect the clear-cut dots either. All of this is by design, with The White Crow as restless as its central figure. The dancer couldn't ever really be pinned down, so Fiennes daren't waste his third stint behind the camera trying to achieve the impossible. Rather, as he once again highlights a complicated and conflicted man (as he did with Roman general Coriolanus in his adaption of Shakespeare's tragedy of the same name, and then writer Charles Dickens in The Invisible Woman), Fiennes builds his portrait of Nureyev by watching. The White Crow still spins a story, of course, primarily exploring the 1961 defection from the Soviet Union that'll forever remain synonymous with the ballet dancer. However, the movie particularly revels in gaining its sense of Nureyev through more than biographical data. It's clear that such an approach is behind the film's lead casting, specifically Fiennes' choice of a dancer over an actor. In the expressive yet internalised Ivenko, the picture gains a performer accustomed to conveying everything that transcends words, and one who demands an audience's attention with a fierce gaze and unwavering physicality. Making the leap from the Tatar State Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre in Kazan to portraying Russia's 'lord of the dance', Ivenko plays Nureyev as determined and dedicated — to his art and to himself. In Rudi's mind, they're both one and the same. Born aboard the Trans-Siberian Express in 1938, he emerges from a bleak childhood to find solace at a St Petersburg dance academy. Under the tutelage of mentor Alexander Pushkin (Fiennes), he's moulded by discipline and structure, though he rankles against the corresponding rules and surveillance. Then, on a visit to Europe while with the Kirov Ballet, Nureyev realises that his art and self will never thrive in his homeland. Parisian lights, sights and parties beckon, as do friendships with French dancer Pierre Lacotte (Raphaël Personnaz) and Chilean-French heiress Clara Saint (Adèle Exarchopoulos). Next comes his decision to flee to the west. Amidst handsomely shot frames, Fiennes tasks Ivenko with a responsibility placed upon all soloists, asking him to be one of the guiding lights without completely carrying the entire production. Despite his on-screen inexperience, the Ukrainian is certainly capable of the latter, but that's not what a ballet recital or a movie is about. And so, his co-stars add texture and detail around his central role, with Fiennes unsurprisingly the standout supporting player in a solely Russian-speaking part. Another real-life dancer, controversial superstar Sergei Polunin, acquits himself well as fellow Kirov troupe member Yuri Soloviev, whose prowess helps spur Rudi to push his own limits. From its defection focus, to its observational feel, to its solid performances, The White Crow boasts much that elevates it beyond the tried-and-tested biopic format. Alas, even though David Hare's script doesn't relay its narrative in a linear fashion, the film is far less engaging when it gets overly bogged down in the minutiae of the Cold War-era story — which can veer towards the routine, even for viewers unfamiliar with Nureyev's entire history. The same can be said of the movie's overt thematic nods, including unnecessary visual reminders of the freedom that's abundant abroad but absent under Soviet rule. That's all too straightforward, which Nureyev definitely wasn't. Although no single scene, on-stage or not, can wholly capture his essence, the ballet legend is better served by The White Crow's contemplative moments; as the title intimates, drawing from a Russian idiom, he's an outsider through and through. Accordingly, when he's seen staring intently at Géricault's painting The Raft of the Medusa and Rembrandt's The Prodigal Son at the Louvre, agonising over their detail and finding an unexpected creative connection in a different type of art, that's when Nureyev's spirit truly leaps off the screen. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8M2n8YGFus
La Boheme, as performed on Sydney Harbour, isn't just an opera — it's a spectacular. Gear up for fireworks, tumbling snowflakes, cartwheeling acrobats, fire carriers and balloon-borne children: all, of course, backdropped by dark, tranquil water and the far-off sails of the Opera House. Written by Giaocomo Puccini and premiered in 1896 at Teatro Regio (the Theatre Royal) in Turin, Italy, La Boheme is one of the most popular operas ever written. This production transports the characters to 1960s Paris: a time of rebellion and revolution. The magnificent set turns the harbour foreshore into a dreamy streetscape of cobbled stones, lamplight and burning cars. In the opening scenes, you'll meet Rodolfo, a poet, and his friend, Marcello, a painter. Determined to live for their art — at all costs — they burn their work for warmth during the harsh Parisian winters, rather than submit to 9-to-5 jobs. Complicating their passion-driven lives are their intense, tumultuous romantic relationships: Rodolfo's with Mimi, an idealistic, who spends her time embroidering flowers, and Marcello's with Musetta, a sassy, streetwise performer. If the story sounds familiar, you might recognise it from Rent, the rock musical, which is loosely based on La Boheme. Should the ticket price scare you, here's a couple of tips: full-time students can score $45 tickets from the Sydney Opera House Box Office at 9am on the day of performance and, if you've never seen an opera before (whether you're a student or not), you can enter a ballot, which might give you a seat for just 20 bucks. Image: Hamilton Lund
Marrickville warehouse diner Baba's Place and Australiana eatery Bush are throwing a party and you're invited. Taking place at Bush's Redfern home on George Street, the party will see the two Sydney restaurants plate up a special collaborative menu featuring kofta wraps, affogato with wattleseed ice cream and a uniquely Baba's Place take on the fillet-o-fish that features chimichurri, tahini tartare, pink ling and American cheese. You can pick up these limited-edition menu items from midday to 8pm on Sunday, December 13, but the festivities don't end there. Beers supplied by Grifter and wine by Godot will be served alongside live music performed by Bush's Pat and DJ sets from Cosmo's Midnight members Pat and Cosmo, Moktar and Litmus. There will also be poetry readings and ceramics on display. If that wasn't enough to have you planning your route to Redfern on Sunday, a percentage of all sales from all food sales will go towards AIME and its latest initiative Imagi-nation University. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Baba's Place (@babasplace__) Image: Bush by Kitti Gould
Come April, the eyes of the sporting world will turn towards the Gold Coast, with the Queensland city hosting the 2018 Commonwealth Games. That's great news if you're a fan of athletes and nations vying for glory — and, while it might not initially seem like it, it's great news for arts and culture lovers too. As well as the expected competitive endeavours, the event will also feature a huge multi-arts festival, called Festival 2018. Festival 2018 mightn't boast the most exciting name, but it does promise a plethora of exciting programming across 12 days. Taking place from April 4 to 15, the fest will join forces with the existing Bleach* Festival to deliver a lineup of art, music, theatre, dance and more spanning from from Coomera to Coolangatta. Satellite events will also be held across the state. The first artists announced include Kate Miller-Heidke, The Jungle Giants and Mau Power, who'll all feature on the Queensland Music Stage. It'll feature free concerts held in Broadbeach, while Miller-Heidke and Power will also play in Cairns, and Power in Brisbane. The rest of the bill will be announced with the full program in February. As for what else is in store across the festival, given Bleach*'s annual array of shows, gigs, exhibitions, experiences and more, expect plenty of just that. More than 20 new works will feature, including a number of world premieres. That means audiences will have another reason to head to the Goldie — or, something else to do between watching the Games. "Bleach* at Festival 2018 is our most ambitious, thought-provoking program to date," explains artistic director Louise Bezzina. It will pay "tribute to local legends past and present in a spectacular showcase of what, and who, makes the Gold Coast such a special part of the world," she continues. Festival 2018 takes place from April 4 to 15 across the Gold Coast and other parts of Queensland. Keep an eye on the festival website for further details. Image: Bleach* Festival
Feeling hot, Sydney? If you're not already, you're about to. Continuing this year's record-breaking warm weather — including one of the city's hottest winter days and hottest September nights — a new sultry spell could see November come to an end with its warmest week in almost five decades. Mere days away from summer, the temperature will be staying toasty right through until the new season hits, with forecasts predicting maximums above 25 degrees for the next seven days. According to Weatherzone, the last time a consecutive string of hot November days occurred was in 1968. And, it'll mark only the second time such a period has occurred in the past 118 years. https://twitter.com/weatherzone/status/933849755943256064 While showers are expected from Monday to Friday, increasing as the week rolls on, the mercury is still pitched to hit 27 degrees over the weekend — and then waver between tops of 25 and 29 degrees for the five days afterwards. It's the sustained nature of the warm temperatures that is unusual at this time of year, spanning so many days in a row. Keeping things heated, there'll be little reprieve come evening, as minimums stay above 19 degrees as well. Sydney isn't the only place sweltering, with Melbourne currently experiencing a 28-degree-plus spell that's set to become the city's longest November heatwave in 150 years. Down in Hobart, Tasmanians just weathered its first-ever six-day run of temperatures above 26 degrees since data started being recorded in the 1800s. Yep, it's going to be a hot summer. Via Weatherzone.
The most electrifying force in rock music history was inspired by a vacuum cleaner. Brothers Malcolm and Angus Young named the band after spotting AC/DC initials on their household Hoover in 1973. Nearly four decades and 200 million record sales later the power is still surging, despite losing iconic front man Bon Scott to alcohol poisoning in 1980. Even though many bands failed to maintain the same success after the tragic loss of a lead-singer (Queen, INXS), replacement Brian Johnson stormed in and took them to their first US number one album with For Those About to Rock We Salute You and again with recent album Black Ice. The veteran Aussie rockers return to our shores this February with the Black Ice Tour, raved by critics as the wildest, loudest, most raucous and explosive show the band has ever done. Now, let me think: a 90,000-strong stadium screaming along to 'Hells Bells', 'Thunderstruck' and 'You Shook Me All Night Long', while the stage explodes and lightning bolts inevitably strike from above? It should go down as one of the most memorable gigs of 2010. And to top it all off, Wolfmother are supporting. https://youtube.com/watch?v=X80Qjh9Yivs
After shutting up shop in February, Copenhagen's Noma is still making preparations for its move to a new location. As anyone who has shifted houses will understand, that means not only packing up the existing site, but sorting through everything within in — and saying goodbye to all of the bits and pieces that won't be needed in the restaurant's new home. When René Redzepi's eatery decides it doesn't need its existing wares, however, it doesn't just give them away to friends and family. Instead, the place considered one of the best culinary haunts in the world is auctioning off their unwanted furnishings, décor, tableware and art, letting fans own a piece of their distinctive aesthetic. The range of items on offer is considerable, and includes chairs, lounges, dining tables, coffee tables, cabinets, sculptural installations, stuffed birds, vases, a map of Scandinavia and even the wine list. From the serving, dining, stone and glassware, you could fill your kitchen cupboards with everything you need, with the crockery sold in sets. And, for anyone who visited the Australian Noma pop-up and wanted a souvenir, vases from their Aussie visit are also on offer. Prices range from $150 to $30,000, so turning your house into your very own Noma won't come cheap. The auction will be held on November 2 by Chicago auction house Wright, and accepts bids online, by phone and via their app. As for what Noma's new digs will look like now they're getting rid of their current furniture, fans will have to wait until 2018 to find out — but bookings will open on November 16. Via Eater. Image: Wright.
Catch the last of summer's warmth with a pair of garden parties at Chiswick. Held Sunday, February 23 and Sunday, March 2, these floral get-togethers bring together fresh ingredients from the restaurant's kitchen garden to assemble a special snack menu. Conceived for easy-breezy fun, all you have to do is turn up from 4pm. While there's no shortage of new flavours to encounter, some much-loved Chiswick dishes like its barra-masalata and slow-cooked lamb will be reimagined in snack and sandwich form. Meanwhile, other bite-sized delights include white anchovy with toasted focaccia and tomato butter, Sydney rock oysters with apple mignonette, and sweet potato scallop with green goddess mayo. Of course, the sunny vibes wouldn't be complete without some fruity and fragrant spritzes. A series of four Hendrick's Gin creations will keep you refreshed throughout the day. While each sounds delicious, give the Lilly Pilly Collins a taste for a local treat. Featuring Lilly Pilly Hendrick's Gin and old-fashioned lemonade, this special-edition tipple was made using fruit growing just around the corner at Woollahra Public School. Alongside a line-up of local musical talent, Chiswick will also roll out a garnish-your-own station. Decorated with aromatics picked fresh from the kitchen garden by resident green thumb Pete Hatfield, you can add a little more mint, basil or cucamelons to your drink to achieve the perfect blend.
Nothing can stop time, but there are plenty of ways to slow it down. A balanced approach to eating and drinking, regular exercise and wellness, and a quality skincare routine are the most popular ways to slow down signs of ageing. We're here to deliver the good news that you can bundle those practices into an all-in-one event thanks to Clarins and Bodylove Pilates. Clarins, a leader in premium skincare focused on natural ingredients, will be taking over Bodylove Pilates on Clarence Street in the CBD (opposite the QVB) for two days offering a series of bookable treatments or experiences from Wednesday, February 8 to Thursday, February 9. If you're feeling up to a proper workout, make a booking for a 45-minute reformer pilates session to work on your strength. As well as a workout, you'll get a $20 Clarins voucher and samples of their Extra-Firming creams. If it's something quick and relaxing you're after, you can swing by for a hand and arm massage and a mini-fragrance experience — an ideal lunch break detour to freshen up your day, which will also get you a free sample of the Extra-Firming Day & Night cream. Firm up with Clarins at Bodylove Pilates from Wednesday, February 8 to Thursday, February 9. Spaces are limited so visit the website to make a booking.
With international travel off limits, many Australians are electing for staycations instead. Instead of taking off to Europe or South America, many holiday-goers are saving up their annual leave and electing to make the most of their own cities. If you're looking for a few days off work and a once-in-a-lifetime experience, MTV has launched a new travel deal for lovers of live music. At the core of the MTV Unplugged travel deal is two tickets to see Tash Sultana play an intimate show as part of the MTV Unplugged series on Tuesday, May 4. The concert will be held at a beloved, yet-to-be announced venue in Melbourne. Attendees will provided with transport too and from the venue where they'll witness stripped-back takes on songs from Sultana's new album Terra Firma, as well as classics from her back catalogue. The package also includes access to the exclusive VIP afterparty and a room at the Ovolo South Yarra. The 70s-inspired, dog-friendly hotel opened late last year and each room comes with a mini-bar full of free goodies, 24-hour gym access and a free drink at happy hour down at the hotel bar. Tickets start at $799 which covers two adults and a one-night stay at the Ovolo, or $1099 for two nights if you're looking to properly soak up the experience of the new hotel. Those who opt for the two-night package will also be given a $100 gift card to use on an extravagant trip to Melbourne mega-venue Ballers Clubhouse. Head to MTV's website to take check out the full offer. [caption id="attachment_794221" align="alignnone" width="1920"] Ballers Clubhouse, Michael Gazzola[/caption] Top Image: Tash Sultana, Eric de Redelijkheid FYI, this story includes some affiliate links. These don't influence any of our recommendations or content, but they may make us a small commission. For more info, see Concrete Playground's editorial policy.
North Sydney is welcoming the start of spring atop its multi-award winning rooftop oasis. Waverton's newly opened Coal Loader Centre for Sustainability is offering up sky-high live music and entertainment for free on Saturday, November 3 from 3–9pm. The waterfront digs — Sydney's largest rooftop garden — will be taken over by more than 20 acoustic acts and performances, with multiple stages spread across the lush rooftop and its many tunnels and chambers. While the daytime hours will have family-friendly vibes with activities aplenty, punters can expect a pop-up bar to accompany the sunset from 6pm onward. Food and drinks will be available throughout the day, but BYO picnics, keep cups and reusable water bottles (with refill stations on site) are also highly encouraged — this is the centre for sustainability, after all.
Even if you've never been to Melbourne's Matcha Mylkbar, there's a good chance you might have read about it. Opening back in March in the beachside suburb of St Kilda, the plant-based eatery specialises in vegan food for non-vegans, and made headlines around the country when they started serving a blue algae latte. It's basically the most Melbourne thing ever — so much so that it just won our People's Choice Award for Best New Cafe of 2016. But it won't just be southerners sipping on smurf-coloured coffee for much longer, with a Sydney location on the cards for the new year. "It's always been the plan to get to Sydney," says Matcha Mylkbar co-owner Sarah Holloway. "We looked at Bondi a lot, because of the similar beach vibe to St Kilda. But we've also been looking at Surry Hills, because it's so up and coming, and maybe a little more accessible." While the Matcha team are yet to lock down a venue, Holloway tells Concrete Playground they'll "definitely be in Sydney in the first half of next year". Not only that, but they're hoping to find a space "quite a lot bigger" than the one they have in Melbourne. "We didn't expect Melbourne to take off quite as much as it did, and we've found because so much preparation goes into [the food], we need more space than the average cafe," Holloway explains. Speaking of the food, Sydneysiders can expect all sorts of healthy offerings, from breakfast bowls made with dragon fruit, banana, almonds, activated chia, goji berry, orange and chocolate protein granola, to matcha pancakes with lychee, raspberry, passionfruit, white chocolate sauce, macadamia crumb, lemongrass and macadamia ice cream. That's to say nothing of their patented vegan eggs, as well as a green soy faux chicken burger that Holloway says tastes so much like the real thing that "a lot of vegans feel guilty about it". Somewhere over the rainbow... we found @maggie00105 brunching to this EPICLY AMAZING spread of plant based goodness 🌈 🌿 Happy Tuesday!! xxx A photo posted by M A T C H A // M Y L K B A R (@matcha_mylkbar) on Dec 12, 2016 at 4:40pm PST While their Melbourne café is only open for breakfast and lunch, Holloway hopes that a larger kitchen in Sydney will mean they can offer dinner service too. "We'd love to do some vegan pizzas," she tells us. As for beverages, Holloway says Matcha Mylkbar Sydney will offer a range of "super delicious" smoothies and lattes "in crazy rainbow colours". Indeed, visuals are a big part of the Matcha experience, with Holloway, a non-vegan herself, convinced that the problem with a lot of vegan food has to do with "how it's packaged". When our FAVVV matcha mylkbar mate @talihaa enjoys her smoothie dates 💕 featuring a sneaky fresh coconut hiding away out the back while our skull smoothies take the spotlight 💀 A photo posted by M A T C H A // M Y L K B A R (@matcha_mylkbar) on Nov 21, 2016 at 8:17pm PST "A lot of vegan cafes aren't always as inviting to non-vegans," she says. "You worry about getting preached to, or judged for what you eat. We wanted to create a venue that made plant-based eating mainstream, and interesting to non-vegans, and had all kinds of people dining without sacrificing Instagrammability or flavour." For more updates on Matcha Mylkbar's Sydney expansion keep your eyes on their Facebook and Instagram pages. We'll update you once we know more.
UPDATE, October 28, 2022: All Quiet on the Western Front opened in Australian cinemas on October 13 and streams via Netflix from October 28. War makes meat, disposable labour and easy sacrifices of us all. In battles for power, as they always are, bodies are used to take territory, threaten enemies and shed blood to legitimise a cause. On the ground, whether in muddy trenches or streaming across mine-strewn fields, war sees the masses rather than the individuals, too — but All Quiet on the Western Front has always been a heartbreaking retort to and clear-eyed reality check for that horrific truth. Penned in 1928 by German World War I veteran Erich Maria Remarque, initially adapted for the screen by Hollywood in 1930 and then turned into a US TV movie in 1979, the staunchly anti-war story now gets its first adaptation in its native tongue. Combat's agonies echo no matter the language giving them voice, but Edward Berger's new film is a stunning, gripping and moving piece of cinema. Helming and scripting — the latter with feature first-timers Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell — All My Loving director Berger starts All Quiet on the Western Front with a remarkable sequence. The film will come to settle on 17-year-old Paul Bäumer (astonishing debutant Felix Kammerer) and his ordeal after naively enlisting in 1917, thinking with his mates that they'd be marching on Paris within weeks, but it begins with a different young soldier, Heinrich Gerber (Jakob Schmidt, Babylon Berlin), in the eponymous region. He's thrust into the action in no man's land and the inevitable happens. Then, stained with blood and pierced by bullets, his uniform is stripped from his body, sent to a military laundry, mended and passed on. The recipient: the eager Paul, who notices the past wearer's name on the label and buys the excuse that it just didn't fit him. No one dares waste a scrap of clothing — only the flesh that dons it, and the existences its owners don't want to lose. Paul's parents are against him signing up with the Imperial German Army, but his pals Albert Kropp (Aaron Hilmer, The Island), Franz Müller (Moritz Klaus, Die Chefin) and Ludwig Behm (Adrian Grünewald, also The Island) are doing it, so he's soon forging a signature and receiving his pre-used uniform. You could say that the high schooler and his friends get the shock of their lives once they make it to the front, because they do; however, as the Germans and the French keep tussling over a ridiculously small stretch, making zero impact upon the greater war in the process, Paul and company's lives — shocks and all — couldn't be more expendable. In the unit's first big push, the teenagers' numbers already diminish. Building upon the movie's potent opening, Berger ensures that nothing about war remains romanticised in their gaze. Call it hell, call it a nightmare, call it a senseless throwing away of innocent life and a needless robbing of the future: they all fit. Eighteen months later in November 1918, All Quiet on the Western Front moves to Paul and his compatriots behind the trenches. Trying to survive is still their only aim, and any sense of excitement, passion, enthusiasm and patriotism for their service has long dissipated. Sometimes, with the older and brotherly Stanislaus "Kat" Katczinsky (Albrecht Schuch, Berlin Alexanderplatz), making it through the day involves attempting to steal food from French farms. Sometimes, it means looking for new recruits who haven't shown up. When orders come as they unavoidably do, though, the front is inescapable. Alongside 1917, All Quiet on the Western Front proves a masterclass in conveying armed conflict's relentlessness, terror and futility — from a first-person perspective, and also via lengthy, unbroken, like-you're-there shots steeped in gut- and heart-wrenching wartime brutality. Every second of Berger's feature is harrowing, even its quiet moments of tender camaraderie — including one while sharing a bog over a communal log — and its gleaming glimpses of nature's beauty. Lensed by cinematographer James Friend (Your Honor), the latter would do Terrence Malick proud; his A Hidden Life, about an IRL Austrian farmer-turned-conscientious objector in the Second World War, would make a striking companion piece to this. Inevitability lingers over All Quiet on the Western Front as well, whether or not you've read the novel or seen previous screen versions. Either knowing or predicting where Paul's WWI torment goes doesn't make everything that eventuates any less distressing, but puts viewers in the same position as the officials pulling the strings away from the front lines. The leaders sending their men to their deaths mightn't be distraught, but the watching audience is. In a significant departure from the source material, All Quiet on the Western Front spends time with some of those head honchos: politician Matthias Erzberger (Daniel Brühl, The King's Man), who endeavours to convince German High Command that an armistice is the only move available amid such mounting casualties; and General Friedrich (Devid Striesow, The Last Execution), who sees a ceasefire as treason. Supreme Allied Commander Ferdinand Foch (Thibault de Montalembert, Heartstopper) isn't willing to allow any saving face either way, giving the Germans a 72-hour deadline to accept a deal as is — and that's more than enough time for more troops to meet thoroughly escapable ends. While Berger's decision to balance the on-the-ground onslaught with behind-the-scenes manoeuvring builds in moments of respite for his viewers, that occurs viscerally rather than emotionally. Anguish still radiates, as it must, as every passing minute means more soldiers slaughtered. Germany's submission for the 2023 Best International Feature Oscar, All Quiet on the Western Front is a film haunted: by the callous disregard for human lives by power-seekers far removed from any fatal consequences, the wide-eyed fervour and blind faith with which boys pledge themselves to war, the desperation and fear that ripples in the thick of the fray, and oh-so-much death. Its ominous and foreboding score by Volker Bertelmann (Ammonite), often repeating a handful of notes, is equally tortured; neither watching nor listening is an easy experience. Viewing a movie pales in comparison to enduring everything this one depicts, of course, but all that bloodshed, and the evocative performances behind the bleeding, is impossible to forget. Almost a century after it first hit the page, this tale has lost none of its power, urgency or relevance — an indictment upon humanity that Berger's iteration silently but clearly stresses.
Prepare to party like it's 1945 when newcomer Bopp & Tone arrives on Carrington Street next month. The latest, and first CBD venture, from hospitality group Applejack (Della Hyde, The Butler, Endeavour Tap Rooms), the bar and eatery takes both name and inspiration from the founders' grandfathers — Keith 'Bopp' Evans and Anthony 'Tone' Adams — revisiting the era of optimism and opulence enjoyed by post-WWII Australia. Without the food rationing, we hope. Inside, award-winning design firm Luchetti Krelle (ACME, Matinee Coffee) has helped to create a welcoming space that nods stylishly to the past, combining marble, warm timber and old-world elements with a vibrant collection of greenery, as we've come to expect from most Applejack venues. From the kitchen comes a contemporary Australian menu, prepared by Head Chef Sa Va'afusuaga (The Botanist), with influences from across the Mediterranean. The woodfired grill and charcoal oven get a thorough workout, and are used to deliver dishes heroing free-range spatchcock and chargrilled whole calamari from the Hawkesbury River. Va'afusuaga has also included a bistecca alla Fiorentine steak on his food lineup — a bold move, considering Bistecca, around the corner, is a restaurant dedicated to the Tuscan dish. The cocktail offering works to the same Oz-Mediterranean brief, featuring classics reimagined with Aussie ingredients — including a martini made with tomato — while the wine list champions sustainably produced drops from both overseas and closer to home. Find Bopp & Tone at 60 Carrington Street, Sydney, from mid-November. Venue images are renders.
